Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Is it our problem when someone forgets or miscalculates or does something that will cause them embarrassment? Jesus asked that questions, and then answered it with actions instead of words.
Scripture
John 2:4
Jesus: Dear woman, is it our problem they miscalculated when buying wine and inviting guests? My time has not arrived.
Devotional
So what do you think about Jesus’ conversation with His mother?
I would have been slapped silly or told “wait til your father gets home!”
Feminists cringe at His language
Have a hard time getting past the way Jesus addresses His mother
Different day and time
Jesus was an adult male in a male dominant society
Mary addressed Him in public which was pretty taboo in His culture
Gentle but reminded her of the culture, Dear woman!
Let’s get past the address between Jesus and Mary and look at the next piece
Is it our problem they miscalculated?
Is it our problem they ran out of wine?
Is it our problem they can’t get their act together?
Is it our problem they will embarrass themselves in front of all these guests?
Reminiscent of Cain’s question to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Do I need to be responsible for him? Do I need to bail him out when he’s in trouble? Do I need to be accountable for his actions as well as my own?
You might think Jesus brushes her off with His comments to His mother, but she knows Him well.
We know the rest of the story
First miracle
Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do
She is confident He will take care of the wine problem
She is confident He will keep the host from embarrassment
She is confident He will take care of the needs He finds around Him
What lessons should we learn from Jesus’ encounter
Don’t address your mother the way He did, that was a cultural difference your mother will probably not tolerate, nor should she in this country and this time
Like Mary, we should be sensitive to the needs of those around us
Like Mary, we should take those issues to Jesus whether we created the problem or not
We can help others learn from their miscalculations, but we can also help and keep them from embarrassment, failure or worse
Jesus shows us we are our brothers’ keepers
Go do something good for someone today
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 12:42-48 Jesus: Imagine the stories of two household managers, and decide for yourself which one is faithful and smart. Each household manager is told by his master to take good care of all his possessions and to oversee the other employees—the butlers, cooks, gardeners, and so on. One servant immediately busies himself in doing just what he was told. His master eventually comes to check on him and rewards him with a major promotion and with more responsibility and trust. The other household manager thinks, “Look, my boss is going to be gone for a long time. I can be complacent; there’s no urgency here.” So he beats the other employees—the women as well as the men. He sits around like a slob, eating and getting drunk. Then the boss comes home unexpectedly and catches him by surprise. One household manager will be fortunate indeed, and the other will be cut into pieces and thrown out.
Now if a servant who is given clear instructions by his master doesn’t follow those instructions but instead is complacent and apathetic, then he will be punished severely. But if a servant doesn’t know what his master expects and behaves badly, then he will receive a lighter punishment. If you are given much, much will be required of you. If much is entrusted to you, much will be expected of you.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
What should we think about God’s instructions and how much He has given to us? Some might want to claim ignorance because they haven’t heard about Him and don’t know His rules. How could they be expected to follow Him if they haven’t read His word or been exposed to the gospel? How can God hold them accountable if they have never darkened the door of a church or heard a sermon from a pulpit? Will God really hold them accountable for not following the things He put in that dusty old book that sits on their grandmother’s shelf? Surely most of the world now fits into that category of not knowing means a light punishment, right?
I’m not so sure that’s true. It’s a nice thought, but who has not heard the name of Jesus? We get blasted by the controversy every time the Christmas holiday comes around. We hear the world’s anger rise about Easter and why do we need to celebrate and raise the name of Jesus in public. ISIS has certainly heard about Jesus. Everyone they meet that mentions His name they execute. We push to take His name out of schools and courts and every other public place. So His name is certainly known around the world.
So the next question is how hard is it to find out what Jesus wants from us? Well, how hard is it to type His name into the search engine of your favorite browser along with some terms like salvation, Christian, or faith. In the first nanosecond, yahoo delivered four and a half million results. It would probably take some time to read through all of those, but I expect in the first page or so of results you would find information about the Christian faith, the simple sinners prayer, and the tenets of the Christian faith.
How hard is it to find a lot of information about what Jesus wants from us? It takes another nanosecond of search to figure out the Bible is the book Christians use to guide their faith. And to make it fair to all the other books published in the world, the Bible is never listed as a best seller. I’ve always wondered why it’s not included, because if you do a simple search of published works, you’ll find the Bible tops the lists of titles sold by a wide margin every year.
So all it takes to have the knowledge you need to follow Him is to pick up a Bible and read it or go to a website and download the Bible or read it from the web or use an audio app. There are dozens of churches with lots of empty seats every week. Of course, just going to church doesn’t mean you’re following the things Jesus said we must do. So, now how hard is it get the information you need to follow Him? Not very hard. It’s pretty easy, in fact. With our communication abilities today and the knowledge network we brag about, there is no excuse for not knowing about Jesus and what He wants from us.
If everything I’ve said in the last few minutes is true, then listen again to Jesus’ warning. “If you are given much, much will be required of you. If much is entrusted to you, much will be expected of you.”
Much is entrusted to you whether you use it or not. It’s available. We have no excuse for not using the tools God has given us. None. I don’t think He will accept, “I didn’t read your book.” or “I didn’t hear those sermons.” or “I didn’t know.” as an excuse. There is no reason we can’t know today. It’s all at our fingertips, we just need to pick it up, read it, and follow it.
Ready – Deuteronomy 4: 1-14 Set – Deuteronomy 4: Psalms 36; Mark 13 Go! – Deuteronomy 3-4; Psalms 36; Mark 13
Deuteronomy 4: 1-14 Moses: 1So now, Israel, pay close attention to the laws and judgments I’m going to teach you. If you follow them, you’ll enter and live in the land the Eternal, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You’ll conquer it, and it will become your territory. 2 Don’t add anything to what I command you, and don’t take away anything from it; just follow the commands of the Eternal your God that I’m giving you now.
3 You saw with your own eyes what the Eternal did about your immorality at Baal-peor, the mountain-god. When some of you followed after the Baal god, the Eternal your God killed them right in front of you—not one of them survived! 4 But all of you who remained loyal to the Eternal your God are still alive today. 5 So pay attention—I’m teaching you the rules and judgments the Eternal my God has given me for you. You’re to follow them when you enter the land and settle there. 6 If you obey them carefully, all the nations around you will marvel at your wisdom and understanding. They’ll hear about these rules and say, “This is a great nation—its people are so wise and understanding!” 7 Indeed, what other nation is so great that it has a god that compares to the Eternal our God as He is near to us whenever we call on Him? 8 What other nation is so great that it has rules and judgments as just as the ones contained in this whole law I’m presenting to you today?
Moses: 9 So watch what you do! Be careful with your very life! Don’t forget the things you saw with your own eyes, and don’t let them fade from your memory. Remember them your whole life; teach them to your children and your grandchildren. 10 Remember the day you stood before the Eternal, your True God, at Horeb when He called you to come close. He told me, “Bring all the people to Me. I want them to hear My words, so that they will learn to fear Me as long as they live on this earth and will teach their children to do the same.” 11 You all came and stood at the foot of the mountain. It blazed with fire all the way up into the sky while dark clouds and mist obscured your view. 12 Then the Eternal spoke to you from inside that fire. You heard His voice, you heard His words, but you didn’t see His shape—you only heard a voice. 13 He told you what to do to keep the covenant He made with you. He gave you the Ten Directives and engraved two copies of them on two stone tablets. 14 The Eternal commanded me at that time to teach you the rules and judgments that make up the law He wants you to follow in the land where you’re going to live when you cross the Jordan.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
In these few verses, Moses tells My children to remember the laws I gave them and to teach them to their children at least twice. He will give that same directive many times in this last discourse before I take him. Teach your children. Part of the problem with today’s society is you forgot this major principle. Teach your children.
Today, parents abdicate their responsibility to teach their children. Now the schools do it, or so they think. The churches do it, or so mom and dad assume. Day care surely teaches kids something during the nine hours a day they have the kids, right? Today, parents spend much more time with their smartphones, iPads, and computers than with their kids, so who is teaching them. And if the parents aren’t teaching them, how do they know what they’re learning?
Moses told those listening to him that day to be careful with their life. I think you are more careful with you cars today than you are with your life. Technology has become a substitute for parental responsibility. You leave your kids in front of the television or in the hands of the Wii or X-Box letting the morality of those devices determine what they believe instead of instilling in them the values your parents gave you at the dinner table, hopefully.
I find the world in a tragic situation, now. It can’t go on much longer. Kids need guidance or they’ll find their way and it won’t be a good one. Remember My word? It says humankind’s hearts dwell on evil continually. Only when changed by the power of My Spirit living within you can you hope to get away from the continual draw of evil on your life. But it is best to learn those things at a young age and never have to suffer the physical and emotional consequences that come with some of the evil decisions that so many make today. The best way to learn them at a young age is to learn them from your parents.
What has happened today? The family, parental responsibility, reliance upon grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to share common values has all but disappeared because a couple of generations now failed to teach their children My ways, My laws. Until parents begin to be parents again instead of just progenitors the problem will increase. Until parents take responsibility for teaching their children My laws, the true, long-lasting values of life that will lead you into the next life, families will continue to degrade and society will continue to fall into greater disarray and dissolution.
Go back to what I told Moses and he shared with the Israelites. “So watch what you do! Be careful with your very life! Don’t forget the things you saw with your own eyes, and don’t let them fade from your memory. Remember them your whole life; teach them to your children and your grandchildren.” You’ll go a long way to curing the ills of society that people complain about so much if you’ll just follow what Moses said to do.
