How committed are you to following Jesus?
4 Mar 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Numbers 32
Numbers 33
Mark 10:1:31
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD (Numbers 32:12).
How committed are you to following Jesus?
The rich young ruler comes to Jesus seeking eternal life. He asks, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17). Erroneously, he claims to have kept all the commandments. Jesus exposes his violation of the tenth commandment (covetousness) by telling him to sell everything and follow Him (Mark 10:21). His departure shows his unsaved condition. Similarly, God calls Israel to exhibit faith in Him by entering Canaan. Moses records, “Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me” (Numbers 32:11). God is looking for people of faith like Caleb and Joshua.
Employment Point: Completely follow Jesus to experience His promises to you.
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Reflections
“who were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them; for the Lord had brought judgment on their gods.”
Numbers 33:4 NIV
- God has given us His first born to redeem all of us. His first born who is without sin, had saved all of the first borns of His own people. Jesus’s blood was shed so that we no longer need to offer sacrifices to atone for our sins.. Are we grateful and thankful to our Father for making such a huge sacrifice for us? Would we have such a great heart like Him to be willing to sacrifice our first born to save the others? How painful it must have been..
- Dear heavenly Father, I am sorry for all the sins that I have done and thank you for sending your first born to redeem our sins. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just. He will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. It is through You, that we are being made new, a new creation. The old is gone and the new is here! May we lead a life of light and be a blessing to the others as how God has done.
“When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.”Mark 10:14-16 NIV
- i can just imagine myself to be like a child and being blessed by Jesus. It’s such a joy to be calling Lord our Abba Father. Truly comforting.
“Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”Mark 10:21-22 NIV
- I felt glad in a way that I am not rich. Because I have very much nothing. So it is only Him that I can rely on and put my trust upon. At least riches is not a problem that I have to deal with.
Many times, we are surrounded by blessings, love, opportunities, and God's daily provision, yet we fail to recognize and appreciate them.
We pray for miracles while living inside answered prayers. We ask for peace while standing in the middle of God's protection. Consider the story of Esau. He had the priceless blessing of his birthright, yet he traded it away for a single meal because he did not value what he already possessed.
In the same way, we sometimes overlook the spiritual riches God has given us. Let us remember to count our blessings. Treasure what God has placed in our hands. When we recognize His goodness, our heart will overflow with gratitude and renewed faith. May we be able to wholeheartedly follow Jesus with the faith the like of Caleb and Joshua.
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Could This Be True of Me?
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
March 04
I consider my life worth nothing to me. — Acts 20:24
It’s easier to serve God without a calling than with one. It’s easier to be unbothered by his requirements and to let common sense be your guide—common sense with a thin veneer of Christian sentiment on top. If you choose to serve God in this way, you’ll be more successful and leisure-hearted. But if you have received the call, the memory of it will never let you be. Once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, it is impossible to continue working for the Lord on the basis of common sense.
What do you truly value? If you haven’t been gripped by Jesus, you value your own acts of service, your own offerings to God, your own life. You take on practical work in his name, not because you’ve been called to it but because you want to be appreciated by the people around you. “Look how useful I am,” you think. “Look how valuable.” Practical work often competes with abandoning yourself to God. Instead of letting Jesus Christ tell you where to go and what to do, you follow your own commonsense judgment about where you’ll be most valued.
The Holy Spirit warned Paul that “prison and hardships” awaited him, should he choose to follow Jesus Christ (Acts 20:23). Acts 20:24 reveals Paul’s almost sublime annoyance at the idea that he would consider himself. His own life, he says, is worth nothing to him. The only thing that matters to him is fulfilling the ministry he’s been given, and he refuses to use his energy for anything else. He is absolutely indifferent to anything except completing the Lord’s task.
Never consider whether you are useful. Everconsider that you belong not to yourself but to him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else.
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Reflections
The Lord is teaching us how to lean on Him and not on ourselves. We have so much limits that we will be stuck most of the time because we have no means to navigate through the storms.
When we are faced with crossroads, what would be the thing that we should do? We should be seeking Him and asking Him where HE wants us to turn. What we see and what He sees are totally different things.
If you remember about Lot and how he chooses the place that is to be called his home-a land that looks really promising versus what he left for Abraham, you will realise only the Lord can bless us. When we seek to do it our way, based on our will, it is going to end up quite ugly.
I believe each and every crossroad is an opportunity for us to seek Christ. It is not meant to send us into confusion but meant to even help us see clearer, where Jesus is in our lives.
So if the Lord has called us to duty, we must be sure to follow through, till a time when He calls us again to leave. Remember the Israelites who will only move when the cloud is lifted. The same with us.
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Lent devotion Day 15/53
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 11
WEEK 2: WEDNESDAY
Jesus is here being put on the spot. Today, when interviewers try to force politicians to say things they didn't really want to let out, they tend to prevaricate, to ignore the question, or even to tell downright lies. We have print and electronic media that can take any sentence uttered by a public figure and beam it round the globe in an instant. In Jesus' day they had some- thing almost as powerful, and just as deadly: the rumour mill. Anything you said in one village might precede you to the next. Anything someone like Jesus said about kingship, about God's new purposes coming to pass, might easily land on the desk of the present would-be king of the Jews, Herod Antipas. So, when the awkward question comes, he has truthful but elusive answers ready.
The question was asked by John the Baptist, who was in prison after annoying Herod with his preaching. (John had been saying, among other things, that Herod should not have taken his brother's wife. Accusing someone of blatant immorality was certainly to be taken as a political comment: such a person could hardly be the true king of the Jews. No wonder Herod was annoyed.) But John had pointed to Jesus himself, and had declared that he was God's chosen one, the coming Messiah. Jesus, in other words, was the reality, and Herod just a cheap imitation. Now Jesus had been healing people, announcing that God was becoming king — but he hadn't marched on Jerusalem, he hadn't launched an attack on Herod, the present wicked usurper. What's more, he hadn't rescued his own poor cousin from Herod's clutches. So: 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we be looking for someone else?' It's the natural question.
But Jesus cannot simply give it the natural answer. To say 'yes' is to send a message directly to Herod via the rumour mill: You, Herod, are supposed to be 'king of the Jews', but now there's someone else going around saying it's him instead. Not the sort of thing a king likes to hear. So Jesus speaks instead in biblical terms. The great prophets, notably Isaiah 35, had predicted a coming time of blessing and healing for God's people. This is coming true in his own work. 'Blessed is the one who takes no offence at me,' he says: in other words, this is what the Messiah is supposed to look like, and if you were expecting something else it's you that needs to adjust your picture!
But then Jesus makes two other points, more cryptic still. First, he asks the crowds why they came out into the wilderness — already knowing the answer, that they came to see John. What were they looking for? A reed shaken in the wind? They would all know that this referred to Herod Antipas, who had a Galilean reed as the emblem on his coins. Or someone clothed in silks and satins? No: you'd had enough of would-be kings, jumped-up little princelings copying the worst habits of Rome and its emperors. This was indeed subversive stuff, but Jesus hasn't said anything that would enable Herod to arrest him too.
But then comes a still more cryptic, powerful saying. The crowds had come to see 'a prophet, and more than a prophet'. Jesus has worked the conversation round. John the Baptist is the greatest man who ever lived; 'yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he . . . and he is Elijah who is to come.' No wonder he had to say, after that, 'If you've got ears, then listen!' He was speaking in riddles. If John is the greatest man ever, but since then something new has happened which introduces a whole new value-scale, then it can only be that the 'new' thing that has happened is Jesus' own presence, Jesus' own work. If John is Elijah, Jesus is the one whom Elijah was going to announce as imminent . . . which makes him at least Israel's Messiah. Perhaps even the living embodiment of Israel's returning, judging God.
When Jesus says that the kingdom has been breaking in violently, and that violent people are trying to snatch it, what he seems to be saying is that God's kingdom had indeed been decisively launched in his work, and that those bent on violent revolution were trying to get in on the act. That would of course provoke Herod all the more, and indeed — as happens sometimes in our own world — someone who is determinedly pursuing an agenda of violence will not welcome the news of God's kingdom of peace and healing.
The crowds, meanwhile, just don't get it. John looked too crazy, Jesus looks too normal. Sometimes even Jesus just had to plough on, realizing that people hadn't understood, but going ahead anyway. Sometimes we have to do the same.
TODAY
Lord, give us grace to recognize you, to hail you as our Lord and King, and to follow you even when we too are misunderstood.
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Someone once asked me, after I had to deal with people who just don’t understand the true heart of missions work, whether I feel disappointed in Christians. I’m glad the Lord told me the answer. That this is a hospital full of sick people that we are dealing with. We aren’t perfect people too. We are placed here to do what we are supposed to do. To teach and to encourage. The perfect people would no longer live but be raised up to heaven.
Let’s pray:
Father Lord, forgive me for thinking about myself so much, and forgetting Your Presence in my life. I acknowledge that You know about all things in my life, nothing has happened to me that You have not allowed. I thank You for the blessings You shower upon me, thank You for the good times, and also for the times that I struggle. I am grateful for all these things and I praise You with all my heart. I ask that Your Spirit would teach me and remind me of the wonderful things You have done for me, and change my heart to be more like You; to be more grateful for Your miracles in my life.
Father Lord, for the multiple times that we had to deal with our fellow brothers or sisters who are still work-in-progresses, help us Father to give grace like how You give us grace. Help us not to judge but yet encourage the others to be better and not be disappointed by their actions. Help us to remain firmly rooted so that we will not be shaken in any circumstances. Thank You Lord, in Jesus’s name we pray. Amen 🙏🏻
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