"Less Like Judas, More Like Jesus"

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I worship You and welcome You, here in my heart and every moment of my day -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God.  

"When it was evening, He took His place with the twelve; and while they were eating, He said, 'Truly I tell you, one of you will betray Me.' And they became greatly distressed and began to say to Him one after another, 'Sure not I, Lord?' He answered, 'The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with Me will betray Me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.' Judas, who betrayed Him, said, 'Surely not I, Rabbi?' He replied, 'You have said so'" (Matthew 26:20-25).

Sometimes I wonder what happened to Judas. Did he get too close to the money? (John 6:29) As he dipped his hand in Your bowl, did he become presumptuous of his access to Your greatness or begin to take his invitation to Your intimacy and his acceptance of Your grace for granted? Did being one of the Big Twelve give him the big head and in his heart it started becoming more about me? Or did the seeds of sin and self-seeking sown into his fallen soul finally grow to full harvest in his heart of betrayal? In any event, somehow Satan himself entered his soul to consume his thoughts and influence his choices (Luke 22:3).

You know every choice we will ever make, seeing the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end (Isaiah 46:10). You know every heart and every motive of every choice (Acts 1:24; Jeremiah 17:10). Yet, the choices are ours in the freedom of will that a true relationship of love requires (Joshua 14:15; Deuteronomy 30:14-15; John 7:17). 

And what if Judas had made better choices with all that was entrusted to him? Surely Your Word was true of him as It is with us all: "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope" (Jeremiah 29:11). "As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live" (Ezekiel 33:11).

Judas was not born a traitor, but he "became a traitor" (Luke 6:16). And by the time it was time for Judas to choose blessing or curse, life or death, "the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray (You)" (John 13:2). In the end, "Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place" (Acts 1:25).

But what if instead of becoming "the one destined to be lost," Judas would have humbled himself in repentance and faith, seeking You healing and freedom of all that would hold him back of being a faithful follower instead of a condemned traitor (John 17:12)? His confession and repentance came too late when finally acknowledged, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!" (Matthew 27:3) What if he could have become a son of God instead of the "son of perdition" (John 17:12)? What if he was to spill out his heart to lead others to Christ instead of spilling out his guts after hanging himself on a tree (Matthew 27:5; Acts 1:18)? What if even the Book of Jude (Judas) could have been his book, sharing words of encouragement and exhortation from a life that was changed and surrendered to God to fulfill a destiny to honor Christ (Jude 1)?

You are "longsuffering toward us (all), not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). So before I judge Judas for the speck in his eye, give me a humble and teachable heart to see the log in my own eye (Matthew 7:5).  The ways, if I look honestly into my heart, that I m more like Judas than Jesus. Let me "judge not," so that by the measure I judge I will not also be judged and that very thing come up me (Matthew 7:1). Let me never take my grace for granted or presume upon my place of intimacy with You. Convict me of my sins and keep me sensitive in my heart to the leading of Your Spirit, so that it's never too late to choose well and live well in the destiny You desire for me (Ephesians 1:11). By the power of Your grace, may I grow to be much more like Jesus than Judas (Romans 8:29). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

My family, I pray you grow in the grace of God to become more like Jesus every day, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!

Friends, thank you for joing with me on this daily journey of prayer each day. Thank you for allowing me to share them with you! And thank you for praying them back over me!

Please share your thoughts and reflections in the comment box below.

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website:https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC 

 

I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.  

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"Freeing of Prisoners"

Good morning Lord Jesus,  I begin my day in prayer to allow you to raise me up on wings like an eagle so I can soar with you throughout my coming day…

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”  (Matthew 25:34-36)

 Years ago I was serving on a Kairos prison ministry team sitting at a table inside St. Clair prison talking with an inmate.  The inmate shared with me this story.  He and a friend were smoking crack in the living room of his small house.  His 5 year old son was sleeping in the back bedroom.  They ran out of crack and beer, so he and his friend left to go get more. While they were gone, his son got up and went into the living room.  He found the small lighter/torch they were using to smoke the crack.  His son started fires in the house, and then got scared and ran into his room and hid under the covers of his bed.  The inmate and his friend returned an hour or so later and the house was consumed with flames.  As he pulled in he ran to the house and heard his son coughing and calling out “Daddy!  Daddy help me!”  As he ran around the house trying to get in, the roof fell in from the fire and his son was killed,  For the 6 years he had been in prison he had been living in his own hell.  He could not get the sound of his son calling out “ Daddy, Daddy help me!” from echoing in his head.  He could not forgive himself,  turned to using drugs to quiet his son’s voice and engaged in destructive behaviors,

The inmate had just listened to another team member give a talk on forgiveness.  With tears in his eyes he said there is no way God could forgive me for what I have done.   In that one on one conversation with him, I was able being led by the Holy Spirit to share with him the gospel of grace and forgiveness  of Jesus Christ available to him.  With hugs and tears from both of us, he embraced the Gospel, and finally received the forgiveness for his actions.  That night for the first time since the fire he slept through the night, and a couple weeks later he was baptized, enrolled and went through the drug treatment program in the prison, and became freer in prison than he has ever been.

Thursday evening my wife Nancy and I will be going to the second team meeting as part of the team that will be going this time into Limestone Prison in March. Nancy and I are going into an actual prison, however there are people all around you; co-workers, classmates, neighbors, the person next to you in line at a store, who are suffering in “prisons” of addictions, abuse, depression, unforgiveness,  financial struggles, that need to hear the Gospel of grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ that you can share with them and speak over them.

My family,  I pray you may hear and receive these word from the prophet Isaiah:

“The spirit of the sovereign LORD is upon me,

because the LORD has chosen me.

He has commissioned me to encourage the poor,

to help the brokenhearted,

to decree the release of captives,

and the freeing of prisoners,” (Isaiah 61:1)

And then walk out your door and share the Gospel of the grace, forgiveness and love of Jesus Christ with those you encounter today, in Jesus’ name.  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

 Chapter 25 is an amazing chapter of parables. As we read through these chapters together, I can only share on a verse or two that spoke to me. I pray you will participate and add to what God wants to reveal from these chapters by sharing your reflections and prayers on my blog in the comment box below.Please Partner With Me!

Help Me Share The Gospel and Make Disciples!

I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around.  Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.   Thank You!!

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Let me help you!

One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community.. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website:https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

Thank You!    

 

"I Am A Hypocrite"

Lord Jesus, I pray today you will be glorified in and through my life.

“and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 24:51)

In the previous chapter I reflected on the seven “Woes” Jesus speaks out in Matthew 23, that were directed towards hypocrisy in The Church. The word “Hypocrite” is found 18 times in the Bible. 14 of these times it is found in the Gospel of Matthew.   10 of those times it is found in chapters we are now reading, Matthew 21-25.  I think the Holy Spirit desires us to reflect on and deal with our hypocrisy; that of The Church and that of ourselves personaly.

“And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ (Mark 7:6)”

Lord Jesus, I confess my hypocrisy before you this morning.  My lips often speak words that my heart and actions do not follow up. There are times in vain I do worship you. I stand and raise my hands in church and sing “You are mighty to save” then I walk out of the church never seeking the lost or sharing your Gosple of salvation with those that need saved.  With all my years spent reading your words in the Bible telling me to love my neighbor, hearing sermons on shepherds leaving the flock to look for one lost sheep, and my talking about having compassion and love for the lost, You know the last person I actually loved like You and took the time to lead to salvation in you that was baptized.  My head knowledge of You. who You are and Your words far exceeds my obedience and call to action of those words. I am a hypocrite, and I am sorry.

“For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:29)  You know Jesus how I strive to present a good appearance.  I have a closet full of cloths to wear and try to style whatever hair I have left. I wash and detail my cars I am seen in.  I pour money and time into my home and its decor knowing in my heart you could care less about those things.  It is not my outer appearance you care about but my inner heart. It is time spent with you in Your Word and prayer you desire.  It is my pouring out of my resources into others instead of into myself you desire..  I know this yet I still do it.  I am a hypocrite, and I am sorry.

 “I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.” (Psalm 26:4-7) Lord, I know that in your eyes hypocrisy is a sin and is a characteristic of those who practice evil and wickedness, not your fruits of the Spirit. I am a hypocrite, and I am sorry.

Lord, do not let me this morning rationalize away the true nature of my heart and level of my obedience. Do not let this message and the knowledge I received and now know against being a hypocrite, make me become more hypocritical through my prayers to you this morning and my actions, or lack of actions towards othersI meet today.  I do not want to be like the person in James’ letter who looks in the mirror before he leaves the house and says, “What a good Christian am I,” then walks out the door to begin his day and lives out that day like all the non-Christians around him, like a hypocrite whom you dispise.. (James 1:23-24) Convict me Holy Spirit by Your inspired Words into action! I desperately need you to equip me and in Christ raise my level of obedience so that not only do I “Talk the Talk,” but I “walk the walk.”

My family, I pray as you begin a new week, this morning you honestly reflect on your level of hypocrisy and the areas of you life it is most prevalent.  I pray you repent and ask for a renewing and equipping by the Holy Spirit of your level of obedience. I pray today you do not just talk the talk that “Gos is mighty to save” but walk the walk and share the love of Jesus with those who need saved, in Jesus name. PLEASE pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

Please share your reflections and prayers from my blog in the comment box below.

 

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website:https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around.  Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.

Thank You!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Woe!"

Good morning Lord Jesus, speak to me, your servant is listening.

 This morning we have a convicting chapter to read. No passage in the Bible is more biting, more pointed, and more severe than these seven “Woes” in Matthew 23 spoken by Jesus Christ upon the Pharisees. The Pharisees, while attempting to honor the Word of God and manifest an extreme form of religious observance, were actually the farthest from God.  The theme of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount was righteousness. The theme of the teachings of these woes is hypocrisy. There is a common strong emphasis in both teachings on the religious leaders’ failure to understand and submit to the Scriptures. Jesus gave both addresses to contrast the true meaning of Scripture with the Pharisees’ interpretation and application of it. The Pharisees professed to teach the Scriptures accurately but did not do so. They were therefore hypocrites.

 Every one of the seven ‘woes’ is an exclamation like the nine ‘blesseds’ of the Beatitudes. They do not state an opinion, but a fact. The woes are not a curse that calls down calamity but a calm, true judgment and verdict rendered by the supreme Judge himself, Jesus. Six of these judgments have the evidence attached by means of a “because” which illustrates the full reason for the verdict ‘Woe’” and in the remaining judgment.

There is today only one proper Christian use of the “Woe” sayings of this chapter.  It is found not primarily in the application of the passage to the historical Pharisees, and even less to modern Judaism as a religion. The proper application of this passage is for those reading it today, the Christian members of The Church today. Hypocrisy is the real enemy of these woes, not the scribes, the Pharisees, or the Jews. If, on the application of these woes, a finger is to be pointed, a bitter woe is to be pronounced against anyone today, it must be directed solely against we Christians and the hypocrisy found in our churches today.  Here is a translation of a “Woe” from this chapter from the GRV Bible (Gary’s Reflective Version).

Woe to you Christians! For they go to church so that their faith may be seen and approved by people. They love to be greeted as “brother” or “sister” as they fellowship before the service with a cup of coffee in their hand and Hillsong playing in the background. They wear crosses around their necks, and put crosses and Icthus fishes on the back of their cars that they ride in comfort to their churches with windows rolled up as they drive past the homeless, poor, the widows and orphans.  After church, they fatten themselves at lunch and have struggling single-mom waitresses who have to work on Sundays to make ends meet serve them. The only sharing if any of their faith all day with others is when they show their church bulletin at lunch check out to get 10% off their meal.  They then pull into safe garages who’s door close out their neighbors they are called to go out and serve. But instead they walk into comfortable living rooms with a picture on the wall that says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Woe to you! You Christians, you hypocrites! 

Hypocrisy in the life of the church and Christians is one of, if not the main source of negative criticism directed towards the church and Christians and the main reason people do not walk into a church, or attend a walk out of the church, and the church is declining. They read the words of Jesus, Look at the way Christians live out their lives, give of their resources, post on social media, and the hypocrisy makes them say “Hell no.”

My family, Paul in 2nd Timothy tells us, “Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2Timothy 3:16).  Even the Scriptures like this one that holds a mirror up in front of us and make us access the true level of our discipleship as a Christian. I pray you will read and spend time guided by the Holy Spirit reflecting on this chapter and looking in the mirror.  “It’s a me. It’s a me, it’s a me Oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer,” In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends! 

I want to encourage you to please share your reflections and prayers on my blog in the comment box below.

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website:https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

I could use your financial support as I relational reach out to those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around.  Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.

Thank You!   

"You Are Invited"

Good morning Lord Jesus, bring new wine into me today.

“Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to summon those who had been invited to the banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ʻTell those who have been invited, “Look! The feast I have prepared for you is ready. My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”ʼ But they were indifferent and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.”  (Matthew 22:1-6).

Lord, as adopted sons and daughters into the kingdom of God through the atoning work of the blood of Jesus in His death, resurrection and ascension, you do not only invite us to your banquet, we are all those for whom the banquet is celebrated.  We are the ones the Father ran to, embraced and said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on her hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son/daughter was dead, and is alive again; she was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:22-24)

This morning, we are invited to the banquet of “Today.”  Today we are all invited to “Taste and see that the LORD is good!” (Psalm 34:8).  When you walk out your door this morning do you accept His invitation and do you really expect for God to do amazing things so that by the end of the day or the end of the week you will have amazing stories to tell of what God is doing?  Because He Is!  And you have been invited today to be part of it!  What is the banquet of God except a day by day, moment by moment invitation to step into something that God wants to do in somebody’s life and you have the privilege of seeing it happen?  Do you accept His invitation to experience His banquet of love and grace and truly expect and receive it in your own life today enough to be able expect it anywhere else?  

My family, I pray you will accept the invitation to participate in the banquet God has set before you called “Today.” I pray you will both seek out a time alone with God to taste and see that He is good, and walk out your door with an expectant heart ready to participate what God is going to do in, though and around you today, in Jesus name.  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

 I want to encourage you to please share your reflections and prayers on my blog in the comment box below.

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website:https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

I could use your financial support as I relational reach out to those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around.  Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.

Thank You!   

"Hearing And Doing"

Good morning Lord Jesus,  I seek out and I need your Holy Spirit to assist me in obeying you as my Lord today.

This morning in chapter 21 we read:

“What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ʻSon, go and work in the vineyard today.ʼ The boy answered, ʻI will not.ʼ But later he had a change of heart and went. The father went to the other son and said the same thing. This boy answered, ʻI will, sir,ʼ but did not go. Which of the two did his fatherʼs will?” They said, “The first.” (Matthew 21:28-31)

A couple weeks ago in chapter 7 we read:

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!” Matthew 7:24-27)

 In these passages above you make it clear to us Jesus there is a difference between hearing your word and doing what your word says.  Our Lives as Christians are not built solidly on the “Rock of Christ” because of our  hearing and head knowledge of your words in the Bible, but our doing and acting upon them in our lives.  You honor and desire us to read your Word and to pray and listen to Your Spirit’s teachings, calling ,and guidance.  However, if we do not obey and actually do the things you are telling us to do, what good is it to You Jesus, or to us.  You bless and honor my devotion time in the mornings, searching Your Scriptures, listening to the Holy Spirit, and writing down what I hear on how we should live our lives.  However, when my posting is finished, my coffee cup is empty, and I close my laptop and get up off the couch, if I do not obey, do, and live out what I just posted, I am the boy who said “ʻI will, sir,ʼ but did not go.”  “I am a hypocrite and a foolish man who hears Your words and does not do them, and my “house is built on sand.”

 Going to church on Sunday mornings is not necessarily an act of “faith.”  There is nothing “unknown” or that you need to rely on God for to go to church.  It is a matter of your free will.  Your decision if you are going to go or not is more on your calendar than faith.  You choose to go or you choose something else you feel is more important that morning. Because if all you are going to church on a Sunday morning is to hear worship songs, to hear prayer requests, to hear a sermon, and not for encouragement in doing and obeying what you hear Monday through Saturday then what you heard on Sunday morning is nothing but sand to you.  Do you go to church with the faith that whatever you hear that morning you will obey that week, no matter what the cost?

 Jesus’s teachings are simple and consistent throughout  the Gospels:

“If you love me, you will obey my commandments.: (John 14:15)

“Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. The person who does not love me does not obey my words” (John 14:23-24)

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”(Luke 11:27)

““If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

 My family, I thank you for taking the time to read this reflection. However, now as you finish reading it, what are you going to do with what you read?  I pray you will obey the Father and go work in the vineyard today sharing the Gospel. And I pray you will build your house and that of your family on the “Rock of Christ” by not simply hearing, but doing what you hear God speak to you in His Word and Prayer, in Jesus name.  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

I would love for you to please share your reflections with myself or others using the comment box below.

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website:https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

 Help Us Help Them!

My wife Nancy and I are in a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this season in my life and that of my family. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.  Thank You Thank You!  

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"Envious Generosity"

Jesus, I begin today thanking you for your love, grace and mercy that constantly surrounds me.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ They *said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ So the last shall be first, and the first last.”(Matthew 20:1-16)

Lord Jesus, Your generosity is amazing to the extreme.  “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” (John 1:16).  You give us gift after gift.  The extravagance of your generosity, your grace, troubled those in the passage above, and at times it troubles me.  There is nothing “fair” about your generosity.   All receive the full measure of your love, grace and mercy whether they come to Christ as a child or on their death bed.  It was not until I was 34 years old that I fell in love with You, and  when I did the gates of heaven opened up, my Father in Heaven declared, “This is my son in which I am well pleased.”  I received the gift of eternal life in the eternal embrace of love of the Father.  

Because of this, what more do I desire?  What more can I ask for?  How can I not share or jealously withhold this gift from another?  I serve You daily not out of obligation or  to earn or receive more of Your love, because right now at this moment Your love for me is complete and Your delight in me is ravishing.  So my service to You Jesus flows out of my worship for you for you are worthy of it all.  

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.” (John 15:12-17)

My family, I pray this morning you remember that no matter what time in your life, early or late, you entered the vineyard of  Lord, it was out of the generosity of Jesus  that He sought you out and saw you first.  That He chose you. That He made known to You the very heart of the Father.  That you are called out of a heart of worship to go into the market places, and love those you encounter there and bear fruit.  In Jesus’ name.  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

 

Please share your reflections and prayers and today’s reading with us in the comment box below.

 

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

I could use your financial support reaching those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around.  Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.

Thanks You!  

 

  

"Would You Sit With Jesus?"

Jesus, lover of my soul, I begin my day expressing my love for you. 

“And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Then he *said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man *said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”  (Matthew 19:16-22) 

Imagine  you are invited to a dinner at a church that is held in a church’s large parish hall.  You go through the buffet line and get your dinner and drink then you turn to look for a place to sit.  In the hall the are a dozen or so round tables set up.  You look around at the tables deciding which one to sit at.  You see people you know at a couple of the tables, then you notice at one table sitting by himself is Jesus. Jesus your Lord, your savior. Yet, do you have the courage to go sit at the table with Jesus?  And if you did what would you ask him? The young man in the passage above chose to “sit at his table” and engage in a conversation with Him, and He left the table shaken to his core and grieving.

Right now, like the young man did before he talked with Jesus, you can rationalize, even pat yourself on the back that you are a “good Christian.”  Like the young man, you go to church on Sundays, don’t kill people or cheat on your wife, and may even read your Bible and pray fairly regularly.  When the young man told this to Jesus, he assumed that Jesus would respond with, “Wow. I am impressed with your faith!  That is exactly the fruit bearing life I am talking about that comes from you picking up your cross and following me.”  He did not.  Instead, He saw through the young man’s rationalizations, and told him honestly what he lacked. Then the young man had the choice of honestly, completely surrendering to Jesus and completely, radically changing his life, or walk away from Jesus. The young man chose the later. He could of been the 13th apostle, as Jesus said the same thing to Peter, James, John, and the others he asked to come follow mw.

 If you had the courage to sit at Jesus’ table and the courage to ask Jesus, “What do I lack?”  He would also see through your rationalizations of your “good” Christian faith, and honestly tell you what you lack.  And once He gave you an answer, you could no longer rationalize your “Goodness” anymore.  You would have to either completely surrender and comply, radically, change your life to what Jesus asked of you, or walk away grieving knowing you denied Jesus.

My family, I pray today in prayer and in the Holy Spirit, you have the courage to set aside time and “sit at the table of Jesus” and ask Him “What do I lack?” In what way is my life not conforming to your image and the life you desire for me?  In Jesus’ name.  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends! 

Please share your reflections and prayers from my blog and what passages stood out to you in today’s reading with us in the comment box below.

 

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community/Toney UMC

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website:https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

I could use your financial support reaching those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around.  Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.

Thanks You!  

It’s not to late! IF YOU HAVE NOT YET, JOIN IN!!

We started three weeks ago beginning the journey of reading through the New Testament in a year and we still have 49 weeks to go! This plan has only one chapter to read each weekday. There are no assigned readings on the weekend.  The plan we will use is from Bibleplan.org.  Click the button below to go to the site, enter the starting date of January 1, 2025, enter your email, and a time you want to receive an email reminder, then click subscribe and you will receive a confirmation email. That’s it! Every weekday then you will receive an email reminder of the chapter reading for that day.   



 

 

"Attend A Church Assembly Daily in 2025"

Good morning Lord Jesus, you are more precious than silver or Gold and all my heart desires today.

“For where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.” Matthew 18:20

My prayer every morning is, “Lord, send me the ones that no one else wants and give me the grace to embrace them like you would.” I then drove to the Waffle House. There while sitting at the counter I entered into a conversation with a waitress. She shared how she was a single mom with three children. And her mother who was crippled from a stroke also lives with her. She shared her struggles of trying to provide for her children, pay rent, and take care of her mother on her Waffle House pay. She allowed me into her story where I was able to embrace her trials and pray with her.

Also while there, amother waitress shared an update on her brother who is in a Christian based rehab for his Meth addiction. He not her actual brother, but her cousin who’s mom was murdered when he was 16 and her mom took him in and raised him. The waitress showed us before and after pictures of her brother. The before picture was of him before he went into rehab, and the after picture was of him after 3 months of sobriety. The difference was miraculous and we praised God and thank Him for they way he was working in her brother.

After that, I drove to a lady’s house who needed her bathroom renovated. She has multiple sclerosis and her ability to walk and mobility is declining. She has a bathtub in her bathroom she needs taken out and a walk-in shower installed with grab bars as she has extreme difficulty stepping over the current tub and has fallen a few times trying to get in the tub. She definitely needs me to renovate her bathroom, however, even though I had just met her, she also needed me to honor her by listening to her share her struggles and hardship through tearing eyes. I felt compassion for her and when she had finished I asked if I could pray over her and spent time praying over her.

Last night I went to my weekly Thursday night mens group, Brothers, Bibles, and Beer. (B3) It is a group of men that meet weekly in a craft brewery and spend time sharing lives challenges and successes, ask for accountability, spend time re4ading and applying God’s Word to our lives and pray for each other.

Jesus said, “For where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.” The word we call an assembly of people where Jesus is present among them is “Church.” We all have the amazing opportunity, blessing and privilege to attend a “church” gathering daily. It may not look like you picture “church.” It probably won’t take place in an organized location, and it usually won’t take place at a conveniently scheduled time but will be an interruption in your day. But that church assembly will bless you and feel more like church then ever!

My family, I pray as we begin 2025 and our time reading through the New Testament the readings about and examples of Jesus will encourage you to seek to attend a church assembly daily. Not by googling churches to see who has a gathering today, but by praying to the Holy Spirit to lead you to the assembly of 2 or 3 where Jesus promises will be among you at your work, school, the gym, while at Walmart or wherever you find yourselves. It will not look like you picture church, but it will feel more like it than ever, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!

As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community/

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

You Can Help!

I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around.  Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.

Thank You!

TO GIVE, CLICK HERE

 

"Simply Jesus"

As I begin my day I ask you Jesus to open the eyes of my heart that I may see you in all your glory..

“While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my one dear Son, in whom I take great delight. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)

In this amazing story of the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain, it says about Jesus, “ He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” (v.2).  It also says that Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus and were talking to Him. (v.3). Moses and Elijah represented the Ten Commandments, the Law, prophecy, and all the traditions and teachings of the Jewish faith.  But then a cloud overshadowed them all, (v.5), Moses and Elijah were hidden by the cloud, and all the disciples could see was Jesus shining in His glory.  And God spoke to them saying, “This is my Son, listen to Him!” (v.5)

God overshadowed the images of Moses and Elijah, two great patriarchs of their faith, so all they could see was Jesus, and said He is the one you are to listen to now.  All the commandments, laws and traditions are fulfilled in My Son Jesus, it is simply about Him now.

The lyrics from the United Pursuit song, “Let It Happen” come to my mind now.; “So Take me back, back to the beginning. When I was young, running through the fields with you.” I reminds me of when I first completely fell in love with Jesus in 1997 on a Cursillo weekend. My love for Jesus was new. I did not know all the doctrine, dogma, disciplines, polity, eccliesiology, or religious guidelines yet. iI simply with my eyes and hear wide open in love and amazement joyfully ran laughing In the fields” with Jesus.

Holy Spirit, I ask you to reveal to me this morning what I am listening to besides Jesus. What I am running to besides Jesus.  What traditions, habits, personal preferences, religious activities or routines I have not obscured, but have actually placed in equal importance to Jesus.  What am I listening to other than “simply Jesus.”  Convict me Holy Spirit, convict Your Church today as You convicted Your early Church saying, “you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent” (Revelation 2:4). Give me the courage to repent. Give me the strength to let go of and walk away from things I am clinging to and listening to, becoming comfortable with, and simply return to listening and laughing with my first love, Jesus.

My family, I pray this morning you ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you those things that you are listening to that need to be obscured, and simply set aside time to return and listen to your first love, Jesus. Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

Here is the Youtube link to the United Pursuit song “Let It Happen” I reflected on above. Take a minute to soak in it.

  Please share your reflections and prayers in the comment box below.

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website:https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

I could use your financial support relationally reaching out with Christ to those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around.  Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.

Thank You!  

TO GIVE CLICK HERE

 
 

Invitation and challenge

Good morning Lord Jesus, I want to be with you, so I am beginning my day intentionally setting aside time to be with you.

 With all the invitations and challenges that are being presented in the messages we hear on the news and social media, I have been wrestling for some time now in the verse of Matthew 16:11-26.  My morning reflections will be coming from the words on Jesus and His encounter with the disciples in this passage and His invitation and challenges to them.

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Matthew 16:13-26

Jesus was always calibrating invitation and challenge with all those He encountered..  He was open and inviting to all who honestly sought him, but once they were in his presence, he then challenged them with himself, His life, His love, and His truth.   In this passage of Scripture, Jesus invited the disciples into a discussion with him by asking them the simple question, “Who do people say that I am?” He then challenged them by exposing their own motives and agenda which were a hinderance to His agenda to which He replied, “get behind me Satan”, As His agenda was “Pick up you cross and follow me.”  Jesus was always safe place with barriers or prejudices to enter, however He was always a place where you heard a dangerous message.

In my ministry and churches I am called to lead I try to model it after this example of Jesus as being a safe place with dangerous message. To set this as an example to be modeled by those who come so they individually are a safe place with a dangerous message.  To honor both grace and truth.

Some churches are a dangerous place with a dangerous message.  They have an extreme fundamentalism culture (dangerous) where if you don not look like them or act like them or believe like them your are not welcomed, but they have a dangerous message, that is usually laced with their bias and prejudice.  Some churches are safe place with a safe message.  They are inviting and open, and anyone is welcomed to come as you are.  However, their message is safe as well.  Everyone is free and welcomed to remain as you are: no transformation, all life styles, all behaviors, all saviors, all love is all right.

I try to model Jesus and be a safe place, with a dangerous message.  To be inviting and open, and anyone is welcomed to come as you are, and to enter just as a child with no fear.  However, one where you hear the dangerous, challenging message of Jesus.  All are welcome to come as they are, but no one is allowed to stay as they are.  That was the message of Jesus. That is the message of the cross. To die to yourself. Before the Holy Spirit is the “Holy Comforter”, He is the Holy Critiquer”. The Holy Spirit is an equal opportunity critiquer of all persons and all sin.   To be “saved” requires change, it requires you to be saved from something that you were-to something else, or you would not need saving.

In this cultural climate of tolerance, fairness, and political correctness (of which Jesus was neither) and social agendas, what are presented as publicly correct are often not Biblically correct.

My family, I pray you will pick up your Bible and read the Gospels and encounters Jesus had with people:  Matthew 19:16-21; Luke 9:1-10; John 4:1-42, 6:60-68, 8:1-11. Then spend time in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit two personal questions about your life as compared to Jesus’ life and reflect on them. Ask yourself:

Am I safe?  Am I welcoming and inviting to all people of all colors, cultures, and life styles with out prejudice or pre-requirements?

Do I have a dangerous message? To those that I do form relationships with and gain influence with them, do I with grace challenge them in the areas of sin in their lives or do I keep my message on a safe, superficial, comfort level? In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!

 As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

Please support and partner with my self and my family as we serve those God crosses our path with in our community with your one-time or monthly financial gift by clicking link below.Become our partner and support us in our ministries by becoming supporting us monthly or with a one-time gift. Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO GIVE 

 

"Spring Cleaning"

Good morning Lord Jesus, I begin this morning seeking a cleansing and renewing of my heart, mind, and Spirit.

“‘This people honors Me with their lips,

But their heart is far away from Me.

‘But in vain do they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”

(Matthew 15:8-9)

This morning my reading of the New Testament led me to reading and reflecting on Scriptures in the Old Testament. As I read through Matthew chapter 15, Verses 8-9 stood out to me, which are a quotation from Isaiah 29:13.  Jesus was calling out people who instead of prioritizing living a daily life of living out the love of Jesus and our call to make disciples, are replacing it by prioritizing religious activities like simply going to church on Sunday.  My praying into this led me to Jeremiah 7:1-13.  As I read it in my mind, I contextualized it to today by replacing the word “Temple” used throughout the passage with our current word for our religious gatherings, “Church” to hear God’s message spoken to us in The Church today.

“The Message from God to Jeremiah: “Stand in the gate of God’s Church and preach this Message. “Say, ‘Listen, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship God. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, has this to say to you: “‘Clean up your act—the way you live, the things you do—so I can make my home with you in this place. Don’t for a minute believe the lies being spoken here—“This is God’s Church, God’s Church, God’s Church!” Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors, only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Church as a front for other gods—only then will I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Church.

 “‘Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, gossip, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—and then march into this Church, set apart for my worship, and say, “We’re safe!” thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Church, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’” God’s Decree! (Jeremiah 7:1-11, The Message Bible)

My family, I pray that even though it is still January, I pray this morning you open your heart up to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to do a total spring cleaning on the way you live.  In Jesus’ name.  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

 As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website:https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC

I could use your financial support relationally reaching for those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.

Thanks You!

"MLK, A Colony Of Heaven"

Good morning Father, Son, and Spirit, I begin my week in complete reliance of your love, grace and mercy every day and every moment of all my weeks.

This morning as we journey together through reading the NT in a year we are on Matthew chapter 14. I read this chapter this morning and I encourage you to do the same. However, this morning My reflection center around the life of a modern day prophet we celebrate today, the Rev. Martlin Luther King Jr.

“When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also; and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”” (Acts 17:6-7)

Today we remember and celebrate the life of a modern-day prophet, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr (MLK). Rev, King was shot and killed 57 years ago on April 4, 1968.   Rev. King, as a follower of Jesus and in imitation of Jesus, also led a non-violent revolution for social change and his followers were beaten and it cost him his life.  I believe Dr. King was a modern day prophet.  I read his 'Letter From A Birmingham Jail" Every MLK day, and I read it this morning.  It was written in August of 1963. Even though it was written 60 years ago, it speaks into our life and the life of The Church today. For my reflection blog post today, I am using excerpts of MLK's refections from his letter.  Read his words as they speak truth into our individual lives today and the life of the church.

“I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town…”

“But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth…We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed…We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal"…it was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers…”

“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

“…Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation…”

“Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." …So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment….

“There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are”….

“But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.”

These words MLK penned almost 60 years ago to the church are as, or even more so relevant today.

My family, I pray today after reading this that you will use this day, not for honoring yourself by seeking and serving to your needs and desires, but seeking to serve the needs and desires of others.  Prayer walk your neighborhood, volunteer and serve in a community outreach ministry, and spend time in prayer of areas of injustice, poverty, and hate you are aware of in your community and the world.  Do one simple obvious thing to to help or serve a coworker, classmate, or neighbor. In the honor of Dr. King, and In Jesus’ name!  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!!! 

Here is a link to the the complete letter for you to read if you wish.

 

Please share your thoughts and reflections in the comment box below.

Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC 

I could use your financial support for One Direction Community., myself and my family, as we try to bring justice and grace to those on the margins God has placed in our path and I refuse to walk around.  Please begin 2024 by a commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.  Thank You!

Extravagant Sower

 Good morning Lord Jesus, breath the breath of Your Spirit into my body and renew my spirit.

“He told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. They sprang up quickly because the soil was not deep. But when the sun came up, they were scorched, and because they did not have sufficient root, they withered. Other seeds fell among the thorns, and they grew up and choked them. But other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty. The one who has ears had better listen!” (Matthew 13:3-9)

As I read the parable of the Sower, I could discern on the different soil types like many sermons do, and reflect on what is the soil condition of my heart?

Am I that thorny person? Am I that Rocky or Shallow hearted person?

Am I the hard hearted person? Or am I the good soiled person?

When Jesus talks about this parable and our lives: I could also take the Pharasitical approach:

Well I thank God I am not like that hard hearted person over there. I may have a few briars, but I thank God I am not like the thorny persons over there. Or even worse, I thank God I have a perfect heart.

Well if I took a spiritual snap shot of your heart right now, a spiritual photo, I guess it could be true that at this current moment perhaps you heart is hardened on some point or another.  Or at this moment in time you may have a rocky heart, or a thorny, choking heart now, or a good heart now.

But life is not a static snap shot is it, it is a moving picture. There are times in our lives that we can’t hear God’s word, sometime we won’t hear it.  Sometimes we hear it, and we lose it.  There are times that anxieties and fears choke it.  Sometimes we receive it with Joy.. 

See, When I hear this parable and read the story about the seed that falls one the path and is eaten up, when I read it you I say, That’s me!

When I hear about the story of how the seed fell on rocky places and there was shallowness, and the first time, persecution or suffering comes they fell away: I say that’s me too!

When I hear the story about how one receives the Word and lets the worries of the world and materialism choke it away, I say: That’s me too!

And when I hear the story of the seed falling on the good soil and it produces fruit 30x, 60x, 100x, you I shout out praise God that’s me too!!!

It's a great reminder that today or any given day doesn't define me. I will have bad days and even bad weeks but with Christ sowing in my heart, I can overcome! For you see this parable has never been called the parable of the soils. It is a parable of the Sower. It is a parable about the Sower.  God is sowing his seed into the world! His sowing was behind all the past saints, and behind the present and future saints which are you and me, sowing into the world. It is a parable of God's never ending, wild, persistent sowing! The point of the story is that God’s sowing is more consistent than the Devil’s snatching. God’s sowing is more powerful than the devil’s eating. God’s sowing is more enduring than the devil’s tribulation. God’s sowing is more persistent then the devil’s choking. The real good news of this parable is that God is the great extravagant sower in all the world.

My family, I pray we actually formed a church who’s heart breaks for the lost, and that was concerned that one marvelous day, when we stand together in the new earth among the millions before the lamb and worship him, that because of our extravagant sowing into their lives, our neighbors, classmates, co-workers, family members, and others in our communities are there as well, alongside us praising and proclaiming: 

God’s sowing is more consistent than the Devil’s snatching!

His sowing is more powerful than the devil’s eating!

His sowing is more enduring than the devil’s tribulation!

His sowing is more persistent then the devil’s choking!

By, through and In Jesus’ name!  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

 As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Begin 2025 by resolving to partner with us!

 I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries!   We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help.  You can also give a one-time donation on the same link.  Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

 Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC 

TO GIVE CLICK HERE

 It’s not to late! , JOIN IN!!

We started January 1st the journey of reading through the New Testament in a year. This plan has only one chapter to read each weekday. There are no assigned readings on the weekend. The plan we will use is from Bibleplan.org.  Click the button below to go to the site, enter the starting date January 1, 2025, enter your email, and a time you want to receive an email reminder, then click subscribe. Then you will receive an email confirmation to click on.  Every weekday then you will receive an email reminder of the chapter reading for that day. 

CLICK HERE TO JOIN 

Gather or Scatter

Last night during our House Church gathering in my family room I looked at all the empty places on a couch where someone could be sitting or earlier at our dinning room table eating and they could have received both physical and spiritual foods.  I prayed over this and asked the Holy Spirit to help me discern why seats were empty.  And this passaeg in this morning’s reading of Matthew chapter 12 spoke as if it was directed towards me. 

“Knowing their thoughts, he (Jesus) said to them,… “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”  (Matthew 12 :25, 30)

The persecuted church in China is growing, they are gathering.  One of the reasons when you look into it, is that every Christian there tells someone daily about Jesus.  They are compelled to share the Gospel daily with at least one person.  When asked why this is, they say that the Government officials and others who are persecuting them, throwing them in prison, and trying to eradicate the church, daily do not share the Gospel.  Each day our persecutors refrain from speaking the name of Jesus.  If there is a day we do not share the Gospel or tell someone of Jesus, who’s side are we on that day?  Who do we a line ourselves with, Jesus or our persecutors?  Are we on the side that gathers or scatters?  “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”  (12:30)  Jesus knows their thoughts.  He knows yours and mine as well.

It spoke into my post from earlier this week that everyday I am nice to people, do what is right, treat them fairly and show them respect but never share with them the Gospel, my friends and popularity will increase, but my ministry will decrease.  I appear to be gathering, but to what?  I am in reality scattering. Jesus said when we come before him one day, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me,” (Matthew 7:22)  His main and only concern is that I know HIM!  His heart is not about the nice things I did, (serving at Manna House and House of Harvest, going every morning to Waffle House, delivering items to people in need, though those are good things) but did I know HIM.  His desire for me is not to simply introduce people to kindness, but to introduce people to HIM!  What good will all the good I do for someone do if I never gather them to Jesus and they are still scattered from his presence!

I hear people say, “Share the Gospel, and at times use words.”  When I hear this I sigh inside.  That is like saying “feed the hungry, and at times give them food!”  How wrong would it be to invite a person who is perishing from starvation over to your house for dinner, treat them kindly as a guest, share a delightful evening with them, yet never serve them a meal, then wave at them as they leave your home as starving as when they entered?  How wrong is it to invite a person who is starving and perishing spiritually into a relationship with you, treat them like a friend, spend quality time with them, meet some of their physical needs, yet never share the Gospel with them. Then hug them before you walk away from them as spiritually dead as when you met them.?  Paul tells us, “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved,” 1 Cor. 15:1-2 And I have never pastored or been part of a church where people were sharing the Gospel way yo much that I had to tell them to slow down telling people about Jesus and and just do more actions. I am am almost positive your church or your witness has that problem either.

Flip side: Say a church of 20 people in the US intentionally commits like the Christians in China, to share the Gospel of love and grace of Jesus with just one person a day.  They each do this and fail miserably 98% of the time to lead a person to faith.  With a failure rate of 98% and only a 2% success rate, at the end of one year that church would grow to 146 people.  If those 146 members also commit to share once a day, and still have a pitiful 98% failure rate, at the end of year 2 that church would have grown to 1,065 members.  With th same commitment and same failure rate, and at the end of year 3 the church grows to 7,780 members.  Failing 98% of the time, at the end of year 4 it grows to 56,794.  And at the end of year 5 it grows to 414,596!!!  With a terrible 98% failure rate! This is how the church in China is exploding.  This is how Jesus intended our churches in the west to explode.  You can’t add additional Sunday services or build churches big enough and fast enough to keep up.  It is a spread of the Gospel walls can not contain!!! Guys we do not have to be good at it.  We can fail 98% of the time and that’s ok!! What we need to be is obedient to Him! What we need to be is not against Jesus, but with him.  We need to on the side that is actually gathering, and not scattering. 

Take time to pray this morning.  Read this passage again with the complete and honest understanding that the “their thoughts” in the verse below is “your thoughts” and Hr fully knows if you are gathering or scattering, if you are for him or against him. and if you know him.

“Knowing their thoughts, he (Jesus) said to them,… “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”  (Matthew 12 :25, 30)

My family, I pray today as I am doing, you will also honestly reflect on your life and level of obedience.  Who’s side are you on?  In what ways are you for Jesus?  In what ways are you against him?  In what ways are you scattering?  In what ways are you gathering?  When was the last day you shared the Gospel with someone?  Who is Jesus calling you to intentionally gather? All in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!

As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Begin 2025 by resolving to partner with us!

 I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries!   We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help.  You can also give a one-time donation on the same link.  Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

 Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC 

TO GIVE CLICK HERE

 It’s not to late! , JOIN IN!!

We started January 1st the journey of reading through the New Testament in a year. This plan has only one chapter to read each weekday. There are no assigned readings on the weekend. The plan we will use is from Bibleplan.org.  Click the button below to go to the site, enter the starting date January 1, 2025, enter your email, and a time you want to receive an email reminder, then click subscribe. Then you will receive an email confirmation to click on.  Every weekday then you will receive an email reminder of the chapter reading for that day. 

CLICK HERE TO JOIN 

 

 

What then did you go out to see?

“What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. What then did you go out to see?” (Matthew 11:9)

Several years ago I took my family on a trip to Great Britain, France and Italy. While there we visited and spent time in several cathedrals and famous churches.  St. Paul and Westminster Abbey in London; Bath Abby in Bath; Notre Dame, Sacre Coure, and St. Chappelle in Paris; and the Doumo and Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. I am a church planter of Simple Church models and missional communities, creating discipleship environments in mangers.  These great churches would be at the complete opposite on a simple church in a manger.   The pages above from Matthew caused me to reflect on my time spent in these Catherdrals.

  When you walk into these churches they instill in you a sense of awe, and belief in God, or at least definitely a sense of awe, and belief in architecture.  As I walked into a church, take Notre Dame for example. It started its construction in the 11th century and was completed in the 13th century, I tried to image walking into it for the first time not as a tourist in the 21st century who has seen everything, but walking into it for the first time it as a peasant of the 13th century.  I would have lived in a small simple house with no electricity, TV, or running water.  My life knowledge and experience would be of a 1miled circumference from my home. I would be uneducated and unread.

Walking up to Notre Dame would be like walking up into the shadow of a holy mountain.  Its gargoyles that surround its walls would be staring down at me and the fear of God would envelope me.  When I gained enough courage to walk into it through it massive doors ordained with carving of saints and apostles I would have an overwhelming experience beyond belief:  The vaulted ceilings above me would seem to reach up to the heavens.  The gold gilded altar, the sculptures and artwork would captivate me eyes..  The towering stain glass windows that fill the space with colors and light that I have never seen before, like light from heaven itself.  Then there is a massive pipe organ in the back of Notre Dame that when played fills the grand space of stone with a reverberation like thunder that echoes into my very soul.  When the choir joined in it would be like the heavenly host that announced Jesus’ birth.  Next the priest, altar boys, and other members would parade down the isle in their gilded and embroidered vestments such as I have never seen before. The procession would be lifting up crosses, The Bible, and other church standards.  The service would then take place in Latin ritualistically with thurifers sending up clouds of incense that would fill my sense of smell, bells ringing synchronized to the liturgy, and clergy chanting.  As a 13 century peasant, I would have walked out of Notre Dame like Moses walking down from Mount Sinai, my face a glow from the overwhelming experience to my senses, convinced I had been in the very presence of God.  Convinced of the power and authority of the church as God’s representative on earth. I would have then gone and shared and told my family, neighbors and friends all about my experience and would invite and encourage everyone I met to come and see and experience the presence of God at “my church.”

Fast forward 800 years back to the present, to us of the 21st century.  Jesus asked those in the church who went to see John the Baptist, “What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. What then did you go out to see?” (Matthew 11:9)

I reflected on Jesus question as a leader attempting to form true missional communities, What am I hoping people will see? When you walkout your house on Sunday mornings and drive to your church why are you going? “What then do you go out to see?”  When you walk out of your “Notre Dame” following your service, what effect, what is the experience are you walking out with?  Do you walk out with “your face glowing” and a sense of awe that you are assured you had been in the presence of God? Are you compelled to tell your family, neighbors and friends all about your experience and invite and encourage everyone you meet to come and see and experience the presence of God at “my church.”

My family, I pray in your reflections and prayers on this the Holy Spirit will reveal and clarify in you, “What then are you going out to see?” In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Begin 2025 by resolving to partner with us!

 I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries!   We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help.  You can also give a one-time donation on the same link.  Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

 Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC 

TO GIVE CLICK HERE

 It’s not to late! , JOIN IN!!

We started January 1st the journey of reading through the New Testament in a year. This plan has only one chapter to read each weekday. There are no assigned readings on the weekend. The plan we will use is from Bibleplan.org.  Click the button below to go to the site, enter the starting date January 1, 2025, enter your email, and a time you want to receive an email reminder, then click subscribe. Then you will receive an email confirmation to click on.  Every weekday then you will receive an email reminder of the chapter reading for that day. 

CLICK HERE TO JOIN 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Is Jesus Your Candidate?"

“Whoever, then, acknowledges me before people, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before people, I will deny him also before my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10:31-33) 

We just finished electing our president of the USA.  Whichever candidate, whether it was Trump or Harris, you took time to campaigned for them, supported them, and acknowledged them.  You may have put a sign up in your yard or wore a campaign button or hat to let your neighbors know who you support.  You followed closely their campaign on TV and social media, studied the issues so you could argue and support them in discussions.  When the subject of the election came up in an in-person or on-line conversation, you shared or posted your opinion of support and the reasons you are voting for your candidate, and the reasons you are not voting for the other candidate.  You talked about it with you family and friends around the dinner table and at gatherings.   You were anxious and may have even prayed for your candidate and the outcome of the election.  And all of this support, the conversations you entered into; social media posts, arguments you may have had, stress and anxiety you felt,  and support and acknowledging you did for an earthly candidate who is temporary. Who’s impact on your day to day life in reality would be minor and temporary, as in a few years they would be gone.  Your support of your candidate means nothing in the long term reality and destiny of your life.  And when you got up Wednesday morning after the election, whether your candidate won or lost, you walked out the door the same way you did on Tuesday morning and headed out to work and began your day.

In comparison, you have a Lord of Lords and King of Kings named Jesus Christ who is the eternal Son of God.  Who  tells you earlier in Matthew 10:28, not to be afraid of those who can affect your life in a minor and temporary way, who may be able to cause hardship and even kill your body but cannot impact at all your eternal destiny or kill your eternal soul.  But instead fear, acknowledge, and support the one who has a major, eternal impact and effect on your life and your eternal destiny and is able to destroy both your soul and body in hell.   So how are your acknowledging your Lord Jesus? Are you following His campaign and policies by reading  His agenda in the Bible?  Are you entering into conversations in person and on line, talking about Him and supporting Him to your family and friends around the dinner table? Are you letting your neighbors know who you follow? Are you arguing and encouraging other to choose Him as  that choice actually has an effect on their life, joy, hope, and well-being every morning when they walk out their door.  And their choice of Jesus has actual consequences to their decision that are eternal and effect their eternal destiny?

My family, I will simply close with the words of Jesus to you again,   “Whoever, then, acknowledges me before people, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before people, I will deny him also before my Father in heaven.” And I pray you walk out your door with real urgency and resolve to acknowledge Jesus as Lord in every encounter you enter into today, In Jesus’ name.  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Begin 2025 by resolving to partner with us!

 I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries!   We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help.  You can also give a one-time donation on the same link.  Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

 Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC 

TO GIVE CLICK HERE

 It’s not to late! , JOIN IN!!

We started January 1st the journey of reading through the New Testament in a year. This plan has only one chapter to read each weekday. There are no assigned readings on the weekend. The plan we will use is from Bibleplan.org.  Click the button below to go to the site, enter the starting date January 1, 2025, enter your email, and a time you want to receive an email reminder, then click subscribe. Then you will receive an email confirmation to click on.  Every weekday then you will receive an email reminder of the chapter reading for that day. 

CLICK HERE TO JOIN

"Don't Just Be Decent"

Lord of Lords, King of Kings, I come before your throne seeking your mercy, grace and protection over my family and my life this morning…

“Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”  (Matthew 9:35) 

As we read Matthew chapter 9 this morning, it is a chapter full of examples of Jesus going out into his community with love and the outpouring of power and miracles: because he had compassion for them (v.36).  Jesus wiped away a mans sins, (v.2), healed a paralytic man, (v.6), you had dinner with sinners (v.10), healed a woman from a hemorrhage (v.20), raised a young girl from the dead (v.25), gave sight back to two blind men (v.30), cast out demons (v.32), and healed people of every kind of sickness and disease (v.35).  Jesus, you loved people and wanted to meet their physical needs, but your main purpose was not meeting their physical needs, but their spiritual needs.  The main words you desired people to hear were not that they were physically healed, but the Gospel, the “Good News” that they could be saved.  

Jesus you know I am a decent person.  That I have a desire to meet people’s physical needs for food, clothing, shelter, safety and healing.  Yet people do not need simply my decency, they need you.  They do not need to hear that I am a “nice man” but the Gospel of your saving grace.  

Over this weekend Friday and Saturday I went out into the cold, drove my truck out in the snow and ice and picked up backed goods from several Publix stores. I then took them and handed them out to Waffle House employees, neighbors in need and the Downtown Rescue Mission. If I simply meet these peoples physical needs out of my decency it would have been a good thing. I will be liked and my popularity will increase. However, if I never mentioned Jesus and directed them to him as the source of my decency, my ministry will decrease.  As my “decency” can not save anyone.  Like you Jesus, help me keep the first thing first when I meet someone, which is sharing the Gospel and that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Help me push past  nice, safe, conversations with my friends, neighbors and co-workers, that reflect my decency and enter into kingdom conversations that reflect your saving works of the cross and resurrection.

My family, I pray today and this week you intentionally go beyond the “nice” ”comfortable” level of conversations you have with those in which whom you work, play, hang-out with and serve.  I pray you enter your calling not to simply be a nice person to the them out of your decency, but a harvester of their souls out the Gospel.   In Jesus’ name.  Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

.As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Begin 2025 by resolving to partner with us!

 I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries!   We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help.  You can also give a one-time donation on the same link.  Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

 Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC 

 It’s not to late! , JOIN IN!!

We started January 1st the journey of reading through the New Testament in a year. This plan has only one chapter to read each weekday. There are no assigned readings on the weekend. The plan we will use is from Bibleplan.org.  Click the button below to go to the site, enter the starting date January 1, 2025, enter your email, and a time you want to receive an email reminder, then click subscribe. Then you will receive an email confirmation to click on.  Every weekday then you will receive an email reminder of the chapter reading for that day. 

Revearsal

“After he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. And a leper approached, and bowed low before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him saying, “I am willing. Be clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” (Matthew 8:1-4)

In Matthew Chapters 5-7, The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares how his kingdom will be a reversal of many of the cultural norms, teachings and religious traditions of Judaism the people held and followed.  He taught them many of the reversals: Mourn-Comforted, meek-inherit, hunger-satisfied, blessed-persecuted, do not break you oath-do not make an oath, eye for an eye-turn your cheek, hate your enemy- pray for your enemy…ect.

Immediately in the first verse of chapter 8, he does not just declare the reversal his kingdom requires, he demonstrates it.  Jesus has an encounter with a leper.  Those with leprosy in that time were outcasts of society.  They were labeled “unclean” and had to walk around shouting “Unclean!” wherever they went.  Uncleanliness was a huge issue in Judaism.  It is at the core of many of the teachings in Leviticus and controlled much of the daily life and rituals of the Jews.  The Jewish religion and  the people held the deep belief that if something clean touched something unclean, the clean became unclean.  If someone or something that was clean, touched or contacted something that was unclean, some sort of ritual purification was required to make the clean person or thing that was now unclean because of contact with something unclean, clean again.  And until the ritual was performed to make you clean again, your were shunned and isolated from your community.

In Matthew 8: 1-4 we find Jesus followed by and in the middle of a large crowd.  An unclean leper, shouting “unclean!, unclean!” somehow makes it through the crowd and approached Jesus.  Jesus finds himself face to face with this leper in the middle of the large crowd.  The leper asks Jesus to heal him.  This story is also told in Mark 1:40-42.  In Mark it states Jesus was“Moved with compassion.”  In most translations of this story in Matthew the Greek word ἰδού (idou) is not translated because it has no exact English equivalent here.  It means something like a deep sigh or a gasp.  The leper knelt before Jesus and as he looks around at the crowds and how this poor person has been shunned, he sighs deeply as this is not how his people were supposed to have acted.  Then Jesus does something un-thinkable.   He touches the leper.  Jesus was the only one who sighed or gasped when the leper kneeled in front of him, but I guarantee you everyone in the large crowd, sighed, gasped, and shrieked when they watched Jesus touch the leper.

And here was the great reversal; In Jesus touching the leper, something clean touched something unclean and the clean did not become unclean, the unclean became clean!  This was huge!  It struck at this foundation understanding in Judaism.  Jesus forever changed that paradigm to something clean touching something unclean makes it clean!

Jesus came to the earth, was incarnated in human flesh and became Immanuel, God with us, so he could intimately embrace that which was unclean and make it clean.  And praise God he included me in that embrace and he includes you!  And we who have been embraced by Jesus and made clean, were not made clean to be set aside, and congregate with the clean in sanctuaries, but embrace the unclean in mangers.

 R-read again Matthew chapters 5-7 and look at the reversals Jesus’ sermon was declaring his kingdom required.  Read Matthew 8:1-4 and see the reversal Jesus demonstrated.  Then pray and reflect on how Jesus, moved with compassion,  stretched out his hand and touched you when you knelt before him in an unclean, broken state and spoke over you, “I am willing. Be clean!” (Mark 1:40).  You are called to carry Christ into your community and embrace those that are unclean and make them clean.   Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal what traditions, cultural norms, religious practices you are clinging to that are keeping you from embracing the unclean and need to be reversed.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you those in your community you are called to embrace.

My family, I pray you come to the deep understanding that Jesus came to the earth, was incarnated in human flesh and became Immanuel, God with us, so he could intimately embrace that which was unclean and make it clean.  That is the message of Christmas.  That is a message we all need to hear then fall on our knees and be so grateful, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!.

As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Begin 2025 by resolving to partner with us!

 I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries!   We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help.  You can also give a one-time donation on the same link.  Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

 Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC 

CLICK HERE TO GIVE 

"Build On the Rock"

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Good Shepherd of my soul, lead me step by step along the journey of my day. ...

"'Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell -- and great was its fall!' Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes" (Matthew 7:24-29).

Lord, give me discernment to hear Your words and wisdom to act on them in faith. Give me humility to embrace Your authority and courage to stand firm and follow through in trusting obedience.

It's wisdom to build my house before the storm. And it's wisdom to build my house on rock. What is the "rock"? ...

As I wait and listen, it seems I hear in my heart: "Your relationship with Me is your rock. You build your relationship with Me when you seek Me in prayer, when you honor Me in worship, when you obey Me in faith." ...

Yes, Lord. And what is the "sand"? ...

I believe You're saying in my heart: "The sand is depending on your own strength, your own wisdom, your own ways apart from My ways. It may seem fine at first, but it will not withstand the storms. Only what's built on the rock can withstand the storms. And there will always be storms -- some more severe than others. But you can withstand any storm as you hold fast to your relationship with Me. Those who are wise will build thier relationship with Me before the storms. Those who are foolish will not. And they will not withstand the storms."

Yes, Lord. Draw me near. Hold me close. Help me hear. Teach me to learn to discern Your voice and trust Your ways. When I look back and see all the storms we've weathered together, I know I'd be foolish to waste a day of not seeking to draw closer in relationship with You.

You draw near to those who seek to draw near to You (John 15:4; James 4:8). By the power of Your grace, may I draw nearer to You every day. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

My family, I pray you may draw nearer to Jesus, steadily building your relationship with Him every day, that you may withstand every storm that comes your way, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!

As we read through the New Testament, I can not post a reflection on an entire chapter, but what verses stood out to me. I would love for you to post what stood out to you or your thoughts/reflections from the days chapter reading with myself or others using the comment box below. Thank you!

Begin 2025 by resolving to partner with us!

 I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries!   We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help.  You can also give a one-time donation on the same link.  Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

 Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower

One Direction Community

Email: garyl@onedirection.community

Website: https://www.onedirection.community

Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC