The 260 Journey

The 260 Journey
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A life-changing experience through the New Testament one chapter at a time.

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    Living a High-Def Life

    Day 52 Today's Reading: Luke 8 A friend of mine said, “You’re only as sick as your secrets.” Christianity is not something that works well with secrets. In fact, in today’s reading we come to an amazing chapter packed with teaching, healing, and miracles. Tucked away in this long chapter is one thing that Jesus taught that particularly stands out to me: Nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light. (Luke 8:17) Or as The Message paraphrase puts it: We’re not keeping secrets; we’re telling them. We’re not hiding things; we’re bringing everything out into the open. Freedom happens when everything is out in the open. For us older folks . . . we remember growing up with television sets the size of a couch. A little white dot signified the television was warming up. We didn’t have cable; we called it “rabbit ears”—an antenna that sat on top of the set, and if you were tech savvy you put aluminum foil on the antenna to get “better” reception. And because there was no remote, just a loose knob to change channels, when the knob fell off and someone lost it—as always seemed to happen in my house—we had to change channels with pliers. Televisions have changed. Everything is HD, 4K. You can see everything. Every drop of sweat, every wrinkle in the skin, the spit coming out of a mouth— it’s all there in high definition. And in today’s reading, Jesus is challenging us to living a life in high def. Though it is not easy, it is the best way. Something liberates others when people go high def. Living in high def, we have no secrets. Why is living high def the right way? Because . . . • Secrets don’t work with God • Secrets always get exposed or get confessed (exposed by others or confessed by you) The bigger why is because sin grows in the dark. High def puts light on it and stunts its growth. When you put the light on something, you take the legs out from something growing bigger. You expose the lies that incubate in darkness. Let me challenge you with something: apologizers get exposed, confessors go high def. They tell the secrets before anyone else can. They build trust from vulnerability, not by portraying invincibility. I have learned this in my marriage and in any healthy relationship. When do I know there is growth in any relationship? When I confess my wrong before my spouse or friend confronts my wrong. I confess before I am confronted. I am convicted before they can get offended. That is a huge win and huge progress. This is putting light on secrets. This is living in hi def. Jesus warned us that all secrets are going to go public. As a Christian, I choose to make sure I have no secrets in my life, in my Christian walk, and in my marriage. It’s so much easier to be real than to pretend. It takes a lot of work pretending. I remember Jack Hayford, former pastor of Church on the Way saying, “The holier a man is, the more real he is.” I want to be a real Christian. A group of new Christians went high def and this is what happened: “Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done” (Acts 19:18, NIV). That’s high def, 4K. What did it do when they went honest? A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. . . . In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. (Acts 19:19-20, NIV) Transparency and confession do more than bring healing: they start a revolution. Openly confessed . . . affects a number of people in the occult to change. I’m too exhausted pretending. I don’t have that kind of energy to be impressive, but I do have just enough to be real. Do you?

    4 min

  2. 3 DAYS AGO

    What Do I Do With All These Tears?

    Day 51 Today's Reading: Luke 7 Today we land on Luke 7. In the last story of the chapter (verses 36-50), Jesus is in a house with a number of religious people and a prostitute comes in and washes His feet with her hair. This is how pastor and author Chuck Swindoll explains it in a chapter titled “Jesus at His Best:” While families gather for dinner and close their door for the night, her workday begins. With saffron scarves and lavender veils, dangling earrings and a dab of perfume, she dresses herself for show. . . . [she] survives by her looks . . . and looks she’ll get. A leer. A scowl. A wink. A sneer. All sorts of looks, except one . . . love. She is a prostitute. How many times has her heart ached to be wanted for more than one night? To be valued instead of evaluated? To be prized instead of priced? Her scarlet letter will never rub clean. This day though, she will meet what she’s hardly dared to hope for. For she will meet love. She will meet kindness. She will meet Jesus. Into this refined religious party comes a woman, a prostitute, unclean and out of place. She has taken a risk: Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. (Luke 7:36-38) The thirty years I ministered in Detroit, our church worked with many prostitutes. We saw the hurt and brokenness and longing to be whole again. They all wanted freedom but were afraid. Many were scared to leave the business because of retaliation by their pimp. That is this woman in Luke 7. While men were looking at her, I too want us to look at her. Let’s look at three parts of her body—for all the right reasons. 1. Her Back The best seats at this kind of party were at the table and reserved for the host and his friends. This woman did not have a shot at getting near Jesus. While these kind of parties can have bystanders, they must stand with their backs against the wall as observers. This woman was one of them. Her back was on the wall. She must have thought about what happened earlier in her town, that a funeral was interrupted when Jesus resurrected the body. And now she is close to Him. If he raised someone from the dead, he must certainly be able to free her from her life and her choices. She has a decision to make: does she take her back off the wall and give Jesus a chance. She chooses well—she takes her back off the wall. 2. Her Hair Today if we want to know if someone is married, we look at their left ring finger. This wasn’t the case in the first century. It was their hair. If a person’s hair was up, they were available. If their hair was let down, they were married, taken. Every prostitute had their hair up but on this day, she found her man and let down her hair so she could wash His feet with it. She became a taken woman. 3. Her Eyes Or more specifically her tears. How much can a person really cry? Enough to wash Jesus’ feet? They say a good cry is 1 to 2 cc’s. This is not nearly enough to wash Jesus’ feet. But that is not what happened. She did not put her eyes on His feet, she broke open her tear bottle. In Strange Scriptures that Perplex the Western Mind, Barbara Bowen said that every person had in their possession a tear bottle and they would actually bottle their tears from painful situations. I saw these bottles when I went to Israel. Think about what this woman did—she held in her hand all those painful moments where she cried and did not know who was able to handle this pain. Who could she get to give her pain and tears to? She found Him. She broken open that bottle and put her pain at His feet. She had a choice either to try to manage those tears herself or pour it on the feet of Jesus. Why His feet? Hebrews 2:8 tells us that “You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” All things go to the feet of Jesus. She took her back off the wall. Let down her hair and broke open that tear bottle. And that day she found forgiveness. One person said this about tears: “Tears are prayers too. They travel to God when we can’t speak.” This woman found the feet of Jesus. That’s where her tears belonged and that’s where yours and my tears belong. It’s too much for us to manage our own tear bottles, so let’s break them open in the presence of Jesus.

    5 min

  3. 4 DAYS AGO

    A Christian’s Retaliation Response

    Day 50 Today's Reading: Luke 6 I know there is a lot of folklore that goes with the masterpiece of the Lord’s Supper painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. Whether this is true or not, I love this story I read recently about the painting. When Leonardo Da Vinci was working on this famous Last Supper painting, he became angry with one of his assistants, berating the man without mercy. After banishing his assistant from his studio, he went back to work. As an act of revenge, he used the person’s face who had offended him for the face of Judas. He continued his work until he tried to paint the face of Jesus, and he couldn’t do it. No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to paint Christ’s. So he stopped painting, went to his assistant and asked his forgiveness. Only when the man forgave him and they reconciled was Da Vinci able to return to the table of the Last Supper and paint Jesus. When Leonardo showed mercy and pardon to his assistant, Jesus became a lot clearer. This is where we land in today’s reading. Jesus becomes clearer to us and the world around us based on how we respond to people who hurt us or take advantage of us. In fact, when we read this chapter, we recognize that it’s about Christian retaliation. Listen to Jesus’ words from Luke’s Sermon on the Mount: I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. (Luke 6:27-31) Here is the Christian retaliation: Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who mistreat you. Notice I didn’t say to post about it on social media. We are to pray, not post. If a person hits you on one side, offer the other side. If they steal, give them something else they didn’t ask for. Give to everyone who asks of you and don’t demand back. This seems unnatural to do—and it is. It’s supernatural. This is where the face of Jesus shows up clearer for you, on you, and for others. A number of years ago, Dr. David H. Fink, a psychiatrist for the veterans’ administration, wrote a book titled, Release from Nervous Tension. In his book, he outlined his research into the causes of mental and emotional disturbances in people’s lives. From more than ten thousand case studies, he discovered a common trait among all his patients who suffered from severe tension. They were habitual fault-finders, constant critics of people and things around them. Those who were free from tension and anxiety were the least critical. His conclusions were that the habit of fault-finding is a prelude or mark of the nervous, or the mentally unbalanced. Those who wish to retain good emotional and mental health should learn to free themselves from a negative and critical attitude. Thank you, Dr. Fink, but Jesus already mapped this out for us two thousand years earlier in His Sermon on the Mount. Instead of Jesus coming from a case-study standpoint, He came from the Creator standpoint. He already knew what was best for the people He created. So Jesus said, “Here’s how you respond to the craziness of people’s actions and reactions . . . instead of being critical and negative, do the supernatural.” And here is the result: when we do that, we get what we give and we will get more of it. If we show love, we will get a lot more back. If we show mercy, we will get it overflowing back. If we show pardon, we will be forgiven many times over. Jesus was telling us to let someone off the hook today. You may “have them” and have a screenshot of a text they sent, for example. You have a smoking gun. But how about showing mercy and pardoning them? Your goal every day is not to convict and find evidence on how bad people are to you. Instead, Jesus wants your goal to be to pardon when you have the evidence to convict. Here are the rest of Jesus’ words to those who retaliate this way: Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. (Luke 6:35) Did you catch that? Your reward will be great when you retaliate God’s way. What kind of reward was Jesus referring to? He tells us in verse 38: Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return. I have heard this verse in regards to money. If this is how you’ve interpreted this verse, I hate to break this to you, but there are no dollar signs around this verse. Instead read the prior ten verses to see what verse 38 means: • It has to do with what you give to people who hurt you • It’s a new level of relating to people • It’s Christian retaliation Over the years, leaders have preached that the “give” in verse 38 is money, but not according to Jesus. There are enough verses on money in the Bible that we don’t need to make square pieces fit into round holes. Jesus is not talking about giving money but giving pardon and mercy to people. In New Testament times, men wore their outer garment in such a way as to have a pocket on the front, which was used for holding wheat that had been purchased. They would buy a pocket full of wheat and pour it into the pocket and press and shake it down so as much as possible would fit in. If the purchaser received so much wheat that even after doing all that pressing and shaking it still overflowed outside of his garment, he was considered to be especially blessed. Jesus was saying that when you show mercy, pardon, love, and generosity to those who deserve the opposite, you are about to get a whole bunch of mercy, pardon, love, and generosity coming your way. Retaliate the right way—the Jesus way—and you’ll find the rewards are amazing. I could have saved Dr. Fink the time and government money he spent in studying those ten thousand cases and just had him study the Sermon on the Mount in Luke 6.

    7 min

  4. 5 DAYS AGO

    I Want My Own Fish Story

    Day 49 Today's Reading: Luke 5 I have a prayer I pray that a pastor friend from Alabama taught me. It goes like this: “Lord, the answer is yes even before You ask.” I want to be able to say yes to the Lord at all times. I want you to be able to do that too, so let me talk to you about fishing and your yes, Lord agreement. I don’t really fish. I have been fishing but I am by no means a fisherman nor do I enjoy it. You always hear of people telling their fish story where the fish seems to get bigger and bigger the more they tell it. In actuality they caught Nemo, but over time they hooked Jaws. Today’s reading shows us a great fish story. This one is Peter’s: Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken. (Luke 5:1-9) Don’t miss those first few words, because they are significant. Jesus saw two boats (verse 2). He got into one boat (verse 3). He saw two, He got into one. This leaves me with the question, had I been there, would it have been my boat He got into? Why is that important? It’s important because that’s the boat the miracle came from. That’s the boat that had the big fish story attached to it. That’s the boat that caught so many fish that the net broke. But something else happened. Verse 7 says when the fishermen saw that the net was breaking, “they signaled to their partners in the other boat.” That’s boat number 2 of the story—the boat that wasn’t chosen. Peter received the miracle; the other boat received the overflow. The other boat didn’t have Jesus preach from it. The other boat didn’t have Jesus challenge them to go out deeper. The other boat didn’t hear fishing commands from a carpenter. The other boat got to participate with the fish. The other boat did not get a fish story but they got to tell another man’s fish story. The more I thought about it, the more I realized . . . I want God to choose me. I want God to pick my boat. I want God to pick my family. I’m tired of telling other people’s fish stories. I’m tired of getting to experience other people’s obedience. It’s time for me to go out deeper. It’s time for me to hear from God for myself. It’s time for me to let the carpenter tell the experienced man, “You don’t know everything, do what I say.” It’s time for me to get my own fish story. Tired of secondhand fish stories? There are always two boats ready! It’s time for you to say, “Yes, Lord! Use my boat, Jesus!”

    4 min

  5. 6 DAYS AGO

    Satan Quotes the Bible

    Day 48 Today's Reading: Luke 4 In today’s reading we actually get to read one of the most amazing chapters of a different book—Psalm 91. Psalm 91 starts off with these familiar words: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” (Verses 1-2) And then Psalm 91 ends with these powerful words from God: He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation. (Verses 15-16) It is an entire psalm of God’s protection on His children. Sandwiched in between these verses is specific protection from God’s angels, His army: He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone. (Verses 11-12) We find this psalm quoted in Luke 4, but what makes this crazy is the one who quotes it. Ready for this? Satan, the devil himself quotes the Bible—to Jesus, God Himself. As we read today, Jesus is in the wilderness with the devil and He is fighting against the three temptations Satan throws at Him by quoting Scripture. Three times Jesus says, “It is written” to the devil. For the second temptation, Satan takes Jesus to the top of the temple and tempts Jesus to jump off the pinnacle and then complicates the temptation by quoting Psalm 91: The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” (Verses 9-11, NIV) A crazy temptation gets muddied when the devil quotes the Bible, which makes it seem justified. Satan says, “It is written” just as Jesus said it. The devil knows the Bible and that the devil quotes and uses and manipulates it is a very scary thought. People don’t realize that nothing is off limits for Satan. His attacks are not always to tempt us with obvious things, like porn, alcohol, or drugs. He can use the Bible to try to get people to do things in the name of God, without God being anywhere near it. Just because you have a Bible verse to back up your thoughts and actions may not mean that verse came from God. Could the devil have spoken a Verse to you? He did to Jesus. Listen closely. How do you think cults get started. With just one verse that Satan manipulates and tempts people to believe. Where do cults get their beginning? With a Satanic interpretation of a Bible verse. Satan’s interpretation of Psalm 91 was that God wanted Jesus to jump off the highest point of the temple to show that God wouldn’t let Him fall, that His angels would catch Him. Nothing could be more of an abuse to a passage of Scripture than what Satan told Jesus. He tried to get Jesus to do something based upon an isolated Scripture that wasn’t interpreted in light of the whole Bible. Did you get that? It is not that the Bible is in contradiction, it is that our interpretations contradict the Bible. And the misinterpretation comes when we define a verse without understanding its context, when we define a verse isolated from the entire Bible’s intent. Some years ago I was sitting with a young man in a Detroit diner who was convinced that Billy Graham and I were both going to hell if we were not baptized with a certain formula that his group said we had to be baptized with. For him salvation was built on a baptism formula instead of on the blood shed at Calvary. His religious group took a Bible passage and instead of adding all the other verses together, they jumped off into thin air. The very thing Jesus did not do. Remember the issue in the wilderness temptation: It isn’t the Bible that contradicts itself, but our wrong interpretations that contradict the Bible. Bible interpretation must be done with a number of things in view: • Historical context • Original languages • Context • Rest of the Bible (seeing the whole not just the one passage) There are people who will take passages and find themselves jumping into thin air and will find no angels to catch their fall. So here is what Jesus does in this scene: He interprets the Word with the Word. Many times we interpret the Word with books. The Bible interprets the Bible. So what does all this mean to you and me? First, nothing is off-limits to Satan. He will use holy things and pervert them. The Bible is not out of bounds; Satan is no respecter of persons. Think about it, he quoted God’s Word to Jesus, not to some new convert. He will pervert passages and preachers and churches. Nothing is safe when the devil is around. Second, we must live by the whole Bible not a verse. People have done crazy things based on one verse and have failed to enrich themselves and others. Satan can use an “out of context” Bible verse to get us to do something out of God’s will. Out of context is out of God’s will. Be prepared and be alert to the devil’s schemes.

    6 min

  6. 6 MAR

    John the Baptist’s Water Baptism Instructional Class

    Day 47 Today's Reading: Luke 3 Today I want to take you to a water baptism class. I believe that water baptism displays the difference between the casual Christian and a serious follower of Jesus, because it is clear in the Bible that it is a next step after being born again. As Max Lucado says, “Baptism separates the tire kickers from the car buyers.” Water Baptism does not mark an arrival but a beginning. Let me tell you four things that are important about water baptism: 1. It’s Scriptural Water baptism was Jesus’ idea not the church’s. In Matthew 28:19-20, we read that Jesus connected water baptism to discipleship. Water baptism is done when a person is born again. You never read of an unbaptized believer anywhere in the Bible. Water baptism is done after second birth, not the first birth. There is not one single verse in the Bible that says you become a Christian when your body touches the water. 2. Historically, It’s Public You are going public with your faith. When you get water baptized, you get advertised. It is a public declaration to show everyone whom you are following. You will see places in Scripture that say, “There was much water.” They would do this outside in a lake or a river. Wherever it took place, it was for everyone to see what had happened to that person. The same is true for you. The city, your family, your coworkers, heaven, and hell now know you have taken the second step of discipleship with your walk with Jesus. 3. It’s Symbolic When we get married, we say, “With this ring, I thee wed.” Though we make that statement, we know that putting the ring on the finger is not what makes us married. The same is true with water baptism. There is no magic water. It’s not the water that does anything; it is our step of obedience that is the big deal. To make it anything more than a symbol is dangerous, it’s like worshiping our wedding bands. To cling to a symbol is what many try to do, though. And they miss what God is trying to show us. What is the symbol? It is a symbol of death, burial, and resurrection. 4. Practically, It’s a Next Obedience Step Can we go to heaven dry and unbaptized? Of course we can. Anyone who says differently forgot a story about a thief on the cross who did not have the time or the tank to be baptized (see Luke 23:39-43). You express love by obedience. Love is not just a feeling. Love is a controlling passion to do something for the one we love. The apostle John told us, “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you” (John 14:15, MSG). What makes Luke 3 crazy is how different John the Baptist’s baptismal class is: [John] began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7-9) I don’t know if I would start my water baptism class with calling the people “snakes.” My class would start off with something like this, “I am so glad you are here.” After John called them snakes, he told them that an axe was resting on the root of their hearts waiting to chop it down if they have not repented and fruit has not come from their lives. It’s incredible what happens next: the people ask, “What shall we do?” They got it! I remember Leonard Ravenhill once telling me that when God is moving with repentance, we don’t have to tell people what to do, because they will ask us what to do before we tell them. That’s what the people did with John the Baptist. What’s interesting is that in verses 11-14, we see he gave direction to three different groups of people: The first group were the multitudes. He told this group to learn to be givers, to share their blessings (verse 11). The second group were the tax collectors. He told them not to be like everyone else; to be different and to act like believers in their jobs. He wanted them to use their jobs as an arena for them to show off God’s power in their lives, that they should be different—no matter how others act (verses 12-13). The third group were the Roman soldiers. He told them to stop abusing their authority, build relationships, and be content with their wages (verse 14). Then something amazing happened: the people got baptized that day—the multitudes, the tax collectors, and the soldiers. Not only did they get baptized, verse 21 tells us that Jesus also got baptized. They got baptized with Jesus! What a powerful lesson for you today: you never know what will happen when you do what God wants you to do.

    5 min

  7. 5 MAR

    Losing Jesus

    Day 46 Today’s Reading: Luke 2 One of my favorite quotes about moms comes from the old 1960s’ comedian Milton Berle: “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” With all a mother has to do, it is no surprise when a child gets accidentally left behind in the rush and frenzy of trying to get someplace. Have you ever done that? My wife and I have . . . or should I say, I have. I think each of my children have called me while I was driving in my car to tell me I left them at church. Have you ever lost a child in a store? In our family when I was growing up, we had a special whistle that my mom had. When we were lost we just listened for that whistle. Every mother has experienced losing a child at one time or another. Don’t be discouraged; even the best mother ever messed up. Ready for this? Mary, the mother of Jesus, lost Him. That’s our study today as we dive into Luke 2. It can be embarrassing to lose a child. But what if your child is Jesus—and you lost Him? Then it’s cataclysmic. Let’s read the story: Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Luke 2:41-49) I love Mary and think she is an amazing woman. This story tells me why Mary could not be sinless, though. You can’t be sinless and lose God. Let’s get a couple of lessons from our story. Mary and Joseph made two big mistakes in this situation: 1. They supposed Him to be in the caravan; 2. They looked for Him among their relatives. Let’s consider the first mistake: they assumed Jesus was there without checking. They “supposed Him to be in the caravan.” How many times have we supposed something? We suppose because we are in a church that Jesus is there; or we suppose because someone says they are saved that Jesus is there in their heart. We can’t suppose anything. The question is: “Is He there or is He not there?” How do I know if Jesus is with you? Because wherever Jesus is, change happens. Not change on your weekend when you come to church, but an everyday change! How long has your journey gone on and you have not stopped even to ask yourself, Is Jesus with me? Or how long has it been until you realized that Jesus is not there with you? Thank God it took Mary and Joseph only a day to figure out that He wasn’t with them; many go on for years. Their second mistake was that they assumed, If He is with the family, He is with me. This is really dangerous. They looked for Him among their relatives, but they looked in the wrong place. We do that too. We look for Jesus in a church, a denomination, even on a day of the week. How often have we even thought, My mom is religious, so I am religious too. Your mom may have Jesus, but that doesn’t mean you do. The place you look for Jesus is in your own heart. God only comes where we invite Him into our lives. He is not there automatically. As John 1:12-13 (NIV) tells us: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” When it was all said and done, it took Mary and Joseph four days to finally find Jesus: When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. (Luke 2:45-46) As Tim Keller reminds us: Every religious founder of every major religion says, “I’m a prophet who has come to show you the way to God.” But of all the major religions of the world, only Christianity has a founder who has the audacity to say “I am God, and I have come to find you.” Do you realize how different that is? If Jesus is not with us, let’s find Him today. Or let’s get it straight that He is not lost, we are.

    5 min

  8. 4 MAR

    You Never Know What Could Happen if You just Show Up

    Day 45 Today’s Reading: Luke 1 Change is hard for those who have been doing the same thing for a long time. We see that truth in today’s reading about an older couple who are about to have their world turned upside down—all because they prayed something when they were young and it didn’t get answered until they were old. It’s the story of Elizabeth and Zacharias, cast members in God’s story. They were about to discover their why in life. Let’s read this passage from Luke 1:5-7: In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years. That’s just a kind way of saying they were old, although we don’t know how old. And yet notice something ageless that happened to Zechariah—he was faithful. And faithfulness is always rewarded by God. Let’s read the passage together—and notice how boring it is on how he was led to the spot where God showed up. Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. (Luke 1:8-13) Don’t take faithfulness lightly. God sees it as rewardable and promotable. This is amazing to me and nothing seems spiritual about this, but his name was on the list. It didn’t magically appear there; he was scheduled to do the priestly service. He wasn’t led by the Holy Spirit. He didn’t feel it. That day he just showed up, and guess what? God showed up too—with his destiny. Who knows what will happen if you look at the schedule and realize this week it’s your turn—and maybe something will happen to you as it did to Zacharias. The children’s department put you on the schedule. A leader said you are on ushering or greeting this Sunday. Here is a thought, look at the calendar and go, believing that maybe if you show up, God will show up. Zacharias showed up and God did show up. Don’t ever take it lightly that you showing up every Sunday simply because it’s on the list. The longest standing ovation in sport’s history was twenty-two minutes for Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles when he beat Lou Gehrig’s record for most consecutive games played in Major League Baseball. He just showed up every day for 2,632 games without taking a day off. Cal Ripken is in the hall of fame because he showed up. What you think is routine and redundant, God calls faithful. As Hudson Taylor said, “A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in a little thing is a big thing.” Why did this happen when it happened? Because God’s timing is perfect. Here is what the angel told him: “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John” (verse 13). After the word heard, we find a comma. Sometimes that is not simply a place for us to catch our breath and pause. Sometimes it means there is a pause in the conversation. I think it’s the latter. I think Zacharias forgot what he and Elizabeth had prayed for. It reads like the angel said, “Your prayer has been heard.” Silence . . . “Elizabeth will bear you a son.” They prayed the prayer when they were young is the implication. For Elizabeth and Zacharias, the answer to their prayer was slow in coming . . . really slow. “Your petition has been heard. You will bear a son and you will call him John.” God couldn’t answer their original prayer at the time they prayed, since Jesus was not born yet. The life of Jesus needed the life of John the Baptist. They were going to bring fulfillment to what Isaiah talked about. We see this from Matthew 3:3: “For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!”’” God was sending His Son. John the Baptist was needed to prepare the way. And it was the perfect time to answer the prayer of the older couple. And it all happened because Zecharias showed up, because his name was on the volunteer list that day. Go Zacharias. Go church volunteers!

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A life-changing experience through the New Testament one chapter at a time.

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    The 260 Journey
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    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
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