WAKE UP to JESUS

03/07/2026

SUNDAY'S SERMON

MARCH 8 SERMON LEACHVILLE GLOBAL METHODIST
Good morning.
Last week we said something important:
Jesus sees our hearts—and invites us closer.
This week, Jesus takes the next step.
He doesn’t just see us.
He teaches us.
Not by shaming us.
Not by lowering the standard.
But by forming the heart that lives the life God desires.
Before we read His words, let me tell you a story.
________________________________________
PARABLE — The Bent Signpost
There was a town with a signpost pointing toward the hospital.
Over time, the sign bent just a little.
Not enough to notice at first.
People kept following it…
but they kept ending up lost.
No one said the sign was bad.
It wasn’t broken.
It was just off.
One day, someone straightened the sign.
The road didn’t change.
The destination didn’t change.
But people finally arrived where they meant to go.
⏸️ what changed?
Jesus doesn’t come to shame the law.
He comes to straighten the heart.
________________________________________
SCRIPTURE UNFOLDED (Matthew 5:17–20)
Jesus says,
“I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.”
• That means Jesus isn’t relaxing God’s desires.
He’s revealing their true direction.
• John Wesley in his sermon 25 addresses how believers should uphold moral and spiritual aspects of the Law. By doing so, we are reflecting the teachings and intentions of CHRIST.
Key points of his sermon:
o The Law is confirmed through CHRIST’s teachings.
o Christians need to embrace and live according to the
principles in the Law.
o Fulfilling the Law is performed by embodying the Spirit and intent behind the commandments.
o JESUS showed the FATHER’s intent in the life HE lived.
o Our hearts need to be transformed.
What is the problem?
The problem was never that people cared too much about obedience.
The problem was that obedience had lost its heart.
Jesus takes anger, lust, truthfulness—
not to crush us,
but to show us where love has bent.
________________________________________
HEART EXPOSURE (WITHOUT SHAME)
When Jesus talks about anger,
He’s not just talking about outbursts.
He’s talking about what we do with resentment.
When He talks about lust,
He’s not just talking about desire.
He’s talking about using people instead of loving them.
When He talks about truth,
He’s not just talking about words.
He’s talking about integrity of the heart.
This isn’t Jesus raising the bar to make us fail.
This is Jesus straightening the signpost.

________________________________________
GRACE PROCLAIMED
And here’s the good news.
Jesus doesn’t point out what’s bent and then walk away.
He stays.
He teaches.
He forgives.
He forms.
That’s why Lent isn’t about trying harder.
It’s about letting Jesus teach us how to love.
You don’t become loving by effort alone.
You become loving by staying close to Love Himself.
________________________________________
QUIET DISCERNMENT THREAD (1 TIMOTHY)
There are many voices that say,
“Just do better.”
“Try harder.”
“Measure yourself.”
But here’s a simple test:
Does this voice lead me to Jesus—or just to myself?
If it pulls you away from grace,
it’s not the voice you need to follow.
________________________________________
PRAYER
Today’s prayer is simple.
Not, “Lord, make me better.”
But,
“Lord, teach me how to love.”
No fixing.
No striving.
Just openness.
________________________________________
CLOSING
Jesus doesn’t lower the call of love.
He realigns our hearts to live it.
And He doesn’t rush the process.
So we keep walking.
We keep listening.
We keep sitting at His feet.
Because when Jesus teaches us,
love finds its way home.
Amen.
________________________________________ CLOSING PRAYER
“Jesus, thank You for teaching us with patience and grace.
Form our hearts in Your love.
Amen.”

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01/01/2026

JESUS LOVES YOU
January 1, 2026

PROVERBS:
WAKING UP TO WISDOM

The Beginning of Wisdom
LISTEN ONLINE

CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you.

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

THE WORD OF THE LORD

Proverbs 1:20–23 (NIV)

Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,
she raises her voice in the public square;
on top of the wall she cries out,
at the city gate she makes her speech:

“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?
Repent at my rebuke!
Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,
I will make known to you my teachings.

CONSIDER THIS . . .

For many years now, I have begun the new year with a pass through Proverbs. It just so happens there are thirty-one of them, which nicely corresponds with the thirty-one days of January. Proverbs are short sayings meant to convey wisdom. They were distilled into these sayings in order to easily pass them on through parenting, mentoring, and other forms of leadership and character development.

Proverbs abound in our lives. We say things like, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," or "A stitch in time saves nine." The unique thing about the proverbs we are reading is that they, like everything else in the Bible, are the inspired Word of God. It's absolutely amazing when you think about it. We have the inspired, distilled wisdom of God in the form of wisdom sayings, or proverbs. And here's the amazing part: The wisdom of God has been written down in a book. That's what the excerpted text from today's chapter is getting at. The wisdom of God is readily available to all who want it.

Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,
she raises her voice in the public square;
on top of the wall she cries out,
at the city gate she makes her speech:
The wisdom of God is out in the open. It is public. The wisdom of God is not whispering some private revelation in the corner to a special class of people. No, the wisdom of God raises her voice in the city center. And, in case you missed wisdom there, she also cries out from the top of the city wall and at the city gate.

So if wisdom is this abundantly available, how do so many people miss it so badly? It's a good question. I think it's because there is a prerequisite quality of character needed to perceive and implement wisdom into one's life. What do you think it is? I think it's humility.

Just a few verses earlier, we get the proverb of all proverbs—the foundation on which all other proverbs stand. It is the beginning of wisdom.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction. (v. 7)
Bringing this character trait of humility to a very practical outworking, the core requirement for becoming a wise person is teachability. We all know people who are not teachable. That's not the question. The question is: Am I teachable? Even better: Can I become more teachable?

There's one more text I would like to reference from Proverbs 1. And that's a good place to end this beginning entry in the book of Proverbs.

Repent at my rebuke!
Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,
I will make known to you my teachings. (v. 23)
The pathway to teachability is repentance. It means to turn away from one thing and toward another. Makes sense, doesn't it?

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, you are the wisdom of heaven on earth—pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. You are my wisdom, and I am your witness. I want to know you better today. Praying in your name, amen.

JOURNAL PROMPTS

What verse(s) stands out to you from your reading of Proverbs 1 today?

If the “fear of the LORD” is the beginning of wisdom, what do you imagine is the end of wisdom?

Do you want to become a wise person? Have you asked God for the gift of wisdom?

What does being teachable mean to you? Who in your life comes to mind as a teachable person?

SING

Today, we will sing "Be Thou My Vision" (hymn 49) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer's Praise.

FOR THE AWAKENING,

John David (J. D.) Walt Jr. is the Sower-in-Chief for Seedbed and the pastor of the Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas.


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Over the forty days of the season of Lent—in his signature style— J. D. Walt weaves together Scripture and stories to enrich our journey to the cross with Jesus. Starting with what he calls the Question of All Questions—Who do you say that I am?, J. D. unfolds the compelling story of how his mentor taught him three transformational questions.

Simple and profound, these questions will awaken your faith and deepen your walk with Jesus. Whether you are looking for a contemplative personal journey or a shared way with others—even your whole church—Jesus Asking will train you in the art of the question and lead you to the answers only God can reveal.

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10/31/2024

WAKE UP TO JESUS-
October 31, 2024

EXODUS with J. D. WALT
Then Moses Led the People out of the Camp to Meet with God: The Only Thing that Will Have Mattered
Listen Online!

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

WORD
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”
Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, ‘Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’”
The Lord replied, “Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord, or he will break out against them.”
So Moses went down to the people and told them.
Exodus 19:16–25 (NIV)

CONSIDER THIS
There is so much going on in today’s text, yet there is really just one thing. Let’s rehearse the scene: Thunder. Lightning. Thick clouds descending. Loud trumpet blasting. Billowing smoke. Fiery furnace. Mountain shaking violently. People trembling.
So, did you catch the one thing? Because of so many things going on, it can be easy to miss the one thing actually happening. The one thing is not only the most important thing; it is really the only thing. It’s right there in verse 17.
Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God.
The one thing—meeting with God.
The giving of the Law on Mount Sinai can be described in many ways, and mostly, it is described as simply the Ten Commandments, but in its deepest and most important essence, it is something else: a meeting with God.
Years back, when we first started the New Room Conference, our team made a crucial decision. We decided our conference would not have a theme—that it would be about only one thing: meeting with God. Sure, we have speakers and music and snacks and breakouts just like other conferences, but the overarching, underlying, permeating point of everything we do would be meeting with God. We all agreed—we could pull off the most amazing conference ever, but if we did not meet with God, it would have been for naught. At the same time, we could miss a lot of cues, provide FEMA-level rations, cut the light show and smoke machine, and if we met with God, no one would care about the rest.
Church can be this way. I sometimes wonder why we require so much amenity to meet with God. We have massive sound systems to simulate the thunder, all kinds of flashy lighting to simulate the lightning, and, yes, we even have smoke machines to simulate the presence. I sometimes wonder if this masks the real absence of a true meeting with God. Don’t hear me wrong. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with loud music and lights and even smoke—until there is.
Consider the notion of having a quiet time or doing devotions. Do we conceive of these activities as a meeting with God, or have they become just things we do every day, faithful habits, or worse, boxes we check? I wonder if some dimension of repentance might include waking up from our predictable devotional patterns and getting back to the core essence of what they are really all about: meeting with God.
This is why I started doing the daily podcast (audio) version of the Wake-Up Call. I wanted to take the written word, as delivered in the email, into the experience of a shared meeting with God together. That's why I started singing the hymn every day and offering the additional exhortation. We aren't going through the motions. We are meeting with God. We are moving in response to the presence of the Lord. I know it may not be for everybody, but if you haven't tried it, I wish you would. It is now available on all major podcasting platforms (Apple, Spotify, etc.).
Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God.
Maybe the invitation is to step away from the familiarity of the camp so that we might re-find that meeting. Might shaking off our coziness help us recover the sense of God’s holiness? Let’s give David the last word on the subject today:
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God? (Ps. 42:1–2)

THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I receive your deliverance from casual and even cozy religion and into face-to-face meetings with you.
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Ps. 42:1–2). Breathe awakening into me, Lord. I open myself to you with all I have. Meet with me, Lord Jesus.
It will be for your glory, for others' gain, and for my good.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!

JOURNAL PROMPTS
• Do you see yourself as having a meeting with Jesus every day? Or are you just doing quiet time? See the difference?
• Are you staying with the movement of consecration in your life today? How does today’s encouragement build on that of yesterday? How are you responding?

THE HYMN
Today, we will sing "Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy" (hymn 502) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer's Praise. Get your copy here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

P.S. CAN YOU GIVE ME ONE MINUTE OF YOUR TIME TODAY?
If there is interest, I want to lead a 90-minute workshop in early December, helping people hear and discern a Word from God’s Word for 2025. Would you let me know of your interest by answering this one-minute (I promise) survey? CLICK HERE.


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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Subscribe to receive this Wake-Up Call in your inbox each day!

Join us to help sow this into more hearts, homes, churches, & cities!


1 Peter: Surprised by the Church Jesus is Building
This book helps followers of Jesus see themselves as Jesus sees them–people indwelled with his Spirit being built up to impact the world. You will move beyond education and knowing things about Jesus to spiritual awakening and transformation through daily immersion in Scripture. J.D. encourages reading the Bible with others and to put spiritual insights into action.

The Wonder of it All
Join us this Advent as we dig into the Christmas story found in Matthew and Luke’s gospel and look at those in the nativity story. Where did this story meet them, and where does it meet us, today? Books and church kit are available now!

Epic of Eden: Deborah
The newest Epic of Eden study from Sandra Richter dives into the book of Judges and the story of Deborah! The content unpacks why the book of Judges remains critical to our lives today and how we can apply these stories to our daily walk with Jesus.







Copyright © 2024 Seedbed, All rights reserved.
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10/30/2024

JESUS CAME SO WE CAN SEE. THIS SUNDAY- WE WILL FINISH CHAPTER 9 OF JOHN. V 35 TELLS US THE BLIND SEE- THAT WHY JESUS CAAME -SO WE CAN SEE.
HE CAME FOR THE SPIRITUAL BLIND
1. THE BLIND SEE V 35
A. JESUS TAKE INITIATIVE- HE SEEK THOSE WHO ARE BLIND.
B. JESUS ALONE HAS THE POWER TO OPEN EYES
C. TO MOVE FROM SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS TO SIGHT, ADMIT THAT YOUR BLIND.
D. TO MOVE FROSM SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS TO SIGHT, BLEIEVE IN JESUS FOR WHO HE IS
1. WHO IS THE SON OF MAN ?
2. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE IN HIM ?
3. DO YOU BELIEVE IN HIM- THE SON OF MAN?
E. WHEN YOU TRULY BELIEVE IN JESUS, YOU GAIN SPIRITUAL SIGHT, CONFESS JESUS AS LORD, AND BOW BEFORE HIM IN WORSHIP.
CONFESSING JESUS AS LORD
THE SEEING BLIND V. 39-41
TO STAY IN SPIRITUAL DARKNESS- YOU SEE YOUR OWN AND NEED NOT THE SAVIOR, YOU REJECT THE GIFT OF SIGHT FROM JESUS THIS RESULTD IN UNBELIEF AND ETERNAL JUDGEMENT.

THE SEEING BLIND- JESUS CAME FOR JUDGMENT.

10/30/2024

WAKE UP TO JESUS-

October 30, 2024

EXODUS with J. D. WALT
Go to the People and Consecrate Them: The Holiness of God and Casual Religion
Listen Online!

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

WORD
The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. They are to be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”
After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people, “Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.”
Exodus 19:9–15 (NIV)

CONSIDER THIS
The word of the day today is: consecrate.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.”
What does that word mean to you—consecrate? The Hebrew word is qadash, and it means to set apart something or someone as holy unto the Lord. Why would God want the people to be consecrated? There is only one reason—because God is holy.
“Holy! Holy! Holy!” roars the voices of the angels and the archangels and the elders and the living creatures gathered around the throne of God. They never stop shouting, “Holy! Holy! Holy! is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3) cried the six-winged seraphim, calling out to one another around the throne of God.
“Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty . . . God in three persons, blessed Trinity,” sings the great hymn.
“Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory,” declares the ancient rite spoken around the Lord’s Table all over the world.
God is holy. Yet, we live in an age with such a thin and sentimental vision of God. If the Bible says anything about God, and it says many things, it says this: God is holy. How have we come to speak of and approach God so casually? There is only one explanation: We have lost sight of his truest nature, of the character that defines all his qualities—God is holy.
God is love, to be sure, but the character and quality of his love is holiness. It is not just another wispy projection of human love. No, the love of God is holy love. It is of another order and comes from another place. The Spirit of God is called “the Comforter,” yet we must be reminded he is called “the Holy Spirit,” and he comes like a fire. God’s holiness burns with the blaze of ten thousand suns. Indeed, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, “For our God is a consuming fire” (12:29). Did you catch the extreme nature of the instructions?
"Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. They are to be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live."
When was the last time you meditated on the holiness of God? It has been too long for me. Perhaps, like you, I have an awareness and understanding of the concept of the holiness of God, but it is far from top of mind in my daily life. Upon reflection, my view of God tends to lean toward the more approachable and embracing features of God we see in Scripture. The problem with this is when I lose immediate awareness of the holiness of God, my relationship with God becomes casual. From here, I slowly but surely begin to see God as the mirror image of myself. Holiness is just the opposite—seeing myself in the mirrored image of God.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow."
Consecration is the move to offer oneself wholeheartedly to God. It's why every day on the Wake-Up Call, we begin with the prayer of consecration. Consecration prepares the way for personal transformation, and personal transformation opens the way for public demonstration.
Far from a ramped-up religion of striving, which is so often signified by earnestness and zeal, consecration is the pathway of humility and surrender.

THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I join the cries of heaven's throngs: Holy! Holy! Holy!
I receive your deliverance from a casual relationship with Almighty God and into an awakened and ever-awakening way of consecrated life.
Holy! Holy! Holy!
Would you awaken me to your holiness? And would you forgive me for getting the closing words of my prayer backward? I repent, which is to say, I reverse myself in now saying:
It will be for your glory, for others' gain, and for my good.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!

JOURNAL PROMPTS
• Do you enter into the prayer of consecration with me each day on the Wake-Up Call? Perhaps you might try listening if you do not already do so. It can be so easy to skip past it otherwise or just quickly read the words. I guess I'm asking, what is your experience with this consecration work every day? How might it be more real?

THE HYMN
Today, we will sing "Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated" (hymn 586) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer's Praise. Get your copy here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com


Share


Tweet


Forward

WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Subscribe to receive this Wake-Up Call in your inbox each day!

Join us to help sow this into more hearts, homes, churches, & cities!


1 Peter: Surprised by the Church Jesus is Building
This book helps followers of Jesus see themselves as Jesus sees them–people indwelled with his Spirit being built up to impact the world. You will move beyond education and knowing things about Jesus to spiritual awakening and transformation through daily immersion in Scripture. J.D. encourages reading the Bible with others and to put spiritual insights into action.

The Wonder of it All
Join us this Advent as we dig into the Christmas story found in Matthew and Luke’s gospel and look at those in the nativity story. Where did this story meet them, and where does it meet us, today? Books and church kit are available now!

Epic of Eden: Deborah
The newest Epic of Eden study from Sandra Richter dives into the book of Judges and the story of Deborah! The content unpacks why the book of Judges remains critical to our lives today and how we can apply these stories to our daily walk with Jesus.







Copyright © 2024 Seedbed, All rights reserved.
You were subscribed to the newsletter as a result of your purchase from Seedbed.

Our mailing address is:
Seedbed
415 Bridge St.
Franklin, TN 37064

Add us to your address book

Warning: Unsubscribing from this email removes you from all our lists, including any programs you may already have enrolled in with us. It may prevent us from fulfilling your product orders, too. To be removed from this list only, click here to update your content preferences. If you're sure you'd like to be removed from ALL Seedbed, Wake-Up Call, and New Room emails, click here to unsubscribe from all emails.

10/28/2024

WAKE UP TO JESUS-

October 28, 2024

EXODUS with J. D. WALT
The Work Is Too Heavy for You: Can You Receive Help?
Listen Online!

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

WORD
The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”
Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”
Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.
Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.
Exodus 18:13–27 (NIV)

CONSIDER THIS
Jethro is one great father-in-law. Yesterday, he was a powerful prophetic witness to the one true and living God. Today, he is an executive coach!
Wisdom can be hard to come by in the wilderness, but when it comes, it is oh so practical. Moses’s father-in-law replied:
“What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you.”
So the advice is pretty straightforward and doesn’t need further explanation. It can be brought down to a single word: delegate. Despite how obvious it appears to the onlooker, it was not apparent to Moses. That’s the observation I want to make here. We all find ourselves deeply immersed in our particular lives and contexts. We are so deep in it can be hard to see even the most obvious things.
We all need a Jethro or three in our lives. We need people who are close enough to us and know us sufficiently well to feel the freedom and permission to say, “What you are doing is not good.” We need the kind of elders in our lives who love us enough both to encourage us and also to tell us when we are doing it wrong.
I wonder who among us (present company included) needs to hear this admonition today?
The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.
Are you the kind of person whom others can help? I guess what I'm asking is, Can you accept and receive help from others? A lot of people can't. Are you embarrassed by the level of your chaotic mess and don't want to be exposed? Are you too controlling to let someone else come in and exercise their discretion in your situation? Are you too self-sufficient to admit you have a real need for help?
We all have great limitations and definite incapacities. That is not the problem. The problem is when we can't own those limitations and incapacities. At this point, they become handicaps on the fulfillment of God's capacities in our lives. Hear me right. We don't limit God. We just handicap our ability to be effective agents of God's capacities in our lives. Jethro spotted it immediately in Moses and gently but directly called it out.
The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.
Okay, I'll go first. I tend to be the kind of person who thinks they actually can't be helped—that it would be too difficult to bring someone into the depths of my unique ways of ordering and organizing things. I tell myself it would be too difficult to explain it all, and by the time I did, I could have already done it myself. The wilderness is a good place to let the Holy Spirit sort us out on such matters as this and to deliver us from the chaos and into new creation.

THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I am not asking for you to deliver me from my limitations but rather to deliver me from my tendency to try and deny or cover over my limitations. Deliver me from my self-sufficiency, and my pride, and my unwillingness to trust others, and my need to be in control and to manage everything myself. I receive your deliverance into a place of embracing my limitations and even embracing my incapacities and my weaknesses. This is where your strength will become manifest and even magnified through others who bring gifts and capacities to the table. I receive your deliverance from the chaos of my making and into the new creation of your making.
It will be for my good, for others' gain, and for your glory.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!

JOURNAL PROMPTS
• Are you the kind of person whom others can help? I guess what I'm asking is, Can you accept and receive help from others? Who are the Jethros in your life?
• Who do you serve as a Jethro in their life?

THE HYMN
Today, we will sing "All the Way My Savior Leads Me" (hymn 150) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer's Praise. Get your copy here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

P.S. CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA
In today's podcast I made mention of an incredible Seedbed Christmas gift idea—our super amazing leather-bound hymnal—Our Great Redeemer's Praise. I hope you will check it out here.


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