Do you value Jesus above all people?
2 Mar 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Numbers 28
Numbers 29
Mark 9:1-29
This is My beloved Son. Hear Him! (Mark 9:7).
Do you value Jesus above all people?
Jesus displays His glory before Peter, James, and John giving them a glimpse of God’s majestic kingdom. Mark describes Jesus’ glory. “His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them” (Mark 9:3). Mark informs us that Elijah and Moses also appear. Is this Moses’ first trip into the Promised Land? Peter, expecting God’s kingdom to appear immediately says, “Let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (Mark 9:5). The Father allows no one to be equated with Jesus. For this reason, He says, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Mark 9:7). In other words, don’t categorize Jesus with Elijah and Moses. Elijah and Moses are indeed both men of God; however, only Jesus is the Son of God.
Employment Point: Honor God’s glorious Son above all men.
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Reflections
This devotional seems to be a reminder to hold Jesus above anyone else. It can be anyone in our lives, someone whom we treasure. In fact too much until it surpasses the need for God.
“Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “ ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!””
Mark 9:21-24 NIV
- When we ourselves are overwhelmed by the circumstances, we too may be like the boy’s father. All his life he has only seen his being thrown everywhere and nothing can be done. I’m sure he would have gone to the Pharisees to seek their help or whatever things he can think of to help his son. In his exasperation, he was probably willing to give up anything in exchange for the sanity of his son.
- however, we should never forget that our Lord has the ability to completely turn things around. To something that is beyond human understanding, something that nobody may have thought possible but it is always possible with God.
“After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.””
Mark 9:28-29 NIV
- According to the commentary, Jesus already gave them the authority to cast out demons (Mark 3:14-15). Yet, “The authority that Jesus had given them was effective only if exercised by faith, but faith must be cultivated through spiritual discipline and devotion.” (Wiersbe)
- It isn’t that prayer and fasting make us more worthy to cast out demons. It is that prayer and fasting draw us closer to the heart of God, and they put us more in line with His power. They are an expression of our total dependence on Him.
- This total dependence on God is the remedy for many spiritual problems. To be disappointed in yourself is to have trusted in yourself.
- A very fine reminder that God’s strength is the only strength we need and nothing else. His strength alone can do incredible things, even the impossible ones. But how much faith do we have in Him?
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Have You Felt the Hurt of the Lord?
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
March 02
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, … you know that I love you.” — John 21:17
Have you ever felt the hurt of the Lord in the very center of your being—the place where your real sensitivity lies? The devil never hurts us there. Sin never hurts us there. Human emotion never hurts us there. Nothing gets through to this place but the word of God.
A third time Jesus asked if Peter loved him. Peter was hurt because he was waking up to an amazing fact: he did love Jesus, all the way through to the core of his being. Peter had begun to see what Jesus’s patient, repeated questioning meant. It meant that Peter no longer belonged to himself. It meant that, for Peter, there was no one in heaven above or on earth below except Jesus Christ. It meant that Peter could never delude himself again. It was a revelation to Peter to realize how much he truly did love the Lord, and with amazement he said, “You know that I love you.”
How skillful, patient, and direct was Jesus Christ with Peter! Our Lord’s questions always reveal us to ourselves, but he never asks until the right time. Peter did not know how much he loved Jesus until the patient, painful questions came. Probably once in each of our lives, the Lord backs us into a corner and hurts us with this probing question, until we realize that we do love him, far more deeply than any mere declaration can tell.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him.
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Reflections
Hmm.. put it this way.. In my own experience, I experienced the Lord a lot more when I am faced with challenges. Because when I don’t know how to deal with it and go to Him, asking Him how, He will provide me with an answer. However, the answers can sometimes be difficult to swallow even though it may be true.
In the numerous times I cry to the Lord and asking Him why, His gentle answers never fail to floor me. And there was always so much wisdom as well as revelation in it that I learned over time to just ask Him for answers. And most of the time, He does answer, never silent. And He speaks in a manner I have no way of rebuking Him at all. You will know that He is right. So over time, He only made me realised how much I can rely on Him and make Him my tower of refuge and strength. He grants me shalom peace even in the midst of hurry or chaos. I was not afraid and I know I can do it in His strength no matter what happens. He has proved to me that what I cannot do, through Him I can.
He helped me to truly experience what resting in Him means. He helped me to see that His yoke is easy and His burden is indeed light.
So yes, over time, I do realised that I love Him. His love is something I cannot explain. The more I know Him, the more I love Him. So thank You Father for teaching us how to love.
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Lent devotion Day 13/53
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 10:1-15
WEEK 2: MONDAY
Every so often, usually just after a change of government, there is a spate of political autobiographies, as former leaders do their best to cash in on the public's hunger to find out 'the inside story'. One of the most fascinating elements of such books, to me, is the description of the early days, when the young and more or less unknown politician gathers friends around him or her, makes sure that they are loyal, and gives them tasks to do as part of the campaign for leadership, part of the means of gathering support.
There is more to Matthew 10 than that, but not less. Jesus calls twelve of his followers — twelve out of several hundred who had been with him on and off up to this point — and gives them instructions, things to do on his behalf. This requires that they have cut their previous ties: there will be no regular fishing for Peter and Andrew, for James and John, while they are going about these new tasks.
Jesus entrusts them with an urgent mission, specifically to 'the house of Israel'. The Jewish people must hear the call of God's kingdom as soon as possible before, as Jesus had already predicted (8.11), the other nations will be brought in (21.43; 28.19). St Paul, reflecting on all this thirty years later, declared that the Messiah had become 'a servant to the circumcised' (that is, the Jewish people), in order to fulfill the ancient promises God had made to their ancestors, and that then the Gentiles, the non-Jews, would glorify God for his mercy (Romans 15.8—9). Matthew is very conscious of the promises to Israel, and of the fact that Jesus was fulfilling them in order that, through that fulfillment, the whole world might become the sphere of God's saving rule.
The Twelve (representing, of course, the ancient Twelve Tribes: Jesus is deliberately symbolizing the fact that God is renewing his people) are to do pretty much the same things that Jesus had been doing: healing, exorcizing, announcing the good news that God was becoming king at last. You might have thought that this good news would be received as such. But Jesus knew that many would reject it, because it didn't correspond to their expectations. They wanted a different sort of kingdom, one that would support and validate their own national and personal ambitions. Jesus therefore warns the disciples that their mission will be rejected by some, even though others will be enthusiastic.
This is an obvious warning for us as well. All of us like to be liked, and want to be wanted. But not everyone — not even the people we might imagine — will be pleased at the news that God is now running the world in a new way, the way Jesus was showing and teaching. The message of 'peace' (verse 13) is wonderful news for some, but it's unwelcome to those who have decided that the only solution is violence. That message, though, is as urgent today as it was two thousand years ago.
TODAY
Gracious Lord Jesus, make us instruments of your peace, and of your saving kingdom, wherever we go.
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““Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts— no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep.”Matthew 10:9-10 NIV
- Whenever I read this verse, it just seems to be a reminder to me that we are just meant to trust Him. If He calls, He WILL provide. There is no reason or need for us to source. It is living out the faith and the trust in Him
Let’s pray:
Search our hearts O Lord. And point to us people or anything that is above You, anyone or anything that we have placed above Your Godly place and took priority in our lives. Help us to reorder the sequence Father, so that You O Lord, shall take precedence and priority over the others. Help us to discern and be mindful of the choices we make so that every choice will bring glory to Your name. Help us Lord, to turn our hearts to You, to switch our focus on You alone. In Jesus’s name. Amen 🙏🏻
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