Are you in touch with Jesus?
2 Apr 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Judges 8
Judges 9
Luke 8:22-56
Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me (Luke 8:46).
Are you in touch with Jesus?
Jesus was making His way to Jairus’ house when someone in the vast crowd touched Him. Dr. Luke begins the account, “Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any” (Luke 8:43). She reaches out and touches the “border of His garment” (Luke 8:44). Jesus subsequently asks, “Who touched Me?” (Luke 8:45). He doesn’t ask the question because He lacks the answer--Jesus desires the lady to come forward. Luke continues, “and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately” (Luke 8:47). Her declaration lets all the people know that she is no longer ceremonially unclean and that she could now worship at the Temple.
Employment Point: Reach out to Jesus with all your needs.
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Reflections
“The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks. Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.”
Judges 8:26-27 NIV
- Gideon may have the Lord’s help to conquer Midian but his ways were not truly worthy of praise. When he passed by Sukkoth after he had won the war, “He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers as he told them in verse 7. All who treated him and his men in contempt were punished. For the people in Peniel, he killed them all for they too, did not offer them bread while they were on their ways.
- After which, he told the Israelites that he will not rule over them but the Lord and asked them for gold, making it into a ephod. Reminds me of the golden calf incident when they already knew who is God and yet kneel down to idols, something the Lord detests.
- Friends, may it be a reminder to us all, especially when we had obtain victory, not to bow down to idols as those things can easily take over the Lord’s position in our lives. Let us be mindful and never fall away from His commands.
“No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them.”
Judges 8:33-35 NIV
- history has been repeating itself as a reminder that it is important to teach our next generation what it is like to know and fear the Lord. With no personal relationship with Him, people lived a wayward life beyond comprehension, much like the people in the days of now.
- There may be some who are amongst us who are also God’s people but do not serve or behave like God’s people. Their hearts are far from the Lord and there may perhaps be no relationship between them and God. These people have yet to truly know God.
- May we continue to pray for these people in our midst and provide counsel to them to lead them back. However, always remember that salvation belongs to the Lord. Do not force.
“Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelek had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. God also made the people of Shechem pay for all their wickedness. The curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal came on them.”
Judges 9:56-57 NIV
- Our Lord knows and repays.. always remember that the wrath belongs to Him and no one else. He is our justice and our strength.
““Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.””Luke 8:25 NIV
- where is our faith? It is a question that we all should ask ourselves. Are we having the kind of faith we ought to have, trusting not on ourselves but on the Lord God Almighty? He who can calm even the winds and storms, can He not calm the storms in our lives even?
“And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.”Luke 8:43-44 NIV
- this scene from the “Chosen” movie came up in my mind and I was being reminded of how her faith healed her. The scene was focused on this woman and she kept saying this “if only I can touch His garment, just the fringe of it will do, just the fringe…”, as she tried to reach for His garment amidst the crowd.
- The moment when her hand touched His garment, she felt it. Her bleeding stopped. She has never been happier. 12 years of hiding in the dark, not being able to step into temple grounds because she is deemed unclean, but I saw how her faith never waver. She held on to the promise and the believe that He still heals. Praise the Lord!
“They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.”Luke 8:53-55 NIV
- this is a day where many miracles happened. Not by chance but by divine appointments. The Lord has allowed us to read all these not by chance as well. He still heals because He is our living God. Would you believe it or mock him like others do?
- May the name of the Lord be praised!! Hallelujah!
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Spiritual Insight
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
April 02
The Lord . . . has sent me so that you may see again. — Acts 9:17
When Paul’s vision was restored after three days of blindness, he also received something spiritual: insight into the person of Jesus Christ. At once Paul “began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20). For the rest of Paul’s days, Jesus Christ was the whole of his life and the whole of his preaching. No other attraction was allowed to hold his mind and soul.
When we receive a vision of Jesus Christ, when the Spirit grants us insight into the character of our Lord, we must immediately begin to live up to the standard of what we’ve seen. The abidingcharacteristic of spiritual people is an ability to apply what they’ve seen of Jesus Christ to themselves and to share his purposes with others. Whenever we see people steadfastly applying Jesus Christ in this way, we know that they have been remade after God’s own heart. We know that the ruling passion of their life is Jesus Christ.
Never allow anything to distract you from insight into Jesus. It is the test of whether or not you are spiritual. To be unspiritual means that other things still hold fascination for you. The only thing fascinating to a disciple is the Lord. “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.
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Reflections
I guess if we were to define spiritual insight, it will be a total change of heart from the world to the Lord. It is a whole paradigm shift. A 180 degrees turn from who they were in the past, to someone who is so different now, that the change could not have some from their own self but from the Lord’s transformation of their heart, through the prompts from the Holy Spirit, revealed by the Father.
In this devotional, there are a few keywords that were mentioned. They are “abiding”, “steadfastly applying”, “remade after God’s own heart”, “not allowing anything to distract”, “I resolved to know nothing…except Jesus Christ and him crucified”.
To me, that means to be intentional in choosing Jesus first, to let me be the centre of our lives, letting Him lead. He takes the wheel, while we just sit and enjoy this ride, regardless of where He is taking us. The focus is to enjoy this journey with Him, not bothering too much about weather, food, landscape, petrol, or even where to stay, etc. This road trip is one where we enjoy the company of Jesus all the way. Just trusting Him.
Would you too, allow Jesus to take the wheel and bring you along on a road trip together? Just you and Him, building an intimate relationship and journeying together heavenward.
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Lent devotion Day 44/53
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 27:1-32
HOLY WEEK: MAUNDY THURSDAY
A few years ago there was a great railway disaster. Two trains, approaching London, speeded on to the same bit of track. Many were killed, several injured.
There was a long official enquiry. At the end of it, after countless hours of agonizing testimony, a report emerged. It was a grievous mistake, said the report. But there was nobody really to blame.
I have oversimplified, of course. But again and again that seems to be the verdict in such cases. Yes, it was terrible. But no, it wasn't really anybody's fault. Most of us, looking on, can't quite get our heads round that.
Matthew has told the story of the events that led up to Jesus' death in order to make exactly the opposite point. Yes, this was a terrible event. And yes, it was everybody's fault. The chief priests have already shown their true colours, and are clearly to blame. Now Judas realizes his own guilt. Then Pilate plays his own cynical game: some have suggested that he was a good man, trying his best to have Jesus acquitted, but most likely his main motive was to try to establish his superiority over the chief priests. Then the crowd join in, and they help the priests to beat him at his own game. But he was certainly to blame as well.
Then the soldiers join in the fun. King of the Jews, eh? We'll see about that. The previous mockery, in front of the chief priests, was making fun of Jesus' claim to be a prophet (26.67— 68). This time it's the claim to be king.
The point is that they all contribute. The crowd may indeed have shouted 'his blood be on us, and on our children' (verse 25) — a chilling phrase which has been horribly abused by many so-called Christians who have used it as an excuse to persecute Jewish people, Jesus' own blood relatives. But Matthew's point is that, though the crowd are indeed complicit, everyone else is too. Only the minor characters like Pilate's wife (verse 19) and Simon of Cyrene (verse 32) stand out in the other direction, and they can do nothing to stop the brutal killing of the innocent Jesus.
We may begin by watching from the sidelines, but the story is designed to draw us in. We find ourselves there in the crowd, shouting like football supporters for this man rather than the notorious Barabbas (the first person in history, but by no means the last, to discover that Jesus was dying in his place). We feel the surge of emotion, of anger that our national hopes have been trampled on by this upstart from Galilee. Or, in the back room of Pilate's headquarters, we find the soldiers, so long fed up with having to police Jewish uprisings, finally discovering someone on whom they can take out their frustrations. These things happen, we think. This is how people react. And, in a sense, who can blame them? That's how it is.
It is precisely 'how it is' that sent Jesus to the cross. Matthew is telling us, in these vivid and shocking human scenes, what Jesus' death is all about. There is a dark twist in 'the way things are'. Jesus came to enter that darkness, to have his own body twisted in pain on the cross, so that the world could be straightened out, so that light could dawn at last.
TODAY
Almighty God, as the darkness closes around Jesus, help us, like Simon, to carry his cross, to be there with him to the end.
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Let’s pray:
Father Lord, help us to trust in You fully. To lean on You and to surrender all our cares and concerns to You. May You who is the shepherd of our lives, lead us on the paths that You planned for us, with joy in our spirit, peace in our souls, and love in our hearts. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen 🙏🏻
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