Message: Reading both Exodus 18 and Luke 23 really was really revealing of how much we try to view and understand God on our own terms. God was taking care of Israel in the wilderness and teaching them to obey and rely on him, but they were not seeing it that way at all. They were acting like victims and I wonder how much would have been different for them had they adjusted their perspective a bit. In Luke, Jesus was being mocked during his crucifixion because the people assumed that his refusal to save himself was because he couldn’t. They couldn’t fathom that he was allowing this. This crowd that had previously admired and followed him all over the place as he spoke to them and performed miracles had now turned on him completely and called for his death. They rejected him as their Messiah because he didn’t come on their terms. They wanted a Messiah who would power up, overthrow the government and make their lives better, but Jesus was not behaving the way they imagined their Messiah should.

Command: Remove my own expectations of who God is and how he should act.

Promise: God is unapologetically who he is and his ways far exceed any ideas I could possibly imagine.

Warning: If I concoct my own ideas of who God is and how he should be, it blinds me to who God actually is.

Application: Through this image of Israel I see my own tendency to create my own ideas of who God is or what an ideal plan should look like. Most of the time I don’t even realize that I’m doing it until I find myself in a place of disappointment. When I evaluate my disappointment I usually find that I had some sort of expectation of how something should or should not have happened. The disappointment is like a giant wedge blocking my affections toward God. I become bitter and distant, but even in that there is a sick form of denial because I know it isn’t right. It’s funny how self righteous I can feel reading about Israel and their defiance and rebellion, but not fully grasp how often I do the same thing. Lord Jesus, please deliver me from my own ideas so that I can see who you really are. Help me to discover you and love you for who you are. I thank you that you are unapologetically you!

Message: In Exodus 16 the people of Israel had just left the land of Elim, where there were the 12 springs of water and the 70 date palms. They were in the wilderness between Elim and Sanai. They were only 6 weeks into their journey after leaving their captivity in Egypt and they are already questioning their freedom. The “in between” was full of too much uncertainly so it got them longing to return back to the slavery they had finally been delivered from. The very thing that they had cried out to God for deliverance from was now sounding appealing. They made assumptions and accusations toward Moses that he had brought them out to the wilderness to starve to death. Their short term amnesia caused them to forget about the suffering and now they are looking back fondly on having meat to eat and lots of bread. 

Command: Don’t get disillusioned in the in-between!

Promise: God doesn’t drag us out of suffering only to leave us abandoned in the wilderness.

Warning: The in-between is a scary, vulnerable and uncertai

Application: This is such a huge reminder to me of how dangerous the mind is, and how quickly I can favor the misery of familiarity over the freedom ahead just because of the uncertainty. The Israelites had already seen God working on their behalf and providing for them in huge ways, but the uncertainty played tricks on their minds. I see the same tendencies in myself when I feel vulnerable and exposed. I need to remind myself that God is faithful and he will not abandon me to fend for myself in the vulnerable in-between.

Message: Exodus 16 seems to be the first praise and worship song documented in scripture but also probably THE longest and wordiest song I have ever seen. Sarcastic me couldn’t help but wonder how they were all able to sing along with all of those words without the help of a projector screen. In a seriousness though, this chapter reminds me of the importance of celebrating what God has done in our lives. Sometimes it seems like we spend hours of our lives meditating on problems and praying for solutions, and when it resolves we might give a quick little “praise report” and  move on to the next crisis. I wouldn’t say that Israel is the best positive example to follow, but in this case they had just watched God drown their captors into the Red Sea and they were celebrating well with song and dance. It really didn’t last long though because the next crisis was already lined up for them. Moses led them from the Red Sea to the wilderness of Shur and after three days they had not found any water. When they finally did find water, it was bitter and they couldn’t drink it. The people grumbled and complained so Moses cried out to the Lord and he gave him the solution. Who knew that throwing a tree into the water would make it drinkable? Not only that, God presented them a challenge with a big fat promise on it that if they would carefully obey the Lord, do what is right in his eyes, pay attention to his commands and keep all his statutes that he would not inflict on them any of the illnesses that were inflicted on the Egyptians. He introduced himself there as the God who heals. He put an extra cherry on top by leading them into a land with 12 springs of water and 70 date palms. I couldn’t help but notice that there was no mention of gratefulness or celebration there. Was this the beginning of entitlement???

Command: Carefully obey the Lord, do what is right in his eyes, pay attention to his commands, keep all his statutes and celebrate the victories!!

Promise: Just like the promise God made to Israel here, God has made promises to us throughout his word.

Warning: These promises come with very specific instructions, but for some reason we think God should hold up his end of the deal when we haven’t held up ours. When he does provide things out of his graciousness and compassion, we don’t tend to celebrate it or even thank him, but instead we become entitled!

Application: This is a huge reminder to me that my gratefulness and my celebration for the things God does in my life drives away an entitled attitude. As much as I want to believe I am a grateful person who celebrates victory, I see way too much of myself in this description of Israel. There is always a crisis of some kind that I am looking at, or a next step to the last victory that I am waiting to see. There are areas of my life that I am expecting God to be faithful in when I have not been faithful. I know he is good and compassionate, so I have this unspoken expectation that God should move in areas where I have been unwilling to do my part. In some areas, if I’m honest, I look at overwhelming issues in my life, and because I can’t accomplish it ALL by myself or at once, I act like I can’t accomplish ANY of it and God should just fix it for me. In some areas, I complain that the waters are bitter, but I don’t cry out to God like Moses did. I just complain about it. This is my reminder that God has promised a WHOLE LOT, but he made me a partner in those promises and if I want God to be able to do what I can’t do, I need to be willing to do what I CAN do.

Message: In Luke 20 Jesus was just minding his business teaching the people in the synagogue and “proclaiming the good news.” I thought that little detail was important because it showed he wasn’t in there starting stuff or correcting anyone. It was peaceful and positive. The chief priests and the scribes came in and said “by what authority are you doing these things?-who is it who gave you this authority?” This made me think of an epic scene of Undercover Boss where the Founder/Owner/CEO shows up to the company and starts talking business with the employees and sharing the company vision with them, but the upper management team that reports to him over email and company meetings doesn’t recognize him and starts questioning his authority in his own company building and in front of employees that he pays. The answer that Founder/Owner/CEO Jesus gives his management team AKA the chief priests and scribes (who were supposed to know who he was) seems like a diversion question but it gets right to the heart of the problem. When he asked them about the baptism of John he was exposing that they also rejected John and the authority John baptized under. They were afraid to respond for fear of the response of the people. Jesus put them right back in the hot seat.

Command: We can’t just follow rules, we have to KNOW the God we serve.

Promise: When we know God, we will recognize who he is because we know his nature and his vision

Warning: If we don’t know God deeper than just religious rules, we will miss it when we encounter him and we won’t recognize him when he shows up.

Application: This is a huge reminder of the importance not just to know ABOUT God but to actually know God. When I read his word and spend time with him I learn more and more of his nature so that when he shows up in areas of my life, I will not only recognize him but I will cooperate too. The scribes and the high priests had taken their positions of God-given authority, and used them to create their own purposes and plan. They had gone so far with this that they no longer recognized the God who gave them their authority. Lord Jesus, help me to lay aside my plans and follow after yours!

Message: When God led Israel out of the captivity of Egypt they had been enslaved for so long that they didn’t know how to live as an independent nation and they weren’t trained to defend themselves yet. In Exodus chapter 13 verse 17 tells us that there was a quicker route to the promised land toward the Philistines, but God did not lead them that way because he knew that if they had to face war, they would change their minds and return to Egypt. Back to their miserable bondage. God was teaching them who he was and teaching them to follow him for literally every step by using a cloud to lead them during the day, and a pillar of fire at night. The pillars were always in front of them so when they stopped, the people stopped and when they moved, the people moved. He showed them huge miraculous things that came from nothing to increase their trust and dependence in him and he was equipping them and preparing them on the journey. They weren’t ready for war when they started, but later on they fought so many battles that the cities they approached heard rumors and dreaded them because of God’s favor on them. Scholars have mapped out the distance from Egypt to the promised land, and what was actually an 11 day walk physically, took them 40 years. This is because the journey was much more mental than it was physical. In the beginning they were very just vulnerable and inexperienced at life, but as time went on they were described as “rebellious, stubborn and stiff-necked”. Because of their persistent rebellion and disobedience God didn’t allow that first generation to see the promised land. He waited for the entire generation to die off (except a few obedient ones) and he led their children there instead.

Command: Trust God in the direction he is leading me because he knows what is best for me, and he knows how I will respond. He knows what I am ready for and he knows what I am not ready for. He even knows my stubborn ways.

Promise: God is faithful to get us to the destination, but he is also kind enough to lead us on a path that will benefit me most.

Warning: The journey doesn’t have to be so long and hard if I am willing to trust God and cooperate, but when I fight the process and rebel, I will find myself wandering in circles in the wilderness of my life blaming God for the hardships.

Application: Israel is a picture of each of us in our journey with God. Some of us have been wandering in the wilderness a long time because we aren’t battle ready. We’re vulnerable because of this but like Israel, we’re also too stubborn to listen because we want the freedom without the pain and the fight. This is such a huge reminder to me that the things I fight hardest against are probably the road to my freedom. I shouldn’t spend so much of my time trying to get out of hard things and trying to pray away the painful circumstances. This only prolongs the suffering because ultimately, our breakthrough comes when we battle through it. I need to allow God to shape me so I am battle ready to fight through the hard things.

Message: Luke 17 starts off talking about offenses. Jesus was warning that it is impossible to avoid offenses. We are all going to deal with it, whether we ourselves are offended, or we have offended someone else. There is a very strong warning here “woe to the one they come through. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” I look at this warning in two ways. We can either be the one who offends people, or we can be the one who spreads the toxicity of our offenses. Obviously, we are going to offend people sometimes without realizing it because there is something going on within themselves, but unless we are living in a world of denial, we all know when we are intentionally being offensive to someone. When we intentionally push buttons that we know will get a reaction. The next question is who are the “little ones” he is speaking about in this passage. It almost sounds like he is talking about children, but he is actually talking about disciples of Christ. The little may haven been a word interpreted for young ones, meaning young or small in their faith. Regardless, we are accountable for how our behavior affects those who are following our example. The very next few verses tell us to be on our guard and if our brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him. There is a lot of “if” going on in all of this but we were intended to sharpen and challenge each other in our growth. Notice that this is not talking about judgment. It’s talking about correction for our growth. Our culture tends to use these ideas interchangeably so there is a misconception that observation of sin and judgment are the same and it they are most certainly not. A rebuke is a loving correction, but a judgment is condemning. Jesus challenges them even further in verse 4 when he tells them “if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes  back to you seven times saying “I repent” you must forgive him. I don’t think there is any coincidence that the very next verse is where the apostles tell Jesus “increase our faith”. This is where Jesus tells them if they have the faith the size of a mustard seed you can say to this mulberry tree “be uprooted and planted in the see” it will obey you. It takes faith to forgive and I found it fascinating that the footnotes describe the mulberry tree is one with deep and complex root system, so if you read this all in context, Jesus warns us about offenses, he tells us to forgive our brothers who sin against us over and over and then he tells us that if we have the faith of a mustard seed we can command those deep rooted offenses to be uprooted and thrown into the sea.

Command: Be careful of offenses, don’t cause them and don’t spread them. Call out sin and forgive our brothers who offend us (sin against us) and deal with our offenses at the root so we aren’t carrying them around.

Promise: Jesus promised that if we have the faith of a mustard seed we can deal with offenses at the root and get rid of them.

Warning: If we are the cause of a disciple of Christ stumbling because of OUR offenses, we are accountable for that and it is no joke. Scripture says it would be better if we were drowned to death.

Application: There is so much going on here, but bottom line is that I am accountable for what I do with the offenses in my life. If someone has sinned against me and I don’t deal with it, it will become an underground deep rooted system that becomes more difficult to remove as it grows. We have to have uncomfortable conversations , we have to forgive and we have to have faith to remove these root systems that want to dig down deep in our hearts. If we don’t deal with those roots we are sure to spread the toxicity and we are absolutely accountable for that.

Message: A few days ago, we talked about how Pharaoh was trying to negotiate with Israel much like we try to do with sin. We seem to think we can separate parts of it out to try to hang onto the comfort or what we perceive to be a benefit, while still walking in freedom and obedience. In this story God was not here to bargain a deal for their freedom so when Pharaoh told them they could go to worship God, first he told them they had to leave their women and children behind, and then he tried to tell them that they had to leave their flocks behind. Moses was very clear when he told Pharaoh that “not one hoof” would be left behind. There are lots of things in life that we have to learn to compromise with in order to work well in relationships and in business. Our relationship with sin is not one of those things so our complete freedom is non-negotiable. Had Moses bargained with Pharaoh on this he would have had a tether hold on them and used it to try to draw them back in. A tethered relationship gives an illusion of freedom, but the pull becomes exhausting and eventually the tether pulls a person right back into bondage.

Command: When it comes to sin, there is no compromise that will free us from the bondage. Any bargain that we try to make with it will ultimately serve as a tether pulling us right back in to bondage.

Promise: If we approach sin with a non-negotiable approach like Moses did, our freedom awaits and God will fight off the forces that rush in to attempt to try to overtake us in our pursuit for freedom.

Warning: If we refuse to take a stand and make a firm decision against sin and bondage, we allow it a foothold and a right to take us captive.

Application: This reminds me of the importance of the decision that has to happen in my mindset before anything else. If there is room for negotiation in even the slightest degree, this can be used as a tether to pull me in. I have to make a firm decision ahead of time and before temptation comes. If I have already been living in the bondage of sin in a particular area, the mindset has to be set firmly that from this day forward I am walking into freedom and “not a single hoof” will be left behind to draw me back in. When I make those firm decisions in my mindset, I draw the line in the sand and this allows God to fight on my behalf when the pursuit of sin rushes back in to try to overtake me.

Message: Luke 15 is well known to most everyone. We have heard lots about the prodigal son and even a significant  amount about the older brother, so what I have to say is not necessarily a new idea. I just related well to the  older brother in the sense that he was faithful and reliable. He had worked obediently all of this time while his brother was off being disrespectful and irresponsible. I can’t help but wonder if his anger had less to do with his brother and more to do with his father and his feeling of being overlooked. Because of the turmoil the father experienced over losing his relationship with his younger son, he had a very big reaction and outpouring of love towards him when he came home. The older brother probably watched the father grieve and now he was witnessing the generous amounts of love and approval his father was openly pouring out over him after he returned.  He was celebrating the disobedient and dishonoring son while the obedient son was out in the fields working as he always had without a word of appreciation. His obedience was expected and he was probably yelled out more than once for forgetting to close a sheep pen or losing one to a wild animal attack. He was probably deeply jealous of the affections of his father and he probably craved those same words of approval. This was likely more than just his desire for a party with his friends. He wanted the heart of his father toward him expressed like this. The father reminded him at the end “you are always with me and everything I have is yours, but we had to celebrate because this brother of yours was dead and alive again, he was lost and is found. ” To the father, this was not about his approval, or for a job well done. It was about his gratitude over his son that he thought was lost forever. The older son had greater rewards coming to him than what his younger brother had squandered, and he probably didn’t realize that he had a different level of affection because his father was able to trust him .

Command: Don’t confuse the celebration of life, with the reward of obedience. It may feel like a long road of obedience while other people seemingly get away with unfaithfulness and disobedience. We may feel overlooked during the celebration now, but God is just and he has rewards for the faithful beyond imagination if we don’t get bitter during the long haul.

Promise: If we think the celebration of life is good, we haven’t even begun to see the rewards God has in store for the faithful and obedient. God has not overlooked the faithful, and his rewards will be more than we could have imagined.

Warning: Don’t become bitter and resent the celebration. The bitterness can taint the heart and turn a heart of obedience into a heart into something much worse than just a prodigal. It can turn us into a self righteous and entitled person.

Application: This reminds me of the importance of keeping bitterness in check. Sometimes that bitterness is stealthy and it hides in denial, but it can destroy the pure motives of the heart from working honestly and faithfully by believing the lie that it has to reward itself because nobody else will. The rewards of obedience are far greater than the temporary satisfaction of bitterness.

 Message: In Exodus 8 Moses continues to confront Pharaoh to let Israel go and some patterns begin to change a bit. The magicians and sorcerers were able to reproduce the frogs but when Moses asked Pharaoh when he wanted the frogs to come to an end and he said “tomorrow”. Which is odd, but it was done and instead of making the frogs disappear, they all died and piled up with a nasty stench that they still had to clean up. This really seemed relatable to some of our issues that have overtaken our lives, but yet we’re not quite willing to deal with them so we postpone it for later, but we still have to deal with the aftermath of it in our lives. The next plague was the gnats and for the first time the magicians and sorcerers were not able to reproduce this. Why the gnats? I don’t know and I don’t know if it matters, but what was important here is that the magicians and sorcerers themselves recognized “this is the finger of God!”. Interesting enough, Pharaoh was not convinced and he remained hardened so enter flies! Flies swarmed everywhere EXCEPT in the land of Goshen where Israel lived because God was making a distinction between Egypt and the people of Israel. This is where the negotiation started. Pharaoh told them to go worship the Lord BUT he wanted them to do it there in Egypt. Moses disputed this, and Pharaoh agreed to let them go worship BUT he told them “but don’t go very far -and make an appeal for ME”.

Command: Don’t try to negotiate to hang onto things that God has clearly told us to release!!

Promise: God will deliver us when we are willing to do it his way.

Warning: As long as we are still trying to negotiate, we will never be free. We can’t decide our own terms for something that God has called for our obedience. When we negotiate the terms or try to do this gradually or partially we are not walking in obedience and if we think we are we deceive ourselves.

Application: This is a perfect picture of what the hold of sin looks like in our lives. We suffer the tormenting consequences but we aren’t ready to let go of it so we try negotiating terms.  We hope that we can live with our issue and still maintain peace. Then we try to put a little bit of distance on it, but we don’t want it to go too far in case the absence is too much to bear and we want to reach for it again. We even deceive ourselves into believing we are in obedience, but we are really not at all. Lord Jesus, help me to walk in obedience and release the things that you have commanded me to release. Deliver me from my own self deception when I try to hang onto

Message: In Exodus 7 Moses followed God’s exact instructions to go to Pharaoh and demand that he free his people. God prepared Moses in advance that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and God intended to use his hardness of heart to  show all of Egypt who he is.  He knew that Pharaoh would demand some proof so God prepared Moses with a plan to throw his staff down and it would become a serpent. What Moses was not counting on was the copycat response from Pharaoh’s magicians and sorcerers. They turned their staffs into serpents also, but verse 12 says that Moses’s “staff” swallowed their “staffs”. I found it fascinating that the scripture did not refer to them as serpents. They were staffs. This was significant because God was showing them that although Pharaoh had a legitimate staff of authority, God’s authority was greater. The same type of thing happened the next morning when God told Moses to use that very same staff that turned into a serpent and give Pharaoh another opportunity to release the people to worship God. When he refused, Moses was to strike the water with that same staff representing God’s authority. He did, and the water turned to blood and was undrinkable. When the magicians and sorcerers were able to do the same thing using their magic, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened again so the water remained blood for another seven days. What caught my attention here, is that the magicians and sorcerers were able to replicate the plague, but they were not able to remedy it. The Egyptians had to dig water from the ground because the water in the river was undrinkable and had a terrible stench because all the fish in the river died. Water is the life of everything so this was not merely an inconvenience. This was a death sentence so if the magicians and sorcerers were able to reverse this, they certainly would have.

Command: Don’t be impressed, moved by or distracted by supernatural powers of the enemy. The enemy is only a copycat and he only has power that God allows. He can only cause destruction, (John 10:10 the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy but I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly). God supersedes it all because all power belongs to God. The enemy does not have the power to heal, restore or create. That is unique only to God.

Promise: God alone has the power to heal, restore and create. That is his nature and the forces of darkness can’t replicate that.

Warning: When destruction comes, it’s easy to get blindsided and distressed. It may look like the enemy is winning for a season but God has plans we don’t see or understand so we can’t get discouraged or lose hope and we can’t be distracted with trying to figure out the source of the pain.

Application: In Exodus 7 I really felt for Israel here. All they knew is that as soon as Moses started calling for their freedom, their lives got harder and they didn’t understand why things were getting worse instead of better. SO relatable! It’s hard to understand the plans of God, but he was using the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart to not only show Egypt who he is, but he also needed to teach Israel who he is/was. They saw just how bad it could be before they were able to recognize how good it would be. Unfortunately they never really learned that because they fought against God for forty years in the wilderness after God freed them from Egypt. They even wished to return to their slavery in Egypt if that isn’t a slap in the face of God! Before I get too self-righteous here, I need to recognize the same rebellious behavior in myself! Israel is a mirror reflection of our own tendencies. MY own rebellious tendencies. It might seem like darkness prevails for a while, and it’s hard to accept that God allows it for a while, but if I stop playing the blame game and just hold on, I will watch the power of God devour Satan like the staff of Moses swallowed the others. What has been temporarily ravaged by the copycat powers of Satan will surely be healed and restored by God who has power over all.

Message: Luke 12 reminds me that although we live here on this earth and we are building and making plans, this is not where our treasure should be. Our treasure is in eternity and just like we work here on earth to earn a paycheck and build resources and pay for enjoyable things, we are also working for an eternal paycheck as we work for the kingdom of God. If we are too busy trying to build our kingdom here, we lose sight of the eternal kingdom we are working our whole lives for. Many of us are looking for justice or reparations on this earth that we will never see, but what we endure in honorably and obediently in the secret places that nobody but God sees, will be rewarded in heaven. What we sacrifice here in order to bring in people, will be rewarded in heaven. This is not our motivation, but it is certainly our reward.

Command: Make the kingdom of God my main focus. This is not to say we don’t care about building wealth and making our lives here beautiful, but when we seek the kingdom of God first, we are rewarded not only in heaven but some of those rewards follow us here too.

Promise: God rewards us generously when we are chasing after him and not after what he can give us.

Warning: If I get this backwards I will not only miss the point, but I will miss the rewards too.

Application: This is such an important reminder to stop getting so preoccupied with obtaining the rewards of God here on the earth. God promises there will be a reward for our obedience, and those rewards will come because God does not lie, BUT, if this becomes my aim I am missing the whole point of everything. I am here to serve God. God is not here to serve me. His plans need to be my plans and when they are I will be walking in obedience. Blessings can’t help but flow from that. If I am busy trying to get God to work on my behalf I am looking at things backwards. He knows the needs I have (and even the wants too). If I focus on fulfilling God’s plan and stop trying to get God to fulfill mine, I will find not only my heart changing, but the blessings will follow both here and in heaven.

Message: Ok Exodus 5 got me today and it got me good! When Moses began confronting Pharaoh things got real tough for Israel. A couple of Israelites went to Pharaoh and tried to pitch their complaints and it didn’t go well at all. Pharaoh called them slackers and basically pulled the parent line “I’ll give you something to cry about!”. He demanded that they still had to meet their daily quota but the straw would no longer be provided for them. They would have to go find it for themselves. In response to this, those same Israelites confronted Moses and said “may the Lord take note of you and judge because you have made us reek in front of Pharaoh and his officials-putting a sword in their hand to kill us!” This is a huge accusation, and nobody can argue that it sure appeared that way, but God was doing something that none of them would understand. This was so relatable because I have definitely watched what looked like simple cause and effect in my own life and wanted to assign blame. Nobody likes to feel squeezed. Nobody loves feeling the vulnerability of daring to hope, only to feel it snatched away and even get worse. They were angry with Moses, and Moses was just as confused and upset as they were because he was obeying what God told him to do. Sometimes we question whether we heard from God when things appear to be worse instead of better. Sometimes we want to blame people and situations because all we can see is the cause and effect in front of us.

Command: I have to know that regardless of what is at play in front of me, that when I listen to God and obey, he is moving and working in ways I don’t know and could never understand. His plans don’t look like mine and he will use the circumstances around me to shape me and grow me if I let them. If I choose to blame God or other people I may have to keep going through it until the goal is accomplished.

Promise: God’s word will come to pass regardless of what I see in the moment.

Warning: If I make it about me I will miss the point. In this case God was working something in and out of Israel, but more importantly, he was showing Egypt who he was. If I take these situations personally I miss the point that it’s not even about me!

Application: This speaks to me on so many levels. The first is understanding that God is not here to fulfill my desires. I am here to fulfill his will. God found it important to show Egypt who he was so he took the Israelites on a ride they weren’t expecting. They blamed Moses and said “may God take note of you and judge…” They had NO idea what they were speaking about and they actually spoke judgement upon themselves in that statement. It was not about them and sometimes the things I go through are not about me either. I need to get over myself and obey God because this is HIS plan and HIS way.

Message: There is SO much to glean from Luke 10, but being the busy body that I am, I was particularly drawn to that very last 5 verses about Mary and Martha. It’s a common story where Mary is praised for sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Martha is frustrated doing all of the work and basically pulling a move that every kid knows… “Jesus, tell my sister to help me!!” Except it was more dramatic than that. She said “Jesus, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone?? So tell her to give me a hand.” That may or may not have worked on us as parents, but in this moment, instead of putting Mary to work, Jesus redirects Martha by telling her that Mary chose the better thing. It almost sounds like Jesus is promoting the irresponsibility of neglecting chores and refusing to pitch in.  I don’t believe for a moment that this is true. What WAS being communicated here in verse 40 was that Martha was “distracted by her many tasks.” So in verse 41 Jesus instead corrected Martha by pointing out “Martha, you are worried and upset by many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice and it will not be taken from her.” I related to this so much because in the moment, I can think of a THOUSAND little details that I think will make things better, and I can get lost in the mess of detail. I might be able to accomplish the necessary thing in one task, but I  love the added details and the icing on the cake. Admittedly, I can see where I have actually used the details as an emotional escape to pour myself into while ignoring something emotionally difficult. Work is important, and working together is essential, but we can’t let tasks become a distraction to what really matters. Context obviously matters because if I am AT WORK, I am expected to be on task. No questions asked. But when I fill my time personal time with tasks, it can serve as a never ending bottomless pit of distraction from getting that quiet time with Jesus. I fully believe that once I have spent time with Jesus, he will not only fill me ands refresh me, but he will also help me to efficiently complete the tasks I need to work on.

Command: Work is responsible and important, but I need to spend my time with Jesus before I start these tasks so I do not allow the work to become a distraction from the better things.

Promise: God will fill me with the best things when I spend time with him, and he will even help me to be more efficient when it comes time to work.

Warning: If I don’t spend time with Jesus before starting my tasks for the day, I can easily be swept into the never ending abyss of tasks to be done.

Application: This speaks to me SO hard! I have to fight against the distractions. Even today, I allowed myself to go down a rabbit hole of completing tasks and even creating NEW tasks before I read and wrote this devotional. Once I start, it is difficult to pedal back to the start and I become anxious to return to my task list. This might not be the case for everyone, but I relate to Martha SOOOOO much on this one!

Message: The verse that spoke to me the strongest today was Luke 9:44-45. Jesus was telling his disciples that he was going to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. He actually told them to “let these words sink in” but verse 45 tells us that they didn’t understand because this was being concealed from them and they couldn’t grasp it. So on one hand, Jesus told them to let it sink in, but on the other hand Jesus knew this was being concealed from them intentionally and they wouldn’t understand it- for now. Jesus was counting on the fact that after the resurrection they would see things much more clearly. They were not expected to figure it out then, and if they had tried they would have never in a million years gotten it right-even with all of the prophetic background. They had just enough info to confirm it was true, but not enough insight to fill in the gaps to understand.

Command: Read the word and let it sink in deep, but stop trying to “figure it out” and fill in the gaps.

Promise: When the timing is right God will fill in the gaps and give me the understanding for what is necessary for me to know.

Warning: If I try to fill in the gaps on my own with the information I have, I will come up short and misguided. When I think I have things figured out I can make some dangerous assumptions that lead me the wrong way.

Application: This passage reminded me of every time I thought I had something figured out. I have seen the same thing happen to people I care about who have taken the limited information they had to try and understand a purpose or motive for something difficult that happened in life. We all feel like we can process pain and grief better when we know there is a purpose. The problem is that when we think we have figured out THE purpose or motive it sets up an unwritten set of rules or patterns that we then try to apply to other situations. This is SO dangerous! We have to be ok with trusting that we don’t know the fine details and even if we did, we don’t have the mind of God to understand them, and we were not intended to. We have to trust that God will reveal only what we are supposed to be responsible for and he wants us to trust him for the rest.

Message: What caught my attention today was in Luke 8 when the disciples asked Jesus what the parable of the sower meant. Jesus told them that the secrets of the kingdom of God were for them to know, but parables were for the rest so that “looking they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.” I had always assumed that we should do our best to present the right information so people will see the truth of the gospel. Here it appears that Jesus is being vague on purpose. I had seen more of the same in other places and had always confused me. It sounded cruel and unloving but this doesn’t match the nature of God. Thinking this through a little deeper it occurred to me that Jesus knew they would all reject him as Messiah. Their hearts were hardened and scripture even tells us that there will be a time when the hardening of their hearts would be lifted once the Gentiles had all been given the opportunity to receive Jesus. Because we are all accountable for what we know it almost appears that maybe Jesus was protecting them from responsibility.  This is not to say that we should intentionally stay ignorant, but it also further emphasizes our accountability for what we know.

Command: I need to take seriously the things I read and understand in the word. I am accountable for what I know and understand.

Promise: On the contrary, Jesus was pouring into those who were genuinely seeking. His disciples were given deeper explanations, and even among the twelve, there were three who saw the deeper level of things. When we are genuine in our seeking, God reveals truth to us.

Warning: When we are walking in a hardened state we are in a dangerous place. We are accountable for what we know, but our hardness keeps us from walking in obedience.

Application: This reminds me of the importance of keeping my communication with God flowing, and my obedience to walk it out daily. I need to deal with both sin as well as  internal questions I have honestly and not allow them to sit and fester. Both sin and those unaddressed questions can easily become offenses and offenses cause a hardness of heart. I can’t allow hardness of heart to take over because I am accountable for what I know.

Message: In Luke 7 what grabbed my attention was at the end of the chapter when Simon, the Pharisee invited Jesus over for dinner. A woman with a sinner’s reputation came with an alabaster jar of oil crying, anointing and kissing the feet of Jesus with her tears and wiping them with her hair. When this offended the Pharisee, Jesus gave him the story about the two creditors. One who owed 500 denarii and one who owed 50. He asked him which one would love more when he was forgiven and the Pharisee acknowledged that the man forgiven of more would. Jesus compared the behavior of the woman to Simon’s behavior. Simon didn’t just give Jesus less love in response. He gave him none at all. So when Jesus forgave her of all her sin this also offended the Pharisee because he didn’t accept the authority of Jesus to forgive sin. I have always looked at the part of the story that acknowledges that the woman had more sin to forgive, just like the man who owed more money. While this is still true, today  I also saw something else here. The woman knew who she was and what she owed. She was very self aware and I’m sure society played a pretty great role in reminding her that she was a sinner. Simon, the Pharisee probably lived by the rules, but as a Pharisee he would have also allowed himself certain loopholes. This is the stuff Jesus was always calling them out on. They gave a certain appearance of following the law, but their hearts were far from God and full of evil. Simon, the Pharisee may have in fact, been further and deeper in sin than the woman. He was just blind to it because of his religious pride. Simon had not been forgiven of anything because he didn’t believe he needed it.

Command: I need to examine my heart always, to see what is in it. If I don’t know what is in there, I won’t have the opportunity or the gratitude for forgiveness and it’s easy to slip into a religious walk.

Promise: Not only is God faithful to forgive me, but the gratitude and joy that results from that is beautiful, and is contagious. (or in this case, offensive to a religious person)

Warning: If I am not examining my heart regularly, I can develop a religious hardness that like Simon, is completely unaware of my condition or need for forgiveness. That hardness makes me callous and lacks compassion

Application: This is  a strong reminder to me that no matter how long I have been walking with Jesus and have cleared out most of the obvious junk in my heart, I always need to be talking internal inventory and allowing Jesus to deal with things that rise up in there. Attitudes and mindsets can lay almost dormant and undetected but the result of this shows up in the form of callousness.

Message: I got two major take-aways from Luke 6. The first is that we shouldn’t be so impressed with ourselves for being kind and merciful to kind people because even “sinners” do that. In this culture we hear a lot about being a “kind human” or a “good human”. It’s promoted as if it’s something new and different. What is supposed to separate us from the rest is being kind and gracious to those who oppose us, don’t agree with us and those who are not good to us. This is the hardest thing to do. Our flesh screams at the sacrifice and our pride is forced to submit. It’s also the easiest thing because it completely removes the guess work out of thinking we should decide who to be good to and who doesn’t deserve our best. We don’t have to search for things that might change our minds or our support. We don’t have to figure out who to cancel. We just treat every person like they were made in the image of God- because they were. How we treat has less to do with them and everything to do with who we are.

The second thing I took from Luke 6 is the section about judgment. We hear even from the lips of non believers “judge not lest you be judged”. The scripture continues with do not condemn and you won’t be condemned, and forgive and you will be forgiven. We tend to think this means if we don’t judge others, we won’t be judged by them. I think this has more to do with ourselves than we realize. People who tend to judge other people are usually full of all kinds of self hate. Because they judge others, they assume other people are judging them. Because they condemn others they assume people are condemning them and people who don’t forgive usually struggle with forgiving themselves. On top of this, we deprive ourselves of God’s forgiveness when we refuse to forgive.

Command: Treat all people with kindness, mercy and graciousness. Stop judging and condemning other people.

Promise: When we release ourselves of the responsibility for deciding who we think is worthy of our kindness, we are able to just focus on being kind, regardless of the response. When we release ourselves from taking the judgment seat, we tend to feel less judged and condemned ourselves.

Warning: When we believe we hold the cards for deciding who deserves our kindness, we become suspicious and angry. When we judge and condemn others, we fill ourselves with judgment and contempt.

Application: The application of this is easier said than done, but the premise is very simple. I don’t decide who is worthy of my kindness. I need to extend kindness, respect and graciousness to everyone regardless of how they treat me or respond to me.

Message: In Luke 5 we see how Peter is not quite a disciple of Jesus yet, but Jesus wanted to teach the crowds and he asks Peter to put out his boat out a bit so he could stand on it while speaking to the crowds. In other words, he asked Peter if he could use his boat (his business and livelihood) as a platform to preach to the crowds. Peter respectfully agreed, and after he did, Jesus blessed his business tremendously -but there was still some obedience involved. Peter had willingly given Jesus access to his boat, but now Jesus was telling him how to run his business. His advice didn’t sound quite right with what he knew, but out of his complete respect for Jesus, he obeyed and was blessed beyond imagination. So much so that the blessing affected his partners and it took all the help they could get to contain it all. Peter was not looking for any of this. He received this because he said yes to Jesus and held back nothing. Not his business, his possessions and not even his pride.

Command: Let there be nothing in my life that Jesus can’t use.

Promise: When we are all-in with no reserve, and with an obedient heart, it is perfect soil for blessing.

Warning: If we try to pick and choose what things we are willing to surrender, it is not surrender. We are all in or we are not.

Application: This reminds me of the importance of not only my yes, but the obedience that should accompany my yes. Jesus wants my life, my influence, my platform, my all and my obedience! Lord Jesus, please reveal to me anything I am holding back. Let there be nothing I am gripping so tightly that you are unable to reach!

Message: Today as I was reading about the different temptations that Satan used on Jesus, I started thinking how they might be interpreted  if they were used on me. We have a tendency to examine temptation with the viewpoint of “Is it  wrong to___? Or is _____sin??” With this kind of mindset we can justify almost anything. In fact, if we look at some of the things Satan used to tempt Jesus with, I wonder how many of us would have identified it as sin. The first temptation was to turn the stones to bread and satisfy his own hunger. The second temptation was that I he bowed down to Satan he would give Jesus what he supposedly had been given (and according to Satan he could give it to anyone he wanted). Interesting little addition he added on there, but I digress. We might have caught onto the sin in that one, but the last was to throw himself over the cliff and allow the angels to protect him. This is an interesting one…Intentionally put yourself in a dangerous predicament and require the angels to rush in to save you. Is this something we might describe as sin? My point in all of this is not to learn how to identify the sin. My point is that all of this was a deterrent to the plan he came to accomplish. Any one of those things would have derailed the mission entirely. Jesus had to be sinless, blameless, he had to submit to living in a body of flesh without using his power to ease his own struggle. Satan knew that any one of those things would have derailed the mission, so he didn’t go for the obvious temptation like sexual impurity. He went for the legitimate need to fulfill hunger, and then he misrepresented his own authority over the earth as if he was providing Jesus a shortcut to redeem the world.

Command: Evaluate temptation in the context of our mission. Instead of just asking if things are “sin” ask myself if the thing in question will empower of derail the mission I am walking out. Not just the mission of reaching the world, but the mission of walking out my salvation. If it doesn’t draw me TOWARD Jesus it is pulling me away. These things often seem as harmless as turning a stone into bread when we’re hungry.

Promise: Jesus will walk these things out with us the way it was intended to be. He will empower us to do the things we can’t do on our own.

Warning: There are NO shortcuts! Don’t entertain it!

Application: This really challenged me to look at temptation differently. We often look at Satan as the detour monster who tries to obstruct our plans. I think he’s more subtle that that and he is more into influencing our minds and tainting our view of what sin looks like. He is the king of rules and loopholes, but God is after our hearts. We will not be tricked if we are asking the right questions. The questions that reveal the heart and the motive behind the temptation. Lord Jesus, please help me to spot the crafty sneaky motives of temptation and stay focused on your plans for me.