Lord Jesus, please be my vision as I begin my day.
“Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, ‘For three years now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it I find none. Cut it down! Why should it continue to deplete the soil?’ But the worker answered him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. Then if it bears fruit next year, very well, but if not, you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13:6-9)
The elapsed time in this parable is around 5 years total since the man planted the fig until he checked for figs again and found none. It takes a fig tree two years before it is mature enough to begin bearing fruit and the man would started to look for fruit. And the parable states the man looked for fruit for 3 years. The point in any case is that more than enough time had been given to expect the tree to bear fruit. The purpose of a fig tree and why it even exists is to bear fruit. If it does not, as the man stated, what good is it? Cut it down and let’s plant and cultivate another tree that will bear fruit. In this parable, it is not actually fig trees Jesus is talking about, the parable uses a fig tree to represent his disciples, you and I Christians in the church. There are many more passages in the Bible that state the purpose of a Christian is to bear fruit. We read some of these passages in earlier chapter of Luke.
“Even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (3:9)
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. The good person out of the good treasury of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury produces evil, “ 6:43-45)
I am continuing to reflect on our baptisms. There was an “unto”, a purpose for our baptism, that purpose is for us to bear fruit. And what is the fruit you are to bear? Jesus tell us, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Making disciples of Jesus is the fruit we are called to bring forth.
For the fig tree, it takes 2 years before it is mature enough to bear fruit. For us, it is immediately after we are baptized. Compared to the parable, for some of you reading this it has been way longer than 2 years since you were baptized plus 3 years of Jesus checking to see if you are bearing fruit. Some of you it has been 10, 20, 30 or more years since you were planted by your baptism in the vineyard of God, natured, and expected to bear fruit. So, how much fruit in all that time have you produced and is in your basket? How many people have you shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with, then granted access to you lives and nurtured into a disciple of Jesus until they are producing fruit? How many pieces of fruit (disciples) have you produced in the last year? Last two years? If the owner of the vineyard looked at your walk as a Christian as he did the fig tree would he say, “I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it I find none. Cut it down! Why should it continue to deplete the soil?”
Listen carefully. Let those who have ears hear. If you are reading this devotion there is a good chance you call yourself a Christian. At the core of why you are calling yourself a “Christian,” and why you were created, baptized, redeemed and set apart was not to: attend church services on Sunday or watch them on line; attend house churches; attended Bible studies; attend men’s and women’s small groups;; attend Christian concerts and raise your hands in worship; attend retreats like Emmaus, Cursillo, Paseo, New Room, or other conferences; pray and read your Bible alone in your living room; read this and other devotions; read other books on Christianity. Yes, you need to and are to participate in these good things. And many of you have been participating in these good things for decades now. However, these things are all the “digging around” and “fertilizer” as described in the above passage to help you produce fruit and do what you were created, baptized, and redeemed to do, and that is make disciples. If you are not bearing fruit, you are “depleting the soil” and not fulling the purpose for which you exist.
Now this is where most people in their minds go into the rationalization, comparison to others, excuses, and self- justification for why they are not bearing fruit, making disciples. If the above passage applies to you as a Christian, please don’t go there. Just simply and honestly repent, ask Jesus for forgiveness, and intentionally make plans to make disciples. For some of you, you may not be bearing fruit because you have stopped, stepped away from, or gotten lazy in all those things that I listed that are the “digging around” and “fertilizer” that are needed to help you produce fruit and you need to start an intentional “fertilizing routine.” For some of you, you may not know how, and I’d love to help you.
My family, I pray you set aside time to honestly look at your walk with Christ and if you are bearing fruit, I pray you will not turn to rationalization but to repentance, not to comparison but to the cross and spend time with the Holy Spirit discerning how you will intentionally, without delay, going to begin bearing fruit and making disciples, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Let me help you!
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community.. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Please Partner With Me!
Help Me Share The Gospel and Make Disciples!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Thank You!
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
This past Sunday I had the holy pleasure of baptizing 4 youths in good friends of mine’s swimming pool. I invited a neighbor and his family to come to the baptism and one of his children asked to be baptized and He himself went into the pool to remember and be renewed of his original baptism. As each youth came down into the pool and after they came up under the water those attending clapped and cheered. When all were baptized they lined up along the edge of the pool and the father of some of the youth anointed all the youths head with oil and another person spoke over them how they are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. We all then laid hands on them and prayed over them. It was a beautiful day of celebration of new life in Christ for these youths and a reminder of all those present of the new life we received in our baptism.
This day was a true example of the great commission by Jesus to all of us who are baptized in Christ to “go” baptize and make disciples. As none of these youth baptized ever attended an ODC Church Gathering and the conversations and explanation of the Gospel of Christ did not take place in a classroom but in the workplace. The father of some of the youth is a co-worker of mine at Lowes. And this day of baptism flowed out of our conversations on the Lowes sales floor and in the break room. through time spent sharing stories of our lives and family, I then was able to share my faith with him and allow him to share his faith with me. I learned hos his children and their friends were not baptized. So I contacted them, and invited them not to church, not to meet my pastor or youth leader, but invited them to my house for pizza. Where my wife and I shared our faith and simple testimonies of how our lives have been changed by Jesus and we answered their questions. Our personal time and love for these youth led to them being baptized.
My neighbor and his family who came to the baptism also came from my wife and I getting out and knowing our neighbors and sharing out life and faith with them. And I told you haw my neighbor wanted to be immersed again to remember and by renewed in his baptism. I had these youths who were just baptized themselves, speak the words and dunk my neighbor. To help them realize that though they had just been baptized minutes ago, they are now completely capable though the Holy Spirit in them to immediately start making disciples.
They are all invited back to our house tomorrow evening for chicken finger dinner and to share together about Jesus.
You all were called in and by your baptism into Christ were not simply called to go to church. But to obey Jesus’ commission to “go” make disciples. If each member of a small church of 100 people would each simply go and lead one person to Christ in a year, that church would double to 200 people. If they all would again simply just lead 1 person to Christ the next year, the church would grow to 400 members. If those 400 each simply lead 1 person to Christ in a year, at the end of 3 years that small church of 100 would have 800 members, be needing to build a new building or launch a new campus. It they do this for 5 years, they will have 3,200 members in there church and most likely now be the largest church in their community. And if they continue it will be the church Jesus envisioned that walls could not contain. Those in the church “going” and being the movement of God in their community is how The Church grows. Failure to “go” is why churches stagnate and die.
Have you personally through your connections and areas of influence and sharing of your life and faith led just 1 person to Christ this past year? Past 3 years? Past 5 years? Has it been more?
My family, I pray today you reflect on your commissioning by Jesus in your baptism to “go” and make disciples and honestly look at your level of obedience to this commission. Then don’t dwell or regret, but GO make disciples, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections with us in the comment box below!
Here are some photos from Sunday!
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Please Partner With Me!
Help Me Share The Gospel With Truth And Love
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Holy Spirit, come this morning and set a fire inside my soul, that I can’t contain, that I cant control.
This Sunday I will have the honor to baptize 4 teenagers in a good friend of mine’s swimming pool. It will be a joyful day of celebration! I prayed of this day and these youths this morning and my thoughts turned to baptism.
All throughout both the Old Testament and the New Testament anointing of people, altars, places, and ministries was an act in which they were set- apart, commissioned, consecrated, sealed as God’s chosen instruments for his glory and his purpose. In you baptism, you also were set-apart, commissioned, consecrated, sealed as God’s chosen child for his glory and his purpose and you were also seals by the fire of the holy Spirit.
In the lexicon BDAG, Baptism, in Greek “Baptizo” from the word “Bapto,” means to dip or dye. A person in the first century would take his plain cloth to a “bapto” and if they dipped it in a pot of red dye, the dye would penetrate every fiber of the cloth and the cloth that came out would forever be identified as the color red. You in your baptism were covered in the blood of Christ through the Holy Spirit that penetrated every fiber of your being and you are forever now identified in Christ. (Rev. 13:19)
Baptizo, baptism also has another meaning. As a military term it means “to completely overwhelm, annihilate, and conquer”. Josephus, Antiquities, a Jewish historian at the time of the life of Jesus, wrote in 70AD describing Rome’s invasion of Israel and destruction of the Temple, “Israel was baptized by Rome.” The Temple was completely overwhelmed, conquered, and over-run by Rome.. When you were baptized, the Holy Spirit “invaded” every aspect of you spiritually and physically and your flesh was overwhelmed, conquered, and over-run by the Spirit. Just like the “Baptism” of Christ in his death and resurrection was a violent and cataclysmic event, so was your baptism, as you were baptized with and in Christ. (2Cor .5:17)
In Matt 3:11 John the Baptist cries out, “I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am - I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. You were anointed by the Holy Spirit at your baptism and marked, set apart, consecrated, and sealed for God’s glory. You were overwhelmed and over run by the Holy Spirit and surrendered to the Lordship of Christ. How long has it been since you were baptized? Do you remember it? Are you living out that anointing and setting apart you received for being washed by the blood of Christ?
My family, I pray you read Acts 2:1-13, Joel 2:28-32 and the passages I’ve listed above. Then spend some time this morning in prayer remembering your baptism, and the anointing you received. Ask the Holy Spirit for a new anointing and refilling of his Spirit into your life. If you never have yet accepted being baptized and receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus and been made new, I pray to will accept it today. I’d love to talk to you about it, and I am sure your pastor, youth leader, spouse or a friend would as well. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!!
Please share your reflections with us in the comment box below!
Please Partner With Me!
Help Me Share The Gospel With Truth And Love
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I call on Your name and listen for Your leading, as I seek to begin this day and every day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with Your Holy Spirit. ...
“We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-17).
Part of growing up into spiritual maturity, which is growing up into the image of Christ, is learning to speak the truth in love. Not just speaking truth, but also speaking it in love. Not just loving, but also speaking the truth. And part of that growing up is also getting the courage to speak up and stand up, even when it costs you something.
That’s how I felt last night as I was sitting in the break room at work and a conversation came up how they we should counsel our children on questions of their gender identity. In the conversation was a school teacher, a leader in another local church, and several other people.
In my understanding of Your Word and Your heart for Your children, we are created by God as male or female (Genesis 5:2). Our gender identity is at the heart of our humanity. Our gender identity is at the foundation of our sense of security, self-image, and true identity. And of course, there is a spiritual onslaught against our true sense of identity, at the heart of our humanity. “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10), and this is one of the primary targets of the enemy of our soul. And that attack is the most vicious against our most vulnerable -- our children. And that attack is most destructive when they are at their most vulnerable time during the formation of their understanding of their identity, especially in their school age years.
People in this conversation spoke positively about bringing into the minds and hearts of our children the dangerous and destructive principles and philosophies of what is masked in terms of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) -- which actually advocates for just the opposite. Their own words boldly declare their true intention of their “Commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion” which includes “gender expression” under what they call “diversity”.
In fact, “gender expression” means gender confusion. “Gender expression” means blurring the lines of our children’s true gender identity, when our children desperately need to know in the security of their true identity that they are created by God as either male or female, as either boys or girls. And that’s just one of the important issues involved and only one of the reasons why the initiatives of DEI are dangerous and divisive in identity of our nation.
Children’s brains are far from fully developed when they are in their school age years, needing security and stability, rather than confusion and subjection to dangerous agendas and ideologies. As parents and communities of the Christian faith, we are called and commanded to train up our children in the way they should go, according to the Word and Heart of God for them (Proverbs 22:6). So if we are to trust a partnership with our schools to help do that, we must express our voices, despite the outcry that our voices be silenced if they are contrary to the voice of this age.
I’m thankful for the hard-working teachers and administrators in our community who love our children and desire God’s best for them. But I am honestly concerned about hidden agendas of groups that say they want to help but their help comes at a great cost.
To say that our voices being expressed in questions and concerns for the protection and security and identity of our children are the voices of “a fringe group” would be dishonest. To say that our voices are an expression of merely a loud and scarry minority with extreme views would be spreading misinformation. To say that God-fearing, God-loving parents and community members expressing their God-given, constitutional, inalienable rights should just sit back and shut up for fear of retaliation and cancellation would be malicious intimidation.
These are not political issues; these are moral issues. These are not nonessential matters; these are matters at the heart and souls of the lives of our children.
Some of our Christian examples of speaking the truth in love fearlessly in the face of the voice of the age are Rev. Martin Luther King, William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And our greatest example of all, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I believe Your Holy Spirit is giving me a growing conviction in my own conscience to follow their example to stand up and speak out -- “speaking the truth in love” -- as part of my personal spiritual journey of growing up in the spiritual maturity of Christ. Your Example is to be both as self-sacrificing as a Lamb and as bold as a Lion at the same time, as the Holy Spirit leads, according to the will and heart of the Father. No doubt, it will cost me something. But I put my trust in the One who has already paid the price. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you may keep growing in spiritual maturity, speaking the truth in love by the Character and Example of Jesus, in Jesus' name. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections in the comment box below.
Please Partner With Me!
Help Me Share The Gospel With Truth And Love
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Good morning Lord Jesus, I seek you this morning so that the words “Lord Jesus” will not just be words that I speak but define the life I live out today.
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesusʼ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For Peter and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so were James and John, Zebedeeʼs sons, who were Simonʼs business partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” So when they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:20-31)
My daughter and her boyfriend each have a dog. They drove up together from Birmingham to spend Labor Day weekend with me and Nancy. Yesterday, I grabbed a fishing rod and took the dogs for a walk over to one of the ponds in a small park in our neighborhood. While the dogs ran around, I made a few casts and caught a couple small bass. I love to fish. However, the kind of fishing envisioned in the passage above is not the fishing we envision today with a fishing pole, line, bobber, and hook with bait or a lure. It was not a relaxing hobby of a fun outing that dad’s take their children to enjoy or people do to forget work and get out on the water.
The fishing in this passage is net fishing. It involved a circular net that had heavy weights around its perimeter that was cast out into the water and dragged back in over and over again. The occupation of fisherman was not fun or relaxing, but labor-intensive, hard work and this imagery of a fisherman involved much strain, long , hard, hours, and often resulted in the disappointment on little or no catch of fish. Jesus called Peter out of his calling of a fisherman and the catching of fish; into the calling of of sharing the Gospel and the catching people. However, in catching people; the strenuousness of evangelism, the time, the work ethic that it required, the persistence and the dedication to the task (often in spite of minimal “catch” orresults) is the same as in catching fish. Yet the infinite value of the new "catch" (the people), and of snatching people from judgment into grace and new life has eternal significance. Then catching people in a way is the opposite of catching fish: The fish that were caught would be destroyed: killed, cooked, and eaten. The people that will be caught would be saved, rescued, removed from eternal destruction, and given new eternal life. In His saying, "You will be catching people", Jesus turns the miracle into a metaphor for mission for all who follow Jesus, including you and me today. We also accepted Jesus’ call to become “fishers of people” when we were baptized.
My family, I pray as we celebrate Labor Day and our whatever different callings and careers (fisherman) we have, you will be reminded and recommitted of your calling you promised to enter into in your baptism of being a fisher of people. I pray you will reflect on the level of your work ethic, persistence, and dedication currently in your life to catching people. I pray you will realize the infinite value of your “catch”; your neighbors, co-workers, classmates and others, in Jesus name. Please pray the for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections in the comment box below.
Please Partner With Me In Fishing For People!
Help Me Share The Gospel With Those In Troubled Waters!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
This morning I read a report on the struggles of The Church and Christians in an area of India. They are trying to overcome social, political, religious and caste system limitations and persecutions. While reflection on these Christian’s struggles the the Lord spoke to me iand this passage in the Beatitudes came to me from Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” I started meditating on how I can help instill my church and others the DNA to desire and a hunger for sharing the Gospel.
As I meditated on this it struck me, “How do I instill a DNA of a hunger and thirst for Jesus into a community that has never experienced true hungered or thirst before?” This illustration worked great for Jesus in his context, because almost all of those he was speaking to knew in a nation occupied ny a Roman army and had experienced many time starvation and true hunger and thirst. It was part of their daily lives. They had experienced and knew the true desperation for something to eat or drink, like their life depended on it. How many reading this post have experienced long periods of true hunger and thirst and smuggled to find enough food or drink to survive? I never have. Yes, on my mission trip to Southern Darfur there were days we did not eat because there was no food, and I was hungry and thirsty, but I knew it was temporary. I knew in a few weeks I would be flown out back to Kenya and eat my fill. And I have have fasted for many times for various lengths of days and was hungry but it was intentional, food was available around me if I chose to eat it. There was no desperation, life-threatening drive in me to seek out food and water. Again, most of those reading this letter, have never felt this true desperation in hunger and thirst. We do not know how to relate to it.
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” But what would that mean if he was speaking to the crowd reading this post who were already blessed materialistically, have fridges and pantry’s full or food, and are satisfied? We in our comfort and materialism are already satisfied! We don’t know how hunger and thirst for food, so we sure don’t know how to hunger and thirst for Jesus! And then to go another step further and to hunger and thirst for others to know Jesus. We lack true desperation and true urgency.
So How do I lead and instill a hunger and thirst for Jesus in a community that has never experienced hungered and thirsted? Lead them to experience the authentic Jesus. Lead them into a place where through the interaction of the Holy Spirit with their Spirit they will Like Saul, have a Road to Damascus experience and encounter Jesus. That experienced changed the identity of Saul to Paul. It is actual holy, paradigm shattering, identity changing encounters with Jesus that create a hunger and a thirst for more of him. More Jesus, more righteousness, more of a heart that breaks for the lost, more desperation share our faith with unbelievers. Where they “Taste and see that the LORD is good!” (Psalm 34:8) and experience “Our God is a consuming fire. (12:29). Wherethey hear Jesus and experience Jesus calling out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37-38)
Leading people to experience the actual, living Jesus in a real tangible way so that the good news of Christ is not just “The Gospel story” but “their Gospel story” is my calling. And the calling of everyone of you who have “tasted and seen that the Lord is good.”
My family, I pray as we enter into the long Labor Day weekend, you take time to meditate as I am doing on “What do I hunger and thirst for? How do I increase to the point of desperation my hunger and thirst for Jesus and the lost? And then just don’t meditate on it, but actually go, spend some time in that hunger sharing the bread of life with others this weekend, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections in the comment box below.
Please Partner With Me!
Help Me Share The Gospel With Those Who Are Hungry!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I declare the power of Your name over every moment of my day (Philippians 2:10). ...
“Now on the same day two of (Jesus’ disciples) were going to a village called Emmaus.... While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself came near and went with them.... Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things about Himself in all the Scriptures... They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was talking to us on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures to us?’” (Luke 24:13-32).
“All the Scriptures” speak of You. The words of Moses. The words of the prophets. The words of Paul,. As it turns out, it’s all about You!
Holy Spirit, come like a Fire, as I sit here this morning with my Bible open, You burn in my heart and open my eyes to see Jesus in “all the Scriptures” ...
Lord Jesus, You’re the Point of every parable. The Hero of every Old Testament Story. The Object of Our Affection in every Psalm and every Song of Solomon. The Nugget of Wisdom in every Proverb. The Glory of God revealed and perfectly expressed as human form in every Gospel. The Author and Finisher of our Faith of every Epistle of Paul and Peter and James and John and Jude. The Soon and Coming King and Ultimate Restoration of All Things in the Book of Revelation.
My Heavenly Father, in every Word of Your Scripture, let me see Jesus. Let me know Jesus. And as Jesus Himself draws near to me in every Word about Him, let my heart burn within me with Your consuming, eternal Flame of Holy Fire. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you may open your Bible this morning and throughout this weekend and your life and the Flame of Holy Fire burn in your heart as You see Jesus in all Scriptures and let Him draw near to you in every moment of Your day, in Jesus' name. God bless you my friends!
Pease share your reflections and prayers with us in the comment box below.
Please Partner With Me Making Disciples!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too." 2Cor. 1:3-6
If you read my reflection blogs fairly regularly, you know that many of my morning posts flow out of encounters with people were by simply listening to them I was granted Holy entrance into their lives. I was at Lowes Monday, and they are already setting upend putting out their Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations. I was talking with a fellow employee setting up a Thanksgiving display. The conversation turned toward the upcoming holidays. The employee shared her mother had passed away this past June. She was very close to her. She said this would the first Thanksgiving and Christmas without her. Their family always went to her house for holiday gatherings and meals and this year it will be so different and she does not know what she will do. I just listened and let her share “life” with me. Then there in the seasonal aisle of Lowes, I prayed with her.
We all, including myself suffer from loss. Loss of a spouse or other family member, a recent divorce, loss of a job, a recent move away from family, can all create emotions of sadness and depression. And we al, including myself, need others, someone to simply listen to us share our feelings to get through it. Real conversations, not just on online Facebook or other post and comments.
I post a blog daily to in someway allow us to be in conversation together, Though I ask for readers to share their reflections and thoughts, it is usually a one- way conversation in which I am the one talking, However, I want you to know I am here for you. I want you to remember my door is always open, the coffee pot is always on and my sofa is always warm and a place of peace and non-judgement. Any one,, whoever you are.... who simply need to chat are welcome to contact me anytime. It's no good suffering in silence. I have cold drinks in the fridge...tea & coffee in the cupboard and I will always be here....You are never not welcome!! Starbucks and Waffle House are open where we can gather to talk as well or go grab a beer. You never have to go through a difficult season in life alone. You never have to suck-it-in and push through a gloomy overcast day of depression, loneliness, addiction, fear, frustration, or thoughts of suicide alone. It's always good to talk but its even better to listen, and to be listened to. Some days this hits closer to home than we think. I'll always lend an ear and a shoulder and my heart. My hands are always ready to raise in prayer. Call/text me Gary Liederbach at 256-302-3785
My family, I pray you read the passage from 2Corinthians again. Then reflect on your life situations today. Maybe you need to call someone today to talk. I know if you pray to the Holy Spirit, he will lead you to a name you need to call and simply listen. OR maybe the same Holy Spirit will lead to a person’s name you know may be going through a life situation you need to not text, not FB, but actually call and talk to. Or a co-worker or class mate you need to step in and ask to listen to them, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Pease share your reflections and prayers with us in the comment box below.
Please Partner With Me Making Disciples!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I was in the Waffle House talking to a waitress. A man walked in and sat down at the other end of the counter. The waitress walked over to him, chatted with him, took his order, poured his some coffee, then came back to where I was sitting . She asked me if I knew the man and I said no. She said you should go and meet him because he is “A Good Christian.”
At hearing the words, “A Good Christian,” my discipleship mindset kicked in. What is a “Good Christian?” We in the church both hear and and say that phrase when people are described. “You need to take your car to get worked on by Bill, he’s a “good Christian.” Or “Your child is lucky to get Ms. Sally as their teacher at the school, she is a “good Christian.” We say and hear it all the time, but what does that mean? Does being a good Christian equate to being a disciple of Christ? How are the characteristics and competenciesthat a person exhibits through the lens of the church the same and/or different than the those exhibited as a disciple of Christ through the eyes of Jesus? Is a good Christian someone who imitates a church or Jesus? Is a church creating those they describe as good Christians, the same a church creating those Jesus would describe as his disciples?
See, I went to church consistently for the first 16 years of my life. I was a “Good Christian.” The church baptized me, taught me the creeds, taught me the liturgies, confirmed me, taught me the seasons and rhythms of the church, and taught me when to stand up, sit down, and kneel. I was awarded and accepted or my ability to jump through these hoops. I knew some Scriptures but I did not know Jesus. The church never discipled me, It did not have an apprenticeship process, but gave me lots of information and class room settings. It never invested the time walking me through my garbage, creating places where I had to confront Jesus, had to confront what needed healed, confronted what needed loved, so I never fell in love with Jesus. When I was 18, I chunked the church in the trash. It wasn't until 7 years later, around the age of 25 because of some "God" events, that I began slowly returning to church again. And I once again began doing the "good Christian” things of going to church services, singing the right songs, attending class rooms and jumping through hoops again. I was again a "good Christian." Yet I was still an unhealed, white washed tomb. It wasn't until I was 34 that I encountered someone who made me realize that it is not simply about the service, the songs, the hoops, or my comfort, but confronted me about becoming open and honest before God, confronted my “good Christian” life as compared to a life of a disciple of Christ:, confronted me and took the time to mentor me like Jesus would.
If I asked you Identify between 8-10 core competencies that represent the bare minimum standards for every disciple of Jesus, what would you say they are? Ccompetencies that are simple, repeatable, transferrable and scaleable. The minimum standards a disciple needs to be fairly competent possessing.. If I were to make a list, my top 7 would be:
1. Personal Prayer: The ability listen to and speak to God
2. Bible Reading: Ability to self feed in the Word, and get proficient in the Word
3. Public Prayer: Ability to pray over others
4. Personal Testimony: Ability to Share with someone, to be able to answer this question, “What difference does it make in my life today by following Jesus?”
5. Gospel: Ability To Share the Gospel, Good news of Jesus from creation, to fall, to crucifixion, resurrection and assencion of Jesus and how if applies to a person’s life and after death.
6. Discipleship: Ability to disciple another individualThen think, What is the process by which someone
7. In an accountability group. Be Accountable to others.
The How? How will I/others develop these minimum competencies? Have you developed these competencies? What is in place in your life, your church, small groups now, to intentionally grow in each area? What needs to be created or entered into that will instill these? Also, what are you doing that is not developing these, and why then are you doing them?
What tools may help reaffirm and cultivate each of these competencies? Do you possess them? Does your church possess them? If not, where do you find them?
How are you provided support & accountability for growing in these areas? How are you providing support and accountability to others to grow in these areas?
Jesus is constantly trying to find out who really wants to be his disciple. And so he keeps pushing and prodding and questioning and putting it out there until some leave, some commit and go all in. or some exist in complacency.. If I am honest, most churches I attended in my past did not do this, but left the option to simply attend, tithe, and be a “good Christian” open to me. What about your church? If you are in the Huntsville Alabama area, I would love to help your church or small groups grow in Discipleship of Jesus Christ.
My family, I pray this morning you will pray then reflect on your level of competency of basic, minimal competencies of a disciple of Jesus. You ability to mentor other in them, and how and where you are doing it, in Jesus name.
Please post and share your thoughts, reflections, questions, or prayers with us in the comment box below.
Please Partner With Me Making Disciples!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
My reflection from 6 years ago.
My morning office is the Waffle House. About 3 months ago I went into the Waffle House (WH) and I sat down in a chair at the “low bar,” the bar you can sit at that is at normal chair height. I did not notice the used coffee cup that was on the bar in the back next to the menu rack in front of the chair I sat in. It belonged to a man I will call Chuck., who happened to have gone outside to smoke a morning cigarette. Chuck is a man who comes frequently to the WH. He is a “rough” and crude man in his late 60’s or 70’s. He cusses allot and gives the waitresses and customers a hard time and is sharp with them when he is “in that mood.” Chuck walked back into the WH, saw me sitting in “his chair,” walked up to me and said coldly “Hey mother F*%ker you are in my seat!” I turned to him and before I could say a word the two waitresses who were standing there almost jumped over the bar and verbally attacked Chuck. One said, “Now you listen here you mother F&%ker this man here is a f*#king man of God and if you ever talk to him like that again I will kick your f*cking @ss!!“ The other waitress jumped in, “ Ya you d#ck, he is my f*cking pastor! What the f@ck is wrong with you.!” Show some f@cking repect! The waitresses high fived each other and one said to the other. “Sword of the spirit b#tch!” And Chuck turned and walked out.
I sat there and processed what had just happened! First, the waitresses have never come to an ODC gathering, though I have invited them many times. And I never told the waitresses I was their pastor. But because of my coming into the WH four or five mornings a week and talking, listening, and praying with them it appears that is how they saw me. The other day the waitresses were talking about how life seemed to be attacking them. I took out my phone and I read to them from Ephesians 6 about the armor of God and explained it to them. And the one waitresses shouting “Sword of the spirit b#tch” shows they were listening and retaining what I told them, I just need to work a little more on their application of that verse!
Fast forward to a month ago. I was walking in the WH and Chuck was outside in the front smoking. I said good morning to him as I was walking by and Chuck kind of quietly and nicely (especially for Chuck!) asked if I had a moment. I told him sure and stopped by him. He said quietly as he looked at the ground, “I know you are kind of a religious guy and it’s not that big of a deal but I was wondering if you would pray for me for something. “I said, “Sure what’s up?” And he went on to say that the Doctors think he may have prostrate cancer and he had a test today to confirm it. I said, “of course,” but before I could say anything else he opened up and told me a story for about 10 minutes. The short summary of it was that he used to go to church a long time ago and was kind of close to God. Then he was drafted to Vietnam to fight in the war. He said he did some things there he was not proud of, things God could not forgive him for. He said in attacks on villages he shot and killed enemy soldiers who were just kids, also women, and elderly. He saw children killed and witnessed and participated in other atrocities of war. He stopped praying after the war and has never gone back to church since he came back to the states. When I asked to pray with him there he said no, he had to leave, but for me to pray as you feel God will listen.
As he walked away my heart both mourned for him and was convicted for me. I had joined in with others at the WH at times commenting on Chuck and his behavior. However, the reason Chuck was an angry, and hurtful man is he was filled with guilt that separated him from God. Guilt from things he did he thought were not forgivable. And I thought, I know and preach that God can forgive anything, I have never put him to “the test” of his forgiveness like Chuck has to. If I was the one looking down an M-16 and watching bullets splatter bodies of kids and women from my gun and trigger I was pulling, the event might make me an even bigger, hateful, guilt filled ass than Chuck. It reminded me that people are never the enemy.
Fast forward to yesterday morning. I was in the WH at the bar talking with customers and the waitresses when Chuck walked in. He walked over to a side bar he never sits in by himself and sat down. No cussing, no loud comments to people as he came in the restaurant. He looked devastated. One of the waitresses said they heard his son had died the previous night. My spirit told me to go sit in the chair next to him and I did. I said good morning to him and he said hey, and his eyes began to fill with tears. I told him I had heard that his son had died and if it was true, and if so I was so sorry. We talked again for 20 minutes. Summary, he told me his son who was 31 years old and some of his friends, Chuck, and Chucks wife, (his son’s mother) were out on the front porch talking. His son told his friends how he had bought a new pistol. They asked to see it. He went into his truck and got it out, removed the clip, and thought the gun was empty. It was not. He came back to the porch and in handing the gun to his friend when somehow it went off and the bullet hit is son in the head from less then 2 feet away. They rushed him to the hospital but he died a few hours after he arrived. Chuck said he and his wife witnessed it. He could not get the sight out of his mind. It reminded him of the war. He had to come home from the hospital and clean his son’s blood, hair, and other parts from the side of his house and porch. Tears were flowing down his face. He asked me if this was God’s punishment for the kids he killed in Vietnam. I said of course not and we talked awhile. His son had a wife and two kids 8 and 10 years old.
After we finished, I went home and my wife and I took the chicken I had grilled for dinner, along with sides, bread and a dessert, and I put it in a box and took it up to the WH. I also wrote a note to the family stating I was praying for them and asking to let me know if I could help in anyway with my phone number on it and put it in the box as well. I pulled into the WH just in time as Chuck was walking to his car to leave. I parked, got the box and gave it to him. Chuck teared up again as he took it. He said I did not have to, but I insisted, told him I was praying for him, and I left.
Fast forward to today. I received a call today from Chuck. He thanked me for the food. He then said he and his family do not have any money. They are getting the cheapest cremation they can, and just going to do a remembrance service at their home. Their family does not attend a church, they do not know many church people, let alone preachers, and he asked if I would be willing to come to their house and share from the Bible and some words over their son and their family. I told him I would be honored to.
I have been going to the WH regularly for over 4 years now. Sometimes I wondered if I needed to continue going. Only one or two people, employees or customers, have ever came to an ODC gathering. So if you go by traditional church metrics, my time investment has not led to “church” growth or increased “numbers in the pews.” It has not resulted in one penny going into our offertory plate or pastor support. It actually costs me money every week. Yet God reminded me of my prayer I say to him every morning, which is, “God, please send me today the ones that no one else wants.” No one wanted Chuck, even I found it hard to be around him. But God through just being faithful has given me an amazing opportunity; to be welcomed into his house; a house, a circle of family and friends that no other pastor has ever been invited into, and share the love of God with them. And that is my hearts desire, not to see them as an “evangelists projector opportunity” but a family in pain that simply needs the love of God, and to love them. I pray I may honor this.
My ODC family, I pray today you will be led by the Holy Spirit not to seek and enter into some structured ministry with people, but just simply enter into life and the lives of people. That in your daily set schedule you will allow and come to expect, even long for interruptions from two things: God and people. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please post and share your thoughts, reflections, questions, or prayers with us in the comment box below.
Please Help Me Reach The “Chucks” In My Community!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Lord Jesus, I begin my morning in desperate need of your presence in my life.
“Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
My devotions this week began with out need to know our families intimately and pray specifically for them. The following days God’s Spirt led me to share devotions on marriage and faithfulness, then our need for community and connection, then God’s Holy Love taking the long view. As our house church reflected on in our den last night over the Beatitudes, “Bleesed are the pure in heart”, those hearts pure in love All my reflections this week can be traced back to love: Love go God, family, in our marriages, with our neighbors, in determining out outcomes. As Paul states above, Lord Jesus let my love for You and my love for others be pure -- untainted and undefiled by self-seeking and self-serving motives. Let my love for You and for others include patients, kindness and not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude, not insisting on my own way, not irritable or resentful, never rejoicing in wrongdoing to others but always rejoicing in truth, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things to never end.
"Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor" (Romans 12:9-10).
Lord Jesus, form in me a love that is genuine. And as I genuinely love You and love others, help me love genuinely myself as well (Matthew 22:37-39). Help me love with a genuine, authentic love that shifts the spiritual atmosphere, that changes hearts and minds to change the world, beginning with our own. This is the Spirit and the Presence and the power of God living true through us (1 John 4:16). Lord, increase my capacity to love and be loved genuinely today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray the Lord may increase your capacity to love and be loved genuinely today. May the Holy Spirit give you boldness to love others and allow others to love you. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
I shared my insights and prayers from todays passage with you. Please share your insights and prayers with me and others in the comments box below.
Please post and share your thoughts, reflections, questions, or prayers with us in the comment box below.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Good morning Lord Jesus,, Be though my vision oh Lord of my heart..
Last week at the Waffle House I was in a conversation with a waitress who had lost a brother. I told her it was three years ago that my brother committed suicide and took his own life. Un known to me, a man at the low bar was listening to our conversation. He sat by meetups this morning and told me he had hear my conversation last week. He told me how he had been a victim of a bad situation and he felt like God did not deliver and protect him. The man asked me a question I am asked often and we hear often, "Why does bad things happen to good people? I pulled out my phone and read from Scripture.
"Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people all about this new life." At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin--the full assembly of the elders of Israel--and sent to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, "We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside." On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to. Then someone came and said, "Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people." At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them." Acts 5:17-26
QUESTION: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31
ANSWER: A lot of people, powers, principalities and pain can come against us.
QUESTION: Will the opposition ultimately win?
ANSWER: Not a chance!
QUESTION: Can they inflict unbearable pain on us in the meantime?
ANSWER: You better believe it.
In Acts, as things heat up in Jerusalem in the spread of the Gospel we are going to start seeing some bad things happening to good people. The outcomes will vary. In this particular instance, it miraculously worked out for the Apostles as an angel sprang them from jail. As we turn the page into chapter six and seven, we will witness our first martyr in the stoning of Stephen.
But notice as we read along in Acts that no one, not one person seems to be asking the perennial question of our time, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Do you know why the Bible does not directly answer the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Because the Bible is simply not asking that question. Neither were the early Christians asking this question. The early Christians were not philosophizing about sin, death and evil. They knew it was there and they were fighting against it with everything they had. At times as we read an angel would spring them out of jail at midnight. At other times like with Stephen, they would take rocks to the face until the bitter end.
The Gospel is not one of prosperity as some pastors are preaching, it is one of cross bearing. The Gospel promises that we will win the war, but it almost guarantees we will lose quite a few battles along the way. The true sign of prosperity is not success in all things, it is endurance despite all things. We are not talking about a “grit your teeth and grind it out” endurance born of human effort. When you allow the Holy Spirit to be involved, it looks like joyfully horrific perseverance.
Fast forward to the present day. At times the enemy will look like an Islamic Jihadist suicide bomber in a peaceful marketplace. At other times the enemy will take on the form of stage 4 cancer in an 18 year old girl. Sometimes the chemotherapy fails and cancer wins the battle. At other times, the suicide bombers vest will fail to detonate, and the believers will live to see another day.
The Gospel does not guarantee a get out of jail free card. Peter was arrested and at night his chains fell off and in the morning he was set free. James was arrested and at night his chains remained and in the morning he was beheaded. At times, as a bonus of encouragement for believers, miracles will happen. We can rejoice when it does, but we must remember, the mission is not contingent on the miracle. After all, where does the angel send the Apostles after delivering them? The survey says: right back sharing the Gospel into the fray of life, where they will be beaten and arrested again!
If the suffering of Christians is designed to convey any particular message, it is this: “Holy Love takes the long view.”
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39. Read Acts 5:17-7:60. Read of the deliverance of the Apostles. Read of the stoning of Stephen. Stephen does not ask “Why bad things are happening to him?” He only speaks of Holy Love.
My family, I pray this morning you will not ask in prayer why there is sin, death, and evil in the world and how you can avoid it, But instead ask, how and where you can participate in love, all in, fighting against it with everything you got and helping those impacted by it. All by and in the name of Jesus. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!.
Please post and share your thoughts, reflections, questions, or prayers with us in the comment box below.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
May my faith be made stronger in my morning time with you Father, Son, and Spirit.
“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Mathew 19:24
Monday mornings I serve at Manna House unloading trucks of food from the food bank and getting food lines set up to hand out food to over a 1,000 people that come through the lines weekly.. Before serving, I stop by a Waffle House in a lower income area. Sitting at the low bar I share i’m the lives of those sitting around me and share my faith. I am comfortable in doing outreaches and prayer walking into the “hoods”, the low income neighborhoods. , I find it is much easier, more fruit is produced and stories of life and connections are made more in the lower income neighborhoods than in higher income neighborhoods. Why, because lower income neighborhoods have a “front stoop mentality,” while higher income neighborhoods have a “back deck mentality.”
Lower income neighborhoods need their neighbors, form bonds with them and rely on a community to help them get by in life. Moms, especially single moms need other moms to watch their kids while they work because they can’t afford day care. Dads need other dads to look after each others houses while they work and also to help them find work. Families need other families to be there for each other when they are sick, or in need. Even houses in these neighborhoods that don’t have front porches or stoops, they bring chairs out in the front yard and sit and talk. They live in, need and like community.
There comes a certain income level that an individual or family reaches they trade in their front stoops for fenced in back decks. People reach a financial level that they no longer need their neighbors to get by. Moms can afford expensive daycare for their children, and other moms instead of helping them, place expectations on them them and gossip and judge them by what daycare their children attend and how they raise their children. Dads can afford to put fences up, security systems, and electronic garage door openers so they can drive through their neighborhood on the way to and home from work with rolled up car windows, hit the garage door opener, pull in garage, push button again and step out of car inside closed garage without stepping a foot in their neighborhood. Families peer at other families through the blinds on their windows. And the goal is a home in the suburbs of neighborhood that gives them private space from those around them. Where they can guard their stuff, hide and protect their material goods and emotional baggage from those around them.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus stood up to those around Him,
“And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:2-7)
So does Jesus’ words sound like He is describing “front stoop” or “back deck” people as those who will inherit and enter into the kingdom of God? When you meet Jesus, which do you feel you will have a better time justify spending your time on, a front stoop or a back deck?
Jesus also said, “In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?" (John 14:2) There are different ways of interpreting this verse that I will not get into now, but two things I am pretty sure of; First, none of those rooms will have a back deck. Second, the Father’s house has an amazing front stoop on it. And Jesus is going to be sitting on it talking with his neighbors, probably sipping wine from Canna and laughing when I come through heavens gates. And He is going to get up, give me an embrace, hand me a glass of wine, and say "Well done good and faithful servant!" (Matthew 25:21). And we are going to sit on that stoop and catch up with each other and laugh. Many will be surprised to find heaven is more like a front stoop in “the hood” than the back decks of "the hills.”
I live in a neighborhood of houses with fences and back decks and porches, including mine. I know this, so I intentionally seek out “front stoops” to hang out on; the low bar at Waffle House, Brothers, Bibles and Beer that meets in local breweries, serving at Manna House and House Of The Harvest, in my work place, and others. What and where are the “front stoops” you can intentionally sit on and share in life and faith with your neighbors?
My family, I pray today you create an amazing and welcoming front stoop on the house that Jesus in His Spirit currently resides, you heart. May your life be an inviting stoop that all who sit with you will “comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:17) In Jesus’ name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and reflections in our “front stoop”, the comment box below.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Put Your thoughts in my mind and Your desires in my heart to align my steps with Your path for my life.
Yesterday, I reflected on my family. This morning, The Holy Spirit wants me to continue to reflect on family, but not mine, but a family he gave me a holy glimpse into while drinking a cup of coffee.
I went to the Waffle House to meet a person who wanted to talk but they did not show up. So I sat at the bar next to a senior-aged black man who is a regular at the WH. Not his real name, however I will call him Dave for this post. It turned out that Dave was who I was meant to sit with this morning and listen to. In a few months Dave will be married to his wife for 50 years. I will call her Martha. They married right after high school. The first 13 years of their marriage was great and normal. What he thought marriage would be like, what “he signed up for.” Then Martha was impacted by a degenerative nerve disease that ran in her family. She became depressed, suicidal, emotional and moody. She has been hospitalized 70 times in the 37 years since she was effected by the disease for various periods of a week to 2 months. Dave said Martha will be one moment engaged and joyful, and then the next depressed and saying she does not want to live anymore. In this state she takes things out on Dave and says hurtful things to him because of her condition. Dave says it hurts him inside but he knows it is the disease and depression speaking, not his wife. Martha has gone through all types of different medicines and doses with only brief or sporadic help.
Dave said the 37 years of marriage since Martha’s disease changed everything has been a challenge. Sometimes a deep struggle. He has had to forgo allot of travel, and normal activities couples do together like going to a dinner and a movie because since the disease hit his wife hardly leaves the house. His 50th Class reunion was in Mississippi that he would have loved for her to attend with him, but because she was “not good” he had to go by himself. Yet for the past 50 years, with 37 of them being difficult, he has remained faithful to his wife. He has a strong faith in Christ, and he said he made a covenant before God and his Martha that he will not break. He said, “Do I have moments and days I thinks this is not fair? Yes. That I got a raw deal of more years of the “worse” out my vow of “for better or for worse?” Yes. That I miss going out and enjoying my wife’s company? Yes. Have I had occasional thoughts of leaving my wife? Yes. But he loves Martha. Loves God. And remains faithful to both. I told him he was a good man. He said I hear that allot however I am not. Most days I do not know what I am. He told me thanks for listening. Most people can't tell the difference between listening and loving. And we listen because we love.
We prayed together and after I did I thought I have no reason to complain about any of the struggles I have had in my marriage or my life. Any percieved bitterness in my marriage was now sweetened by my morning interuption with Dave and God.
"Then Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. That is why it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, 'What shall we drink?' He cried out to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet" (Exodus 15:22-25).
In You, we're on a spiritual journey out of the bondage of Egpyt, through the wilderness, and into the promised land of our destiny. And along the way we can grow weary and worn. We can give in to the negative attitudes of murmuring and complaining and criticizing. We can let our faith waiver as we begin to forget Your faithfulness for salvation and deliverance so many times before and start to lose our vision and hope for the destiny You've set before us. We focus on the cup of bitter waters we may be drinking from in the present.
But You are the God who makes our bitter waters sweet. Just like You showed Moses a piece of wood, you remind us of a piece of wood. You remind us of Your cross. The power of Your cross and Your sacrifice of love for every one of us is the power of God for our salvation, for our healing, for our deliverance that refreshes us and renews us to continue the journey. Just as You showed the children of Israel that day, You show us every day You are "the Lord who heals you" (Exodus 15:26) In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you may drink deeply from the Living Waters every day, from the One who makes your bitter waters sweet, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Weekday morning Devotions are also published daily on my “ODC Daily Message” Facebook page.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Good morning Lord Jesus fill me with the power of your presence so I can impact today with the power of my presence.
Last week I was blessed to be able to spend a week on vacation with my wife and two daughters. With the chaos of life, it was the first time in over 2 years I was able to do so. It was a blessing to have an extended period of time to listen to my daughters, and hear and learn deeper of what and where they are now in life. In these extended conversations where we were able to talk and share about our lives. And it gave my wife and I as we listened to our daughters and greater understood their accomplishments and challenges, opportunities to pour into them out of our experience and faith and speak into their lives. It gave us clarity on the current inner realities of each other and how to specifically pray over our family.
I have invested in, pastored and help lead many churches and ministries, however the most important church I will ever need to invest in is a church of four members: myself, my wife, and my two daughters. Because if I fail in leading that church of 4 people, it will haunt me more than failings of leading churches and ministries of hundreds.
I believe for any church to press deeper into our calling, grow stronger together and grow our ministries together as a church family in Christ, we must first strengthen and grow our personal families in Christ. I strongly believe in the importance of all of our call to be part of and lead houses churches, Band groups, and other small groups. However, as important as these groups are, the most important small group we are part of and are called to lead is our family. As I begin the first Monday back after my vacation, “Back to the real world”, I want to focus my prayers and your prayers and reflections today on your family.
Pray for clarity and how to specifically pray over the real physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual needs of the members of your family. If you are honestly not sure of what these are, pray for the opportunity and space to learn them.
Pray and reflect for a moment how your living out your faith has affected, and more important, is affecting your family: spouse, sons and daughters, parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins.
Reflect on: How do you share your faith with your family? Pray that you may witness to those in your family more bolder. Pray for the faith of your family. Spend your time at lunch praying over your family. Plan to spend a day this week fasting in prayer over your family.
In areas of conflict and division in your family, Pray that peace and reconciliation in your family may occur, and the presence and Spirit of Christ may break through these divisions, bond you, instill forgiveness, acceptance and respect and heal all that divides you.
Pray a prayer of thanks over family members, who like go of their way on your behalf, and currently pray and minister to you and allow you to be where you are in Christ today.
Pray for the forming of a sturdy covering of prayer over your family, your home and your relationship with them. Pray your home can be encouraging to each of you individually, where real conversations and learning take place, and that your home and can be an outpost of the kingdom of God.
Pray over ways you can engage your family and together as a family to serve and share the love of Christ with those in your community. You are called to encourage your family to love God and also love their neighbor.
Pray that your church, The Church, will become an even stronger family bound by prayer that stands up for and supports each other, serves Christ together, and proclaims the gospel together.
My family, I pray the Holy Spirit will lead you in prayer over what immediate action you need to take today. Perhaps make plans to share this message with your family to open a conversation with them and pray with them. Call at least one family member today and let them know you love them and are praying over them, Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your comments and reflections on my post in the comment box below.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Align my heart with Your Heart, my mind with Your Mind, my will with Your Will, as You make me more like You today (Romans 8:29). ...
I was sitting at the Waffle House low bar listening to a conversation that came up. As it increased in intensity one man, who is a Christian said, “ I wish God would just wipe out all those LGBT and pro-abortion people from the face of the earth.” I was shocked and asked him, “I thought you are a Christian, a follower of Jesus? He pushed back, “I am, and if Jesus was here right now that is exactly what He would do!” He then said, “And you are a pastor, you should know this!” He then through some money down on the bar to pay for his meal and stormed out of the restaurant.
“Now it came to pass, when the time had come for (Jesus) to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’
“But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.’ For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’ And they went to another village” (Luke 9:51-56).
James and John -- though disciples of Jesus, didn’t always have the heart of Jesus. They were on the journey with Jesus, but they had come to a different destination in their estimation of just what that journey was all about.
And unfortunately there are Christians still today who do not always have the heart of Jesus and have a different estimation of what of their journey with Jesus is all about. They are to quick to “call down fire” on those who have not yet received Jesus or surrendered and conformed thier decision and lifestyles to His teachings. Instead of choosing to disciple them, they choose to destroy them. Attacks of Hate signs and messages outside abortions clinics, LGBT rallies, directed at democrats or republicans, and even mask wearers or others who’s destination is not lining up with theirs.
Is the truth is always important. Absolutely! I am orthodox in my understanding of Scripture. It should break out hearts in love for those who’s decision is to reject Jesus and His teachings, who is “the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). But we must grow up in spiritual maturity by speaking the truth in love, sharing the truth in love, and living the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). That’s the journey Jesus was on and that is the journey we are called to be on; that’s the true destination where we’re headed.
And the only Fire we need to ever be calling down from Heaven is the Fire of the Holy Spirit, burning in our hearts with a passion for Jesus, burning in our hearts a passion for those who’s live and choices and not surrendered to Jesus and that every soul would be saved by the power of His love That’s the only manner of Holy Fire we want to be in us as the Spirit of Christ fills our hearts with mercy and love, as well as truth (Romans 8:9; Ephesians 5:18). Jesus, Give me that Spirit! Give Your Church more of that Spirit! -- more and more every day -- I pray! In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, may you be filled with the Holy Spirit, full of a fiery passion for Jesus and every soul He's reaching out to save in the truth and the love of God, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and prayers with us in the comment box below.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
TO GIVE CLICK HERE!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Subscribe to ODC Daily Devotions
Would you like to receive my daily devotions in your email inbox every weekday morning? I can add you to the email subscription list if you message me on FB or email me at garyl@onedirection.community. You can email me your prayer requests as well.
Good morning, Lord Jesus. My eyes are on You and Your Spirit is in me, as I seek to begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit. ...
“When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13).
Holy Spirit, You are the Spirit of Truth. And You are always guiding us into all truth and pointing us to the One Who is the Truth -- “the Way and the Truth and the Life” -- our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 14:6).
The truth is not always popular. But we don’t follow the crowds, we follow You, Lord Jesus. The crowds who welcomed You into Jerusalem crying, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” became the crowds that rejected You and condemned You to death on the Cross crying, “Crucify Him!” (John 12:13; John 19:6). So we don’t trust the crowds, we trust You Jesus.
Whether popular or not, whether rejected or not, You call us and empower us to courageously take our stand in truth, to take our stand in the One who is the Truth, filled with the Spirit of Truth:
“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Ephesians 6:13-18).
“Children (of God), let us love, not in word or speech, but in action and truth” (1 John 3:18).
Come, Holy Spirit. Give me courage to take action, to stand in the truth, even when it’s not popular, even when it costs me something. That’s all part of my calling, along with every disciple of Jesus standing against the tide of the culture of this age, to be salt and light in my world every day, In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you may be filled with the Spirit of Truth to courageously take your stand in truth in the One who is the Truth, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
TO GIVE CLICK HERE!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Subscribe to ODC Daily Devotions
Would you like to receive my daily devotions in your email inbox every weekday morning? I can add you to the email subscription list if you message me on FB or email me at garyl@onedirection.community. You can email me your prayer requests as well.
“We are fools for Christ…To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, brutally treated, and without a roof over our heads. We do hard work, toiling with our own hands. When we are verbally abused, we respond with a blessing, when persecuted, we endure, when people lie about us, we answer in a friendly manner. We are the worldʼs dirt and scum, even now.” (I Cor. 4:10-13)
You probably remember the story about Jesus asking a Samaritan woman with a dubious reputation for a drink (as if he didn’t know how that would look). And how he recruited zealots, harlots, fishermen, despised tax-collectors, and Sons of Thunder. And how he enjoyed a perfumed foot-rub at a respectable dinner party. One scholar says of the woman in this particular encounter, “Her actions would have been regarded (at least by men) as erotic. Letting her hair down in this setting would have been on a par with appearing topless in public. It is no wonder that Simon [the host] entertains serious reservations about Jesus’ status as a holy man. Jesus made himself unclean again and again, touching the untouchables: lepers, menstruating women, and even corpses. He got down on his knees and washed between the toes of men who’d been walking dusty roads in sandals behind donkeys.
And while the dirt lingered in the creases of his hands, he accused those whose hands were clean of sin. Did you hear the one about the whitewashed tombs? (Matthew 23:27) Or about the dutiful son who despised the prodigal brother staggering home penniless and covered in pig? (Luke 15:30) Or the story about the dirty low-life tax-collector whose snivelling apologies were heard by God while the precise intercessions of a righteous Pharisee merely bounced off the ceiling? (Luke 18:9-14) The Word told dirty stories, and the stories told the Word.
Offended, they washed their hands of him—Pontius Pilate, the Chief Priest, even Simon Peter—and they hung him out to die, Eventually he was extinguished: Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Glory gone the way of all flesh.
But the dirt could not contain him for long. Three days later the sun rose and the Son rose. And now that he could do anything, go anywhere, what would he do and where would he go? Out of the whole realm of creation, the entire populace of humanity, Jesus chose to appear first to a woman. To a woman, in a time when women lived in a chauvinistic culture that refused to teach women the Torah and discounted their testimony in a court of law. And not just any woman, but Mary Magdalene, who was a colorful woman, a woman with a questionable reputation from whom seven demons had been cast. Jesus appearing to Mary was the biggest moment of her life. And yet at first, embarrassingly, she mistook the resurrected Jesus for an ordinary gardener, a man with the earth ingrained in the creases of his hands at the start of a working day. Yet Jesus had chosen her quite deliberately, another Mary for another birth, another Eve in another garden, to be his first apostle. This, too, is offensive to some to this day.
Yes, we believe in the Word made flesh who dwelt among us as a kind of prayer and sends us out to speak the “Amen” in every dark corner of his creation. He handpicks dim-witted people like us: “the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” (1Corinthians 1:27). Bewildered by grace we go wherever he sends us, eat whatever is put before us, kneel in the gutter, make the unlikeliest locations places of prayer. We participate fervidly in a morally ambiguous world, carrying the knowledge of his glory “in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
And so, with angels, archangels, and that great company of gnarly old saints, we believe that someday soon this whole dirty world will finally be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory. He will breathe once more into the dust of the earth. And on that day, every knee will bow. Every blaspheming tongue will cry, “Oh my God!” Every hand will be raised in surrender. And he will choose the ones with dirt in the creases of their hands, just as he always did. Flesh will become Word, and dwell with him in glory.
My family, I pray you may understand that you and I are also the glory of God covered and contained in flesh and dirt. Like Jesus, we were not created to contain the glory of God and to be the hands of Christ in the world with our hands kept clean by remaining in our living rooms and church sanctuaries, and shaking hands of our peers. We were created to contain the glory of God with hands with dirt in their creases from entering brothel’s and bars, embracing addicts and the homeless. Our hands were not created for the ringing church bells, but for ringing the door bells of the our neighbors and the poor and the lost, In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share you thoughts and prayers with us from this devotion in the comment box below.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
TO GIVE CLICK HERE!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Subscribe to ODC Daily Devotions
Would you like to receive my daily devotions in your email inbox every weekday morning? I can add you to the email subscription list if you message me on FB or email me at garyl@onedirection.community. You can email me your prayer requests as well.
