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Get in the zone (Luke 9:58-62) October 23, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – James 1-3

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 9:58-62
Jesus: Foxes are at home in their burrows. Birds are at home in their nests. But the Son of Man has no home. You (to another person)—I want you to follow Me!
Another Volunteer: I’d be glad to, Teacher, but let me first attend to my father’s funeral.
Jesus: Let the dead bury their dead. I’m giving you a different calling—to go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
A Third Volunteer: I’ll come, Jesus. I’ll follow You. But just let me first run home to say good-bye to my family.
Jesus: Listen, if your hand is on the plow but your eyes are looking backward, then you’re not fit for the kingdom of God.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Psychologists and psychiatrists preformed numerous studies on productivity in this country because of our interest in increasing the output of the workforce. So we learned that multi-tasking is really not possible. Our brain really only focuses on one activity at a time. It switches back from one thing to another and sometimes can do so quickly if they are relatively routine activities, but with complex activities like trying to keep up with a conversation and doing calculations simultaneously, mistakes creep in and multi-tasking introduces a plethora of errors when you disengage from one activity and reengage in the next. While you might think you are doing both activities well, you are not. That’s exactly the reason so many traffic accidents are caused by drivers talking on cell phones or grabbing a bite of food or touching up their makeup or reading a text or any number of other distractors other than paying full attention to driving.

Those studies also tell us that we can begin to work on a project or activity and get into what has been referred to as the zone and lose all track of space and time. We become so focused on the what we are doing that we don’t even notice the things going on around us. People can talk to us and we don’t hear them. Things happen around us and we don’t see them. We become super focused as it were. When we are in the zone. We become almost robotic doing incredible things in that place mentally and physically. Things we could not do when not in the zone. We probably all experienced that spot at some time or other. The best of us, learn how to capture that moment at will.

Jesus didn’t need the psychological studies to understand the principle when He talked to His disciples and those who would follow Him. He understood focus. That’s the principle He shares with these would be followers that day. You can’t focus on multiple activities and expect them to come out well. Give you full attention to Jesus if you want to follow His commands. Get in the zone when it comes to doing His will and blot out everything else around you.

That’s really what Paul talks about when He says to live in the Spirit. Stay so focused on God indwelling in you that everything else pales to nothing and what you hear is His voice and His alone. He want’s us so in tune with His voice that we hear nothing else. He wants us so laser focused on Him that everything else is so out of focus we can’t even see it. Then we can follow in His footsteps and be the men and women He wants us to be. We can carry out His work with the drive and purpose that will accomplish what intends.

We can’t let the things of this world distract us if we expect to carry out God’s work the way He wants us to, even good things. Because the good things will keep us from the best things God has for us. So Jesus uses these examples to show us we must keep focused on the work at hand. Stay in the zone. Don’t lose sight of the goal.

So what is it God has asked you to do? Are you doing it? Are you focused fully on His work? Have you let things around you distract you from what God would have you do? Have you taken your eyes off the goal? Have you let good things distract you from the better things for the best things God has in store for you?

Jesus says put those things aside. Follow Him with such intense focus that all those things disappear from view. Put those things aside so that the only voice you hear and the only face you see are His. When you do, you will be amaze at what you accomplish for Him.

How do you get in the zone with Him? Just listen to His voice and follow His directions, He’ll help you stay there if you let Him.

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.

No one else can do your job (Matthew 3:15) January 1, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Isaiah 1-6

see the whole year’s plan here

Matthew 3:15
Jesus: It will be right, true, and faithful to God’s chosen path for you to cleanse Me with your hands in the Jordan River.

Today’s Devotional

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Have you ever thought about those first words of Jesus recorded in the first gospel? Why wouldn’t He say something about His mission? Why wouldn’t He affirm John’s proclamation that He is God’s Son? Why wouldn’t Jesus use the opportunity to give a message of encouragement, a call to repentance, or some special revelation to the crowd gathered by the Jordan River that day? It was His perfect opportunity to set everyone right from the very start.

Instead, Jesus chose to share with his cousin, John a very special message designed just for him, but one that also speaks volumes to each of us. Listen to those words again as translated in The Voice, “It will be right, true, and faithful to God’s chosen path for you to cleanse Me with your hands in the Jordan River.”

What was the point of Jesus submitting to John’s baptism? From these words, it wasn’t for Jesus, but for John. Paul tells us Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for us because he lived life without falling to the temptations to which we so easily succumb. He was blameless before His Father. Faultless. Spotless. Without blemish. Sinless. He did not need cleansing or repentance to stand before His Father as a righteous individual.

What Jesus told John and us, though, is you have a mission. Your mission from the Father is to proclaim His word and to baptize, ritually cleanse through this outward sign of inward repentance that they will follow the will of God. Jesus went through the ritual of baptism to announce to the rest of the world He would follow the will of God. But He also told John through His actions, “You’re doing the job God gave you to do. Don’t stop. Keep it up. Even though I’ve arrived and part of your mission is to announce My coming, you mission isn’t over. Keep preaching the importance of repentance and the individual, outward proclamation of that repentance through baptism.”

I think Jesus has the same message for each of us. God has a chosen path for me and a chosen path for you. They look different. He has given each of us different skills, talents, experiences, and desires that direct us on the path He laid out for us. He did that because we are interdependent creatures. Some people like to think they are independent. They are not. No one knows enough or is skilled enough to enjoy life alone. Neither does God want us to be completely dependent. God created us to need each other. He created us to live in community and use the different skills He gave each of us so we can enjoy life in community. We corrupted His plan with that first sin in the Garden of Eden, but Jesus came to bring us back into alignment with God’s perfect plan.

Jesus also told John to cleanse Him with his own hands. I think that tells us to stay engaged. Don’t let anyone else do the job God gives me to do. I can only begin to imagine the blessing John received in baptizing God’s Son. I think about how I felt officiating at my children’s weddings and some of my grandchildren’s dedications, but those must pale in comparison to what John felt that day. But that was the mission God gave John.

When we carry out God’s plan for our life, though, we will have those John moments. I’ve had them praying with someone at an altar and watching them experience the forgiveness of their sins for the first time in their life. Sometimes that altar is in a church. Sometimes it’s at a chair in a home or a table in a coffee shop. Sometimes it was by a truck on a battlefield. But every time, the experience is overwhelming.

God gives each of us missions to perform. How appropriate for Jesus’ first recorded words in this first gospel of the New Testament to be directed to each of us, saying, “Get on with the work I’ve given you to do. No one else will do your job for you.”

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.