Week 7

The Lords Day, week 7!

Thoughts on Romans 13 & 14:

- Romans 13 - Government is given by God for our good! But Government has a specific purpose and once they go beyond their God appointed purpose we can expect more and more corruption... case in point, our government! But our responsibility to each other is fulfilled in love. Love one another. I’m going to leave this there because I think we’ve read enough by this point to see that Gods definition of love is different from the worlds. 

- Romans 14 - there is freedom in Christ, celebrate what you want, eat what you want but as you do so remember to love your neighbor. A quick note on this, many want to use this chapter to try to cause people to stop anything that they don’t like. Here’s the problem, if they know enough to understand this chapter then ask why are they stumbling if they know you have the freedom to do what they are asking you to stop? Because the whole point of this passage is that you can do it, if they agree with that then why are they then trying to use it against you? Often it’s a matter of legalism not a matter of stumbling. Stumbling has to do with salvation and their walk, if your actions are causing another to sin or keeping them from coming to the Lord then there’s a legitimate concern. 

God bless, please keep praying for us, we are in the midst of a difficult season at home having received some difficult news. God bless, and please be sure to worship with the Body of Christ today!

Monday, week 7!

Thoughts on Genesis 24-27:

·       Genesis 24 - Isaac and Rebekah, a love story! Abraham out of a desire not to mix with the locals sends his servant for a wife for Isaac and the servant returns with Rebekah, who appears to be a cousin of a sort, maybe second or third. But the Hand of God is on the servant every step of the way. God was orchestrating something much bigger than any of those involved knew. At the same time He is growing them in their faith. What we don't take away from this is, that now we try to make deals with God to show us something is real, we have more revelation than Abraham had. God has shown us how to go to Him and that He can be trusted, so we don't need to say "God show me this by having them do that...". We learn how to relate to God in the New Testament through Christ. 

·       Genesis 25 - Abraham is dead and the birth of Esau and Jacob. The two nations are that of Edom and Israel, the book of Obadiah in the OT speaks of the destruction of Edom. But here we see the beginning of the struggle between the two. But God declares that the older will serve the younger. The two get older and Esau sells Jacob his birthright for a bowl of soup. We can all be Esau at times, letting ourselves be ruled by our appetites in the short term and not looking beyond today. 

·       Genesis 26 - Isaac is no different than his dad. God makes a promise, and he thinks he has to lie to protect it. God is faithful and does what He says because He is God. We are never excused of our lack of faith, but in Christ we have the one who paid the price for it and for our sin. 

·       Genesis 27 - The word of God here is proved true by the deception of Jacob. Here's what I want to point out. Jacob is 100% responsible for his sinful actions, and so is Rebekah, they don't get a pass here. But God is sovereign over those decisions and he is so in a way that's consistent with scriptures proclamation that God is without sin. What we have here is another case of what man meant for evil, God meant for good... We will see this again later. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Lords day, I know that I was ministered yesterday by His presence and as a family we are slowly but surely experiencing again His peace knowing that God is always faithful. God bless.

 Tuesday, week 7!

Thoughts on Judges 7-11:

·       Judges 7 & 8 - Gideon grows in faith and becomes a powerful man of God. But God wants to keep the people of Israel humble, and uses only 300 men to defeat Midian. After their destruction Gideon has an Ephod made to remember what God has done in the destruction of the Midianites. However, we see that even this relic becomes a stumbling block as the people turn to it for worship. Gideon passes away and the people go after other gods again. 

·       Judges 9 - Gideon had turned down the opportunity to rule over Israel, insisting that they be ruled by God alone. But His son Abimelech had other ideas. He sets out to be the sole ruler, a king like the other kings and in so doing he leads Israel towards greater destruction. Abimelech has some success in destroying other kingdoms but is eventually killed in battle, and we are told that it was God who did this to Him. 

·       Judges 10 - Other Judges are then raised up, again to reiterate a Judge is not a leader, they do not rule over the people like a king. They are Gods tool to judge the people and keep peace. At this point Israel was supposed to be completely theocratic, however we see that they repeatedly fail at this and again they are doing that which is evil in the sight of God. 

·       Judges 11 - The people again repent and God raises up Jephthah as their deliverer. But Jephthah does something incredibly stupid. Makes a promise to God that if God gives them victory than whatever comes out of his home upon his return, he will give as a sacrifice. God raised him up, and God decides who he will give victory too, and the idea that God can be bribed is foolish and what we see here is that Jephthah treated the true God as they did any other god. Let me appease you with burnt offerings and sacrifices... But God saves for His glory, and His saving is by His grace and Jephthah regrets his vow. This may seem harsh, but it's important and it is that serious. Don't make foolish vows! You can't give buy victory from God, that's not how this works. Lord, if only you'll get me out of debt, I'll tithe 50%, or Lord if only you'll heal my sickness I'll start being more faithful, and so on. That's an insult to God our Father, Our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who are at work in our lives for their glory and know exactly what we need. They can't be bought, He can't be bought. God was saving the Israelites because they had repented and turned to Him and He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse of all unrighteousness when we do the same. 

I apologize for making this such a long post. But there was a lot in todays reading and the last lesson was mostly for me. In this season I find me wanting to negotiate with God, I want to offer Him something to make things better, to make the pain less for my wife, my children and me. But God is Holy and He is Just and He deals with us according to His loving kindness and if I am breathing it is only because of His mercy and that means I have yet to get what I deserve... So He gives and takes away, blessed by the name of the Lord.

Wednesday, week 7!

thoughts on Psalms 18 - 20: 

·       Psalm 18 - This psalm is great picture of the Gospel... David is in trouble, he needs rescue and runs to the only one who can provide. The only one who can save him from his enemies. That's us, we must see God as our only salvation, our only refuge and the only one who can get us out of our current predicament. We have sinned against a holy God and helpless to do anything about it. Verse 16 - He drew us from our distress, and rescued us from the enemy who hates us and wants us destroyed. It's all Him and with salvation comes a new righteousness, one that's not our own. Verse 20, he deals with us according to this righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, He sees us as blameless because his son was blameless and died for us. Even David knew better, he wasn't blameless, he was a sinner, he speaks here better than he understood. We've been purified, made humble, for the Lord lights our darkness... We can go on and on here, but He delivered us, and verse 49, for this we will praise Him and sing His name... For Great is His salvation!!!!

·       Psalm 19 - This is a Psalm celebrating Gods revealing of Himself, He has done so in 2 ways, first through natural revelation. The heavens declare the glory of God... This goes on till verse 6, there are things we can know about God by simply looking to nature. But secondly God has revealed Himself through His word, the Law of the Lord is perfect! His word is to be more desired than gold and sweeter than honey. Are you starting to get there yet? Is the Lord reshaping your desires through His word, is your appetite increasing for more of Him through His word? It's through the renewal of our mind that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart become acceptable in His sight!

·       Psalm 20 - I just want to recommend that you see this as a prayer today, pray it out to God, as soon as I began reading it, that's what it became. Lord protect me, Lord send me help, Lord take my life as a living sacrifice and grant my hearts desires... Just pray it!

I hope you all have a wonderful day today, your prayers are being felt by me and the family and we appreciate them all. May the Lord bless you and keep you!

Thursday of Week 7!

Thoughts on Job 13 & 14:

·       Job continues to address his accusers and points out that no man is innocent before God, for they to will one day give an account before Him and how do they think it's going to go? But they speak wicked things against him, things that aren't true and though God slay him, he will continue to have his hope in God. God is His salvation, and those who don't know God shall never have salvation. But then He goes into this rant a out pleading his own case. There is still a sense of self-righteousness in Job, and I think that's a reflection of all of Gods children. That when we are put through the fire, we begin to act like we don't deserve it. But the thing is, we do, and we actually deserve worse. A recent conversation played this out as the gentleman, who confessed to be a Christian couldn't bring himself to say that it was right for God to punish anyone. He kept wanting to use the word fair, that it's not fair that God doesn't bestow grace one anyone. But the truth is that, it's actually the opposite, that God would bestow grace on anyone is where the miracle is. That He would save any at all when all we've done is spit in His face for creating us and giving us this world to enjoy is amazing. None of us would do the same or even close to it. We can find reasons not to show grace to those who are closest to us, now imagine they did nothing but hold you in contempt and harbor hatred towards you since the day they came into existence. Yet He is gracious... 

·       Job 14 points us to the reality that death comes for us all. For me, you and all those around us, 100 out of 100 times death will eventually call on us. So where is your hope?

God bless and I hope you all enjoy your day today!

 Friday, Week 7!

Thoughts on Isaiah 34-39:

·       Isaiah 34 & 35 - Judgement and redemption. The Lord will Judge the nations, His wrath and anger will be poured out against all people. Not even the kings or those in high places will be able to stand before Him. All of this is for Gods glory, for His name. But God will save a people, those whose eyes will be opened and ears unstopped. This people will walk in holiness. They are the redeemed of the Lord, purchased by Him and for them there will be everlasting joy and gladness. Sorrow and sighing shall be no more... Are you of the redeemed? repent and believe the gospel.

·       Isaiah 36 - 39 - Hezekiah was a ruler of the southern kingdom of Israel otherwise known as Judah. If I had to guess this was around the 7th or 6th century BCE so right around the start of Assyrian captivity of Israel. I think the Northern kingdom had already fallen, but you may need check on that. But Judah had a time of reprieve, and Hezekiah sought the Lord and the Lord responded and gave them more time. Here's what sticks out to me, God showed mercy to the whole nation because of Hezekiah, but Hezekiah was still a selfish ruler. When he finds out he is dying his prayer is "remember me" God gives him 15 more years and tells Hezekiah that after him the nation will fall, and all that belongs to Judah will be taken away by the Babylonians. Hezekiah's response is, at least while I'm alive there will be peace! I mean, where was the ripping of clothing and crying out to God on the behalf of his people then? His Sons will be castrated and they will become Eunichs? and still only that, "the word of the Lord is good..." Something doesn't sit right, when he was sick, he cried out, when the nation was under threat under his rule, he cries out, but here, "it is good..."???

God bless, I hope that you are sticking with the reading and that the Lord is encouraging you and growing you spiritually with each morning that passes. Have a wonderful day.

Saturday, Week 7!

Thoughts on Matthew 17-19:

·       Matthew 17 - We have this glorious scene, Jesus along with James, John and Peter on top of a mountain and Jesus is transfigured before them... We are told that He spoke with Moses and Elijah, but not what they spoke about, there has been much speculation about this passage and its meaning. But let's focus on what's there. The glory of Jesus is slightly revealed, the Father approves of the Son, the disciples are struck with fear. They are told to keep it all to themselves until after the resurrection, and then Jesus reveals that John the Baptist was the other Elijah... All of this is to affirm who He is, all of the facts of this are to encourage belief. I'm not saying there's not more there, but these are the facts of it, Jesus is Lord, Savior, and God. Here in this context Jesus even points to His own suffering that will take place, but it's completely ignored by the disciples. It's like they missed the whole thing! In the same chapter he tells them again, and this time the response is distress.

·       Matthew 18 - There's a lot here, but I want to focus on a portion that is often misunderstood, verses 15-20. This section gives us the protocol for church discipline, it's dealing with sin within the body of Christ. This is the context, and it shouldn't be twisted to apply in other ways. Read it within the context, a brother sins against you... then the rest follows, the two or three our gathered are in response to a judgment that is made against this brother. This points us to the need for a plurality of eldership in the church, we don't have CEO's who make decisions, but Elders who are led by the Spirit and come together seeking the Lords Wisdom and where two or three are gathered there He is. That the wisdom of God will prevail in the counsel of many, but one man ruling and making decisions will often fall short. Keep this in mind the next time we quote this verse in prayer, God is with you even when you pray alone. We are the living temple of the Holy Spirit. But by ourselves discernment, especially in matters of discipline can get tricky, we need 2 or 3, or more that together the will of God can be sought out. 

·       Matthew 19 - Two things here that stuck out to me, first is divorce, it's never Gods will that anyone get divorced. His will is that we work it out and honor him in our marriages. That doesn't mean that divorce won't happen but it does mean that whenever it happens it is not pleasing to God. Second, singleness is a gift from God, there are some who receive this gift, and they should seek to honor God in that gift, but this is not the norm. The majority of human beings were created for marriage, so as much as it is up to you and you are able, go get married, make babies, and flood the earth with the glory of God. 

Three chapters in the Gospels is a lot! I know I didn't cover even half of it, but I hope you are still reading and working through. I still owe Pam an explanation on Chapter 15 from last week, and I'll get there. Things have just been so busy this week God bless you, and if you are looking for a place to worship tomorrow, join us at CICC! God bless.