Day 308: John 4:1 - 5:25

In so many places throughout the Gospels, we see the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day confronting Jesus regarding certain "rules" that Jesus had broken. Interestingly enough, it seems that every time they present Jesus with a rule that He had broken He managed to bring up some sort of example where they broke the exact same rule because it was more convenient to them. This is such a perfect picture of the way religion works. Religion sits and makes rules to keep people from doing certain things and yet there are always loop-holes for those who made the rules. If what you're doing is inconvenient, or offensive, or somehow irritating to me, I can find some way to accuse you of breaking a religious rule, but if I do the same thing I can always justify it by my intentions. Religion is always finding ways to justify the wrong that has been committed, but grace came down not so that the sins could somehow be justified but so that the ones committing those sins would be justified. And when we are justified, we no longer spend our time trying to figure out how we can get away with breaking certain rules, but we end up looking for new ways to live righteously so we can glorify our Father in Heaven!

- Lord, thank You for justifying me so that I can live a life in which the focus has nothing to do with rules and regulations but is all about You and making You happy. I live to serve You and through Your grace, I have both the strength and the determination to do it! -

Day 307: John 1:21 - 3:36

In John 3, we read the story about Jesus discussing the topic of salvation with Nicodemus. I've always found this passage interesting because it's such a good reminder of the fact that not everybody can understand our "Christian-ese" sort of speech. I remember when I was younger reading this story and thinking that Nicodemus must have been really dumb to not understand what Jesus was talking about. But as I've gotten older and had the opportunity to share my faith with so many other people, I've begun to learn that not everybody speaks the same language as those of us who have been raised in Church. When faced with this situation, Jesus didn't walk away disappointed or discouraged because Nicodemus didn't understand, He simply used wisdom from above to re-present it to Nicodemus in such a way that was easier for him to understand. We can take comfort in the fact that although we may not always now exactly what to say right off the bat, if we will be faithful to open our mouths, God will show us what we need to say in order to truly speak into the lives of those who we are ministering to.

- Lord, give me the wisdom necessary to minister to those in need of a touch from You. Help me know exactly what to say and how to say it so that they can hear exactly what they need to hear. Even if I don't know the language, You always do. -

Day 306: Luke 23:45 - John 1:20

In the first part of chapter 24, we read the story of the women looking for Jesus at the cemetery. As they get closer and speak with the angel, he says something that I think has so much power for our generation - "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" This question has so much relevance and could be used in so many different circumstances in todays' society but in this post, I would like to bring up a more controversial area where many seek life among the dead - church. I can't help but be amazed by the fact that even in today's "cutting-edge" "hi-tech" "progressive" society, so many groups of believers are stuck in a religion that has nothing to do with life in Christ, but rather has everything to do with a life of rules and traditions. Our Father is offering us a blessed relationship with Him full of life to the fullest, but we will never find it following a dead religion based on rules and traditions. If we are truly seeking the living, we must leave the cemeteries of religion and step into the life-filled glory of a true, living relationship with our Heavenly Father.

- Father, open my eyes to the life that You have to offer and give me the strength to refuse the death of tradition and legalism and to take hold of the life You offer through a genuine relationship with You. -

Day 305: Luke 22:30 - 23:44

One story that everyone seems to know to some extent is the story of Peter denying Jesus just before the crucifixion. It's sad to say, but most Christians read this story and they automatically shake their heads in disgust with Peter. How on earth could someone be so stupid as to deny their relationship with Jesus!?! The sad thing is, many fail to realize that the Bible isn't just a book of interesting stories, it's a mirror that shows us perfectly the reflection of the human condition and many times our own personal lives. Sure we may not vocally tell people "I don't love God," but denial can take many forms. So many believers out there live one life on Sunday and Wednesday and a completely different life the rest of the week. We go to church and worship one day and then take part in the sinful activities of the world the rest of the week as if we had absolutely no concern for our eternal well-being. God doesn't ask us to be consecrated to Him on certain days and then live however we want. If we are not living every single day in the light of His glory, then we, in fact, are denying Him even more so than Peter.

- Lord, give me the strength and resolve to live for You every day. Help me not to be so shallow as to think that I have to only use words to deny You. So many around us deny You with their lives each and every day and I will not allow myself to fall to that. -

Day 304: Luke 20:30 - 22:29

I love the challenging question that Jesus presents to the people in verse 41 of chapter 20. Although Jesus knew very well what the answer to His question was, it's so interesting to me that He chose to present a seemingly "un-answerable" question to those that were following Him. I believe the main reason he did that was so He could exercise their spirits a little bit and cause them to realize that there may still be plenty of things that they don't yet understand. So many Christians grow up in their faith believing that it's never appropriate to question God and yet we see here that God Himself was presenting a very difficult question about Himself. We must understand that questioning God is a vital part of growing in our relationship with Him. Just as Job finally found out, there are some things that we will never learn and revelations that we will never receive until we get in God's face and ask Him the difficult questions.

- Lord, help me not to be afraid or timid about asking You the questions that are on my heart. Help me to understand that there is a huge difference between asking questions out of doubt and asking questions out of a genuine desire to learn more about You. Help me to listen when You speak to me and help my faith to be strengthened by You. -

Day 303: Luke 18:43 - 20:29

The first part of Luke 20 is a story that has honestly bugged me ever since I first read it. In this passage, The Pharisees came up and asked Jesus a pretty huge question. Rather than simply answering them directly, Jesus basically threw a similar question back at them which they couldn't answer. Then, rather than just blowing them away with an awesome answer to their question, He just tells them that He won't answer them and sends them on their way. It's pretty awesome to think of the king of confidence and surety that Jesus had to have to do that. I know most of us would probably have reacted much differently to those punks, especially if we had the knowledge and understanding that Jesus had. But we learn such a valuable lesson from this passage. Like I've said before, we often times feel the need to explain and defend and stick up for God's Word, but we need to simply realize that if we will be faithful to do what God says to do and say what He tells us to say, His Word will take care of itself.

- Lord, help me to remember that it's not my job to explain and defend Your Word to every single person that disagrees. I know that You are the only One who can change their hearts and You working in them will produce so much more than my "convincing" arguments ever could. -

Day 302: Luke 16:18 - 18:42

In these passages, we read the story about the 10 lepers. Although there isn't a ton of focus put on this story throughout the Gospels, it's still a very important story to take note of. We see in this story a group of lepers coming to Jesus to be healed of their leprosy. Once Jesus heals them, they all go running back to their homes jumping up and down and celebrating the fact that Jesus healed them. However, only one of them was mature enough to go back to Jesus and thank Him for the amazing blessing that he received. We see that after this one came back to thank Jesus, He was told that not only was he healed like all of the others, but Jesus told him that he had been made whole! While the others we simply spared from having to deal with any future occurrences of the disease this man was actually made whole - meaning that any fingers or other appendages that had fallen off would be re-attached! Whenever God takes care of something for us, we oftentimes run off and just start living our lives again without giving a second thought to what God did, but if we will be faithful to come back and thank Him, we will oftentimes find out that the initial blessing was just the beginning and there is plenty more to come!

- Lord, help me to not just take for granted the initial blessing and turn from You the second I get what I want. I know that You want to bless us and make our lives whole and if we will be still and focus on You, You will have the full opportunity to do all that You desire in our lives. -

Day 301: Luke 14:1 - 16:17

We are reminded in this passage that we as minister of God's Word aren't just called to help maintain His chosen people, but more importantly, it is our job to go into the world and bring in those people who would normally be considered "unfit" for the church. Jesus brings up a very compelling point regarding the fact that we are similar to doctors. And when doctors are working, they're not spending all of their time dealing with and talking to people who are well, they spend all of their time working with and helping out the people who are sick. As much as we are tempted to fill our church services and Bible studies with good-looking, Bible believing, spiritual people who will make us look good, we must be aware that we need to bring in those who are hopeless and helpless. We need to bring those people in who would be headed straight for hell if it weren't for us. Those are the people we are called to and those are the people that we have to opportunity to rearrange their lives!

- Lord, help me to focus on those who truly need help and not just on the people that look good and will help me to be popular. Help me to understand that Your will is the only one that matters and so if You want me to spend all of my time bringing in the sinful people of this world, that's what I'm going to do! -