The scripture for today, October 15, is Deuteronomy 10:15 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers [Abraham, Isaac, Jacob] and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants [Jews], above all the nations, as it is today.”
Mankind has spent millenniums trying to figure out how to be perfect so we can deserve heaven.
God gave us that opportunity the first several thousand years of mankind. Some people of the world he left alone to figure out on their own how to be perfect; they developed many kinds of religions. But to the Jews he sent the Law of Moses containing over 600 intricate laws which, if kept perfectly, would make them perfect. In both cases, no one could be perfect.
Then, when mankind was willing to admit we cannot be perfect, God sent Jesus to us to live that perfect life that we finally acknowledged is impossible for us to live. Now, all we have to do is follow Jesus and be IN Jesus (Galatians 3:27) for the forgiveness of our sins, and God will consider us perfect too.
God sets his affections on all of us. What a plan! Oh, how he loves us.
#perfect, #sinless, #heaven, #hell, #saved, #substitute
The scripture for today, October 14, is John 10:14 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me ~ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father ~ and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
How amazing that Jesus is willing to follow us when we do not follow him, and bring us back to his protective fold. He died while doing just that.
Yet we continue to leave him and his instructions that would keep us safe, and we wander into thistles, near cliffs, into pits. This requires more work for Jesus. Yet we do it anyway. Catch me if you can! We may laugh, but he weeps because he knows the danger we are headed for.
How much grief do we give our spiritual Father, our spiritual Big Brother, our spiritual family? If they are not laughing over what we’re doing, perhaps we should not be either.
God, forgive us when we wander from You.
#SelfWill, #Stubbornness, #Danger, #Sheep, #Shepherd, #Sin
The scripture for today, October 5, is 2nd Corinthians 10:5f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”
This is about the 40 years that the Jews wandered in the wilderness between leaving their slavery in Egypt and beginning a nation for themselves. They believed their way was better than God’s way. They kept God at a distance.
Events in the Old Testament are there as examples to us. Do we keep God at a distance? In that case, God keeps us at a distance. God treats us the way we treat him. The early Jews did not want to listen to God, so God did not listen to them.
Do we want God to treat us the way we treat him?
#God, #selfishness, #goodworks
The scripture for today, September 30, is Luke 9:30f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.”
Hebrews 5:7 says something very startling to most people. “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death.”
Jesus did not look forward to going to the cross, even though many thousands of others had died that way. Why was it different for him? Because he had to take on all our sins as though he had committed them himself ~ every lie we’ve told, every gain from cheating, every insult, every slander campaign against another, every adultery, every murder ~ everything ~ all our sins! How could he bear it?
Not only that, but he had to experience both physical and spiritual death. Spiritual death means being separated from, being forsaken by God. What a terror to experience!
And so, a few weeks before his crucifixion, as he prayed on the mountain, Moses and Elijah appeared to him and they spoke about his death. They surely gave him courage to do what had to be done to save you and me who deserve hell.
The crowning glory of this conversation with Moses and Elijah is that God reassured him by announcing, “THIS IS MY SON! WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN! LISTEN TO HIM!”
Jesus was to nail the Old Law of Moses to the cross (Colossians 2:14). He had promised people, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets: I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).
Indeed, by the time Jesus returned to heaven, he had lived the Old Law introduced by Moses perfectly ~ something no man had ever been able to do. And by the time he returned to heaven, he had fulfilled every prophecy about his birth, life, and death, the first such prophet being represented by Elijah.
Oh the things Jesus went through for us. We fall at his feet and worship him.
#Law, #crucifixion, #hell, #death, #prophecies
The scripture for today, September 29, is Matthew 9:29 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you.’ “
Sometimes when we pray for healing during sickness, a well-meaning friend will say, “Well, you haven’t been healed because you didn’t have enough faith.” But Jesus did not heal everyone according to their faith.
The boy in Nain he brought back to life (Luke 7:14-15) did not have any faith at all. The girl in Capernaum he brought back to life (Luke 8:51-56) did not have any faith at all. When Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana (John 2:1-9) the hosts did not have any faith at all.
This is encouraging because often we pray for the healing of non-religious friends. It would be futile to ask God to bring them back to health if it depended on their faith all the time. But he is not a God of futility. He is a God of hope.
#Faith, #Hope
The scripture for today, July 24, is Matthew 7:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
The problem we have with putting into practice the Words of God is that we sometimes read blindly. We don’t see the significance of something. We may read it over and over for years and never see its significance.
Take, for example, the story of Jesus’ birth. We sometimes see pictures of baby Jesus in a stable with the shepherds and three wise men all gathered around him. But Matthew 2:11 says by the time the wise men arrived, Jesus and his parents were living in a house. Further, the Bible does not say how many wise men there were; it just says they gave three kinds of gifts ~ gold, incense and myrrh.
How about 1st Timothy 3:2? “Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.” This word “overseer” is sometimes translated bishop, sometimes elder, and sometimes pastor. It’s all the same office. We might think at first glance that we believe all this. But do we glaze over the fact that he must have a wife? Hmmm….
Here’s another one. At funerals we often quote Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me.” But for the Christian, there are no shadows in the valley of death. Jesus
was born “to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace” (Luke 1:79).
Oh, so many things we overlook ~ meaningful things. Let us continue to study God’s Word daily with our mind and heart open to new things we never realized before so that we can build the house of our lives “on the rock.”
The scripture for today, July 22, is 2nd Samuel 7:22 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible.
“How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.”
How do we know there is no God but the God of the Bible that we read about and “hear with our own ears” (when scriptures are read aloud)?
How do we know our God is the only true God, and our Bible his only true words? Numerous built-in proofs. Prophecies fulfilled of people and entire nations as given in the Bible and verified in secular encyclopedias. Scientific facts not known in early centuries. Over 300 archaeological facts.
Therefore, Christians can KNOW what God is like, what he wants and how he views us, for we have heard with our own ears and seen with our own eyes. How lucky we are. How blessed.
Our scripture for today, July 21, is Matthew 7:21ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ “
There are hundreds of denominations/sects out there all contradicting each other. It’s impossible for them all to be right. We can never rely on what someone else says just because they look and act holy and say all the right holy words and phrases and pray such holy-sounding prayers. We must never rely on our religious leaders to tell us what to believe. Shall we take their opinion or God’s opinion?
Romans 10:1 in the Bible mentions some people who had a lot of zeal for God, but were lost because it was not according to the proper knowledge.
Well, how do you get God’s opinion? Read the Bible for yourself! Use a concordance (lists every word in the Bible and every scripture with that word) and look up your chosen subject. Then, having found the truth, why not go back to the religious leaders in love and try to teach your teachers? Some just might listen to you.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: HAVE YOU EVER BELIEVED IN SOMETHING THAT YOU LATER FOUND OUT WAS WRONG? WHAT WAS IT, AND HOW DID YOU FIND OUT?
