Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Judges, Chapter 14,
Verse 11
Out of their fear of him, they brought thirty men to be his companions.
This verse is about
Sampson the strongman of the bible; who struck fear into the hearts of the
pagan Philistines. Nevertheless how different was Sampson from his pagan
neighbors? Justyn Rees has an interesting shortened tale of the tragedy of
Sampson that is available online that is a quick thought-provoking read in his
book entitled, “Old Story New”.[1]
Sampson who was born
endowed with great physical strength started out following God but failed to
continue walking in the spirit of He that Is. John Maxwell[2]
points out that like Gideon many men fail toward the end of their life because
they dilute the vision God had given them, and have become too comfortable with
their success and lack the self-control to overcome their weaknesses. John’s
advice to leaders is to be self-disciplined using a quote from Plato, “The first and best victory is to conquer
self.” John points out a five step plan to develop self-discipline in your
life.
1.
Develop and
follow your priorities. Time is a precious commodity, do what’s really
important first and release yourself from the rest.
2.
Make a
disciplined lifestyle your goal. Set up systems and routines to ensure you
feed the mind, body, spirit and love of neighbor daily.
3.
Challenge your
excuses. We all make them; push the envelope.
4.
Remove rewards
until you finish the job. Eat your vegetables first.
5.
Stay focused on
results. Focus on the outcomes and not the difficulties in accomplishing
it; envision the change.
Our model for
transformation: Jesus went up to the
mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. (Luke 6:12)
Passion Week Timeline[3]
Tuesday
April 11 |
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Tuesday of Holy Week
Traditionally the account
of Christ's Passion according to St. Mark is read today and most people
continue with spring cleaning. Also today marks the bargaining of Judas with
the Sanhedrin as the Jewish way of tracking time makes Tuesday evening
Wednesday as days changed after sunset and not at midnight following roman time
keeping method.[4]
We learned yesterday from St. John that
Judas was a thief. He robbed from Christ, from the other apostles, from the
incipient Church. Jesus, for him, had become merely an excuse to seek after his
own interests. Jesus was not the one thing necessary, as he was for Mary of
Bethany. Jesus wasn't even an end, but merely a means for Judas to satisfy his
own greed. Judas supposedly had serious qualms of conscience about the failure
to sell the years’ worth of aromatic nard with which Mary had anointed Jesus'
feet, but he thought nothing about selling Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Judas
had been a disciple merely in his body, not in his heart. Judas had been called
personally by the Lord, had lived with him for about 1,000 days, had followed
him for three years, had heard him preach and teach, had seen him walk on
water, still stormy seas, feed thousands with a five rolls and two sardines,
raise three people from the dead, heal on countless occasions the sick, blind
and lame and have mercy on countless sinners, had even received from the Lord
the power to do many of these same things himself, and had been entrusted by
him with the money bag for the Twelve. But he tragically had never gotten to
know Jesus, and even more tragically had never gotten to love him. He remained
just a follower of Jesus on the outside, not on the inside. In betraying Jesus,
Judas valued him less than a handful of coins, forgetting that it would profit
him nothing to gain the whole world and forfeit his life.[5]
Full Pink Moon
According to the almanac
today we are having a Full Pink Moon; plan to spend some time with the women in
your life and develop a true friendship.
Devotions/Prayers
[1]
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ya4KBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=burn+you+and+your+family+philistines&source=bl&ots=0UWpCsxdDc&sig=AVZOJtLIcSvCrAzCdgZl5lvhjoE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCWoVChMIq5bd_dLkyAIVA9pjCh0MGwvM#v=onepage&q=burn%20you%20and%20your%20family%20philistines&f=false
[2]
John Maxwell, The Leadership Bible, 1982.
[3]
http://www.jesus.org/death-and-resurrection/holy-week-and-passion/a-time-line-of-the-passion-week.html
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