Good evening Lord Jesus, Prepare my mind and has as I sleep for all you have in store for me tomorrow.
My sheep hear my voice
John 10:2-5"The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The doorkeeper opens the door for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought all his own sheep out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him, because they do not recognize the strangers voice."
Listening to the Holy Spirit
We can only follow when we listen. You have to listen to be led. Jesus listened to the Father. He only did what the Father told him, what He related to him. If he did not hear from God, he did not act. “And I know that his commandment is eternal life. Thus the things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.” John 12:50
We need to be listeners of the Father through the Holy Spirit. “Our goal is to also become one with the Father. To do this we must hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us, “The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26) But if we are not listening to them, what good are they to us? How do we hear the Spirit’s voice? How do you know it is not that of “the stranger” voice?
1 Practice. Through time spent listening, in conversation, in prayer you will become familiar with the Spirit’s voice. You can’t expect to neglect your prayer life, neglect spending time daily in conversation with the Holy Spirit, and then when you are desperate to hear the Spirit’s voice say, “Speak Spirit” like you are talking to your dog and expect him to “speak” on command. There is nothing at all “domesticated” about the Holy Spirit.
2 Time in Scripture. Without time spent in the Word, which is “alive” with the Spirit and through it he speaks to you. It is almost impossible to put yourself in a place to hear the Hoy Spirit daily, without spending time in the Word daily. As the words of the Holy Spirit will not contradict Scriptures.
3 Accountability to other. Through close accountability with one or two others they can help confirm if what you are hearing is from the Holy Spirit, and also speak to you what they hear and see the Holy Spirit “speaking” over you.
For me personally, when I get in the rhythm of constant prayer, fasting weekly, reading Scripture, and meeting weekly in accountability, I get my rhythm in “tune” of that of the Spirits, and he guides my prayers and I hear him speak regularly over me and those around me.
My family, Read Acts 2:1-13 and Romans 8:26-27. I pray you will commit to hearing the Holy Spirit’s voice. In prayer, ask the Holy Spirit for help in consistency in your time spent in prayer and reading the Bible and commit to a day a week to fast. Ask the Spirit for revelation of one or two persons in Christ to ask to start a weekly accountability group with you, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Post as a comments below other ways you hear the Spirit's voice, and examples of how he has guided and spoken to you, and visions he has revealed to you.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!
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Good morning Jesus, from the moment my feet touch the floor when I step out of bed until they are lifted back into bed this morning, I seek you to guide and direct my feet.
All through both the Old Testament and the New Testament anointing of people, altars, places, ministries was an act in which they were set- apart, commissioned, consecrated, sealed as God’s chosen instruments for his glory and his purpose. You were anointed by the fire of the holy Spirit and you were sealed in the Holy Spirit in your baptism.
In the lexicon BDAG, the word “Baptism” in Greek is “Baptizo” from the word “Bapto.” It means to dip or dye. A person in the first century would take his plain cloth to a “bapto” and if they dipped it there in red dye, the cloth that came out would forever be identified as the color red. You in your baptism were covered in the blood of Christ through the Holy Spirit and you are forever now identified in Christ. (Rom 6:3)
“Baptizo” also has another meaning. Baptizo is a military term and it means“to overwhelm, to completely conquer. Josephus, Antiquities, a Jewish historian at the time of the life of Jesus, wrote in 70AD describing Rome’s invasion of Israel and destruction of the Temple, “Israel was baptized “baptizo” by Rome.” Completely overwhelmed, conquered, over-run by Rome.. When you were baptized, the Holy Spirit “invaded” every aspect of you spiritually and physically and your flesh was overwhelmed, conquered, and over-run by the Spirit. Just like the “Baptism” of Christ in his death and resurrection was a violent and cataclysmic event, so was your baptism, as you were baptized with and in Christ. (2Cor .5:17)
In Matt 3:11 john the Baptist cries out, “I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am - I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” You were anointed by the Holy Spirit at your baptism and marked, set apart, consecrated, and sealed for God’s glory. You were overwhelmed and over run by the Holy Spirit and surrendered to the Lordship of Christ. How long has it been since you were baptized? Do you remember it? Are you living out that anointing and setting apart you received for being washed by the blood of Christ?
My family, I pray you will read Acts 2:1-13, Joel 2:28-32 and the passages I’ve listed above. Then spend some time this morning in prayer remembering your baptism, and the anointing you received. Ask the Holy Spirit for a new anointing and refilling of his Spirit into your life., in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. If you have never yet accepted the anointing of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus and been made new, I pray you will accept it today. I’d love to talk to you about it, and I am sure your pastor, youth leader, spouse or a friend would as well. God bless you may friends!
Please post your thoughts, reflections or comments in the comments section below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I would appreciate your support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!
TO GIVE , CLICK HERE
Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your faithful…
One of the passages of Scripture for today as we look at call and commissioning by the Holy Spirit, is Mathew 28:18-20, “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In this popular passage of Scripture, Jesus commissions everyone there hearing of his voice to go and make disciples of the nations, and he promises them through the presence of the Holy Spirit, that he will always be with them. All who hear Jesus’ voice today and were baptized in His name are called to the same commission, to go and make disciples of the nations by and in the same continuous power and presence of the same Holy Spirit. I believe this calling has been neutered by the domesticated and “suburbanized” lenses through which I would guess almost all who have opened this link, read Scripture.
I love good coffee and I have become a sort of “coffee snob.” One morning I was getting my Chemex glass pour-over coffee maker (like the one in the picture on this blog home page) down off the top of my stainless steel refrigerator to brew the perfect cup of coffee. It slipped out of my hands and fell on my travertine tile kitchen floor and shattered. What did I do? Why I took a picture of it of course and posted it on Facebook to let everyone know of the tragedy that had just happened in my life. One of my “compassionate” friends posted a comment, “Sounds like a middle-class, suburban, white–boy problem.” I think we all, I know I do, suffer from the problem of filtering what we read in Scripture and what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us through our middle-class, urban, western value lenses. And many times, we miss the obvious promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Frances Chan also deals with this problem in the short 10 minute video on the calling of the Holy Spirit. Take some time now to watch it. Then read Acts 1:4-8, Matt. 28:18-20; John 20:21-22. Please post your comments and reflections from my blog, the video, or the Scripture readings below.
Much love,
Gary
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!
One Monday morning, I was in a discussion with the Sunday morning worship leaders of a large church and the discussion turned to the worship services the day before. The church was a very large church. It was blessed to have very talented and gifted musicians and singers leading its worship. The church also had state of the art sound systems, lighting, video projectors, stage effects and stage backdrops. They could put on a show! In the discussion, one of the worship leaders commented on how smooth worship went yesterday. None of the musicians or singer missed a beat, the visual presentations and videos were “spot-on”, and the pastor, who is a good orator, presented his message well. Everything “clicked” and fell together perfectly. The worship leader then said something that stuck in my mind and troubled me. He said, “That would have been a powerful worship service whether God showed up or not.”
How do you know when the Holy Spirit is present at a church worship service? In the midst of the audio and video effects on your senses of a contemporary service, or the ceremony and tradition of a traditional service, can you tell? If “God did not show up” would you notice? Do you intentionally seek the presence of the Holy Spirit in your personal prayer time? How do you know when the Holy Spirit is present? What signs of his presence and power are their in your daily lives? Jesus tells us in John 4:23, "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” God seeks out worshippers who worship him in and through the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus said in John 4:23 that the hour is coming, that hour is now, today, that true worship of the Father will revolve around two things: Spirit and Truth. In Johannian writings, (the books in the Bible who’s authorship is accredited to the apostle John) “truth” is a word John uses that refers to Jesus (Jn.14:6) and the word or will of God (Jn. 8:40). Worship in most churches focuses on Jesus and the truth of God in Scripture, but the focus and reliance on the Holy Spirit in a church’s worship is often lacking or simply misunderstood. As a result, many of our personal prayer lives lack an understanding of and focus on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. As we begin the New Year starting this morning I am going to center my weekday morning devotion time on the Holy Spirit. My goal is to use this study, reflections, and time together to help instill in the DNA of our lives and church the absolute necessity of reliance and guidance by the Holy Spirit as we move into 2026. It needs to be manifested in all areas of our life including both our personal and corporate worship, so the power of the Holy Spirit can be manifested in our daily lives.
Holy Spirit Study Outline
Below is the reading outline for our time looking at the Holy Spirit and the readings for each weekday. I am posting this in advance to allow you to prepare yourself. I will still send out a daily reflection each day with a short video and my reflections, and various activities from time to time to do.
We are seeking revelation of the Holy Spirit TOGETHER. So PLEASE post comments below throughout this time of your reflection and revelations to encourage us in this time together.
Holy Spirit’s attributes from the Scriptures
I spent many hours in the Bible preparing for this study seeking verses on the Holy Spirit and what attributes of the Spirit they reveal. I came up with 23 attributes of the Holy Spirit. This is my personal list I came up with and I am not not presenting it as the “correct” or total list. I assigned one attribute to each of the next 23 days weekdays. You can use this outline in your small groups. Here is the outline for this time.
DailyScriptures Reading Schedule Beginning Today
January
13. Power, confidence, helper, strength: Acts1:4-8, 4:29-33, Rom. 8:26-27; Eph. 3:14-21
14. Call, commissioning: Acts 1:4-8, Matt. 28:18-20; John 20:21-22
15 Anointing: Acts 2:1-13, Joel 2:28-32
16 Guiding prayer, visions and speaking: Acts 2:1-13; Rom 8:26-27
17. Gifting: Joel 2:28-32
20. Sign bearing: Joel 2:28-32, Acts 4:29-33
21. Unity in the body: Acts 4:29-33, 1 Cor. 12:12-14; Ezekiel 11:17-20
22. Healing: Acts 4:29-33
23. Witnesses, convicts: Acts 5:29-32, Gal. 5:16-25; 1 John 4:13; Exodus 24:16
24. God is source: Acts 5:29-32, Rom. 8:26-27; 1 John 4:13; Exodus 24:16; Ezekiel 11:17-20
26. Jesus is source: 2 Cor. 3:17-18, John 4:14, 20:21-22
27. Source of belonging and adoption: Rom. 8:1-17
28. Ash Wednesday, beginning to Lent. Reflection this morning will be on this season in the church.
29. Indwelling in us, source of holiness: Rom 8:1-17, 15:13; 1 Cor. 3:16-17, 1 Cor. 6:9-11; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Eph. 3:14-21; 1 John 4:13
30. Opposes the flesh: Rom 8:17; Gal. 5:16-25
24 Fruits of the Spirit: Rom. 15:13, Gal. 5:16-25
25. Teacher, revealer, gives us knowledge of God, Jesus: 1 Cor. 2:9-16, Eph. 3:14-21
26. Washes, cleanses, sanctifies, baptizes, transforms: 1 Cor. 6:9-11, 12:12-14, 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Matt. 28:18-20
27. Source of spiritual gifts: 1 Cor. 12:5-11
30. Source of eternal life, salvation: Romans 8:1-17, John 4:14, Joel 2:28-32
February
2. Freedom from the Law: Gal. 4:3-7
3. Adoption: Gal. 4:3-7; Rom. 8:1-17, Ezekiel 11:17-20
4. Part of the Triune of God: Matt. 28:18-20
5. Needed for true worship: John: 22:23
Here is a short 2 minutes video by Francis Chan on the Holy Spirit. He uses the video to present his book "The Forgotten God" which is a great book to read on the Holy Spirit. The video also works well to prepare us for our upcoming time together starting next week.
Please share your thoughts and comments
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community/
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
You Can Help!
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
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Good morning, Lord Jesus. I call on Your name and listen for Your voice to begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with Your Holy Spirit.
"I, I am the Lord, and besides Me there is no savior.... Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:11-20).
Jesus You are my Savior. And I thank You for everything You have saved me from and saved me through -- from hell and through some hellish seasons, from myself and through all my selfishness, from a life focused on things that will have no lasting significance and through so many temptations to shrink back or settle for less than the fullness of all You've intended for me.
Thank You for saving me -- not just in that moment when I first gave You my heart, but also in every moment of every day that You keep on saving me. I needed Your saving works on the cross and the power of Your Spirit to initially be saved from myself, and I need Your same works and power of Your Spirit to be saved from myself this morning. I am forever in need of Your love and grace. And praise God I'll always have it, through every saving moment to come in 2026 and forever! For "the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! ... The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.... Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands to the God in heaven.... I called on Your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; You heard my plea.... You came near when I called on You; You said, 'Do not fear!' You have taken up my cause, O Lord, You have redeemed my life!" (Lamentations 3:22-58)
This morning I claim that promise in Your Word! And while You have done so much for me, You are always "about to do a new thing" because Your mercies are "new every morning." In Your mercy and grace, in Your power and love, in Your good plans of "a future with hope" for me, Your salvation is about to "spring forth in 2026" for me again today! (Jeremiah 29:11) Give me eyes to perceive it! Give me faith to expect it! Give me the wisdom to wait for it! Give me courage to embrace it!
As I wait on You in these first moments of my morning, in the deep communion of worship and prayer, I can't wait to see what You will do today! I'm excited to see how You'll "make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" to display Your glory in and through my life today, mighty Savior of my soul! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you perceive and embrace the new thing the Lord your Savior is causing to spring forth in your life today and the new year yo come, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and reflections in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning Lord Jesus, pour Your Spirit into my heart to allow me to poor into others.
“For so loved God the world, His only begotten Son He gave, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
As I reflect back on the birth of Christ and Christmas, and look ahead to the coming New Year, I remember God’s complete desire--that of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is for us to be one with him, and as importantly, one with each other (John 17:11). The Casting Crowns lyrics come into my head. “Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth, would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt.” But as hard as it may seem sometimes, He does! At Christmas, in and through Christ we see God’s desire to know us and be known by us. Our relationship with our God is not like that of other religions of one of master to slave. Or like the beliefs of others of a vague form of deism where God is “out there”, detached, and impersonally directing the universe. Our God, The God, desires an intimate relationship with us, one in which we know and desire Him intimately as well. Jesus tells us, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends (Joh 15:15). How remarkable is that! “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen 1:27 ESV) How amazing is that when you wrap your head around it!!
And God Proved his desire to have an intimate relationship with us, to be one with him, through the incarnation of His Son, Jesus the Christ. God sent the Son to be born of a woman. He walked this earth, lived our life, bore our sins, carried our cross, suffered, was crucified, died, descended into hell, and was raised from the dead to create and restore a path, a way for us to an intimate, loving relationship with a God. Our God who intimately, madly, loves us. SOOOO LOVED GOD THE WORLD, (you and I ), that he sent His Son to demonstrate it. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)
However, The works of Jesus on the cross and the salvation and oneness with God it made available to us is not the end into itself. Jesus’ hope is for our oneness and intimacy with him to be an “unto” something else. Jesus tells us,
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. You are my friends if you do what I command you. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. As God sent me into the world, so I have sent you into the world. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:8, 9, 14,12; 17:1). Our relationship of oneness and intimacy with Jesus is completed through a relationship of oneness and intimacy with our neighbors.
My family, I pray today you will reflect on your relationship with Jesus? Is it one of a deep embrace, oneness and intimacy? What is your relationship with your neighbors? As the new year approaches, What is your plan to seek intimacy and fall deeply into a more loving relationship with Jesus making possible a more loving relationship with you neighbors in 2026? In Jesus’name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers in the comment box below.
Partner with us as we begin a new year!
As we begun the new year, if you have the ability to be generous, I invite you tp partner with me and One Direction Community to support our ministries. My wife Nancy and I are in a season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this season in my life and that of my family. We would be so grateful for your one time gift or monthly support. Thank you!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
You can mail your donation to One Direction Community P.O. Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Lord I begin my day in the complete acceptance of your love for me..
“What God has made clean, do not call common…”yet God has shown me that I should call no person defiled or ritually unclean…."" (Acts 10:15, 28)
God is a removing by the Holy Spirit any barriers and the breaking of the binding chains of tradition, religion, cultural, ethnicity, nationality, family heritage, food laws, personal preferences and norms that were strongholds on peoples lives, and excluded them from the Gospel. As we begin the new year of 2026 I pray as you read Acts 10 it will also break any chains on your faith of habits, attitudes, Or identities that you picked up or were spoken over you in the previous years.
All things are clean. It is not the object or action that is unclean when used as God designed (sex, alcohol, food, money, time, opioids, tobacco, materials). All Idolatry and addiction is the perversion of something good. It is our abuse of them to fulfill own our personal personal desires, lusts, and lifestyles that changes these “clean” things to “unclean”, “dirty addictions.”
More importantly, all people are "clean" and able to receive the Gospel.
“Then Peter started speaking: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism in dealing with people, but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is welcomed before him…..No one can withhold the water for these people to be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” So he gave orders to have them baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." (Acts 10:34,.47-48)
I pray Lord will continue to free me in this new year from the bondage and chains of pre-conceived judgments, prejudices, racial fears, traditions, profilling, negative thinking towards another person. Free me from “cliquish” thinking that I am part of the ”in group.” Free me from thinking in terms of “Us” and “Them” to “We.” Release me from the control of the mindset of “Its the way we've always done it." Free me personally and all in our church as we move forward from any hindrances or clinging to style, format, meeting space, and doctrine.
I pray daily, "Lord, send us the ones nobody else wants." Let us truly embrace this, no matter who or what this looks like.
My family, I pray you reflect on what “clean” things you are making “dirty” by your abuse and perversion of your personal desires and lusts. I pray you ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any prejudices or profiling of people you still entertain in your heart. I pray you ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart to see everyone around you as God sees them, created in His image. I pray today you intentionally begin this process bystep out of your comfort zone and share your love of Jesus with someone who is ethnically or culturally different from you, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community/Toney UMC
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Begin The Year With A Gift!
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
We all have a testimony of our life we could share. And if we sat down in a small group and shared our testimonies they all would be different
If you asked any Jew in the Old Testament from the time after they entered the promise land to share their testimony, they all would be the same.
I was a Slave in Egypt, as was my father, his father and his father. I was trapped, I was enslaved and without hope. But God delivered us from Egypt.
But not long after they were delivered they built a golden calf and tried to return.
We who were delivered from being trapped and enslaved to sin by the blood of Jesus, we try to return as well.
I see this with addicts in recovery. They get clean and free from the drug. However, they do not know how to live sober and it scares them with the new realities they must face and work through. Though they feel better, they feel lost. Addiction is all they knew and was “comfortable.’ They think to themselves, in 6 months I am going to fail anyways, so they return to their “Egypt”.
I see this in people who were incarcerated for a long time. They get out of their prison, it was all they knew, and they return
I see this in people in relationships. Woman with abusive boyfriend or husband. Or one who is lazy, and treats her like his slave. Then in a moment of Epiphany she leaves him and make a decision to move out on her own. Then she gets lonely. It’s Friday night and friends are out and she is at home. She looks at old photos of them, and thinks to herself, we made good selfies together. She forgets what “living in Egypt was like, and calls him. And returns to Egypt.
I see this in people who are stuck in a job or career where they are under paid, over worked, mis-treated and taken advantage of. Yet they are afraid to leave this “Egypt”.
Israel, the Jews in the Wilderness
Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord;…. The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”
In Hosea chapter 11 we see the Jews that could not go back to Egypt. But it was all they knew. So they again created their own Egypt and built altars to Baal, raised Ashera poles and other Gods.
Egypt can also be something “good” that your stuck in that is keeping you from doing something great. I see this in people’s lives and in the church today.
As we move in out of 2025, What is your Egypt you need to leave behind as you begin 2026?
What is it God is calling you out of Egypt to do this year?
What is the Egypt you are to scared to step out of or want to go back to?
God does not provide manna in easy places, but in the wilderness, in difficult places. God only does miracles when there is real need. That does not happen when you are doing good. When you are comfortable. Why do you need a miracle when comfortable?
God provides miracles when there is real need. God provides manna in the difficult places. You experience miracles when you step out, are afraid, and following his lead into places that if God does not show up, you will fail. Then God gives you manna. Then You get to experience Him.
On a side note, God provides miracles when you pray for them. Israelites prayed for mana, prayed for deliverance from Egypt
Where is manna raining down for you right now?
What does your manna look like?
What manna are you desperately praying for now?
If you are not receiving it, or having a hard time picturing it, then maybe you are still in Egypt? Manna did not fall in Egypt. God did not rain it down on them. It was when they stepped out into the wilderness. When they left for the unknown that God was calling them out into. There were no pillars of clouds by day, or pillars of fire by night in Egypt. As you don’t need signs from God to lead you if you are comfortable where you are and are not going anywhere. They are only needed for change and movement.
My family, as you move into 2026, What is the Egypt you find yourself in now, or you are wanting to go back to? What is it God is calling out of Egypt to do? God does not provide manna in easy places, but in the wilderness, in difficult places. I pray today you pray for your manna. I pray today you find your manna, in Jesus name. please pray the same for me. God bless you my friend!
Please share your reflections and prayers in the comment box below.
Partner with us as the year begins!
As we begin the year, if you have the ability to be generous, I invite you tp partner with me, my wife, and One Direction Community to support our ministries of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over our ministries and outreaches into our community. We would be so grateful for your one time gift or monthly support. Thank you!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
You can mail your donation to One Direction Community P.O. Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Put Your thoughts in my mind and Your desires in my heart to teach me Your ways and make me more like You today. ...
“When they came to the crowd, a man came to Him, knelt before Him, and said, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; he often falls into the fire and often into the water. And I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.’ Jesus answered, ‘You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you’” (Matthew 17:14-21).
You weren’t speaking to Your disciples about mustard-making faith, but mountain-moving faith. And as You were, You weren’t rebuking the father for his compassion for his son or the son for the burden of his affliction. You weren’t rebuking the crowds and the unbelievers. You said nothing about their measure of faith. No, You rebuked the demon and the disciples!
As insidious as the demon of destruction was that tormented the boy, so was the insidious demon of doubt that was limiting the ministry of the disciples. There was something about the quality or quantity of their faith that was “little.” And their “little faith” was limiting their ministry and leaving the people who were suffering and struggling for healing and freedom in the power and authority of Your name stuck in the grip of the enemy of their souls.
What about us as Your disciples today? What about me as Your disciple today? ...
You said in the “red letters” of Your own words that “if (we) have faith the size of a mustard seed, (we) will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for (us).” We can try to explain it away or water it down or come up with doctrines and teachings that try to excuse our lack of experience of the Word of God, but it’s still the Word of God -- the “red letter” words You spoke Yourself.
Just as You also said, “All things are possible for the one who believes” (Mark 9:23). And just as You also said, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in My name you ask Me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:12-14).
We can mock and ridicule and say that’s “out of balance” and “out on the fringes” all we want at our own peril of being disobedient to the Word of God. But those aren’t the words of some “wild-eyed charismatic preacher.” They are the words of Jesus straight from the Word of God.
Lord, forgive us for our mockery and blasphemy that tries to justify in religious language our lack of faith and lack of obedience to You. We repent. I repent. Let us no longer settle for something far less than who You say we are, falling far short of all You send us to do in the authority of Your name.
As we begin a new year and the challenges this year will bring, we’re going to need mountain-moving faith instead of mustard seed excuses. We need deliverance from the demon of doubt, freedom from the spirit of religious-excuses, and a fresh infusion of the Spirit of Faith! Whether it’s quality or quantity, we just need more -- more of You, more of Your Spirit, more of Your Presence, more of Your power, expressed through our faith as Your disciples in this world that’s desperate to encounter the Living Presence of the Living God in the mighty name of Jesus!
Lord, let us settle for nothing less. Lord, let me settle for nothing less. With the character of Your nature in our hearts and the authority of the power of Your name in our words and our prayers, let us see some mountains move! We not here on this earth for such as time as this to make mustard but to move mountains! In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, may you be filled afresh with a Spirit of Faith to be empowered and obedient to the Word of God and see some mountains move in the authority and power of the name of Jesus, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts with us in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support reaching those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.
Thanks You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God, I worship You and welcome You here in my heart and every moment of this new year. ...
"she will bear a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus was given the name chosen by God the Father. His name expressed His nature, His identity, His destiny. Jesus, the Son of God -- Yeshua in Hebrew, jesous in Greek -- means the Salvation of God.
Through Jesus, God saves us, heals us, and delivers us into the forgiveness and freedom and future we have in Christ. "There is salvation in no one else, for there is not other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The name of Jesus is "that name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ... and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11).
Lord Jesus, As I begin this new year, I bow my knees and open my heart to speak Your name and confess You as Lord. In every way and everything I do in 2026, may you be the Lord of my thoughts and desires, Lord of my identity and destiny, Lord of my hopes and dreams, Lord of my relationships and fellowships, Lord of my provision and protection, Lord of my ministry and vocation, Lord of my gifts and calling, Lord of every dimension of my spirit and soul and body, Lord of every aspect of my life. All that I am and all that I have, I entrust to Your Lordship of my life. "(My) help is in the name of the Lord" (Psalm 124:8). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you begin 2026 on bowed knees and with an open heart desiring Jesus to be the Lord of every area of your life, as you call on His name and trust in Him as the Salvation of God, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support reaching those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.
Thanks You!
Good morning and welcome to 2026!
Jesus tells us in Revelation 21:5 “And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!”
We are all given the gift of another year! 2026 is a year that never was or will be again. It is an unbelievable gift of time: a new year, a new clean slate, a new canvas, a blank chalk board with nothing written on it yet. It contains nothing of the past and you are free to write on, draw, color and create and fill it however and with whatever you want.
I pray you will with reckless abandon, freedom from fear, tearing boundries and full of faith pursue your dreams, color wildly, and sling paint all over your canvas of 2026 and create amazing stories and images of love, joy, and hope that will impact and make lasting memories and impressions on you and those you come in contact with this coming year.
Bishop Desmond Tutu was asked to give the commencement speech to a class of graduating college students. He walked up to the microphone, spread his arms out wide, looked out at the students and shouted, “It’s all a gift! It’s all a gift!” Then he turned and sat down.
I pray you hear the words God is shouting over you this morning, “2026 is all a gift! It is all a gift!” And be grateful, receive it as amazing grace, and go be and create amazing grace in the world. Please pray the same over me. God bless you and Happy New Year my friends!
Much love!
Gary
Below is a button to click to watch a 3 minute story and example on Grace I watched on CBS news this morning as part of their “Kindness 101 segment,
Please share your reflections and prayers in the comment box below.
End 2025 by resolving to partner in 2026!
I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries! We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help. You can also give a one-time donation on the same link. Thank you!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
You can mail your donation to One Direction Community P.O. Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog in 2024?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
TO GIVE, CLICK HERE
Happy New Year my family!
Tomorrow we begin our year of reading through the New Testament together, so I wanted to pray a blessing over you this morning! I love you all and I was so blessed by your friendship, love, and the life and moments we shared together in 2025. However, I am EXCITED at the sense I have of what God has in store for us this coming year. I also sense it may be the most trying season of our life, but I know it will be one we will never forget and we will proclaim and recount to all 2026 as a time God made himself known to us.
Lord Jesus, tomorrow I will begin the first of many mornings in 2026, let my soul awaken as I speak out Your name and lift up my heart in the communion of prayer with You, Lord God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
… Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:18-19)
"When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.' So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Child lying in a manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about the Child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them" (Luke 2:15-18).
The shepherds couldn't wait to go and see what God had done! They "went with haste" to see what was said to them by the angels. The word of the Lord, spoken through the angel of the Lord, who broke into their loneliness of life, "living in the fields," changed their fear to faith and they said, "Let's go now" and see! (v. 8) And when they had seen the Child who brought such "good news of great joy for all the people," they couldn't wait to go spread the the great news that had recieved! (v. 10). "The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen" (v. 20).
Holy Spirit, as I read through the words of the Christmas story this morning again; my prayer, my desire, my "New Year's Resolution" for the coming year is that you awaken my soul again with the excitement of faith! Return to me a longing for my first love! (Rev.2:4) Stir up in my spirit the desire, like that of the shepherds, to go, see, and encounter you by reading the Bible and time in prayer! Stir up my spirit to go share all You've done for me! Empower me and compel me to not withhold from sharing in every opportunity of 2026 the good news of great joy that turns fear to faith and loneness to praise! Let me truly be amazed at all You have done in and around me and be excited to go and see this God at work in my Community. This God who longs to bring that same good news and great joy into the lives of my neighbors through me! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My brother and sisters, I pray the Holy Spirit will awaken your soul 2026 with an excitement of faith and a passion to “go and see” and then to ”go and tell” all what the God of good news and great joy has done for you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends
Please share your reflections and prayers in the comment box below.
End 2025 by resolving to partner in 2026!
I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries! We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help. You can also give a one-time donation on the same link. Thank you!
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
You can mail your donation to One Direction Community P.O. Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758
Would you like to receive my morning devotion blog in 2024?
Email your name and email address to garyl@onedirection.community and I will add you to my ODC Daily Message distribution list to receive an email of these reflection every weekday morning.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Good morning! Lord Jesus. I welcome You here in my heart and every moment of my day -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. ...
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done” (Revelation 22:12).
Time and days keep slipping by and “soon” we will be at the end of another year. Jesus, you tell us that you will come back to earth “Soon”. One day soon, You’ll come again. One day soon, You’ll set things right again. And at the same time, as we yearn for Your coming, we also can’t help but wonder just what You mean by “soon.” It has been over 2,000 years since You spoke those words to the Apostle John and through John to us.
The Apostle Peter wrestled with the same question. And it seems You gave him this revelation, which he recorded by Your Holy Spirit in the Word of God, to help guide our hearts as we ponder Your sense of timing. He wrote to Your disciples in that first generation of the promise of Your coming, and continues to speak to Your disciples in every generation who are longing for Your coming. Let’s read his timely word this morning.
“This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity!” (2 Peter 3:1-18).
That’s the key -- “be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace.... Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
I hear all around me people saying, “Look at the sings, Jesus is coming back soon” Yet every generation of Your disciples has had that same discernment and same sense of urgency in their spirit -- that You are coming “soon.” Your sense of days and our sense of days are not the same. Neither is our sense of “soon” and the timing of “the day of the Lord.”
But every day is “the day of the Lord” between today and the day You come again. Every day is the day to be growing in grace, growing in our knowledge of You, growing in the surrender of our heart and sanctification of our souls, seeking to live out each day forgiven and free, with Your peace in our hearts, as we pray for and even hasten the coming of the day of God.
So give me grace, Lord, to be found faithful in You -- as best as I can and all by Your grace. Come soon, Lord Jesus! “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’” (Revelation 22:17) In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, no matter is we our hours, days, or years away from Jesus coming “soon,” I pray you may keep growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to be found faithful in Him by His Holy Spirit at work with you until the day of His coming, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
I would love for you to please share your reflections with myself or others using the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them!
My wife Nancy and I are in a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this season in my life and that of my family. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You Thank You!
TO GIVE CLICK HERE
“And I saw the holy city - the new Jerusalem - descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them…“Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb!” (Revelation 21: 2,3,9)
Marriage is the main mega narrative throughout scripture: It begins in Genesis, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become a new family.” and runs through Revelation 21, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb!” Next to the cross, marriage is God's closest example of what his love. and our relationship with him should look like. Love, sacrifice, grace, forgiveness, acceptance, faithfulness, and hope.
Besides their initial saving covenant with God in Jesus Christ, the covenant of marriage is the holiest and most important promise a man or woman will make in their life. Marriage is the most holiest of services as in it a person will make a promise in a church before witnesses gathered there and before God. And it is not to be entered into lightly.
Marriages is Holy
In marriage, children, who are eternal beings with eternal life and have eternal significance are created. They need to be created, formed, and nurtured in the holiest place
Marriages is one of the most Holiest service because in it, you actually see prayers answered by God before your eyes. Before we met Nancy and I both have prayed for and over situations in our lives. We had gone to church and prayed over things in life, seeking God's answer, a tangible sign He knows and hears us..
We have asked friends and family to pray over for areas of our life.
I prayed at times for God to help me. Cried out to God, “I need your help!”
God heard my prayers, and he sent me Nancy.
God heard Nancy’s prayers, and He sent her me.
We as a couple are a tangible example of a prayer answered by God!
I may say, “Jesus, if you are real, let me see you, reveal yourself to me.” There will never be a more visible sign of this than the woman I am blessed to look at everyday. This woman who has pledged to sacrifice everything, and place my needs above hers and all else, and to love and cherish me forever. That is amazing love!
That is marriage. That was what marriage was meant to be when you who are married were joined by God. That is what marriage means and it represents and I am reminded today of this as we celebrate our wedding anniversary and I want to remind you all of this as well.
At many weddings the questions is asked, “ Is there any reason why these two should not be married.” And there is an awkward silence….However, this is a question we who are married need to daily ask ourselves and and honestly personally reflect on daily.
“Do I know of any reason today that is keeping me from living into my marriage?”
Is there a; person, situation, attitude, thought, emotion, desire; Anything that is perverting or weakening your marriage, the vows you took, and is keeping you from fully experiencing and being fully present in your marriage, which is a holy gift of God and his grace. And if there is, immediately deal with it with God.
Marriage is not easy, Why? because it is the closest, most holiest relationship and example of Christ to the world. However, my marriage to Nancy is also the closest, most holiest, tangible, amazing example of the love and grace of God in my life. And your marriage is as well.
My family, I pray those of you who are married will take a moment to thank God for the gift of love and grace of your spouse. I pray you will reflect on your marriage and ask yourself the question, “Do I know of any reason today that is keeping me from living into my marriage?” And if there is, deal with it immediately. Those of you considering getting married, I pray you will reflect on the most holy covenant you about to enter into of love, sacrifice, grace, forgiveness, acceptance, faithfulness, and hope, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please post and share your reflections and prayers in the comment box below.
As the year draws to an end, PLEASE give and help Nancy and I Help Them!
My wife Nancy and I in our ministries are pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this season in our lives and that of our family and ODC. Please partner and support us and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation now for next year, or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You Thank You!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC.
This morning I went to the Waffle House around 6:20am, sat at the low bar, and talked with the waitresses, cooks, and customers as they started their day. I was greeted by a waitress I know well and I admire that will call Sheri. Sheri is a good person and a good mom. Sheri is a single mom who lives in a trailer, and has 3 kids she is raising. One of her children is a special needs child and requires home schooling and extra care. She is also raising her brother’s 2 children. Her brother is a meth addict and the mother of the children is not in the picture. Sheri told me his brother’s children can’t help it their dad is an addict, and they deserve to be loved and taken care of, so she does it. And Sheri takes care of her brother. Like I said her brother is an addict, so she can’t and does not let him stay inside the trailer with them. Her trailer has a back wooden covered porch. So Sheri fixed a pallet for her brother and he stays and sleeps the night/days he is not out somewhere on her back porch. So Sheri is taken care of and raising 5 children and her brother. She works and and is a good waitress.
We said good morning to each other and then I asked her how her Christmas was yesterday. Sheri works at the Waffle House from 6:00am-2:00pm. However, she said yesterday other waitresses called out, they were super busy, so she had to work on Christmas a 14 hour shift from 6:00am-8:00pm. Sheri said by the time she got home and showered, it was 9:00pm before she sat down with her children to have Christmas with them and open their gifts. She said she stayed up last night until 12:30am playing and enjoying Christmas with them. Then she laid down and slept for 4 hours until 4:30am this morning as she had to be at the Waffle House at 6:00am for her shift.
This Is why I so admire Sheri. She is in a hard spot in life, however she works hard, grinds it out living from paycheck to paycheck, and is a good mom. I take her a box of food every Saturday from the House of Harvest for her family. When her clothes washer and dryer went out I worked with Lowes to get new ones to replace them and I installed them. I have been at her trailer several times fixing things or working on her car. And I know of several single mom’s who waitress at the WH who have similar stories they have shared with me as I sat and listened to them sipping my coffee. They all have a wonderful, warm smile and greet me when I walk in the door with the familiar, “Welcome to Waffle House!” Though as I reflect on that greeting it resonates with a deeper meaning like the lyrics “Welcome to the Hotel California.” It is an admittance of and into the reality of life that that allot of its employees, and customers like the lawn care crews who come in the morning before their 12 hours days begin, all belong too. It is a blue collar welcome that most of the after church, Sunday morning crowd coming in miss and do not want to enter into.
However, if Jesus were to come back to earth on a Christmas Evening or day and go out to an establishment, while walking through the door of it he would not hear church bells and greetings of “Oh Come All Ye Faithfull” from people dressed in robes or vestments, but the ding of an opening door and “Welcome to The Waffle House” by those meek wearing a servers apron. It would be something to his ears he could relate to, and would smile at as he walked in the restaurant’s door. And I think a seat at the low or high bar is where you’d find him sitting, eating, sipping his coffee, and listening and speaking into the stories of life being shared around him.
My family, I pray this Christmas you seek out the mangers of this world like Jesus did, and experience and be blessed by entering into the “Welcome To Waffle House” places in your community, in Jesus’ name. God bless you my friends!
I want to encourage you to join me by alsosharing with us your thoughts, comments, reflections, and prayers you received from today’s reading in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them!
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
TO GIVE CLICK HERE
Good Christmas Morning!
I went through and the narratives of the birth of Jesus found in the Bible in the Gospels ofMatthew and Luke and combined them iogether to create a story line of events of Jesus’ birth. My Christmas morning reflections follow.
“In the sixth month of Elizabethʼs pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, a descendant of David, and the virginʼs name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting. So the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God! Listen: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.”
Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God.” “And look, your relative Elizabeth has also become pregnant with a son in her old age - although she was called barren, she is now in her sixth month! For nothing will be impossible with God.” So Mary said, “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:26-38)
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband to be, was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her privately. When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: “Look! The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He took his wife, but did not have marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named Jesus.” (Matthew 1:18-25)
Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus to register all the empire for taxes. This was the first registration, taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone went to his own town to be registered. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David. He went to be registered with Mary, who was promised in marriage to him, and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds nearby living out in the field, keeping guard over their flock at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were absolutely terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! Listen carefully, for I proclaim to you good news that brings great joy to all the people: Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a vast, heavenly army appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom he is pleased!”
“When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, that the Lord has made known to us.” So they hurried off and located Mary and Joseph, and found the baby lying in a manger. When they saw him, they related what they had been told about this child, and all who heard it were astonished at what the shepherds said. But Mary treasured up all these words, pondering in her heart what they might mean. So the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; everything was just as they had been told.” Luke 2:1-20)
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the time of King Herod, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “for it is written this way by the prophet:
ʻAnd you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are in no way least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.ʼ”
“Then Herod privately summoned the wise men and determined from them when the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.” After listening to the king they left, and once again the star they saw when it rose led them until it stopped above the place where the child was. When they saw the star they shouted joyfully. As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. After being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back by another route to their own country.” Matthew 2:1-12)
My Christmas Thoughts: We see in Luke chapter 1 that the angel Gabriel comes and tells Mary she will bear God’s son. Gabriel tells her she is highly favored. And Mary, a 15 or 16 year old common pheasant girl thinks, “Highly favored! That’s Impossible!” Gabriel tells her she will have a son and be impregnated by the Holy Spirit and name him Jesus,. He will be the Son of the most high God. Mary answered, “How will this happen since I am a virgin?” It is impossible!!! The Angel told her, “Nothing is impossible with God.” And Mary Believed, and said “Here I am your servant, Let it be as you said.”
Joseph, had met the girl of his dreams. He had hopes and plans of settling down in the nice, quiet suburbs and starting a family with Mary. And look what happened! The Angel tells him in his dream his wife is pregnant, and with the child of God! What?!? Joseph thought, “That is impossible!!!! All of his friends were like, “Ya right!” But Joseph did the hard thing, the impossible thing, and he believed.
The Bible is a story of hardship and suffering and difficulty and trying of people’s faith.
Mary and Joseph were having the child of God and look how hard it was for them. If any couple should have had it easy having and raising a child, it would have been them. However, for Mary and Joseph having and raising the child of God was hard, And if raising their child and their life was full of impossibilities, difficulties and challenges, why do you think raising your children or your life should be easy?
The Bible, the story of God, is full of people who continued to believe in the possibilities of God in the face of impossible things. And what we need to remind and encourage each other as well as we read the passage above this Christmas morning is that God is able to overcome the situations, circumstances, challenges, or whatever it may be in your life right now that you are facing.
That God is still a God of impossible things. He still makes the impossible possible. And Christmas is the morning to awake from your sleep, and open up your life to Jesus Christ, and come to grips with the fact that our ways have come up short, and that they are not working. And despite our best efforts and plans, just like those of Joseph, things are not turning out at all Iike we planned.
And just like Mary who at first said, “How can this be?” We need to yield to the sovereignty of God, let his Spirit and love overshadow us, and say over our lives, “Here I am Lord, let it be so in my life.” We need to invite Jesus Christ to be our savior and our Lord. And allow him to bring us into the life he came to earth to give us. The Bible tells us It won’t be easy, but it will be gloriously good!
I pray you will let this new year be an awakening of your life.
My family, Maybe you have believed before, maybe you have been baptized, maybe in some way you had an association with Jesus, through friends, your parents, family members, or a spouse. Or maybe you have an association or relationship with a church. Maybe you have had a relationship with Christianity, but not so a deep intimate relationship with God. I pray this is the year, this is the time for Jesus to be reborn in the manger of your heart. For you to trust in God in a way like you’ve never trusted in God before. I pray this year will be a time for Jesus to make new wine in you! You do not even have to bring him old wine, all you have to do is bring water, or even sour grapes, and he will turn it into wine! And not just any wine, but the best wine! And not just a little wine but barrels full of it. And turn your dry life into a fountain of life in which living waters flow out of it, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you and Merry Christmas my friends!
Please share your reflections with us in the comment box below as swe pend time in this devotion.
As The Year Draws To An End, Please Give and Help Us Help Them!
My wife Nancy and I are in a season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over us and that of my family. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation now for next year, or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
TO GIVE CLICK HERE
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14)
This morning instead of reading from the stories of Jesus’ birth found in Matthew and Luke, I wade into the deep depths of the Gospel of John. “Christmas is for children,” or, “Christmas brings out the child in us all.” Those are nice sentimental thoughts on one level, but might they hold a more serious truth? Could Christmas be for adults too? On more than one occasion while teaching about his kingdom, Jesus lifted up a child and said things like, “Whoever wants to enter into the kingdom of heaven must become like a child” (e.g., Ma . 18:3; Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17). This has most often been interpreted in a sentimental fashion, lifting out the whimsical, wondrous, carefree nature of children as the prerequisite mentality for entering into God’s kingdom. While these are commendable qualities, and perhaps have a tiny bit of relevance to what Jesus was saying, the biblical evidence points to a different meaning. In the first century, children held no status or value in the community. Children were more like slaves in the sense of being the property of another with no status or social value of their own.
While this is far from the case for most children in our North American context, it remains the situation for millions of children around the world. Many of them find themselves as both status-less children and slaves. Jesus’ point was not to become carefree and whimsical, which would have been somewhat foreign concepts to a first-century child. He lifted up a child to reference his utter humility. In the eyes of the society, they brought nothing to the table of value; not even themselves. Here’s a rough translation: “Unless you become humble, like this child,ubderstanding the fact that you in yourself are worthless, no claim of entitlement, no rights (birthrights or otherwise), privileges, status or anything else; unless you humble yourself in this fashion, just like this child I hold up before you, and enter into a relationship with me and my kingdom on the very same level as anyone else, you can’t come in. It’s not because I am barring the door to hold you out. It’s because you are disqualifying yourselves from even the possibility of perceiving the reality of my kingdom to begin with.”
With this backdrop, hear the Christmas text again:
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
It begins with believing, yet believing can be a deceptive word. We can believe in all we have read through and considered these past days of Advent and still be no closer to the real miracle of Christmas. We can believe Jesus is the Son of God and even the Savior of the world in the same way we believe the sky is blue and gravity is real. The birth of Jesus on Christmas Day, his resurrection on Easter, and his certain return on an unknown future date can be eternal events and signals we run up the flagpole and salute and yet remain unaffected in our lives by their truth. Examine the text closer:
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God . . .
Believing must lead to becoming, lest believing be emptied of its power. The whole point of Advent—indeed, of the gospel—is that seeds of faith be sown in our minds and hearts such that something genuinely and stunningly new could break through the belief and burst into life.
Track further with the text:
Though the language has become cliché and caricatured through the years, the Bible is clear about being “born again.” Jesus said it plainly, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3 NIV).
The anonymous hymn writer may have said it best:
“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
if He’s not born in thee, Thy soul is still forlorn.”
This is the invitation of Christmas: not passive belief but active becoming. It’s taking the risk of new birth. As gifts are given and received and the wrapping paper gathered up, the excitement of the day will recede. As the sentimentality of the day fades, the serious possibility remains: Will you humble yourself like a child? Will you receive, believe, and be born again and become humble before the God of heaven and earth, the Lord over all creation, Jesus Christ? What could be a better story than to say you were born again on Christmas Day?
My family, I pray you will say and believe the words of this prayer this morning. Our Father in heaven, nearer than my breath, thank you for these days of Advent and this new year in Christ. I want to be born again. I want to believe in Jesus in a deeper way than before. I want to receive him into the depths of my being. Lord, Jesus, I want for you to be born in me in a new and deeper way. I don’t discount what has happened prior to this day in my walk with you. I only know it has led to this present moment where I want to say yes to you like never before. I want to become one of the children of God afresh. Come, Holy Spirit, and let the life of Jesus Christ be born anew and afresh in me today and lead forward in a way of growing up in him and into the life I was made for. In the name of Jesus Messiah—the one who came, is here, and is coming again— for his glory and our good, in Jesus’ name, amen. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections with us in the comment box below as swe pend time in this devotion.
As The Year Draws To An End, Please Give and Help Us Help Them!
My wife Nancy and I are in a season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over us and that of my family. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation now for next year, or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
TO GIVE CLICK HERE
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Along with reading through Revelations together, I have been reading through the Gospel accounts in Luke and Matthew of the birth of Jesus. “And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11
For God to take on flesh and the birth of Jesus to take place, it required everything that was impossible to be made possible. And with and in the birth of Jesus, everything that was and is impossible in your life is now possible! It took an impossible amount of love of God for you. such as will never be matched ever again in the sending of Jesus to save you. In the birth of Christ, all that humanity hoped for became a reality. Today all that you may have settled for as the reality in your life can now be changed by the hope of Christ. In the Christmas story, we see a few small things, done by a few small people, in a few small places that launched the kingdom of God. In Christ’s story today as we look forward to Christmas morning, He still has a few small people, doing a few small things, in a few small places that continue His movement of God.
It is the intimidating plans, purposes, dreams and visions of God entereing into by the meek and broken that insult the visions of mankind and the proud. If you are not entering into dreams and plans that are intimidating to you, you very well may be insulting to God.
My family, I pray this morning as you remember and celebrate Christ coming into the world, you will be reminded that at the core of Christmas is the love that God has for you. I pray you realize and seek with reckless abandon all of the hope joy, the unlimited possibilities and change in your life that is possible with the presence of Christ in you. In Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Please support and partner with myself and my family with your end-of-year financial gift as we serve those in our community Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!
