One short daily prayer can alleviate so much of your stress & anxiety. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 125 Q. What does the fourth request mean? A. “Give us today our daily bread” means, Do take care of all our physical needs so that we come to know that you are the only source of everything good, and that neither our work and worry nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing. And so help us to give up our trust in creatures and to put trust in you alone. Summary The opening word to today's teaching from Jesus functions like a big STOP sign. When you see the word therefore, you have to stop and ask, what is it there for? In this case, Jesus is saying that because you should be focused on building up treasure in heaven rather than on earth, which is what He says in the preceding passage, therefore do not worry about your physical needs in this life. If even the birds of the air and the flowers of the field thrive by simply relying upon what your Father provides for them, you can too, since you're much more valuable than they are, says Jesus. But don't jump too far ahead here. Jesus isn't calling you to take a life long vacation as you count on your daily bread getting shipped down from heaven each day. His command here is to not worry, not to not work hard. Think of how busy the birds keep from dawn to dusk and how the flower is doing what it was created to do whenever the sun is shining. You don't need to look far - perhaps even within your own life - to see the awful result of running after all sorts of worldly stuff like the pagans do. They might gain a bunch of things, but they have no rest, no peace and no certainty that whatever they've accumulated today will be here tomorrow. In short, they're often drowning in anxiety. Instead, Jesus calls you to seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and He makes an extraordinary promise to those who do: all these things you need will be given to you as well. Dig Deeper Jesus here is telling you to make a shift in attitude more so than a change in your daily activities. If you're at the point in life where you're part of the workforce, don't quit your job. When you're at your job, keep your head down and be productive. Remember, working is one of the primary ways God calls us to worship Him! But do some quick mental math and tally up how many hours a day you spend productively working versus how many hours a day you spend worrying, stressing, and fretting about the gulf between what you have and what you want. How different would things look for you if you had focused your resources on seeking the kingdom rather than worrying about stuff? That's the brilliance of the short line that Jesus commanded you to pray: "give me each day the bread I need today." He goes on here to tell you to not worry about the other things in life, or even about what will happen tomorrow. It's not that other stuff or planning for the future isn't important, it's just not worth worrying about when you can be absolutely certain your Father will provide. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who created the birds and flowers, and provides for all His creatures' needs; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will seek first the Kingdom and that you'll be able to trust that your Father will give you the things you need; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Revelation 8

Matthew record of Peter's confession comes in chapter 16, and as soon as Peter exclaims that Jesus "is the whole church, but even as few as a couple of representatives of it - comes into agreement on a matter of discipline, the matter is as settled (bound) in heaven as it is in the Church.

Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22— Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with Simply put, anyone who loves God and their neighbor the way Jesus teaches will not be lacking in matters

Matthew 18:15-18 (NIV) 15  “If your brother or sister sins [against you], go and point out their fault you have won them over. 16  But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter who would follow Him would often wander away (which is what the parable right before this passage in Matthew But as Jesus explains the process here in Matthew 18, notice who the primary active agent is.

The key to being able to follow Jesus' command comes in the verse that precedes this passage: Matthew

we need to know now: that when people say things we instinctively know is wrong, it probably is, no matter

Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus is less detailed than the one found in the Gospel of Luke (which However, what we see in Matthew’s condensed telling of Jesus’ birth is the most important details being

Ten commandments?? How about 10x10x10? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 93 Q. How are these commandments divided? A. Into two tables. The first has four commandments, teaching us what our relation to God should be. The second has six commandments, teaching us what we owe our neighbor. Summary He started off so well. This rich young man asked Jesus the question that should be everyone's top priority: "what good thing must I do to be saved?" All of us - every person born since Adam - instinctively knows there's a relationship between salvation and doing good things. But this young man is smarter than most, for he can see that not everything that seems to be good actually is. He wants to focus his efforts on what really counts. Jesus didn't need to think about the question for too long. Although it's a profoundly important question to ask, it's not at all hard to answer: if you want salvation, perfectly follow the commands of the One who is good. Here's where things started to go off the rails for the young man. He asked Jesus, "Which ones?" It's moments like this that we really see the patience of our Savior. He would have been totally justified to burst out laughing at the glaring stupidity of the question, or even to have the young man instantly smote with fire from heaven for daring to suggest that some of God's commands are more important than others. But Jesus doesn't do what the rest of us would have done if we were in His position. Jesus continues to engage the man in conversation. Keep the second table of the law, Jesus tells the man. In other words, love your neighbor as yourself. At this, a smile likely came upon the young man's face. After all, he had certainly never murdered, committed adultery, stolen or lied. Or so he thought as he confidently reported this to Jesus, at the same time wondering if there was a detail or two Jesus could suggest he ought to add to the list, just to be really sure. Somehow the man missed the fact that Jesus had said nothing about the first table of the law: those first four commandments that teach us what our relationship ought to be with the One who said, "Be holy, because I am holy." Jesus goes on to tell the man that perfection requires much more than following ten commandments. After all, nowhere does the Bible command a person to give away all that he has. True godliness includes all of the implications of both tables of the law, whether they've been written down or not. Both this rich young man and the disciples are absolutely crushed by Jesus' answer. Who could possibly meet this exponential criteria for salvation? Dig Deeper We understand God's law to have three purposes: It shows us how sinful we are; It provides a general guide for how society should behave; It shows the saved how to live gratefully. The Heidelberg Catechism properly focuses on the third use of the law: gratitude. But don't forget that you will never really be truly grateful unless you first understand your guilt. This is why we read some portion of God's law in our worship services, so that we are regularly convicted by it; so that each week we're forced to ask with the disciples, "who then can be saved?" So when we hear Jesus answer, "with man, [salvation] is impossible, but with God all things are possible," we can look at these two tables of the law as a guide for grateful living in response to God's grace freeing us from our exponential guilt. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, the One who is good; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for His law, that we've met its conditions in Christ, and pray that we';; use His law as a guide for grateful living. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Corinthians 16

ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Matthew 12

Your life is a reflection. The question is, what are you reflecting? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 86 Q. We have been delivered from our misery by God’s grace alone through Christ and not because we have earned it: why then must we still do good? A. To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by his blood. But we do good because Christ by his Spirit is also renewing us to be like himself, so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all he has done for us, and so that he may be praised through us. And we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ. Summary In several places in the New Testament Jesus is proclaimed to be the light of the world. This proclamation is now extended from Jesus to his Church. Jesus is the light of the world, but so too are those who follow him. And as the light of the world, followers of Jesus are not to hide away but share their light. This is the nature of what light is, it is meant to be shared. To hide away light, such as that which radiates from a lamp, is to take away its purpose. Dig Deeper If you place a dog in front of a mirror something incredible may happen. Some dogs, upon seeing their own reflection, will believe they are staring at another dog and start barking or growling. Since the other dog is only a reflection, it doesn't back down and this standoff can continue for quite some time. Despite what it looks like, a reflection is not a dog, its image is only borrowed from the original. In the same way, the light that we share as followers of Jesus is not our own but is borrowed light that comes from Jesus. When we share this light through our good works, it is to be done in such a way that others will give glory to God our Father. The proclamation to share your light might be considered in contrast with Jesus’ critique of the Pharisees practice of making their good deeds seen by others. The difference between sharing your light and the showmanship of the Pharisees is intent. The purpose of sharing your light through good works is to bring glory to God. The intent of the Pharisees’ display of good deeds was not to honor God but to draw attention to themselves. Take some time today to consider whether you are letting the love of Christ shine through your actions. Have you chased the satisfaction that comes from others noticing your good works instead of seeking to glorify God through your actions? Have you stopped doing good works altogether? Remember that you are the light of the world and as a follower of Jesus you are to share his light through your good works. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who is in heaven; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that your life will reflect the light of Christ in you; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Corinthians 6