Thursday: Father Knows Best
Posted by kenneth - 08/04/09 at 01:04:37 pmOn the Road to Calvary
This week we will explore a few of the many events that took place during the week prior to Christ’s crucifixion and his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week, the day we call Easter. Let us walk with Jesus as he walked those last steps of his life on the road to Calvary.
THURSDAY, April 9
Reading: John 13:1-17
Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
1It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8″No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
9″Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
10Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13″You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Devotional: Father Knows Best
When we walk with Jesus we sometimes have needs that we believe God should meet in a certain way – uh, our way. We spend time in prayer boldly asking, and in some cases, demanding God to change this or do that. We forget that God has a plan. A perfect plan. He knows our needs, physically, spiritually and emotionally, long before we are even aware of them. We get afraid or impatient and get lost in our own answers.
Peter was just like us. Jesus was ministering to the disciples just as they needed. He was teaching them just what they needed to know. Peter resisted it and demanded more, even something different.
Jesus wants us to know that the Father has established the path for our life. He knows what we need and when we need it. Indeed, our Father knows best! The question is, can we see and receive his leading?
Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ~ John 13:7
Prayer: Jesus, help me trust you with my life. Enable me to see the wisdom in your plan for me. Amen.
Wednesday: Our Intended Purpose
Posted by kenneth - 07/04/09 at 01:04:50 pmOn the Road to Calvary
This week we will explore a few of the many events that took place during the week prior to Christ’s crucifixion and his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week, the day we call Easter. Let us walk with Jesus as he walked those last steps of his life on the road to Calvary.
WEDNESDAY, April 8
Reading: Matthew 21:12-17
Jesus at the Temple
12Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13″It is written,” he said to them, ” ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’ ”
14The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
16″Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. ”Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, ” ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’?”
17And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
Devotional: Our Intended Purpose
As a child, did you ever go exploring at your grandparents’ house and discover an interesting object and you did not know what it was? Maybe you’ve been shopping at a yard sale or antique shop and saw an item for which you had to ask the owner, “What exactly is this and what was it used for?” As adults, we may even possess objects that our own children or grandchildren have to ask us about. And if we do not pass on this information to them, its use may be lost at our death.
In today’s scripture passage, this is what happened with the temple. It angered Jesus and he drove out the money changers. He then re-established the temple’s intended purpose as “A House of Prayer”. He called it “His House”.
When we give our life to Jesus, we are then “His House of the Holy Spirit”. Let us ask our Maker, “What was my original intended purpose? What did You create me to do?” God alone knows, and if we ask him to re-establish that purpose, he will drive out everything that hinders and even blocks us from becoming all that he wants us to be.
Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. ~ Proverbs 19:21
Prayer: Jesus, please help me let you re-establish your original intended purpose in my life. I confess sometimes I don’t even know what that is. Thank you that you are waiting and willing to drive out all that hinders my development in you. Amen.
Tuesday: Watch in Expectation
Posted by kenneth - 06/04/09 at 01:04:34 pmOn the Road to Calvary
This week we will explore a few of the many events that took place during the week prior to Christ’s crucifixion and his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week, the day we call Easter. Let us walk with Jesus as he walked those last steps of his life on the road to Calvary.
TUESDAY, April 7
Reading: Matthew 25:1-14; Mark 13:32-35
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
1″At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6″At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7″Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9″ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10″But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11″Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’
12″But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’
13″Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
The Day and Hour Unknown
32″No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35″Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.
Devotional: Watching in Expectation
Jesus. Won’t it be great to see him? To bow before him and kiss his feet in worship? To thank him for all his love and forgiveness and provision? To praise him for how he has changed you and your family?
In his last days here on earth, Jesus made it clear that he will come back to get us. There are times it is so hard to live here without him in physical form to encourage us. That is why we must watch for his coming. There are two things that are true here. First, Jesus is coming. We don’t know when, but he will come back anytime, any day. I personally can’t wait. Second, we are easily distracted. Every day is filled with our needs, pain, fear, unforgiveness, anger, and yes, even rebellion.
We need to ask Jesus to teach us to watch for him. We really don’t know how to wait in expectation for his return. An application is found in our daily reliance on Jesus. See, when a need appears we ask for his intervention, then we look for him to come and meet us in that need. We rely on him and we expect him to care for us. Likewise, we can watch for his coming and wait expectantly, knowing it will come to pass. God’s Word is true. Jesus is coming again!
“… This same Jesus … will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” – Acts 1:11
Prayer: Father, teach me how to look for Jesus to come to me in my everyday needs. Then, teach me to watch for Him ‘til he comes for us all. Amen.
Monday: Walk in Hope
Posted by kenneth - 05/04/09 at 01:04:41 pmOn the Road to Calvary
This week we will explore a few of the many events that took place during the week prior to Christ’s crucifixion and his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week, the day we call Easter. Let us walk with Jesus as he walked those last steps of his life on the road to Calvary.
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MONDAY, April 6
Reading: John 11:1-44
The Death of Lazarus
1Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. 3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
7Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”
9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. 10It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”
11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Jesus Comforts the Sisters
17On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
28And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34“Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35Jesus wept.
36Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead
38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39“Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
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Devotional: Walk in Hope
Mary and Martha send a messenger to Jesus to inform him of the illness of their brother and his friend, Lazarus. Jesus does not hurry to his side, but waits two days before beginning his journey. He knows that Lazarus is now dead and tells his disciples he is going to awaken him. By the time they arrive, Lazarus has been dead four days. The house once filled with times of joy and comfort is now filled with grief. Lazarus’ sisters are alone. When Martha hears that Jesus is coming, she goes out to meet him. She tells him that if he had been there her brother would not have died.
Even though we walk with Jesus, we still walk in our own understanding. In this case, Mary and Martha walked in grief. That was all they knew. They did not understand what they needed, but Jesus did. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Mary and Martha needed hope.
We live in a world that is very limited in hope. But, take heart! Jesus is our Hope and his resources are limitless! This week as you walk with Jesus on the Road to Calvary, do not walk in your own understanding. Ask God to help you walk in Christ’s unlimited hope.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
– John 11:44b
Prayer: Father, help me live with Jesus as my Hope and not in this world’s hope. Amen.
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