Week 4
The Lords Day, Week 4!
Thoughts on Romans 7&8:
- these two chapters together bring me so much joy. Read them, and do so often!!!
- Romans 7 - we have been released from the curse of the law, it no longer condemns us. We have been given to Christ, and dead to sin. But our flesh is corrupted and works against our new Spirit. We now love the law that once condemned us and yet we find it impossible to do and live according to the law we love. Every day we see how impossible saving ourselves really is, “oh wretched man that I am, who can save me from this body of death?” JESUS!
- Romans 8 - if you’ve been saved then you aren’t condemned and you are free from the power or law of sin! Don’t be confused, It’s not that we don’t have to obey God, but that our obedience flows from our new relationship with God! We are His children! He saved us and we want to do what He says. This new life is hard, it includes suffering but God is working all things together for our good and His purpose. We are being confirmed to the image of His Son! There is nothing that can separate or stop what God is doing, if we are His then we are His forever!
God bless you on this Lords Day, I hope you have a place to worship and be with the people of God today!
Monday, Week 4!
Thoughts on Genesis 12-15:
· This section is on the call of Abraham. Up until now we've seen primarily the wickedness of man and the judgement of God. There have been glimpses of God's plan though from Genesis 3 onward, the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent, Abel's offering, Noah and the arc, but now we have the promise given by way of covenant.
· Genesis 12 - Gad calls Abram to leave his land and people and go to a place he will tell him. The terms of the Abrahamic Covenant are laid out in verses 1&2, and they are Land, Seed, and Blessing. I can go deeper with this if anyone is interested, just ask below. But we see in Abram the plight of the believer already, he goes, showing his faith in God, but then he lies about his wife being his sister showing his lack of faith in God.
· Gen. 13 - Abram and Lot have to separate due to the size of their households. At this time we must remember that a household was more than mom, dad, kids and the dog! They had slaves, animals, and other relatives that were all part of the household. But Abraham trusts enough to let Lot pick...
· Gen. 14 - Lot gets in trouble and Abram has to save him. God is with him and he is able to conquer the army and save not only Lot but also the kings that are with him. There is then the strange interaction with Melchizadek. Who is this guy? At one point I was convinced it was Jesus, now I'm not so sure, I think he was just a high priest of God, showing that God still had worshippers at this time. There had remained the faithful. But we can agree to disagree on this, there are too many unknowns to know anything for sure. Hebrews sheds some light, but not much either.
· Gen. 15 - The terms of the covenant were given in Gen. 12, but here God conducts the covenant ceremony. This was known as a suzerain vassal treaty, common in the time of Abram. A treaty made by a ruler and a servant where the parties would promise by way of blood to a partnership. Both were ultimately saying in the treaty that if they broke their vow they they would give their life. But with Abram, God is the only active participant as Abram is put to sleep. Meaning God is the only one promising to fulfill everything. It's a one sided covenant, by which God says He will uphold His word and He will bare the consequences of the outcome.
I hope you all had a great weekend and that you were able to worship with Gods people yesterday. Remember, worship continues into the week, so praise Him for another day in which His mercies are forever new! God keeps His promises! Amen.
Tuesday, week 4!
Thoughts on Joshua 16-20:
· The inheritance is being divided up, these can be difficult chapters to read through, but I suggest reading them anyway. Take note of the attention to detail that's given in the recording of these allotments. Today one can find maps that give us a real picture of it based on Joshua's information. See below!
· Other than that I just wanted to point out that there were still Canaanites living in the land. Remember, God did give them very specific instructions as to the destruction of all the people. But at some point this stopped and the Israelites decide to put them to forced labor instead. This will come back to haunt them later on as the Canaanites remain Israel's creates enemy and God will even use them at time to bring judgement on them.
· We also read in Chapter 18 that there seemed to be some hesitation in continuing in the taking of the land. There isn't much by way of motive given in the passage, but Joshua did have to rebuke the people saying, "how long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?" They were procrastinating for some reason, even after all the victory that God had brought them.
I just wanted to invite you all out tonight to PCI for a night of Dinner and Worship. It begins at 630pm, hope to see some people there! God bless!
Wednesday, week 4!
Thoughts on Psalms 9-11:
· I think it's great that these 3 psalms are being read together. They help us understand rightly the categories that are being used. At times when we read these psalms we want to inject into it our own understanding of these categories. For example, wicked, we think that's a person who's just as bad as they can get. But that's not the Bible's definition. If you read these Psalms alone we get a clear definition, the wicked are those who don't know God, those who deny Him.
· Who are the poor? For us this term means, those who do not have means, or who are financially unable to provide for themselves. But is this what the term means here? No, of course not, God does not show partiality to one group over another on the basis of financial prosperity. If that was the case then to get in His good graces just give it all up and you shall not be forgotten! Rather the poor has to do with a spiritual condition, take Jesus own words, Blessed are the poor in Spirit. God is looking at the one who recognizes their own spiritual poverty, and has a complete dependence on Him. To give more proof to this, David is the author of both the 9th and 11th Psalm, He was not poor. Neither before he became king or after. Yet he counted himself among those who will not be forgotten.
· The picture in Psalm 10 is that of the one who doesn't know God pursuing the one who is completely dependent upon God. So then who are the afflicted and oppressed? These are the ones who are righteous. Those who have God as their Father. Who are dependent upon Him to fight their battles. Does this mean that God doesn't care about those who are physically oppressed and afflicted? Of course not, but one can be both of those things and still be Wicked if He denies who God is! This is where we get so confused and lose sight of the gospel. Being materially poor, or physically oppressed does not make a person righteous! Rather the righteous (because of the righteousness of Christ) should expect to be oppressed, afflicted and are poor in Spirit. There aren't two gospels, one for the materially poor and oppressed, and then one for everyone else. One Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. This gospel must preached to the materially poor and oppressed as much as the wealthy rich. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Be careful not to fall into the trap of turning God into a partial Judge. He is not, He shows no favoritism, and salvation is only through His Son.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!
Thursday, week 4!
Thoughts on Job 7 & 8:
· We have the end of Job's first speech, he is continuing to cry out and sounds completely hopeless. All along he continues to maintain his innocence as well, or at least claiming that he isn't aware of his own sin. But there's also this request at the very end in verse 21 for God to pardon his iniquity. I don't want to make to much of it, but I do think it shows that though Job was a good man, he may have been aware that even he had sin in his life that he needed pardon for. But there is also this sense of self-righteousness that is coming from him as well. Granted, he has been through a lot at this point and so we don't want to be unfair to him.
· Chapter 8 begins Bildad, who is going to be a little more aggressive with his friend. The gist of his speech as that Job needs to repent, God wouldn't allow all this if he was innocent. But the truth is that God is not a respecter of persons and allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust a like. So what we really get a picture of is the way most of us to tend to think of God. As soon as something goes wrong in our lives we ask God, what did I do to deserve this? But it's funny how we don't take as much time to ask that question when things go good. We don't going around thinking I'm such a good person that look how God has blessed me. Well if we are Christians we shouldn't, but when hardship comes we tend to fall into that trap. Be careful, all that we have is of God, and He works all things together for those who love Him. What we deserve is just death, more than that is His mercy.
God bless and have a wonderful day!
Friday, week 4!
Thoughts on Isaiah 18-22:
· O.k. so I'm going to be honest, I feel like I often need a commentary to figure out all that's going on with the Prophets. But here's what I do know, that the Prophets had a specific role in speaking for God. What they said always had some sort of immediate contextual meaning and impact. Often there may have been a sort of double fulfillment also, I mentioned that in an earlier post. But to really have a good idea of what's going on within these chapters we also need a to understand the historical context of the book of Isaiah.
· Here's what I see without going to deep into the historical context, the things that stick out to me. God judges all the nations, not just Israel. He has a special relationship with Israel but God holds Assyria and Egypt responsible for their own actions to the point that He is going to judge them. But God is also merciful and reveals that it is never to late to repent and turn to Him, to obey.
· I also think that we have some Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 22, though I don't want to misspeak, so I'd have to dig some more into it.
I hope you continue reading through even that which you don't understand. There is always something that God, by His Spirit will use to shape us and renew our mind. You don't need to get all of it, we won't get all of it on this side of heaven! But read, pray, seek... Don't stop! Week 4 is almost over! Have a blessed day!
Saturday, week 4!
Thoughts on Matthew 8-10:
· There's a theme in chapters 8&9 - Faith. Though not always explicitly stated, it is implied. Many have twisted these passages and used them to try to tell people that faith is all it takes to be healed of physical ailments! You see, they'll see, Jesus saw their faith and they were healed, they believed and Jesus healed, all you need is faith, believe and you'll be healed. But they completely miss the point. Jesus is teaching the importance of faith, or the necessity of faith, but the physical healing was only to point to a greater healing that we are all in need of. Signs and wonders are not the end game, they are only a foretaste! They point us to the spiritual healing we are in need of, being blind, or paralyzed or even dead (physically) isn't our problem. Our problem is sin and that we are separated from God because of it. Do you believe that Jesus came did all these great and wonderful things, fulfilled the entire law, then died a sinners death as an innocent? That He then rose on the third day forever defeating death to eventually ascend to the Father where He is now seated making His enemies His footstool? Because it's faith in Him, that Jesus that matters, and it's trusting that Jesus that brings something much greater than physical healing, much more important than physical healing, that faith which follows repentance brings eternal life! The thing about every single one of the people healed by Jesus was that they still died a physical death that physical healing was only temporary. Don't miss the greater reality for the temporal promises, God is doing so much more!
· Chapter 10 - repentance, faith, and then go out into the world and proclaim this message. The disciples witnessed it all, and now they get their test run at the people of Israel. Why only Israel? because they were the ones who had the most light. They should have known who Jesus was and what He came to do, and their denial of Him would result in ultimate judgement against them. Also take note that Jesus tells us that He did not come to bring peace. I'm not sure why we think our job is to bring peace, we are to be peaceable, but we don't bring peace. Peaceable meaning not looking for trouble, but preaching the Gospel, confronting sin, that is going to be resisted and we don't back down from that. That's not being peaceable, it's being cowardly. Peace with God is the goal, and that means being an enemy to the world, so let us pick up our crosses and lose our lives.
Sorry for going so long... There's so much more than can be said of these chapters, but let me hear your thoughts. God bless and have a wonderful day.