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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Matthew 8:5-22
Set – 1 Samuel 24; Matthew 8
Go! – 1 Samuel 24; Psalms 57-58; 1 Chronicles 8; Matthew 8

Matthew 8:5-22
⁵ Eventually Jesus came to the little town of Capernaum. In Capernaum a military officer came to Him and asked Him for help.

Officer: ⁶ Lord, I have a servant who is lying at home in agony, paralyzed.

Jesus: ⁷ I will come to your house, and I will heal him.

Officer: ⁸ Lord, I don’t deserve to have You in my house. And, in truth, I know You don’t need to be with my servant to heal him. Just say the word, and he will be healed. ⁹ That, after all, is how authority works. My troops obey me whether I am next to them or not—similarly, this sickness will obey You.

¹⁰ Jesus was stunned by the depth of the officer’s faith.

Jesus (to His followers): This is the plain truth: I have not met a single person in Israel with as much faith as this officer. ¹¹ It will not be just the children of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who celebrate at their heavenly banquet at the end of time. No, people will come from the East and the West—and those who recognize Me, regardless of their lineage, will sit with Me at that feast. ¹² But those who have feigned their faith will be cast out into outer darkness where people weep and grind their teeth.

¹³ Then Jesus turned to the Centurion.

Jesus: You may go home. For it is as you say it is; it is as you believe.

And the officer’s servant was healed, right then.

¹⁴ Jesus went to Peter’s house, and there He saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed, sick and burning up with a fever. ¹⁵ Jesus touched her hand, and then she was healed—the fever vanished. She got up from bed and began to wait on Him.

¹⁶ Toward nighttime many people who were possessed by demons were brought to Jesus, and He said one word of command and drove the demons out, healing everyone who was sick. ⁷ These miraculous healings fulfilled what the prophet Isaiah had predicted:

He took our infirmities upon Himself,
and He bore our diseases.
¹⁸ Jesus saw that a crowd had gathered around Him, and He gave orders to go to the other side of the sea. ¹⁹ A scribe came up to Him.

Scribe: Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.

Jesus: ²⁰ Foxes have dens in which to sleep, and the birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.

Disciple: ²¹ Jesus, before I do the things You’ve asked me to do, I must first bury my father.

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

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

You heard the verses just read. You know the stories of the centurion’s faith and Peter’s mother-in-law. You know about the crowds coming for healing and exorcism and to hear My teaching. But I want you to learn something else from what you just heard. It comes from the interaction with the scribe that came to follow Me. I gave him a task to do, but he wanted to bury his father first.

My answer to the scribe probably sounds hard to many of you. But the message I gave the scribe is the same message that carries through this whole passage. The message is very clear to Me and I hope it becomes clear to you if you haven’t gotten it already. Here it is: There is urgency in My work.

It’s not earth-shattering news, I know. But it’s important for you to understand and I want you to feel that same urgency. I had a very short time to live with you in the flesh and show you what abundant living looks like. I had a very short time to carry out the task I came to earth to do. Everything I accomplished had an urgency about it.

All the people that came to Me for healing came with an urgency for relief. They didn’t want to wait another minute for healing and as a compassionate God who created those who came to Me for help, I didn’t want to wait a minute longer either. You know when you’ve suffered any illness, you want to get well, now, not later. There is an urgency to your prayers. There is an urgency to your actions for healing. You want to be well again.

So it is with My tasks for you. They bring healing to someone’s heart. You might not understand how, but the skills, talents, and gifts I’ve given you, I’ve given for a reason. That reason always helps others and grows My kingdom. It edifies Me and My church. And there is an urgency to the spiritual healing of others. You can introduce Me to people no one else around you can.

You see the urgency with the healing. It’s clear in My message to the scribe. Time is precious. You might have today or you might have another 100 years. But you don’t know. Life is too fleeting not to prepare for being with Me now and forever. And how about your co-worker or your spouse? Your children and your neighbor? They need Me, too. Who will introduce them to Me if you don’t? Their time is short, also. You could be their last chance. Don’t let them lose that opportunity because you think you have something “more important” to do. What can be more important that helping someone make it to heaven?

The message I hope you carry with you today and every day is the urgency of sharing the good news of My forgiveness for the asking. Live for Me and experience real freedom and life everlasting. The time is now.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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