Blink and you will miss him, but there's a naked man that runs through Gethsemane as Jesus is arrested. Who is he? Why does the Bible include him? What does his desperate escape say about the cost of following Jesus?
He wasn't a traitor when he first followed Jesus, healed the sick, and cast out demons in his name. Jesus said there was a traitor among the 12 and nobody suspected Judas. How does a follower of Jesus become a servant of the devil? Could it happen to you?
You can do ordinary things every day. But when you have the chance to do something extraordinary for Jesus, don't let that moment pass you by. The common-sense crowd will criticize. The lukewarm crowd will try to quench your fire. Let nothing stop you.
Proverbs 6 gives a list of the 7 things God hates. Lying and murder are there, but what's at the top of the list? Looking down on other people. If your attitude toward people is wrong, you can't be right with God.
So there's a rich man, who loves his wealth, drops dead, and his poor naked soul enters eternity. When Jesus tells the story, he calls the man a fool, and it makes you wonder: What make a person rich? and Who's Jesus calling a fool?
Most New Year's resolutions are abandoned by the second Friday of January. We want change. We hope to change. But we never change. What's our problem? Why can't we make changes that stick?
Does faith seem easy for others but not for you? They have faith that burns like a fire while you are rubbing two sticks together with barely a spark? But even a spark of faith is enough when you put your faith in Jesus.
One of the devil's biggest lies is, "You will never change." In Christ, you're a new creation, full of freedom and possibility, but the devil tells you otherwise. So step out of the rut. God's about to do a new thing in your life!