The Daily Walk: Learning to Leave His Footprints: 2010

March 2

THE MEASURE OF A MAN

Father, thank You for bringing me to this place and this time today. I ask You to speak to me right now, and to let Your Word breathe life into my heart. Please use these next few moments to bring me to more of a fullness of You and to learn more of Your Glory and how to leave the footprints of Jesus everywhere I go today. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen!

Read Matthew 5:33-37

I really enjoy country music. I always have. Maybe I had no choice in the matter, since I grew up in southeastern Oklahoma. A common theme through a lot of country music is being a man. Some recent songs include Measure Of A Man, That’s A Man, I’m Still A Guy, Her Man, Man Of Me, Man To Man, Man Of Conviction, and I’m Just A Man to name a few. These songs and others like them all extol a certain type of man, a guy that is tough and rugged, someone that can take care of himself and live off the land if necessary, a man that can admit when he is wrong if he ever is, and man that is a man of his word. This last trait is why my mind went here after reading this passage. We all know someone like this, that is just a man of his word and that everyone trusts and believes. Maybe it is your grandfather or dad, or a former coach or teacher, or perhaps it is someone famous like John Wayne or Jack Bauer.

Being people of our word, like these men, is what Jesus is getting at in this passage. He is calling us to be people that can let our yeses and our no’s speak for them self. So what is it about these individuals that allow them to be men of their word? I think it starts with a life of integrity. They live a life that can be believed and trusted. They live a life that is honest and virtuous. They are the type of man that would return a $100 bill if they saw if fall out of someone’s pocket. They can let their words speak for themselves because of the life they lead.

This is what Jesus is calling us to be. Men and women like this; men and woman that live a life of integrity. I encourage you to live like this today, but realize that the source of our life of integrity is Him. We cannot accomplish this of our own power. We will always fail. We have to be totally yielded to Him to get there.

Today I encourage you to live a life of integrity. Do not do it to impress others, rather do it because that is what God desires. Walk in His truth today.

Leave His footprints as you walk today

March 1

FOR BETTER; FOR WORSE.

Read Matthew 5:31-32

I will admit this is a tough devotional to write. I have been racking my brain for several days to find just what God would want me to say about these two verses. They are very self-explanatory. Do not get a divorce just because you want an easy way out of your marriage. Yet how do I apply this to our everyday life. That has been my dilemma.

Finally I decided to stop contemplating and read the notes on this passage from my study Bible. God had given Moses regulations about divorce because it was such a common practice in the ancient world. Sounds kind of like our world doesn’t it? Jesus comes back to this issue because divorce is wide spread again in His day and He is reminded them of God’s truth.

Marriage is to be a picture of God’s love for us, and He wants us it to be a permanent covenant just like His love for us is eternal. We are to model this to world and to be different than their customs. I think that is where we find the application of this passage. God does not call us to be like the world. He calls us to be different and set apart.

The only way we are ever going to have an impact and change the world is by living according to His ways and His laws, especially when they run counter to the ways of the world. We need to come out of our idealism that our culture is still “Christian” and realize how much it is not. We then need to seek to impact our culture for Him.

Today I urge you to be missional and realize that you are taking Him into the culture of those around you. Recognize that you need to act different and live by His standards. Leave Him by living according to Him.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 28

MERELY A FLESH WOUND

Read Matthew 5:27-30

I love British comedy! I really do. One of my favorite movies of all time is Monty Python And The Holy Grail. There is a really hilarious scene where King Arthur is fighting the Black Knight. The Black Knight will not let Arthur pass over a bridge until he defeats him. During the course of the sword battle the king cuts off both of the Black Knight’s arms and legs. The Black Knight is still trying to get King Arthur to fight him and keeps screaming, it is merely a flesh wound.

As I read this passage just now this scene came to mind. Jesus says to cut off the part of the body that is causing you to sin. I think most of us read this passage and are at first shocked by this command. I think we should instead feel more like the Black Knight from the scene above and regard the loss of a limb or eye as a minor setback.

About a month ago I was spending some time with my best friend helping him to get his youth ministry curriculum written for the rest of the year. We had been in his office late working and had just gotten back to his place to relax and watch a couple of TV shows he had dvred. It was close to midnight, we had worked really late, and he got a text from one of his youth Sunday School teachers. It said this person wanted to bring their laptop by my friend’s office the next day because they were struggling with porn too much. My friend told me to get my shoes back on, and then we drove across town to get the laptop that night.

I think this is the type of behavior Jesus is talking about in this passage. Not the porn struggles, no the willingness to do something radical to remove temptation from you. The world might think you are crazy and foolish, but that should not be our deciding factor, after all Paul says in I Corinthians 1:18 18For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Being sold out to walk like Jesus will require letting go and removing the things in your life that are preventing you from fully following Him

If there is something in your life causing you to stumble, get rid of it now. If it is internet on your phone call your wireless provider right now and have it disabled. If it is a TV or a laptop, get them out of your bedroom and place them where others can see everything you do, and cancel the TV channels that are providing the temptation. Remove the temptation today before it ruins you and detours your walk.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 27

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL BUS TRIPS

Read Matthew 5:21-26

So I am going to say I hope that no one reading this is guilty of actually murdering someone. That being said I think we are all to blame for killing someone with our words. I think we all have said things in anger or jokingly that we did not mean. I know I have done this.

When I was in high school I was the athletic trainer for the football and boys basketball team. It was fun. I really enjoyed it; it was a way for me to be involved in sports since a birth defect prevented me from actually playing. My freshman year I worked with the varsity boys basketball team. I was almost the youngest student in my grade, so this was very intimidating for me at times. I knew most of the juniors on the team since my sister was in that class, but the seniors just seemed so much older; I was only 14 at that time. That year I watched as the seniors would make fun of everyone on the bus, even our assistant coaches.

Unfortunately that habit was passed down at least until my fellow classmates were seniors. We never meant anything by what we said, but I know it hurt some of the younger players at times. I do not think I understood the depth of this until a close friend from church told me they should put a plaque in the locker room declaring my class the king of the put downs. This was a friend I admired because of his intelligence and discernment. When he told me this I began to realize how what we were saying might be hurting those younger than us. Not only were we perpetuating bad habits, we were also destroying their confidence. We should have been building them up and encouraging them, but yet we were doing the opposite.

Hopefully you have never hurt someone this bad, but I am guessing most of you have. For some strange and tragic reason our current culture glorifies this type of behavior. Well, if we are going to follow Him and be set apart we have to change and do something different. Today I implore you to speak words of truth and love and kindness to those in your path. Leave His footprints today by leaving His words of life.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 26

TEAM SELLING WITH MY D.M.

Read Matthew 5:17-20

I have worked in sales for some time and a highly common characteristic of most all sales jobs is that the most productive and successful people promote. It is not based on any system of seniority or anything other than your personal bottom line. This fosters an extremely competitive atmosphere among coworkers. Several years ago I was working in a mattress store, and to be honest I was not the best at sales in my store. I had my moments, but my two coworkers were much more seasoned and experienced. I was always struggling to meet my monthly budget and quota. One day though our District Manager was in the store for a visit. It was towards the end of the month and I was close to making my month, but was worried if it was going to happen or not. A woman in her early thirties came in, and it was my turn in our rotation system. I mostly led her through the store, but my D.M. decided to help along the way. He had her laughing and joking around most of the time she was in the store. She wound up making a rather large purchase which not only helped me make my month, but motivated me to stay driven and actually finish near the top in total sales and units for that particular month.

These verses brought this episode to mind just now. Jesus told those on the hillside with him that their righteousness must not only be great, but must surpass that of the leaders in their religious society in order to gain entrance into heaven. At this particular company my sales numbers not only had to be consistently higher than my monthly goals for me to make money, they had to be above the overall year goal for me to keep my job.

I was able to have a spectacular month one time because my D.M. decided to step in and help me in a very real and experiential way. I might have closed this sale to this woman on my own, but it may have not been for as much, and it may have not motivated me for the rest of the month. I obtained temporary excellence in my job by relying on the strengths of someone else.

We will never reach this level of righteousness on our own. We can only get their by letting Jesus step into our lives and live it out for us. We have to surrender to Him and let Him be our righteousness. I want to urge you today to remember that you are not on your own. You are not on an island. He is with you and wants to lead. Let Him.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 25

SOONER OR GATOR?

Read Matthew 5:14-16

This last month my OU Sooners lost a hard fought game against the Florida Gators for the college football championship. Both quarterbacks are outstanding athletes and from all reports good people. Both claim to follow Christ and both show examples of this in their life. The qb for the Gators always has a verse inscribed on his eye black and cannot go longer than a sentence in an interview without reminding us the he follows Christ. The opposing qb is quieter and lives his faith out primarily with his actions rather than words. Now I do not want this be seen as criticism of the Florida player. If that is what God has impressed on his heart to do, and how to live then he should by all means keep living that way. However I do not think that is how God calls most of us to shine our light into darkness.

The last verse of this passage says that we are to let our light shine in a way that does not call attention to ourselves yet points others directly to God. I can easily illustrate this with a critique of the on field performance of the two aforementioned quarterbacks.

The Florida offense completely revolves around their qb. He is central to every play and is the star whether it is a run or a pass. The Sooner’s field general however is more of a distributer and lets his teammates abilities outshine his own. I do not think I am alone in this opinion. I heard multitudes of sports commentators say similar things as the postseason player of the year awards loomed. The athlete from Florida was praised for doing it all on his own and being the shining star, where the player from Oklahoma was at times faulted for making his teammates looking so good.

I do not want any of the above to be seen as an attack on the University of Florida or any of their incredible student-athletes, I am simply trying to illustrate this verse. You see I think Jesus is calling us to be more like the Sooner qb. He wants us to be great. He says He wants our deeds to be worthy of praise. Now I do not think we can have good deeds deserving of praise if we are being mediocre. He further says He wants our deeds to be done in a way that the praise does not come back on us, but is turned to the Father.

Today I want you to be great, but do so in an unassuming way and let God receive the ultimate glory for it.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 24

UNABOMBER CHRISTIANITY?

Read Matthew 5:14-15

Before we get started today I should warn you, I might get to the point of meddling today. I am just sticking to the text though.

Ok so you remember Ted Kaczynski? The Unabomber. Crazy guy that lived in a remote cabin Montana and would mail bombs to various locations. He is really a fascinating person. He had an undergrad degree from Harvard by the age of 20 and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan by 25. He then became an assistant professor at Cal-Berkley but resigned two years later. He was a savant in his field, could have been the leading mathematician of today had he not lost his mind. He felt that society was on the wrong course and needed to be reset so he began his bombing campaign to bring this along. Regardless of how nuts he was, he really felt the bombings would accomplish this and so continued at a feverish pace. He finally ended the bombings after both the New York Times and the Washington Post published his manifesto, and it was the styling of this piece that led to his ultimate arrest (his brother recognized the thought patterns and literary traits and tipped the FBI).

Far too often I see the Christian subculture being no different than Mr. Kaczynski. We are secluded in our fortress whether it is a cabin in Montana, or a downtown building in Nashville, or mega church in Dallas or Atlanta. We may send bombs or flaming arrows into culture, and we may boycott this entertainment company or that politician but we are about as effective in changing culture as this crazed former professor.

Imagine if Theodore Kaczynski had used his various mental skills in other ways. Imagine if he had engaged culture with these unique skills and abilities. I am not sure he would have completely changed our society, but he would have had a far more reaching impact. He would probably be known for greater things than being the subject of the most expensive FBI search ever. He probably would have made us think about things differently.

Now the church is even more equipped to alter culture than Mr. Kaczynski ever was, but if we continue to pattern our methods in the same way as he, then we will only be remembered a sideshow and circus act much like he is. We have to get out from the fortress. We have to escape the walls and let our light shine into the darkness. Today I urge you to take your light out from under the bowl and let it really light the dark.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 23

BE THE MOON

Read Matthew 5:14

Several years ago God allowed me to experientially learn more about just how to be His light. I was driving south down Interstate 35 in Oklahoma late one Friday night after getting off work. I had to go home, do my laundry, pack, and then hurry back to Shawnee for work the following afternoon, then I was leaving that Sunday night to go to Winter Park, Colorado to ski for three days. I had a lot on my mind that night as I drove south towards my hometown. As I looked out the window, I noticed how bright the moon was. It was a full moon that night. As I gazed at it God began to speak to me. The moon has no source of light in and of itself; it simply reflects the light of the sun. I began to consider how this applied to me as a Christian and how I should live as reflecting the light of God. That night when I arrived home, I was amazed at being taught by God in this way and I was still processing this concept early the following week. Just over 48 hours later on Sunday night I had met my friend Jeremy and the youth from his church in Norman, and we left for Colorado. We stopped at a McDonalds around 5:30 the next morning for breakfast. It was my turn to drive after that, so we headed out west from Salina towards Denver along Interstate 70. I was the only one awake in the van, and I had several moments to revisit my time with God from a couple of nights back. As I watched the moon sink lower in the sky, I noticed several astonishing things. The higher the sun rose, the more the moon faded into the sky; it ceased to be visible and just started blending into the surroundings. You see the moon only gives off light in darkness. The closer it is to the sun, the brighter it shines in the darkness. In the presence of the sun it fades. It allows the sun to have the glory it is due. In fact, when in the presence, of the sun the moon is only visible because of the intense brightness of the sun.

If we, as Christians, are going to be light in the world, we must display the same principles. We must seek to reflect the light of Christ. We have to reflect the light from Him into the dark places in the world. We cannot be the source of light ourselves, simply the reflecting agent. When we come into His presence we must fade and allow the true light to shine.

Today I encourage you to reflect Him into the dark places around you. Let His light shine your path as you seek to leave Him behind.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 22

SUGARLESS SYRUP

Read Matthew 5:13

Several years ago I was a sponsor at a conference for one of my friend’s youth groups. After the Friday night session we went to a local Waffle House to eat before going back to the hotel. As we were sitting around talking I looked over and saw a bottle of syrup that said Sugarless Syrup. I have to tell you, I was a little freaked out by this. Still am unnerved by this idea of sugar free syrup to be honest. I mean what is it? I just grabbed a bottle of normal syrup from the pantry and here are the ingredients: sugar syrup, corn syrup, artificial maple flavor, salt, caramel color, and potassium sorbate (a preservative), so syrup has sugar, flavoring, coloring and preservative. It is really sugar in its purest form, so I am not sure what sugarless syrup is and do not wish to find out.

Now this bottle of strange artificial syrup may have been an unsettling sight for me, but it in no way compares to the anxiousness created by Jesus’ warning at the end of this verse. Jesus says that salt that loses its essence is worthless and only good to be thrown underfoot. The past few days we have looked at several aspects of salt, it makes people thirsty, it flavors, it preserves, it is valuable (the word salary has its roots in salt), it can be used in healing wounds, in fact salt, as we discovered yesterday, is said to have over 14000 different uses. It is multifunctional and essential. Yet with all these potential applications Jesus says we must maintain the saltiness or it is all for naught. I think we should take this warning seriously and avoid its repercussions at all costs.

Some might read this warning and see that Jesus is saying it is possible to fall away from Him and so to somehow lose our salvation. I, however, do not think so. Salt cannot lose its saltiness just by mixing with other things. Salt poured into water retains all the properties of salt and does not become something new. Salt poured onto French fries is still salt. It takes a violent chemical reaction triggered by combustion to alter the chemical makeup of salt. Since I believe that Jesus teaches that once we truly believe in Him we cannot lose that salvation, I do not think there is a force with enough power to separate us from Him. However an initial and understandable reaction to this warning might be to pull back and only hang out with other salt. It is going to be hard to lose the saltiness while stuck deep down in the salt shaker right? But maybe that is just where we might lose our saltiness. Salt really has no impact on other salt. So for us to fulfill any of the purposes of salt we have to escape the homogenic setting and get out into the world. Today leave His footprints by getting out of the salt shaker and onto the plate. Maintain your saltiness by putting it to use, otherwise you are going to lose it, and well that is costly.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 21

UTILITY PLAYER

Read Matthew 5:13

Pick up a dropped egg. Soothe a bee sting. Eliminate a grease fire. Clean up oven spills. Set color. Kill poison ivy. Make cream whip more easily and egg whites whip faster and higher. Test for rotten eggs. Clean the brown spots (from starch) off a nonstick soleplate (the bottom of your iron). Repel fleas. Kill grass growing in cracks in the cement or between patio stones. Clean a glass coffee pot. Halt the mountain of suds from an overflowing washing machine. Clean artificial flowers. Keep windows frost-free. Clean tarnished copper. Keep radishes safe in the garden. Clean coffee and tea stains from china cups. Keep potatoes and apples from turning brown once they're sliced. Clean a cutting board. Preserve food. Serve as an interesting paper weight. Bless a new couple on their wedding day. Ward off evil spirit (Middle Ages thought).

Listed above are over 20 random uses of salt. There are many many more. Some people claim there are over 14,000 different uses for this simple rock. Salt actually is a rock. It is the only rock we eat. Well I ate gravel on the playground in elementary school, but I am pretty sure humans are not supposed to do that. A guy named Mark Kurlansky wrote a book about salt. It is almost 500 pages long. When I first started reading it I did not know what to expect. Several pages into the book, though, I was captivated and really intrigued by just how much world history was influenced by this simple rock.

Salt has to be one of the most multifunctional natural occurring substances that exists on earth. If we are going to be the salt of the earth then we also have to be multi-faceted as well. We have to be able to relate to all people, like Paul did when he declared: “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” (I Corinthians 9:22) This does not mean we change who we are in a shallow or in insincere way or that we water down truth. Rather we need to be able to relate to anyone and be approachable by all. Also we need to be continually repackaging the truth in ways that can reach everyone.

Today I encourage you to be a utility player for God. Be able to play many different positions and so salt the earth more than in just one spot.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 20

SUGAR, COCOA, OR SALT?

Read Matthew 5:13

I just had to take a break from writing to change a load of laundry and get some more coffee. While in the kitchen I decided to do some exploring and see just what all contained salt. Butter, check. Ketchup, check. Mustard, check. Salad dressing, check. French onion dip, check. Bologna, check. Hot dogs, check. Chocolate syrup, check. Ice cream, check. Ritz crackers, check. Peanut butter, check. Cereal, check. Bread, check. Dr. Pepper, check. Pretty much everything I looked at contained salt. I did this little exercise because I was thinking that at times I wish Jesus had called us the sugar of the earth, or the cocoa powder of the earth. I mean who does not love sugar and all its delicious sweetness? Chocolate, now find me someone that does not love chocolate and is sane. My mom cannot eat it now, but she did love it when she could, and still longs for it at times. I do not think salt excites people as much and sugar or chocolate. Then my mind goes to French fries, not sure my mind is ever far from a good burger and fries but that is an issue for me and my clogging arteries to deal with later. As I think about a large order of fries covered in salt my mouth starts to water, and I momentarily turn into Joey Tribbiani from Friends and my mind is so consumed with the fries that I lose my train of thought.

I admit it, I am a saltaholic, not even sure that is a word, but I am one. I put salt on just about everything. I have never tried it in my coffee, but I bet it would be good even there. If we are going to fulfill this characteristic of salt then we, as a collective church body, also have to be good at everything and be flavoring every aspect of life.

Several years ago an Op-ed piece by conservative columnist Cal Thomas challenged the way I thought about how flavor life. In the column, Mr. Thomas criticizes the way that most conservative Christians confront culture. He argues that attacking cartoon characters for supposedly advancing a homosexual agenda is a far cry from the thousands of years when Christians led the way by flavoring the arts, thought, music, science, and all aspects of society. Consider these intellectual and cultural heavyweights from the past; writers such as: T. S. Eliot, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Donne, John Milton, C. S. Lewis, and G. K. Chesterton; philosophers and thinkers such as: Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, Anselm of Canterbury, and John Duns Scotus; scientists like: Isaac Newton, Johann Kepler, Robert Boyle, Louis Pasteur; and musicians and artists as: Handel, Brahms, Bach, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Albrecht Durer. These men and others like them shaped and flavored their culture. They created great works and advanced technology to never before imagined heights. They thought critically and used the intellect given them by God. I implore you to follow their lead today and flavor your surroundings for Him.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 19

THESE PRETZELS ARE MAKING ME THIRSTY

Read Matthew 5:13

There is a great Seinfeld episode during season 3 where Kramer lands a bit part in a Woody Allen movie that is being filmed in their part of New York City. He is supposed to turn to Woody in a bar and tell him “these pretzels are making me thirsty.” He struggles through the whole episode in deciding just how to say this, and eventually is replaced in the scene. One of the immediately recognizable aspects of salt is that salt makes us thirsty.

The first way we can fulfill this verse is to fulfill this aspect of salt. We have to make people thirsty. We have to make them crave Christ. Too many times Christians are seen as boring or bland. It is up to us to change this perception and to spice things up. Smile more. Laugh. Love. Enjoy the simple things in life. Maintain a positive attitude during hard times. Live different. This does not mean be so different and set apart that we exist in an inaccessible place. Rather, I think the emphasis should be on the word live. We have to still live and experience life, but in a way that causes others to take notice and want what we have. So relax. Loosen the tie. Let your hair down and live a life that makes people wonder why you are so happy and content.

A couple of years ago I was at a local McDonalds with some of the guys from church. It was our custom to go out and eat after Bible Study on Wednesday nights, and I welcomed the chance to build relations with some of the students. This particular Wednesday night we were all sitting around the table, most of us had finished eating, and David started pouring salt into a pile of ketchup on Phil’s tray. David must have emptied ten or more salt packets into the ketchup, and Phil was sitting there watching him do so. Phil then absent-mindedly stuck a fry into the concoction, ate it, and immediately grabbed his cup only to find it empty. He then almost sprinted to the drink refill station to get some relief. This overload of salt had caused him to crave something to drink, and gave the rest of us a reason to laugh quite a bit.

Today I urge you to be like that ketchup on Phil’s tray. Be so overloaded with Christ that you cause all those we touch to sprint to Him.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 18

A-ROD & RUSH WEEK

Read Matthew 5:10-12

I pledged a social club in college (my small liberal arts Baptist school did not allow national sororities or fraternities so we had our own social clubs). I stuck with it for about two weeks before deciding that it just was not for me. It was in the middle of a really difficult time of my life and several good friends decided at the last minute not to pledge. I think there are probably still legends told of how I wound up de-pledging, but I did what I thought I had to do at the time. I can still recall some of the experiences I came by during that brief period. Mostly I remember constant encouragement from older members letting me know that I was not being subjected to anything they had not also faced. It increased my confidence and my hopes to know I had someone I could go to, someone that had walked this path before. I was not the first to tread down this way, and I could take heart with the knowledge that many had passed through successfully.

The preceding paragraph describes why I deeply love Jesus’ words in these 3 verses. There have been scores upon scores of believers who have traveled before us. Whatever ridicule or persecution we might face is not new. We are not the first to experience it. We can even rejoice when we are being subjected to the same treatment as the giants of faith. Just as I did not have to fear anything while pledging, we can go through all manners of trials and tribulations without fear because it is not our suffering alone.

The start of the baseball season is just around the corner, and there have been many stories about the upcoming season lately, quite a few about my beloved Yankees. They have signed several big name free agents, had a not so glowing tell-all book come out, and their star 3rd baseman revealed he once was a steroid user. There has been much scrutiny directed towards Alex Rodriguez for this, and I am sure it has been excruciatingly painful at times. He has hired media firms to help him manage the press and sort through salvaging his image. He has leaned on his agent and brand manager. Yet one of the best places he can go is within his own clubhouse, as a teammate faced a very similar situation just a year ago. A-Rod can call upon this older teammate at anytime for advice or just to talk through everything. His best place for encouragement through his trials is within the family.

It is the same for us as we follow Jesus. I would say with confidence that no matter you are facing today, there is someone within your local church that has faced the same. You cannot know this without being actively involved with that body. One way you can leave His footprints today is by getting more connected to your church, both to serve Him and to more strongly bond with the family there.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 17

BOY, YOU’RE GETTING MORE LIKE HIM EACH AND EVERY DAY

Read Matthew 5:8-9

In case I have not mentioned it before, I am a big fan of country music. Always have been and probably always will be; most days as I write I am listening to country music either through my iTunes program or via an internet radio station which I prefer. The title of today’s reading is a line from the George Strait song So Much Like My Dad, because as I have thought more and more about these verses I have continually come back to the phrase “for they will be called sons of God.” So I want to explore this concept of being a son or daughter today, and look at how we are sons of God.

The easiest way to be a son or daughter of someone is to be the biological offspring of them. A second way is to be raised by someone and exhibit characteristics of them. Now in the perfect setting both of these tasks are completed by the same people but more and more this is not the case. Shaquille O’Neal during his thankfully brief and incredibly dreadful rap career had a song entitled Biological Didn’t Bother. I feel that I must confess that I actually own a cassette tape with this song on it. In this song Shaq says the man that raised him is his real dad, because his biological father was absent. His adoptive father taught him how to be a man and it is his traits that Shaq tries to emulate.

Now I am pretty much certain that God is not the father of any of us in the first sense. We all have biological fathers, some great, some not so great, but since none of us are Jesus, then none of us can claim God as our actual biological father. However, and this is the good news, we all have open and equal access to being His son in the other sense. That is obtained by accepting Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and asking for forgiveness of sins. This brings us into the family. Signing adoption papers also brings an individual into a new family, but they become recognized as being part of the family when they start to take on family traits. Verse 9 in today’s passage gives us a hint of how to take on the traits of God’s family so we can be readily known as His.

It is the peacemakers that will be called the sons of God. Today you can leave His footprints by being an agent of peace among those around you. I encourage you to do this.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 16

A WORD IN SPANISH

Read Matthew 5:7

Blessed are the merciful. I have been rolling this verse around in my head for several days trying to nail down just what this concept of mercy entails. It is forgiveness. It is grace. It is compassion. But it seems to have some other indefinable quality as well. As I worked through this I pulled out a Bible dictionary, a commentary, a thesaurus and my Webster’s dictionary. I even grabbed my Spanish-English dictionary off the shelf. I looked through the all of these and it was finally when I looked through the Spanish-English dictionary that I was able to find some inspiration.

The Spanish word for mercy is misericordia. As soon as I saw this I immediately thought it sounded a lot like misery. So I looked up the Spanish word for it, miseria. Now, I do want to make clear that my knowledge of the Spanish language and grammar is very limited and I could be way off on this, but I do think there is something very teachable here. Ok so as I was looking at these two Spanish words I could not help but notice that they are the same root word. So is there a connection between mercy and misery?

I think there is. You see when we do not accept God’s mercy we become increasingly more and more miserable. The same thing happens, when we do not extend mercy to those in our lives. We are to be merciful because He is merciful to us. Living a life that leaves His footprints means walking like Him. So if He is merciful, then we are to be merciful as well. Living a life like this may not be easy, but it is what is called for in our life. We are called to be compassionate and graceful; to forgive others and be willing to extend love to all.

Today I urge you to extend mercy to someone that you have previously denied. Maybe it is a former friend of co-worker. Maybe it is an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend. Whomever it is I hope you take the steps to do so today. It will bring some relief to misery.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 15

RED VELVET CAKE

Read Matthew 5:6

Last night I had the pleasure of having several real good conversations with some dear friends. One was over the phone with a longtime friend that happens to be a chef. We were talking about different things to eat and about our mutual love affair with carbohydrates. At one point our conversation came around to red velvet cake and to the details of how each of us made our cakes. Ever since then I have been wanting some good moist delicious red velvet cake. It is one of my two favorite deserts (key lime pie being the other). I can almost taste it in my mouth right now. I am furiously hungry for it because I know how wonderful it is.

As I sorted through the various aspects of hunger in my mind while reading and rereading this verse I finally settled on this trait. Some of the deepest and most intense times of hunger and thirst come when we are desiring something we have once tasted. There is something about the cake, or the wine, or the pasta sauce that just captures our tastes buds and we cannot get it out of our memory. Then this desire turns into a severe craving that will not go away until filled.

I think that is what Jesus is talking about here. This type of hunger for something once, possibly even briefly, experienced that just overtakes our life and dominates our thoughts and actions. When we have encountered a bit of righteousness and had the pleasure of seeing its beauty then we will hunger for it all the more deeply.

Now here is something really cool. Psychological and medical researchers have discovered that the receptors in our brain that process stimuli for personal experience are the very same ones that process things we observe. That is why we can glean so much from observation. I am pretty sure Jesus was aware of this when He spoke these words, since He created us and all.

Maybe today the way you leave His footprints in the manner of this verse is to be that bit of righteousness that someone experiences and causes them to hunger and thirst after Jesus in a deep way. I encourage you to do that and live in a way that causes others to want Him.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 14

THE CROPS ARE DYING IN THE HARSH SUNLIGHT

Read Matthew 5:5

I recently read David McCullough’s biography of John Adams and deeply loved being engulfed into that time period as I read. Adams’ prided himself on being a man of the land and one ever-present thought throughout all of his travels for the cause of independence was wanting to get back to the pleasure of farming. There is something simple yet majestic about farming. It is not easy work, but it is fulfilling. It is very risky, but the few people I know that have farms, large or small, would not trade them for the world.

This verse today brings these thoughts to the forefront of my mind. Blessed are the meek. A couple of days ago we looked at pride and humility. Isn’t this just the same thing? Yes and no. Being meek entails being humble, but it is more about our dependence on God, and not whether we place ourselves above or below others.

Most long-time farmers are meek people. They realize that no matter how much care they take in planting the seeds and keeping out the weeds and pruning their various vines and plants and stalks, they are still wholly reliant on God for any measure of success. They are not in control of the final outcome. They have to sit back and wait and trust in God’s wisdom and goodness.

I am not good at this whole waiting thing. I am currently in the middle of a job search and it is so hard to wait for potential employers to call back; I want to go about making every connection there is and networking with every possible contact I can, when maybe I should be making networking with God my number one priority and leave it to Him. The same thing applies to my seemingly endless pursuit of a spouse. Maybe I need to talk to Him more about it and actually trust in Him.

I do not what you to think that I am promoting laziness where we just pray and then shirk our own responsibilities. A farmer cannot just throw out his seed and then do nothing but pray and expect a great harvest. I guess they could, but more than likely they would lose their farm pretty quickly. Jesus speaks openly at times about fulfilling our responsibilities and duties. I do not think it would be prudent for me to just pray all day for a job while never looking for openings. At the same time though it would be equally unwise for me to look and look for a job yet never ask God to oversee and guide the process.

Today I urge you to leave His footprints by doing what is required of you, yet yielding the results to Him. Be meek today.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 13

SERENITY NOW

Read Matthew 5:4

I am a big fan of the former NBC show Seinfeld, so much so that I even remember going to a viewing party with friends to watch the final episode. It really was a great show about nothing. There was one particular episode during the final season where George’s dad is trying to learn to control his rage and lower his blood pressure, so he starts screaming serenity now every time he gets upset. In the same episode Jerry finally decides to embrace his feelings and lets them come flooding out, to the point that he actually cries and is confused by the salty discharge from his eyes.

My mind went to this episode as I read this verse just now. At times it seems that culture is permeated with the idea that is it cool to be completely detached and void of feelings or any type of connections to others. I constantly find this disheartening and discouraging. I think this verse speaks to this trend.

You see it is a very natural thing for a parent to comfort a child. In fact it is one of the most instinctual things for a parent to do. A few weeks after my first nephew was born I remember stopping by my sister’s apartment to see her. I was completely amazed at how my nephew, Kevin, would look up at her, and how she could stop his crying just by looking at him and picking him up or touching him.

So when Jesus makes this promise of comfort for those that are mourning, He is reiterating the idea that God is our Father. He tells us that God wants to comfort us and to heal our broken hearts. When we act completely aloof and deny our feelings we are denying God the chance to pick us up and console us. In a way, when we do this, we are almost acting as if we are never in need of this parental act from Him, and that we are ok on our own.

Today I want to encourage you to leave His footprints by opening up your emotions and letting them come out, even it is painful or hard to do. He promises to be there to comfort you. Trust Him and stop being closed off.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 12

LAY DOWN MY PRIDE

Read Matthew 5:1-3

I am struggling to get started with this day’s devotional. Poor in spirit, what is that all about? What does that even mean? I am sitting here at my desk doing all sorts of things, listening to a podcast in iTunes, talking to people on facebook, sending e-mails, thinking about writing this, trying to decide what to write, but not actually writing anything down. So I googled poor in spirit. It returned over 69 million results in .15 seconds. As I searched through the results pages I also decided to look at the comments in my study Bible. As I did both of these things I started to realize why this is such a hard passage for me to digest. Being poor in spirit is all about being humble and not prideful. I am naturally very prideful. I may try to hide this fact at times in a sense to make people think the best about me, but this just increases my pride even more. This is a hard passage for me to grasp because it is so foreign to me.

Now I could be very wrong here but I think that possibly many of you also struggle with this issue. For those of us in the west it is a daily struggle. The American ideal is still the self-made man that does it all on his own and needs neither help nor assistance from any one. It is hard to not have a degree of personal pride in this culture. Does that make it ok? Not really. The culture into which Jesus first spoke these words had every reason in the world to be prideful. The Romans had conquered all of the known world and built a massive system of roads to connect it. They established the most representative form of government that existed until the late 18th century. These people had every reason to be overconfident in their abilities. Still though Jesus praises and extols those without pride.

I think it is very important for us in our day and age to recognize this and to drink in this truth. We also need to not just try and hide our pride and fake humility. That might be worse than open arrogance. How do we do this? I am by no means an expert here, but maybe we do it by getting as close to God as possible. The closer we get to see His grandeur and awesomeness, the less chance our pride has to rise.

Today leave His footprints by seeing just how amazing God is. Go outside and gaze into the open expanse of the skies, stare at the myriad of stars tonight, go for a walk or bike ride in the park and delight in what He has created. Do something today to see the grandness of Him and the smallness of ourselves.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 11

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL

Read Luke 19:1-10

This is a story that is much like that of Jonah, or David and Goliath or Noah and the Ark, or Moses and the Red Sea. It is too familiar. We all learned it at a young age in Vacation Bible School or Sunday School. In fact I bet many of you right now are singing “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.” I think we need a new look at this short man’s encounter with the Holy Living God.

What happened to this man to change him from a cheat, a crook, a dreg of society to one who is willing to give up all to follow Christ? What is it that happens in these ten verses that changes his heart? The simple answer is he meets Christ. Yes that is the truth, yet what is it about this encounter that has these far reaching consequences?

First, I do not think Zacchaeus expected to meet Jesus. He wanted to see him, wanted to find out what all this hype was about, but not sure he expected to meet Him. So he runs through the crowd and gets up on a tree so He can see. He has a good view now, and the tree is safer. Up there he does not have to risk standing next to one of the countless citizens of Jericho that he has cheated. So from his safe haven, or his comfort zone, he sees Jesus. He is probably happy as Jesus walks by, probably caught up in his thoughts. Yet Jesus looks up. He looks in the tree. He looks Zacchaeus in the eyes and speaks to him. Jesus looks there at Zacchaeus in the middle of his comfort zone and calls him out. I am certain that Zacchaeus is astonished and amazed that this wonderful man wants to hang out with him. I mean who is not excited to spend time with the most popular Guy around. There is a sense of pride floating around Zacchaeus heart as he climbs down the tree.

When he looks at Jesus something amazing happens. Looking upon Jesus is like looking at a mirror into his own soul. Yet only those parts of himself that match the perfection of Jesus appear. He sees this nearly empty image on the mirror and he realizes his utter lostness and complete hopelessness. He looks upon perfection and realizes his life is nothing without Jesus. He wants nothing else than to be filled by Jesus. Yet to do that requires a radical change in his own soul. He falls in love with Jesus in a single instance. This was true deep love at first sight. He changes his life to be completely about Jesus’ purposes and his ways.

How are you reacting as you come face to face with Jesus today? Are you realizing how imperfect you are, much as Zacchaeus did? Are you falling in love with Jesus all over again or for the first time? Today leave His footprints by filling the places personal imperfection with His perfection.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 10

MAJOR MEDICAL, DENTAL, VISION & SIN?

Read Luke 5:27-31

Currently the healthcare system in my country is pretty broken. It has become a disease management system instead of an organism committed to prevention and healthy living. It is much like Jesus describes at the end of this passage, it is not the healthy that are going to the doctor, only the sick. Now, since it is highly politicized, I will leave this issue to be addressed in other places and at other times. I do, however, want to unpack what Jesus says about the righteous.

Whereas medicine is still done the way Jesus describes here, the way we do church and ministry has flipped 180 degrees. It is no longer the sinners, but the “righteous” filling chairs and pews in our buildings. We have shifted from being a change agent to be all about maintenance. I used to greatly lament while working on church staffs because my time was so busy with churchy things that I rarely had meaningful contact with people outside of relationship with Him. We may be spending time leaving His footprints, but if we are only doing so amongst those already following Him, what impact are we really having?

Leaving His footprints in a manner consistent with this passage is easy. Change what you are doing. Move beyond your natural boundaries. Go to where you are not comfortable, and get to know some people. These changes can be really subtle. Start going to the same coffee shop every morning around the same time. Chances are there are other people doing the same thing and probably a lot of them do not know Jesus. Join a new gym and take a group fitness class. Go to happy hour with your co-workers and get to know them on a deeper and more personal basis, you do not have to drink with them to interact.

This is not only a good idea it is what being a Christian is all about. We are called to take Him to the world, not transfers numbers on membership rolls. It is impossible engage the sinners from safe inside our well built fortresses. We have to get outside the walls and mingle with people and show them true and real love. In a large sense churches are to be more about sin management than about “righteous” maintenance. As you leave His footprints do your part to alter this pattern today; the world will be better for it.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 9

THE BRITISH ARE COMING! THE BRITISH ARE COMING!

Read Luke 5:1-11

Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light, –

One if by land, and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

The above is the first two stanzas of the famous poem Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and is recognizable by most all Americans. We all remember the story and how he rode long and hard that night to warn his fellow patriots that the British were coming. It is probably one of the most famous calls to arms and to action in all of history. It inspired man and woman, boy and girl to do all they could to protect what they felt was theirs.

Today we read of a different call, from a different time, from a different man. Jesus called His disciples to follow Him, and He is calling us today to do the same. Paul Revere’s call required great sacrifice on the part of all who heeded it. Jesus’ call demands so much more. It compels us to give our all no matter the costs. Today I implore you to relinquish whatever is necessary to fully follow Him.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 8

FOLLOW ME

Read Mark 1:16-20

When I was in college, I worked at a Baptist youth camp for four summers. It was a great and wonderful experience. I learned so much, about God, about life, about people, about myself. I made many friends and had a plethora of experiences that will stay with me for my lifetime. One of my bosses/mentors had a life philosophy based on part of this passage. He woke up each day asking what “Follow Me” meant that day. We used that to get us through the long hot miserable Oklahoma summers days. One day “Follow Me” might men leading a group of students through spiritual discussion. One day it might mean hammering rebar into wood to finish the work on the ropes course. Still another it might mean helping sponsors navigate through our ever changing registration process. Another day might necessitate it meaning resetting the same tent for the millionth time.

It was during those memorable days that I learned just how quixotic this journey of faithfully following Jesus and striving to leave His footprints can be. The straight and narrow path may be narrow but it is definitely not straight, rather it is filled with curves and twists and turns, and it is quite long and tiresome.

A few summers ago I was at a church in Bedford, Texas one Sunday evening. I was there to set up several inflatable games for a youth event they were having. During the course of the event they played the game capture the flag and asked me to participate. I wound up being on the same team as the youth minister and we were quick to capture the flag for our team. As he was holding it in the safe zone he motioned for me to follow him along a certain side of the church. He took off running and I was close on his heels, yet a few yards later he was way out in front of me and pulling even farther away. I tried to keep up, but he was much faster than me. (I later learned that he had run track throughout high school and college.) For a while I kept jogging then that turned into walking, and eventually I went back to the neutral zone by a different route, a much shorter one. We start out on fire for Christ and follow Him closely. Then things get hard, the journey gets difficult. We slow down to a jog, and then to a walk, then eventually we may set out on our own course.

I was not physically able to keep up with the youth minister that night. I was too slow. My muscles were not in as good as shape as his. Had I been using his legs I could have easily followed him. When we try to follow Christ on our own strength and our own power we quickly tire and are void of all energy and strength. We have to rely on Him to fill us and give us strength. How closely are you following Christ through the twists and turns of what “Follow Me” means today? I urge you to let Him supply the power for your footprints today.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 7

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS IN ISRAEL

Read John 1:43-51

I get what Nathanael says in verse 46 of this passage. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” This morning I am listening to country recording artist Blake Shelton as I write. I try hard not to care for him or his music. It is not that I dislike country music at all. A majority of the 900 something CD’s I own are country. I just do not want to be a fan of his. I really do not have a problem with his personality; in fact when I have seen him on television he comes across as funny, personable, and engaging. You know those traits really screw up my efforts to not like the guy. See, he is from Ada, Oklahoma. I am from McAlester. The Ada Cougars were our number one arch rival. I graduated from high school almost 15 years ago, yet I still do not want to admit that good things can come from Ada High. So when Nathanael makes this comment about Nazareth I think about Ada. It makes perfect sense to me.

There is another somewhat famous person from Ada. He plays in the National Football League and shall remain nameless. He is very brash and cocky and seems to be a jerk. He comes across so abrasive he that he almost epitomizes how I want all people from Ada to be viewed. (Editorial Comment: Actually I think most people from this town are pretty good and very decent people, it is just old rivalries die slow and hard). I bet Nazareth had a number of residents that were known to be scoundrels and not so great characters. That is probably why Nathanael responds this way so quickly. His knowledge of and experience with the town must have not been so good.

My opinion of Blake Shelton changes the more I get to know about him. My opinion of people in Ada in general has drastically changed as I have gotten to know them and see them live their lives. Nathanael’s opinion of the ability of good to come from Nazareth changed because of the character and wisdom of Jesus.

There are multitudes of people in and around us who doubt anything beneficial can come from the Bible or that good can exist in those “church” people. It is up to you and me to change their opinions. We cannot do it on our own; in fact if we try that, we will fail. We have to do it by allowing Jesus to not only direct our steps but to fill the footprints as well.

Today I encourage you to leave His footprints by letting Him live through you in a manner that will change other’s opinion of Him.

Leave His footprints today!

February 6

ARRANGE THE MEETING

Read John 1:40-42

Denzel Washington is one of my favorite all time actors and I greatly enjoy watching his movies. Several years ago he made a movie entitled Man On Fire, in which he is hired to protect a young girl in Mexico City from the ring of kidnappers terrorizing Americans in the area. She is eventually kidnapped and he subsequently goes on a rampage to find her and bring all those responsible for the kidnapping to justice. While he is doing this he goes into the apartment of an elderly couple to use their window to shoot a missile at a motorcade. As he is setting up the shoulder canon the aged gentleman tells him that at the church they say you should forgive people. Denzel looks straight at him, and says, “Forgiveness is God’s business; my job is to arrange the meeting.”

I remember the first time I saw this movie in the theater, I was immediately like, whoa that is it, that is what the Christian life is all about. We are to spend our time and our energy arranging for all of our friends and family to meet with God.

This is what Andrew is up to in this passage. In fact it is what Andrew is up to all throughout the Bible. Andrew is mentioned nine times in the Gospels, and once in the book of Acts. Out of these ten times being mentioned, three times are within the lists of disciples, and in six of the remaining seven times Andrew is seen bringing people to Jesus. He continually arranged meetings for his brother, or a friend, or a random person on the street to meet Jesus.

It has long been a custom in diplomatic state relations for a new foreign minister or ambassador to wait to meet the leader of the country to which they are sent. They are to wait on a formal introduction by an intermediary. Perhaps it is an official from another country that is known to each. This individual, known to each, is to decide the best timing for the two to sit down and talk and to come to know one another.

Today, you and I are that other state official for all of our family and friends to bring them to the table with Jesus. We are to broker the meeting and make it happen. We do not have to wait on the perfect time, because that time is now. I admonish you to leave His footprints today by bringing others to Him.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 5

JOHN THE BAPTIST OR DWIGHT K. SCHRUTE?

Read John 1:35-39

I have recently become a fan of the NBC show The Office. I think I was always destined to like the show at some point in time, since it originated as a British Comedy, and well those Brits they do have a terrific sense of humor. There is a character on the show, Dwight, that is very unforgettable and not for good reasons. I am sure we have all known people like him. The ones who are just obnoxious and completely lacking in social skills. The coworkers that are just so super serious they do not know when others are laughing with them or at them. In an episode during the third season Dwight arranges a meeting with Jan Levinson who is his boss, Michael’s, boss. In the meeting with Jan Dwight tries take the job of regional manager away from Michael. He is unsuccessful and Jan even calls Michael to tell him about the meeting.

I thought of that episode as I read these verses just now. I think John the Baptist is very much the anti-Dwight. Instead of being jealous of Jesus, he openly praises Him among his followers. Instead of trying to wrestle power from Him, he speaks in a manner that causes his followers to leave and run after Jesus instead. I, personally, would take something like that hard. To have people who are looking up to me and being mentored by me abandon me for someone else would cause a measure of despair. My pride would flare up and get in the way. There is no mention whatsoever of this happening with John the Baptist. He instead just keeps deferring to Jesus and pointing people to Him.

This is such an unnatural thing for us to do, yet it is what we should do when it comes to Jesus. We should continually be speaking of Him in a manner that makes people want to know Him more and more. In the Song of Solomon the friends of the beloved ask her what makes her loved so special and she tells them all his great qualities. Immediately after she does her friends ask where he is so they can help her look for him (c.f. Song of Solomon 5:9-6:1). This is how we need to speak of Jesus. We need to tell of Him in such a way that causes others to want Him.

Today I urge you to point others to Jesus and to speak of Him in a way that makes others desire Him greatly.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 4

JESUS & SEN. BYRD

Read Matthew 4:1-11

I love how Jesus answers all of the temptations of Satan by quoting scripture. It brings to my mind the admonition of Paul to Timothy to be prepared in season and out to give the Word (c.f. II Timothy 4:2). It also makes me think of Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia.

Sen. Byrd has served his home state in the U.S. Senate for over fifty years, even completing his Juris Doctorate during that time. He is known among fellow senators for always carrying a small copy of the Constitution of the United States in his pocket, and he gives out similar copies to all incoming senators. He is renowned for his love of this historic document and knows it by heart. He is prepared to give anyone the reasons for his support or opposition to any piece of legislation based on the Constitution alone. He can quote it and defend it well.

I think of this giant of the United States Senate partly because I also love the founding documents of my country but more so because I want to be just as devoted to the Word of God as he is to the Constitution. I want to always be learning the Bible at a deeper and deeper level so I can call upon that knowledge at a moments’ notice.

I think this is what walking in a manner to leave Him behind means today. We need to leave others with an uplifting message from God’s love. We need to do this both with our mouths and with our actions. I encourage you to do this today.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 3

TRAVELIN’ MAN

Read Matthew 3:13-17

Johnny Cash had a very popular and catchy song entitled I’ve Been Everywhere, and in it he told of all the various towns he had visited. This passage causes my mind to start racing from verse to verse in the Bible. Let me see if I can unpack its voyage for you, like Cash did in the aforementioned song.

First I go to James 4:17. “Anyone then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” I go here because Jesus submitting to the order of baptism is an act of obedience He could have avoided. He was God, He did not need to be baptized by man, yet He did it because He knew He should, and it was an act of total submission to the Father. He knew the good He should do, and He did it.

Next my mind flies to the book of Micah, to chapter 6 to verse 8:

“He has showed you, O’ man, what is good

and what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.”

I travel to this verse because it shows us what is good and what is necessary to be done. Acting justly and merciful and being humble are things we are strictly commanded to do. They are a large part of the good we are to do.

Then my mind races from verse to verse considering all of the various sorts of good we are to do in life. I go from Deuteronomy 15:11, to James 1:27, to Matthew 5:13-14, to James 2:15-17, to Exodus 20:2-17, to Matthew 28:19-20, to Mark 8:34-38, to Matthew 25:31-46, to Mark 12:28-31, I Peter 4:11, to I Corinthians 10:3, to Colossians 4:17, and on and on.

Finally I come to the verse that gives this devotional its name, I John 2:6:” Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” And I start to think of what it means to leave His footprints based on this passage. I think for today, it means to do what is required and what we know we should, even if we do not have to. Drive under the speed limit on your way to work and back, regardless of whether or not a police officer is near. Be diligent and productive at work, no matter if your boss is around. Open the door for others. Pay for the person’s lunch behind you in the drive thru lane. Leave His footprints by leaving good.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 2

GROWING UP JESUS

Read Luke 2:41-52

Several years ago there was television show on the A&E network entitled Growing Up Gotti. It was a look at the life of the daughter of the late mafia boss John Gotti and her three sons. It examined the pressures of life they faced with their famously incarcerated family patriarch. For some very odd reason this passage makes me think of this obscure reality show.

I have long said that I grew up in a glass house and lived with the knowledge that people were watching my every move. This was mostly due to my dad’s professions. He was a bivocational pastor and a leader at church when not preaching. Also he was a school administrator which made it necessary to be involved in local politics. Because of these factors people paid attention to our family, and how we lived and handled times of blessing and trial. Once as a sophomore in college I spent an entire afternoon cooped up in the stacks section of the library. It is the part with all of the journals and periodicals, and a rather drab place with no windows or foot traffic. You have to be going there for a specific purpose to wind up that place. I was busy trying to finish a project for my developmental psychology class. The only person I saw was a girl I had liked quite a bit my freshmen year named Emily. She was working on the same project, and we only spoke briefly. I stayed hooked up on the research all afternoon until I had to go back to the dorm to shower and get dressed to meet my parents for dinner. I did not talk to anyone on my walk back to the dorm or as I was getting ready. My dad came up to my room when he and mom got there, and the first thing he asked me was how was studying with Emily. My mouth dropped open and I was stunned. To this day, over ten years later, I do not know how he knew and he has never told me. Things like this happened quite a bit growing up Gragg.

I doubt Joseph and his status in life put that much pressure on Jesus to conform to any high standards more so than for the normal Jewish boy in that day. There might have been some added curiosity about His life because of the circumstances surrounding His birth, and some pressures with that. However, He did know He was God’s Son and He chose to live to those standards. If we are to leave His footprints today we must choose to remember that we are also a child of God and we have to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of that Name. We must decide to grow up Jesus, no matter our last name.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

February 1

WHO IS IN CONTROL?

Read Matthew 2:19-23

I think I can completely get what Joseph must have been feeling during all of this. Life was crazy for him. These angels kept appearing to him in dreams and telling him different things to do. First one shows up and tells him that his fiancée is pregnant and it is conceived by the Holy Spirit. Then an angel tells him to go to Egypt, and then tells him to come back. Then lastly an angel tells him to settle in a different region of Israel. I wonder if Joseph was ready to just stop having dreams at this point.

This year my life has been crazy. My theme song for the year is Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. It seems that God is leading me from one door that is closed to another one that is opened several times each day. I have said many times already that I am not in control of where my life is going this year. I can sense it. God is writing something amazing this year and it is exciting, because I know that He is going to use all of this for His glory, at the same time though it is unnerving and scary. I have already fought God on some of these decisions just a month into the year. It is very hard for me to give up control of the pen of my life. It is probably harder for me to give up control of the course of my life, than it is for me to allow someone to change the channel when watching an OU football game. I like to be in charge of my life. I am giving up more and more of it each day though. It has been a struggle.

Knowing how hard this has been for me is why I am so amazed at Joseph’s response in this passage. In this passage, just as in the previous two dream occurrences, Joseph immediately obeys what God tells him. The text shows no hesitation in his move to action. This quick compliance shows to me just how faithful of a man Joseph was. There is not one time that scripture shows him questioning God. I wish I could say the same for my life.

Today I encourage you to leave His footprints by giving up control of your life and quickly obeying when God calls to you.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

January 31

TAKING COVER FROM THE STORM

Read Matthew 2:13-18

I wonder what was going through Joseph’s mind as the angel came to him in his dream on this particular night. I am sure I would be thinking something along the lines of; oh no, here we go again. I doubt he had thoughts like these though, because his response to this warning was quite remarkable. Matthew writes that they fled from Bethlehem in the middle of the night, so apparently Joseph got up immediately and started to Egypt.

Growing up in an area where tornadoes are a somewhat frequent occurrence, I grew accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night to take shelter from storms. From the time I was three, until I reached the age of six my family had a house just outside of town that had an underground storm cellar in the backyard. We had it fixed up quite a bit. There were games and other things there to keep us entertained in case we had to be there for a while. I remember one Monday evening in the fall, it was really stormy, and the meteorologists had already said for people in our area to take cover. My dad had been refereeing a junior varsity football game, and we were waiting on him to get home. As he pulled into the garage, my mom took my sister and me into the cellar. A few minutes later, my dad joined us, carrying a television and some rabbit ear antennas. The Dallas Cowboys were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football and my dad did not want to miss the game. You see we were somewhat used to spending time in that cellar. We lived in the middle of what is called tornado alley after all. We had it filled with things to make our stay there comfortable.

When Joseph took Mary and Jesus to safety in Egypt, they were not going to a place filled with comforts. They were going to a place of safety. Joseph heard the warning, and acted accordingly. When I was in college, a very powerful F5 tornado tore through central Oklahoma. In part, it was so deadly because people there had become slightly numb to storm warnings. Tornado warnings always seemed to become nothing, so many people did not take the warning seriously. Joseph did not blow off this warning though.

Today, I urge you to have the same type of awareness to what God is telling us. Each of us needs to be willing to act instantaneously when God calls, even if that means going to a place that is uncomfortable.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

January 30

MAKING THE MOST OF OUR TIME

Read Luke 2:36-40

Anna is a very intriguing Biblical character. She was at least 84 years old, and possibly as old as 104. She had not stopped living though. She had not resigned herself to life in a nursing or retirement home. No, instead she spent her days at the temple worshipping and serving God. She was there constantly to be used by God for His glory. She was making the most of each minute of her life.

So many times in life we want to have our time to rest and relax. We feel as if we have earned it. We have spent our time working and making our mark in the world. Now we want our reward. Anna’s life shows something very different though. She is rewarded, but her reward comes in the midst of her serving faithfully, not in a time of rest.

She was rewarded with an opportunity to see the Christ child. She also had the privilege of telling all that she could about Jesus, and how He would save them. She came to this moment in time because she had not given up serving God in her old age. She sought out his glory more than she did her own rest.

Today I encourage you to leave His footprints by making the most of each minute of the day, and living for His glory.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

January 29

WHO OWNS YOUR FAITH?

Read Luke 2:21-35

The beginning few verses of this passage let us know that Mary and Joseph were being dutiful Jewish parents. They were presenting Jesus at the temple to be dedicated to God. This was not like the common baby dedication that you might see at your local church. Jewish law required that the firstborn male offspring of both humans and animals be dedicated to God. The animals were to be used in sacrifice, and the male children to dedicate their lives to God. The Levites served in place of the firstborn males, but the males still had to be consecrated to God.

As I read this passage and consider the facts surrounding this event, I am left in awe. According to the law that God had given Moses, the firstborn sons were to be set apart for Him. God then took the whole tribe of the Levites to be serve instead of the firstborn males. Jesus though, did not let a Levite serve in His place. He fulfilled the full requirement of the law, and lived His life for God. He even went as far as being a sacrifice, which was required of the firstborn males of animals.

I meet so many people who live their faith through vicarious means. They live off their parents’ faith, or just depend on their pastor or Bible study teacher. They do not ever start to own their faith, or personalize it. This is not what Jesus did. He owned His own faith.

If we are going to leave His footprints, we must do the same. We cannot rely on others to walk for us. We must do it ourselves. We must spend time with Him daily, and search His word, and share our hearts in prayer. We need to personalize our faith, and make it real to us. That is my encouragement today, that you will leave His footprints by owning your faith.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!

The Daily Walk: Learning to Leave His Footprints

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