Lessons from My Daily Quiet Time

In Matthew 21:23-27, the chief priests and elders challenged Jesus and His authority, hoping to trap Him. Jesus answered them with a trap of His own and exposed their lack of authority to examine or judge Him. Before I go blasting the chief priests and elders by saying, "Well, they did not have any right to ask Jesus where His power came from. Wasn't it obvious enough," I must first examine my own life. I need to realize that when I do not agree with the way that God does things or with His will or with where He has placed me, I am also being like the priests. I have no right or authority whatsoever to judge God and what He does. He created me. He saved me, and only He has the right to judge others because only He is the greatest! When I judge Him, I am saying that I am better than Him and am therefore committing idolatry. I am putting myself in place of or above God, the One who knows each star by name and measures the universe with the span of His hand. I deserve eternal damnation for this but, oh, the grace that is lavished upon me! What grace that I have been covered with the righteousness of Jesus, and my sins are forgotten! So, we must fight our flesh and fight the urge to challenge God by complaining about where we are or what we are given.

Listen!

Since Adam and Eve first brought sin,
Man has passed down the nature deep within.
It spreads from us to all our kin;
Our own victory we cannot win.

Because of this, Jesus was sent.
The future of people would be bent.
The Father, His Son, would torment;
On the cross three hours were spent.

God pured our His almighty wrath.
All of this was done on my behalf.
He was sacrificed like a calf;
He satisfied all the wrath, not just half.

From he grave Jesus was risen.
Chains are gone; I am not in prison.
His righteousness, I am given.
All the people everywhere, listen!

Will you?

Did you know that there are 11,627 people groups in the world; of which 6,750 are classified as unreached. This means that they have no access to a Christian or even a Bible. They live and die without ever hearing the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. They enter eternal condemnation without hearing that Jesus came, lived, died, and rose so that they could have new life in Him. Jesus purchased with His blood children from all 11,627 people groups, and He deserves praise from every one of them. Our job, as the church, is to make the gospel known to them. Matthew 28:19 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." The verse is a command to the church to take the gospel to all the nations, or people groups. The command is not to the International Mission Board but to the local church. As long as Jesus has not come back our task is not done yet, and if we are not intentionally going after unreached people groups we are disobeying Matthew 28:19. The gospel will be proclaimed and Christ will receive the glory and praise he deserves. The question is: will we get in on it?