How are you representing King Jesus in a darkened world?
7 Apr 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Judges 20
Judges 21
Luke 11:1-28
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).
How are you representing King Jesus in a darkened world?
Israel didn’t obey their heavenly King and the last verse in Judges sums up that period. The Book of Judges stands in stark contrast to the previous Book of Joshua. God is looking for men and women of faith to display His light during spiritual blackouts. Allow the following examples of faith to inspire you to action: “For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets; who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions…out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens” (Hebrews 11:32-34).
Employment Point: Live by faith and display God’s light in a dark world.
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Reflections
“On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters.”
Judges 20:46 NIV
- i see how united the Israelites were during that time, fighting as one against the Benjamites. At the very least, they inquired of the Lord which tribe to go and asked Him further if this is the way to go.
- We saw how in the first two battles, they were defeated but yet continued to trust and inquire of the Lord if they should fight. And on the third round, the Lord gave them success.
- This looks to me like a reminder that not everything will come looking like success in the first place. Sometimes, success is only revealed after a few tries. The initial failures are all part of tests and training. So perhaps, the learning point is never to give up, keep trusting the Lord and don’t self doubt. But before we do that, we also need to ensure that we have an intimate relationship with the Lord. Because the Lord hears every prayer of a righteous person.. let’s all work towards that.
“I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.”
Luke 11:8 NIV
- At times probably that is what the Lord wants of us. To do something which requires a bit more of our courage, to step out of our comfort zone or to just ask for help.
- And because we asked, a friend may feel obliged to just help us out as our intention has been intentionally spelt out. I guess part of it also depends on our relationship with the friend. They may choose to help or totally ignore.
- A bit similar to our own relationship with the Lord. Do we have a a personal relationship with the Lord that He will always answer us, somewhat.
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The Light of Understanding
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
April 07
Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. — Mark 9:9
Say nothing until the Son of Man is risen in you. As Jesus instructed the disciples who were with him on the Mount of Transfiguration, we too should keep silent until the life of the risen Christ dominates us. Only then will we understand what the historic Christ—the Christ of the New Testament—taught. When we get to the right state on the inside, when the resurrection life of Christ lives in us, the meaning of the words Jesus spoke will be so clear that we’ll be amazed we didn’t understand them before.
Our Lord never hid the meaning of his message; the meaning is simply unbearable to us until we get our spiritual life into proper shape. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear” (John 16:12). Has Jesus established his risen life inside us? The evidence that he has is that the words he spoke are becoming clearer and easier to interpret.
God can’t reveal anything to us if we don’t have his Spirit. A stubborn and willful attitude will eventually prevent God from showing us hidden truths. If there’s some bit of doctrine we’ve already made up our minds about, the light of God won’t shine upon it for us; we won’t be able to get at its true meaning. This stubborn, uncomprehending stage will end the instant the Lord’s resurrection life is established in us.
Until then, we must stay silent: “Jesus gave them orders not to tell.” So many of us rush to tell what we’ve seen of Christ. We can’t wait to testify about it. But the vision isn’t reflected in our lives because the Son of Man hasn’t risen in us yet. When will he rise in you and in me?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.… We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be.
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Reflections
There is always a time and place for everything. A time to grief, a time to rejoice, a time to stop and a time to go. Jesus’s teachings focus a lot on trust, faith, and obedience, because those are the core of almost everything besides the message of love.
The testing of our faith, the trust on God alone and the obedience to His commands, proved vital in order to gain a deeper understanding and relationship with our Lord. Only when we build on such foundations, and live out what was taught, would we then be able to have a glimpse of what His life is like. Yes, not 100% of what it is, but more of a foretaste of how it will be like.
In between those teachings, He wants us to grow patience, to learn self-control, to be meek and to wait upon Him, for everything. To learn to ask, to seek and also discern for ourselves what we truly believed in and whether anything or anyone will be able to sway us the other way.
A strong, solid and stable foundation is required for any growth. For a tree and also for a building. Because how far and wide or tall a tree or building can grow, largely depends on how good the foundation is, quantity and quality wise.
Therefore we ought to spend time learning, living out and relearning and living out His teachings, so that our lives as the children of God is not in vain. Therefore let us continue to pursue Him, to build a strong relationship with the Lord and in turn be able to achieve understanding of His word and be granted wisdom and knowledge to spread this light to others.
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Lent devotion Day 49/53
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 28:16-20
EASTER TUESDAY
All four gospels tell a story which many in today's world have forgotten, or have never even known. It is the story of how Jesus became the king of the world. That's where we have been going, ever since, back near the beginning, Jesus came into Galilee announcing that 'heaven's kingdom is at hand'. So often this has been turned into a very different message, about 'telling people how to go to heaven', that we have ignored the far more startling truth that Jesus was actually talking about how heaven was coming to us. In other words, how God, the God of heaven and earth, was coming to earth to establish his sovereign, saving rule.
Now, risen from the dead, Jesus declares that it's happened. 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me!' In other words, the prophetic picture in Daniel 7, which Jesus quoted in 24.30 and 26.64, has come true. Jesus has been exalted to be God's right-hand man. All that God now does, in heaven and on earth, he will do in and through Jesus. (Within a generation, early Christian theologians like Paul, John and the author of Hebrews would point out that this is because Jesus, long before he became human, was God's right-hand person in making the world in the first place.) This is the great message of the whole gospel. Jesus is King and Lord, not just 'in heaven' (that would be quite a 'safe' idea) but on earth as well.
But what — what on earth, we might say — does that actually mean? If Jesus is really King and Lord, why is the world still in such a mess? How does he exercise this 'lordship'? How does this sovereignty, claimed so strongly in this passage, work out on the ground?
The whole gospel, once more, is written in order to give the answer to that. Again, it's an answer many people today have not even begun to think through. Ask yourself this question: how did Jesus come to this point of being king? The answer is obvious. He didn't do it in the way the disciples expected, in the way the crowds wanted, in the way which the chief priests and Pilate assumed he would behave. He didn't follow the normal human path to power, pushing and shoving his way forward, fighting and killing until his position was established.
He came as the Servant, the one who took people's infirmities and diseases on to himself, the one who suffered insults and mocking and torture and death. He was obedient, throughout his life, to a different vision of power, a different sort of kingdom-dream. And his resurrection not only showed that he was right. It established his kingdom, his type of kingdom, once and for all.
But if that's the sort of kingdom it is, it must be put into operation, not by his followers bullying and harrying and forcing the rest of the world to come into line. That's what people are afraid of today when they warn against 'theocracy', a rule-of-God which would quickly turn into the bossy, self-righteous 'rule' of those who claim to speak for God. Sometimes, indeed, the church has behaved in exactly that way. But that is a denial of the Lord they claim to worship.
Jesus' followers are to implement his kingdom by going and making disciples, learners, students, followers who will be shaped by Jesus' example and teaching. They are to 'baptize' them, plunging them into the very name and life and character of the true God, who is Father, Son and Spirit. They are to teach them everything Jesus commanded, particularly all those wonderful words in the Sermon on the Mount about the meek inheriting the earth, about a different way to be human. That is the character of Jesus' rule, and that is the means by which that rule will be established.
We live at a time of great transition and turbulence in our society. Dreams of 'progress' and 'enlightenment' seem to have produced the exact opposite. Supposedly civilized society has gone back to the use of torture. Supposedly grown-up society cannot educate the rising generation in anything but trivia. This same society regularly tells the church that it is on the way out. The Christian message is bad for you, they say; it's out of date, it's disproved.
This is ridiculous. There is every reason to hope that this year, or this decade, or this century, God will do new things. Jesus is still Lord — but he rules in the same way that he lived, taught and died. When his followers learn again to do the same, we shall see a fresh start. And the encouragement we need is found in the final words of Matthew's gospel, picking up neatly the promise made to Joseph at the very beginning. His name will be 'Emmanuel', said the angel, which means 'God with us'. That God-with-us promise, that heaven-on-earth assurance, has come true in Jesus. Millions of Christians know this in their daily experience, their praying, their living, their work for his kingdom. 'I am with you always, to the end of the age.' That is a promise you can stake your life on. It is also a challenge: if Jesus himself is 'with you', what should you be doing? How then should you live? Easter is a time to ask precisely that sort of question. It is also a time to discover God's powerful answer.
TODAY
Risen Lord Jesus, be with us as you have promised, and help us to go into all the world to bring all nations under the rule of your love.
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Let’s pray:
Dear Lord Jesus, since the day You are risen, we were all given this new gift of life, one of renewed hope, shalom peace and Your love. Help us Lord, to live out this risen life, as salt and light of the world, and shine forth Your light to the ends of the earth, so that we may see You again. We ain’t sure when, but we hold on steadfastly to Your faithful promise. Your Kingdom come. All praise and thanks be to You Lord! In the name of Jesus we humbly ask and pray. Amen 🙏🏻
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