Good morning, Lord Jesus. Through Your Body and Your Blood, make me one with You, one with Your Body of Christ, and one in ministry to all the world until I feast with You at Your heavenly banquet in final victory.
"Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.... Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off His outer robe, and tied a towel around Himself. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around Him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, 'Lord, are You going to wash my feet?' Jesus answered, 'You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.' Peter said to Him, 'You will never wash my feet.' Jesus answered, 'Unless I wash you, you have no share with Me.' Simon Peter said to Him, 'Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!' Jesus said to him, 'One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.' For He knew who was to betray Him; for this reason He said, 'Not all of you are clean' " (John 13:1-11).
Lord Jesus, though You are One with Father and One with the Holy Spirit, You set aside the glory of Heaven to humble Yourself in the likeness of human flesh and blood. And before You humbled Yourself to be betrayed and rejected and crucified by the human flesh and blood You created, You humbled Yourself to wash the dirty, smelly, unclean feet of Your disciples. No wonder Peter could hardly bear the thought of his Messiah, the Son of God, down on His knees washing his feet.
Lord Jesus, help me grasp the humility of Your nature. Though You are the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the exact image and very Word of God, with all power and authority in Your hands, You would humble Yourself with Your holy hands to wash the dirty feet of human flesh.
Your disciples couldn't fully understand what we still have trouble fully understanding as Your disciples today, that You are our example in every way. Just as You laid down Your life for Your friends as an example of Your love, we are to lay down our lives in sacrificial love for one another. Just as You washed their feet as an example of Your humility, we are commandedt to wash one another's feet (v. 14). "Servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If (we) know these things, (we) are blessed if (we) do them" (v. 16).
Lord, help me learn and embrace Your example. You are my "Teacher and Lord" (v. 13). Help me learn to follow in Your steps as Your disciple. Though You've made me clean through Your sacrifice on the cross, you created my hands to get dirty, as I continue Your ministry of humility and love. My hands were not created to simply clasp each other in prayer over people’s life situation in my church or home, but to personally and physically grasp and embrace people and aid them. Just like You dd Lord, In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you will be filled with the humility and love of Jesus today, as you follow Him as your example. I pray that you will intentionally set aside a time this weekend to get your “hands dirty” in ministry through real contact in the real lives of people around you. 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.
Holy Week Services
Here is the list of Holy Week Services I will be leading if your church does not have these services..
Thursday, March 28th, 6:30pm: Maundy Thursday Service, Cathedral Circle Community Center located at 1310 Cathedral Cir, Madison, AL 35758Friday, March 29th, 6:00pm: Good Friday Service and Stations of the Cross
Indian Creek Greenway Park off Slaughter Road. 392 Harvestwood Ct Madison, AL 3575
Sunday, March 31st , 11:00am: Easter Sunday Service in Liederbach’s back yard. 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Give A Gift!
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning Father, Son, and Spirit, I begin my day receiving you love, grace and mercy.
Early in the morning, after forming a plan, the chief priests with the elders and the experts in the law and the whole Sanhedrin tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate… So Pilate spoke to them (crowds) again, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call king of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!...” So the soldiers led him into the palace….Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him.… Those who passed by defamed him, (Mark15:1, 12, 16,19, 29)
Jesus, as I read this passage this morning it hits my heart and saddens me how completely alone and abandoned You were in your suffering. The chapter before tells us that when You were arrested, “all the disciples left him and fled.” (Mark 14:50) In this passage everyone else rallies together against you: Chief priests, Elders, experts in the law, the crowds, Pilot, soldiers, passers by; all wanted to humiliate and hurt You, You were completely alone.
All except one man, Simon of Cyrene. “The soldiers forced a passerby to carry his cross, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country” (Mark 15:21) One man stepped out, embraced your cross, entered into your suffering, and walked with you. The passage said he was forced, but he still did it.
Lord help me be Simon today and everyday of my life. Carrying your cross is not the popular thing to do. Those in the crowd around me (my co-workers, classmates, family, friends neighbors) may ridicule me. Like Simon, honestly in my flesh it may not be what I want to do and it may be way beyond my comfort zone. Walking close with You, I will receive the brunt of people’s anger and get hit in the face by the spit that is intended for You. However, today I have to make a choice;: Will I be like Simon, or will I be like the rest of the crowd. Holy Spirit give me the strength, fill me with love for Jesus and my neighbors, and instill in me a heart of worship to embrace Jesus, embrace His cross, and carry it into a a desperate world that needs its love and redemption.
My family, I pray today you choose to be like Simon and not like the crowds around him or the crowds around you. I pray as you step into the Monday of a new week which is also Holy Week, you step out of your comfort zone, embrace Jesus, carry your cross, and speak the love of Jesus into the crowds today. I pray you will share Jesus and your faith with at least one person today and every day of Holy Week, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!!
Please share your reflections and prayers on my post in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Carry The Cross To Others
I could use your financial support as I relationally share the Gospel tothose on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please 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!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. As I journey with You this Holy Week when we remember Your journey to the cross, help me listen and see all You're showing me, as I take up my cross and follow You.
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you, desolate. For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, 'Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord'" (Matthew 23:37-39).
Jesus, when You came into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey in deep humility, the crowds waived their palm branches and declared You were the Messiah, the Son of David, coming as King, declaring "Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!" (v. 21:6-10). But You already knew in your heart that in a short week's time, those same crowds who are now welcoming and loving you would soon be despising you and crying out for Your crucifixion on a cross, rejecting Your words and rejecting You as their Messiah (v. 27:20-23). And You knew in Your heart Jerusalem would be destroyed, as a city divided in her heart and denying her Savior (v. 24:1-2).
Yet, even so, You would continue to love her and seek to gather her together again in hope, fulfilling the ancient prophecies of the restoration of Israel and the salvation of Jerusalem at the end of the age (Zechariah 12:1-11). And on that day that will seem like all the nations of the earth are about to finally destroy Jerusalem and all she represents, the crowds of Jerusalem will look up to heaven, to the return of her Messiah, "the One whom they have pierced," in mourning and repentance to declare, "Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord" (Zechariah 12:10).
We are no better than the crowds who cried out for Your crucifixion because it was our sins as well as theirs that nailed You to the cross, You continue to cry out for us every day/ And because of Your sacrifice of love, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13).
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for never giving up on us, for never giving up on me! You are the blessed One who comes in the name of the Lord (Psalm 118:26). You are the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world. Despite the sins of our souls and the unfaithfulness of our hearts, You never give up on us. Your steadfast love never comes to an end (Lamentations 3:22).
So let me be part of that crowd, from every generation, saved by Your grace, from the cross to the second coming of Christ, who cries out to You, "Blessed in the One who comes in the name of the Lord." In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray as we draw deep into Holy Weeki with.Maunday Thursday tomorrow, you cry out in your heart to Jesus, "Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord." May you hear and see all the Lord desires to show you on this Holy Week journey to the cross. In Jesus’s name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and reflections in the comment box below.
Holy Week Services
IF you are in the Madison/Huntsville area, and your church does not have Holy Week services of Good Friday, here is the list of services I will be leading and ALL our welcomed! For questions or more information please email me at garyl@onedirection.community. Or post it in comments box below.Holy Week Services
Thursday, March 28th, 6:30pm-8:00pm: Maundy Thursday Service: Maundy” comes from the Latin word “mandatum” meaning mandate or commandment. On his last night before his betrayal and arrest, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples In John’s Gospel and then gave them a new commandment to love one another as he had loved them (John 13:34). He instituted the Lord’s Supper in Mark, Matthew and Luke and the commandment to “Do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus in John’s Gospel also instituted the washing of feet. Service will be held at The Cathedral Circle Community Center located at 1310 Cathedral Cir, Madison, AL 35758
Friday, April7, 6:00pm-7:30pm, Good Friday Service: This service remembers God’s loving and redeeming the world through the passion and the saving works of the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Gathering will be held outdoors at Indian Creek Greenway located in Creekwood Park off Slaughter Road in Madison just north of the Farrow Rd / Slaughter Rd intersection. 392 Harvest Wood Ct.Huntsville, AL 35806. We will be outside so dress appropriately for the weather that evening.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and 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
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please 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!
Good morning my family,
With Holy Week beginning Sunday my thoughts and prayers this morning were on preparing our hearts for this time. Sunday is Palm Sunday and will began the time called Holy Week in the church. It is my favorite week in the year. We remember the last week of Christ’s life before his death and resurrection. It contains so many powerful events, examples, and expressions of God’s love for us as demonstrated in the life of Christ. Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday and Jesus’s entrance into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Jesus’s cleansing of the temple. The institution of the first Lord’s Supper. Jesus washing the disciples feet. Jesus’s final teaching to his disciples in the upper room. The betrayal by Judas. Jesus prayer and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. His trials before the Sanhedrin, Pilot and Herod. Jesus’ scourging, and crucifixion, and finally, resurrection.
I know I am preaching to myself with all I have to do with getting ready for all the upcoming events next week, but I want to encourage you to try to make this next week different. Try to slow down. Read through a passion narrative in one of the four Gospels each day. Commit yourself to Fast and pray as often as you can next week. Try to “Fast” as much as you can from social media, TV, video games and other Apps and spend that time in prayer. Serve and do acts of mercy at the Manna house, Downtown Rescue Mission, House of Harvest or other outreaches into your community. This is a reason why I invite you to participate in Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services before Easter Sunday to help reinforce Holy week is different and set aside extra time for something we need to do more of, time in collective prayer together. You are invited to attend ODC gatherings if your church does not have them, or please attend your churches or others in your communities Holy Week observation gatherings.
Pray over One Direction Community, (and your church and their vision) that we can press forward with our vision of Loving God, Loving Neighbors, and Making disciples through our House Churches. Share your testimony and the Gospel at least once a day with others. Prayer walk more this week seeking new people of peace to invite into existing, and start up new house churches. Invite people to our (your) Holy Week gatherings. If for some reason you are still not in a Band Group, (an accountability group) make it a priority to start one next week. Pray we can more deeply develop a heartbeat for those who are not yet in our churches, rather than those who are here. That is why God sent His Son, that all may be saved by his suffering and resurrection of grace. And that is why God sends all of us to share with others Jesus’ salvation of mercy and grace with others.
My family, I pray today you will intentionally commit to refocusing your heart, your free time, and the dates on your calendar for next week and remove distractions and include Holy Week gatherings, times of service and sharing the Gospel, and time in Word and prayer. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
I love you all,
Gary Liederbach
Please share your thoughts and reflections in the comment box below.
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please begin 2018 by a 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!
If your church does not have Holy Week gathers, you are invited to attend ODC’s.
All are welcomed
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
On Wednesday evenings my wife and I host a simple house church at our home for One Direction Community (ODC) members and guests. As people gather we share a meal and catch up on life from the week before. We then move into the family room for a time of worship and prayer. After that we spend time reading and reflecting together on whatever passage of Scripture we are on. Last night we did our Palm Sunday gathering and read through a compilation of the passion narratives from all four Gospels I put together in chronological order.
We had just moved from the dining room into the family room when a 15 year old girl who is a member of ODC received a text from a friend. She read the text and told us the friend had texted he was in a dark place of depression and was thinking of committing suicide. The girl said I need to go see him and pray with him now. One of her friends, who is also 15 and a member of ODC said yes we do. They asked if it would be ok if they went right now, and we said absolutely! So the two girls, plus another girlfriend of theirs who they invited to come and has been only coming for two weeks, the girls dad who would drive them, and my wife all got up to go. We put them all in a circle in the middle of us, laid hands on them and prayed over them, and they left to go to the boys house who texted that lived close by. While they were gone the rest of us prayed of them, the boy who texted, and the boys parents.
The group that left returned in about an hour and shared how they found him in a dark place. They talked with him and prayed with him. The boy was not completely receptive, however seeds of light were planted in his darkness and he was grateful they had come.
Here is the thing that I was praising God about. The two girls who are members of ODC are new to their faith. I just baptized them both in my friends swimming pool 6 or 7 months ago. They do not yet have The Lord’s Prayer memorized but read it from a sheet I printed out when we say it together at House Church. They have just began studying the Bible and could not name the 4 Gospels if asked them. However, at our house church they both have celebrated The Lord’s Supper, said the prayers, broke the bread and served us communion. On Ash Wednesday they placed the oil and ashes on my head, and laid hands on me and prayed. On Saturdays mornings they go with us to the House of the Harvest and hand out food to the poor and those in need and pray over them. They have gone with us prayer walking our neighborhood praying with our neighbors and our community.
So though they do not have the book and head knowledge of Jesus yet, and that will come. They have the heart knowledge and obedience knowledge of Jesus. They know Jesus. They know who they are in Jesus. They know He hears their prayers. They know they are filled with the Holy Spirit. And they know from their baptism just a few months ago that they received the power and calling of Jesus to go run into darkness with light.
I was praising God that just a short 6 months ago if they received a text like this from a friend they would not have gone. For they did not know then Jesus or who their identity was as daughters of the King of Kings. And here they were wanting to go and pray for someone. And not only that, they brough along their friend who has just started coming to House church now for a couple weeks with them to take part and witness them praying over this boy. It was those two 15 year old girls, not a pastor, not a youth leader, who were modeling, teaching and introducing their friend what it looks like to follow Jesus. In my time pastoring churches I know of people who have been in a congregation for years who would not jump up an do what these two young ladies did. To which again, almost in tears I said Praise God!
And finally, after they returned to our group last night and shared with us what had happened, we went ahead and read through the long Palm Sunday narrative of the Passion of Christ from all 4 Gospels. And one of the girls who was a member asked if she could be the narrator and the new girl who just started coming asked if she could be Jesus and read all his lines! So these two young ladies, who could not tell you from where in the Bible the verses are found they were reading, led our hour time together in the Word. God is so Good!
My family, I pray today you’re a reminded and realize that you also have what these 15 year old girls have. That you have the heart knowledge and obedience knowledge of Jesus. That you know Jesus. That you know who you are in Jesus. That you know He hears your prayers. That you know you are filled with the Holy Spirit. And that you know from your baptism whether it was a few months or many years ago, that you received the power and calling of Jesus to go run into darkness with light, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please post and share your thoughts and reflections with us in the comment box below.
Partner with us!
As we begin the year, if you have the ability to be generous, I invite you to partner with me, my wife, and One Direction Community to support our ministries of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over our ministries and outreaches into our community. We would be so grateful for your one time gift or monthly support. Thank you!
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Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I begin my morning centering my thoughts and desires on you Father, Son and Spirit,
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20"
In this popular passage of Scripture, Jesus commissions everyone there in hearing of his voice to go and make disciples of the nations, and he promises them through the presence of the Holy Spirit, that he will always be with them. All who hear his voice today are called to the same commission, to go and make disciples of the nations by and in the same continuous power and presence of the same Holy Spirit.”
What does it mean to “Go and make disciples” in the power of the Holy Spirit? For my main reflection today I am going to allow Fracis Chan to speak to you in short 9 minute video on experiencing, the calling and sending of the Holy Spirit. Please take 10 minutes now to watch it. Then if you have time through the day read Acts 1:4-8, Matt. 28:18-20; John 20:21-22.
My family, I pray today the Holy Spirit opens your ears to hear you call to “go” and opens your eyes to “see”those around you to whom you are sent. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!!
Please post your comments and reflections in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please 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!
Good morning Lord Jesus, I begin my work week put my life in the hands of the one who loved me from the beginning.
Above his head they put the charge against him, which read: “This is Jesus, the king of the Jews…. If he comes down now from the cross, we will believe in him! He trusts in God - let God, if he wants to, deliver him now because he said, ʻI am Godʼs Sonʼ!” (Matthew 27:37,42-43).
There is rich irony in the statements of those who were passing by, "save yourself!" and "come down from the cross!" They wanted Jesus to come down from the cross and save His physical life, but it was indeed His staying on the cross and giving his physical life that led to the fact that they could experience a resurrection from death to life. Those passing by only believed what they saw. All of Jesus’ disciples only believed what they saw and fled and hid themselves. Jesus’ resurrection had not yet occurred in the world and they had no knowledge or faith in what happening before them and what was to come.
However, we who call ourselves “Christians“ have knowledge of the death and resurrection of Jesus and it is at the core of our faith. We also understand that it is only by dying to ourselves that we also can experience resurrection from the dead into eternal life. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-26)
We too want Jesus to come down from the cross. Because if we truly believe that Jesus had to die on the cross, if we truly believe that it was through suffering that Jesus would redeem the world, then we must truly believe that in order to call ourselves a “Christian”, a follower and imitator of Jesus, we too must also “Trust in God,” we too who follow Jesus must also pick up our cross, and we too must also suffer.
Jesus asked His disciples, “Are you able to drink the cup I am about to drink?” (Matthew 20:22). This morning and every morning we are blessed to wake up to be part of another day on earth, as our feet are hitting the floor next to our bed Jesus asks the same questions of us, “Are you willing to drink my cup today?” “Are you willing to pick up your cross and suffer for your faith?” When was the last time you picked up your cross and suffered for your faith? When was the last time you did something that made you even a little uncomfortable for your faith? What are your plans for cross bearing today? For this weekend?
My family, As we approach the Cross and near the end of season of Lent, I pray you will reflect on your call to be cross bearers and the same irony that is only by you giving giving up the safety and comfort of physical life that you and those you encounter in the world will experience a resurrection from death to life in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers on your reflections from this mornings reading with us in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support as I seek to relationally reach with the Gospel those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please 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!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I seek You first and Your kingdom in these first moments of my morning. ...
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).
With the wars in Israel and Palestine, Ukraine, and other areas of the world, a lot of people are talking about “the end” is coming right now. Even praying for “the end” to come. Or at least, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20) One such discussion took place yesterday morning at the Waffle House bar with customers and staff that led to this reflection this morning.
No one knows when “the end” will come. Jesus told us, “But as for that day and hour no one knows it - not even the angels in heaven - except the Father alone.” (Matt:24:36). However, say “the end” is near. My heart breaks when I think about my neighbors, co-workers, family members and friends who do not have a saving relationship with Jesus and without that when “the end” comes will be separated from Him and his love forever. If “the end” is near, it should compel us not to withdraw in fear and isolation, but to go out and speak out with urgency and love in our hearts of the saving love, mercy and grace of the Gospel of Jesus.
You’ve called and commissioned each one of us to minister wherever we are --whether at work, in our neighborhoods, our schools, our homes, and all our encounters along the way--with the same love and power and passion that You pour into the hearts of Your evangelists and missionaries--for that is who we are and what You’ve called us to do. Your Word calls us all to “sanctify Christ as Lord in (our) hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks (us) to give an account for the hope that is in (us), but with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15 ). As You said to Your first disciples, You continue to speak to all of us who are Your disciples today: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...” (Matthew 28:19). “As the Father has sent Me, so I also send you!” (John 20:21)
Send us, Lord! Send every one of us! Let this good news of Your kingdom be proclaimed in our hearts and to the nations, and everywhere in between! In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray that as Lent draws us near to Holy Week, Good Friday, The Cross and Easter, which are at the core of our faith, you are compelled to share your faith with those you encounter throughout your day. Our knowledge of these things and the gift of salvation was meant to be shared, in Jesus' name. Please pay the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Help Us Help Them!
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
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, speak to me, your servant is listening.
This morning we have a convicting chapter to read. No passage in the Bible is more biting, more pointed, and more severe than these seven “Woes” in Matthew 23 spoken by Jesus Christ upon the Pharisees. The Pharisees, while attempting to honor the Word of God and manifesting an extreme form of religious observance, were actually the farthest from God. The theme of the Sermon on the Mount was righteousness, the theme of these woes is hypocrisy. There is a common strong emphasis in both addresses on the leaders’ failure to understand and submit to the Scriptures. Jesus gave both addresses to contrast the true meaning of Scripture with the Pharisees’ interpretation and application of it. The Pharisees professed to teach the Scriptures accurately but did not do so. They were therefore hypocrites.
Every one of the seven ‘woes’ is an exclamation like the ‘blessed’ of the Beatitudes. It does not state a wish but a fact. It is not a curse that calls down calamity but a calm, true judgment and verdict rendered by the supreme Judge himself, Jesus. Six of these judgments have the evidence attached by means of a “because” which illustrates the full reason for the verdict ‘Woe’” and in the remaining judgment.
There is today only one proper Christian use of the “Woe” sayings of this chapter. It is found not primarily in the application of the passage to the historical Pharisees, and even less to modern Judaism as a religion, but in the application of the passage to Christian members of The Church today. Hypocrisy is the real enemy of these woes, not the scribes, the Pharisees, or the Jews. If, on the application of these woes, a finger is to be pointed, a bitter woe is to be pronounced against anyone today, it must be directed solely against we Christians and the hypocrisy in the church. Here is a translation of a “Woe” from this chapter from the GRV Bible (Gary’s Reflective Version).
Woe to you Christians! For they go to church so that their faith may be seen and approved by people. They love to be greeted as “brother” or “sister” as they fellowship before the service with a cup of coffee in their hand and Hillsong playing in the background. They wear crosses around their necks, and put crosses and Icthus fishes on the back of their cars that they ride in comfort to their churches with windows rolled up as they drive past the homeless, poor, the widows and orphans. After church, they fatten themselves at lunch, have struggling single-mom waitresses to serve them, and the only sharing if any of their faith all day with others is they show their church bulletin at lunch check out to get 10% off their meal. They then pull into safe garages who’s door close out their neighbors they are called to go out and serve but instead walk into living rooms with a picture on the wall that says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Woe to you! You Christians, you hypocrites!
My family, Paul in 2nd Timothy tells us, “Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2Timothy 3:16). Even the Scriptures that hold a mirror up in front of us and make us access the true level of our discipleship as a Christian. Lent is a season of reflection. I pray you will read and spend time guided by the Holy Spirit reflecting on this chapter and looking in the mirror. “It’s a me. It’s a me, it’s a me Oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer,” In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
I want to encourage you to please share your reflections and prayers on my blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support as I relational reach out to those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please 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!
Good morning Lord Jesus, bring new wine into me today.
“Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to summon those who had been invited to the banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ʻTell those who have been invited, “Look! The feast I have prepared for you is ready. My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”ʼ But they were indifferent and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.” (Matthew 22:1-6).
Lord as adopted sons and daughters into the kingdom of God through the atoning work of the blood of Jesus in His death, resurrection and ascension, you do not only invite us to your banquet, we are all those for whom the banquet is celebrated. We are the ones the Father ran to, embraced and said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:22-24)
This morning, we are invited to the banquet of “Today.” Today we are all invited to “Taste and see that the LORD is good!” (Psalm 34:8). When you walk out your door this morning do you accept His invitation and do you really expect for God to do amazing things so that by the end of the day you will have amazing stories to tell of what God is doing? Because He Is! And you have been invited today to be part of it! What is the banquet of God except a day by day, moment by moment invitation to step into something that God wants to do in somebody’s life and you have the privilege of seeing it happen? Do you accept His invitation to experience His banquet of love and grace and truly expect and receive it in your own life today enough to be able expect it anywhere else?
My family, I pray you will accept the invitation to participate in the banquet God has set before you called “Today.” I pray you will both seek out a time alone with God to taste and see that He is good, and walk out your door with an expectant heart ready to participate what God is going to do in, though and around you today, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
I want to encourage you to please share your reflections and prayers on my blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support as I relational reach out to those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please 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!
Good Monday morning!
As we draw nearer to Easter, I will be reading through the7 passion narrative chapters in The Gospel of Matthew (21-27) and reflecting on one chapter each morning.
“The crowds that went ahead of him and those following kept shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” As he entered Jerusalem the whole city was thrown into an uproar, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21:9-11)
Matthew chapter 21 is a convicting chapter to read . The crowds welcomed Jesus into their city, into their lives shouting, “Hosanna” which mean means “save us” or “deliver us.” Jesus did come to save them, however the people inviting Jesus into their lives and welcoming His salvation, they did not realize what the results would be. “The whole city was thrown into an uproar” (v.9) is what Jesus’s arrival did. Jesus’s entry demanded a clear and honest assessment and revelation of their current life and worship, a calling out of their sins, and repentance and cleansing. It was the beginning of a revolution.
Jesus confronted them with the way they had perverted and materialized their Holy prayer and worship of God. “Then Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple courts, and turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. And he said to them, “It is written, ʻMy house will be called a house of prayer,ʼ but you are turning it into a den of robbers!” (v.12-13)
He saw where and what not was bearing fruit, and took down that which looked good, but produced nothing. “After noticing a fig tree by the road he went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “Never again will there be fruit from you!” And the fig tree withered at once.” (V.19)
He revealed the wicked intentions of those “in the church” and exposed them for what they were- hypocrites. “They discussed this among themselves, saying, “If we say, ʻFrom heaven,ʼ he will say, ʻThen why did you not believe him?ʼ But if we say, ʻFrom people,ʼ we fear the crowd, for they all consider John to be a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We donʼt know.” (v.25-27)
He called out those who on Sunday mornings sing, “Mighty to Save”, cheer Jesus, and say “Amen” to the pastors benediction to go into the world and make disciples, and then do nothing. “What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ʻSon, go and work in the vineyard today.ʼ The boy answered, ʻI will not.ʼ But later he had a change of heart and went. The father went to the other son and said the same thing. This boy answered, ʻI will, sir,ʼ but did not go. Which of the two did his fatherʼs will?” They said, “The first.” (vs.28-31)
Jesus knocked down those who rely on their religion and traditions and leveled the playing field for those who will enter into heaven. “Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of you into the kingdom of God!” (v.31)
Jesus declared the fate of those who enjoyed living in the wonderful world He created but reject His Lordship. “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.” (vs. 40-41)
He states that those who do not obey Him, do not pick up their cross and follow Him into the world and redeem the lost , that they will not enter the kingdom.“For this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” (v.43)
My family, I know after I read this chapter that I will meditate on this chapter all day as Jesus words convict and asses the true nature of my heart, worship, and obedience to Him. I pray that you will do the same. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!!!
Please share your reflections and prayers on my blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support as I relational reach out to those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please 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.
Thanks You!
I was sitting au the low bar at a Waffle House. A man told how he just got back last week from a trip to Jamaica with his wife. I told them how my family and I are leaving next month to spend a week in Jamaica. One man sitting at the bar two persons down to my right told me to be careful, you see on the news all the time of the terrorist attacks. The discussion at the bar then turned to terrorists, the war in Gaza, Palestinians, Muslims and Islam. The conviction, passion and joy with which these Christians talked about God damning Muslims to burn in hell troubled me. I countered back biblically and theologically, even tried rationally, but I was out numbered, and the heated debate I found myself in was not one I was going to win, or change any hearts of those with whom I was engaging. Madison/Huntsville with Redstone arsenal and all the military contractors and suppliers can be a city over the top with American patriotism and mob mentality towards non-Christian cultures and people. I walked out thinking, there still is allot of work left to be done for the kingdom of God!
When I walked outside I noticed the back on an SUV in the parking lot. It had several bumpers stickers on the back of it. One said, “I’d rather be waterboarding terrorists.” The one that saddened me the most was this one, It had a smiley face then the words “If you are a Muslim, you will burn in hell! (John 14:6).”
This verse John 14:6, is the one most quoted by those who enjoy the thought of their enemies (typically the Muslims and the Democrats) burning in hell, is the verse in which Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
I don’t pretend to know anything concrete about the referent to that word “hell” so carelessly tossed around by some Christians and so carelessly tossed out by others. But I do know that it has a referent. And there is enough description surrounding it to indicate that whatever hell is, it is a big problem. I also know that I am not God, so how I may handle this problem is irrelevant. God handled it by sending his Son to be killed by and for the world. He only requires the gratitude due, which, if genuine, will produce a commitment to the truth and a commitment to the way. Only to the grateful will the life be granted. As one old preacher once said, “This is God’s universe and God does things his way. You may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe.” So the next time you proclaim John 14:6, make sure your mouth and your body; the truth you profess and the way you live, are in sync with your bumper sticker. And if they are not, sit down and shut up until you become grateful. Do the world a favor and just be still until you know that you are not God.
My family, instead of delighting or regretting that those of another Religion do not know Christ, let’s join together and love and pray for them. The Islam holiday of Ramadan starts this Sunday March 10th at sunset. Millions and Millions of Muslims will fast and pray for one month, most earnestly, trying to hear the voice of God. Let’s join together in prayer that they hear from the one true God and encounter Jesus Christ.
I did; now you all need to go to the link below; watch the video; sign up; share this with your friends; and let’s join together and start praying over our Muslim brothers and sisters starting this Sunday
Please share your thoughts on this reflection in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Give A Gift!
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
TO GIVE CLICK HERE
Good morning Lord Jesus,, lead me toto the place people and practices that will glorify you today
“I, I am,. the Lord,
and besides me there is no savior.
I declared and saved and proclaimed,
when there was no strange god among you;
and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God.” 43:11-12
This chapter reminds us that God’s act of salvation on our behalf and our call by Him to be his chosen people, was an act by God out one of purest grace. God’s saving act in Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago and today was not because of anything people have done. It is not because the people 2,000 years ago or we today have become more perceptive of God or more obedient towards him. Nor was God’s salvation made conditional on their repentance back then or ours today. He did not require that the world repent before He sent the Son. Actually, they rebelled while God sent His Son and they killed Him. God does not condition his sending of the Son into the world today on its repentance, as the world still rebels against God. This chapters overall theme, like chapter 44 that follows, is the gracious (un-earned, un-deserved gift) salvation of God and that God’ has the ability and desire to save. The problem is not on God’s side, it is on ours.
Isaiah also announces to Israel, and reminds us, that God created and shaped their nation, He created and shaped you, and desires to have a special relationship with you where you experience His grace. And that God’s people need not fear that His acts of discipline or correction signals a negation of their salvation or a suspension of God’s loving care and grace towards them. Just as the corrections a mother gives her child do not signal a lessoning of her love for her child. But rather the opposite.
My family, people say to each other, “Have a blessed day!” or simply, “God bless you!” like it is an option wether or not that God will or wants to bless you. God desires to bless you today with the grace of his salvation and have you experience it and live in it! So I pray today you let him! Let him! I pray you will, in Jesus’ name. Please pray that I will as well. God bless you my friends!
I hope during Lent you will start posting your thoughts and reflections as well in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Give A Gift!
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
TO GIVE CLICK HERE
“Now, listen, Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen!”
This is what the LORD, the one who made you, says -
the one who formed you in the womb and helps you:
“Donʼt be afraid, my servant Jacob…
For I will pour water on the parched ground
and cause streams to flow on the dry land.
I will pour my spirit on your offspring
and my blessing on your children.
They will sprout up like a tree in the grass,
like poplars beside channels of water.
One will say, ʻI belong to the LORD”…
One will write on his hand, ʻThe LORDʼs”…
This is what the LORD, Israelʼs king, says,
their protector, the LORD who commands armies:
“I am the first and I am the last, there is no God but me.
Who is like me? Let him make his claim!
Let him announce it and explain it to me -
since I established an ancient people -
let them announce future events!
Donʼt panic! Donʼt be afraid!
Did I not tell you beforehand and decree it?
You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me?
There is no other sheltering rock; I know of none…
Remember these things…O Israel, I will not forget you!
I remove the guilt of your rebellious deeds as if they were a cloud,
the guilt of your sins as if they were a cloud.
Come back to me, for I protect you.” (Isaiah 44)
I love Isaiah! He is the Lenten prophet and I love chapter 44! Open your Bible and read it! For it expounds on the completely unmerited nature of God’s salvation. God through Isaiah reminds the people that their sin has removed any obligation He has whatsoever to them. He owes them nothing! They cannot demand anything from God especially that He deliver them. But this does not mean that God will not deliver them, it means that what God does is a free, unearned gift flowing out of His own deep love.
What is the message God wants his people, the Israelites to hear,? Do not fear! v(s.44:2; 8) The world says to the Israelites that God has rejected them. That they are an abandoned widow and their reputation is rotten and they are to be mocked and put to shame. God however speaks to them words of encouragement. He says they are his chosen one, and that “I will pour water on the parched ground and cause streams to flow on the dry land” v.3 And God speaks this same message and words of encouragement over you and I this morning!
The images of water in a dry land are all throughout the book pf Isaiah. It is a metaphor for the pouring out of God’s spirit, his water of life into hearts that are dead from sin and dry from no hope in life. God’s outpouring of his Spirit was ultimately fulfilled on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out into all humanity and made life-giving water available to those dead in sin. Including you and me.
My family, I pray throughout today you will pray and meditate on this::
Remember, the salvation you receive today is a total gift of grace out of God’s amazing love for YOU!
Remember: God’s message to you today is DO NOT FEAR!
Remember: The refreshing water of the Holy Spirit is available to pour into the “dry places” in your life and heart if you simple ask,
As and as we remember these things, let us give thanks and praise to God! In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. It is God’s desire to bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and reflections on this devotion with us in the comment box below.
Resolve to Help in 2024
I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries! We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help. You can also give a one-time donation on the same link. Thank you!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
You can mail your donation to One Direction Community P.O. Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758
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
“Who has measured out the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or carefully measured the sky,
or carefully weighed the soil of the earth,
or weighed the mountains in a balance,
or the hills on scales?
Who comprehends the mind of the LORD,
or gives him instruction as his counselor?
From whom does he receive directions?
Who teaches him the correct way to do things,
or imparts knowledge to him,
or instructs him in skillful design?
Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales.
He lifts the coastlands as if they were dust.
Not even Lebanon could supply enough firewood for a sacrifice;
its wild animals would not provide enough burnt offerings.
All the nations are insignificant before him;
they are regarded as absolutely nothing.
To whom can you compare God?
To what image can you liken him?
A craftsman casts an idol;
a metalsmith overlays it with gold
and forges silver chains for it.
To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot;
he then seeks a skilled craftsman
to make an idol that will not fall over.
Do you not know?
Do you not hear?
Has it not been told to you since the very beginning?
Have you not understood from the time the earthʼs foundations were made?
He is the one who sits on the earthʼs horizon;
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him.
He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain,
and spreads it out like a pitched tent.
He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing;
he makes the earthʼs leaders insignificant.
Indeed, they are barely planted;
yes, they are barely sown;
yes, they barely take root in the earth,
and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up,
and the wind carries them away like straw.
“To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?”
says the Holy One.
Look up at the sky!
Who created all these heavenly lights?
He is the one who leads out their ranks;
he calls them all by name.
Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,
not one of them is missing.
Why do you say, Jacob,
Why do you say, Israel,
“The LORD is not aware of what is happening to me,
My God is not concerned with my vindication”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is an eternal God,
the creator of the whole earth.
He does not get tired or weary;
there is no limit to his wisdom.
He gives strength to those who are tired;
to the ones who lack power, he gives renewed energy.
Even youths get tired and weary;
even strong young men clumsily stumble.
But those who wait for the LORDʼs help find renewed strength;
they rise up as if they had eaglesʼ wings,
they run without growing weary,
they walk without getting tired.
(Isaiah 40 12-31)
The description of who God is in the verses above reminds me of all that is “God”. It both brings me to my knees in awe over who you are, and compels me to leap for joy as I am reminded who is the God that is on my side! Like the wings of an eagle Your Word and Your Spirit lift me and move me, empower me and guide me, in a life that freely and fully soars in Your will. As I embrace the good gifts of Your Word and Your Spirit, You move mightily within me and move mightily for me to align my life with Your good will. "The Lord is an everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.... He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless…. those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:28-31). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray the truth of the Word of God, of who God is, and the empowering Spirit of God would lift you up today and every day and cause you to soar into the fullness of the good life the Lord has for you in the center of His good will for you, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friends!
Please share your thoughts and reflections on this devotion with us in the comment box below.
Resolve to Help in 2024
I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries! We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help. You can also give a one-time donation on the same link. Thank you!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
You can mail your donation to One Direction Community P.O. Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758
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
ODC is reading through the Altar’d Lent Devotion book. My reflections this morning contain part of Day 9’s devotion with my personal adaptations mixd in.
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gatatians 5:19–21)
“In his letter to the Galatians, Paul affirms that because of grace through Jesus, believers have been given a life of freedom. That’s the good news of Jesus. Those who have confessed faith in Christ are not bound to the penalty of sin because Jesus has paid the price. However, Paul warns them that their freedom does not mean they are free to behave any way they choose. They must deny acts of the flesh because the way believers live is a reflection of Christ. Just as what comes out of the mouth reflects our hearts, our actions reflect our lives as followers of Jesus. “
As we skim Paul’s list, we may be tempted to brush it aside and claim that those are sins we would obviously not commit. Surely, we can all agree not to participate in depravity, idolatry, and witchcraft. However, if we look at Paul’s list in vs 19-21 in The Message Bible to pull out more nuances, it tells us:
“It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.”
Believers who are practicing the way of Christ must surrender any habits, behaviors and lifestyles that do not reflect their lives of freedom. If this Lenten season is going to have any lasting impact on our life with Christ, if it is not just going to be some ”religious thing” we participated in for 40 days then “go back to our usual routines”, then we need to be intentional in surrendering our habits, behaviors and lifestyles to the cross of Christ. We need to be willing to place in front of God, those acts of the flesh which do not reflect the nature of Christ. Jesus did not give Himself up for us so we can abuse the freedom of grace and continue to act as though we have not been released from sin.
My family, I pray you allow the Holy Spirit to search you and reflect with you on what are obvious examples in your own life of a habit, behavior or lifestyle which does not reflect Christ. I pray you are willing to fall to your knees, confess and repent of them, and surrender them at the foot of the cross today, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and experiences on fasting in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
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
“Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead,
those who are always instituting unfair regulations,
to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,
and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice,
so they can steal what widows own,
and loot what belongs to orphans.
What will you do on judgment day,
when destruction arrives from a distant place?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners,
or to fall among those who have been killed.
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. “ (.Isaiah 10:1-4
I am not a “doom and gloom” preacher. I don’t try to scare people into falling in love with Jesus. I cringe inside when I hear people sharing Jesus with someone beginning by saying, “If you get hit by a bus today do you know where you will go?” I don’t center my messages around judgement. However, as passages like these from Isaiah remind me, there will be a final judgment They speak of a coming reality, I don’t like passages like this one. Congregations do not like passages like these. They don’t preach well and they are not easily swallowed. All things belong to and are under the hand of our creator. We are not entitled to anything. Everything is all a gift of grace. We are only stewards of these gifts for a very short time. And all of us must sooner or later give an account to the creator on how we used and shared these gifts of grace we received. Isaiah says on the “visitation” (judgement) day there will be no help or hiding. One’s position, power, status, wealth, possessions, pensions, house’s square footage, church status; are all meaningless before the judgment of God. Especially those listed that are gained at the expense of the poor. God’s glory is ultimately for our good. But it has a standard. We either obey his standards and live in his glory, or we deny his standards and die smashing against his glory. For his glory will not me moved.
My family, “To whom much is given, much is required.” (Luke 12:48). I pray during this season of Lent you will reflect on the gifts of grace and light you have received and your heart of generosity towards them and with them. You will have to do it one day in the not so far future, why not do it today? In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and experiences on fasting in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
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Good morning Lord Jesus, I pulled off my covers and climbed out of bed and now sit and in prayer and reading Your Word to come under Your covering of protection and grace.
“This is what the Lord says to his chosen one,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold
in order to subdue nations before him,
and disarm kings,
to open doors before him,
so gates remain unclosed.” 45:1
In the midst of the challenges of our lives: pandemics, social upheavals, war, chaos, mass shootings, overt sin, and all the uncertainty we find our selves in, instead of turning to “Facebook Prophets” for direction I have been turning to Scriptures and reading how Prophets of God spoke into a nation that was experiencing these same issues. For Lent I have been reading through passages in The Book of the Prophet Isaiah. In chapter 45, the great issue Isaiah addresses in this section is convincing God’s own people that He can deliver them, and He will, but it will be in his own way, not theirs. Those who heard Isaiah’s words were shocked at Cyrus being called a shepherd, And they must have been even more outraged when Isaiah called him His chosen and anointed one. This title had previously been reserved for priests, prophets and kings of Israel. Surely God could only use persons from His own people, His own elect to accomplish his purpose. Isaiah’s point that shocked them was that God is not the Lord of Israel alone, He is the God of the world. Israel was not God’s chosen people because of anything in themselves, and neither will their deliverance be because of anything in themselves. Their deliverance, then, as with ours today, occurred not only outside of themselves, but in spite of themselves. It is God who chooses, God who delivers, and He will by the means God desires.
God can choose anybody for a time, including all today, to be a type of “messiah” to a people, situation, a community, or even a nation. God can choose anyone to be an instrument through whom God’s gracious purposes will be accomplished and revealed to the world. Messiahs do not only come from the “good crowd,” nice neighborhoods, your “clicks.” your church or denomination, or those with “religion”. Messiahs do not have to look like you, talk like you, dress like you, smell like you, They don’t have to listen to Casting Crowns, attend church on Sunday’s and drink sweet tea. John the Baptist was a type of messiah, a God chosen instrument through whom God’s gracious purposes were accomplished and revealed to the world, and he was way outside societies acceptability and church conduct or dress codes. David was the runt of his family. who they all looked down on. Those in the church were shocked at the thought of Jesus being THE Messiah. They smirked and sarcastically said to each other in their church click,, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?! (and we in the church today would say the same thing, just add, “Bless his heart!”) You, as hard as it may be for some people to believe with all your quirks and short comings, through your baptism into a new creation of Christ and being filled with and indwelled with the iHoly Spirit, are also anointed and called to be a type of messiah, a God chosen instrument through whom God’s gracious purposes are to be accomplished and revealed to the world,
Deliverance is from God and He can and will deliver you, but in his own way, not yours.
“Does clay talk back to the potter:
‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’
Would a sperm say to a father,
‘Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?’
Or a fetus to a mother,
‘Why have you cooped me up in this belly?’”
Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel’s Maker, says:
“Do you question who or what I’m making?
Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?
I made earth, and I created man and woman to live on it.
I handcrafted the skies and direct all the constellations in their turnings.
And now I’ve got Cyrus on the move.
I’ve rolled out the red carpet before him.
He will build my city.
He will bring home my exiles.
I didn’t hire him to do this. I told him.
I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.” (Isaiah 45:9-13 The Message Bible.)
My family, I pray you will not put God into “Your box” of those He can use to speak light, truth, and grace into our nation, including you, I pray during this time of Lent you will re-claim your anointing of your baptism and hear your call to be an anointed one in your community, In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Resolve to Help in 2024
I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries! We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help. You can also give a one-time donation on the same link. Thank you!
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You can mail your donation to One Direction Community P.O. Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758
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.
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Please share your thoughts and experiences on fasting in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
