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Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Making a Commitment

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Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”—Luke 9:23

Although it has been more than three decades, I still remember clearly the day I was joined in marriage to my wife, Cathe. She walked down the aisle looking beautiful. I, on the other hand, resembled Jeremiah Johnson with my shoulder-length hair and big beard. I cringe when I look at the photos. But that day, I committed myself to Cathe. I said, “I take you to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.” I made a public commitment to her.

And although I have already made that commitment, I make a recommitment every day to love Cathe and to be the husband that God wants me to be. I don’t always do this perfectly. But I recognize that it is a continuing commitment.

I have also committed myself to Jesus Christ, and every day I honor and affirm that commitment. One practical way I do this is simply by staying in fellowship with Him. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). By obeying God, listening to and heeding the “still, small voice” of His indwelling Holy Spirit, I remain in unbroken fellowship with Him.

If you want to grow in Jesus Christ, it will take time—and lots of it. It will take a daily commitment for the rest of your life. But do you have anything better to do with the rest of your life than to follow Jesus and learn more about Him? That is the best thing you could possibly do with your life and future. Nothing is better than that.

You could say the same thing hour by hour through your day. Nothing is better, no matter what your activities or responsibilities, than walking in the sweetness and radiance of His conscious presence.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Little Messes

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He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.'” —Luke 19:45–46

My wife Cathe and I are polar opposites when it comes to cleaning. My approach could be summed up by the procrastinator’s motto: Never do today what you could put off until tomorrow. Cathe’s approach is to constantly clean and organize so that over time, little messes don’t become big ones. Obviously, her approach is the better one.

In Luke 19 we find the story of Jesus’ cleaning the house of God as He went into the temple and drove out the moneychangers. These temple merchants were taking advantage of people and keeping them from God, and this angered Jesus.

This is the second time in Scripture when Jesus cleansed the temple. In the gospel of John, we read that He used a whip to drive out the moneychangers. Little messes turn into big messes, so Jesus arrived to clean house again.

I believe there is a parallel to our own lives. When we come to Christ initially, we ask for His forgiveness and He pardons us of all our iniquities. In fact, we are told in 2 Corinthians

5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” What a wonderful thing it is to realize that God has forgiven us of all our sin.

But as a little time passes, sometimes some of those old sins can find their way back into our lives. And that so-called “little” sin begins to grow and becomes a problem.

Does your temple need cleansing? Are there some things in your life that shouldn’t be there right now? Are there some vices, some bad habits that have found their way back into your life? If so, deal with them now.

Don’t let little messes turn into big ones.