Here we go again, its Sunday and here are my picks of pics. Some are a little different, but I got over it.
Sunday Picks for Pics
Category: devotional
Speck Analysis
Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother’s eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye?
Matthew 7, Amplified Bible
We have an incredible capacity for self-deception. We operate on the premise that by condemning another person, we will be a more spiritual person. I have this extreme tendency to look for issues that I can zap, point my finger at, all to build myself up inside. This very common approach to spirituality has been identified and denounced by our Lord.
But it is so easy to do, and to be frank, so satisfying to practice. Jesus makes it out to be absurd, almost comical in strange way. A bit of dust becomes the center of attention; a big plank is ignored. I think we all get the picture, and it is laughable! Or is it?
The speck can be just about anything. It is an irritant, but it also is small. We know it is present, we can’t just ignore it. The plank also can be just about anything, and a speck and a plank have considerable differences. With our huge plank though, we can still make out that tiny particle in our neighbor’s eye. Interesting.
Jesus’ wants us to renounce this false deception, and not to let it mislead us anymore. We cannot go around identifying evil in others–and minimize our own. I don’t want to do this anymore, I can’t do this anymore.
Part of verse 7, tells us to “consider”. We are being instructed to evaluate our own condition, before we take the next step of helping out another. Know yourself first. Measure that plank, know its dimensions, understand what you are dealing with. And don’t be reaching out to your brother’s issue. It may make you feel spiritual and mature, but it is also foolish and ill-advised.
Strength for the Pathetic
“Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
Mark 2
What do you say to a crippled man lying on the sidewalk? Jesus believed the impossible would happen when He command the man to stand up. Now the majority of us disciples would’ve gathered around, found an extra blanket and a ham-and-cheese sandwich. We then would try to steer the talk around the doctrine of God’s sovereignty and assure him that God works things out for our good. Some of us would even ask him if we could pray for him.
But Jesus will have none of that. He seems blunt and forward as He commands the man to move; to stand up on his own two feet. You must understand, when Jesus commands something, He gives the strength to accomplish that command. When Jesus speaks, things happen. This was the voice that calmed the sea, this voice would raise the dead! When He spoke to this man, the creative power of the complete universe was taking control.
As he obeyed, and willed his body to stand in obedience, he was healed. We are so much like this man. When it comes to spiritual things, it seems all we can do is lie on the sidewalk. Of course, we have our familiar mat, and we’ve learned to recognize those who can give money. But we can’t move, we are completely immobile. Despair is the norm for this “existence”.
Young people are especially afflicted with fear over following Christ. They don’t think they can do it. They just don’t possess the capabilities and they know it. Others, with habits, are crippled with bondages that paralyze them. Years and years they lie in the same place and cannot move forward. This is a very real issue today.
But Jesus sees. He knows that His healing must be something that is believed into. The power is not the issue. He has unlimited strength which has no equal. He is a massive power station, and you have a 30 watt bulb!
The real issue, when its all said and done, is will you obey the Voice? The order from your creator and friend to stand up, and walk. Don’t worry about marshalling your strength, gritting your teeth, and dispelling negative thinking. It has not worked before, and it will not work now. The only thing that will work is too do exactly what He says. For many of us, we are to rise up off the sidewalk–and to walk!
“The Lord will not save those he cannot command.” A.W. Tozer
In His Steps, Reading #52
“What would Jesus do in the center of a civilization that hurries so fast after money that the very girls employed in great business houses are not paid enough to keep soul and body together without fearful temptations so great that scores of them fall and are swept over the great boiling abyss; where the demands of trade sacrifice hundreds of lads in a business that ignores all Christian duties toward them in the way of education and moral training and personal affection? Would Jesus, if He were here today as a part of our age and commercial industry, feel nothing, do nothing, say nothing, in the face of these facts which every business man knows?
“What would Jesus do? Is not that what the disciple ought to do? Is he not commanded to follow in His steps? How much is the Christianity of the age suffering for Him? Is it denying itself at the cost of ease, comfort, luxury, elegance of living? What does the age need more than personal sacrifice? Does the church do its duty in following Jesus when it gives a little money to establish missions or relieve extreme cases of want? Is it any sacrifice for a man who is worth ten million dollars simply to give ten thousand dollars for some benevolent work? Is he not giving something that cost him practically nothing so far as any personal suffering goes? Is it true that the Christian disciples today in most of our churches are living soft, easy, selfish lives, very far from any sacrifice that can be called sacrifice? What would Jesus do?
Broken Believers 