Do you fear man or the Lord?

 13 Mar 26

Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One

Readings:

Deuteronomy 20

Deuteronomy 21

Deuteronomy 22

Mark 14:26-50

The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe (Proverbs 29:25).

Do you fear man or the Lord?

Moses writes the principles of warfare for Israel. His officers are to inquire, “What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of the brethren faint like his heart” (Deuteronomy 20:8). Jesus chooses twelve apostles, and one betrays Him and the others run away at His arrest. The Lord predicts this. He says, “All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night” (Mark 14:27). The apostles deny it. Yet Mark records, “Then they all forsook Him and fled” (Mark 14:50). Their plight is caused because they ignored Jesus’ message that a man must “deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

Employment Point: Fear God and not man through heeding the message of the cross.

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Reflections

“Then the officers shall add, “Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.””

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭20‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• i believe when this was written, it was a reminder said to all the soldiers who are preparing to go out to battle. Their hearts need to be set on the battle, not on any other things. Not on the houses that they just bought, not on the vineyard they just planted, not on their fiancée or fiancé, or other things that are mentioned before this verse.
• The Lord wants soldiers and soldiers who have their hearts set for the Lord and nothing else. They need to be willing to fight all the way, giving their all. We cannot afford to have half-hearted people going into battle, that will be a losing battle to fight and may also affect our fellow brothers or sisters.
• On the other hand, when we are committed and decided to go for it, go all out for the Lord. There’s no turning back.

“He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.”Deuteronomy‬ ‭21‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• There are certain rights that was given to us from birth. Such as that as a firstborn. And nothing can take that right away. Like the right that God proclaiming us as His children, no one can take that right away as well, unless we chose to reject that right and turn away from Him

““You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: “ ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ The men seized Jesus and arrested him. Then everyone deserted him and fled.”Mark‬ ‭14‬:‭27‬, ‭46‬, ‭50‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• Jesus already knew right from the start what will happen in the future. There is no denying and no need to argue over it. Peter does not agree and also does not think that he himself will deny Jesus 3 times but we all know it did happen.
• I think the learning point here is for us to stay humble, don’t always think that we know everything or is on top of everything. Such thoughts make us feel as if we are quite up there when in fact, the only person who has that right, is the Lord

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His Abandonment to Us

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

March 13

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16

We will never understand how to abandon ourselves to God until we understand how God abandoned himself to us. When God gave his Son in love to the world, he didn’t give just a part of himself. He gave all of himself, absolutely and entirely. He gave with total abandon, holding nothing back. We must beware of talking about abandonment if we don’t really know about it, and we won’t know—not until we realize the full meaning of John 3:16.

That God gave with total abandon is the very essence of salvation. Salvation isn’t merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. Salvation is deliverance out of self and into union with God. What I experience of salvation may be a sense of personal holiness, but what salvation actually means is that the Spirit of God has brought me into contact with God himself. I am thrilled by the contact with something infinitely greater than myself, and I wonder how it is possible. It is possible because God has given himself completely for our sake.

Abandonment is never self-conscious. If we are abandoned to God, our whole life is his. There is no awareness of striving to let go, no struggling to abandon. We aren’t torn between our old life and our new. We are simply given over to our Lord. Our entire existence is wrapped up in him, and the consequences of abandoning ourselves never enter into our thinking.

Deuteronomy 20-22; Mark 13:21-37

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word.

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Reflections

Ever since the Adam times, we were cut off from the Lord. Yet in His great love and mercies, He provided us with a way out. To be reconciled to Him. That however, requires sacrifice. A sacrifice that is considered the one perfect sacrifice that can make good this relationship once and for all. 

We know it cannot be just anyone but it has to be someone who is deemed spotless, without sin (without blemish). None of us fits this tall order and thus even though the Lord gave that option, He knows it cannot be an ordinary sacrifice. It was to mean for Him to sacrifice His own son. Not withholding Him back for human judgement. Does He deserve it? No. But is He willing to do that for us? Yes and certainly.

At the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was filled with so much sorrow. The pain overwhelms Him even and even through all the pain, He told His Father to take away this cup from Him, but Father,  not my will but let Yours be done. That is, His total abandonment to us.

Would we too, be also willing to say the same prayer to our Lord God?

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Lent devotion Day 24/53

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 17

WEEK 3: FRIDAY

Once more we come close to Jesus in the crowd; and this time let's bring with us someone we know, perhaps someone very close to us, who is in serious need of Jesus' help. Take a moment and think who you want to bring.

Let's recall what has just happened. The disciples have told Jesus he is the Messiah, the one to fulfil Israel's hopes and dreams. He has told them, to their horror, that the way that fulfilment will come is through his own suffering and death. Then, amazingly, he has taken three of them up a mountain and has been transfigured before them, shining like the sun. They have heard God's voice declaring that Jesus is indeed his son, his beloved one.

Meanwhile the other disciples, left behind at the foot of the mountain, have faced a challenge they couldn't deal with. That's perhaps where we are ourselves right now, either with sickness in the family or with an impossible situation at work, or something more sad and secret that it's hard even to mention. So we stand there with them as Jesus shakes his head. 

Surely his followers have learned the lesson by now? Surely they know that God's power is able to do whatever is needed? Actually, it isn't that easy. They've seen Jesus at work; they have known his power in their lives; but when Jesus goes away for a short while they revert, as we all do, to 'normal' mode. Wonderful things don't happen. Life is tough, and there's nothing that can be done.

But they are wrong. Jesus heals the boy. It's not even clear (to us, and perhaps to them) what the problem was. Epilepsy and demon-possession are two very different things, and it's likely that the loose terminology people used at the time wasn't meant to be medically precise. Anyway, Jesus deals with it. We pause there and hold before Jesus the person we've brought, about whom we seem able to do nothing. We watch as Jesus heals the boy, and we pray for healing for whoever it is on our hearts.

And then he deals with the disciples. You couldn't do it, he says, because of your little faith. He's said it four times already (6.30; 8.26; 14.31; 16.8) and they still don't get it. All it takes in fact, he says, is faith like a grain of mustard seed — an image he's already used for the kingdom itself (13.31). Faith is like a small window through which you can see a vast landscape, and the landscape in question is the sovereign power of the creator God and the overwhelming glory of Jesus himself. We stand at that window, doing our best to wipe it clean from the condensation of our own unbelieving breath, and holding on, as we do so, to those for whom we want to pray.

Jesus spoke of moving mountains — a regular type of exaggeration, no doubt, though they may have heard echoes of the challenge which awaited them on the holy mountain, Jerusalem itself. But sometimes it seems easier to move a mountain, shovelling it with spoons, than to shift the sorrow or sickness from a human heart and life. When you read the stories of remarkable Christians down the years, and in our own time too, again and again you find tales of people who have stood at that window, gazing out on the landscape of God's power and love, and gradually bringing the rest of the world, and the people for whom they were praying, into healing focus in relation to it. We need more people like that. The most important Christians are not the ones who preach great sermons and write great books, but the ones who pray, and pray, and pray some more, sharing the quiet but effective victory of Jesus over all that defaces God's creation. 

TODAY

(Fill in the blank in the prayer with whoever you want to pray for)

Lord Jesus, you have the power to heal and rescue. Today I pray for ____ who need you so badly. Bring them your healing love, and transform their lives with your grace.

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Let’s pray:

Father we truly thank You for Your grace and mercy, allowing us spaces to grow in our own timing and season, learning the different things that You have placed in our hearts to do. Thank You Lord, for teaching us to pray unceasingly and to also remember others in prayer. May all that we pray be heard by You Lord and not forgotten. For we know that Your hand is never too short. Thank You Father. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen