Scripture
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. John 5:6-7; 14-15

Observation
For some the water has to be just right. They won’t follow the confidence of Jesus unless there are supernatural moments, signs from heaven, or strange coincidences that give them courage to jump in. The man wouldn’t walk until there were bubbles in the water. Some of us won’t walk forward unless we see something extraordinary happen in our ordinary circumstances. We are crippled too.

For some there must be right connections. They depend upon the power of their network to connect them with the right people to put them into the water at just the right time, otherwise they will not walk. But they remain paralyzed because of their address list, because friends lose interest.

For others there must be public approval. When the healed man met men in the temple bonded by group-think he ratted on Jesus. Freedom is threatening to those who listen only to what others think rather than to what Jesus says. When they see one human being roaming free from the leash of their common sense they are quick to handcuff him back into subservience to their crippled view of life. The disabled man had been healed to walk, but sadly he did not follow Jesus. In the end, he became a spiritual handicap because he cowered to the crowd and did not follow Jesus.

Every word that Jesus spoke in the gospels is full of a courage that is out of this world. He wants to do more than just have the crippled walking, he wants them to go beyond and to use that mobility to follow him. Jesus has courage and he wants us to walk in confidence into places we have never walked before. We need to step past our immature need for omens, or our nailbiting over our network of friends or even past the disapproval the small-minded. Jesus heals us to follow him, and follow him we must do.

Application
There are many times I wait for perfect conditions or just the right people or even buy in from conventional wisdom. This is not one of those times. I must arise, roll up my sleeping bag and walk on after Jesus.

Prayer
Father, I sense the water is bubbling today. But I don’t need the bubbling waters for I have Jesus and that is all that I need. Today I chose to follow him. Give me courage and confidence to walk and keep on walking. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong Church sing “Eagles Wings” as you read today’s devotional.

Scripture
For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority—whether the king as head of state, or the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right.

You who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment. Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. 1 Peter 2:13-20

Observation
It was a warm, spring morning of 1986. Behind me were the stained glass windows of the seminary that had been my home for three years. Next to me was a friend in the parking lot. We chatted excitedly because we had not just finished a final exam, but my final, final exam in my student life. After 19 years of schooling, I was done. I never felt so free as at that moment. But I wasn’t free at all. I was soon to discover that life would throw many exams at me and that I would be accountable to new kinds of teachers.

Freedom is an illusion, because every person is accountable to somebody. Even when I was a senior pastor, I was still accountable to the board and to the superintendent.

If freedom is an illusion, then the opposite is true as well. Servitude is a delusion.  Even though I am accountable to others, I am no man’s slave. The person in authority over my life is Christ at work in me. My service to them, is as my service to the Lord. I am not a slave to anyone because I serve Christ, but I must submit to the authorities over me, for that is how Christ comes to me.

Liberty is found through submission. When I receive the authority God has placed over my life then it is safe for me to be at liberty. Submission is not subservience. Submission is voluntarily bringing all of my abilities and rights under the cover of another person. Subservience is based on inferiority and intimidation. Submission is gives us honour, for it implies that we have something significant to submit. When I submit to authority, I give Christ the freedom to access me. He will then position me in the place most secure for me.

Application
Someone came to see me yesterday, who was disoriented with life-change. Where did they fit? I said, “If you are uncertain of where you stand, then begin to serve. When we serve from the lowest place, then Christ has the freedom to place us where it is best for us to be.” Serving and submission are the safest place for me to be.

Prayer
Father, I open my heart to receive the influence of every authority over my life, from the President on down. I also choose to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus so that I will know the value you have given to me. Help me to serve with humble dignity. The rest is yours. Amen.

Scripture
And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Colossians 4:3

Observation
What we ask prayer for tells everything about us. Prayer requests are a knothole into the soul to give a little glimpse of what is going on inside. For some its all about money, for others about vindication, for still more it is about children. When we peer through the close boarded fence around the heart of Paul we see the plain, clean cut, green grass of one simple desire: to spread the message.

It wasn’t not about Paul, it was about the message. God became a person through Jesus Christ and is making new people out of all of us. Paul met more than just Jesus, he was blinded by the glorified Christ. The vision had transformed him and he wanted everyone to see that glory. It didn’t matter to him if he was rotting in prison, drenched in the hold of a ship, crowd surfing through a riot or sitting in a livingroom, Paul wanted the message to come out.

It wasn’t about Paul, it was about the people around him. He constantly uses the words “us” and “we”. This isn’t a royal “we”. This is the language of a team builder. It was always Paul and Company. Co-workers followed him and stuck with him. He must have had a warm and winsome personality.

Application
Open doors are what we all want; it is what i seek. There is so much inside of us that God has put in there, but what use is it without a door a jar. This isn’t about me. It’s about Christ. It’s about us. But it all hinges on a door open wide.

Prayer
Father, open a door. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen…Jesus is still the desire of all.

Scripture
Q1: How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?
Q2: And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
Q3: And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
Q4: And how can they preach unless they are sent?
As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15

Observation
Wooha! Wait a minute Paul! He just asked four really hard questions and then changed the subject. How very Paul. Entrepeneur. Global. Big picture.

But those questions need an answer. They are a matter of life and death. People need Jesus. Without him living is mundane and dying only beings misery. Jesus is everything, but unless his name is spoken how can they turn to him?

I have a friend who has devoted his entire life to reaching unreached people in China. Since the Tianamen massacre he has visited every city and town in China to reach as many as he can. He told me of visiting one village and asking a waitress if she had heard of Jesus. She had not heard the name before, and ran to the kitchen to find out. She came back with the manager who said that she thought he lived in the next village.

How can they call if they don’t believe?
How can they believe if they haven’t heard?
How can they hear without a preacher?

We can try asking those questions of God, but he won’t answer them. If we pick up these questions we’ll only ask them of ourselves. There is only one conclusion. God needs those who will preach. And if we look at the questions long enough, they call us out of the line to step forward to volunteer.

But then there is the last question. It is the hardest one of all:

And how can they preach unless they are sent?

Only God can answer that one. We can be willing, but only God can do the sending. I think God delays on this one because he wants the pain that he feels to sink into us. He can see the world, every nook and cranny of bedrooms, Starbucks, offices, sidewalks where billions, each with a name, are calling out into the void for answers. He wants to speak to them, but needs a speaker. In between God and people is a gap of silence that calls for a voice. Who will speak for him?

Application
Twenty-eight years ago I first asked those questions of myself and have spent the rest of my life in ministry. But today I feel the weight of those questions all over again. There is a God who wants to speak and there are people who are calling out in the emptiness for answers. I want to speak for him. I cannot be silent.

Prayer
Father, here I am. To those who haven’t believed, to those who haven’t heard, to those who have no preacher, please send me. Here I am, send me. Amen.