10 Minutes To Better Living: Daily Applications From the Life of Christ

By Steve Biddison

In just 10 minutes a day, you can be on your way to living a better life? This easy to read daily devotional is filled with simple truths and practical applications from the life of Christ.

Join me on a journey as we study our Savior through His day to day life and find simple truths that you can immediately put into action.

10 minutes and a willing heart to follow God is all it takes to help put you on the road to better living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sword and Shield Publishing
• Release date: Dec 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497781108

Book preview

10 Minutes to Better Living

Daily Applications From the Life of Christ

By Steven A. Biddison

Published by Sword and Shield Publishing

Ebook Edition

All rights reserved.  No parts of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

First edition: December 2011

Second edition: December 2013

For more information, please contact  [e-mail] or look for me on facebook under steve biddison books 

Follow my blog on my website at www.stevebiddison.wordpress.com

Copyright © 2013 Steve Biddison

All rights reserved.

Acknowledgements

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Putting together a devotional of this magnitude has often times been a struggle, while at the same time an absolute joy to write.  The idea of it started over a decade ago when I was a youth pastor and wrote devotions for my youth group.  About six months ago, I decided to take those devotionals and shape them into a yearlong devotional.

First, this book would not have been possible without a relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  The life that He lived on earth, the example that He was, the lessons that He taught, and the ultimate sacrifice that He made was the inspiration behind my writing.

Secondly, I would be amiss if I didn’t offer a sincere and heart-felt thanks to my wife for her undying patience as I stayed up late at nights typing on the manuscript after working all day at my real job.  I know she is ready to have her husband back full time in the living room, not at the computer.  I also owe my son, Landry, a great deal of thanks.  I know as an eight year old, he didn’t understand why Daddy was so busy.  But I know he is ready to get a full time dad back again.

I also want to thank four of my pastors over the decades of my lives.  Much of what is in this book was derived from sermon notes I have taken over the years.  In many ways, their teaching became the inspiration for my writing.  Dennis Biddison, my father and pastor for over two decades of my life at Fellowship Bible Church in New Braunfels, Texas.  His life and practical teaching laid the foundations for what  I believe.  Robert Emmitt, pastor of Community Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas whose ability to turn a Bible story into practical lessons for life became the standard of how I read the Bible now.  Robert Ganaway, pastor of Dayspring Christian Fellowship of New Braunfels, Texas, who gave me the position of youth pastor that allowed me to begin writing devotions.  And to my current pastor, Dennis Gallaher, of Freedom Fellowship of New Braunfels, Texas. whose teaching and fellowship rekindled my desire to write this devotional book.

Learn to Become More Like Christ in:

10 Minutes a Day,

5 Days a Week,

50 Weeks a Year

How To use this devotional

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10 Minutes To Better Living!  That’s not my promise to you.  It is God’s.  This devotional book is loaded with practical applications and truths from the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.  If you are a Christian, a follower of His, then you already know that if you follow Jesus, your life cannot help but be better. 

What separates this devotional from most others is that we look strictly at the four Gospels that tell the story of the life of Christ and derive practical applications from each segment of His life.  This is not a deep doctrinal book, nor is it a narrative telling the step by step actions of Jesus.  It is, however, a great opportunity to sit at Christ’s feet and learn both from what He did and what He said.

Each day is divided into different subsections.  You first see the passage of Scripture that we look at that day.  I would encourage you to read that passage on your own as there is never a substitute for reading God’s Word.  In some cases, the same passage is used for multiple days so it would be your choice if you want to read the same passage again each day.  Along with the reference to that passage, there is often a short explanation or story to help you know what is going on in that particular passage.

The next section, we call the Life Lessons section.  This is when we look into practical life lessons we can learn from that section of Bible verses.  Each day will give you practical advice and ideas on how to live your life.

Finally, in the last section, you are asked to Make it Personal.  This is when you have a chance to look deeper into your own life as to how to apply the lessons we just talked about.  Although you might be tempted to quickly answer most those questions in your head, I would strongly suggest that if you really want to deepen your walk with God, you take the last section very seriously and take your time working through it.  I would suggest that you either begin a journal to answer those questions, or perhaps on your ereader itself, you take those personal notes answering the questions.  If you are reading the paperback, I suggest you write in the book itself.

This devotional journal going through the life of Christ is designed to take you about a year.  I know often times people began a devotional plan and things come up that knock them off schedule.  They get frustrated when they get behind and frustration often leads to stopping the program all together.  That is why this devotional is designed to take about 10 minutes a day, five days a week, for 50 weeks.  If you fall behind during a certain week, you have the weekend to catch up.  If you miss several days due to holidays or vacations that change your schedule, you have two weeks built in that you can catch up.

10 Minutes To Better Living!  Follow the model and the teaching of Christ for 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for a whole year and you will learn so many practical applications that will make your life better.

Day 1 Let Jesus Be Your Guide This Year

Read John 1:1-15

The Gospel of John begins telling us that before the earth was ever formed, Jesus existed as the Word of God.  A few verses later, John refers to Jesus as the Light of the world.  It is my prayer that as we journey through the life and teaching of Christ over this next year that each day we will find practical lessons to live by that not only draw us closer to God, but will also allow us to live a better life.

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Life Lessons

As we take this journey through the life and teachings of Christ, keep in mind that both His life and His teachings (the guiding Light and the Word) carry valuable lessons that we can learn and put into practice. 

Throughout this year, we will go through the Gospels in a close to chronological order.  Often times, we will see the same story written from different perspectives, but each time we discuss a story, we will view it from a different perspective with totally different lessons we can learn.  Each day ends with a Making it Personal section where you will be asked to take what we have discussed and write down what God is saying to you through it.  Just as John tells us that the Word became flesh and lived among us,  by writing down what God shows us and putting it into practice, we are once again taking God’s Word and putting it into the skin of this world as we obey what He says in order to reach our world for Christ.

If we fully view Jesus as the Word, we also know that He is the source of all truth.  If we follow the model He set before us and listen to the words of His teachings, then we are living in such a way to prove that He is the Word.  Following His teachings will lead to better living.

If we fully see Jesus as the Light, we will see both His life and His teachings as a model and source for guidance.  As we learn to model our lives after Him and obey the words He says, He will guide us to things we have never imagined before.  Following His example will also lead to better living.

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Making it Personal

Will you make a commitment to follow Christ’s teachings and example, as best as you can throughout this next year?

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For best results, will you make a commitment to record your answers in the Making it Personal section each day? 

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Write a prayer of commitment telling God you will do that.

Day 2 Who me?  A Teacher?  No Way!

Read  Luke 1:1-4

The thought of being a teacher scares some people.  They know they could never get in front of a group of people and speak.  Most people could never be on stage and many Christians feel that they could never even lead a Sunday school class or a Bible study.  They are either too shy or feel that they don’t know enough about the Bible.  How could they?  None of us were there with Jesus when He actually walked on the earth, taught the people how to follow Him, and performed all His miracles.  It would be hard for us to tell someone from personal experience exactly what happened when Jesus walked on the earth. In the court of law, our testimony would simply be called hearsay.  However,  if we are a Christian, then we do have a personal account of what Jesus has done in our life and that simple testimony has the power to change our world.

Take Luke, for instance, the author of the New Testament book by that name.  Did you know that he was not one of Jesus’ disciples?  He did not walk with Jesus every step of the way and witness all the miracles and teachings of Jesus. He was never around Him to hear His teaching.  He could not write the Gospel of Luke from a personal account of Jesus.  Instead he carefully investigated all of these accounts of the life of Christ so that he could give an accurate account of the life and teachings of Jesus.  The book of Luke is the letter he wrote to a friend of his named Theophilus, which means lover of God.  He used the book as a tool to explain the truth about Jesus.

This devotional journal that follows the life of Christ will be such a tool for you. Throughout this coming year, you will not only learn about the life and teachings of Jesus, but you will also learn how to apply His teaching to your life right where you are.  If you are already a Christian, then hopefully you are already a Theophilus, a lover of God.  If you are, then you will be glad to know that this book on the life of Christ is made just for you. 

Life Lessons

Luke gave us a perfect example of what we are to do with the knowledge that we gain or already have.  God wants each of us to learn and teach others about Jesus.  You may not be in an official position to teach and you may not like the idea of getting in front of a lot of people.  Hey, that’s OK.  Luke didn’t get in front of a lot of people to share what he had learned about Jesus.  He simply wrote a long letter to a friend.  There are many ways of teaching.  If you are a follower of Christ, then you ARE a teacher of Christianity.  Ask yourself the following questions:

What have I learned about Christianity?  Luke did a lot of research and interviewing to find out about Christ.  If you have been reading the Bible and going to Church, then you have already learned a lot about Christianity.  If not, this devotional journal can help you get started.

Whom am I sharing it with?  Luke wrote to a man named Theophilus. Are you sharing Christianity with anyone?  If you know more about Christianity than someone else, then you should be sharing it with them.  It could be someone you work with or it could be your own children. Whoever it is, God wants you to share Christianity with them.

How are you sharing it with them?  Luke wrote a book.  You can choose any form you want.  You might do it via texting, email or little cards.  You might have regular Bible study times with someone.  You might just do it on the golf course, at lunch, or while shopping.  The means are not as important as the fact that God wants you to share your Christianity. 

Making it Personal

Write the names or initials of at least three people with whom you feel God wants you to share His love.

What is your plan to begin sharing Christ with these people?

Day 3  Someone Really Knows You

Read Luke 3:23-38 

A question many people ask is, Does anyone really know me or understand me?  Often times your friends don’t really know the real you.  They only know what you let them know.  You might even feel that your spouse does not seem to understand you.  They seem to think they know why you are acting a certain way, but do they really understand what is going on inside your heart?  Probably not.  I’m sure that some of you might even say that you don’t really understand yourself.  You are not sure why you feel the way you do or why you even do some of the things you do.  Life can be rough.  Even when you are surrounded by people, you often feel so alone and isolated.  Despite how you feel, you are not alone.  Jesus not only knows your name, he knows you and understands you.

Admittedly, today’s reading seems about as exciting as reading a phone book.  We see the genealogy of Christ dating all the way back from Adam.  That is about 4,000 years of a family tree.  Pretty incredible!

Life Lesson

In the genealogy of Jesus Christ, we see how careful God was to record and preserve each name from Adam all the way to Jesus.  Each name, no matter how insignificant it might seem, is important to God and has a place in history.

Several years ago there was a sitcom on television about a group of people who hung out in a bar.  The success of the bar and the show, both known as Cheers, was that you could come to one place on earth where everybody knows your name.  It was a haven for the characters in the show and even for those faithful watchers who tuned in each Thursday night to see the show.  So often in the world today, we don't feel important.  We feel that very few people actually really care who we are.  We feel that to most people we are either a number or at best, the person who works at a certain job.  Very few people, if any, really know who we are inside of us. 

However, in the opening verses of the New Testament, we see some profound truths that God wants us to understand in our hearts.

Jesus knows your name and cares about you.

You are important to Him and His plans for the world.

He has an important work for you to do.

It is no accident that you were born when and where you were.  God had it planned to put you there so He could use you like He could use no other.

Making it Personal

What does your name mean? 

Do you know what God's plan is for you in this world?  If so, what is it?

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Are there times that you feel like no one really knows you or understands who you really are inside?  Write out a prayer to God right now telling Him how you feel.

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Now write a thank you to God as you begin to understand that though no one on earth may really know or understand you, God does.  How does that make you feel towards Him?

Day 4  It Doesn’t Matter Who You Are or What You’ve Done

Read  Matthew 1:1-17 

God can’t really use me.  I have blown it so many times, there is no chance that I could be of any use to God!!! I can’t be anything.  Don’t you understand the family I came from?  Don’t you know what I have done? How could I amount to anything after having been such a loser?  These thoughts often echo through our minds. But the reality is that God loves using people who are not supposed to succeed.  In fact, sometimes the more of a loser the person is, the greater God uses him.

Matthew opens the New Testament with the same type of genealogy as we read about last time. Only this time we see the line from Abraham to Joseph, who was Jesus’ adoptive father on earth.  We see several great people of God like King David and Abraham.  But we also see people who were not so great in history.  King Manasseh, one of the very wicked kings in Jewish history is in that line.  We see Gentiles who were considered to be unclean by Jewish standards and we see women who unfortunately in that society were not usually deemed important enough to mention.  Perhaps most interesting is that we even see a prostitute in the line of Jesus. 

Life Lesson

We see from Matthew’s account of the genealogy of Christ that God does not play favorites.  He does not only work with those who have good backgrounds.  He believes in and uses people with all kinds of baggage.  Take a look at these 42 generations between Abraham and Jesus and we can see that God accepts people for who they are and then uses them.

We see that God has a particular interest in adopted people.  In a very precise way God laid out the generations from Abraham to Jesus’ adoptive father.  He viewed Joseph’s role as so important that He included Jesus in Joseph’s family tree.  This is particularly important since all of us who are followers of Christ are also considered to be adopted into God’s family.  If you are adopted here on this earth, then you need to realize that God has a special place in His heart for you.

We see God is not going to hold against you the fact that your parents were bad.  As we see in the genealogy in Matthew 1, there were some pretty bad people down the line from Christ.  God still chose to use their line to lead to the birth of His Son.

We see God is not going to hold it against you for past sins you committed.  Rahab was a prostitute, yet she is still listed in the line that led to Jesus.  God forgives all sin.  If you are presently serving God and living for Him, He is going to accept you and work with you.

Making it Personal:

If you are adopted, take a few minutes to write out a special prayer to God, first, thanking Him for your adoptive parents and second, acknowledging and thanking Him for having a special place in His heart for you.  If you have adopted children, write a prayer thanking God for them.

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If your family has had some trouble in the past (or present), write out a short prayer for them, but at the same time, thank God that He has adopted you into His family. Take a few minutes to  begin to realize that He is not going to hold your family’s wrongs against you.

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If you have had some trouble in your past (or even in your present) that you think might be keeping you away from fully experiencing God, write out a prayer right now confessing it to God and then realize that He loves you despite anything that you have or are doing wrong.

Day 5  What To Do When You Have Unanswered Prayers (Part 1)

Read Luke 1:18-25 

Several years ago the country singer Garth Brooks came out with a song entitled Unanswered Prayers.  The song tells of a grown man realizing that he was thankful that God did not answer the prayers he prayed as a teenager that God would give him a certain girl.  Years later he came to understand that he was far better off without her.  But I can guarantee that the knowledge he had as an adult didn’t keep him from having pain and heartache as a teenager. 

You can probably point to times in your life that you have really prayed for something and God just didn’t seem to answer that prayer.  The knowledge that one day you will understand why doesn’t really stop the pain you feel right now.  Today we are going to learn from the life of Zechariah and Elisabeth how we should react when God just doesn’t seem to answer our prayers.

After having heard from the angel that in their old age they were going to have a son, Zechariah questioned what he had just heard.  The angel then told Zechariah that since he did not believe what God was telling him that he would be mute until the time the child was born.  So for the next nine months or so, Zechariah could not speak a word.  However, it soon became obvious that Elisabeth was pregnant.  During these nine months, Zechariah was no doubt frustrated by his inability to speak.  However,  I am sure that he praised God daily for answering the prayer he had thought was going to be unanswered forever.  He was going to have a child.

Life Lessons

I am sure that you can point to sometime in your life that you have prayed for something and God just did not seem to answer it.  We all go through those times and we always will.  Unfortunately, that is part of the everyday Christian life.  We don’t always get what we want.  We don’t always get what we want from our employers, our spouses, or our friends, and we don’t always get what we want from God.  But in today’s reading, we see a family that prayed and prayed and finally got what they wanted.

Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying a godly prayer for many years that they would have a child.  There was nothing wrong with that prayer.  It’s probably a better prayer than we pray sometimes about wanting God to give us the new sports car.  But for years their prayer went unanswered.  It was not because God was punishing them or that they were not living right.  The Bible explains that they were very Godly people.  In fact, their lives were so Godly that they are an example to us on how to live our lives, even when we don’t seem to get our prayers answered.

Zechariah and Elizabeth probably prayed for a child for 30 or 40 years with no answer.  But through all this time, they did three things that we should be doing in our prayer life when it seems our prayers go unanswered.  We will look at the first thing today.

They stayed faithful to God.  They did not give up on God because He was not answering their prayer.  They continued serving God no matter what He gave or didn’t give them.

Making it Personal

Is there something you have been praying for that seems to have gone unanswered?  Write a personal prayer to God asking Him again to answer that prayer.

Day 6  What To Do When You Have Unanswered Prayers (Part 2)

Read Luke 1:18-25 

We all go through periods in our life that we don’t seem to get answers from God.  Last time we began looking at the response Zechariah and Elisabeth had while praying for decades for a son. We saw that through it all, they remained faithful to God.  Today, we will see two more things they did that serve as an example for us when we are going through the times where our prayers aren’t answered.

Life Lessons

The second thing they did during their long wait to hear from God was stay hopeful.  Despite years of unanswered prayer, they remained hopeful that one day God was going to answer their prayer.  Their prayer probably went something like this, God, You know the desires of our hearts and how we want You to answer our prayer for a child.  But, Lord, I am willing to accept that You might not want to answer that prayer if it means You are going to get more glory out of us remaining childless.  However, we will remain faithful and hopeful that You will grant it to us someday.  If not, give us the grace to accept Your will.  Amen.

The third thing they did was stay busy.  Zechariah and Elisabeth did not sit around moping and pouting during all those years they were not getting the answer to their prayers.  They may not have gotten everything they wanted in life, but they were still doing what they could where they could for God.

Making it Personal

If you are going through a time where you are not getting answers to your prayers, follow the examples of Zechariah and Elisabeth.  Stay faithful to God, stay hopeful in what He might do, and stay busy doing what God wants you to do instead of feeling sorry for yourself.  You never know what God is going to do.  Zechariah and Elisabeth were doing all these things and finally, in God’s time, they saw their prayer answered.  You never know when God is going to grant you your request.  It might be just around the corner.  It might be next week or next month or even next year.  The truth is we don’t know when God’s timing is.  Only He knows.  He wants us to stay faithful, hopeful, and busy while we keep praying. 

While you go through these times of unanswered prayers, are you staying faithful to God, living for Him, and following His instructions for life?

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Have you given up hope that God will answer or are you still remaining hopeful?

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Are you staying busy doing what you should be doing and not sitting around doing nothing because God has not yet answered your prayers?  If you are staying busy for God, what are you doing?

Day 7  Be a Difference Maker

Read Luke 1:57-66

Earlier we discussed Zechariah and Elisabeth’s desire and prayer to have a child.  They had remained faithful to God all during their time of waiting for God to give them a child.  We also saw that God took Zechariah’s voice away only to give it back when the prayer was answered. When Zechariah and Elisabeth finally had their son, all their friends were excited for them.  Who wouldn’t be?  They had just witnessed a miracle from God.  Word spread throughout the whole area about the new baby born to the old couple and how Zechariah got his voice back.  People were amazed and began to wonder what special reason God had to bring this special boy into the world.  They wanted to know what the child was going to be because it was obvious that God’s hand was on Him. 

Life Lessons

Many Christians want to be strong and faithful to the Lord in their world.  Are you one of those Christians?  Do you want to affect your world for the Lord?  Do you want your life to have an impact in the world?  Are you one who is not going to be satisfied with the status quo?  This is a time perhaps like no other in history that is full of opportunities to be difference makers.  Perhaps you are one of those people who cannot stand the idea of being average.  You might have even made commitments during various times in your life that you were going to be a light to your world.

John the Baptist would grow up to be a great difference maker in his world.  And in so doing, he has left us a checklist to see what kind of difference we are making in our world today.  If you want to be that kind of difference maker, you will begin to demonstrate the same qualities John the Baptist showed in his time on earth.

He turned many to the Lord.  As a result of our life of obedience to Christ, we cannot find true satisfaction without making an impact for Jesus.  We can turn people’s hearts to the Lord and we can do this by taking precise steps each day that include, having our own personal quiet time, praying, talking about Jesus whenever the opportunity presents itself, and meeting the needs of those around us.  These kinds of purposeful actions will be noticed and will make a difference as others will follow our example and turn to God.

Making it Personal

How many times a week on the average do you spend reading verses from the Bible?

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Look back on the past week.  Estimate how many minutes you spent praying?

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Other than at church, have you mentioned the name of Jesus to anyone else this week?  Who?

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Briefly tell of a time this past week where you saw someone in need and did something to help meet that need.

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Using the above criteria, how would you presently rate your ability to be a difference maker in your world?

Day 8  Do Not Make Yourself Look Better By Putting Others Down

Read  Matthew 1:18-25 

Why is it that so many times we try to make ourselves look better by making other people look worse?  We know it’s wrong, but all too often we find ourselves doing just that.  I think maybe it is part of our human nature.  We think that if we can make others look worse, it will make us look better.  But it is never fun to be on the other end of that.  In fact, it hurts.  It would make life so much easier if we would all stop acting so selfishly by putting others down and instead find a way to lift others up.  The truth is we are made to look better if we help make others look better.  Today, we are going to read about how Joseph chose the better path by not putting Mary down even when he had every right to do so.

When Joseph found out that his fiancé, Mary, was pregnant, he was understandably upset.  He knew he was not the father, so therefore the only thing he could think of was that she had cheated on him.  He had every right to let everyone know what had happened so that no one would think poorly of him.  But the Bible records that because Joseph was a good man and wanted to serve God, he did not want to humiliate Mary.  So he was going to settle the whole thing quietly.

But then an angel came to him and told him not be afraid to take Mary as his wife.  She had not cheated on him.  The angel went on to explain that the child Mary was carrying was conceived by God himself and that she was carrying the Son of God. 

Life Lesson

Joseph had every right to humiliate Mary and make her a public disgrace because she was both pregnant without being married and the child did not belong to her fiancé.  But his reaction went against both human nature as well as the custom of the day.  The Bible says that because he was a righteous man, he did not want to disgrace her.  Because Joseph was both righteous and had the right attitude about how to handle the situation, God sent an angel to him to explain what had really happened.

The key point to remember is