And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
TO PONDER:
There are times in our life that it takes something dramatic for us to sit up and take notice. Perhaps it readily pops into your mind right now...a moment that shook you to the very core. A moment that you were not expecting and unprepared for. A moment that was surprising. A moment that changes your present and your future. When Matthew reports the events of Good Friday and the death of Jesus, they are more dramatic than any other Gospel, there is earthquakes and split rocks and opened tombs. The whole natural order of things is disrupted and turned on its head. Something that is not normal is occurring. This moment is significant. The curtain of the temple which kept the holy God separate from ordinary people is ripped in two. God's presence is unleashed into all the world giving all people complete and open access to his mercy and grace. The death of Jesus means there is nothing that is ever able to separate us from the love of God, as Paul writes in Romans 8:39. This moment is life-transforming...it shakes up everything in your relationship with God. It opens up earth-shaking possibilities for your life that have cosmic implications. Spend some time today thinking about how God can unleash you today to give others access to his presence, his mercy and his grace.
PRAYER:
Lord, it is so easy to forget the earth-shaking and cosmic implications of your death for the world and my own life. Shake me up today that I may experience again that beauty of your presence and reflect it in every interaction I have. Amen.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
TO PONDER:
"I do it myself!" I don't think there is a parent around that has not heard that phrase from a child who thinks they can do it all on their own! There is a part of each one of us that loves to be self-sufficient. To think we can manage on our own. These words were written to the Church in Laodicea - not unbelievers - but the people of God who were living in a resource rich area and who were living comfortable lives. Sound familiar? The people thought they could provide for themselves. When an earthquake destroyed their city in 60AD, they refused to receive help from the Roman Empire, and insisted that they fund the rebuild themselves! That attitude of self-sufficiency had also spilled over into the Church setting. They thought they could do everything themselves and so had no need for Jesus in their lives. In effect, they had shut the door on Jesus and left him outside and were living their lives apart from him. Jesus doesn't force his way into our lives...he could...he is all powerful. But from the very beginning, God wants intimacy with his creation, with you. He wants a relationship of mutual choosing that is built on love. So Jesus today is asking you to think about where you are living from an attitude of self-sufficiency; where you are saying, "I do it myself!"
Will you invite Jesus in? Will you invite him into your life, your day, your decisions, your finances to allow him to do work in your life? Will you allow him to transform you to be more like him? That might be painful. There may be parts of your life that he asks you to let go of? There may be certain areas where you need to admit that you have shut him out or not given him access to that part. Opening the door to Jesus is inviting him in and giving him permission to dig around in your life, to find what is broken, dead and ugly so that he can redeem it and make it new; so you can experience fullness of life with him! Will you answer his knock and allow him in today?
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, forgive me when I have shut you out of my life. I admit that as much as I would like to think I can, that I can't do life by myself. I know you love me Jesus, so I give you permission to do whatever you need to do, to make me more like you. Amen.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
TO PONDER:
Ask, Seek, Knock. Three invitation to pray. Three invitation to be bold. Three invitations to come to the Father whom we have complete and open access to. Jesus wants you to be so certain that you have the Father's help, he wants you so much to have the Father's help as you navigate your way through this day, this week, that he repeats the invitations. Ask, Seek, Knock. Ask, and it will be given to you....For everyone who asks receives. Seek, and you will find...and the one who seeks finds. Knock, and it will be opened to you...and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Ask, Seek, Knock. Pray. Pray. Pray. No-one is excluded. You have 24/7 access to a Father in heaven who loves you. A Father who longs to give good things to those who ask him, as verse 11 of this same chapter tells us. Jesus can't encourage you in any greater way to make use of the unrestricted access you have to the God who is at the centre of all of life, and the one from whom all blessings flow. So how is your prayer life? How often are you asking, seeking, knocking? And in case you think God is too important and mighty to be interested in what is happening in your life, Luther once wrote on these words: "He knows that we are timid and shy, that we feel unworthy and unfit to present our needs to God...We think that God is so great and we are so tiny that we do not dare to pray...Christ wants to lure us away from such timid thoughts, to remove our doubts, and to have us go ahead confidently and boldly" (LW, Volume 21, 234). Pray boldly today!
PRAYER:
Holy Spirit, fill me with your boldness that I may daily ask, daily seek, daily knock and discover the joy of the Father's help and love. Amen.
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” Revelation 4:1
TO PONDER:
Many of you will have seen "Lego Masters', currently showing on television. It's a wonderful show and I am always struck by the response of the contestants when they are given access to the "lego" room. Confronted with the kaleidoscope of colour before them and seeing every lego piece available to them, their eyes widen and their mouths open with a voiced or unvoiced 'wow'. This unlimited access to the lego pieces opens up a world of excitement and opportunity for them. Dial that up a billion fold and we have some idea of what John experienced when he responded to Jesus' invitation to come up to the throne room of heaven. The beauty of light radiating out from the centred of the throne. A rainbow of promise circling it. It was too much to take in. He sees not a sea of chaos but a glassy see of calm and peace that gives a clear way through to the throne where John sees true reality; that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is at the centre of all of life. It a vision of beauty that gives hope. It's a vision of light that sustains and shows a way through when darkness and suffering and pain close in. It's a vision of promise that gives strength and courage to live because we access to everything God is, everything God has done, and everything God will do. That takes my breath away. What about you? Will you let that reality be the centre from which all of your life flows? Jesus says, "Come up here and I will show you..."
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, through the cross and the empty tomb you have given us open and unlimited access to the throne room of heaven. Fill us with your Holy Spirit that every part of our life may be centred in, flow from, revolve around and point back to you, the one who alone is worthy of our worship and praise. Amen.
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
TO PONDER
On the 26th of April 2022, a few days before this will be posted I have been married to my amazing wife for 15 years, I know that because I have a signed legal document from the Government of the Province of Manitoba, Canada, making our union legal.
Upon the signing of that marriage licence in front of a registered clergy, having it witnessed by someone who attended the ceremony and having the clergy to then mail the document to the branch of Vital Statistics our union is official, legal, with all rights and privileges of a legally married couple.
Yep, all very romantic, it brings a tear to my eyes, a lump in my throat… Yeah, not really.
On the other hand, the memories of 15 years together as husband and wife, the birth of our 2 incredible boys, the holidays together, the celebrations, the travels, the incredible amazing times and the hard times where we barely like each other let along love each other is what brings a tear to my eye and reminds me of how much I love this person who agreed to journey with me through life, not the contract I signed.
Today’s verse reminds us of the new covenant we are now under, a covenant of relationship over rules, of principles over precepts of love over law, a covenant signed in blood. A covenant I didn’t earn nor deserve, a covenant the creator of everything gave his life for the chance of an eternal relationship with me.
PRAYER
Almighty God, I thank you that you paid the ransom so that I can be set free, that in your unconditional love you pour out your grace upon me daily and call me son, friend. I give you all praise and honour. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
TO PONDER
What does it look like to have Christ living in me? The tangible presence of Christ in me in every situation? What would that really look like?
PRAYER
Almighty God, I thank you that you paid the ransom so that I can be set free, that in your unconditional love you pour out your grace upon me daily and call me your child. I give you all praise and honour. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
TO PONDER
I was one of those people who associated the death and resurrection of Jesus with ‘fire insurance’, protection from the fires of hell. Sure, being a Christian meant I had to change, I had to do what it said in the Bible to be a good Christian but if I was honest the ‘new life’ today’s verse mentions didn’t really apply to my life now, it was all about the life after death.
I was in fact missing a major part of the Christian life, the new creation life, the ‘Living Fully’ part of LifeWay’s vision, the promised John 10:10 overflowing life. Jesus died to give us a new life here and now as much as for the after-death life, the gospel message is good news for us now, we don’t have to wait until we die, we can and should live fully here and now because He died for us.
Grace empowers us to live the gospel life today.
PRAYER
Saviour God, I thank you that I am now a new creation, living a new life because of you. I ask you to help me live fully everyday, that when I wake up I would give the day to you and ask you to lead and guide me in everything I do. Amen.
Today's daily devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
TO PONDER
I don’t know about you but I often struggle with maintaining a spiritual practice, even some simple ones like the the ‘3 Prayers’ we practice at LifeWay Westside.
I call it simple because its about praying three ‘headline’ prayers when we wake up in the morning, we call them ‘headline’ prayers because its just praying single sentence prayers. The concept is to pray for LifeWay Church, pray for a person who God lays on your heart, and finally ask God to use you ‘today’, so its as simple as saying; “God I ask you to bless my church family at LifeWay, God I pray for Danny today because he could surely use your help, and God I ask you to use me today to shine your gospel light through me today. Amen”.
See simple right?
The idea is to get into the habit of setting your heart on the things of God as soon as you wake up but the struggle usually arises with the distractions that flood my mind as I wake, having to take the kids to school, the stressful meeting I have during that day, or the myriad of other ‘important’ life events I have to do that day. So instead of taking the less than 60 seconds it would take to pray three headline prayers I jump into the distractions of life, I stress about the things I have no control over, etc. etc…
Today’s verse tells us as followers of Jesus to ‘set your heart on the things above’, basically wake up and think about Him, before we stress about ‘earthly things’ take some time to start the day with God, even if it’s saying 3 simple headline prayers.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I repent of not setting my mind on you, I ask you to help me wake up every morning with you on my mind, not the stresses of the world but rather on the things above. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
TO PONDER
After almost 17 years of living in Canada as an Australian I returned to live in Australia as a Canadian…
The transformation over time went unnoticed, my accent didn’t really change, I still identified as a true-blue Aussie, I proudly displayed an Australian flag on my bags, I cheered on Australia when they competed against Canada in any adversarial endeavour. I was Australian!
But then I returned to my homeland as a foreigner, an outsider, I didn’t really fit in a place I felt ownership with. I was now viewing life in Australia on the other side of a life in Canada, I had changed, I was a new creation, I was a new person. I was now Canadian!
Today’s reading reminds us that on the other side of grace we are now foreigners of the past, that while it may be familiar to us we no longer belong in that past. On the other side of grace we are new creations, new people. The following verses tell us that as a result of our new identities we are now ambassadors of Christ’s message of reconciliation between God and the world, ambassadors of His grace.
PRAYER
Almighty Father, I thank and praise you for your amazing grace provided to me through Jesus and for the reconciliation accomplished. I pray that as I walk through life on the other side of grace I would carry your reconciling message to the world around me. Amen.
Todays devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside