20 Friday Jan 2012
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There is a lot to take in with today’s reading. I focused in on final verse of the chapter, verse 35 where it says, “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” In this simple verse Jesus places all of us exactly where He wants us to be, which is in perfect relationship with Him. Jesus readily calls us His “bother and sister and mother”. I sometimes have to remind myself just how much He loves me and how much He wants to have a real and personal relationship with me.
17 Tuesday Jan 2012
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Mark 2:17 is a verse that always stands out to me, “On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”” Jesus did not come for the healthy, He came for the sick. The biggest obstacle we face is recognizing we are sick in the first place. Most people, myself included, wait until they can’t take the suffering anymore before they go to the doctor. It is why a lot of people have to be broken to come to Jesus in the first place. The really sad part is that even believers sometimes need to be broken in order to come closer to God. For this reason, it is important we realize it’s about having a relationship with God. The closer I am to God and the more I include Him in my daily life, the less I will feel like I need to get closer to Him when crisis strikes because I will already feel His arms of protection.
15 Sunday Jan 2012
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A couple of passages stood out to me today. The first is verses 14-15, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” When the Israelites were suffering through their plague of deadly snakes, they needed to turn their eyes to the bronze snake that Moses had made in order to be healed. With Jesus, we must do the same thing. We must turn away from ourselves and turn to the one who has given us eternal life. I think I do that sometimes, but I need to do that on a consistent basis. It is easy to forget how much more He must become in my life. Which brings me to the second verse I loved in today’s reading, verse 30, “He must become greater; I must become less.” I love how humble John the Baptist was to recognize the greatness of Jesus. It really does come down this; I must humble myself to allow His light to shine through. Others should see less of me and know it is because of Jesus in my life.
05 Thursday Jan 2012
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Today we get to do the first of our Psalms. Psalm 85:4 says, “Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us.” Even in the Old Testament it shows that only God can lead us into salvation. Only He can restore to relationship and fellowship with Him.
Psalm 106 covers God’s judgment and salvation of His people from the time they left Egyptian captivity to the time they became captives of the Babylonian empire. The verse that stood out to me the most was “So he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.” (Psalm 106:23 NIV84) This is a great picture of what Jesus has done for all of us. He stood in the gap between our imperfection and God’s perfection. Praise be to Him for saving us from ourselves.
Daily Devotion 