The Greatest of All Leaders

Daily Reading:  Hebrews 13

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13.7-8)

Devotional Thought: The Bible is filled with the stories of God-appointed, God-anointed leaders such as Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, Deborah, Miriam, and many others.  We know of many dedicated leaders in the church such as Billy Graham.  In my own denomination, the Church of the Nazarene, there is our founder Phineas Bresee and other early church leaders and missionaries. 

So, who are our leaders who spoke the word of God?  Pastors, yes, but think of others who have spoken the word of God to you – Sunday School teachers, Bible School teachers, parents, grandparents, other family members and church friends.  We are to remember them as our spiritual leaders, but also, we are to consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  Paul said, “And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians. 11.1 NLT).  Even if you have been a Christian for only a relatively short time, you can no doubt think of some godly people who have influenced you.  You have considered the outcome of their way of life and can say, “I want to be just like them and have that kind of faith.”

Then the writer abruptly says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (v. 8).  It may seem disconnected from the statements about remembering our leaders, but Jesus is the foundation of the faith of those leaders.  His immutability and unchangeableness are contrasted with the changing generations of men.  People change, governments change, laws change, but Jesus never changes. 

Dale Noel

Prayer: Lord, I thank you for the godly leaders you have placed in my life, people who have spoken the Word of God to me.  Help me to consider their lives and to imitate their faith.  Most of all, help me to find strength and hope in Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 56.7-13

7 For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!

8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

9 Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.

10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise,

11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

12 I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.

13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.