Bear with me as I brag a little. I’m certain I have the cutest and smartest grandchildren ever. They’re growing so quickly and they amaze me with all they’re learning. They’re constantly listening and repeating each other, their parents, and me. They know song lyrics and bedtime stories by heart and they’re already memorizing scripture. It’s entertaining to hear them copying a word or phrase that they’ve misunderstood, and lately, Thomas has started combining lyrics from one song or story with several others to sing an entirely original song.
The more I read God’s Word, the more God’s Spirit is connecting the dots between passages for me. As I read through the Old Testament with my eyes fixed on Jesus, the more of the divine timeline I see. God is moving me to a place of awe and wonder, where worship comes naturally as I see Him as He is, all powerful, all good, all knowing, ever present, sovereign Lord.
”God has transmitted his very substance into every Scripture, for it is God-breathed.
It will empower you by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the path of godliness.
Then you will be God’s servant, fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfill any assignment God gives you.“
2 Timothy 3:16-17 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/2ti.3.16-17.TPT
As a student of God’s Word, I am experiencing with the early disciples what it means to follow Jesus. He says I should abide in His Word, (John 15:7) and later He prays,
”Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.“
John 17:17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.17.17.NLT
”Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.“
John 17:17 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/jhn.17.17.AMPC
Jesus also says I should take up my cross daily to follow Him.
Eugene Peterson, in The Message translation, renders Jesus’s words in Luke 9:23 as, “Anyone who intends to come with Me has to let me lead.” Watching my toddler grandchildren play follow the leader is like walking behind our Great Danes on a trail. One goes where the other goes and then quickly speeds up to get ahead. Everything’s a race, and as they say, if you’re not the lead dog, the scenery never changes. My Papa, who’s now alive forever with God in Christ, put it another way. To our frantic grappling to be seen or heard, to our efforts to be successful, to be an influencer, top dog, or trendsetter, he’d simply say, “Too many chiefs, not enough indians.”
Obviously James and John struggled with this concept. When Jesus set out resolutely toward Jerusalem, even after he called his disciples aside to forewarn them a third time in no uncertain terms of his coming death and resurrection, the two approach with their mother to ask to be given places of honor in His coming kingdom.
”When the other ten heard of this conversation, they lost their tempers with James and John.
Jesus got them together to settle things down.
“You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around,” he said, “and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads.
It’s not going to be that way with you.
Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.
That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage.”
Mark 10:41-45 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/mrk.10.41-45.MSG
”Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father.
He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end, showing them the full extent of His love.
It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.
Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.
So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.
After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing?
You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am.
And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet.
I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.
I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master.
Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message.
Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.“
John 13:1-5, 12-17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.13.1-17.NLT
Letting Jesus lead means setting aside my agenda, all of the possible likelihoods I can imagine, losing sight of myself and my own interests, and following Jesus immediately and expressly.
Jesus said that it was better for His first disciples that He should depart for His leaving meant the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Immanuel, God with us, made way for the third person of the Trinity, God in each of us who believe in the name of the one and only Son, Jesus.
How could this possibly be better? In his excellent book, JESUS CONTINUED: Why the Spirit Inside You Is Better Than Jesus Beside You, Pastor J. D. Greear answers this question as thoroughly as anything I’ve ever read aside from the Bible itself. I highly recommend that you read his book, but only if you’re already reading your Bible. I’m certain he would agree.
”Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.“
Psalms 119:105 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/psa.119.105.NASB1995
”Truth’s shining light guides me in my choices and decisions; the revelation of your Word makes my pathway clear.“
Psalms 119:105 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.119.105.TPT
”By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.
I’ve committed myself and I’ll never turn back from living by your righteous order.
Everything’s falling apart on me, God; put me together again with your Word.
Adorn me with your finest sayings, God; teach me your holy rules.
My life is as close as my own hands, but I don’t forget what you have revealed.
The wicked do their best to throw me off track, but I don’t swerve an inch from your course.
I inherited your book on living; it’s mine forever— what a gift! And how happy it makes me!
I concentrate on doing exactly what you say— I always have and always will.“
Psalm 119:105-112 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/psa.119.105-112.MSG
Artificial intelligence is programmed to synthesize digital information. Anything accessible on the World Wide Web can be assimilated into any form. Scripture in every known language resides on the web and can be searched, accumulated, presented, and consumed, but AI is incapable of being changed by this knowledge. Only humans, created in the image of God, can be filled with the Spirit of God. Only children of God can walk and talk with God, keeping in step with His Spirit. Only His true children will follow Him.
”My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.
No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else.
No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.
The Father and I are one.”“
John 10:27-30 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.10.27-30.NLT
”The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!
But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.“
1 Corinthians 1:18 NLT
A Fitting Reply 
Amen! Lots to remember each day of our lives.
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