Fri.’s Devo -Fruit

Read Luke 6:38-45 We could talk all day about this first verse. It is another way of saying you reap what you sow. On the third day of creation God produced plants with seeds in their fruit. These seeds would produce after their kind. If they were an apple seed, it would produce apples, but if it is a thorn bush it will reproduce thorns. Whatever you give will be multiplied back to you. If you plant seeds of unforgiveness, then you will reap bitterness and you will impart unforgiveness and bitterness to others. If you plant love and trust, then people will love and trust you. The principle of seeds is that the produce should be multiplied which is a problem if it is bad seed. We all have good and bad seeds in us but if we implant the spirit of God in our hearts, his righteous seed can supersede our bad seeds. Verse 41 talks about noticing someone else’s weaknesses but being blind to our own. Usually what we notice and hate the most in others is our mote. It blinds us from seeing the same fault in ourself. I think judging others is our self-conscious way of justifying our own sin. When I find myself frustrated about something someone else does, I try to remember to ask myself how that same problem resides in me. I am unpleasantly amazed at the answer. If we have had a problem with unforgiveness and God helps us to forgive, then we have a testimony that can help someone who is struggling with unforgiveness. If we allow our unforgiveness to stay there, then we will reap bad fruit and could eventually become a bitter and corrupt tree. If we have the good treasure of God in our hearts then our fruit should be godly. If we want to know what kind of fruit we are producing then we should listen to our conversation. What is in our heart will come out of our mouth. Lord, help us to produce fruit fit for the kingdom. Help us to rid our hearts of any bad seeds that will seek to kill us and taint our testimony.

Thur.’s Devo - It Is Not Easy to Follow Christ

Read Luke 6:29-37 We have all heard the expression “turn the other cheek” as if it is a passive act, but after looking up the meaning of “smite” used here it means to pummel. In other words, to strike repeatedly, not just a slap in the face. So, once you have been pummeled on one cheek, you should be willing to turn and let it be done again to the other side. Ouch! It gets worse: it someone takes your outer garment, you are to offer him your inner garment leaving you basically naked. I’d rather be plummeled, I think. If anyone asks something from you, you are to give it, and if they take something you are not to ask for it back. Where are boundaries??? Does this mean that I have to give to every televangelist that calls? I honestly don’t think so. I think Jesus wraps it up in his next sentence: “As you would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” In other words, we are to treat others like we would want to be treated. If we are truly Christians we will not only strive to do good to those who love us but especially to those who don’t. We are to love our enemies, give without any strings attached, and show mercy because that is how God loves and shows mercy. If we don’t want to be judged, then we don’t need to judge others. If we don’t want to be condemned, then we don’t need to condemn others, and if we want to be forgiven, then we need to forgive others. The truth is, it is not easy to follow Jesus unless we allow God’s love to flow through us, then it becomes easy. If Jesus could stand to be beaten, abused, misunderstood, and lied about without sinning, he can give us the grace to overcome too. Lord, I’m sure your words from that mountain turned the carnal away but we don’t want to be among them. Help us to love our enemies and lay down our life today to follow you and overcome.

Wed.’s Devo - The Beatitudes

Read Luke 6:17-28 Jesus is at the height of his popularity. People from all around are coming to hear his words of life, be healed from every disease, and delivered from demons. Everyone wanted to touch him because the Holy Spirit rested on him and they knew if they could just touch him they would be complete. On the shore of Tyre and Sidon he taught them what has come to called “The Beatitudes”. He begins with blessing. He blesses their circumstance then gives them a promise of a spiritual blessing that is so much better. For the poor and destitute - they can have the kingdom of God. For those who are hungry now - they will be filled. For those who weep now - they will one day laugh. If you are being hated, rejected, and ridiculed for your faith - rejoice because it will bring you a reward. To comfort yourself, remember that there were many prophets and believers who have gone through the same thing too. But…. if you are rich now and have no need for God, then this is all you will get. You have nothing better to look forward to. If you are full and have no hunger for God, you will hunger for him later when it is too late. If you laugh and party now and leave God out, then you will be weeping when the Bride is rejoicing. If you are popular with the world, remember the world loves lies. God’s ways are upside down from the world’s. God’s way is to love your enemy, to do good to those who hate you. Give a blessing to those who curse you and pray for those who do things to you out of spite. We know these verses by heart but they are hard pills to swallow in real life. It is not a quick response to do good to those who are hurting you. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to do this. I can remember a friend who turned against my family and spread some pretty bad and false accusations about us. I saw her one day and without thinking, walked up and hugged her neck and greeted her. My close friend saw this and asked me how I did that. I told her “I didn’t - God did”. It was the truth. I couldn’t have done that on my own, but God who is inside me loves her, and He could. Lord, help us to be hungry for you and allow you to do the impossible through us.

Tues.’s Devo - Choosing His Disciples

Read Luke 6:12-16 Jesus didn’t do anything he didn’t first see his father do, so he chose to spend hours in prayer to be able to see what God was doing. God told him to pick 12 men to follow him and be his disciples. After that night of prayer Jesus was ready to name them. He chose Simon (Peter) and Andrew who were brothers, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, Judas and Judas Iscariot. When you read it you see that they are paired together. When he sent them out, he sent them in pairs so I guess this is how they paired up. Interesting that he would pair the two Judas’ together. Since the first Judas was James brother, and we know that their father was Alphaeus, I looked up the meaning of Alphaeus and it means “produce or gain”. Judas means “he shall be praised”. Iscariot means “he will be hired”. Put all that together and we see that Judas Alphaeus was praised for his fruit and what he produced. Judas Iscarot was praised for what he was hired out to do. Judas A. was praised by the Lord and his followers. Judas I. was praised by Satan and his followers. They were both chosen by Jesus. For the next 3 years Jesus would pour into these men’s lives. He would explain the meaning of the parables he told to the multitude. He would teach them to pray, to heal the sick, to cast out devils, and to do miracles… even Judas. He taught them to let the tares grow up with the wheat because in the harvest the tares would be burned and the wheat saved. Judas heard all Jesus’ teaching and experienced his miracles at Jesus’ hand and at his own. How was Judas picked to be the traitor? I don’t understand destiny and predestiny (is that a word?) All I know is that God knows the end from the beginning. He needed a traitor and Judas must have had that kind of heart - so he got the job. How do you get picked to be one of Jesus’ “twelve”? There are a multitude of people who claim to be Christians and even attend church on a weekly basis but they don’t communicate with him and have a relationship like the twelve did. I have always wanted to be a close disciple not a distant believer. The Bible says that as we draw close to the Lord, he draws close to us. He finds those he can trust with his secrets, and those become like the “twelve”. Lord, we want to be your devoted followers that you can trust with your secrets and your power. Help us walk close with you today.

Mon.’s Devo - The Withered Hand

Read Luke 6:6-11 I often wondered why Jesus seemed to always be healing people on the sabbath, but I realize that he healed on other days too, but on the sabbath, the Pharasees and Saducees were present and he was in the synagogue. This put him on display under their “laws”. Today we find Jesus at the synagogue on the sabbath and a man with a withered hand walks up to be healed. It is a test to see if Jesus will heal on the sabbath which they deemed as “work”. Jesus knew what they were thinking and told the man with the withered hand to rise up and stand in the middle so all could see. Then he asked the crowd this question, “Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? To save life, or to destroy it?” He looked around to give any of them a chance to answer. When no one would take his challenge, he told the man to stretch out his hand and it was restored, right before everyone. The law keepers were enraged with envy and indignation. How dare Jesus defy them in such a powerful way! They started plotting how they could shut down his ministry. I have seen this play out in our world so many times. God will anoint a person with a gift of healing or prophecy and the Christian media will do everything they can to ruin their reputation. So will the devil. It is ashamed that we can’t look at each other as our brothers and sisters. We will never all agree but we can still be unified under what we have in common which is Jesus. How about us? Is there someone we have trouble liking? Maybe it is because we are jealous of their gifts. We are all given gifts to edify one another, so instead of being jealous of their gift, we might want to try being blessed by it. Lord, help us to enjoy what you are doing in others and grow in our own gifts that we might bless others with them.

Sat.’s Devo - My Batman Car

I don’t always blog on Saturday, but felt led to write today. I want to share this with you to open your heart to our Father’s great love for us and how he loves to play with us. God speaks to me often in dreams, so I take my dreams serious. I keep a journal by my bed where I write down the dreams I remember even if they are crazy. I wrote back in July that I dreamed my car was totaled. A week later I dreamed I was getting a new car. Then several months went by and I dreamed my son, Josh walked up and handed me his keys. I went to get in his car and it was the Batmobile! I was shocked because I didn’t know he drove the Batmobile. I was amazed at how easy it was to drive and how I knew what to do. It was great until I tried to turn off the main road and turn around. I ended up stuck. When I woke up I felt like the Lord was telling me to get a car with all the bells and whistles and not deviate from that. I know that we serve an extravagant God, but my husband is not quite as free-falling as I am in my faith, so I knew he would be the roadblock. I shared the dream with him and waited. To confirm my dream, I got an e-mail the next day from a lady in my community group that started: “Holy rusted nails!” For those of us old enough to remember, that is a saying from the Batman series. I couldn’t believe she was using Batman terms! I had no idea what car God had in mind for my Batmobile, but I started noticing cars. One day I was out shopping and I saw this new white Lincoln MKX that I thought was beautiful. Later that day I was at a red light and noticed the car in front of me. It was a new white MKX. So, I started researching on line. The only car I went to look at was a Lexus because someone suggested I look at them. I loved all its tricks but I still didn’t know what God wanted me to do. On New Years Eve, I had gone back to sleep to see if God would give me a dream to tell me what to do. I was rudely awakened by the phone ringing. It was the man from the Lincoln place wanting me to look at this preowned MKX. We had been e-mailing. It was cold and rainy but he told me if I would come, he would make it worth getting out in the weather. When I got there he told me to leave my car with him and drive his car all day. It was black and really nice. I drove it and while I was out I passed a place that said Batman Auto! How fun of God! I still wanted to look at the new ones so when I got back he told me he had also priced a new white one! I smiled to myself and asked him to go with me on a test drive. We took it out and he showed me all the updated bells and whistles. I called Dave from the car and told him I had found my car. I was getting the new one. He said, “Now, why does that not surprise me?” So, God brought me full circle back to what he had for me. God is an extravagant God who loves to bless his children. If you are listening, he is talking. He loves to play! Jeremiah 33:3 Thank you Lord, for your extravagant love!!!

Fri.’s Devo - Lord of the Sabbath

Read Luke 6:1-5 Why does verse one say, “It came to pass on the second sabbath after the first” as if that was significant? It is because it is significant. The first sabbath would be Tishri 7. Tishri 1 is the first day of the Jewish year. The first sabbath would be Tishri 7 and the second sabbath would be Tishri 14. This is the season of Yom Kippor where the people repent of their sins and come to God to atone for them. In the end it will be the time when the church has been taken to heaven and there will be great tribulation on the earth. There will be much tribulation, but many will be reaped into the kingdom during that time. So lets look at what Jesus teaches us about that time. Jesus and his disciples are walking through a cornfield and they pluck some of the ears of corn and rub the kernels off and eat them. The Pharisees come to him and ask him why he breaks the sabbath laws by reaping the ears of corn which they call “work”. Jesus reminds them of what David did when he was running from Saul and hungry. He went to the priest and the only bread the priest had was shewbread from the altar. David was in a war and needed that to sustain him. He did what was necessary. David understood spiritual things and knew that he was sustained daily by God’s Word so his heart won him God’s mercy. Mercy always triumphs over judgment. On the last Yom Kippor it won’t be a sabbath of rest but of reaping. Everyone will need to work for the kingdom during that time and do whatever is necessary just to stay alive. That is why Jesus ended with the statement, “the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath”. He was speaking of not only himself but of his disciples that would come after him. It is the argument of grace over law. Grace always wins. Lord, help us to choose mercy over judgment and grace over law.