Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father make us brave today. Brave to live our day to day lives obedient to His Word, no matter who else is watching. It is easy to forget you when we get busy. It is easy to make prayers shorter, Bible time less, and fellowship delayed. Father, we are so quick to functionally forget you. Please help me, help us, to consider you carefully in our day to day living. Careful to include you in all of our thinkings and sayings and doings. Heavenly Father, in the name of your Son Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, walk with us, and as you walk, help us to walk openly, completely, and fully. Instead of only when no one is watching. Amen.
Your Morning Song: "Nobody" by Casting Crowns (ft. Matthew West)
Your Morning Scripture: Matthew 10:32-33
So everyone who acknowledges me before men,
I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
but whoever denies me before men,
I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
...
What does Jesus mean here when He used the word acknowledge? Now, of course Jesus wasn't speaking English when He said this, so He did not actually use this word. What we have here is another great example of what we can learn when we can identify a word in the Bible that might be hiding something.
Jesus will do a thing for us before His Father in Heaven, if we do this thing for Him before other people, "acknowledge." It is no great Sherlock Holmes moment to make this kind of observation. The Bible is full of these kinds of moments. We see a word that we think we understand in English, but we think there might be more to it than what we can see. This is a helpful assumption because the Bible was not written in English. So a little extra work can often yield some beautiful results.
Another good example of this is Jesus's conversation with Peter in John 21:15-17. If you are unfamiliar with this example, do a little digging to see what Jesus and Peter are really saying behind the English word for "love." If you are reading this devotional here online than this research requires very similar navigational skills.
Back here in Matthew 10, Jesus uses this word, "acknowledge." In our culture, at least in my experience, acknowledge typically means something very casual, like "I waived at that guy at the stop sign, but he wouldn't even acknowledge me." Or perhaps something like, "I kept raising my hand to answer a question in class, but the teacher wouldn't acknowledge me." There is a hint of what Jesus is talking about in our cultural understand of this English word. But what Jesus is describing is much richer and fuller type of action.
Jesus is not asking us to say hello to Him when we're out for a walk or drive. He is not asking us to wear a WWJD bracelet. He is not asking us to just go to church on a Sunday morning and dress nice so others can see us. And then living however we please until the next Sunday morning.
"Acknowledge," as Jesus is using the term here, is saying this. You cannot be my disciple in private and not in public. You are not saved in secret.
And yet, how many of us live lives that mirror the world? An hour and a half on a Sunday morning means nothing if it is the whole of our Christian doings and sayings. It is to be the God-family celebration of our faithful living throughout the rest of the week.
We must "acknowledge" Jesus in all places. Not just church. We must "acknowledge" Jesus with our whole lives. Not just church.
Here are a few, small, helpful things to test yourself with. If you don't do these things I am not condemning you. Quite the opposite. What a wonderful opportunity to try something new!
When you offer to pray for others, do you?
If you do, have you tried praying for others, with them, right then and there?
Do you pray with your spouse? With your kids?
Do you pray before you eat when you're out at a restaurant? (As a pastor I still feel a lingering embarrassment when I do it and have to ignore that).
Do you take advantage of other people's mistakes in business? Or do you protect others? Or pay for something that wasn't scanned?
Do you make peace for and with others when you drive on I-80?
Do you ever say, "How're you doing?" and mean it?
Do you delight to give to others? Or do you do it to check a box?
When you get caught in an upsetting, SURPRISE! moment, how do you respond?
Do you ever think about what kind of reputation you have with those around you? Is it of a Jesus lover? Or a self-lover?
May we be faithful now, to Jesus, for all to see. Not that we might be praised by others. But so that others might see our good, obedient, acknowledging living, and praise God.
Our Jesus wants all of us. Not just a slice.
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