Monday, September 30, 2013

Matthew 16 -- The Two Choices In How We Live


In verse 24, Jesus said, “If people want to follow Me, they must give up the things they want.  They must be willing even to give up their lives to follow Me.”

 

My commentary used what He said here to show the two approaches to life that Jesus presented to His disciples:

 

Deny yourself                                                                    Live for yourself

Take up your cross                                                          Ignore the cross

Follow Christ                                                                      Follow the world

Lose your life for His sake                                             Save your life for your own sake

Forsake the world                                                           Gain the world

Keep your soul                                                                  Lose your soul

Share His reward and glory                                          Lose His reward and glory

 

It’s not difficult to see that the world’s view is selfish and prideful and goes against everything God as said in all of Scripture.  Christ’s view instead throws out selfishness and self-centeredness.  “It is in what man denies himself that truly makes him a man,” I tell my sons often.  In this case, we see that it’s only in giving up what the world says is living that we truly begin to live as God originally intended.

 

Father, when I’m tempted to live by the ways of this world, shout loudly and remind me that I am not OF this world.  I am not my own.  I was bought at an unimaginable price, and I am Yours.  Help me to act like it.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Friday, September 27, 2013

Matthew 15 -- What Pharisees Try To Do Even Today


God really didn’t like what the Pharisees had done to hijack His people’s hearts.  “They’d developed traditions that had been handed down, allegedly (according to the rabbis) from Moses to the elders as oral law.  It had eventually been written down and called the Mishnah.  They’d made it more important and more authoritative than the original law of Moses,” my commentary noted.

 

“Jesus let them know that they were breaking God’s law by practicing their traditions … Jesus made it clear that obedience to tradition made a person disobedient to the Word of God, and this proved the tradition to be false … Tradition deals with ritual, while God’s truth deals with reality.  Tradition brings empty words to the lips, but truth penetrates the heart and changes the life.  Actually, tradition robs a person of the power of the Word of God … God wants us to give Him our hearts, and not just our lip service.  We believe in the heart, love from the heart, sing from the heart, obey from the heart, and give from the heart.” 

 

If our worship is simply lip service and doesn’t come from the heart, we might as well not even have shown up!

 

My commentary wrapped up this chapter with six spiritual lessons:

 

(1)    The enemies of truth are often religious people who live according to man’s traditions.  Satan often uses religion to blind the mind of sinners to the simple truths of God’s Word.

(2)    We must beware of any religious system that gives us an excuse to sin and disobey God’s Word.

(3)    We must also beware of worship that comes from the lips only, and not from the heart.

(4)    If we major on the inner man, the outer man will be what God wants it to be.  True holiness comes from within.

(5)    It is difficult to break free of tradition.  There is something in us that wants to hold to the past and make no changes.

(6)    We dare not limit Christ to any one nation or people.  The gospel came ‘to the Jews first’, but today is for all men in all nations.

 

Father, the Pharisees were trying to create or manufacture holiness through actions that did not change the heart.  True holiness only comes from You when our hearts have connected with You and are not set on being about us.  It can’t be contrived or forced upon us.  Keep that from happening and open our hearts to true worship of the One who loves us just as we are, but Who also wants to make us more like Himself.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Matthew 14 -- What Faith Really Is


Two miracles Matthew recorded tell us a lot about Jesus and how we should relate to Him.  When 5000 men plus women and children had stayed late out in the country to hear Jesus and to have their friends healed, the disciples encouraged Him to send them home to get their supper.  Rather than agreeing, Jesus was moved with compassion for them.  My commentary says this was a deep feeling, meaning “to have one’s inner being stirred.”  “It is stronger than sympathy.”  It also asked the question, “If our heavenly Father has such compassion toward us, should we not have compassion toward others?”

 

“When they considered the time and the place, they came to the conclusion that nothing could be done to solve the problem … How like many of God’s people today.  For some reason, it is never the right time or place for God to work.  Jesus watched His frustrated disciples.  He Himself knew what He was intending to do.”

 

He finally took what they had and not only fed everyone, but each disciple was left to carry out a basketful of leftovers!  I wonder if that weighed on them as they headed for their boat.

 

Jesus stayed on shore and set them off in their boat.  He knew the storm was coming and He purposefully sent them out.  The storm came because they were in the will of God, not out of it.  If we are out of His will, the storms He brings will be correcting storms, my commentary says.  If in His will, they will be perfecting storms.  And that’s what this one was.

 

What was Christ doing while they were fretting?  He was praying for them!  And even today He is in heaven making intercession for us in our storms, asking God to perfect our faith and trust in Him.

 

In the same way that He waited for just the right moment, when all human hope is gone, He’ll do that with us as well.  To test our faith, He has to remove every human prop.

 

My commentary also mentioned that Jesus walked on water to show His disciples that the very thing they feared was only a staircase for them to come to Him.  Today, our trials are ways for Him to come to us, using our trials to get to us.

 

Peter started out well, but ended up crying out to Jesus as he attempted to walk on water towards Him.  My commentary said, “Faith is not believing in spite of evidence, but obeying in spite of consequence.”

 

“If Jesus says, ‘Come,’ then that word is going to accomplish its intended purpose.  Whatever He starts, He completes.”

 

Father, help me to understand that faith is obeying in spite of consequences.  When I hear Your voice, let me know that You have spoken to me and help me to believe that Your commands enable me to accomplish Your will.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Matthew 10 -- Chosen To Know


Talking to His followers, Jesus said, “You have been chosen to know the secrets about the kingdom of heaven.”  He then told them eight parables – stories that could be taken at face value by those who would never understand, but stories that held deep hidden meaning to the chosen.

 

Had we been there to hear these parables back then, would we have grasped their importance without the aid of Jesus’ explanations?  We are so fortunate to have His explanations of them written down for us to discover and understand. 

 

Yet even with all we have today to unveil the meaning of them, there are so many in the world who will never read these parables.  Nor will they understand them.

 

I watched this morning as maybe 100 students gathered around the flagpole to pray and worship God.  I wondered how many of my own fellow students would have done that all those years ago.

 

You’re at work, Father, and I thank You.  This generation faces so much falsehood from the world and it so desperately needs Your truth.  I’m thankful that You are calling out many – that You have chosen these precious kids to know You early in their lives, and that they boldly stand up for what You’ve been revealing to them!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Matthew 12 -- What GOD Wants, NOT What WE Want


Jesus had to show the religious leaders of their day what was wrong that they either couldn’t see or wouldn’t admit.  He quoted Scripture, saying, “I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.”  Doing the right thing was much more important that doing things right.

 

The Pharisees and priests had developed Sabbath traditions in trying to quantify every conceivable aspect of the Law.  Those traditions had not been given by God or handed down by Moses.  They’d gone from “do no work on the Sabbath” to disallowing people from taking heads of grain that God had caused to grow for food when they were hungry!  They’d taken out compassion by forbidding the good deed of healing on the Sabbath.  The religious leaders had uncompassionately used a man with a crippled hand as a weapon against Jesus, attempting to goad Him into healing on the Sabbath.  He simply told the man, “Hold out your hand.”  He never said, “Be healed.”

 

Jesus knew their hearts and called them out on it by saying that they’d certainly pull their sheep out of a ditch on the Sabbath, but not a man!

 

One thing my commentary pointed out I hadn’t considered before – Jesus mentioned how an evil spirit could come out of a person, then come back with seven more spirits and make the person much worse off.  It said, “It is not enough to clean house; we must also invite in the right tenant.  The Pharisees were proud of their clean houses, but their hearts were empty!  Mere religion, or reformation, will not save.  There must be regeneration, the receiving of Christ into the heart.”

 

Finally, Jesus identified his true family members as “those who do what My Father in heaven wants.”  It’s not about what we want, but about what God wants, and Jesus had quoted that at the first of this chapter:  “I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.”

 

Father, help me to see those who are hurting and show me the best way to show compassion to them.  Don’t let me not be compassionate because of manmade rules.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Monday, September 23, 2013

Matthew 11 -- Come, Take, Learn -- Deeper Peace Available At Each Level


God knew He had me this morning when I read Jesus’ words, “Come to Me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest.  Accept My teachings and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives.  The teaching that I ask you to accept is easy; the load I give you to carry is light.”

 

It sure seems that I’m tired and exhausted a lot lately, and it really feels like I’ve got a heavy burden.  My commentary brought out three commands in those verses:

 

Come – “The Pharisees all said ‘Do’ … This invitation is open to those who are exhausted and burdened down.  That is exactly how the people felt under the yoke of pharisaical legalism.”  They were sick and tired of being sick and tired, trying to feel better about themselves by trying to keep all of the commandments while seeing how miserably they failed at the task!

 

Take – Christ gives us rest, but we have to accept what He’s given us.  Taking His yoke means becoming his disciple and learning from Him.  It’s a deeper experience.  “That deeper rest is surrender and obedience, and that word ‘easy’ means well-fitting.  He has just the yoke that is tailor-made for our lives and needs.  The burden  of doing His will is not a heavy one.”

 

Learn – “This step is a process.  As we learn more about Him, we find a deeper peace, because we trust Him more.”  The more we trust Him, the more our faith grows, increasing our trust and giving us a deeper peace.

 

Father, when I see that I am tired and don’t have peace, remind me to check and see if I’m forgetting one of these commands.  Am I coming to You with my burdens?  Am I taking the peace You have to offer me?  And am I learning more about You and Your Son, or am I simply coasting?  Show me what I’m missing.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Friday, September 20, 2013

Matthew 10 -- Reminders of 10 Years Ago


My commentary indicates that Jesus’ warnings to His disciples before their “tour” commenced may actually be for a future time, since no record indicates that they ever encountered the difficulties He mentioned during their trips.

 

Verse 19 and 20, though, always remind me of the past – my first trip to Ukraine to get my appointment back so I could go get my oldest son.  As I waited to speak with the head of the National Adoption Center, these verse came to mind.  I knew I was obeying God in being there, and it seemed that they were doing everything they could to prevent me from adopting.  I made it clear that I was there because God had told me to be there to get my son.  There was no doubt in my mind whatsoever.  It was amazing seeing the transformation on the director’s face and to see her willingness to grant me an appointment.  God had opened that door.  When my son and I returned In July 2005 to get him a brother, it was even more evident.  God had been busy opening doors and hearts ahead of our arrival, and although the expected wait time was four weeks minimum, our trip was 18 days door-to-door!

 

When we do not deny Him, He is quick to help us.

 

Father, I will never forget those days.  Watching You work on my behalf to give my boys a home and a father was incredible!  You taught me so much about trusting and obeying You, regardless of what the work might think.  Thank You for those memories!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Matthew 9 -- Comfortable In Their Ruts


In the midst of amazing miracles, I was amazed at the reactions of the religious leaders, who did not want their authority challenged and who felt that they had to protect their religion from the Son of God!

 

When Jesus healed the paralyzed man, He first said, “Your sins are forgiven.”  The Pharisees called that blasphemy.  Then Jesus told him to get up and walk and he did!

 

Jesus went to Matthew’s house to eat with him and his fellow tax collectors, who were despised by the Jewish leaders as Jews sold out to Rome.  Other assorted sinners were there as well.  The Pharisees were appalled that He would defile Himself in this way.  Jesus reminded them that you don’t usually see well people in a doctor’s waiting room!

 

Even John the Baptist’s followers got hung up on religious ritual, complaining that Jesus’ disciples never fasted.  Jesus compared Himself to a bridegroom at a wedding and noted how inappropriate it would be to fast at such a time.  God was doing something new, and just as they knew the folly of putting new cloth patches on old material and new wine in old wineskins, Jesus was showing them that not only lives were changing, but so was the Jewish religion.  It wasn’t being destroyed, but rather fulfilled.  They were failing to keep up with what God was doing.

 

How hard it must have been then for a Jewish leader like Jairus to ask for healing for his daughter, who was near death.  The delay caused by Jesus stopping to talk to the woman who had believed she could receive healing by touching his garment really stretched him, because he then discovered his daughter had died.  But Jesus reassured him, traveled to his home, kicked out the hired mourners who were making fun of His upcoming miracle, and told him not to doubt.  I wonder what Jairus’ sermons were like the following Sabbath, with his totally healed daughter in attendance?

 

Also, the Pharisees saw Jesus heal two blind men and a demon-possessed mute man.  In an effort to discredit Him and keep their authority, they claimed that the healing came from Satan!  It seems that they couldn’t stand having their authority challenged.

 

Seeing the sea of people around Him, hurting and helpless, Jesus was moved and likely wondered how He’d ever get it all done before His time was up.  It was then that He suggested that they all pray that God would provide more workers.  Before long, His disciples would be picking up the slack.

 

Father, we all can get very comfortable in our ruts, not wanting change.  But You brought newness to worship through Your Son.  You showed us that it’s about relationship and not ritual.  Help us to stretch spiritually and give You the opportunity to show us what You’ve got in mind.  Help us not to be like the Pharisees.  Lift us gently out of our ruts.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Matthew 8 -- A Lot About Faith


A man with leprosy broke all the rules when he came running up and didn’t declare, “Unclean!  Unclean!”  Jesus knew he was unclean due to the disease.  The man bowed down and said, “Lord, heal me if You will.”  He wasn’t questioning Jesus’ ability to heal – only His willingness to heal him.  And Jesus certainly was.  My commentary said, “When Jesus touched the leper, He contracted the leper’s defilement, but He also conveyed HIS health.”  The man was instantly healed as the disease left him.  In much the same way, on the cross Jesus took on our spiritual defilement and imparted through His death and resurrection His own righteousness before God to us!

 

Also in this chapter, Jesus healed two possessed men.  My commentary pointed out three prayers in this particular story:  The demons asked Him to send them into the pigs, the citizens asked Him to leave, and one of the healed men asked to follow Jesus.  “Jesus answered the prayers of the demons and the [ungrateful] citizens, but not the prayer of the healed man!”

 

I was one who once thought it very unfair that Jesus in a way caused the loss of the herd of pigs because He allowed the demons to enter them and they drowned.   Yet my commentary reminds us, “God owns everything and can do with it as He pleases.”  Thankfully Jesus values men more than pigs!

 

Faith was a major factor in this chapter.  Jesus was even amazed by the faith of the centurion, who believed that Jesus had authority even to heal from a distance!  Our question today would seem to be, “Do we believe that He can heal, even from the great distance of heaven?  Of course He can!

 

Father, the only limits upon You seem to be those we place ourselves by our lack of faith.  Help us in our unbelief!

 

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Matthew 7 -- Judging


Jesus may have taken direct aim at the Pharisees with this sermon.  After all, they were judging everyone but themselves.  Jesus tells us here that’s where we have to start, though.  If we have major problems obeying God’s commands, then how can we possibly see around them to judge others?

 

A big thing I read in my commentary this morning was this:  We must not pass judgment on others’ MOTIVES.  We should examine their actions and attitudes, but we cannot judge their motives – for only God can see their hearts.”

 

I know lately I’ve found myself seeing actions and attitudes and then trying to backtrack those to determine motives.  Yesterday, I even prayed that God would help me not to ascribe motives that may not exist.  That’s Your perfect timing to reinforce what You’ve already been showing me, God!  Thanks!

 

In judging ourselves as we’re commanded to do, my commentary said we have to avoid two extremes:  Shallow examination and perpetual autopsy.  Tending toward the first doesn’t deal with the problem.  Tending toward the second gets us so wrapped up in our failures that we can become unbalance.

 

Our judgment of others, once we have judged and worked on ourselves, in not so that we can condemn them, but that we might minister to them, my commentary said.  It pointed out that Jesus knew the hearts of those He ministered to, dealing with each of them in targeted, personal ways.  Assessing the condition of a person’s heart allows us to more wisely share the Gospel with them in a way that will connect with them.  Not to condemn, but to minister.

 

Jesus was calling us all not just to belief, but to obedience as well.  As He wrapped up this teaching, He plainly said, “Everyone who hears My words and does not obey them is like a foolish man …”

 

Father, show me where I fall short of Your Word, and help me to obey.  I want to help others to know You the way You’ve shown Yourself to me.  Yet I must be careful that my life does not cause them to misinterpret You and Your Word.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Monday, September 16, 2013

Matthew 6 -- Getting The Public And Private On The Same Page?


In starting this chapter, my commentary particularly emphasized that hypocrisy is the sin of deliberately using religion to cover up our sins and promoting our own gains.  We have to watch carefully and insure that doesn’t happen as we give, as we pray, and as we fast, Jesus told us.

 

We don’t want it to be about us and how much or how often we do these things.  Instead, we should direct all of our energies to God and what He wants.  If we keep self out of the mix, God will be honored, which should be our proper response.

 

I noticed two restrictions on our prayers in my commentary:

 

First, “we have no right to ask God for anything that will dishonor His name, delay His kingdom, or disturb His will on earth.”

Second, “we have no right to ask for ourselves anything that would harm another member of the Family.  If we are praying in the will of God the answer will be a blessing to all of God’s people in one way or another.”

 

Jesus wanted us to have forgiven people before we pray.  We aren’t earning the right to pray.  It’s a matter of fellowship.  “If God answered the prayers of a believer who had an unforgiving spirit, He would dishonor His own name … The important thing about prayer is not simply getting an answer, but being the kind of person whom God can trust with an answer.”

 

One other thought seemed to wrap this portion up:

 

“The first step toward overcoming hypocrisy is to be honest with God in our secret life.  We must never pray anything that we do not mean from the heart … Our motive must be to please God alone, no matter what man may say or do.  We must cultivate the heart in the secret place.  The most important part of a Christian’s life is the part that only God sees.  When reputation becomes more important that character, we have become hypocrites.”

 

On the part about worrying, I read, “The average person is crucifying himself between two thieves:  the regrets of yesterday, and the worries about tomorrow…. Hypocrisy and anxiety are sins.”

 

Father, I’ve found a lot of good stuff this morning.  Thank You for pointing it all out.  Steer me away from hypocrisy and anxiety.  By doing so, You’ll automatically be moving me closer to You, where there is peace.  And that is what You know that I truly need right now.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Matthew 5 -- Tougher To Obey


In the Sermon On The Mount, Jesus refocused believers away from simple external righteousness such as the Pharisees practiced and toward internal righteousness – our attitudes toward ourselves, toward our sins, toward the Lord, and toward the world.

 

The “external” law had always motivated people by fear.  Now Jesus was showing how we can obey an internal law and live because of love.  “He dealt with the attitudes and intents of the heart and not simply with the external actions.”  It became the thought that counted.  Lust was a prime example.  Everyone understood that the act of adultery was forbidden, but lust starts in the heart, born of desires.  Jesus nailed it when He said that looking  at a woman – “a constant stare with the purpose of lusting, done for the purpose of feeding his inner sensual appetites as a substitute for the act – was not accidental.  It was planned and it was sin.  Therefore, just the thought itself met the measure of adultery.

 

He said that we get victory over such thoughts by purifying our desires and disciplining the actions of the body.  And He called for us not to taper off, but to cut off those actions and desires.

 

My commentary mentioned that it is much more difficult to follow and obey the Sermon On The Mount than the Ten Commandments.  Absolutely!  For we must deal with that part of our lives that no one else sees but God – our thoughts!

 

Father, I thank You for having Jesus call us out on this one.  Remind me daily that my thoughts and desires are where sin is birthed.  Help me to cut off those thoughts that aren’t of You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Matthew 4 -- The Roots Of The Temptations


My commentary had a lot to say about Jesus’ temptations:

 

The first temptation involved the love of God and the will of God … It is a subtle suggestion that our Father does not love us, and also, suggests that we meet our own needs.  “When we put our physical needs ahead of our spiritual needs, we sin.  When we allow circumstances to dictate our actions, instead of following God’s will, we sin.”

 

With the second temptation, the devil was implying, “Let me quote You a verse of Scripture and see if You will obey it.”  But when Satan quoted Psalm 91:11-12, he left out “in all thy ways”.  God watches over those who are in His ways.”  Isolating texts will take us out of His ways.  In Jesus’ reply, He showed us that “we tempt God when we put ourselves into circumstances that force him to work miracles on our behalf … We tempt God when we try to force Him to contradict His own Word.”

 

In the third temptation, the devil offered Jesus a shortcut.  My commentary said, “There are no shortcuts to the will of God.  If we want to share in the glory, we must also share in the suffering … Satan had said nothing about service, but Jesus knew that whatever we worship, we will serve.  Worship and service must go together.”

 

Stan wasn’t done tempting Jesus.  “One victory never guarantees freedom from further temptation.  If anything, each victory we experience only makes Satan try harder.”

 

Father, please let me never doubt that You love me.  Remind me never to force You to work miracles on my behalf, and don’t let me forget that there are no shortcuts to Your will.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Matthew 3 -- WHY He Did It


When John preached, “Change your hearts and lives because the kingdom of heaven is near,” the listeners had no idea just how immediately that would be confirmed, for not long after that, Jesus Himself showed up to be baptized by John.  Knowing who He was, John insisted that he needed to be baptized by Jesus instead.  After all, Jesus had no sins that He needed to repent of!

 

My commentary discussed why Jesus was baptized:  “First, His baptism gave approval to John’s ministry.  Second, He identified Himself with publicans and sinners, the very people He came to save.  But mainly, His baptism pictured Hi future baptism on the cross when all the waves and billows of God’s judgment would go over Him.”

 

Those “waves and billows of God’s judgment” were meant for me for my sins!  And just as Jesus physically felt the water surrounding Him as He was lowered below the surface, so too did He feel my sins – past, present, and future – wrap around Him and pull Him under from the weight of them as He hung there on the cross and took the punishment of God’s wrath that was meant for me.

 

When Jesus came up out of the water, He saw heaven opened up and the Holy Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.  This was a personal message from His Father, and it was meant to encourage Him and reassure Him as He began His ministry, that God loved him and was highly pleased with Him for His obedience.  Knowing what He would endure some three years later, Christ still obeyed His Father in everything.  He didn’t question and He never failed to obey, because He trusted His Father.

 

Dear God, help me to rust in You that way.  Speak clearly to me as You did to John.  And help my sons to trust me to help them come to know You better in this life each and every day.  Help them to obey, too, Lord.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Monday, September 9, 2013

Matthew 2 -- Knowing, Yet Choosing NOT To Obey


Matthew points out how Jesus’ birth and early years dovetail the prophecies from the Old Testament:

 

Verses 5-6  “A ruler will come from [Bethlehem] who will be like a shepherd for My people Israel.”  (Micah 5:2)

 

Verse 15 “And Joseph stayed in Egypt until Herod died.  This happened to bring about what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “I call My Son out of Egypt.” (Hosea 11:1)

 

Verse 23 “And so what God had said through the prophet came true. ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’” (Isaiah 11:1) [The Hebrew word netzer means a branch or shoot, and resembles Nazarene]

 

God had seeded the Old Testament with multiple clues that could be used by the priests to verify that Jesus was the Messiah.

 

My commentary made an interesting point:  “The magi were seeking the King; Herod was opposing the King; and the Jewish priests were ignoring the King.  These priests knew the Scriptures and pointed others (the Magi) to the Savior, but they would not go to worship Him themselves!  They quoted Micah 5:2 but did not obey it.  They were five miles from the very Son of God, yet they did not go see Him!  The Gentiles sought and found Him, but the Jews did not.”

 

Looking back now with 20/20 hindsight, we can much more easily see all of the Scriptural references to the Messiah and each one fits exactly.  Yet most people today are just as willfully blind about Jesus as the Jewish priests were!  Their casual indifference to the Son of God will be their worst decision of this lifetime.

 

Father, thank You for drawing me to You and for seeing that I understand about Jesus being the Christ.  Do that again in the lives of those I love.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Friday, September 6, 2013

Matthew 1 -- Going Out On A Limb


“All of Jewish history prepared the way for His birth,” my commentary said.  And any Jew looking at the names in this genealogy could certainly agree.  God made a silk purse out of a sow’s ear:  Judah having a child with his daughter-in-law Tamar; the widow Ruth finding Boaz, who’s mother was the also the prostitute in the Jericho story; David’s affair with Bathsheba after he had her husband killed; the good kings Uzziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah; and the really bad king Manasseh.  What a recitation of history this was, and how amazing to see how God used the weaknesses of men and despite them brought our Savior to us!

 

Not just any angel came to Joseph in a dream, but “an angel of the Lord”, advising him that this was another of those holy interventions by God.  The Holy Spirit had enabled this pregnancy, not any man.

 

Previously, kings had dreamed of their sons fighting might battles and ruling the land, but Joseph is told that his son Jesus would do something even more amazing – “He will save His people from their sins.”

 

What a call for Joseph.  The sidebar in my Bible, from God Came Near by Max Lucado, said, “Regardless of the nature of the call, the consequences are the same:  civil war.  Though your heart may say yes, your feet say no.  Excuses blow numerously … But eventually you’re left staring at a bare tree and a hard choice:  His will or yours? … Like Joseph, you’ve been a pretty good branch-sitter.  And then you hear the call.  “I need you to go out on a limb …”

 

“Joseph woke up and did what the Lord’s angel had told him to do.  Joseph took Mary as his wife … she gave birth to the son.  And Joseph named him Jesus.”

 

Father, it’s been a dozen years since You said, “I need you to go out on a limb, Gary.”  Despite some tough times, I’m so glad You did.  Please speak clearly to both of my sons this weekend.  Let them hear You say, “I need you to go out on a limb …” and help them to respond, “Yes, Lord.”  Let this be another divine appointment.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Acts 27-28 God Doesn't Just Predict The Outcomes, He DRIVES Them


Paul’s trip to Rome as a prisoner is detailed in these chapters.  With 20/20 hindsight, it is certainly tempting to say that the Roman commanders should have taken the overland route.  Before arriving in Rome, they’d changed ships three times and been shipwrecked on Malta for several months.  The captain and the guard had failed to listen to the word Paul was getting from God, ending in the loss of the entire ship and its cargo, yet God insured that no lives were lost.

 

My commentary said, “Sometimes we get ourselves into storms for the same reasons:  impatience, accepting expert advice that is contrary to God’s will, following the majority, and trusting ideal conditions.”  Yet only God is sovereign and all-knowing.  His plans for our lives are always for our best.  So why is it that even Christians often fail to listen to Him and obey?

 

Father, as I did yesterday, help me to always seek out Your advice and guidance.  Help me to trust You rather than my own intellect or intuitions or the advice of friends, for only You can see past time and know the outcomes beforehand.  In truth, You drive the outcomes to suit Yourself.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford