1. Message: Reading the two parables about the kingdom of heaven, and then the judgment day scenario in Matthew 25 I realized that I have always heard them discussed separately with individual meanings. While this is true, I also realized the importance of looking at all three meanings together as one and relating them to our character. The kingdom of God is us and all of these character traits are what we should be doing so that we will result on his right hand at judgment day. The first one with the ten virgins was about being prepared for the future in advance and not waiting until it’s too late to prepare. The next one is about the three servants who were given different amounts of money to invest while the master was away. Two of them invested at different capacities but one refused to invest at all. He buried it and then blamed the master for it. Then there is the judgment day scenario where he is separating the lambs from the sheep as he asks whether they fed, clothed and visited those in need. All of these character traits go together. Believers are supposed to be lenders and not borrowers. We’re supposed to be the ones helping and supporting but we can’t do that if we aren’t organized and prepared in advance. If we are the ones always in need because we weren’t investing and we weren’t preparing in advance for things that will come ahead. Obviously this is a spiritual preparation but it’s also a physical preparation. If we aren’t good stewards of our time, our finances and our abilities we can’t fulfill the things he is requiring of us. God has equipped us with what we need if we will physically, spiritually and emotionally. There is no excuse for laziness according to these passages.
2. Command: Be prepared, invest and then help others
3. Promise: God will recognize his sheep for these characteristics.
4. Warning: Laziness, procrastination and self-preservation will not be rewarded or recognized as sheep in his kingdom
5. Application: As I read all of this together I see that God has given us the tools to succeed. Not just for our enjoyment in life, but because he expects us to use our skill and success to help others and teach them his ways. If I am not doing these things I won’t be able to succeed and I sure won’t be able to help anyone else succeed. I can apply this to so many areas of my life where I keep asking God for help but I have yet to apply these principles that he has already equipped me with. I have business ideas and creative plans that can be used to inspire and make money if I would just discipline myself to plan it all out. My health is another investment that I need to take seriously. Today I feel convicted to sit and map out some short-term and long term goals so that I can start doing something and ask God to direct and bless it.

1. Message: Proverbs 26 gives several scenarios for how and how not to interact with a fool.
2. Command: Don’t be a fool, trust a fool, argue with a fool, honor a fool or expect wisdom to come from a fool.
3. Application: Today I eliminated the “promise” and the “warning” steps simply because this entire Proverb is all about how to and how not to interact with a fool. Of course, as we read this we all assume the fool is someone else other than ourselves. Hopefully this is so, but I think it’s fair to say we have all played the fool at one point or another. When we’re not the fool, chances are we’re interacting with someone who is having a foolish moment, or unfortunately, a foolish season of life. One of the mistakes I saw very clearly while reading this was the issue of arguing with someone who is acting a fool. In my mind I always think that if I just try to explain myself I can convince someone where I’m coming from but it doesn’t work that way. You simply can’t reason with someone who is being unreasonable so arguing is pointless. In the process of arguing I have definitely looked like the fool and probably became one also. My application today is to first of all, try no to be the fool! Second of all it’s to recognize those moments where I need to hold my peace.

1. Message:  The religious were being publicly rebuked and exposed as Jesus spoke to the people and told them that the religious only appeared to be clean on the surface as they made a show of themselves acting righteous while demanding the people to follow after a level of righteousness that they themselves were not inwardly keeping.
2. Command: Follow the message that the religious teach, but don’t follow what they do. Care about our inward condition more than our outward appearance and don’t elevate our status or allow anyone else to because we were all intended to be equals.
3. Promise: Those who humble themselves will be exalted
4. Warning: Those who exalt themselves will be humbled
5. Application:  We have the potential to turn literally any good thing into a show if we aren’t doing it for the right reasons. Sure, our good works can still produce some good things but if our motives are wrong we will become bitter, ugly people as we do good things. We might help someone but we probably won’t reach them at a heart level. We can even continue on this awesome reading plan and learn a ton of things but still act like a self-righteous jerk to people around us if it doesn’t change us on the inside. I have thought about that often and my personal application to all of this is to do the things that are called “righteous”, but in every one of those things I need to submit my heart before God and ask him to help me do them for his honor and not for the opportunity to look good or gain favor with anyone else. Any time those kinds of feelings rise up in anything I do I ask God to help me. A while back I really comprehended the scriptures in 1 Peter and in James that tells us that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. I really need God and his favor on my life so I don’t ever want to position myself in a way that would make God resist me. Even if I gained the favor and honor of people, it just wouldn’t be worth that kind of trade.

1. Message:  God’s promise to Abraham was to make nations from him. He had already waited a long period of time, tried manipulating things his own way and then 14 long years later he finally received the son he was promised. Now his boy is older and a relationship is established. He is old enough to talk and comprehend well enough that he questions his father when they are going up the mountain to make a sacrifice…without an animal for that sacrifice. God is requiring him to sacrifice his son which would be hard enough for him to wrestle with himself, but he actually got as far as to tie up his son and place him on the altar. No doubt Isaac picked up what was going on and was probably vocally and physically fearful. I feel like the guilt of experiencing his son’s feelings of betrayal would be harder to handle than even his own feelings of loss. When he finally picks up the knife the angel called out to stop him. In this story what I really got out of this is that God will promise us things, but we will also be tested in the very thing he promised. The test won’t be easy because God needs us to know we will be trustworthy for the promise he gives us so that we don’t abuse it. I have heard many people preach this story with the idea that Abraham knew all along that God would provide a sacrifice other than Isaac. I believe he probably hoped that but the test wouldn’t have been a real test if he wasn’t 100% willing to move forward. The promise God made Abraham was extraordinary so the sacrificial test was equally extraordinary.
2. Command: Be willing to sacrifice back to God any gift or any promise that God gives us.
3. Promise: God is faithful so if we trust him with the promise we can trust him in the testing too.
4. Warning: If Abraham had held back during his time of testing we would not be reading about his entire lineage right now. Who knows if we would even exist?! Our own promises from God hang in the balance if we aren’t willing to be put to the test.
5. Application: It occurred to me as I read this that God will test us the hardest in the very things he has promised us. None of us are ready for the promises God has for us until we are tested and proven. The harder we hold tight to them by trying to control the outcome ourselves, the more we resist the very promise God wants to give us. I have seen myself stubbornly fight against God’s hand because circumstances seemingly threaten the very promise he has given me and I feel like it’s my responsibility to preserve it. There are areas of my life I have literally had to tell God that I needed his help in cooperating with his plan so that I don’t stifle it with my own control. If it feels like it’s being pulled from under me, this is the time I need to tell God I surrender it. Even if that means I am to let go of dreams and desires that I believe to my core that God has given me so that he has the opportunity to resurrect them. I read the Joanna Gaines story about her dream to start a cute little antique shop. It was thriving but her children were young and her husband needed her help with his business. She knew God was telling her to shut it down. After she shut it down and was locking the door for the last time God spoke to her again and told her to watch what he would do with that sacrifice. A few years later Magnolia was born and now people travel to Waco, Texas to visit the town that was dreamed up by Joanna Gaines. I cried as I read about her trust and obedience to God with her dream. This sacrifice story is very different from Abraham’s but it was her promise. We weren’t called to father nations like Abraham was, but we were called to all kinds of other things and each of us has a different promise.

When My Past Decisions Mock Me

1. Message: God made Abraham & Sarah a promise. It took time so they took matters into their own hands and tried to produce the miracle on their own. Ishmael was the result and years later the promised Isaac was born at exactly the time God said it would happen. In the middle of celebrating their miracle Sarah’s focus became distracted by Ishmael and his slave mother mocking her promised son.
2. Command:  Stay the course! God is faithful!
3. Promise: God will still bless us in spite of our mistakes.
4. Warning: Don’t let your past mistakes distract you from the celebration of God’s faitfulnes!
5. Application: As I read this story about God’s faithful in giving him a son, I see where Sarah’s insecurity and her poor decision came back to haunt her. She was in the middle of celebrating her own promise of Isaac when she caught sight of her previous poor decision mocking her promise. She became distracted by this and enraged. I see this like symbolically in my own life where my past decisions came back to mock me even in my blessing. In this case, it happened to be a child and God still blessed Ishmael because of his promise to Abraham. God is faithful and even when we screw up his plan he will bless us!

1. Message: In normal human nature people desire authority and power, and rulers assert their authority over people, but God intended us to lead by serving and this is what Jesus modeled. This goes against the grain of our selfish desire to control.
2. Command: Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.
3. Promise: God prepares places of leadership for those he chooses.
4. Warning: Nobody can choose honor for themselves. We can choose to behave honorably, but we can’t make anyone honor us.Those who desire places of honor will endure suffering.
5. Application: As I read this I thought about the manipulation that went into the request of John & James’ mother, and I saw the ignorance in the response from John & James. They were focused on the place of honor and they seemingly had no clue what Jesus was talking about when he warned them that to have that kind of honor they would have to suffer the kind of suffering that Jesus suffered. Most of us aren’t looking to rule the world, but there are areas in our lives that we all desire to be trusted in a place of leadership. Some of us want to lead people and some of us just want to control decisions that we feel equipped to handle. The litmus test for our desire is to challenge our motives. Are we really interested in serving people for their good, or do we want to be recognized for our abilities and/or do we want to be the one in charge of making decisions? Some of us are just as manipulative as the mother in this story and our denial just might prove that very point! Our desire for honor comes from our insecurity, but there is no room for insecurity in leadership. Leadership comes naturally when we are genuinely looking to serve and not to take control. People will naturally trust and follow us when we are that kind of person. That’s why there were giant crowds following Jesus. He didn’t have a promoter. He was promoting the welfare of people wherever he went. My personal challenge is to examine the areas of my life where I desire to lead and challenge my motives.

1. Message: Two angels came to stay with Lot on the night before they were to destroy Sodom & Gomorrah. They urged him to get all of his relatives and loved ones to come with him and escape the land before they were to destroy it. Lot seemingly drug his feet, his relatives did not take him seriously and they were all left behind. Lot, his wife and daughters were saved at the last second.
2. Command: Warn the people that we love that destruction is ahead.           
3. Promise: If we take seriously the warnings of God we will find safety in the middle of destruction, and our influence will help others too.
4. Warning: When God warns us that destruction is ahead, we can’t drag our feet and continue to linger in it.
5. Application: I saw so many things in this story. Normally the focus is on Lot’s wife, who was turned to salt for looking back, but what I really noticed is that this warning came to Lot only because Abraham asked God to save him. Lot didn’t really seem to want to leave and when he gave the warning to his loved ones they didn’t take him seriously. And why should they if he was lingering around and showing no urgency of his own to get out? Not only was he not motivated to get out, this passage talks about how gracious God was with his lingering. He waited to destroy the city after Lot finally got out, but the passage says that the angels had to grab the hands of Lot, his wife and their daughters and seemingly drag them out of there just in time. At the last minute Lot even disputed their directions of going into the mountains and instead negotiated that they spare a nearby small town on his behalf just to get him out of the city. I wonder how different this story might have been for the rest of his loved ones if Lot hadn’t been so conflicted about leaving this place. My personal application for this story is to identify the areas of my life that God is trying to call me out of, but I keep lingering. Most of us are saved because somebody prayed for us. We may know who, or we may not but somebody was Abraham in our lives. Because of this God has been gracious, but he’s calling us out of some areas of destruction that are headed right for us. Sodom and Gomorrah represents a perverse, sexually immoral place, but maybe the things in our lives aren’t literally of a sensual nature. Maybe it’s something else that we’re holding onto or lingering with just a little longer. The people around us may not know about the danger headed for them either and even though we tell them destruction is coming, they can’t take us seriously because we’re still lingering in some things, unmotivated to get out. Today I’m asking God to show me those areas in my life that I’m hanging onto. Not just for my own sake, but also for the sake of people that are in my circle of influence.

1. Message: Servant was forgiven of his large debt but demanded someone else to be punished until he could pay back his small amount.
2. Command:
3. Promise: God forgave us for everything. We could say this was a pretty large debt.
4. Warning: If we don’t forgive other people God will not forgive our sin debt.
5. Application: This passage trips me up every time because I know that to forgive someone I have to let go of my “right” to be offended and angry. In the moment I don’t want to because I see my hurt and anger as justified. There is no question that the offense happened, and God is not asking me to deny that there was an offense. He is reminding me that when he released my debt that I needed to follow his example. This is not to be confused with healthy boundaries. Forgiveness does not mean we have to allow ourselves to be abused mistreated, or vulnerable. It means we don’t hope for or plan for their destruction.

1. Message: God made a covenant with Abraham and that covenant included both sides keeping their word in that covenant.
2. Command: Obey the covenant
3. Promise: God promised Abraham he would make many nations out of him through his wife, Sarah.
4. Warning: Any male who fails to be circumcised will be cut off from the covenant family for breaking it.
5. Application: Reading about this covenant made me think of all the promises in the bible that we as Christians like to hold claim to. Every one of those promises includes an act of obedience. In this case, this was the second time God promised Abraham he was going to make nations out of him. The first time Abraham and Sarah couldn’t see it happening in the proper time and they doubted it could happen through them so they took it into their own hands when Sarah told Abraham to sleep with her servant and Abraham did. At this point in scripture, Ishmael was now 13 years old and Sarah had still not become pregnant when God came to him a second time to make this promise. I’m sure it had to have seemed hopeless at this point. I relate to this as I sit here thinking about certain promises I have been waiting for for years and I think about all of the times I have tried to take things into my own hands to make it work. All God has ever asked of me during this time is for my obedience. He has not held me responsible for making these promises happen. Just my obedience. Even if it takes years. Even if it seems like it will never happen. I think as Christians we often get mixed up with the fact that salvation is free and cost us nothing to obtain it, but once we accept his gift of salvation we enter a covenant with God which requires our obedience. Today I am asking God to show me the areas of my life where I am not walking in obedience. I’m not talking about mistakes or areas where we fall short. I’m talking specifically about things I am completely ignoring whether intentional or unintentional. I want my covenant with Jesus to be marked with faithful obedience. Not perfection. Just obedience and the willingness to continue striving through areas that aren’t in full obedience.

Cooperating With the Plan

1. Message:  God gave Abram a promise that he would make him the father of nations. This promise looked like it wouldn’t ever end so Sarai stepped in to try to get it done.
2. Command: Don’t try to manipulate the things God promised.
3. Promise: You will be the father of many nations.
4. Application: I see this problem over and over in my life! I may not send another woman to bed with my husband but my impatience, or my lack of vision definitely causes me to pray for solutions and execute them in my desperation to see something happen. Instead I need to remind myself to ask God what he needs me to do (or not do) to cooperate with HIS plan.

We’ve all heard the term “rules were meant to be broken”. It sounds rebellious but when we get to the heart of things we find that rules were meant to protect and help people. When they get distorted and placed above people, they lose their value and they become an object of abuse to people rather than a source of protection.

1. Message: For every rule created there is a back story behind it. Behind the back story lies a misinterpretation and often an exaggeration.

2. Command: Honor God with our hearts by looking to the heart of his commands and how they affect the people they were written for.

3. Promise: Obedience from the heart leads to understanding the purpose of the law.

4. Warning: Every plant not planted by Heavenly father will be uprooted.

5. Application: As I read this I became aware of some rules that were made to care for people, but we have gotten the intent backwards and placed more value in the rules than the people they were created to serve. This leads to mistreating people for the sake of obeying the rule. My challenge today is that I would find the rules I have obsessed about and pay attention to the intent of the rules. Mainly, what the rules were intended to accomplish for people and not just a desire to check off an empty box.

1. Message: No matter how much we plan things God is ultimately in charge. This has both a positive and a negative effect. Make plans but understand that our collective plans are part of a much bigger picture and God is the designer.
2. Command: Submit our hearts to God and he will direct us into making the right plans.
3. Promise: Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed.
4. Warning: Pride goes before desctruction.
5. Application: I don’t consider myself a full-blown “Type A” personality. I like to have a plan of action to get things done but I’m also a very easy-going spontaneous person too. As I read Proverbs 16 I saw a theme throughout it about making plans and recognizing that we are still at the mercy of God. I didn’t really think this was a problem in my life until I realized that plans are a lot more than a to-do list. I realized that often times the plans we make have more to do with becoming emotionally attached to a particular outcome to a situation. So much so that we have never entertained the idea of it going any other way. These are plans too and if I’m honest, I have definitely made plans like these and have been so convinced of the outcome going the way I planned it in my mind that I never stopped to question whether they coincided with God’s plans or not. In my mind my plans and ideas were the right ones and I have even had the audacity to pray out my plans to God as if he was following my command. The truth is I am usually surprised by the outcome God chooses to use and I rarely looks anything like the plan I had so perfectly concocted in my mind. I have had to learn to release my (false) sense of control  over the situations I’m praying for so that I don’t become a stumbling block standing in the way of the real actual plan that God has in mind. I’m not saying we shouldn’t make plans. It’s highly irresponsible not to make plans. I’m just saying I feel challenged as I read this to remember that my plans and ideas are penciled in to provide some structure, but God has the right and the authority to take an eraser to anything he plans to do differently. My plans are often good but God’s plans are perfect.

1. Message: The parables in Matthew 13 are all about those who heard the truth and for various reasons discarded or abandoned it. Because of this Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes intentionally because he said “they look but they don’t really see. They hear but they don’t really listen or understand.”
2. Command: “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”
3. Promise: “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given and they will have an abundance of knowledge.” Matthew 13:12
4. Warning: “for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them” (alsoMatthew 13:12)
5. Application: All of the parables in today’s reading were about salvation. There is absolutely no question that this scripture means exactly what it means. Today as I read it I looked at something different within myself with these analogies. All of them were about people hearing truth and believing it at the moment they heard it, but either not retaining or not following though. The parable of the wheat and the weeds (again about salvation) made me think of all of the things that I hear and know are a good idea to do. Sometimes I think about starting, sometimes I start for a while and fizzle out and sometimes I go strong for a long time and then fall off the wagon completely. For me, a lot of this is in the area of discipline with my health, as well as some areas of disorganization in my life. I’ve heard enough truth in my lifetime and I’ve even lived it out faithfully for periods of time, but often times I separate the spiritual significance of following through and just see it as some things that would be good for me. When I read about the weeds growing among the wheat that the devil planted I thought to myself “you’re your OWN enemy!!!” My application today is to start taking steps that I can and will follow through in. I don’t want to be one who just hears truth but does nothing with it. I want to be one who follows through.

Today’s reading made me think of the show “Monsters Inside Me”. If you haven’t seen it before it’s about people who discovered they had a parasite. Many of them didn’t know for quite some time because on the outside everything looked well, but on the inside was trouble that was eventually discovered and brought on lots of damage.

1. Message: We either produce good fruit or bad fruit and will be held accountable for every idle word.
2. Command: Manage the contents of my heart because that determines the words that come out of my mouth.
3. Promise: A tree that produces good fruit will be known and recognized for good fruit.
4. Warning: We will have to give account for every word, and our own words will either acquit us or condemn us.
5. Application:  Reading this passage scares me every time. We might be able to cover up our inner attitude in some company or for periods of time but if we have junk going on in our hearts it will at some point come out of our mouths. I know I have moments that I spew out all kinds of junk. That junk only comes out because it was already in my heart and even if I’m able to hide it from people I can’t hide it from God and I will be held accountable for it. There have been times I was shocked by some of the terrible thoughts that pop up and some of them have even come out during prayer. The application here for me is to pay attention to the thoughts rolling around in my mind before I have an opportunity to spew it out of my mouth. I need to let God work out those offensive thoughts and attitudes so they don’t take root and become rotten inside of me.

1. Message: We are accountable for what we know, and the things God shows us requires a response.
2. Command: Repent and turn from sin.
3. Promise: Come to me all who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest.
4. Warning: Jesus began to denounce some of the towns where he had done so many of his miracles because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God. He said that if Sodom and Gomorrah had seen the miracles these towns had, even they would have turned from their sin and not been destroyed. He was warning them (and us) that God’s chosen people who were supposed to be looking for the Messiah were hardened in spite of all of the miracles, but the Gentiles were convicted immediately and they repented and changed immediately.
5. Application: As I read this I saw all of us in the body of Christ. We are full of biblical truth, miracles and opportunities but we have become completely inoculated by it all. We don’t have the fear of God like the people of Ninevah did when they immediately repented and turned from their sin and went into a time of fasting. We keep waiting for another opportunity, and another miracle, and another word, and another encounter, and another scare, and then we ask for more grace while we continue in our rebellion which we call all kinds of other things. For me personally, this means that the things I hear God talking to me about are to be acted on immediately. It doesn’t matter what anyone else is or isn’t doing. I don’t get special permission to dismiss it. I am personally responsible for what God shows me and the time to act is now.

1. Message: Jesus called his disciples to be apostles and he sent them out to reach only Israel – (Don’t go to the Gentiles or Samaritans) go to Israel, “God’s lost sheep”.
2. Command: Go and tell them (Israel) the Kingdom of Heaven is near: Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure the lepers and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received.
3. Promise: If you receive a prophet you will receive a prophet’s reward, if you receive righteous people you will be given a reward like theirs and if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers you will surely be rewarded.
4. Warning: You WILL be handed over to the courts and will be flogged and whipped in the synagogues. You will stand trial because you are my followers.
5. Application: There is so much more to pull out of this but what I see is the pattern of twelve men going through discipleship, walking closely with Jesus and then being sent out to reach people. Christians often get this backwards because we feel like this kind of “promotion” is to gain an elevated status or even respect. This was an example of sacrifice and Jesus was literally warning them that were about to go through some PAIN and suffering and that their lives would be threatened. They would not be treated with respect. They would be humiliated, taken to court, beaten and thrown into prison. This was par for the course and they went it to it believing that it was an HONOR to be treated this way because it meant they would suffer like they watched Jesus suffer. This didn’t even include the pain of living a life of discipline and obedience in their own lives. This was on top of their own self-discipline. For some reason when we go through some discomfort in our lives, or when we are suffering through working out discipline in our own lives we cry and beg for grace, we give excuses, we procrastinate and we beg for breakthroughs. We applaud ourselves for even thinking about change, but blame God, other people and the devil as we feel sorry for ourselves through our misery. I’m not saying that we should enjoy pain, just that we should expect it if we are really living out the gospel. When I look at these apostles I’m ashamed of my pampered self! This challenges me a lot because pain is not an excuse to stop moving. It’s as normal and expected as pain with a workout or training. The benefits far outweigh the suffering. We have a lot to gain from our salvation so “No Pain No Gain”!

Fun fact: *Did anybody pick up on the reference of Nimrod in the middle of all that genealogy in Genesis 10:8-10? Americans are the only ones that associate Nimrod as an “idiot”. If you Google this it seems we got the idiot reference from an old cartoon. The bible describes him as a skilled hunter and hero, and apparently so does the rest of the world!

1. Message: Jesus didn’t come to support the agenda of the religious. He came to reveal himself to his people through signs and miracles, and to invite the most deplorable of sinners into salvation. He’s still doing the same thing today.
2. Command: Follow me and be my disciple
3. Promise: Our sins are forgiven
4. Warning: We should be confident in our salvation, but not comfortable in our state.
5. Application: Those who were the most religious had generations of prophetic warnings that they were taught about but yet they didn’t recognize Jesus and they were not moved even when they saw the signs and miracles. They were blinded by their own ambitions, crooked politics and agenda. The “deplorables” were deep in their sin when Jesus called them out but they recognized his power and authority immediately. My personal application of this is to remind myself that all my devotion to church, my good deeds and my obedience to scripture will mean nothing if I become so complacent that I don’t recognize when God is moving in our midst. We could potentially become as blind as the religious Jews were while actively serving, going to church, singing our worship songs, quoting scriptures and pursuing a personal platform in the church world. We will not recognize him as long as we are focused on looking like Christians instead of paying attention to the miracles going on around us. God is calling the “deplorables” and they are responding to his voice. Wake up Christians!