THE HOME DEVO

  DISCUSSION                                                                           Joseph of Arimathea had been a disciple of Jesus for some time, but he had done so in secret.   You see, Joseph was a member of the Jewish Council called the Sanhedrin; the exact same Council that were responsible for arresting Jesus in the garden leading to His ultimate crucifixion.    If it were made known that one of their own had become a disciple of Jesus, it would have surely resulted in severe punishment and possibly even death.   However, after everything had been completed and Jesus’ body hangs lifeless between heaven and earth, Joseph could not be secret anymo...

  DISCUSSION                                                                  As Jesus prepares to enter Jerusalem for the last time before His death, the people are beginning to accept that He was not just another prophet.   As He enters the city, even His method of transportation is different… “a colt” or a young donkey. It wasn’t just the method that was unique, the path was somewhat different as well.   The people were taking off their cloaks and laying them down on the ground in front of the colt, so the feet of the colt did not have to touch the ground.   The royal treatment did not stop there. The people shouted “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” (L...

  DISCUSSION                                                    I want to commend you and thank you for using our “Home Devo”. We believe it is an easy way to study the Scripture and we hope it only whets your appetite for a deeper study.   The “Home Devo” is one of many tools that you can use to grow closer to God.   In today’s world, many believe that is harder to study with so many distractions, but there are also so many more opportunities provided for us as well.   You don’t have to go far to find devotionals, websites, blogs and podcasts all available at the touch of your fingers.   In our reading for the day, the apostles, after hearing Jesus, discuss how sin and temptations were interested in growing the faith.   They ask Jesus simply ...

  DISCUSSION                                                                                                     I believe that we can separate our preachers into three main categories.   First, you have what I like to call “Fluffy Preachers”.   These men love to preach the “Fluffy” news of the Gospel.   Their sermons, for the most part, are full of love, mercy, tolerance and grace.   Next, you have the “Hell-Fire and Brimstone Preachers”.   These men are considered more old school preachers; they like to step on our toes and warn u...

  DISCUSSION                                                                                       “Lord, teach us to pray…” I wish I knew who it was that made this simple request.  Could it have been Andrew?  Andrew had originally been a disciple of John the Baptist and had seen how John had prayed; I suppose it could have been Andrew.  Maybe it was Matthew, who was a Levite and had even been trained to pray as a Levite making pleas for the people of God; Yet had now become a tax collector and maybe was seeking how he could restore that relationship he had once had with the Father.  I suppose it coul...

  DISCUSSION                                                                       As a parent, I feel that I am constantly having to remind my children of certain things like, clean your room, put up your clothes, and make sure you have on clean underwear.  It is very frustrating to feel like I am having to repeat myself over and over. I wonder if Jesus felt the same type of frustration?  Over and over in the Scripture we find Jesus having to remind His disciples of His coming death, yet repeatedly they let it go in one ear and out the other. In Luke 9.44 Jesus is once again giving insight to His disciples concerning His upcoming death. Ju...

  DISCUSSION                                                           The expression “just say the word” typically is used to indicate one’s willingness to be ready to help someone else on command.   However, in our reading for the day it us used to express something else, faith.   Luke records the story of a centurion who had a servant that was at the point of death.   When he hears about the power of Jesus, he sends word asking for the elders of the Jews to seek out Jesus to help him. Upon hearing that Jesus is on His way to heal his servant, the centurion sent out his friends to meet Jesus before He arrived.    Their message was clear, “just say the word…”.   The centurion knew that all Jesus had to ...

  DISCUSSION                                                                     Imagine that you are standing on the banks of the Jordan River, when you see a large man wearing a coat of camel hair wade into to water. “Repent!” He says in a loud obnoxious tone. “Repent! Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand”.  The more he talks, the louder and more animated he becomes. You stand in awe of not only how he looks, but with what passion he is shouting to you and to anyone that will listen.  You can’t help but stare, even though you know that it’s rude.  You watch his mannerisms, you hear his words, and you are captivated by His message. You physically can’t take y...

  DISCUSSION                                                                                 The Bible gives us everything we need to know about the life of Christ, yet there is a great deal about His life that we do not know.   It reminds me of John’s concluding remarks in his Gospel “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. ” (John 20:30-31).   Even though I fully understand that I have everything I need to know abou...

DISCUSSION                                                           After Jesus was crucified in Mark 16, we read of his resurrection.  We also read of three women that were there when Jesus was crucified, and when he was resurrected.  These women were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome.  In vs 2 we see the day after Jesus was buried in the tomb, they got up very early in the morning to anoint him with spices.  They loved Jesus and were true followers of Him.  The devotion of these women is an example for us all.  Women can have such an impact in the Church today.  Devotion and love for Jesus, that’s what these women showed.  A lot of times we talk of...

  DISCUSSION                                                                              While on this earth, Jesus made several promises.  In John 10.10 He promises an abundant life to all His followers.  In John 15.14-15, he promises us His hand in friendship if we do whatsoever He has commanded us to do.  In Matthew 28.20, He promised to be with us always.  All these promises (along with many more) are wonderful for us today and offer us motivation to continue to endure till the end.  However, in today’s world, the most important promise that Jesus made to us could be the one we find in Mark 13.31.  It reads, “H...

  DISCUSSION                                                                                              Jesus knew that there would be some people that would not fully buy into Him being the Son of God.  He knew that it would take time for them to see that He was the complete fulfillment of prophecy and that it would even take the resurrection before some would become disciples.  To help encourage their faith along, Jesus would leave a few subtle hints throughout His ministry about things that would shortly come to pass.  For instance, when Jesu...

  DISCUSSION                                                                                Divorce is one of the most difficult issues that plagues our society.  No matter what the situation, God hates divorce (Malachi 2.16).  The reason for that hatred, is because divorce never just affects the man and the woman.  The ripples of divorce affect the children, the extended family of both sides, not to mention the friends of the couple as well.  The world wants us to believe that the lines between divorce have been blurred so much, that is it more of a gray issue.  However, for God the issue seems to be black and white.  M...

  DISCUSSION                             The reading today introduces us to another colorful character of God’s providential story… John the Baptizer.  Hope for the Jews was continuing to grow with the empire of Rome seizing control of the world. There were those devout Jews, who we are aware of in Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and a realization that within the Roman kingdom, God would establish His kingdom that would last forever.  This prompted many people like Simeon and Anna who were “waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2.38), to keep watch for events that would be prompted.  One of the prophecies that would serve as a key to when this hope would be realized was from Isaiah  “A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)  and Mal...

  DISCUSSION                                                     As Matthew closes his account of the Gospel of Jesus, he leaves us with what has been called the Great Commission.   A Commission is an instruction, command, or duty given to a person or group of people.   In this case, the instruction is given by Jesus and the group of people who are commissioned are His disciples. It is referred to as “Great” in the sense of how important this command is to the culmination of God’s plan. Jesus, as the risen Savior, has the authority of all heaven and all earth and now commissions His Disciples to open the doors to His Kingdom. Specifically, Jesus is directing this towards His eleven disciples. So, does this passage have any value or authority to me today? ...

  DISCUSSION                                                                  In Matthew 27.1-2, the chief priests and the elders have taken counsel against Jesus to put Him to death.   Something very interesting happens before they lead Him away to Pilate the governor. The text says that they “bound” Him.   The word “bound” simply means to “tie up” or to “put in chains”.   I guess the idea was that they were going to tie Jesus up so that He would not be able to escape or break free and run away.   Don’t you think it rather strange for them to do this?   After all, they had all been around Him and seen some of the magnificent things that He was able to do.   They had just wi...

  DISCUSSION                                                                                  The disciples of Jesus had not been strangers to the Passover meal.  In fact, they were all good Jews and had taken part in the Passover feast ever since they were children.  However, this Passover was different.  It was different in the fact that this would be the last Passover they would share with Jesus in the flesh.  This was also different because Jesus was going to use this Passover to institute a new feast that would be partaken of later by New Testament Christians from now until His return.  Why?  Why would Jesus institu...

  DISCUSSION                                                                                    Last week I heard a preacher give a lesson on his favorite person in the Bible.  He gave people an opportunity to guess who it could be, of course you got the standard answers like: Jesus, God, Moses and Peter.  However, none of these possibilities were even close.  His favorite Bible character was a man that did not even have a name; we simply refer to him as the two-talent man. You see, he wasn’t as blessed as the five-talent man, but he was blessed more than the one talent man.  What makes him so special...

  DISCUSSION                                                                                                     Several years ago, a classmate of mine was scheduled to speak in our high school chapel at Mars Hill Bible School.  It isn’t unusual for people to get nervous before giving a lesson, especially in an audience of your peers, but on this day the speaker looked extremely uncomfortable.  As he stood up to deliver his lesson, there was an awkward silence in the auditorium.  The speaker began to stammer a bit and try to ma...

          Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. —  Matthew 25:40 We saw him in the city of Chicago near the place where we were staying. His name was John, and he was homeless. His only means of transportation was a wheelchair. No matter how often he was invited to come inside or urged to stay at a shelter, he refused. The only thing he did accept was some change and some leftover food. Some people would label him a loser. In today’s parable the Lord Jesus uses a different name to describe millions of people like John. He calls them “the least of these.” The unborn child; the person who is mentally or physically challenged; people who are homeless, or hungry, or refugees; people in prison; people who might never be able to live productive lives—all are among “the least of these.” And Jesus does not mean these are lesser people, as if they were not as important as others. He adds that whatever we d...

  Humility is a greatly under-emphasized quality among humans. We don't know what it means. We don't know how to appreciate it. We don't know how to do it. And we're not all that sure we want to have it. Culturally, we're much more drawn to the energetic, dynamic, charismatic, crowd-drawing leader. That's who gets the headlines and the attention. But if we listen closely and watch carefully, we can see in Jesus someone who is humble, but strong; humble, but charismatic; humble, but crowd drawing; humble, but dynamic. You see, the same Lord who stilled the storm and spoke to the crowds is the Lord who washed feet and died on a cross and held babies in his arms when it wasn't politically correct. So maybe we need to rethink humility and live it like Jesus did. Come to think of it, that's exactly what we need to do; no maybe about it! Let's be like Jesus and the humility comes along with the character !       

  “When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” It’s easy to think about “the law” as simply a bunch of rules. Or a moral code. Or a laundry list of dos and don’ts. Worse, we often experience the law as something that is at best rather negative and at worse fairly threatening. (That goes along, I think, with our generic picture of God as a rule-enforcer who sits up in the sky making sure nobody has too much fun, but that’s for another time.) And when you read a list of laws – be it the Ten Commandments or one of ...

             At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1-4 ESV)   Most of us want to know our life counts beyond the here and now. Jesus’ closest followers wanted to know more than that- they wanted to be the greatest in His kingdom. Jesus constantly turns our ideas of power and influence upside down. Jesus tells us we must take the posture of children to enter God’s kingdom, and that our humility will ultimately impact our influence. In other scriptures Jesus issues a similar challenge by saying those who want to be greatest (first) must take the posture of servants and slaves (Mark 10:42-45). This requires...

  The Parable of the Sower is Jesus’ longest.   It is also His most in depth explanation of a parable. There should be little wonder then about it’s meaning and its importance.   The clear message is that the gospel is the seed of the kingdom.   It has to be sown and when it is different, results follow based on the kind of soil on which the seed lands. The unstated great truth is that we, as people with a mind and heart, can change the kind of ground we are.   We may not by natural endowments or from circumstances of our lives be ready automatically to receive the seed when it comes.   But we can carefully examine this parable and realize that even physical ground can be improved.   Anyone with a farming background knows that.   Growing up on the farm I came to realize that constant improvement of the soil was essential to success in agriculture.   So much of America was plowed for the first time by the pioneers to make the groun...