Matthew 10:38-39

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

Personal Challenge

It has become so easy to proclaim that we are a Christian and yet live our lives as if Jesus Christ never existed. We wear crosses around our necks, we strap WWID bracelets on our wrists, we wear T-shirts with catchy Christian phrases we listen to Christian music and podcasts and we attend “vibrant” churches regularly. And yet, we never take up the cross that Jesus has given us to bear and follow Him. We leave our church services and cut people off getting in line for our lunch during fellowship hour. We ignore the people around us throughout the week because we are focused on what we want. We embrace conspiracy theories and lies because they tickle our imagination. By doing all this we gain our physical, temporal lives hear on earth, but we lose our eternal, heavenly lives. Our cross is to love God and to live for Him, and to love our neighbor as God loves us. Oh, how many of us are destined to stand before our Lord just to hear the words, “I do not know you.”. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Numbers 14:18

‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth, taking away lawlessness, wrongdoings, and sins; but He would not cleanse the guilty by repaying the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’

Encouraging Words

This verse comes at the end of a long dialog between Moses and God. God has expressed how fed up He is with the stiff-necked people that Moses has been leading through the wilderness. Now, before we start pointing fingers at these people, we must acknowledge that we too, as people that proclaim to be followers of Christ, are also very stiff-necked and self-centered. We are no different than our predecessors. Here we see God indicating that He is done putting up with these stiff-necked antics and Moses reminding God of His promises to not hold their children accountable for their parents’ sins. God did not need to be reminder. This is in their for us to be reminded of God’s love for us. It is for us to remember the sins of those who have gone before us and to not repeat their sins. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Matthew 10:32-33

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

Personal Challenge

This can be a fairly stark passage focus to read. It is one thing to proclaim that we are a Christian and happily go to church on a somewhat regular basis. However, what are we doing in our lives that confess Jesus Christ as our Lord? Are we being kind to those whom we come in contact with? Does that kindness extend to those who have differing political, social, or lifestyle opinions than us? Are we helping those around us who are in need? Are we demonstrating in our actions the love of Christ? If our lives are not screaming that Jesus Christ is our Lord without ever saying a word, then the second half of this passage should be troubling for us. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Numbers 12:3

(Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men on the face of the earth.)

Encouraging Words

In our society it is considered a bad thing to be recognized as a meek person. However, God praises, and even rewards, the meek. It is in the process of being meek, or humble, that God can do His great work in our lives. Glory be to God!

Matthew 10:28

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Personal Challenge

It can be so easy to get our focus stuck on the things going on around us and start fearing that everything is going bad. Our God promises that He will take care of us. He will be there to meet our needs. He will be the one to receive us into His arms when we enter eternity. If we put our hope in Him then we have nothing to fear. Glory be to God!

Numbers 6:24-26

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be merciful to you;
the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

Encouraging Words

As Moses was being tasked with setting up the priesthood for the people of Israel and passing on to Aaron all that God had given him in the instructions, this passage was given as the priestly blessing that the priests were supposed to say over their flock every time they came together. God wants to bless us and wants us to bless each other. Glory be to God!

Matthew 9:36-38

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Personal Challenge

A very important question that every church should be asking themselves is are they inward focused or outward focused. Jesus made it clear to His disciples that there are so many people that do not know Him and that they, as well as we, must be reaching out to those who are lost. This means that we take our eyes off of our worship services and our traditions and making them the core of our focus, and look outside our comfortable places to those who need to see and experience the love of Christ. We must be that expression of love. We must be reaching out to those who have come and gone from our flock to make sure that they are okay. We need to be working with those in need showing them the love of Christ. We need to be outward focused. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Leviticus 26:12

I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

Encouraging Words

Throughout the history of mankind, our relationship with God has been a relationship of intimacy. Even when we go of the rails and seek other gods, He has remained faithful. He does not want to be distant and removed from His children. He desires to walk with us, talk with us, hold us in His arms when we are hurting, and guide us on our journey through this temporal life. Our part of this relationship is to be obedient to Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Matthew 9:24

He said to them, “Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him.

Personal Challenge

Have you ever been in a situation where you are criticized and ridiculed for your belief in Christ and your trust in God? I have. It is not enjoyable, but it is to be expected. The more that we strive to be like Christ, to walk in His footsteps, hold true to His teachings, then the more resistance we will encounter, the more we will be ridiculed. Sometimes this ridicule comes from people within our own Christian circle, people that we have worshipped and served with. Even Jesus received this behavior, so why should we expect anything different? Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Exodus 36:3-5

They received from Moses all the offerings the children of Israel brought for all the works for making the holy place, and they continued bringing him freewill offerings every morning. Then all the wise men who were doing all the work of the holy place came, each according to the work he was doing, and they spoke to Moses, saying, “The people bring much more than enough for the work the Lord commanded us to do.”

Encouraging Words

God has a will and He created each of us with a will. He gave us freewill so that our choice to love Him and follow him would not be forced. When we choose to align our will with His, great things will happen. In this case, those building God’s temple had to proclaim that the offerings needed to stop because they had too much already. We need to constantly seek God’s will and be willing too adjust ours to align with His. Glory be to God!