Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]

Category: Where the Bush is Burning

Let These Go

Let These Go

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Then He asked them again, Whom are you seeking? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way. 

John 18:7-8 

The scene in the Garden of Gethsemane is a tense one. Christ has completed His agonizing prayer. The disciples have roused from sleep. The mob has entered the garden with torches, lanterns, and weapons. Judas is there to play his evil part in the drama. Christ, calm as ever, asks, ‘Whom are you seeking?’ They answer, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ He responds, ‘I am He.’ They draw back and fall to the ground. He asks them the same question again. They respond with the same answer to which He says, ‘I have told you that I am He.’ What He does next is the mark of truly outstanding leadership. He says, ‘Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way.’ Christ safeguards His people by interposing Himself between them and those who would do them harm. This is the hallmark of great leadership. He shows all who would imitate Him how to look after the those who follow them. Christ continues to secure His people. He give to them eternal life and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone pluck them out of His hand. This gives us abundant confidence in Him. He has shown Himself in every way to be that Great Shepherd of the sheep.  

Our Great God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You safeguard Your people. 
We praise You that, because You do, 
they are secure forevermore. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

And Will Declare It

And Will Declare It

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And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. 

John 17:26 

Christ reveals God to us. The Scripture affirms this on numerous occasions. At the beginning of his gospel John writes, ‘No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.’ As Christ closes His High Priestly Prayer He confirms this by saying, ‘I have declared to them Your name.’ He adds to that, ‘and will declare it.’ In due course of time Christ would return to heaven. Would He cease to proclaim the Father’s name then? He would not. He indicates that the Holy Spirit would take up the work. Speaking of the work of the Spirit He says, ‘All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.’ We see from the rest of the New Testament that this is exactly what happened. What about us? Will Christ continue to declare the Father’s name to us? Is our text referring to the disciples only or to us also? Inasmuch as He declared it to them, He has, in giving us their testimony, declared it to us as well. In addition, the Holy Spirit Who indwells all the redeemed does take the things of Christ and show them to us. In showing us Christ, He shows us the Father, for Christ is all there is for us to see of God. Christ reveals God to us and as He does, we come to know Him.  

Our Good and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that Christ has revealed You to us. 
We praise You that the Holy Spirit 
continues His work.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Old And New Commandments

Old And New Commandments

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Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. 

I John 2:7-8 

God is love. Christ is God. Love is the fulfillment of the law. Christ came to fulfill the law by His active demonstration of love. He leads us to love as the imitation of Him. When Christ spoke to His disciples on the night before He went to the cross, He summarized all these things by saying, ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.’ The Jewish religionists had turned the word of God into a barren collection of regulations devoid of love. Christ came to bring the law to life by the Spirit. The religionists would have none of it, or Him. Christ reintroduced the true heart of God into the society which had lost it by their excessive insistence on the rules they had superimposed on what God had originally said. As John writes, he picks up the thread of the discussion which Christ had begun. He declares that what he is writing is an old commandment and at the same time a new commandment. It is old as God Himself Who is love and new as Christ was on the scene of time when He appeared as the manifestation of the love of God. Our understanding and experience of Christ leads us to love.  

Our Good and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that You are love. 
We praise You that as You show us Christ, 
You teach us to love. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Go Therefore

Go Therefore

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And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has even given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. 

Matthew 28:18-20 

Christ has the authority to send His people into the world to bear witness to Him. The context of the verse we have been considering lately is the Great Commission. Christ, having risen from the dead, sends His disciples  into the world with His message. He has the authority to send them. He would later say to them, ‘but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ Thus He made the world their parish to preach Christ. While in the narrow sense we can say He was speaking to these few whom we call the Apostles, or sent ones, the work of bearing witness is broader than what these few could do. In the wider context, bearing witness to Christ is for all His people. All of us have some realm of influence. We touch lives every day. Within whatever context God puts us, we have occasions which arise quite naturally when we can point those around us to Christ. We are His witnesses in those situations just as certainly as were the disciples. Christ is worthy of our speaking of Him. He tailor-makes our opportunities by His providence.  

Our Good and Wise God, 
we rejoice that You have given us the privilege of  
speaking of You. 
We praise You that You provide opportunities for us 
to point people to Christ.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

He Waits For Us

He Waits For Us

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For it is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom. 

Matthew 26:28-29 

Christ controls His future and ours. On the night before He went to the cross, as He was in the upper room with His disciples, He instituted the communion feast. He took the bread, broke it, and distributed it among the disciples saying, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ After that, He took the cup and gave it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you.’ Our text is His next statement. For our purpose today, we are dwelling upon the second portion of the text, ‘but I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.’ Christ is the Host at His communion feast. He instituted it with an eye to the future. As the perfect host, He has determined to wait until all His guests are gathered together before He participates in the feast again. This shows us the magnanimous nature of our Savior. He will not be wholly satisfied, or willing to enter fully into the celebration of eternity until all the ransomed people of God are saved to sin no more. This is a joyful thought for us who are still journeying through this world. The Master of the Feast waits for us until the appointed hour. 

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that You are preparing all things for our future. 
We look forward to that day, 
when we shall sit with You in the kingdom. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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