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 anymore.   He goes before Pilate and humbly asked for the body of Jesus, so that He might give Jesus a proper burial.    When Pilate grants his request, Joseph then proceeds to Calvary and removes the body of Jesus from the cross (Luke 23.53).   He then, with the help of another converted Pharisee in Nicodemus, anointed the body of Jesus

  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.” (Luke 19.36).   Finally, they were treating Him as He deserved to be treated.   However, not everyone shared in their excitement.   Some of the Pharisees rebuked Jesus, commanding that He make the people stop acting in such a way.    Jesus responds, “I tell you, if these

  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 “Increase our faith!” in Luke 17.5.   Jesus’ reply is very interesting “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”   Our Lord is saying a lit

  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 us about the judgement that is to come. Finally, you have the “Middle of the Road Preachers”.   These men strive to have a good mix of both. Now understand, there is nothing wrong with teaching about the love of Jesus and His grace towards us.   There is also nothing wrong with teaching about conviction, judgement and Hell.     However, there is something wrong with not preaching some of both.    In our reading for today we see Jesus illustrating His love,

  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 could have been Matthew.  Maybe it was John, who although he was called one of the sons of Thunder, had a softer side and just desired the same type of relationship that Jesus had with the Father.  I suppose it could have been John.  Maybe it was even Judas Iscariot, who had already been tempted to take some of the money out of their treasury for himself.  Maybe Judas was feeling somewhat g

  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. Just listen to the words of Jesus and see if you can feel His frustration, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men”. I can almost imagine Jesus grabbing Peter by the ears and speaking as slow as possible in hopes that it would finally register with them.  Yet, much like my children, they so

  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 do was say the word and his servant would recover.    Jesus praises this man’s faith saying not even among His own people had He seen such faith.   That is the kind of faith that Christ wants out of us; a faith that doesn’t demand signs, miracles or wonders, but a faith that says, “j

  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 your eyes off him.  Whether you believed in what John said, or whether you didn’t, he was impossible to ignore!  In the eyes of God…Mission Accomplished! John was just fulfilling what he was called to do “preparing the way of the Lord, making His paths straight” (Luke 3.4).   There are a lot of things that John is not; he w

  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 about Jesus, what I do not know has always intrigued me. For instance, we really have nothing mentioned about the childhood of Jesus except for the story of Jesus in the Temple recorded in Luke 2.41-51. That story would place Jesus about twelve years old, but after that there is nothing mentioned until His baptism when He was about 30 years old.   In my opinion, some of the m

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 the work of the apostles and all the wonderful things they did, but we should never forget these women that were followers of Jesus; they never left, they were there all along.       

  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, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away”.  In a world that is full of doubt and one that is confused on the reality of Truth, Jesus offers us a promise of comfort in knowing that His words will endure forever.    This isn’t the only time we see this sentiment expressed in Scripture.  It is also found in I Peter 1.25, “But the word of the Lord remai

  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 Jesus overturned the money changer in the Temple in John 2 the subtle hint was  “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up again” (John 2.19).   The hint being that He was speaking of His impending resurrection.  In our reading for today, Jesus again leaves one of those subtle hints.  “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto Me” (John 12.32).   Today, it is easy for us to see that Jesus was speaking of

  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.  Marriage is meant to be a commitment between a man and a woman and God.  Those vows that we made to each other on our wedding day were meant to be kept until death do us part.  Now, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t place an opportunity for divorce; In fact, that is what we have within our reading this morning in Matthew 19.9; However, divorce is to be the last resor

  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 Malachi  "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his t

  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?   Several years ago Ivan Stewart authored the book “Go Ye, Means Go Me” which dealt with that exact issue.   Within that book lies the idea that as long as the church is in existence and as long as Jesus has all authority, then the

  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 witnessed Jesus reattach Malcus’ ear that had been severed by Peter.   What was it that entered their minds that allowed them to think that they could contain the Almighty Son of God with a few ropes or chains?   On the surface it sounds rather ludicrous to believe that mere ropes or chains would be able to prevent

  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 institute such a feast?  There are several reasons but let’s note a few of the obvious ones.  First, Jesus wanted it to serve as an explanation about what was to happen, “This is My body” …” this is My blood”.  Jesus needed a way to explain to them what was about to happen so that when it did, it would serve as a reminder to them about the importance of what was taking plac

  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 is just as much about what you don’t see as it is what you do see.  You don’t see the two-talent man complaining about not getting as much as the five-talent man, you simple see him using the gifts that he was given to gain more.  What if we were more like the two-talent man?  Would we begin to question as to why we did not receive as many talents as the five-talent man? Why not four-t

  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 maintain his composure, until he knew he could not contain his embarrassment.  He began to apologize and admit that he had gotten busy with school work and other activities and had forgotten to prepare a lesson for chapel.  In his humiliation he simply said “I am sorry. I have no excuse. I am just not prepared.” and then he sat down.  As you can imagine, you could not hear a single sound in the audience. Seconds passed that felt like hours as people began to loo

          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 do for someone in need, we do

  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 the numerous tables of l

             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 turning away from a mindset that we are strong,

  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 ground ready for planting.   It was hard work, bu