Today's Reading: Matthew 10: 32-42
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read Matthew 10: 32-42
Bible Study
This is a difficult passage to understand. But, once you understand, you have a better chance to really follow Jesus as your Lord!
N.T. Wright says:
Jesus doesn't say here that everyone who follows him will find themselves split off from their families; certainly not. Indeed, many of the apostles, in the days of the early church, took their spouses with them on their travels (1 Cor. 9:5). But Jesus is once again talking about priorities, and is making remarkable and quite drastic claims.
He isn't saying that what matters is following God in your own way. He is saying, loud and clear, that what matters is allegiance to him; allegiance to Jesus must come at the top of every priority list. We can see, as the story unwinds, how difficult this was even for those who knew him personally; Peter denied him, Judas betrayed him, the rest all ran away and hid. But the challenge remains, embracing everything, demanding everything, offering everything, promising everything.
The absolute demand of Jesus brings us back to where we were in the Sermon on the Mount. It isn't the case that there are some fine ideals in the mind of God, and that Jesus just happens to teach them a bit better than most people. Nor is it the case that Jesus came to show the way through the present world to a quite different one, where we will go after death. No: Jesus came to begin and establish the new way of being God's people, and not surprisingly those who were quite happy with the old one, thank you very much, didn't like having it disturbed. He didn't want to bring division within households for the sake of it. But he knew that, if people followed his way, division was bound to follow.
That's from bishop N.T. Wright, what do you think? What have you received?
Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"
Spiritual Journal
What I heard from Jesus today is: Costly, yet worthy!
What I got today from Jesus is a confirmation that to follow Jesus as Lord is very costly, yet worthy. We always say, "Well, it's too costly, it's not worthy to buy this, to do this."
To follow Jesus daily and to live out the demand in the Sermon on the Mount is so costly. Yes, to live a life to be worthy of being God's people, to be Christlike, is always so costly. Now is 4:27a.m. and I am still writing my blog, not even have my recording. To me, just an example to obey Jesus' command for me to write my first blog since three years and three months ago is so costly, no sleep, less sleep, yet it's so worthy!
Whether it is worthy or not for you depends on how close and intimate you are with Jesus each day! And, whether He is really your Lord of all!
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to understand that to follow you and live out your way of new life is costly, yet worthy. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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