rob12870's Blog

Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"



You know from the day we are born people look for and want proof of our existance. Some of the first things your parents were asked about you on the day you were born were⦠is it a boy or a girl, what's his or her name. Soon after youâre birth you were issued a Birth certificate. This little piece of paper let's the world know your name, who your parents are, when you were born, and where you were born. Some time later in life as we get older schools may hand out I.D. cards with your picture on it that let's them know that you are who you say you are. A little father down the road if you want to drive you can take your divers test and receive your driverâs license. This lets the police know who you are in case of an accident or a traffic stop and stuff like that. When you get to the age where you want to work your employer will ask you for things like your birth certificate your drivers license and a social security card which is issued so the government can track you for tax purposes. All these things are used to prove to your employer that you are who you say you are and that yes you are a legal citizen. Another time when we need to prove who we are is when we want to enter a foreign country. Other countries require things like visas and passports in order for you to get in. They want proof that your not only who you say you are but also to verify that your not a threat to there security. . All this tends to make me wonder as I prepared for this devotion...what did they do back in Jesus time? How did people prove who they were? They didn't have camera's back then so it's not like they had pictures. They certainly had no use for driverâs licenses because there were no cars. There were no hospitals back then so good luck getting a birth certificate. I wonder what they did. Now In verse 15 Jesus asks his followers ("But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?") You see Jesus spent a lot of time with these disciples of his and along the way he spent a lot of that time telling them who he was⦠the Son of God. But words can only get you so far. How could they really be sure that he was who he said he was? I mean there were lots of false prophets back in Jesus day. Every once in a while we even see them today. How could the disciples be sure he wasn't one of them? Then there were those who already thought they knew who Jesus was (Matthew 13:55" Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" 57And they took offense at him.) These people knew his parents and his brothers and sisters they knew what town he was from and what street he lived on so why was he claiming to be something else? Well because He was something else. He was the Son of God. Now unlike us Jesus didn't have a birth certificate to pull out that said God was his Father on it and that He came from Heaven. He didn't have a driverâs license that said Son of God on it or a business card that said Holy of Holies at your service. No, all he had going for him was the one thing that set him apart from all else. The miracles. You see Jesus did a lot of teaching everywhere he went and he also performed a lot of miracles to back up his words. He knew that some people would need a little proof to go along with his words in order to believe. He knew that some would have a problem with what he had to say. So to back up his words he showed them some miracles. You know anyone can go around and say there the son of God but not everyone can go around and show that there the Son of God. But Jesus could. And then there was the biggest miracle of all. The empty tomb. Jesus rose again just like he said he would and he defeated death something only God himself could do. Many have gone to the grave claiming to be the Messiah but only one has ever come back to prove it. Jesus is that one. Just take some time to read the gospel accounts and you will see that Jesus did so much to prove to all that he was the Son of God. The question is... are you living proof of what the savior has done in your life?



Luke 24:5b-6 "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen!



God Bless,

Rob

Ephesians 5:15-18 Be very careful, then, how you live,not as unwise but as wise,16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.



One of my favorite songs out there right now would have to be the song Empty Me by Chris Sligh. Just the chorus alone is enough to cause me to search myself and cry out to God begging Him to help me empty me of me. Here is the chorus from that song. ( Empty me of the selfishness inside. Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride. And any foolish thing my heart holds to Lord empty me of me so I can be, filled with you.) These words sound so true and so power full yet how do we do it? How do we empty ourselves of ourselves. I mean sure it's easy to sing it but man how do you do such a thing? Well one of the best ways I have ever heard it described was you take an empty jar. Okay so the jar is not totally empty because you still have air in it. Now think for a minute what do you think is the best way to get all the air out of the jar? Don't read ahead think about it for a moment........ did you say put a vacuum on it and suck all the air out of it? that's a good answer but it's not the right answer because if you fail to turn the vacuum off the glass will implode on its self, and if you take the vacuum off the glass will just fill back up with air. The best way to get all the air out of a glass is to fill it with water. As the water enters the glass all the air rises to the top till there is none left in the glass. In a way you could say that we are like a glass. We hold all the things we see do and hear in the world on the inside. Jesus said in Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, %#ual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. All these things we store in our own hearts and we need to get rid of them. Know one should ever think for one minute that they are above any sin or that there is some sin out there that is to far gone for them to get into. I guarantee you there are a lot of Christians today sitting in prison cells across the country wondering how they ended up where they are and it all started with sin. We need to take sin seriously and we need to clean it out regularly from our system. Even the littlest sin if left unchecked can eventually become something bigger than life if we don't put an end to it. The best way to do this is to fill our glass... ooops I mean ourselves up with the word of God. Because it is His word that truly flushes our system clean. We can't do this in our own strength we need his strength and His word to do it for us. It's his word that finds it's way into the depths of our hearts and shows us what needs to go. As His words fill our hearts it empties our hearts of all the impurities that easily entangle us and we become filled with God. So remember the next time you pick that bible up. Before you start reading it hit your knees and ask God to use it to show you where your holding back and ask Him to help you empty you of yourself so you can be filled with Him.

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.





The cross, there are several things that we can associate with the cross none of which spark pleasant thoughts. Pain, Suffering, Sorrow, Death, Sacrifice, Torture, Agony. Jesus suffered through everyone of these on the day He was put to death on the cross for you and me. The Torture from the beating he received from the soldiers, the Agony of the crown of thorns placed on his head and the sin he had to bear, the Pain from the nails in his feet and hands, the Suffering he must have felt as he struggled to pull his body up for each and every breath of air as he slowly suffocated, the Sorrow from knowing that God the Father had turned his back on him in the moment he really needed him most. And then Death, the final outcome for all who suffer the horrible fate of the cross. Sometimes I don't think we spend enough time thinking about just how much a price was paid for us. Jesus gave his all for us, and now he wants us to do the same for Him. He said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Just what exactly did he mean? what could he possibly be saying? surely he doesn't want us to be crucified? Rest assured Jesus does not want us to be crucified. But if you wish to follow Him he does expect sacrifice, he does expect you to deny yourself. You know what I mean, those things you do that he does not like, those things that go against everything found in his word. When a person carried their cross it showed that no matter how rebellious they were before... they were now under the authority of Rome. No longer would they be aloud to do whatever they felt like, no longer would they be aloud to make their own choices. From now on they did what Rome said they would do. When a Christian or better yet, when a True Christian learns what it means to take up his cross it's because he understands that God is calling him to a life of self sacrifice That means it's going to hurt, it's going to be a little tough at times. If it didn't hurt and if it wasn't a little tough at times it wouldn't be much of a sacrifice now would it? No longer will a True Christian live rebellious towards God, no longer will a True Christian do things just because it feels good to him or because everyone else is doing it, no longer will he be led by the lust of the flesh. No, when a True Christian chooses to pick up his cross, what he is totally saying is Lord I'm giving up that old way of life, I'm throwing it all away for you, I want to be under your guidance, your authority. No longer do I want to live for myself. LORD I WANT TO LIVE FOR YOU!!!







Jesus isn't asking us to crucify ourselves

He just asking us to crucify the old nature.



Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.



It's time to kill the old person and let the new one run free



God Bless

Rob

James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it he will be blessed in what he does.



If your like me as you get older you tend to use mirrors less. I don't know maybe it's because I don't want to see my age creeping up on me in the form of another gray hair. As a teen I couldn't go anywhere without checking myself in the mirror. Maybe it was because I thought there was a world out there that I could impress. I can remember mirrors being in the locker areas at High School. You would always see a slew of kids lined up at them between periods. I guess they felt like they had someone to impress to. Some of those same people could be seen at those same mirrors between every class in fact sometimes I wondered if they just skipped class and stayed at the mirror. They were just so worried about protecting there image. I wonder who the guy was who invented the mirror? I mean was he looking to invent something that he or she could see them-self in or did it happen by chance? and were they happy with what they saw when they first looked into it? After all that is why we use mirrors isn't it? to see whats on the outside. To make sure everything is in place. That our hair is combed right, the clothes look good, the teeth don't have stuff in them, the make up is on right. Yeah mirrors really do the trick for what is on the outside and they sure don't lie. But what about what's on the inside? Well God has given us the perfect mirror to see whats on the inside. It's called the bible. The bible like a mirror shows us our flaws on the inside. It's up to us to make the changes necessary to reflect the likeness of God on the inside. You see when you look in a mirror for your outside person and you see something bad you don't just say oh well and walk away. No you almost always fix the problem and then go on your way unless your weird of course (just kidding). What God is saying in these verses is look when you take my word and you look into and I show you how you really are on the inside don't just go away and forget about what you read. Make the changes necessary. We worry so much about what's on the outside yet sometimes we act like we could care less about whats going on... on the inside. God uses His word to convict us of our sin and to show us whats wrong with the inside and He expects us to do what's necessary to keep the inside well groomed. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it he will be blessed in what he does. Have you checked your spiritual mirror lately?



Mirror, Mirror on the wall,

I believe God's word is the most honest mirror of all.



God Bless,

Rob

Exodus 20:3-6 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.



So I was teaching my 3rd and 4th grade Sunday School Class this week and one of the first things I asked them was to list 5 things that they really loved or thought was important to them. Some of the kids responded with answers like riding their dirt bike or a certain toy, their dog, playing sports, dolls the list was pretty big. After we got half way around the table the answers started to change. I started hearing things like family and God and Jesus. It was funny because after the first person said Jesus I noticed one of the girls at the table who had not given her answers yet grab her paper really quick and start erasing. She wanted to change her answers. I told her to put her pencil down, not to be mean but because I wanted to make a point. Now I knew full well that she wanted to change her answer to the more church answer. Obviously my opening question caught some of them off guard. Perhaps they were not ready for the question. Maybe they were not yet in church mode this morning and instead they allowed there minds to drift to the stuff that they own and loved. And then there is an even more scary thought... what if they truly do love stuff more than God. I mean is that possible? I mean lets face it kids now a days have tons of stuff more stuff than I ever had as a kid. But then again so do we more grown up people. Do I even need to start listing some of the stuff? We are all spoiled to some degree. Why we have so much stuff that some of us have to rent out space to keep it all. Every house I have ever lived in has had an attic and that attic was always filled with stuff. Stuff that at one time was held near and dear to me, stuff that consumed my time, stuff that if I'm truly honest with myself I would have to say I loved. You know after asking those kids that question and hearing their answers I couldn't help but think If I were to ask God what my top 5 things were that I loved or held near and dear to me... what would He say? I would like to think that He would say that I have Him at the top of my list but is that what He would really say? Let's face it we all go through those times when we seem so much closer to God then we do at other times. When our worship is so much more sincere and meaningful then other times. When all we want to do is give God the best we have to offer. Why can't it be like this all the time we ask. Well maybe it's because of all the stuff.



If it's taking all your time it's probably taking you away from your God



God Bless,

Rob