New Year Resolutions often don’t last the first week of the year, but I do believe that new year is an excellent time to renew again the basic COMMITMENTS of following Jesus.

Keep your new year commitments as short, simple and specific as possible.  Don’t have 25 goals, each made up 10 projects, and don’t let yourself be “vague” either.

Let me suggest a simple starting point for a plan you can adapt for yourself:

1. Read your Bible through in 2012

Find a simple plan to guide you. Here’s a great site to help:

youversion.com

You can sign up for free, and use the main site or download the apps for your smartphone or tablet. It has lots of great Bible reading plans to choose from, including basic through the Bible in a year options.

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There were a few GOOD kings in the old history of Israel (more in the Northern kingdom of Judah than the Southern kingdom of Israel), but mostly both kingdoms had wicked kings.  And of all the wicked kings in either kingdom, we’re scraping the barrel when we get to a man called Manasseh. He was about as evil as they got. Think Hitler, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein all rolled into one.

We read his story in 2 Chronicles 33:1-11.

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Last night at our Leadership PITstop meeting I shared the following teaching. Here’s the outline if you weren’t there:

The MOST Challenging Person to Lead

Who is it?  YOURSELF, of course!

Without question the MOST challenging person to lead is ourselves, and yet self-leadership is absolutely essential if we are going to be used by God.

Most Christian leaders can identify with the common experience of trying at times to “minister from a dry well”.  Those times when you are required to instruct or inspire others, but you’re scratching around to find something, because your own soul is so lean. You’re spiritually dry. Inevitably, this is the result of a failure in self-leadership. (You’ve stopped growing, stopped Bible study and meditation, stopped communing with God in prayer.)

Recently our Deacon Board spent time discussing this maxim: “Grow the Leaders … Grow the Church!”  If we want to see the church grow (in health, strength, quality, and resources – as well as numerically) then it has to begin first with the growth of the leaders.

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Today’s Devotion:

Fruitfulness to the Glory of God

Read John 15:1-5

The scene takes place right after the Last Supper.  Judas has gone off to do his wicked deed, and Jesus has just washed the feet of the disciples, teaching them a lesson about servant leadership.  Jesus and His disciples left the Upper Room and walked toward the Garden of Gethsemane.  Passing the temple, they could not help but notice that one of the chief ornaments on the gate was a golden vine with a cluster of grapes as large as a man, which, to the Apostles, represented the nation of Israel.  Jesus is about to change the direction of their focus.  He told them that they were the branches, that Jesus was the true vine, and the Father was the vinedresser.

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Today’s Devotion:

Christ Our Glorious King

Read Matthew 25:31-46

With great certainty Jesus spoke of a coming Day of Glory, for Himself and all true believers. He did not say, “IF,” but “WHEN the Son of Man shall come…” This is Messianic language, the day when He returns to earth to be manifested in all His glory. John saw this in rapturous vision – Revelation 19. And nothing more inspires an ardent pursuit of God, His Son, and His will, than the Book in which we perceive our Lord’s own fore-showing to His people as to how and wherein all their faith and expectations in Him will reach their ultimate goal.

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Today’s Devotion:

The Mighty Heart of Jesus

Read Mark 10:13-16

It’s a very moving and significant event in the life and ministry of Jesus.  He has answered the Pharisees on a crucial subject – that of the Divine institution, sacredness, and permanence of the marriage covenant. He lays down solid principles as He defines and dignifies marriage.  Resorting to a nearby house to give more teaching in private to His disciples they are soon joined by many mothers bringing their infant children to Jesus for His blessing.  Sadly, the disciples rudely “rebuked those that brought them”, waving them away.  Why did they show little regard for the feelings of the mothers, as well as for the rights of the children? Did they not know that the mighty heart of Jesus has room for all, whoever they are! John 3:16.
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Today’s Devotion:

Ransomed From the Power of the Grave

Read Hosea 13:14

The greatest ransom ever reported in modern times was $60 million dollars for the release of the brothers Jorge and Juan Born, paid to the left-wing urban guerrilla group Montoneros, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 20, 1975.

The greatest ransom ever was paid in full by the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  He has ransomed us, not from Satan, but from the death penalty for sin, decreed by the righteous decree of the Father.  It is to Him alone that the ransom was owed, and to Him that it was paid.
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Today’s Devotion:

Phew! I’m Glad That’s a Story for Someone Else!

Read Luke 14:15-24

We Christians have heard many sermons about the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, and usually they are cariciatured as evil men with frozen sneers and crooked noses, peering around corners, always trying to trap Jesus. This is all built on a kernel of truth, of course, because they certainly did oppose Jesus, and He certainly did denounce them many times for their religious hypocrisy.

The problem is that it’s too easy to make a cariciature of someone like that, so that we can easily dismiss them as being far different than ourselves.

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Today’s Devotion:

A Lesson About Prayer

Read Luke 11:1-4

The Lord’s Prayer is the most famous of all prayers found in the New Testament.  Many can recall learning this prayer as a child, which has likely been taught to succeeding generations too.

If you have been teaching your children or grandchildren this prayer, you would be teaching more than just words to them as they recite this.

You would be teaching them theology!
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Today’s Devotion:

The Cost of Discipleship

Read Matthew 8:18-22

This passage stresses the radical demands of following the call of Jesus.  A crowd had gathered around Jesus, and out of it came a scribe who said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever You go”.  How little he realized what following the Master would really mean.  He was moved by the emotion surrounding Jesus, but had no concept of what it was to make the fateful decision to become a true follower, a disciple, of Jesus.  He had not counted the cost.  If he had, he would have realized that to be a disciple of Jesus is to submit all of one’s desires, hopes, dreams, expectations, and allegiance to Him and Him alone.  To be a true disciple is to “take up the cross”, and follow Him.  One thing that was certain in Jesus’ day, if you saw a man walking out of town carrying a cross, followed by a contingent of Roman soldiers, you knew he was not coming back.
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Today’s Devotion:

You Can’t Keep Quiet About Jesus!

Read John 4:21-30

How wonderful an experience it was for many to have personally met and talked with Jesus when He was on earth! Sadly, many who saw Him were blind to who He really was. Some said, “Is not this the Carpenter’s son?” Or, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” But this woman’s eyes were opened to Him, when He told her things about her life that took her by complete surprise. At first she said, “Sir, you must be a prophet?” But because in the ensuing conversation her immoral life was exposed, she spoke up: “I know that the Messiah is coming, and He will know everything.” It appears she is weighing things up: is He just a prophet OR is He the Christ? Jesus does not hold her in suspense – “I that speak unto thee am He!” Face to face with Him she was overwhelmed! That dayher life was radically altered forever.

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Today’s Devotion:

A Storm is Coming

Read Matthew 7:24-29

This past week’s tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan are a great reminder to all of us that when an event like this occurs, very little withstood the powerful force of water as it rushed through villages and cities, decimating anything in its path.  Even those buildings that remain standing, their foundations have been severely compromised too and will likely be condemned.

The parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 7:24-29 illustrates a great comparison for us to learn from, in light of these past events.
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What IS 40 days with Jesus? Simply, a churchwide campaign to prepare our hearts and reach out to our friends at Easter 2011. From March 14th through Easter Sunday everyone at First Assembly is being challenged to read together through a series of daily Bible readings about the life of Jesus and the prophecies about Him from the Old Testament.  Then a couple of weeks before Easter we’re asking everyone to give away a second book, “The Risen Savior”, to a friend or family member with a personal invitation for them to come to church on Easter Sunday morning.

Today’s Devotion:

Whose Business?

Read Luke 2:39-49

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Election Day is fast approaching. As a committed Christian, what preparation s are you making?

Romans 13 is the classic passage in all the Bible about how we are to relate to our local, state and federal government …

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