Tag Archives: obedience

Are you ready to work? (Matthew 9:37-38) February 22, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Genesis 28-31

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 9:37-38
Jesus understood what an awesome task was before Him, so He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into His harvest field.”

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

When I was much, much younger, I worked on a couple of farms just enough to realize I never wanted to be a farmer. I think the worst couple of days was helping load baled hay onto a hay truck. The harvest was plentiful and the workers were far too few. Those bales got heavier as the day wore on and the bed of the truck must have been on hydraulic lifts that pushed it ten feet higher in the air. By the time we cleared the field of those bales, I could barely move.

Helping with livestock wasn’t much better. Slopping hogs or staring down a cow that weighs as much as my car isn’t my idea of a fun day. To all you farmers out there, my hat’s off to you. I don’t know how you do it. It’s hard back-breaking work without much return on investment other than seeing God at work through your labor. Of course, all of us could use a little more of taking time to admire the miracle of harvest time. Just the thought that crops grow from a seeds is a little mind boggling. After multiple courses in biology and chemistry, I can tell you the theories and mechanics, but what a miracle!

Just take time to hold a seed in your hand and look at the plant that comes from it. Take any seed. It doesn’t matter, but imagine an acorn and an oak tree. Or a pecan and its tree. Or a watermelon seed and the vine that produces a crop of melons. Can you imagine the Great Designer that put all that in place just perfectly for us? God is a magnificent Creator!

Back to Jesus’ words. We distance ourselves from harvest time today by getting our meat and potatoes from the grocery. A large percentage of us don’t even go to the produce aisles, we just get our vegetables in a can. So harvest means nothing to us. Our meat is neatly packaged in little white trays with plastic wrap on it so we can see how fresh it is. We never see the animal the meat comes from or the fields in which our fruit and vegetables grow.

But in Jesus’ day everyone knew what harvest was like. Everyone knew what farming and taking care of livestock was like. Everyone had a small garden in their yard. That’s how they lived. It’s how they got the majority of their vegetables. Most people had some chickens for eggs and a maybe a goat for milk or a couple of sheep for wool. In the cities, animals were everywhere. They didn’t appear on the streets just for transportation, they were a way of life for everyone. The disciples understood about harvest and workers in the field. But the metaphor might have caught them a little off guard.

You see, Jesus talked about souls. He talked about bringing a harvest of people into the Kingdom of God. The world was filling with people as He looked out over the mountainsides filled with villages and cities growing up under the influence of Roman rule. So many came into this tiny crossroads of the world traveling between Europe and Africa, from Persia and India to Egypt. This was the center for all international travelers. Everyone came through here.

Jesus saw these souls wandering aimlessly through life without direction, without hope. He had the answer. He was the answer. But He needed others to get the message out. He needed the disciples to believe, grasp His message of love and surrender to God. He needed more mouths than His to tell the story. He needed more feet than His to carry the message. He needed more hands than His to help the hurting. He needed more than just Him to show God to the lost and dying souls all around Him.

We often jump up and say, “I’ll be one of those workers! Let me work in your fields!” But I think back to my few experiences of farm life and know that harvesting is hard work. That metaphor sticks in the spiritual world, too. A lot of people jump up and wave their hands to volunteer, but when they find out about the sweat and tears and investment in others lives, they quietly sneak out the gate at the side of the field and disappear. What happened to the enthusiasm? What happened to the great cry to win the lost? What happened to mass of people in our churches who said they would volunteer but then don’t show up when it counts?

Talking with my fellow ministers, it’s not a problem in just my church or my denomination. If 15% of your congregation are fully engaged in ministering to others, you are truly blessed. That doesn’t mean giving up your job, it means saying “yes” when God has a task for you to do. It means doing the things Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount. It means living the “Be Attitudes” for others to see the transformation He makes in our lives when we really let Him be Lord.

You see, the Lord of the harvest needs workers, not spectators. He needs people who are not afraid to get their hands dirty, deal with the messy issues of broken lives, love the unlovable. He did it for you, can we reciprocate? Are you ready to work?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Are you ready to follow Him? (Matthew 9:9) February 15, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Genesis 24-27

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 9:9
Later Jesus was walking along and He saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s office.
Jesus (to Matthew): Follow Me.
Matthew got up and followed Him.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Two simple words, but do we really pay attention to them? Follow Me. That’s all He asks of us, but they are hard words. We have failed to really understand what they mean today in our feel good religions and self-indulgent society. We want to follow Him as long as it benefits our pocket book. We want to follow Him as long as it pleases us. We want to follow Him as long as it doesn’t cost us to much or inconvenience us or mess with our plans.

But if you’ll notice, there are no qualifiers in Jesus’ command. He just says, “Follow Me.” Wherever He goes, He expects us to follow in His footsteps. He expects our shoes to step into the footprints of His. He says follow Him.

His path took Him into the street to meet the needs of the outcasts. His steps took Him to the hillsides to tell others about the love of God and His kingdom. His footprints are seen in the temple worshiping the living God and confounding the priests with His knowledge of the scriptures because He studied them often. His steps took Him to quiet places to pray both alone and with His disciples.

Jesus says, “Follow Me.” His footsteps placed Him in front of the highest authorities in the land and the most poverty stricken in the land. He met the richest and the poorest. He talked with the diseased ridden and the physicians who took care of them. He saw the tax collectors and those who paid those taxes. He didn’t care who you were, Jesus went where there were needs.

Do we follow Him today? I wonder if we are willing to make the sacrifice. I wonder if we are willing to give our all and really follow in His footsteps. I wonder if we will drop everything and do what He tells us to do if it really means going to the cross, giving up our luxuries, losing our position, enduring the ridicule. Will we really follow Him?

I think we like to read the stories of Jesus going through the countryside and calling Peter, James and John. Snatching Matthew from his tax collecting job and taking him along as a disciple. I think we like to read about the disciples and the excitement of walking with Jesus, but I don’t think we realize what those disciples went through. Too often, I don’t think we make the commitment they made. Remember, all but John died a martyr’s death and their death’s were not fast and painless. Peter was crucified. Some were sawn in two. Others were burned at the stake. Some were stoned. Death was slow and painful. But they endured it for Christ’s name. Are you ready to follow Him?

Really following Him also means living for Him, though. It means dying to self so He can live in you. It means stepping in His footsteps. It means walking the path He takes you, not the path you want to go. It means dying to your desires, dreams, aspirations and living Christ’s dreams for you. Will they be the same? Sometimes. Sometimes not. But when we die to ourselves, and truly live for Christ, those selfish desires and dreams won’t matter anymore. They become so much garbage as Paul describes them.

Are you ready to follow Him? It will cost you everything. But nothing is yours anyway. Paul describes your plight in Romans so well. Either you are part of Adam’s body and a slave to sin, or you are part of Christ’s body and a slave to righteousness. One leads to death and one leads to life. One body has Adam as its head leading us into sin whose wages are death, one body has Christ as its head leading us to His gift of grace and eternal life.

You can only belong to one body, though. And you choose which one. You can follow Christ, or you can stay in Adam’s race. You can choose to die to self, admit your broken state, and ask forgiveness from the One who can bring salvation, then follow Him. Or you can choose to remain trapped in sin, lead by the lies of Satan and this world, and continue in the state you are in. You choose. But Jesus calls, “Follow Me.”

Jesus offers His free give of grace. He provides salvation. He redeems us. He purchases our freedom from the body of sin in which we are born and gives us the opportunity for adoption into His body, free from the slavery of sin. In Adam, we are free from grace. In Christ we are free from sin. The two bodies are incompatible. From which do you want to be free, sin or grace, Adam or Christ? But to follow Christ means to really follow Him. It doesn’t mean playing church. It doesn’t mean saying the right words. It means obedience to His word. It means saying “yes” to His every command. Always.

Are you ready to follow Him? Just like Matthew, He gives you the invitation. It begins with the first step. Take it.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

What are you so afraid of? (Matthew 8:26) February 12, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Isaiah 34-39

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 8:26
Jesus: Please! What are you so afraid of, you of little faith?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Fear, one of those deep-rooted emotions that keeps us alive at times, but also keeps us from accomplishing much if we don’t learn to control it. It’s interesting that the second most common fear in the world in the fear of death. The first is the fear of public speaking. Strange that we fear talking to a group of people more than we fear dying, but that’s what the literature tells us. And from those two phobias come a long list of things we fear.

Some of our fears just seem silly to most people, but if you suffer from them, they can be debilitating. You’ve probably heard stories, if you don’t know someone with the fear of the heights, or the fear flying, or the fear of roller coasters, or the fear of the dark. Those are just the tip of the iceberg, though. We fear almost everything as the human race. Someone, somewhere will be afraid of just about anything you can think of, so we can’t slap around the disciples too much since they were in the middle of a storm on the Sea of Galilee.

More than half of these guys were seasoned fishermen. They knew how to handle storms. They’d been caught out on the Sea of Galilee before when a storm came up. Storms weren’t anything new to them. But this one must have been a whopper. They were afraid. They didn’t know if they would make it to shore. And here was Jesus, the Son of God, just sleeping in the back of the boat. Maybe even snoring a little.

So they wake Him up. “Don’t you care that we’re going to die? How can you sleep when we’re risking our lives here? Can’t you help us keep this rickety boat afloat? Do something!”

I can imagine their angst in the middle of that stormy situation. Have you ever been there? Wondering what would happen next? Wondering how you would survive the next blows that came your way? If you live long enough, you’ll go through some of those times. No one is exempt from the troubles of the world. It doesn’t matter how rich or how poor you might be, everyone faces those times. Maybe it’s a financial crisis. Maybe the doctor just spoke the big “C” word. Maybe you don’t know where your next meal is coming from. Maybe your best friend and partner for life just passed away. We all face those storms in our life. Jesus promised we would. It’s part of the curse of Adam’s race. Sin entered the world and from the time we’re born this physical frame begins the process of dying in this physical realm.

And along that journey of life, we learn to fear. Some people fear more than others. But we all fear.

I find it fascinating, though, that every time God sends one of His messengers to earth to talk to one of His followers, and every time Jesus talks to someone in crisis, their first words are usually, “Don’t be afraid.” Fear can have a strangle hold on us and freeze us in place. It can paralyze us into inactivity so we are good for nothing. It can keep us from taking that necessary next step that leads to the release and freedom we so desperately seek. But we are afraid.

I love to watch little kids at playgrounds. They show us what’s it’s like not to fear. Watch them. They hang on the bars upside-down without a care. They race and climb and jump and sometimes they fall. It’s not until adults intervene and tell them something isn’t safe that they begin to curb their appetite for play. Little kids will do just about anything within their ability with no fear. They just do stuff. They exercise faith in their ability and their invincibility. We parents are the ones that instill that fear in them. We stop them cold and tell them they’ll get hurt. Don’t climb too high. Don’t swing too far. Don’t run too fast. Don’t … Don’t… Don’t… And so we build fear into them.

I’m told the only fear infants have is the fear of falling. Everything else we teach them with our constraints and dire warnings. Have you ever thought about had sad that is sometimes. So maybe we have taught out children, by our actions, to fear coming to Christ for salvation. Maybe our actions tell our children it’s not safe to give your all to the Master. Maybe we have demonstrated those dire warnings to our children that you better fear doing too much for Christ.

Can you trust Him with everything you have and everything you are? Can you get rid of the fear that keeps you from serving Him completely? Can you avoid the words His disciples heard in the boat, “What are you so afraid of, you of little faith”? Are you ready to act like a child and boldly step out and do the unthinkable when and where He leads you? I promise you, Jesus will never ask you to do something He and you cannot do together because He never fails. Never! So what are you so afraid of?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Just do it! (Matthew 8:22) February 11, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Job 11-12

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 8:22
Jesus: Follow Me! And let the dead bury their own dead.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

As I’m writing this podcast, I’m also teaching a class on the book of Romans. I can’t help but tie the two together as Paul describes the incompatibility of the man following the path of sin and death and the man who has died to sin and received the gift of eternal life. The two bodies represented by those redeemed and those who fail to accept the redemption Christ paid. The gift we have for the taking, but we must reach out and take it.

A man comes up to Jesus after He has done so much, healed so many, performed so many miracles. He says to Jesus, “Jesus, before I do the things You’ve asked me to do, I must first bury my father.” This doesn’t seem like a bad thing to do. The man’s father just died or at least death was knocking at the door. This disciple wanted to do the right thing and give his father a decent burial. He wanted to pay his last respects to the man who raised him, trained him, gave him his value system, his thought process, his inheritance. He wanted to do something good.

We would all look at the man and say, “What a noble gesture. Sure go bury your father, then come back and join us.” We would applaud and tell him he was an honorable son for not coming along and instead spending those last moments making sure his father’s body was properly washed, wrapped, covered with spices and entombed. We would think the man a great disciple doing all the right things.

What does Jesus say? “Follow Me! And let the dead bury their own dead.”

How could He be so dispassionate? How could He care so little about the man’s feelings? How could He just brush off a funeral the way He did and tell this disciple to follow Him without regard for the normal grieving rituals that accompanied the death of a loved one? What was Jesus saying to this poor disciple and to us? Was Jesus saying to leave all our emotions aside and become hard-hearted against such things?

The answer to all of those questions is no. Look at Jesus’ life and you’ll see He cared deeply about the feelings people had for others. He wept at Lazarus’ tomb. He raised the widow’s son. He performed miracles at funerals because death was never supposed to enter the world in the first place and at times He changed its outcome when He walked in the flesh with us.

Jesus knew how to grieve. He was “the man of sorrow, acquainted with grief,” Isaiah tells us. So what was the intent of His words that day?

I think Jesus saw through the man and his relationship to Him. God must take first place. Period. If He is not first place in your life, He will not take any place at all in your life. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t understand the grief of the man, but the man’s father and family was more important than following Jesus. I think the disciple would have come to Jesus and tried his faith later with, “My mother is sick and I need to tend to her.” Sound legitimate. But then it would be, “My sister is having a baby and I need to be around to help her.” Soon he would say, “Master, the goats need milked and no one can do it like I can, I’ll do what you ask as soon as I’ve milked the goats.”

I’m not sure what Jesus asked the man to do that day, but I can guarantee you that the man could have accomplished the task before it was time to bury his father. He just wanted to put it off. Just like we do. “Jesus, I’ll do what you ask, but let me finish getting my career in order first.” “Jesus, I’ll talk to you as soon as I finish watching this football game.” “Jesus, I’ll do what you ask after the kids are asleep.”

How often do we put off what Jesus asks us to do until it’s more convenient for us? How many times do we miss opportunities to share what He is doing in our lives, that’s called witnessing, by the way, to someone around us? How many times do we fail to show His love to someone near us that we can help in some small way because we’re just too busy with our own lives to think about those around us?

What if Jesus lived His life that way? What if God lived in such a way that He only took notice of the important things. How would we fit into that? Would we even register in the mix? I’m one of 7 billion people on one of eight planets (maybe nine again) circling one of billions of stars in one of billions of galaxies in a universe too large to measure that is expanding every second. How important does that make me that God would care?

The answer is important enough to die on a cross for my sins, that if I choose, I can follow Him and have eternal life. What is more important than that? How can I not drop everything else when He gives me a task to do? He knows your heart. Follow Him. Just do it!

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Floods and foundations (Matthew 7:24-27) February 5, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Isaiah 29-33

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 7:24-27
Jesus: Those people who are listening to Me, those people who hear what I say and live according to My teachings—you are like a wise man who built his house on a rock, on a firm foundation. When storms hit, rain pounded down and waters rose, levies broke and winds beat all the walls of that house. But the house did not fall because it was built upon rock. Those of you who are listening and do not hear—you are like a fool who builds a house on sand. When a storm comes to his house, what will happen? The rain will fall, the waters will rise, the wind will blow, and his house will collapse with a great crash.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

A few weeks ago floods tore through the midwest again. The Mississippi River overflowed its banks and the same little town that routinely finds itself ravaged by those floodwaters found itself ravaged again. I sometimes wonder about the intelligence of the people that live in that little town. Year after year, the Mississippi floods when the rains hit the countrysides upstream. Rains don’t necessarily hit that town, but all through the midwest, melting snow and spring rains fill the tributaries that feed the Mississippi and invariably that little town hits the national news.

So why do the people stay there? When I hear the name of the town on the news every year, I think about Jesus’ words to the crowd on the mountainside. When a storm comes, the rain falls, the waters rise, the wind blows, and his house will collapse with a great clash. That’s what I think about as I see the houses float down the Mississippi after the floods rip them from their foundation in the spring and autumn rains. You would think people would look at the maps and quit building in the floodplain, wouldn’t you? But next year, guess what we’ll see on the news. Yep. Rescuers will be pulling someone from a rooftop or out of a tree because they built back in the same place and the Mississippi will overflow its banks and they’ll feel the power of the floodwaters as their house disappears in the torrent.

Jesus describes two kinds of people using the metaphor. The foolish are like those I just describe. We don’t understand why they keep building in the same spot just to be washed away year after year. Yet look at how many people return to their sin day after day realizing the penalty for sin is death. A payday is coming. We have the published wages clear for all to see. Evidence of the ruin sin brings to life is everywhere. Families destroyed. Relationships ruined. Self set above all else. When self reigns, the collapse is great.

Jesus tells us the opposite is true of those who listen to and live by His teachings. Their foundations are firm. They are like those who build their houses on foundations that stand up to the storm. They make good decisions on where to build in the first place. They don’t continue to build in the floodplain and when they build, they build on a solid foundation that will withstand the storms of life that come our way. Storms will come. Life happens. We all face trials that test our faith and make us wonder why God would allow things to happen the way they do.

But God isn’t to blame for the bad that happens to us. Sin entered the world and set in motion the consequences of man’s fall. Death. These events are not God’s plan, but the consequences of mankind’s doing. And so, natural consequences fall on the just and unjust. Rain falls on all of us. Storms hit all of us. Natural events happen to all of us. Evil strikes all of us. But when we follow the principles and precepts God lays out for us and honor Him as God, we build our lives on a solid foundation of trust and respect for Him and for others. We put priorities in the right place. We lean on God for the solutions to our problems and His word gives us the concepts we need to find those solutions.

We won’t be exempt form the storms of life, but we will weather them. We won’t go through life without trouble, in fact, Jesus promised we would have trouble in this world. But when we follow His teachings, we will overcome, just as He overcame. Becaue we will let Him reign in our lives. That’s His teaching. He wants to be Lord of our lives. Not just another teacher, another voice, but Lord. Director. Guide. Everything.

When our lives are built on Christ as the foundation. We can handle anything that comes along. Will it always be easy? No. Life isn’t easy. Nor is it always fair. But we can handle it because He is on our side. He doesn’t leave us to walk the journey alone. He will go with us and help us through every storm. We can anchor ourself to Him and make it through the toughest situations. Turn your life over to Him. Build on Him as the foundation of your life. You’ll be glad you did.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Saying versus doing (Matthew 7:21-23) February 4, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Job 9-10

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 7:21-23
Jesus: Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Simply calling Me “Lord” will not be enough. Only those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven will join Me in heaven. At the end of time, on that day of judgment, many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not drive demons out of the possessed in Your name? Did we not perform miracles in Your name?” But I will say to them, “I never knew you. And now, you must get away from Me, you evildoers!”

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

These words of Jesus must have been tough for those who heard it that day. They are probably tough for us if we really stop to think about them a little. Jesus is saying all our good deeds don’t mean anything to God if they haven’t come from an obedient heart. Look at the list of things He mentions as the works of those who He turns away at the day of judgment. Prophesy, driving out demons, performing miracles. Aren’t these the very works He did? Aren’t these the things Jesus said we would do for Him when He departed?

How can He tell us that those who do these very things will not be allowed to live with Him? These people are doing great things in Jesus’ name! They show every evidence on the outside that they are His followers, so how can He now reject them from heaven?

The answer is simple. They haven’t been obedient to Him. Remember Moses? Do you remember why God didn’t let him cross over the Jordan River into the land promised to the Israelites? The event was such a simple thing. God told Moses to speak to the rock and tell water to come out of it to give the Israelites water to quench their thirst. Instead, Moses struck the rock with his rod. Years earlier in the journey God had told Moses to get water by striking the rock and water came out of the rock. So why would God ban Moses from the promised land for such a simple thing, striking the rock instead of speaking to the rock? Disobedience.

But the answer is deeper than that. Look through the rest of the story of Numbers and Deuteronomy. You’ll never see Moses take responsibility for his disobedience. In every cases where the event is told, Moses blames his failure to go into the promised land on his brothers and sisters. He blames their hard-heartedness, not his own. He never confesses that God told him to speak to the rock to get water and in his arrogance and anger at the Israelites, he disobeyed God’s command. Moses never repented of his sin before the people.

Is it this failure to confess that prohibited Moses’ entrance into the promised land? The older I get and the more I read of God’s grace and mercy, the more I think it was Moses’ stubborn failure to take responsibility for his disobedience, more than his act of disobedience that led to his rejection at the Jordan River. The same will be true for these characters Jesus speaks of in His discourse. God demands obedience, not show. He demands true repentance, not sacrifices and offerings and things for others to see.

God wants us to come humbly to Him and listen to His voice and love Him enough to do what He asks us to do, fully, without fanfare. He wants us to just go about our lives with the simple thought of saying yes to whatever He tells us to do. Maybe He’ll tell us to prophesy for Him. But He might just ask us to give kind words to those around us that are hurting. Maybe He’ll ask us to drive demons out of the possessed. But He might just want us to hold the hand of a grieving mother for a lost child. Maybe He’ll want us to perform miracles in His name. But He might just want us to go about our daily business with a smile on our face and joy in our heart so others know He lives in us.

The question He has for me and you today is whether He is Lord of your life. When He is Lord, He can ask you to do anything and you will say yes. Anything means the most important, earth-shaking responsibility in the world that will put your name in the limelight and everyone will see and know you. And it means the lowliest, nastiest task you can think of that no one in the world wants to do and everyone would look down on you because of you did it. It also means doing things that will cause people to completely ignore you and never know you’ve done anything at all, but God knows. It means obedience. That’s what Jesus being Lord means. Saying yes to His command every time, in every circumstance, at every opportunity.

If He truly is Lord, you don’t need to worry about what He will say to you at the day of judgment. His words to you will be, “Enter into the joys of heaven, you good and faithful servant.” Is He your Lord today? He can be. Just ask Him to be, then say yes to Him, always.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Which road? (Matthew 7:13-14) February 2, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Joshua 21-25

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 7:13-14
Jesus: There are two paths before you; you may take only one path. One doorway is narrow. And one door is wide. Go through the narrow door. For the wide door leads to a wide path, and the wide path is broad; the wide, broad path is easy, and the wide, broad, easy path has many, many people on it; but the wide, broad, easy, crowded path leads to death. Now then that narrow door leads to a narrow road that in turn leads to life. It is hard to find that road. Not many people manage it.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

It’s easy to go along with the crowd. Just ask the herd of cattle on the farm. They move from the barn in the morning to the pasture and just graze around following the lead cow. In the afternoon, the lead cow knows it’s about time to go back to the barn so they follow the same worn path back to the barn until the next morning. The same routine goes on day after day, with the cows going out into the field and coming back in again until one day the lead cow leads the herd through a series of gates that ends up with the cows looking through the sideboards of a transport headed to the slaughter house.

We’re not much different. We have a tendency to just follow the leader, not thinking much about who we’re following. We get into the middle of the crowd and let it push us along mindlessly going back and forth day after day until finally we find out one day we’re looking through the sideboards of life on our way to the slaughter house and it seems there’s no way out.

My wife and I enjoy seeing Broadway plays off Broadway as they tour our community. When we first started going to the theater in our town we discovered a quick way out of the theater through an exit by the stage. Only a few people knew about that exit and it only took swimming upstream a few rows for us to break through the mass of people trying to go out the way they came in to get to that exit and beat the crowd to the parking lots.

Getting through those first few obstacles is hard. People are thinking you’re crazy. You’re going the wrong way. Everyone else is moving to the back of the room and we’re moving to the front. People jostle us. We squeeze through the cracks in the crowd. We take some verbal abuse at times. But our mind is set. We’re going for that smaller door that few people know about. Freedom from the crowd. Freedom from the meandering push. Freedom to break out and get loose.

The other interesting thing that has happened is that over the several years we have attended those plays, some of those who routinely sit around us started to notice our escape route. They started following us through that sea of people and discovered they, too, got to their cars faster and escaped the downtown traffic faster. We brought along some people through that narrow path to freedom.

I think about Jesus’ metaphor sometimes as I still bump into the newbies that don’t know about the door by the stage. They don’t know they can escape the mass of people they are following and break free to the fresh air outside if they’ll just break away from the crowd and follow the narrow path to the side door. Maybe they’ll stick around long enough to learn. Maybe I should tell them.

But more important than that secret door at the theater, I want to make sure I find and follow that narrow path that Jesus talks about. The world will take me and you down a path that’s easy to follow. Just sit and watch television and the world will tell you what you need, money, sex, fame. The world will make you believe that what you want is more important than anything else. But the world lies. What’s most important is what God wants. His will is most important and it will be accomplished. His plans will be carried out, the question is whether or not you and I will let ourselves be part of them.

We can run through life like the herd headed to the slaughter house or the crowd pushing to the back of the theater, or we can listen to Christ and follow Him. We can take the narrow road and bring some along with us. We can help others figure out the broad path leads to their own destruction, pull them aside and point out the narrow path that Jesus shows us. We can help them experience real freedom.

So which path are you on? Are you part of the herd or do you think for yourself? Are you following Jesus on the narrow path that leads to life or on the broad road that leads to destruction? You get to choose the path you take. One is easy and one is hard. Don’t take the easy road. It doesn’t turn out so well in the end. Swim uphill against the crowd. You’ll be glad you did.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

The Father’s will (Matthew 7:7-8) January 30, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Matthew 11-13

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 7:7-8
Jesus: Just ask and it will be given to you; seek after it and you will find. Continue to knock and the door will be opened for you. All who ask receive. Those who seek, find what they seek. And he who knocks, will have the door opened.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus moves back to the topic of prayer. He tells us to just ask, but does He mean we can get anything we want? Does He portray the Father as a cosmic Santa that will give us whatever we want? “Just ask and it will be given to you…” It might sound like it if you lift that verse out of His sermon like a lot of name it and claim preachers try to do. But go back and look at the model prayer He gives us earlier in His sermon and remember that He never contradicts Himself.

Ask and it will be given to you. Ask for what? Remember Jesus’ model prayer? Father in heaven, I ask that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek after it and you will find it. Find what? Find the Father’s will. You see, I think we get the wrong idea about what to ask for in the first place. We get ourselves mixed up into the equation and let that selfish desire poke its head up and try to grab all the attention instead of listening to what Jesus says to us in the rest of His discourse.

Remember what He told us just a few verses before this? “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Don’t worry about all that other stuff. God knows what you need and He’ll see that all that other stuff is taken care of. Just seek Him first. Don’t let your greedy self get in the way of looking for Him. Be like David and “let your soul pant for God like a deer pants for water,” he writes.

We get too anxious to snap up this one verse and let it manipulate our selfish desires instead of putting it back into the sermon where it belongs and understanding that God must be first. Seek first God. Seek first His will. That means don’t even worry about what His will is for your life. Just find His will and then go get on board with it. You’ll find your place in the world, just by going and doing His will, not yours. Did you ever think about doing things on those terms? Jesus did.

Jesus went about not asking what God’s will was for Him, but asking what is the Father’s will and doing it. Period. Maybe it’s time we start asking that question. What is the Father’s will? Stop the question right there. Don’t add any other identifiers to it. Don’t ask what is His will for my church or my life or my organization or my family or my anything. See, when we put “my” in there, we begin to let self get into the equation and open the door for something other than God’s will.

Just ask, “God what is your will?” Then go jump on board. Do whatever you can do to further His will. Now what does Jesus’ command mean. Let’s think about it a little deeper.

Just ask for God’s will and it will be given to you, He’ll show it to you. Seek the Father’s will and you will find it. You won’t have to look hard, but you’ll need to look because Satan and the world’s clamor will try to drown it out. But look for it and you’ll find His will in His word. Continue to knock and the Father will open doors of opportunity for you to walk through so you can be a part of furthering His will on earth when you ask Him earnestly and sincerely.

All who ask Him what His will for humankind really is will know what His will is. He doesn’t hide from you. He wants you to know Him, just ask and He’ll tell you. And everyone who wants to work for Him in furthering His purposes and His plans will find doors of opportunity opened for them. All you have to do is be obedient to His voice and walk through them. But understand they are His plans, not yours. Those doors progress His purposes, not yours. The opportunities provide for His glory, not yours. The will you seek and the doors of opportunity all belong to the Father, not you.

Until you begin to operate with that frame of mind, don’t expect to find the Father acting as a cosmic Santa. He’s not. He cares about you, but He is God. We are not. It’s His will we should long for, seek out, grab hold of, spend as much energy and effort as we can muster following His will.

In that frame of mind, Christ shared His sermon. Totally sold out to the Father, Jesus made His statement. Committed wholely to His heavenly Father, Jesus tells us a truth we can stand on, “Just ask and it will be given to you; seek after it and you will find. Continue to knock and the door will be opened for you. All who ask receive. Those who seek, find what they seek. And he who knocks, will have the door opened.” Find the Father’s will, not yours.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Will you fulfill the law? (Matthew 5:17-20) January 10, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Romans 3-4

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 5:17-20
Jesus: Do not think that I have come to overturn or do away with the law or the words of our prophets. To the contrary: I have not come to overturn them but to fulfill them.
This, beloved, is the truth: until heaven and earth disappear, not one letter, not one pen stroke, will disappear from the sacred law—for everything, everything in the sacred law will be fulfilled and accomplished. Anyone who breaks even the smallest, most obscure commandment—not to mention teaches others to do the same—will be called small and obscure in the kingdom of heaven. Those who practice the law and teach others how to live the law will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you this: you will not enter the kingdom of heaven unless your righteousness goes deeper than the Pharisees’, even more righteous than the most learned learner of the law.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I find it interesting that Jesus tells those around Him that even the smallest, most obscure commandment will remain in effect. Jesus didn’t come to do away with the law, even though He talks to His disciples about a new covenant and then His disciples talk to the Gentiles about the futility of circumcision and other Jewish rituals that they need not keep as followers of Christ. Is this a double standard? Did Jesus mean what He said when He spoke these words to the Pharisees and the crowds gathered around Him that day?

I think Jesus meant every word, but I also think Jesus saw the greater meaning of the Father’s word and His law. God gave Moses and the Israelites the law the Pharisees tried to impose on those Jesus spoke to that day. But He told the crowd their righteousness must go deeper than the Pharisees if they expected to see the kingdom of heaven. Stop and think about that for a minute.

The scribes and Pharisees spent their lives studying the law God gave Moses, but Jesus counted them as unrighteous. Why? Because they didn’t live the concepts of the law they studied. Abraham didn’t have the law, but God counted him as righteous. Cornelius didn’t follow Jewish law, but Jesus said of Him, “I haven’t seen such faith in all of Israel.” Enoch didn’t have the law, but God saw such obedience in his life that Enoch didn’t suffer death, but rather God took him straight to heaven. He did the same for Elijah, one of his great prophets.

So stop and think about God’s law for a minute. What does Jesus mean when He talks about God’s law? I really think when we listen to God, He does what He says He will do and puts His law in our hearts. We don’t need a bunch of rules and regulations because His Spirit in us will lead us toward righteousness. He will keep us on the path of righteousness so we do not soil His name. Just look at every civilization across the world. All of them have laws against murder, theft, adultery, and other crimes against other members of the community. Most have regulations and rules that govern behavior concerning the major religion of the community.

How do those rules come into existence? Why do we establish those laws in the first place? I think it’s because God places within the heart of every human being the innate knowledge that He exists and demands our worship and our obedience to His laws. As Paul points out in his letters, God gave us the laws to that we will understand better how to behave in society because we have become so corrupted in our societal fall from grace. Those boundaries that the written law gives us keep us in line so we can come to know God and learn to hear Him amid the clamor the world raises to try to drown out His voice.

Once we come to know Him, though, we can hear Him. We can distinguish His voice among all the others in the same way you can hear your baby’s cry in a room full of infants. We can distinguish His commands from the cry of the world in the same way we can pick out our spouse’s voice among the din in a crowded room. We can hear Him, because He puts His law in our heart. We no longer need a list of written rules and regulations because God transforms our mind so we become more like Him each day. We begin to live according to His wishes instead of our own. We begin to live within the boundaries of His law, His precepts, His directions and commands, so that we stay by His side on this journey of life.

What is the sacred law? It’s God’s Spirit directing us when we give ourselves completely to Him. Will it be different from His written word? No! God doesn’t contradict Himself. That’s why Jesus can say, “…not one letter, not one pen stroke, will disappear from the sacred law—for everything, everything in the sacred law will be fulfilled and accomplished.” He wants to accomplish His law in you and me. The question each day is, “Will I let Him?” What’s your answer?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Open and closed doors (Revelation 3:7-13) December 27, 2015

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Revelation 3:7-13

Set – Revelation 3-4

Go! – Revelation 1-4

Revelation 3:7-13
7 Write down My words, and send them to the messenger of the church in Philadelphia. “These are the words of the holy One, the true One, and the One who possesses the key of David, which opens the possibilities so that no one can shut them. The One who closes all options so that no one can open:
8 “I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. I have done this because you have limited strength, yet you have obeyed My word and have not denied My name. 9 Watch, and I will make those of the congregation of Satan—those who call themselves ‘Jews’ but are not because they lie—come before you penitent, falling at your feet. Then they will know how much I have loved you. 10 Because you have obeyed My instructions to endure and be patient, I will protect you from the time of trial which will come upon the whole earth and put everyone in it to the test. 11 I will soon return. Hold tight to what you have so that no one can take away your victor’s wreath.
12 “As for the one who conquers through faithfulness even unto death, I will plant that person as a pillar in the temple of My God, and that person will never have to leave the presence of God. Moreover, I will inscribe this person with the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, New Jerusalem—which descends out of heaven from My God—and My own new name.
13 “Let the person who is able to hear, listen to and follow what the Spirit proclaims to all the churches.”

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

How would you like to have those words written about you? Limited strength, but obedient to My word. True to My name. Loved by Me. You endured and were patient. Those would be pretty good descriptors for anyone wanting to join Me in My kingdom. When you look around this corrupt world and the enticements Satan throws in front of you every day, a description of your life like those I gave to the church at Philadelphia would feel pretty good.

It’s possible for those words to describe you, though. I did for them the same thing I will do for you if you let Me. Did you notice the words? I have placed before you an open door which no one can shut. Before that I talked about holding the key of David that opens possibilities and closes options. When you give yourself to Me, I’ll use that key for you. I’ll open possibilities, close options, hold open doors that no one can shut. I’ll help you walk through life in a way that lets Me talk about you the way I talked about Philadelphia.

What you must do, though, is walk through those open doors and leave those closed doors shut. The problem with many who say they want to follow Me, they come to a closed door and start slamming their shoulder against it to burst through it. I don’t know if you’ve seen many doors that someone burst through, but there are always cracks and splinters and broken frames involved when you do that. You’ve just ruined the door. I close those doors for a reason. Those places aren’t good for you or at least aren’t good for you at that time. A closed door means stay out. Why do you insist on going in?

I also open a lot of doors for you when you walk with Me. I don’t make you go through the door and often once you pass by the door I close it and you can never go into that door again. But when I open a door for you and you walk through it, I can promise you good things will happen because of it. You might not see the good things, but good things will happen. Opportunities behind those doors are often fleeting and don’t last long, but I make them available as you journey through life.

What made the letter to the church at Philadelphia one of the few without negatives said against them? Because they went through the doors I opened and left closed those I shut. It’s as simple as that. They obeyed what I asked them to do as they journeyed with Me even under heavy persecution. Consequently, I have pretty good things to say about them.

You can enjoy those same descriptors. Just walk through open doors and bypass the ones I close. Listen to Me as we walk together through life. Pretty simple, isn’t it. So why do so few pass that simple test?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.