Read Acts chapter 3 and 4, and then come back.

So, from Acts 4:17, here we go with our text for today: 17 “But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” 18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.  19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

What I really want to emphasize in this is how Peter and John answered this demand for silence...not that they said no, but the thing on which their claim rested…from verse 20, “...for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”.  You see that?  Their faith rests NOT on belief, not on spirituality, not on something that can be argued and debated philosophically (at least not as a starting point)...their faith is based on something that happened.

The word Gospel is a word that literally means “good news”...and news is something that passed from one person to another, not something that is figured out through meditation and silence and prayer.  You can’t sit under a tree pontificating about the meaning of life and arrive at the conclusion that God saved the world by sending His own son to be a sacrifice for our own sins...that either happened or it didn’t.

For me, this passage reminds me of 2 things.

First, we must tell people about Jesus in order for people to be saved.  The message of Jesus won’t spread itself....it requires our assistance.  We are part of the mission.  We have to be intentional about how we are living our lives in pursuit of this mission.  If you are a talker, an influencer, a speaker, then how are you leveraging your inclinations to spread the message?  If you are a person who is more reserved, then your gift may be creating environments where people feel safe and welcomed, and in which you can put in influencer and let them do their work.  How are you, how am I leveraging what I have, in some way, to spread this message?

And two, I heard this from a great pastor and communicator Andy Stanley years ago and it has stuck with me - when we focus on what we know, our faith soars, but when we focus on what we don’t know, it tends to languish.  Peter and John show us the key to holding strong to our faith here - focusing on what we know...the resurrection.  I have heard a lot about how science it up-ending the Christian thesis of creation, or about how maybe this artifact that’s been found in some corner of the world might debunk the idea that this person from the Bible was where he was said to be, or that it is impossible to explain the parting of the Red Sea, etc.  That’s all fine and good - but if you want to debate me, come at me with credible evidence related to the resurrection.  If that happened the way the Bible says it did, the rest is commentary on that, and we can play with those details on that basis.  If it didn’t, the rest doesn’t matter anyways.  I have talked to a lot of people about faith and spirituality (I am one of those that likes to pry that door open with people) and I am yet to have a skeptic want to debate the resurrection...they always focus on the most fantastic random detail they can find from the Bible, with the idea that if they can tear down one detail here or there, then all of the Bible must not be true.

Sometimes we see things in scripture that are just challenging...things we almost wish we couldn’t see.  Today is one of those days for me.  Today we are introduced, to my recollection, the only real ‘standard’ that God gives us in the New Testament.  People often misconstrue a lot of the talk about the fruit of the spirit in various sections of NT writings are commands to be good...but that isn’t what is being taught.  What is being taught with all of these behavioral characteristics in the NT is that these are the things that come from the Holy Spirit when it is living inside of us...these are the result, not the command.

Today we ARE given some kind of a metric...it is the only real command in the NT.  There are other parts of the NT where this command is given in two parts, but today we are introduced to just half of it. Here it is:

John 15:13-14 says: 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

The full ‘command’ with which we are all aware can be found in both Luke and Mark, and here it is from Mark 12:

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

So here is my thought for today, based on these passages.  Looking at Mark’s words for a moment, what if the way to do the former is really the latter?  What if this is really just ONE command that John is actually encapsulating as one command, but that Mark and Luke have broken out into two parts per Jesus’ audience at the time?  John was very keyed in on Love as a theme in his writings.  He teaches us that God IS love.  And what IS love then?  Well, love is laying down our life for the sake of another’s.  Loving God, for whom we can do anything in this life, is really just directing our action towards the people God loves.  God wants us not to do anything for Him, but to do for Him what He did for us...to lay down His life.  We are commanded to take all of the appreciation that we have, for all that God has done in our lives, and for all of the Grace He has given us, and we are commanded to give that to others in the form or love...but laying down our lives.  That’s the only method of given back to God that God really wants.  That’s an amazing idea.

So, loving others IS loving God.  Loving others IS thanking God.  Loving others is our primary purpose.

That’s a huge idea.  That’s a weighty idea.  Practically speaking, that looks like this though...what can I do today to love those people closest to me?  My wife, my kids, those at my work, whoever is around me...what can I do to love them today; and in a way that is like Jesus loved me?

The passage today is about how to cope with with discouragement.  That being said, there really isn’t a recommendation as to what to do as much as to ‘trust’ in the Lord.  But how do you do that, practically speaking?

This is a beautiful Psalm, Psalms 26-28 kind of all go together...but this one that is wedged in the middle is about resting in the presence of the Lord.  It describes a peace that I would love to be able to embody in the midst of chaos.

But how do we do that?  This is something I have been wrestling with for quite some time and that I need to finally and fully resolve in my own life...and that is, tracking answered prayers.  When you need God’s help, and you go to Him in prayer, what do you then do with that prayer?  And what happens once many of these prayers get answered?  Where do they go?  For most of us, those prayers are prayed, often forgotten then, but definitely forgotten later.  I am sure I have forgotten more answered prayers than I could even imagine.  But, what it every time I had a current prayer request, I could look at the years of answers that God has already provided...what would happen to my faith?  What if a family had that power?  Or an organization?

I think we should be in the habit of chronicling answered prayers, and we would be best to do it in a way that is visually accessible...that sits in plain site.  At a minimum, we should maintain a prayer log or journal where we can record these things, but I would suggest that what takes it to the next level is some visualization - like an answered prayer jar that sits on the mantle, or something like that.

That’s my take-away for today - I want to build this visualization this week or my family.  I want to lead us in remembering and memorializing all of the answered prayers that we’d been blessed by, and thereby equip our faith to reach deeper levels as we are emboldened by God’s  graciousness to us.

This chapter is really rich with examples of Jesus serving others, and putting their needs ahead of His own.  We see Him washing the disciples feet while pointing out that one of them is going to betray Him...talk about humility!  And He knows that moment is approaching where He is going to hang on the cross for the sins of the world, not His own.  Think about that...how much humility would that take?  Are you able to say, “I’m sorry” easily?  Are you able to say, “I was wrong”?  Think about the trouble with have with those two simple statements, and yet this guy is washing the feet of the people who’ll cut their ties with Him, who’ll betray Him, and who will abandon everything He is teaching them when the going gets tough.

The phrase ‘servant leadership’ is one of those phrases that is thrown around so much these days that I think it has lost of some its meaning.  What Jesus shows us isn’t just that a leaders serves the people for which he is entrusted, but that a leader loves them where they are, he is empathetic to their needs and meets them where they are and brings them alongside himself in the vision.  A leader’s job is not only to get the bus to where it is going, but to make sure the seats are full.

Today prompts a great question for me - what can I do today to serve those around me?  What one thing can I do to leverage what I have for their benefit?  That’s the mission today as a husband, a father, and as a Christian...to serve.

I love this topic today - it is the idea that leaders are transformational people; that they themselves are people who are transformed.  I love this idea, because it is also completely true of leaders who are followers of Jesus...we are definitely taken on a journey, and transformed.  And this passage that is sighted is so great, because the context behind this verse is just so great...here it is:

Matthew 4:19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

What Matthew doesn’t tell us is what happened right before this...let me ready Matthew’s version in its entirety, and then I will narrate Luke’s version, from Luke 5.

Luke shows us that  the brothers Simon, later Peter, and John had actually been out on the lake fishing, probably most of the night, and they were professionals.  They were cleaning their nets, which is what you do at the end of the outing, and this takes some time and it isn’t something you want to turn right around and do again...so, they probably halfway begrudgingly follow Jesus’ request...they probably had heard some of His teaching and preaching at this point, and probably had some level of understanding that there was something special about Him...so they comply with His request.  And, of course, when they draw their nets in, they are full of fish, so much so that they are just about breaking the nets and pulling over the boats.

So, needless to say, Peter and John were ‘in’...they were with Jesus at this point.  Matthew makes it sound like they just dropped everything at the first sight of Jesus, Luke shows us that they were ‘woo’d’ in a sense...and I am guessing Peter and John’s father was like, “Boys, you follow that guy...he’s got it going on!”.

So that brings us to our verse, which Luke also echos, where Jesus tells these guys, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”  That language makes sense now.

I am guessing here, but I bet it wasn’t until Matthew and Luke and Mark were penning their gospels that they finally remembered Jesus had said this, that this had actually come true.  I am guessing that the disciples did what most of us do...they followed Jesus selfishly, mostly for their own benefit.  I mean, I know I did.  Over time though, that changed.  Over time, it stopped being that I followed Jesus for my own benefit as much as I follow Jesus because I understand that is the purpose for which I was made.  I AM a more joyous person when I follow Jesus, true.  But there is a bigger mission that creeps into play over time.  As that happens, I have woken up to myself being changed little by little over time, day by day, month by month, year by year, and I am a changed man from the man I was when I was 22-23 and accepted Jesus into my life.  Jesus did change me.  Jesus is changing me.  Jesus changed Peter and John and all of these disciples, and DID make them fishers of men...but they probably blew right past this until Jesus was gone and they were writing their accounts of His life and teaching and I bet they wrote these words and stopped and thought, “Oh wow, I remember when He said this… I’ll-be, He sure did.”

Today I am praying that God continues the work in me.  I pray that I would be a partner in that change rather than a hindrance.  I pray that I would see the ways in which God is shaping me and changing me that I might be grateful, and that I might make an effort to join in with His work in me.

One of the things I often hear about the Bible is that people will refer to it as an instruction manual for life.  People sometimes see it in that vein, and I I can understand that for sure - it is rich with content about right living, about doing life well, about avoiding the bad things and with all sorts of distillations of wisdom.  So, they are right in seeing it as a source of that kind of information.  However, there is a real downside to viewing the Bible that way...it takes away from the point of this collection of 66 books from over 40 authors that was written over the period of about 1500 years.  It cheapens it, in my opinion.

What is it then?  How are we to view it?  Well, it isn’t really a history book either...though it certainly contains history as well.  Then what?  In reading the Bible and studying God’s word over the course of about the last 15 years or so, I think the best way to view the Bible is as a story.  Not just that...a true story.  And more...a love story.  The Bible is a story about how God has gone about winning us back to Himself.  That’s really what it is about.  It chronicles that journey from our departure from the Garden of Eden and God’s relationship with us all the way from the ancients and into a more modern setting, and it sets up a future encounter, a future expansion of the story.  It has all of those wisdom and instruction elements, along with history and classic literature and about every other genre we can come up with...it is all there.  But, at its core, it is all about everything God has done to pursue us.

Today’s devotional is called ‘The One Thing’...and it is about this idea that we are to place, right at the center of our lives, the pursuit of God.  We should live our lives on mission, in pursuit, and centered on God’s calling for our lives.  Knowing what I know now, experiencing everything that I have experienced, I can definitely say that not only is this what God calls us to do, but this is also what I believe we are made to do.  For me, it is definitely the case that when I am closest to God, when I am seeking and pursuing His will for me life, when I am aligning my life with God’s plan, I am happiest...or better, I experience the great joy.  Life according to God’s plan really is our greatest and best calling.  Sometimes that can make us feel restricted, or like we are ‘missing out’; sometimes it goes against what we want in the moment; it definitely pushes against our sense of autonomy.  But, I can’t ever say that I have regretted life lived in this way...in pursuit of God’s purpose.

Today is a great reminder...that’s the one thing for which I was created...that’s what the Bible was given to me for...that’s the road to the greatest fulfillment in life - the pursuit of God’s will for my life, God’s love in my life, and God’s plan.

I don't see any connection between the verse cited in today's reading and the context of the devotional, so I am not going to read into the text. The passage, 2 Corinthians 9:8, is rich in meaning about the combination of Grace and provision from God, and it is worth reading and studying, but I did really like the question posed in the devotional, so I am going to focus on that for today's time.

The question is this: "How would Jesus do my job differently?".

That's a great question - that's a question worth some prayer and consideration.

One thing that I think Jesus would do is to focus more in the people, and he would seek ministry opportunities within the job.  He would seek deeper relationships, and he would truly seek more connection with people with the end game in mind of making sure everyone got not only what they needed from a financial advisory standpoint, but from an emotional standpoint as well (to the extent that is possible in my role).

Another thing I think Jesus might consider is impact - he would think about how to leverage what I am doing for a bigger impact for the kingdom.  Whether that’s giving of time, resources, energy, etc...how can we leverage what we are doing for the greater good?

In fact, that last idea has sparked something in me.  I am going to be praying every Sunday for a little while about what that could look like - how can my financial advisory practice execute on some kind of an outreach that has a ministry intent?  How can I do more in this way.  This was a great question this morning.  More to come on this as I get some clarity.

Today’s passage is just this: John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another to be with you forever,...”, but reading the chapter as a whole, there is SO much more.

The purpose of the devotional today is to reassure us that leaders don’t have to rely only on their own intuition about vision and direction - they have a Helper.  In reality though, as is the case when we pluck a verse out of the Bible without proper context, we miss the bigger point that is being made.  Jesus is teaching us that God will be with us, true.  He is also teaching that we will hear God the best when we position ourselves to hear God...when we are ready to listen.

Looking at the verse immediately preceding the highlighted verse, we see a verse that says this: John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knowns him.  You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

Then, again in John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.  And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Now, it is important to differentiate between salvation and the presence of the Holy Spirit.  This isn’t a salvation discussion - salvation comes by placing our faith in the work of Jesus, that He died on the cross as a punishment for our sin and thereby becomes our own sacrifice in place of ourselves...that’s salvation, and this has nothing to do with that.  This is a separate issue - this is whether or not we are able to receive the Holy Spirit, to have God really living in us and through us.  What does Jesus tell us it takes to have that happen?  Well, we must act right?  What is acting right?  The more I read about this, the more I am convinced that God is about direction, not intention, and not destination...direction.  When we are growing, pursuing God (like we talked about yesterday), and actively confronting sin in our lives, we are positioning ourselves to hear from the Holy Spirit.  If we are fighting in that way, there isn’t any need for the Holy Spirit - it is God’s gift to us to help us become more like Jesus.

Today I am reminded that God IS interested in our behavior, but it isn’t for the sake of salvation - it is for the purpose of His Helper...when we position ourselves correctly, in growth, in development, in pursuit of living more like Jesus, we can expect that God will send this Helper to give us a vision for our future, and to guide us where He is calling us.  That’s an exciting promise.  And, I can definitely say that the times when I have felt the closest to God in my life are when I have run the hardest in terms of living like Jesus...and it feels really good.

“That which was from the beginning,  which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—...”

The devotional this morning is getting at the idea that our walk with Jesus, our relationship with Him, is personal, individualized, unique to us...it is like any other relationship.  It asks that we consider our own relationship with Jesus - how is my relationship with Him?  Do I give Him enough of my time?  Do I think on Him enough?  Do I act on His advice?

One thing that it often is difficult for newer believers to appreciate is this nuance about Jesus - that He is personal to them.  It is hard, and I get it, because when else have we had a relationship with someone we can’t see or touch?  A few people have probably tried this a little with a parent they’ve lost, or a friend, but for most of us this is a completely foreign idea.  It isn’t a very transferrable process either, meaning, how you even go about getting started is unique for most of us.  That being said, there ARE a few things that seem to be true for most of us who would say that we DO have a relationship with Jesus.

(1) We read our Bibles.  It isn’t just that we read commentary on the Bible, or that we just study the Bible deeply, or that we seek to learn about the history of the Bible, etc...it is all of that.  But, it is also that we do this regularly.  Spaced repetition helps with learning.  It is also a part of a good relationship - time together, day after day, year over year...it adds up.  15 minutes a day for 10 years is a total of over 900 hours of reading and studying!

(2) We pray.  This is the area where I am weakest in my ‘spiritual game’.  This requires time alone, in quiet, with a clear mind, listening.  That’s right, LISTENING.  I am not talking about time when we throw up the ‘please help me with x’ prayers, but the times when we get the words out and we are able to hear God.  Prayer and sitting still, quietly.

(3) We fast.  Fasting isn’t just going without food for extended periods of time.  That’s usually the Bible context, granted.  In reality though, fasting is just a period of time of abstention...you can pick the terms.  The point is, it is an intentional time of applying discipline to our lives to get better and to listen to God.  Fasting for the sake of fasting can be productive, but fasting and using it as a time to convene with God, to put prayer or Bible reading or stillness into the place of that thing being quit is a great use of fasting, and a great way boost our relationship with God.

(4) We live in community.  We are accountable to a community of believers, like us, who are messed up, have crazy lives, and are trying to grow and to get better.  This can take all sorts of different shapes, but community is always a part of the equation.

Today I am reminded that our relationship with God is personal.  It is unique.  It requires intentionality.  We must prioritize it in our daily lives.  And we must continue to push ourselves to maintain that priority.

When was the last time you took a complete day off from your electronic devices?  For me, it has been a while.  I tend to have decent boundaries with my technology generally speaking, but I tend to struggle with getting my mind to rest...and I tend to constantly go where my mind leads me rather than letting my mind wonder and play and bounce here and there and eventually just get to a point where it lands on something for a while.

Today, this morning...in fact, right now, I am going to set a timer for 10 minutes, and I am going to sit with my cup of coffee in silence for 10 minutes.  Nothing to write with, nothing to search the Internet with...just me and my thoughts.  At the end, I will pray.  For the next week, I will add this to my morning routine.

Where can you insert a few minutes to silence?  Leaders are not just doers.  Leaders are thinkers...thinking requires time and space.  Let’s let our doing be the creating of that time and space where we can think.