DAILY
Today’s Reading: Luke 9
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion on the right-hand side).
Tabgha is situated on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. It is the traditional site of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. This altar is built over the place where it is said that Jesus took the two fish and five loaves of bread and blessed them. I like to think that in His DAILY early morning prayer time, Jesus received His confirmation from His Father for the miracle of the feeding of the thousands of hungry people.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where Reynold took the photo, click HERE.
Key Verse: Luke 9:23
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY, and follow Me…”
Peter, Andrew, James and John left their nets. Levi (Matthew) left his tax collecting post. The others left whatever it was they were doing. Now Jesus teaches that this decision must be made DAILY! As God, Jesus made the decision, with His Father, to become Man. As Man, He learned DAILY to live in obedience. “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Isaiah 50:4 says, “He awakens me morning by morning to hear as the learned.” In verse 7 of Isaiah 50, the experience of the Messiah is described this way, “I have set my face as a flint.” This blog is designed to help us all every day in making a fresh decision to follow Jesus.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, I confess that most mornings I would like to stay in bed for another hour, but I know that I cannot follow You closely without doing as Jesus did, taking up His cross daily. I praise You for the grace You give me to follow You. Please continue to give me the gift of discipline every day. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
I have a confession to make. This morning, following my Bible reading and before my prayer time, I was sitting on the couch, my head laid back, meditating on what I had read. There is a big clock on the wall in front of me, and to my chagrin, a half hour went by of which I have no memory. The truth is that I fell asleep. I thought of the sleeping disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, but that was no excuse. God had faithfully awakened me at 4 a.m. He had done His part to prepare me to do this blog, but I was not so faithful. Nevertheless, at times like this I take comfort in that often-repeated Bible verse, “His mercy endures forever.” That’s found 26 times in Psalm 136. God is consistent. I need to learn by making a deliberate decision every single day to follow Jesus more consistently. How are you, my blog partner, doing in this department?
Yours for “daily” following Jesus,
David
P.S. Luke, the Physician, is the primary historian of the New Testament. In Luke and Acts he covers a period of 70 years. Over the next few days I would like to beg the indulgence of readers as I write in the P.S. some thoughts on the reliability of the historical record of Scripture!
Luke 9 is perhaps my favourite scripture because it is full of such deep meaning: sending out the twelve; herod seeks to see Jesus; feeding the five thousand; Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ; Jesus predicts His death and resurrection; take up the cross and follow Him; Jesus transfigured on the mount; a boy is healed; Jesus again predicts His death; Who is the greatest?; Jesus forbids sectarianism; a Samaritan village rejects the Saviour; the cost of discipleship. There is such a deep message in each example Jesus taught in Luke 9, it is rather mind bloggling.
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,[a] and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. The most powerful words were spoken here. May we absorb each and every word with the breath of the gift of the Holy Spirit that breathes in us.
Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. 30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep; and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him. 33 Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said.
“…went up on the mountain to pray. 29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. 30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” The power of God is evident here and is well and alive in the Word and Risen Christ. Let us grasp the magnitude of the gift we have been given! Amen! Thank You, Lord. We bow down to You on humbled knee and praise and glorify You as our Risen King!!!
Jesus Your Name
Promise Keepers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaMhrmTJnG8
Jesus Your name is power, Jesus, Your name is might
Jesus, Your name will break every stronghold
Jesus, Your name is life
Jesus, Your name is healing, Jesus, Your name gives sight
Jesus, You name will free every captive
Jesus, Your name is life
Jesus, Your name is holy, Jesus, Your name brings light
Jesus, Your name above every other
Jesus, Your name is life.
Blessings all saints! And to you, David Mainse–have a wonderful day in the Lord! Amen!
I would love to hear the music you send Beverlee but the last few you sent are not available for mobile devices. I will shortly be getting a new computer so I will be able to look back (not the kind of looking back Dear Jesus talks about)!
Thanks Sah for the mention of Jesus passing by those whose hearts were hardened. I had not seen that. Interesting. Thanks for the wonderful photography Reynold.
Thank you Beverlee for the song of who Jesus is.
Everyone needs to hear it not only on our blog but everywhere.
Thank you David no your not the only one who falls asleep I know
its hard at times for me.
I love the picture it is beautiful Renold
Looking forward to reading your insight on the historical record of scripture. It fascinates me how words are as paint on an artists brush forming a picture for us to see. Daily scripture and this blog add spiritual colour and dimension to our lives. Joshua 1:8 “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Enjoy the day, everyone.
Good Morning David …. I look forward to your Blog and have been going right along with you since almost from the beginning! I just wanted to encourage you and let you know how much I enjoy it and thank you for your faithfulness! I enjoy the little tidbits and the end and am looking forward to reading about the reliability of the scriptures. Bless you David
Elfie
WOW!
David you are actually human and get tired like the rest of us (jaw-dropping remarkabe). I often think of your 4 am wake up call while I stay comfortably in bed until I can later read your daily bread.
I look forward to your future PSs and I have actually read some of Josh McDowell’s “The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict”.
Shalom,
Graham.
2012 Holy Land Yellow Bus.
David, your relationship with the Lord is so strong, I pray that the Lord can use me as well, but I will admit I do not have your discipline. You are an encouragement! I pray the Holy Spirit will strengthen us all to work as tirelessly for the Kingdom, in love, as you do.
How many of you out there are parents or had children in your care? How many times have you just watched your children sleep? Well, God loves to watch us sleep too. So even if we nod off some time in the middle of prayer, God is not mad, anymore than we would get mad if our children fell asleep during a task like brushing their teeth.
When we are meant to be awake I find the Holy Spirit will keep us awake– many nights I have tried to sleep when I knew God was calling me to prayer, so in the end since I couldn’t sleep I heeded His voice and prayed, then slept like a baby. So I imagine if we nod off in prayer sometime it is because God wants to enjoy watching us sleep, just like we enjoy watching our children sleep. And maybe sometimes God needs us to be still, and allowing us to fall asleep accomplishes His Will far more than all our words.
Amen to all of that Donna. That happens to me often and prayer lulls me back to sleep. I will now think of God watching me slumber!!!
I found that it didn’t really matter to my conviction to our loving Lord what time of the day I studied his Word as long as I took some time each day. Our heavenly Father loves us all regardless of the time of day we spend talking to Him.
Praying for peace and joy for us all thru knowing Jesus.
Anne Graham Lotz is daughter of Billy Graham and has sent this wonderful message out. It’s about 30 mins. long so a cup of coffee and maybe sandwich is needed to stay with it.
http://youtu.be/N3geCPx5plo
Please do leave the added,. I miss your longer comments,Carol
Thank you very much for posting this blog everyday as it has become an important part of my spiritual diet. Fresh bread every day!
Thank you for your faithfulness and self-discipline, David. I pray that God would keep you very much awake every morning while writing this blog for all of us and that He would bring joy to your early morning prayer time. Your blog has inspired me to draw close to Jesus more consistantly through out the day. Your comments challenge me as I reflect on them often a second time later on in the day. Thank you so much for doing this David. How timely it was for me to follow you and ultimately Jesus since the beginning!
David
It is my continuous prayer for discipline and diligence because I know how lazy I am. Needful people we are but thank God, Jesus came for us.
Dear Rev. David M.
Again this morning the openness and humility that you display to all of us is definately very encouraging , for I often catch myself falling a sleep while I pray to the Lord.
As it happend in Luke 9 the transfiguration occured even while the disciples were asleep, and actually witnessed the Glory of God and HIS WORDS This is MY SON whom I have chosen, listen to HIM.
Looking forward to the reliability of the Scriptures.
Have a blessed day everyone.
xoxoxo Carole
Dear David: Such wonderful scripture so rich about all that Jesus did.
How I long for the Church to walk in the power available to us through the Holy Spirit.
Pleas stop apologizing for the length of your message. Falling asleep does not upset our Lord, I believe He can speak to us as we rest in Him.
The Lord bless you.
Pastor David lots of us identify with you falling asleep and has been said God will speak to us even in sleep. However, I cannot identify with you in rising so very early in the morning, too often I ask God for another hour of rest. Need to be more disciplined and set that alarm louder!!!
Your humility is catching and each day, no matter what time, I am blessed by receiving fresh manna each day. Thank You.
Praise be to God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Ghost. Amen
Thank you Donna M I needed this to read and know it myself
Great to hear you had a moment of respite Pastor David, we need that at times…I don’t believe Our Lord is that rigid that He would be upset about your moment of rest and relaxation…God bless you for your faithfulness and commitment to this blog
Good morning! I had a busy day with an echogram test and getting ready for my trip outside the home so didn’t get to this blog. I had to get up when I awakened at around 12:30 am and read this blog as I try not to miss that and daily Bible reading. Some nights, like last Saturday night, I could not sleep all night being overtired and my heart won’t settle down. Your discipline and early morning rising is remarkable, David. God bless you.