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God had the power to visit Moses in a burning bush, so he has the power to visit everyone in a burning bush, but he chose to only do it once with Moses. Moses was supposed to pass on the message to others.

Jesus has the power to train disciples, but he only does it with a small group of men. They are supposed to pass on the training to others. Why is that? It’s because the special examples of God breaking into humanity and taking matters into his own hands, so to speak, are just that—special! They are the exceptions rather than the rule. The exception is that God breaks powerfully into one person’s life. The rule is that whatever your encounter with God has been, you are called to pass that on to others.

Here it is in practical terms. Everything Jesus has done for his followers has been to make them into disciples—truly devoted followers who grow more like their teacher. Everything has been about disciple-making. Disciple-making is doing what Jesus did. Therefore, Jesus is telling his disciples to pass on to others whatever he has done for them.

So what does that mean for us? I’ll get really practical. Every single thing that is true about you is something God is using to make you more like Jesus, and that means that every single thing that is true about you is something God wants you to use to help others become more like Jesus. Whoever you are you are for becoming like Jesus and helping others do so too. Whatever you can do, you can do to become more like Jesus and help others to do so too. Wherever you live, you live to become more like Jesus and to help others do so too.

Your calling is to take whatever is true about your life and turn it outward into helping others become more like Jesus.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: What’s one thing that you love about you? How can you use that to help others become more like Jesus?

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Jesus isn’t interested in Peter’s feelings here. In fact, he actually says some things here that scare Peter and wound his pride some, but that’s not what we will be looking at today.

Jesus says something to Peter that I have often wondered about. He asks Peter if he loves Jesus “more than these.” What does that mean? More than what? More than the fish they are eating? More than Peter’s love for other people? Or is Jesus asking Peter if Peter’s love for Jesus surpasses other people’s love for Jesus? What’s the real question here?

Whatever the nature of the question really is, the intent is clear that the question isolates Peter. Jesus uses a little phrase to get Peter mentally alone with him. “More than these” is a phrase that would cause me to start speaking in hushed tones. I don’t want people to hear me talking about them. But in the privacy of the hushed voices, Jesus says words to Peter that shake him up.

1. Peter is to be responsible for feeding the multitudes of followers who will come soon.
2. Peter is going to be terribly persecuted and killed in a way that brings great glory to God.

Then Jesus puts the exclamation point on the statement by saying “Follow Me!” — This is what I’m telling you, Peter, and you must follow my instructions.

But good old Peter, never one to understand the first time around, allows his gaze to shift away from Jesus (I recall his gaze shifting away from Jesus once before on a stormy sea…) and toward a meandering John. “What about him, Lord? How’s he going to die?”

Jesus won’t hear of it. “Whatever I want to do in John’s life does not concern you. You follow me!”

How often do I want to follow Jesus the way others get to follow Jesus? How often do I wish others had to follow Jesus the way I have to follow Jesus?!

But the concern for other people is irrelevant. What’s that to me?

Jesus, pulls me aside, and speaking in hushed tones, says, “I have something for you to do. Follow me.”

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Following Jesus means following him on the trail he’s blazing for you alone. Follow him his way regardless of how others seem to be following him.

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Jesus never calls this a “great commandment” or an “essential,” but he says it so often that we have to recognize this command as a huge priority for him. Simply put, it’s the command to follow Jesus.

Throughout the New Testament, the concept is repeated time and time again that the ultimate goal of the life of the human being is the imitation of Christ. Jesus is the model for what being human really is all about, so when he looks at Matthew and says, “Follow me!” he means something much more than simply, “Hey, buddy, come over here!”

It’s an old gag from the days of vaudeville for one person to say, “Walk this way” and then be followed by another person who walks not only in the same direction, but also in the same manner as the person leading the way.

It’s a common child’s game for one child to be the “leader” and the other children to follow by imitating the patterns of the first child.

We understand leadership and followership, but we fail to grasp the significance of Jesus’ words to us that we are to follow him.

Following Jesus means that we are of course to go where he goes, but also that we are to do what he does. Where does he go and what does he do? It’s really simple, actually. Jesus goes where there are people far from God and he exposes them to the powerful grace of their Heavenly Father. He speaks words of challenge and encouragement, but it’s always about demonstrating powerful grace… even when demonstrating that grace comes at great personal sacrifice.

That’s what taking up our cross means! It doesn’t mean just being willing to die for Jesus. The cross is about something far greater than simply death. The cross is about a powerful act of grace, and one person willing to live out the power of grace by giving his own life for the sake of others.

Taking up my cross isn’t about being willing to die for Jesus. It’s about being willing to die for others! Now that’s tough. But that’s what Jesus did, and I’m committed to following him.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Who will I meet today who is far from God? How can I demonstrate the power of grace to that person?

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Every time I read these passages, I am amazed that when Jesus was asked to give the greatest commandment, he replied by quoting two. The single greatest commandment in all of God’s will for us has two sides. We are called to love God, and to love people.

Now, it’s easy to understand (even if it’s hard to do) that we are supposed to love God. After all, we are supposed to love our parents for giving us life and caring for us, and God is the ultimate parent in that sense. He has given us life, he sustains our life, he cares for us and provides for us, and he really is that incredibly wonderfully awesomely holy and good and righteous and worthy of our love.

But what about my neighbor? What has he done for me? He didn’t give me life. He didn’t care for me. He isn’t all that incredible or wonderful or awesome. He certainly isn’t holy and good and righteous. He’s just a neighbor and I don’t even know him. Why should I love him?

Here are two reasons to love your neighbor:

1. God wants you to be a loving person.
2. God loves your neighbor.

One of the noisiest parts of our society is the noise that tells us to be selfish, to love ourselves, to please ourselves, and to do good to others so that good comes back to us. It’s all selfishness.

Jesus raises the point, however, that loving God necessarily requires us to become loving people, and we can’t be loving people without loving people. And since I don’t get to choose what kind of God I should love, I also don’t get to choose what kind of person I should love. I love the only God there is, and I love the people around me as they actually are. The only way to become a loving person is to simply start showing love.

If you are an emotional person by nature, spend some time with God in prayer asking him to cultivate in you positive feelings for the people around you. If you are a thinking person by nature, spend some time journalling on paper strategies for how to show other people how valuable they are.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Love others… feel it and do it.

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Our world is filled with noise. For many of us, from the time we wake up to our noisy alarm clocks to the time we turn off the noisy TV and go to bed, our lives are filled with the noise of car radios, retail Muzak, jobsite buzz, and wild children. It wouldn’t be much of a problem if we had the chance to get to a quiet place now and then to spend time with God, but we find that once we get to that quiet place, the noise in our heads just keeps going. Worries and concerns of responsibilities yet undone, projects yet unfinished, and decisions yet undecided swirl through our brains. Then, as if that weren’t enough, the “spiritual” noise of competing world philosophies, self-help gurus, and biblical interpretation all enter into the picture too.

What if we could cut through all the noise to get down to the one, two, or more essentials in life? What if we could identify and focus on just a few things well enough that the others would either fall into place or lose separate significance?

Well, that’s exactly what Jesus is talking about here. This week, we’ll consider four “essentials” according to Jesus—four things we simply must give our lives to—and to get us started, today we look at what Jesus calls the most important of them all. Jesus tells us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Elsewhere, Jesus has already said to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…”

In summary fashion, the point is that God must come first in every aspect of our lives. All priorities begin with the priority of putting God first. In my heart, my emotional life, God comes first. In my soul, from where intimacy comes, God must be first. In my mind, my thought life, God comes first. In my strength, how I use my resources, God must come first.

In our church, we express this priority by claiming God as our first core value, and this is what we mean by it…

Our number one core value is GOD himself. We put GOD at the top of every list, and we let him speak for himself. If he says something in the Bible, then we believe it and work to follow it. If he doesn’t say something in the Bible then we tread with great caution and do not put words in his mouth that he hasn’t spoken.

More than all other things, we want to get in touch with our creator and experience the real presence of GOD in our lives every day, and we recognize his Son JESUS, who died for us, as the only way to know him.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: What will it take for God to take first place today?

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