Day: October 24, 2018

October 25, 2018

Psalm 34:1-8 The Message (MSG)

Recently, I have been spending quite a bit of time pondering what I really want people to know about the God I serve.  Do you ever set aside time to think about what you want the people around you to know as to why you follow Christ and live by the authority of his Word? Why you set aside a financial tithe and join with people of faith in praise and worship each week?  If you had one sentence to share with others knowing you might never see them again, what would that sentence be?  What would comprise your life testimony?  Would fear drive it or would love drive it?

King David spent years running in fear from the abuse and hatred of Saul; oddly, at one time he found himself trying to take refuge with the Philistines who hated him (remember David took down their champion Goliath). Our passage today, is the testimony of David and how the Lord was near him even during these times of running, hiding, and pretending.  David was learning how to worship the Lord with his every breath; to praise God first as an individual and then to grow that praise in the hearts of others so that it would become a corporate praise radiating from the earth and glorifying the Lord with one voice.  David testifies that when the Lord delivered him from each level of fear, he could take on a new appearance and shine with radiance for God. Our testimonies are powerful because they reveal the action of God in our lives.  

So, my one sentence testimony would be:  “All my life God has rescued me from fear and delivered me into new ways of experiencing his love, forgiveness, power, and blessings so I may help you and others connect to the Truth, cast down fear, trust his love, and praise him with me!”  May our lives be a living testimony as we worship the Lord.

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October 24, 2018

John 13:6-17

During his time on earth, Jesus sought to get the truth of God’s heart to his disciples. Repeatedly, Jesus would remind them “the Father and I are One.” Sometimes Jesus’ disciples were way off on discerning God’s character or how Jesus should act in a given situation. So, let’s get real here; it is interesting how many of us come to God with our own ideas of his heart only to be confronted and surprised when God does something in our lives or the lives of others around us that we never saw coming. 

In our Scripture today, Jesus will soon lay down his life to die for the sins of the world (kosmos), but before he does he gives the disciples an object lesson about what it means to be a disciple. He washes all of their feet; he washes the ones who will abandon him and he washes the one who will betray him. Notice, he does not berate them or publicly call them out to slap them for their immaturity. What does he do? He teaches them about the humble love of God who would not only clean them up on the inside, but would bend down to wash the feet of those who say one thing with their mouths and another with their lives. Unless Jesus washes us, we cannot love the way we are supposed to love. We will only love those who are like us. The very thing that proves we are Christ’s followers is unconditional love; without humble love we cannot be a part of what he is doing.

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