The scripture for today, November 20, is Hebrews 11:20ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons….By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.”
Do we have children that were so loving and good when they were young, but when they became older they changed? Do we sometimes wonder, “How could I have gone so wrong with my children?” True, they have free will. But do we feel like failures because our children did not turn out the way we had hoped and prayed?
Have faith ~ the faith of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Isaac blessed his sons with his land, even though he did not yet own the land. Jacob blessed his sons with power, even though they did yet not have power. Joseph blessed his sons and his brothers’ sons with the land, yet they no longer lived in it.
They all blessed their children with something they believed would happen some day, even though the evidence was not there. Why? Because they had faith in their children? Actually, it was mostly because they had faith in God. They had faith in what God would do for their children.
Let us keep on keeping on. Let us never stop having faith in what God (even after we die) will (not can, but will) do for our children.
#Family, #Children, #Hope, #Faith, #Restore, #Reform
The scripture for today, November 18, is Deuteronomy 11:18f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.”
Sometimes the country we live in goes through very bad times. We pray for the bad times to end, but they do not. What is going on? The above warning was to the Israelites just before they entered their promised land. God had just said through Moses, don’t worship idols.
Perhaps our country is going through bad times because of idol worship. Probably not like the hand-made idols of ancient times, but idols of money and power and immorality. There have been times in the Bible when a good man prayed, “God, I am the only one left who worships you.” God would reply that there were a few others. But he did not reply that he was going to stop the punishing. The nation hadn’t turned back to God yet.
Therefore, when we are suffering unjustly for what a majority of our countrymen have been doing, we must do it bravely. And while we “wait it out”, let us continually remind ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our countrymen of the righteous ways they should be acting.
In bad times, this is our assignment. Let us be brave and spread the news. Let us keep reminding and be as patient with them as God is with us.
Perhaps some day they will listen.
#government, #nation, #punishment, #assignment, #problems, #troubles, #wars
The scripture for today, November 17, is 1st Chronicles 11:17f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“David longed for water and said, ‘Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem.’ So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David.”
The people who followed David admired him because he knew how to be a good leader. So many were willing to do anything to make “Captain David” happy. David had been born and raised in Bethlehem. Now he was grown and had a following of those evading power hungry King Saul, many of whom were brave soldiers. They had traveled throughout the country either evading or defending themselves against this and other enemies.
Their travels took them back to David’s hometown which was being held by enemy Philistines. For old-times sake, he wanted a drink from the well he had drunk from many times in his youth. Three of his men risked their lives to bring their captain, David, that drink of water.
How much do we admire the Captain of our Salvation, Jesus? How much are we willing to sacrifice for him? Do we say, “I’m too busy to do anything for Jesus and his kingdom today”? Do we say, “I’m afraid if I say something about Jesus to so-and-so, s/he will insult me”? Do we say, “Someone at church offended me, so I’m not going to worship anymore?” Do we admire Jesus enough to put ourselves in the slightest danger just to do the smallest thing for him?
#captain, #salvation, #KingDavid, #soldiers, #service, #loyalty, #sacrifice
The Scripture for today, November 15, is Revelation 11:15 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever!’ “
Each of us belongs to a kingdom/nation within our world. It is not perfect. Its leaders can sometimes do very bad things. And we wonder how we can stand some of the terrible things that sometimes happen within a government.
But our worldly kingdom/nation is not the only one we can live in. Colossians 1:13 says Jesus “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Rescued! Brought us! Past tense! The kingdom isn’t something in the future. It is here now. And it goes by yet another name. Verse 18 says, “And he [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church.”
So, when we become discouraged about the kingdom/nation in our world that we live in, take hope. We can have dual citizenship! For there is another kingdom here, a spiritual one. The king of that kingdom will love us. Forever and ever.
#kingdom, #nation, #government, #church, #citizenship, #freedom, #slavery, #love
The scripture for today, November 12, is Leviticus 11:12 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you.”
This is just one of the over 600 laws in the Law of Moses. They were intricate laws governing both their worship and their everyday life. This one chapter in Leviticus says in part they could not eat camels or coneys or rabbits or pigs. They could not eat eagles, vultures, kites, ravens, owls, gulls, hawks, osprey, storks, herons, hoopoes or bats. But they could eat locusts, katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers. And this is just part of chapter 11!
Why did God give so many intricate laws to the Jews? To give them a chance to keep them all perfectly so they could be perfect. In the meantime, God did not give any laws to the Gentiles; He let them try whatever means they could on their own to become perfect. But during the same time period, both the Jews and Gentiles proved to themselves that it was impossible to keep their religions perfectly and thus be perfect themselves.
Now Jesus was ready to come. He lived the Jewish law perfectly, then nailed it to the cross (Colossians 2:14). Now we live under a law of grace, and his commandments revolve around loving God and loving each other.
Aren’t we fortunate to live in the Christian era?
#LawOfMoses, #OldTestament, #Tithing, #Perfection, #Crucifixion, #Perfection, #Salvation
The scripture for today, November 9, is Luke 11:9 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
” ‘So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’ “
Does this mean that, if we ask for our favorite team to win, they will win? Does this mean that, if we ask for a particular job, we will get that job? Or, if we have our eyes on a particular young man or young woman, we will marry that person?
In the context that Jesus said this, he had just taught his disciples what many call the Lord’s prayer. In that prayer, Jesus instructed us to ask for a little bit of the physical and a whole lot of the spiritual.
You might say, “Well, that doesn’t leave me much to pray for.” Oh, yes it does. Shift your focus from yourself. It leaves the rest of the world to pray for. What about their little bit of physical and their whole lot of spiritual? How many people do you pray for? Not as a group, but by name? Not occasionally, but every day?
Well then, will God give us every one of the souls we pray for? God gives everyone free will. He does not force people to follow him. God provides opportunities for people we pray for, and he even moves their hearts. But he does not force them. We must still, keep on praying, even when we feel like someone is hopeless. Maybe they are hopeless during our lifetime. But sometimes someone’s soul is saved after our death.
So let us pray for others and never tire of it ~ a little bit of the physical and whole lot of the spiritual. Seek and we will find. God will answer in his own way. And that’s a promise
#Prayer, #PrayerList, #LordsPrayer, #Selfishness, #Freewill
(Yesterday we gave you the scripture for today, so today we give you yesterday’s.)
The scripture for today, November 7, is Psalm 11:7 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.”
The face of God! How we who believe in God long to see his face. We cannot comprehend it. But we can comprehend this…..
God’s eyes ~ “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good” (Proverbs 15:1).
God’s mouth ~ “I have put my words in your mouth” (Isaiah 51:16).
God’s nose ~ “The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma….The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints went up before God” (Genesis 8:21; Revelation 8:4).
God’s ears ~ “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.”
Perhaps when we continually watch both good and bad people around us with the same kind of care that God does, perhaps when we speak the words that come out of the mouth of God, perhaps when we send our prayers like sweet incense to God, perhaps when we are attentive to the silent cry of those around us ~ just perhaps, in some way, we are seeing the face of God.
Just perhaps.
#GodsEyes, #GodsEars, #GodsMouth
