Worthy Devotions – Daily Christian Devotion » Discipleship

Proverbs 18:15 The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.

I’m not sure where I read it, but the idea has always been ingrained in my mind – if you want to be a good teacher, be a good student. When Yeshua (Jesus) lived on the earth, his disciples were called “talmudim”. The Hebrew literally means “students”. “Talmudim” comes from the verb, “Lilmod”, “to learn”. In essence, talmudim are learners.

We who know Yeshua as Lord consider Him our Rabbi or Teacher, and ourselves, His talmudim. As such we continue to learn and grow in His wisdom, love, and character.

This learning process involves regular tests from our Lord as He leads us from one level of faith to the next. I recall years ago when I was in school, never being a huge fan of tests – in fact, rather disliking them quite a bit. I’d often find myself attempting to cram mountains knowledge into my poor brain the night before an important exam. Then, after completing the test I would quickly forget most of what I had crammed and scarcely absorbed. Doubtless had I been required to retake the test a week later, I’d almost certainly have failed it.

But in the testing of faith, we cannot cram knowledge or understanding and still hope to pass. If we try this shoddy and superficial approach to learning we will simply find ourselves retaking the test, over and over again. If we are truly His talmudim, we will study, pray and delve deeply into the challenging material at hand, to learn and absorb the lesson well, so that we are educated, transformed, and well equipped to move forward in the Lord. Yeshua wants us to learn today’s lesson – because He has a new lesson for us tomorrow!

What lesson is today’s important lesson? Be diligent to understand and apprehend it, and even to begin applying it. So doing you’ll be thoroughly equipped and prepared for the one your Rabbi will send next…maybe even, tomorrow!

Psalm 3:8 Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people.

Jesus told His disciples to go into the deep waters and let down their nets for fish. When they did, their nets were filled up with fish to the point of breaking. Being fishermen and businessmen, they may have been tempted to start doing business. I mean, think how much they could make!

But God had a different purpose. The disciples’ occupation as fishermen was just a vehicle for God to demonstrate His great power and love. He wasn’t blessing them with fish so that they would get excited about fishing — He was blessing them with fish so that they could get their eyes off their fishing and on to the greater call He had for them! Thankfully, they left the fishing business and went off with the Lord to do great and mighty things.

Too many of us are wrapped up in fish. We seek the Lord for His blessings, prosperity, and success. But true discipleship is focusing not on the blessings of the Lord, but on the Lord of the blessings!

We can rejoice in our blessings, but let’s not dwell on them! Let’s set our eyes on the Lord and the calling He has for us. When He sees that we have pure and willing hearts, He will be faithful to use us to accomplish His glorious plan!

Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Did you know that on a rocket’s journey, the most force is exerted at its lift-off? The amount of force that is needed to get that rocket off the ground is so fierce that it could easily blow the whole thing to pieces. Interestingly though, the further the rocket moves from the earth’s gravitational pull, the less energy it needs to move farther along.

Isn’t it true with us as well? Whether it’s breaking a habit, losing those first few pounds or learning something new, taking our first step into a new thing is the hardest part. That initial step always takes the most effort, the most energy. If we keep pressing on, however, it becomes easier and easier to move ahead!

As many of you know, the fact that we have moved ourselves and our ministry here is nothing short of a miracle! God has sustained us as we have pressed ahead through all the difficulties of acclimating to a new language and culture, pioneering a powerful ministry, and living by faith for all our physical needs.

We have come to Israel with a vision and purpose that we truly believe is from God. That vision includes a number of endeavors such as a relief center for needy and hurting Israelis, a leadership training center and much, much more! In so many ways, we, like that rocket are just in our beginning steps of take-off. Please stand in prayer with us as we press ahead to bigger and better things for the Kingdom!

Perhaps there is something new He wants you to be doing! God wants us to get out of our comfort zones and take that first step of faith so that we can see just how truly awesome He is! Together, let’s take our first steps into something new!

John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Ya know – something occurred to me this past week.

We, and I know many other brothers and sisters around the world have been praying and praying for revival to come. We’ve been seeking God for the seeds we’ve sown in prayer to be harvested in these crucial hours, when they are becoming ripe for the picking. We’ve been asking God to reveal Himself to His people and bring laborers into the harvest.

But people are dying. Ripe fruit is falling and spoiling in the fields. And still, there are few laborers to do anything about it. Why Lord?!

It became clear to me recently why. Jesus said that they will know Him by the love we have for one another. The world will know Him by the love we, believers, have for one another. Where’s the love, friends? Our body is so divided, over silly issues that don’t even matter in the big scheme of things! Our marriages and churches are being torn apart for lack of understanding of the enemy’s tactics upon us!

How can the fields be harvested? We are not prepared for them! We are not ready to minister! We’re so busy looking at ourselves and our problems! Most of us are not even aware of the critical condition we are in as a body! This is an EMERGENCY! We need to wake up and smell the desperate stench of dying souls! Not only those out there in the world but the ones who are part of us — we, and our hurting brothers and sisters in the Lord! We need to start loving one another, that the Lord may be glorified, that His Kingdom come!

Let’s start overlooking offenses today! Let’s learn the devils schemes! Let’s win the hearts of the lost by our love for one another! There’s soooooooooooooo much work to be done!

Matthew 25:21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

I used to sell newspaper subscriptions door to door and deliver flowers for a living. I also volunteered for years with my churches inner city bus ministry. My wife waited tables and cleaned houses. She volunteered with a number of ministries, doing youth work and teaching worship dance among other things. Never could we imagine that the Lord would take us to Israel and use us in full time ministry in this capacity. Neither of us ever did anything great in this world but we were faithful in some little things and God found it in His heart to promote us.

D.L. Moody once said, “A good many are kept out of the service of Christ, deprived of the luxury of working for God, because they are trying to do some great thing. Let us be willing to do little things. And let us remember that nothing is small in which God is the source.”

The Lord is always looking for opportunities to promote us – to take us to a higher calling. The problem is that we’re often so busy trying to promote ourselves that He can’t get a word in edgewise!

Let’s not neglect the little things God has put in our path to do. Help clean the church once a week, bless that neighbor or family member God has put on our heart, share the gospel with a coworker. Those little things will eventually lead to bigger things — don’t you doubt it! There’s so much work to be done!

Matthew 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

When I first gave my life to the Lord, like many of us, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. If God would have shown me, at that time, all the things that would have to change about me, I think I would have gone running for dear life!

Now, here we are, in Israel, a whirlwind of events going on around us, a toddler, a baby on the way, a growing ministry, all the trials you can imagine in relating to a different culture, language, etc. Ha! If you would have shown me this picture back in the days of my rebellion, I think I would have laughed my head off in unbelief!

But that is the Lord’s way. God is a gentleman. He doesn’t show us more than He feels we need to know. He knows that we are weak and He’s merciful enough not to give us more than we can handle. What He desires for us to lay our worries upon Him and trust Him for our future.

God has not given us power to overcome all the problems we have yet to face. He has given us only the power to overcome what faces us today! Just as the children of Israel could collect only enough manna for one day, the power God gives us to face our trials — it only comes one day at a time.

God has so many wonderful adventures ahead for us who love Him and are called according to His purpose — and He will surely give us the strength to endure the trials we’ll face with each adventure. Let’s trust Him only for today’s trials — and let Him worry about the rest!

Hebrews 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

We’ve been talking about freeing others from their burdens and bonds. This scripture tells us we are to remember those that are bound — as though we are actually bound along with them!

The North American Indians have a more eloquent word for ‘friend’ than we do in English. In their language, the word for friend literally means, “the one who carries my sorrows on his back.” Isn’t that the ideal friend? One who truly carries our problems!

All of us are bound by different things and suffer from our individual struggles. And we need to be carrying each other’s sorrows as if they were our own.

Our best friend has carried our sorrows. Let’s strive to be more like Him. There’s so much work to be done!

Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

Have you ever noticed that most of our phone conversations go something like this? You call, say a word or two, they’ll say a short thing or two in reply and then something like “Ok, in the middle of something, gotta run, talk to you later”! That’s a good example of most of our telephone conversations with people when we were living in the United States.

Now that we’re living in Israel however, it’s a slightly different story. When we call America now, people are always making time to talk to us. In fact, usually they excuse themselves and go into a separate room so they can hear us loud and clear! And vice versa when they call us! But that got us thinking.

If we make some time and excuse ourselves from a room to talk to someone important on the telephone, how much more should we do these things for the Lord of Glory?!

William Wilberforce, Christian statesman of Great Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, once said, “I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of private devotions starves the soul. It grows lean and faint.”

We don’t starve our bodies, do we? Then why do we starve our souls? We would never dream of not eating for a month or two, but how long has it been since we’ve gotten to a quiet room to nourish our souls with the Lord? Seems ironic, doesn’t it? Our bodies our only temporary — they will be buried six feet under some day, along with our belongings eventually. Our soul, though, is what we should be nourishing daily, what we should be guarding as our most prized possession, because it will always be around!

Let’s get our priorities straight. Let’s excuse ourselves from the hustle and bustle and spend some time nourishing our souls and hearing the Lord loud and clear!

Revelation 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

The word “midst”, in the Greek, is ‘meros’ which literally means “the middle”. In the ‘meros’ of the throne in heaven is the Lamb of God. The very focus of heaven — the center of attention — is the Lamb of God!

So often we receive emails asking specific doctrinal questions about this new “revelation” or that new “teaching”, and the very first thing I must ask myself is — is Jesus in the center? If all of heaven is centered on the Lamb of God, how much should every doctrine be centered on Him? And how much more should our lives be centered on the Lamb that was slain for us?

The Lord expects us to test all things (1 John 4:1), and see if they are of God. Let’s not get distracted with doctrines in which He is not the center.

Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

D.L. Moody spent many hours praying for faith. He once said, “If all the time I have spent praying for faith was put together, it would be months. I thought that someday faith was going to come down and strike me like lightening. But faith did not come. Then one day I read in the 10th chapter of Romans, “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” I now opened my Bible and began to read God’s Word and faith has been growing ever since.”

Much of what believers describe as ‘faith’ has nothing to do with Biblical faith. Our faith must not be based on emotion, or want, and not on the latest Christian seminar. But it must be centered on God’s Word, on Messiah, His death and resurrection, His salvation. The Living Word is the eternal, everlasting love of God which has been poured out upon our lives.

Read, hear, apply and live the Word, and you will grow strong in faith.