Danny Panter

Limits

Re:Verse reading–Luke 5:1-11 (day six)

Simon answered, “Master,we worked hard all night and caught nothing! But at your word I will lower the nets.” Luke 5:6

The experts were done, spent. They had worked the whole night through with nothing to show for it. Not to mention they were exhausted; their bodies ached, and they were likely very disheartened. They had reached their limit. But Jesus pressed for more.

When Jesus presses us for more (passed our limit), we often experience the extraordinary. We see God do a work we otherwise could not do on our own. We experience blessings we could not have foreseen. It is in moments like these that we realize we should have been following and listening to Jesus the whole time, not just when we’ve pushed ourselves to the limit.

That’s the lesson Peter, James, and John learned. They left everything and followed Jesus. Have you? If not, don’t be surprised if he nudges you passed your limit.

Hard Words

Re:Verse reading–Luke 4:14-30 (day six)

And he added, “I tell you the truth…” Luke 4:24

I need hard words from Jesus, often. I need the chisel of his word to chip away the hardness of my heart. I need the two-edged-swordness of his word to cut between the bone and marrow. In his graciousness, Jesus doesn’t say the things we want to hear, but those things we are desperate to hear, the kind of words that are meant to lead us to repentance.

Paul, when writing to Timothy, told him that there would be a day when people would gather around them “ear ticklers.” (2 Tim. 4:3) Truth is our ears don’t need ear ticklers for our ears to be tickled; we tend to tickle our own ears just fine, all we have to do is avoid the chisel and sword of God’s Word.

This year 2018, more than ever, open his Word, read it, need it. Embrace his hard words, don’t avoid them.

Righteousness

Jesus’ death and resurrection carry no weight apart from his righteous life; always faithful, always trusting in the promises of God. Verses like Romans 8:29 make little sense without it,“For those whom God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”

Those 40 days in the dessert without food, facing temptation from the devil, are a microcosm of Jesus’ entire life, for it is not as if these were the only times he faced temptation as a man, much less directly from the devil, or that somehow the rest of his life was a cakewalk. They are also a microcosm of the righteous life that would be given to us so that we could conform to the image of the Son. We have no righteousness of our own apart from the righteous life of Jesus.

Israel was rebellious and faithless for 40 years in the desert; Jesus was faithful and righteous for 40 days (a true picture of His righteousness)! We rejoice in His righteousness for in it we not only are afforded forgiveness(by way of the cross) but also His holiness.

Stones

Re:Verse reading–Luke 3:1-20 (day six)

For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! Luke 3:8b

Indeed he did! And for that I am eternally grateful! God’s mercy and grace through Jesus cascaded on stones from which new life sprung. Yours and mine! The Gospel message has been pouring over stones from the empty tomb to the ends of the earth. We rejoice! For once we were children of wrath (stones), but now we are called children of God!

For God so loved the world that the sent his only son so that whoever believes in him should not die, but have everlasting life…even stones. Now that’s Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Treasured

Re:Verse reading–Luke 2:39-52 (day six)

But His mother treasured all these things in her heart. Luke 2:51

We have read these words before. It leaves us with the impression that Luke is documenting testimony from Mary herself, as if during his research he had sat down with Mary to hear her side of things. It is likely the case. More important still, it unveils a very common journey. There were likely many moments in Jesus young life where she increasingly had to come to grips with who Jesus was-the Son of God. The scene at the Temple had to be the most profound. Before that moment she likely glimpsed others in His life that gave her pause, but at the Temple she heard words from His own mouth, “Didn’t you know I had to be in MY Father’s house?”

Jesus was at the age where he now was openly reminding his parents who in fact He is; a not so subtle reminder of His calling. Mary had to come to grips with that truth.

This was not just Mary’s journey, but is ours as well. We come to repentance and faith by realizing who He is and the work He has done; our view of him only increases from there. Our spiritual journey is much like how John the Baptist described his, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

Ordinary

Re:Verse reading–Luke 2:1-20 (day six)

God went to great lengths to do extraordinary things with the most ordinary of people. We are a people obsessed with notoriety and celebrity; we want to know what celebrities eat, what they wear, the places they go and with whom. We are infatuated with “extra”-ordinary people, while we pay little mind to the ordinary. Not so with God. He used an ordinary engaged couple, ordinary lowly shepherds, in an ordinary austere room to receive His Son.

God hasn’t changed; He still does extraordinary things through ordinary people. If you follow His Son He just might do the extraordinary through you.

Merry Christmas!

A Call to Read

Re:Verse reading–Luke 1:1-38 (day six)

Luke makes his purpose clear for writing this Gospel, “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:4)

Luke was convinced (by the Holy Spirit) that an orderly and historical presentation of eyewitness testimony would strengthen Theophilus’ faith in the Gospel truths he had been taught. What was true for Theophilus is also true of us. Certainty of God’s truth does not come from without, but from within God’s Word. This is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a book that we can hold in our hands, and testimony we can read with our mind, and by the Spirit, affirm in our heart. The Spirit illuminates truth, and He has chosen to do so through words written on a page originally written by men who either were apostles or walked with them.

Do you ever wrestle with doubt and uncertainty? Follow Luke’s advice, don’t run from the Bible, run to it.

Real Gospel

Re:Verse reading–Acts 23:11, 25:12, 28:16-31 (day six)

I have stood outside the small cathedral in Rome where Paul’s apartment has been enshrined. I have also been in his jail cell, and stood near the site he was martyred a few years after his initial house arrest. Church tradition tells us that Paul was released from house arrest, only to be arrested once again in Rome a year or two later and executed shortly thereafter.

Paul was a real man, who had a real encounter with Jesus, whose life was forever changed by the Gospel, who gave the rest of his life to spread the message of the Gospel to the known world at great cost to himself. He wasn’t a myth, a fabrication, or an exagerration. Paul was real because the Gospel is real; Jesus doesn’t leave people the same.

How has the real Gospel impacted you?

Know

Re:Verse reading–Acts 20:17-38 (day six)

“You yourselves know how I lived…”-Paul, Acts 20:18

Paul spent more time in Ephesus than any other city on his missionary journeys, all together almost three years. He knew these elders better than most; he was their father in the faith and mentor. They had likely planted churches together throughout the region, even experienced hardship together. So when he says, “You yourselves know how I lived,” it makes complete sense. Of all people he had invested in on his missionary journeys, the Ephesians knew him best; they knew what his life was all about.

This got me thinking about my own life. How would my wife or my kids describe my life? How about those I work with? Or the guys I train jiujitsu with during the week? Do they know how I live, or what matters most in my life? And if they did would it have anything to do with Jesus? Do I even have the kind of relationships that allow others to see beyond the surface, or is everything always “fine?” (That word is full of nondescript superficiality.)

Do the people I spend time with know me? Maybe the better questions is, does what they know about me really matter? I mean, really matter? Paul’s life mattered, and the Ephesians knew it.

Custom

Re:Verse reading–Acts 17:10-12, 16-34 (day six)

And Paul went in, as was his custom… Acts 17:2

A custom is “something that is done regularly by a person.” (Merriam-Webster) In Paul’s case he had gospel customs, or missionary customs; things he did regularly to introduce others to the person and work of Jesus. When he would come to a new city or town, he would always go to synagogue first (if the city had one) to teach his fellow Jews about Jesus. Only after spending time with his brethren would he then turn his attention to the gentiles in the city, searching for people of peace (those open and responsive to the Gospel) in the marketplace and “spiritual” places.

Certainly, there is much to learn from Paul’s customs, but will you first consider with me one thing? Right now, what are your Gospel customs? Do you have any? Should you? Should we as a church family? Sorry, that is way more than one thing, but it is well worth our while to consider such things.