Intentional Ministry

My daughter moved from Denver to the Los Angeles area.

My wife, son and I helped.

After church on Sunday, we left home for Denver pulling a trailer behind our small SUV.  (It has a four-cylinder engine, i.e. small.)  It was midnight when we arrived at her apartment on the campus of Denver Seminary.

It started snowing over-night.  We woke up to several inches of snow covering everything, and no sign of it stopping.  My son and I started carrying stuff down the stairs (that’s right, she was on the second floor!), and loading it in the trailer.  It was zero degrees outside (not Celsius).  The extreme cold and snow were our constant companions while we filled the trailer completely full (i.e. every space was stuffed with something.)  We carried stuff through the snow and stuffed her little Ford Taurus as well, even strapping a cargo carrier to the top of the car.

Finally, by 2 O’clock Tuesday afternoon the apartment was clean, everything was packed and we were ready to go.

It was still snowing, but it was now -1 degree Fahrenheit.

My little four-cylinder engine had a difficult time getting the trailer rolling.

The motor in her little Ford had trouble getting started.

However, with a little coaxing and patience both cars were on the road.

This stage lasted about five minutes.  The Ford blew its engine.  Did I mention it was an old Ford Taurus?

-1 degree weather, the car had not had time to warm up and my wife and daughter were sitting beside the road in a freezing, dead car.

We rented the smallest truck U-Haul had, loaded everything from the car into the U-Haul, and hooked the trailer to the back of the U-Haul.  We spent the night in a hotel there in Denver.  The next day we junked the car and were on the road again by about 2 o’clock.

After two days of perfect driving weather, we arrived in Pasadena 10 hours after the Rose Bowl parade.  After driving twelve hundred miles, we missed the parade.

After a Sunday morning service, I am usually tired.  However, getting my daughter moved was a higher priority than rest.  Snow and cold are not conducive to packing and loading, but she needed to be in Pasadena to start classes the next Monday.  It was a relief to be rid of the car, but the truck was an unexpected expense.  In any case, we were committed.  We were intent on getting to California.

This trip ended up being a wonderful time for us together as a family.  We had no trouble deciding what to do next throughout the trip because the goal was clear.

Life is full of distractions, good and bad, that can get us off track.  It is possible to travel through life and never get anywhere because the goal is unclear.  It is possible to travel through life and fall short of the goal because of distractions.  It is possible to start out with the goal clearly in mind, but stop short because of obstacles.

The sight of sunny ski slopes tempted me, but we did not even slow down as we zoomed by on our way to California.

In His 33 years, Jesus accomplished what the Father had sent Him to do.

Distractions, obstacles, opposition and temptations did not stop Him.

At the start of His 3-year public ministry, Mark shows that Jesus came with a definite purpose.

In verses 29 through 39, we see how intently Jesus stayed focused on His purpose.

Mark 1:29-39 starts after Synagogue services finish on the Sabbath.  The preceding verses tell how Jesus had taught that morning.  Everybody had been amazed at His teaching.  Jesus had even cast a demon out of a man when the demon had tried to interrupt the teaching.

The synagogue services ended so Jesus, James and John went to Simon and Andrew’s house.  (Mark 1:29)  Jesus and His four disciples went to spend their Sabbath afternoon with family.  Peter’s mother-in-law was confined to her bed with a fever.  They immediately let Jesus know about her.  Jesus healed her.  The healing was immediate and complete.  The fact that she was able to wait on them right away shows there were no residual effects of the fever.  No dialogue is reported.  The actions of Jesus are reported.  Later in His ministry, the Jewish leaders criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, but this time this was a private miracle, witnessed only by the family members.

Verses 32 and 33 say, “That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus.  The whole town gathered at the door to watch.”[i]  (NLT)

They waited until evening because the work of getting the sick and demon-possessed people to Jesus would be a violation of the Sabbath.  However, they did not wait for the next day.  As soon as it was possible, people flocked to Jesus.  They had heard His teaching in the synagogue.  They had seen Him cast the demons out of the man in the synagogue.

Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus healed many people and cast out many demons.  He did not start until after sunset so it is not hard to imagine that this went on well into the night.

If one continues to read Mark, he or she will find that Jesus gets so busy healing the sick and casting out demons that in chapter 3 His mother and brothers come to try to take Him away.  (Mark 3:20, 30)

Instant success, instant popularity and a huge gathering of people were all there for Jesus.  So, what did He do?

He got away by Himself to pray.  Verse 35 says he got up before daybreak.  I liked how the Greek said it, “He departed having risen when it was still very much night and was praying.” He got away.  His departure is the emphasis of the sentence.  Why did he do this? 

Peter’s family probably could have used more help.  Capernaum probably had more sick and demon possessed.  Jesus seems to have seen these things as a possible distraction.

When everyone got up in the morning, they noticed Jesus was missing.  Simon and the others went looking for Him.  When they found Him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.”  

Jesus’s response is the point of all that He has been doing.  Jesus says, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too.  That is why I came.” 

He is giving the reason for what he is doing.

Driving to Denver was not our purpose when we made our trip.  Loading stuff into the trailer was not our purpose.  Getting rid of an old car was not our purpose.  These were steps along the way.

Jesus is stating His purpose.  My own translation of what He says is, “Let’s be going into the neighboring towns, in order that I might preach because for this purpose I came forth.”  His purpose is the preaching.  This verb means to herald or proclaim a message. He had to move on to keep from being distracted from His purpose.

Luke tells the story of Jesus announcing His ministry in Nazareth, His boyhood home.  It goes like this:

¹⁶When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.  ¹⁷The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him.  He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

¹⁸“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,

for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,

that the blind will see,

that the oppressed will be set free,

¹⁹and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.”

²⁰He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down.  All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.  ²¹Then he began to speak to them.  “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”  (Luke 4:16-21, NLT)

Here also, it states that the Lord anointed Him to deliver good news and to proclaim a message.  Everyone was staring at Jesus, because He had stopped in the middle of the passage.  He was not there to establish a political kingdom yet.  Therefore, His statement that this Scripture was fulfilled that very day was referring to the proclaiming of the Good News.

Jesus’s purpose according to His statement in Mark 1:38 was to preach.

Casting out demons and healing the sick were the consequences of His preaching.

Demons are representatives of darkness.  John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”  (NLT)  By His very presence, Jesus exposed demons.  In the synagogue, it was His teaching that exposed the demons.  As people brought their troubled family and friends to Jesus for help, the demons troubling them were exposed and cast out.

Jesus is the answer to demon possession and oppression.  Demons are no less active today than they were in Jesus’s day.  They may have changed tactics to fit our rational culture, but they are active.  The answer is the gospel.  The name of Jesus carries the authority to cast out demons.  It is not a ceremony, or a certain set of words that carries authority.  It is the person of Jesus.

When disease and sickness confronted Jesus, they had to yield.  Simon’s mother-in-law could not remain sick in Jesus’s presence.  All who were brought to Jesus for healing were healed.  The only thing that ever stopped Him was unbelief, and unbelief only stopped Him because people did not bring the oppressed to Jesus.  If we do not go to Jesus for help, He will not help us.

Throughout Jesus’s ministry great crowds gathered around Him.  He healed them.  He cast out demons.  He fed them.  However, these things were not His primary purpose.  These things could have become distractions.  Everybody was looking for Him, but He never hesitated in what to do next because His purpose was clear.  In order to stay on the right course, He took time to be alone with God.  We see it in Mark 1:36 when He got up when it was still very much night and went out to a deserted place to pray.  We see Him doing this throughout His ministry.

We benefit from our relationship with Jesus.  Demons are cast out as we draw near to Him.  Marriages are improved by a relationship with Jesus.  Families are held together by a relationship with Jesus.  Alcoholics are freed, lives are changed and conditions improved.  These are consequences of His presence but they are not the primary purpose.

The gospel is still the purpose.  Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”[ii]  (John 10:10, ESV)  

John 17:2&3 also address His purpose.  “You have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  (ESV)

The Apostle Paul says, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”  (Philippians 3:8, NLT)

Have we become distracted?  Do we focus on the consequences of the Gospel at the expense of the primary purpose?

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[i]  Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.  All rights reserved.

[ii] Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Authority

I like to cook.

I do not make a large variety of things, and even after years of cooking, I still ask advice from the family expert, my wife.

One of the things I like to make is Chicago style stuffed pizza.  It takes a few hours.  First, I make the dough.  This takes about 2 hours because after kneading it until it is just right, I let it rise.  When the dough is about done rising, I mix basil, oregano and garlic with tomatoes to create the sauce.  Then I prepare the filling; usually sausage or hamburger.  Splitting the dough into two lumps and rolling out the first lump, I put the first layer of what will be the crust in the bottom of the pizza pan.  Meat and cheese go on top of this.  Then the top crust is rolled out and put over the filling.  Sauce on top and then it bakes for about 45 minutes.

This is a rough outline of the baking process, and the pizza is quite good.  The part not yet told is the total disaster area that the kitchen becomes.  Flour, tomato, spices, meat and cheese packaging litter the kitchen, and measuring cups, mixing spoons, frying pan and every surface in the kitchen are a mess.

It takes more work to clean up the mess than it does to make it.

Life also gets chaotic.

If a person does not know the recipe or follow directions, he or she ends up with an unidentifiable mess.  Bad ingredients or the wrong ingredients will also lead to a mess.

The process of living creates messes.  Misunderstandings, mistakes and offenses of all sorts just happen.

A large number of people have recipes for success.  Friends and parents share their recipes informally as advice often whether we ask for it or not.  Many write books, articles, and blogs sharing their recipes for success.  The recipes cover many, many subjects.  There are recipes for success in business, relationships, marriage, finance, sales, and as many other subjects as one cares to mention.

If one reads a couple books on any subject, he or she will soon discover that the recipes are not the same. 

Not all pizza recipes are the same, so one would not expect all the recipes for relationships to be the same either.  However, it also is apparent that not everyone is equally qualified to speak to any given subject.

To solve this problem, we look at credentials.

The person who started a chain of pizza restaurants in Chicago wrote my pizza cookbook.  I know he knows how to make pizza, because I have eaten his pizza.  I follow his recipes, but his pizza is still so much better than mine is.  His pizza is the best in the world.  If you do not believe me, visit Giordano’s in Chicago and check it out for yourself.

Pizza is one thing, but what about relationships; who is the authority we should turn to for relationships?

The bigger questions concern truth, reality and God.  Who can speak to these subjects?  Who can tell us with certainty how to be right with God?  Who has ever gone up to heaven and brought back a report?  Who can say what truth is?

Pilot asked, “What is truth?”

The more we know about the universe, the less certainty we have in describing what it is. The more we learn about the atom, the more of a mystery it becomes.  If we are at a loss to explain the physical world, how can we speak with any amount of certainty about things we cannot see?

James warns us, “. . . not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.  Indeed, we all make many mistakes.”[i]  (James 3:1&2, NLT)

Unlike any other person in history, Jesus had the authority to teach.

His recipe for life is the perfect recipe.  He is the One who came down from heaven and can give us a report. He can say what truth is.  He can tell us with certainty how to be right with God.

At the outset of his public ministry, Jesus demonstrated His authority.

Mark 1:21-28 tells the story of Jesus beginning his teaching ministry.

Verse 21 says, “Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum.  When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach.”  (NLT)

Wherever Jewish people settled, they built a synagogue.  A synagogue was a place of gathering, worship and learning.  The questions addressed in a synagogue would be questions about truth, reality and God. 

Verse 22 says, “The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.”  (NLT)

Here we see that those present immediately recognized something different about Jesus’s teaching.  They saw He taught with real authority.  This was different from the teachers of religious law.

The teachers of religious law mentioned here are those who are also known as “scribes.”  These men studied the Old Testament and all that the rabbis said about the Old Testaments. They were experts in the Old Testament.  If any man was qualified to teach what the Old Testament scriptures mean, these men should have been.  Later in His ministry, Jesus chastised them with these words, “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life.  But the Scriptures point to me!  Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.”  (John 5:39-40, NLT)

We face this problem as teachers.  How can the one who has never made a pizza teach how to make a pizza?  How can the one who does not know God teach how to know God? 

This brings us to the question of authority.  Mark 1:22 says Jesus taught with authority.

First, let’s ask, “What is authority?”

According to the dictionary, a simple definition is “the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.”[ii]  This is a start.  I want to know more.

The Greek word used by Mark is “ἐξουσίαν.”  This is a word created by combining two words, “ek” and “eimi.”  “ek” means "out from," and it intensifies  “eimí”, which means "to be.”  In other words, “eimi” means “I am.”[iii]  The Greeks did not use “I am” to refer to God the way the Hebrews did, but I find the connection curious.  The king has authority by right of who he is; being is enough.  The ultimate meaning of this would be God, and actually, there is no authority without God.

However, there is more meaning to the word authority.  The dictionary said, “the right to give orders.”  Giving orders, means to impose one’s will on a situation and thus bring organization or order to an otherwise confused situation.  It is to establish order.  This is what authority does.

The authority of the recipe brings order from the chaos of my kitchen to produce a pizza.  The authority of the pizza chef resides in him as knowledge gained by experience.

The authority of God brought order out of the chaos of what was formless and void to produce the creation.

The Scribes did not have it within their being to produce order out of the chaos of teachings surrounding truth, reality and God. 

Everything was different with Jesus.  All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge dwell within Him.  All the answers people gathered in the synagogue to get, dwelt within Jesus.  His teaching with authority brought order to the mess of confusion surrounding the scribes’ teaching.

The people were amazed.  They were dumbfounded; open mouthed, slack jawed, thunderstruck.

We have an enemy.  He is the enemy of our souls and of the truth.  He is the father of lies, the deceiver of the brethren. 

When Jesus started teaching the truth, Mark tells us, “Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting, ²⁴’Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth?’”  (Mark 1:23&24, NLT)

Is it not interesting that the demons should ask, “Why are you interfering with us?”  All Jesus was doing was teaching the truth.

The author of all the chaos and confusion in our world is Satan.  This does not excuse those who do his will, but he is behind all of it.  He lies, confuses and twists the truth so badly that the whole world lies in darkness.  Metaphorically speaking, the kitchen is a mess and no one can make a pizza.

In this synagogue, Jesus brought order and truth.  He shut the demons up and imposed His will on them.  Doing this, He demonstrated His authority.  By the right of who He is, He spoke and taught with authority.  As a result, the people said, “What sort of new teaching is this?  It has such authority!  Even evil spirits obey his orders!” (Mark 1:27, NLT)

Whatever mess you might be in, whatever question you may have, whatever you may be seeking in life Jesus is where you need to go for answers.

His authority can bring order to our chaos.

Do not go looking for the recipes of life from those who have never made a pizza.

Look to Jesus.  He is the way and the truth and the life.

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[i] Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.  All rights reserved.

[ii] https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=authority

[iii] http://biblehub.com/greek/1849.htm

Following Jesus

There were two men. 

Starting out in life, they each needed to build a house.  One took the fastest way possible, and did not take the time to build a solid foundation.  The other, being wiser, took the time to dig down and establish a firm foundation.  

The first strong Kansas thunderstorm that came along blew away the house without a good foundation, and the man who had built quickly lost everything.

You recognize the story that Jesus told of the two men who built houses.  (Matthew 7:24-27)  This story teaches several truths.  One is that it is important to build a firm foundation.  Second, times of testing come into all of our lives.

Testing can take many forms.  Loss of health, loss of a loved one and financial hardship are storms that we all face.

At the outset of Jesus’s ministry, there were political storms raging.  In this atmosphere, Jesus gathered His first disciples and challenged them to follow Him.  Mark chapter 1 verses 12 through 20 tell the story in which we can discover his call for ourselves.  If we heed this call, we will establish a foundation that will keep us from being shaken when storms come.

Before Jesus gathered followers, before He began His public ministry, His foundation was tested.

Mark 1:12 and 13 say, “¹²The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, ¹³where he was tempted by Satan for forty days.”[i]  (NLT) 

Satan tested Jesus for forty days.  Satan is the one who tested Job.  He is also the one who tested Peter.  In Job and Peter’s cases, Satan got permission to test them.  In Jesus’s case, the Spirit compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness.

In Job and Peter’s cases, foundation problems were exposed and corrected.  Both men were stronger and better able to help others because of their testing. In the case of Jesus, there were no weaknesses exposed.  This gives us the confidence that He is able to teach us and worthy to lead us in the building of our own foundations. 

The testing Jesus endured in the wilderness also assures us that: “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.”  (Hebrews 4:15, NLT)

Soon after John baptized Jesus, Herod arrested John and put him in jail. Mark 1:14 marks this as the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry.  Matthew 14 gives us more details about John’s arrest.

 ³For Herod had arrested and imprisoned John as a favor to his wife Herodias (the former wife of Herod’s brother Philip).  ⁴John had been telling Herod, “It is against God’s law for you to marry her.”  ⁵Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of a riot, because all the people believed John was a prophet.

⁶But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias’s daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him, ⁷so he promised with a vow to give her anything she wanted.  ⁸At her mother’s urging, the girl said, “I want the head of John the Baptist on a tray!”  ⁹Then the king regretted what he had said; but because of the vow he had made in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders.  ¹⁰So John was beheaded in the prison, ¹¹and his head was brought on a tray and given to the girl, who took it to her mother.  (NLT)

At the point in time that Mark is recounting in chapter 1, John was in prison, but still alive.  It was not a safe time to draw public attention.  Matthew recounted the story of John’s beheading in order to make it clear the kind of negative attention Jesus’s public ministry was getting from those in power.

In Mark’s account of the beginnings of Jesus’s public ministry, this political environment is important to understand because it makes it clear that for those Jesus called there was a great risk or hazard involved.

When Jesus calls us, He asks us to risk everything.  In some countries, this means a person can lose his or her life for choosing to follow Jesus. In all countries, it is a call to follow no matter what the cost.

What is building on the right foundation worth?

If we build on the wrong foundation, will we not lose everything in the end anyway?

Jesus is seeking followers.  However, it is not for His own sake that He seeks followers.

People seek followers for many reasons, and it is usually for their own profit.  Paul warned the believers in Galatia (Galatians 4:17) and Philippi (Philippians 2:21) about those that preach the gospel out of their own self-interest.  This is something that is a danger for any in leadership, whether it is in business, church or home. The parents are there for the benefit of the children and not the reverse.  The CEO is there for the benefit of the company, not the reverse.  The teacher is there for the benefit of the disciple, not the reverse.  The pastor, elder, deacon, etc., is there for the benefit of the church, not the reverse.

Jesus called disciples in Mark chapter 1 for their benefit and ultimately for our benefit.  He came not to be served but to serve.  He came to save the world, and in order to save us, He calls us out of the world to be His followers.

Let us look at the call he makes to His first disciples.  In this call, we will find what is to be the foundation of our discipleship and our lives.

First, there is a call to repentance.

We find this in Mark 1:15.  “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced.  “The Kingdom of God is near!  Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”  (NLT)

This call to repentance is an announcement of good news.  The time promised by God is the time when God restores a right relationship with him for all people.  Throughout history, people have been disappointed, angry or separated from God.  In Isaiah 1:18 God says, “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD.  “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.  Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.”  (NLT)  God is saying He wants to settle the differences that keep us from Him.  In Romans 5 we find this has happened when it says, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.”  (Verse 1, NLT)  In addition, “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” (Verse 11, NLT)

This is the Good News that Jesus announced.  This is the message He proclaimed.  This was the core of His ministry and it was the foundation that the disciples were called to build upon. 

Repentance is changing our minds.  Repentance means being willing to let the Spirit of God convict you where your thoughts, motivations, attitudes and beliefs have been wrong.

Conviction is painful.  Letting the words of Jesus in, is the first step.

Having established the focus of His ministry, Jesus invited certain ones to follow Him.  First, Mark tells us about Simon and Andrew.  Mark says, “One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.  Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”  (Mark 1:16-17, NLT)

In this invitation to Simon and Andrew, we see that the call of Jesus was a call to learn from Him and a call to give up themselves.

These two go together.  Learning from Jesus means learning to give up one’s self.  The Apostle Paul puts it this way, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.  You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”  (Philippians 2:3-5, NLT)

We see this attitude in Mark when Jesus invites these fishermen to learn to fish for people.  Proverbs 11:30 tells us that he who wins souls is wise, and there is some personal benefit for the one who wins souls.  However, the purpose of Jesus’s ministry and the purpose of winning souls is for the benefit of the soul won.

The call to follow Jesus is always a call to give up our own selfish ambitions and to learn from Him.  We are not better than our Teacher.  He gave His life so that others could live.

This is the only firm foundation on which we can build.  All other foundations will fail in the end.

We have seen that the call of Jesus is a call to repentance, a call to learning from Him and a call to give up ourselves.  We have also been talking about following Jesus.  This talk about being His follower is important. 

Mark also mentions the calling of James and John.  Jesus’s words are not recorded in this case.  It just says he called them and they followed, leaving their father behind in the boat with the hired men.

The invitation to Simon and Andrew was to follow Jesus, and the note about James and John says they followed Jesus.  With all this talk about repentance, learning from Him and giving up ourselves, it hardly seems necessary to say it, but the whole point is to be followers of Jesus.  The repentance, the learning and the giving up are all about following.

When the storms and testing come, and they will, each one stands or falls based on whether or not he or she is following Jesus.

I do not know where you are at in your life today.  I do not know what tests you are facing.  However, Jesus does.  Let me leave you with His words.

“Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.  Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!”  (John 15:6-7, NLT)

Choose to follow Him today.

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[i] Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.  All rights reserved.