The 260 Journey

Day 45

Today’s Reading: Luke 1

Change is hard for those who have been doing the same thing for a long time. We see that truth in today’s reading about an older couple who are about to have their world turned upside down—all because they prayed something when they were young and it didn’t get answered until they were old.

It’s the story of Elizabeth and Zacharias, cast members in God’s story. They were about to discover their why in life. Let’s read this passage from Luke 1:5-7:

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.

That’s just a kind way of saying they were old, although we don’t know how old. And yet notice something ageless that happened to Zechariah—he was faithful. And faithfulness is always rewarded by God. Let’s read the passage together—and notice how boring it is on how he was led to the spot where God showed up.

Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. (Luke 1:8-13)

Don’t take faithfulness lightly. God sees it as rewardable and promotable. This is amazing to me and nothing seems spiritual about this, but his name was on the list. It didn’t magically appear there; he was scheduled to do the priestly service.

He wasn’t led by the Holy Spirit. He didn’t feel it. That day he just showed up, and guess what? God showed up too—with his destiny.

Who knows what will happen if you look at the schedule and realize this week it’s your turn—and maybe something will happen to you as it did to Zacharias. The children’s department put you on the schedule. A leader said you are on ushering or greeting this Sunday. Here is a thought, look at the calendar and go, believing that maybe if you show up, God will show up.

Zacharias showed up and God did show up. Don’t ever take it lightly that you showing up every Sunday simply because it’s on the list.

The longest standing ovation in sport’s history was twenty-two minutes for Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles when he beat Lou Gehrig’s record for most consecutive games played in Major League Baseball. He just showed up every day for 2,632 games without taking a day off. Cal Ripken is in the hall of fame because he showed up.

What you think is routine and redundant, God calls faithful. As Hudson Taylor said, “A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in a little thing is a big thing.”

Why did this happen when it happened? Because God’s timing is perfect.

Here is what the angel told him: “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John” (verse 13).

After the word heard, we find a comma. Sometimes that is not simply a place for us to catch our breath and pause. Sometimes it means there is a pause in the conversation. I think it’s the latter.

I think Zacharias forgot what he and Elizabeth had prayed for. It reads like the angel said, “Your prayer has been heard.” Silence . . . “Elizabeth will bear you a son.”

They prayed the prayer when they were young is the implication. For Elizabeth and Zacharias, the answer to their prayer was slow in coming . . . really slow.

“Your petition has been heard. You will bear a son and you will call him John.” God couldn’t answer their original prayer at the time they prayed, since Jesus was not born yet. The life of Jesus needed the life of John the Baptist. They were going to bring fulfillment to what Isaiah talked about. We see this from Matthew 3:3: “For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!”’”

God was sending His Son. John the Baptist was needed to prepare the way. And it was the perfect time to answer the prayer of the older couple. And it all happened because Zecharias showed up, because his name was on the volunteer list that day. Go Zacharias. Go church volunteers!

Day 44

Today’s Reading: Mark 16

Today’s reading brings us to Mark’s account of resurrection morning. Mark’s description of resurrection morning is priceless. My favorite moment is in verses 3-4:

They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.

They were saying to each other, “Who will roll away the stone?” And verse 4 gives us insight to the why of their question: “Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away.” That means their heads were down as they asked the question. If they would have come with their heads up, they would have seen it was done already. They were asking for something already accomplished.

I think this lesson is significant. Looking up may already give you your answer. One of those wrong-look questions goes like this: “I wish God existed and He was easily proven.”

Look up is what I want to say!

David says God’s creation is always talking to us about the One who created it. It’s pouring out speech to the planet. Look up, it’s talking, it’s saying something: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19:1-2).

The Message says it like this: “God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening. Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded, but their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere” (Psalm 19:1-4).

Why is this important? Because people are looking in the wrong places and ending up with the wrong conclusions about God’s existence.

Romans 1:20 tells us, “Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Paul is saying that God’s creation clearly shows God. We don’t need a “made by God” stamp underneath every rock.

His workmanship is so clear that God says there is no excuse for anyone not to believe. The issue is not that it’s seeable, but that humans refuse to look and believe.

Let’s look at Romans 1:19 out of The Message: “The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is!”

Sounds a lot like a big rock story. The big rock story is like the Big Bang story.

If you don’t look correctly, you end up with the wrong conclusions. When you see creation you end up with a big God not a big bang. The science community is divided on this and not slanted. Many would make you think that there are only a few crazy creationist scientists and all the others figured it out. It’s not that way in science. Scientists are looking up and seeing a big God.

When you look up, you may see more than you bargained for. This is how Isaiah explains it:

Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God?" Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:26-31)

Isaiah says that if we lift up our eyes, we may see something pretty cool about God. The women at Jesus’ tomb lifted up their eyes and saw that God is stronger than death and He doesn’t lie, He rose from the dead.

Lift up your eyes when you pray for something. God may have already done it for you.

Day 43

Today’s Reading: Mark 15

Today we come to the darkest day in human history: the crucifixion of Jesus.

Calvary shows how far people will go in sin—and how far God will go for our salvation (God always goes a step further, loving us). Every step that Jesus took to the cross said, I love you to every person in history.

As we study the crucifixion, we need to look at something that happened on the way to the cross, which has huge significance:

After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him. They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross. (Mark 15:20-21)

The Bible not only tells us the name of the man who carried Jesus’ cross, Simon of Cyrene, it also tells us the names of his children. We know this about Simon: he was a father of two boys, Alexander and Rufus, and also it was not his plan or desire to carry the cross of Jesus. The Bible says in verse 21 that they pressed him into service. Simon wasn’t even a spectator, he was just a “passer-by,” whom they had to force to carry the cross.

Can you imagine the family story if your dad carried Jesus’ cross? I come from a storytelling family and this would have been the story around our dinner table (where we told most of our stories with very loud Italian emotion and hands flying everywhere).

Seriously, though, can you imagine if one of those stories from your dad was, “Did I ever tell you the time when I was in Jerusalem, minding my own business, and a Roman soldier pulled me out of the crowd?”

As a father, I want to live such a godly life in front of my children that I will not have to say to them, “Don’t do what I did.” I want to say to them, “Live how I lived.” I want them to imitate me.

I wonder if that’s what Simon told Rufus? Do you know the father-and-son relationship between Simon and Rufus? Do you know these two biblical names?

In Romans 16:13, most historians and commentators believe that the Rufus mentioned there was the son of a cross carrier. And not just a cross carrier, but the cross carrier: “Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine.”

Rufus was the son of Simon of Cyrene, the man who was called out of the crowd to carry the cross of Jesus. And that family’s introduction to faith in Jesus could have very well started on the day the dad carried Jesus’ actual cross.

Can you imagine Rufus hearing the story from his father about that day of the redemption of the planet? It was Simon not only being in the right place at the right time, but being willing to do the right thing when called upon.

Cross carrying is not out of style. It’s still on our agenda. But not one time only. Luke 9:23 tells us something about taking up a cross: “[Jesus] was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

It isn’t one-and-done, like Simon’s literal experience. It’s daily, right in your home, on your campus, at your job. So what does taking up your cross look like?

What Simon did was interrupt his plans and his life at whatever expense for Jesus.

Each day Jesus will interrupt us. It could be that He’s leading us to apologize, to compliment, to encourage, to correct. It could be in generosity, giving to the poor, stopping and praying with someone. Taking up our cross is when our plans are interrupted by God to do whatever He needs us to do.

It could be as simple as wanting to watch Netflix or FOX news or CNN or ESPN, and God interrupts you and says, My plan is for you to be with your family or be in the Word of God. That can happen, that’s the cross, interrupting what you want to do, and doing what God is wanting you to do.

Taking up your cross daily is when Jesus calls upon you to do something for Him. No one cheered for Simon that day, except heaven.

Just as Rufus knew his father carried the cross, I want my children to know that when I was called on to carry the cross, I did it each day.

Theologian A. W. Tozer explains the results of a cross-carrying person: “There are three marks of one who is crucified. One, he is facing in only one direction. Two, he can never turn back. And three, he no longer has any plans of his own.”

I hope that what can always be said of you and me.

Day 42

Today’s Reading: Mark 14

A man who felt convicted for lying on his last tax return wrote this letter to the IRS:

Dear IRS: Enclosed you will find a check for $150. I cheated on my income tax return last year and have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping, I will send you the rest.

His problem: he is waiting for more sleepless nights to bring closure. He is not fixing it on the first go around. That first sleepless night should have been a signal.

In today’s reading, we see the importance of handling things in the first go around. And it has to do with Peter and a crowing rooster.

Let me read to you about this dreadful Thursday night:

Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.” And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny me three times.” But Peter kept saying insistently, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all were saying the same thing also. (Mark 14:27-31)

And between verses 66-71 we read that Peter denied Jesus three times. One of them being with him cursing and swearing to make sure the people knew he was not a disciple.

And then the fulfillment of what Jesus said to Peter came to him: “Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, ‘Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.’ And he began to weep” (verse 72).

Prominent American Methodist minister Halford Luccock said: “In Christian experience, great living begins in tears. It is God’s starting point. When Peter broke down and wept, all pride, of which he had much, and all self-sufficiency and self-trust dropped away from him.”

Listen to Jesus’ warning again in verse 30—“Before a rooster crows twice.” Then in verse 72, after Peter’s third denial, it says, “A rooster crowed a second time” and at that second crowing, Peter began to weep because he remembered what Jesus had said.

Sometimes we don’t take seriously the Word of God until it is finally fulfilled. That is a dangerous way to live.

I had a rooster that lived next to me in Detroit, right in the heart of the inner city. It was the craziest thing. My neighbors had chickens and a rooster that perched in a tree. That rooster would crow every morning at 5 a.m. and every morning, one of my roommates would say, “Oh, Jesus, don’t let me deny You today.”

Amazing how that rooster reminded him of that story. That rooster’s crow made Peter recall every word of the Master. No sooner had he completed his third denial then the rooster crowed. So my question to Peter: What were you thinking at rooster crow #1?

We read about #2, which was after the full denial. But what about the first crow? What went through Peter’s mind?

Obviously he did not heed it. It does not seem that it slowed him down. We don’t have a verse that shows Peter thinking, Hmm, this can’t be a coincidence. . . . The Rabbi said something along these lines . . . that I would deny Him and that the signal would be a rooster’s crow.

But nothing. No brake lights for Peter. This was not some new convert. This was a disciple trained by Jesus Himself.

It just goes to show the power of fear, sin, and compromise. As James S. Stewart said in The Strong Name:

It might seem natural to suppose that every time a man sins he would know a little more about sin, its nature and its methods. Actually the exact reverse is true. Every time he sins he is making himself less capable of realizing what sin is, less likely to recognize that he is, in fact, a sinner; for the ugly thing (and this, I feel sure, has never been sufficiently grasped), for the really diabolical thing about sin is that it perverts human judgment.

Hence every time any of us sins, we are making it not more but less probable for us to appreciate what sin is, and therefore not more but less likely that we shall feel there is anything to be forgiven. Every time I reject some voice in conscience, I am making it certain that next time that voice is going to speak not more but less imperiously and convincingly.

I think crow #1 was the shout from God to say, Put on the brakes. God’s Word is true. Stop here and don’t go any further!

To hear crow #1 is the canon ball over the bow of the boat. It shouts that God is right!

Listen to him. No one jumps to #2 without first receiving a #1 warning.

There are nine words in the Greek language for sin. But the one that always catches my attention is the trespass. Have you ever violated a “no trespassing” sign? You have to do a lot to get by it. You have to climb through barbed wire. Climb over a fence. Go by the blaring sign.

Trespass means you have to really work to sin. God is active in wanting to warn and protect you.

Though you may not be as fortunate as I was to live next to a rooster in Detroit, it does not mean you don’t get the same effect. Let me give you a rooster crow that you will be sure not to miss: It is the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

A conviction does not stop you from doing anything, it just keeps you from enjoying it. I love this young boy’s definition of conviction: “Something that makes you tell your mother before your sister does.”

The Holy Spirit begins to bring a feeling inside of us that something is not right. This is a crow #1 protection. Before a failure turns into a fall, He will convict us.

The old churches built in America some hundreds of years ago were built with the steeple that had weather cocks on them. They were put there to remind the people that even Peter, the first among the apostles, fell into the deep grievous sin of pride and denied his Lord.

I wonder what church members and boards would say today if a pastor put the rooster back on the church so folks would not backslide. We might hear:

“That’s so negative!”
“Why remind us of failure and sin?”
“You are so judgmental!”

But I would be thinking, God is always right, listen to Him.

Day 40

Today’s Reading: Mark 12

Today’s reading starts with a parable, a little story with a big meaning. Jesus tells it in nine verses but the actual story covers almost three thousand years. It is God telling His story from the beginning to ending with His Son coming to earth.

As we read this passage together, remember that Mark 11:27 says Jesus is in the Jerusalem temple telling this story to chief priests, scribes, and elders.

[Jesus] began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. (Mark 12:1-9)

Verse 6 is the fast forward to the present of this story—the vineyard owner (the father) had one more to send, his beloved son, believing they would respect him. Yet the story ends with them killing the owner’s son.

Who do you think Jesus is speaking about?

It is His own bio.

In fact, to make sure there is no misunderstanding, Jesus tells these religious Old Testament experts that this story is connected with the Scriptures they know so well as He quotes from Psalm 118:

Have you not even read this Scripture: “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes”? (Mark 12:10-11)

Jesus reminds us in the story that this is God’s planet and we are just stewards of it.

I don’t know if you have ever rented a house, a piece of property, an apartment that belonged to you and the renters forgot that it isn’t their property? From the way they treated it and even becoming lax in their rent payments, they assumed the role of owner.

I am always reminded of the old 1901 hymn, “This Is My Father’s World”:

This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns, let the earth be glad!

We are the renters. God is the owner. This is our Father’s world, we are stewards of it.

It’s always dangerous when the renters act as though they are the owners—and it is especially dangerous when the owner is God. It’s easy for us to forget and act like we’re owners with our money and tithing when we give God our 10 percent. But it all belongs to God. We get to steward the other 90 percent. The same thing is true of our lives, which the apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV): “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

When some women begin to announce that their bodies are their own—“my body, my choice”—regarding abortion practices and laws, nothing could be further from the truth. The renters are acting like owners. Those ladies and legislators are all bought with a price.

In order to say those kinds of words . . . you have to kill the Son.

One fundamental problem is that they did—but He rose again! The renters are still renters. We have to honor the Son.

Years ago, I heard an amazing story about a wealthy man who had one son, whom he loved dearly. He was a lover of art and he taught his son to love fine art. Because he was wealthy, he and his son amassed a valuable private collection of priceless works of art.

When he was old enough, the son joined the marines and was deployed to Vietnam, where he was killed in action. The father’s heart was broken.

Several years later, when the wealthy man died, his estate planned to auction off his works of art, which were estimated to be worth in the millions of dollars. The day of the auction, with art dealers crowding in waiting to bid on the Van Goghs and the Monets, the lawyer announced that before any of the valuable art could be auctioned, the deceased had left specific instructions that the portrait of his son must be auctioned off first.

“Get on with it,” the impatient art dealers complained. “Get that picture out of the way so we can bid on the real art!”

The auctioneer held up the painting. “Who will give me one hundred dollars for the picture of the son?” No one replied. Finally, a friend of the son’s who was also a soldier said, “I’ll give you twenty dollars for it.”

“Twenty once,” the auctioneer said, looking around the room. “Twenty twice. Sold for twenty dollars.”

At that moment, the rich man’s attorney stepped forward again and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, there will no more bidding. My client left secret and specific instructions that whoever bought the painting of his son would receive all the other works of art at no additional charge. . . To quote the words in his last will and testament, he wrote, ‘Whoever chooses my son, gets it all.’ This concludes the auction.”

Whoever chooses God’s Son gets it all.

As Romans 10:11 (TLB) reminds us: “The Scriptures tell us that no one who believes in Christ will ever be disappointed.”

Not church.
Not religion.
Not a denomination.

Only the Son.