Are you willing to sacrifice everything for Jesus?
27 Mar 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Joshua 19
Joshua 20
Luke 5:17-39
So he left all, rose up, and followed Him (Luke 5:28).
Are you willing to sacrifice everything for Jesus?
Levi, also called Matthew, is rich. He is a tax collector. The Jewish people hate Matthew because he collects taxes for the occupiers, the Romans; however, he is wealthy. Jesus intervenes in Matthew’s life and forever changes him with the following two words: “Follow Me” (Luke 5:27). Luke reports, “So he left all, rose up, and followed Him” (Luke 5:28). The term “all” literally means all together and conveys the universal whole. Matthew understands Jesus’ axiom, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). Moreover, Matthew shows his commitment to Jesus by inviting his unsaved friends to a banquet to meet Jesus (Luke 5:29). The follower of Jesus leaves all and uses what he has to reach the lost.
Employment Point: Follow Jesus and abandon the old for the new.
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Reflections
A learning point for me is to have a heart like Matthew. To be ready to leave all and follow Him.
“The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?””Luke 5:21 NIV
- In the Pharisees’s state of mind, they are above all and knew all the law of God. To them, they are almost like God and deemed themselves to have the power to judgement. But no matter how great they may be, they fail to recognise who Jesus is.
- On the other hand, each and every demon knew who is Jesus. They all call Him Son of God.
- I just felt that as human beings, we are so limited by our own knowledge and we have the tendency to judge. But yet we cannot recognise Jesus who is in front of us and is teaching us. We are so blinded by our own ignorance and think too highly of ourselves to know or be near to the truth.
- True that demons are of a different realm and so they know. But I pray that our Lord open our eyes to discern truths from lies or deep fakes. That we will never fall due to our own complacency or ignorance.
“Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.””
Luke 5:31-32 NIV
- this verse reminds me of the congregants. Everyone in church is sick. We are all sinners. Everyone comes to church because they want to seek God, His understanding, His peace as well as His joy. Many cannot understand why is it that Christians can still be so happy in the midst of chaos or can be so loving even when the world is so cold. People think that if someone treats you nicely, they have an ulterior motive. It takes time to change their mindset.
- As the body of Christ, we ought to embrace our fellow brothers and sisters and exercise more grace and mercy. There is nobody here on earth who is perfect and without sin. Therefore as Christ has given us grace and mercy, we too, ought to extend that same grace and mercy to others.
“They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.””- Luke 5:33 NIV
- Have you felt like you have been judged by your fellow brothers and sisters at times? Or maybe we have also been judging others? Have you come across some who fast during the Lent season? Would you feel encouraged or do you feel something else?
- For me, I envy those who can fast because I have bad gastric problems and not eating can cause havoc to my stomach. For me, I try other means to fast. For example to fast from coffee, social media, etc. But there is always a time to do certain things.
- At times, I feel that maybe such fasting should not be only done for Lent but it should be something that we can consider in a longer term to grow our mindfulness and grow in focus in Christ.
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Vision by Personal Character
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
March 27
Come up here, and I will show you. — Revelation 4:1
Elevated emotions can only come out of an elevated habit of personal character. If you’ve developed the kind of character that allows you to live up to the highest standards you know, God will grant you insights that draw you even higher. He will continually say to you, “Come up here, and I will show you.”
Each time you go higher, you will face new and different kinds of temptation. The golden rule of temptation is “go higher.” Both God and Satan use the promise of elevation to draw us upward, but they use it to very different effects. Satan whispers to us of an unattainable holiness, a holiness beyond what flesh and blood can bear. He draws us into a spiritual acrobatic performance that ends up freezing us: we are poised on a tightrope and cannot move. But when God, by his grace, elevates us to the heavenly places, we find a vast plateau, where we can move around with liberty and ease.
Compare this week in your spiritual history with the same week last year, and see how God has called you higher. This is how you know you have grown in grace—not because you no longer backslide into sin but because God has granted you new spiritual insight. If God has revealed to you a new truth, you know it is because of growth in your character. Keep trusting and obeying him. Whenever he gives you a truth, apply it instantly to your life. Always work it out in your personal practices; always keep yourself in its light.
“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”(Genesis 18:17). Why didn’t God immediately tell Abraham about his plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Because Abraham wasn’t yet ready to receive that truth. God has to hide from us what he does, until by personal character we get to the place where he can reveal it.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
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Reflections
Looking back at my last year’s spiritual journey which also compared to the previous year since I’m doing Oswald’s devotional a second round, I can actually tell a difference.
Between Mar 2026 and Mar 2025-the main difference was that I was in a new place in 2025, trying to figure out things and trying to find the pace of life. Back then was an intentional slowing down of pace for a good 6 months or more from a hectic life.. so this year having come full circle,
helped me to see things from a much more different perspective. I truly learned that I can slow down even more than my usual speed, so much so that I was at times doing things up till the last day of deadline. This is so not me. Yet, things still get done. But what I have is better balance, better priorities. But I do agree much more can be done to improve. Am still learning and am grateful for this journey.
Between Mar 2025 and 2024, I wrote that there doesn’t seemed to be much difference but retrospectively, I see that as prep work. Prepping me to move forward to a new chapter of my journey, realising a lot of work needs to be done and the full year felt like fighting fires. Whereas this year felt like I am shifting gears, from gear 1 to gear 4, almost 5. Things are running at a much faster pace.
Indeed Lord, thank You for Your grace and mercy and helping me to see things through. Thank You for being the hand that holds me when I fall, the hand that guides me back when I make a wrong turn, the hand that lifts me up when I am down. Lord, thank You for granting me joys, hope and peace. Even in the moments of anger, Lord, I know You are there, loving me. Thank You Abba Father. ❤️
Help us Pa, to be able to get to the place where we are ready to receive the truths. Strengthen us Lord and give us courage, so that we will be strong and not be afraid.
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Lent devotion Day 38/53
taken from YouVersion, Lent for Everyone
Lent for Everyone is a devotional created and written by N.T. (Tom) Wright. For each day of Lent, there is a reading chosen from the Gospel of Matthew, plus a reflection by Wright. These readings have grown out of a project encouraging Lent reading in Northern England. This is the second in a three-volume series based on the Revised Common Lectionary of the Church of England.
Today’s reading:
Matthew 26:1-13
WEEK 5: FRIDAY
Time to become a fly on the wall again, this time in a little house just two or three miles east of Jerusalem. If you're in the old city of Jerusalem first thing in the morning, the chances are that when the sun rises it will come up right through Bethany, the village in question.
The word 'Bethany' means, most likely, 'house of the poor'. There is some evidence that it was a place where some of the poorest people could be cared for. And it was a place where Jesus had close friends, Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus. On this occasion, though, he was in a different house, that of 'Simon the leper' — presumably a cured leper, or he wouldn't be living in the village at all. Let's join the gathering and see what happens.
Everyone is excited because it's Passover time. After what Jesus did in Jerusalem the other day, they're all wondering what's coming next. Is he going to make another move? Is he going to give the signal for a serious uprising? He has secret contacts all over the place; are they getting swords and clubs ready for action?
The meal that evening is in full swing, when suddenly one of the women comes in. Normally women didn't join the men; it wasn't the done thing. So that's a shock for a start. But then — you shrink back in embarrassment — she's bringing a jar full of ointment, and she begins to pour it out, all over Jesus' head! You smell the delicious aroma, above the various smells of the meal, and you watch the mixture of delight and dismay on everyone's faces. What a wonderful smell; but what on earth is she up to?
Then some of Jesus' followers, perhaps expressing complex social discomfort as much as real concern, start complaining. You can see their point. Here we are in a place set aside to look after the poor, and you go pouring out a month's wages just like that? What can you be thinking about?
There is a pause. The woman looks down, ashamed at being told off and yet still pleased to have done what she did. Everyone waits. There's only one person who can settle this.
Jesus speaks. 'What's your problem?' he asks. 'This was a good thing she's done. As for the poor, there will be plenty of time to look after them; but you haven't got long to look after me. You know what she's done? She has prepared my body for burial!'
A horrified gasp goes round the room, but Jesus goes on: 'Let me tell you this! Wherever the good news is announced, right around the world, what she has done will be told. That will be her memorial.'
Now the emotions are truly mixed. The woman is both thrilled at Jesus' affirmation and distraught at the mention of burial. People look this way and that. Does he actually mean it? I know he's been talking about the Son of Man being crucified, but we all assume — or we hope — that that's just a way of talking about a time of great struggle and suffering. If he is actually going to die, what good news will there be to tell around the world? How does that make any sense?
Jesus may or may not have known, but he will certainly have guessed, that after his actions in the Temple the chief priests would be looking for a chance to kill him. What none of the disciples yet realized is that, for Jesus, this was not only the direct and foreseeable result of his whole kingdom- mission. It was the means by which that mission would be accomplished.
You are left in a corner of the room with one or two friends, puzzling it over, wondering what to do next. Pause there awhile and listen to what the others are saying. Then imagine that Jesus himself comes over, pulls up a chair, and starts to talk a bit more, to you in particular. What's he going to say?
TODAY
Lord Jesus, give us wisdom to understand your strange vocation, and to tell your good news throughout the world.
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I would imagine Him calling my name or your name since He knows us all and continues.. my child.. ““As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.””Isaiah 55:9-13 NIV
Let’s pray:
Father Lord, indeed it is impossible for us to understand a lot of things that are going around us. What we do know is that we have You Father, who loves us and holds us close to Your heart. Help us not to be afraid of what is to come but to just lean on Your shoulders, letting You take charge and take care of everything. We will just be the sheep that follows You, for in You, we lack nothing. Thank You Lord. In Jesus’s name we ask and pray. Amen 🙏🏻
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