Monday, June 4, 2012

June 4-10

Monday: Genesis 22
Tuesday: Judges 18
Wednesday: Psalm 47
Thursday: Isaiah 51
Friday: Zechariah 2
Saturday: Acts 15
Sunday 2 Timothy 4

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Gen 22 "God tested Abraham's faith."

do you trust me? sometimes I feel like I can hear God asking that. do you really, really trust me? to be lord of your days, lord of your loves, lord of your living? do you trust me to live a life of absolute surrender and know that I have GOOD in mind even when it's hard, even when it hurts, even when it doesn't make any sense at all to you." that is how Abraham's faith was tested, and that is how our faith is tested as well. In the testing of our faith, God is able to prove Himself faithful, and good, and loving and awesome, if we can stand the flame, we will see His glory. If Abraham would have caved, never made it to the altar at Mt. Moriah, he would have missed the voice of the angel and the miracle of the ram. I want to make it to my Mt. Moriah altar. I want to put my hand to the knife of absolute surrender and I want to see the glory of the Lord.

Chris said...

shivers. I, too, was thinking about absolute surrender and total faith. How God had just promised Abraham that his heirs would be more numerous than the stars, yet asked him to give up (murder!) his only and long-sought-for son.

Also, this is another verse in the OT that points the way to Christ's sacrifice and God giving up His only Son.

Chris said...

Not sure what to draw from here... keeps niggling at me that the Danites even wanted Micah as a priest, considering the idols issue... were they so far of God's path that they had forgotten the simple laws? Is this another example of losing faith in a short span of generations?

Unknown said...

I'm not sure, either... but I think it shows us the chasm between religion and relationship. Or maybe everything is just showing me that lately. This whole need for a "holy" person... "holy" things (the ephod et al) that somehow if you have those things YOU will be holy by association? So how do we fall into similar traps? Assuming that because we go to church and believe in God we've got our bases covered? God wants a personal living, breathing, walking, talking relationship with us and just because we "do" certain things or "posess" a bible... it doesn't count. It's like Bob's sermon on Sunday, your faith will be proven by your actions. If they would have had true faith they wouldn't have needed to do any of that. They would have recognized that if this was God's will, and they were surrendered, they didn't need a priest or some "holy" items as good luck charms. They just needed to live and walk by faith.

Lois said...

Good points, PC. I found the notes in the Quest Bible helpful.It said: "It wasn't that these Israelites intended to reject the Lord; they just didn't think that it mattered if they included other gods in their worship.,,,,The Danites, like Micah, thought that they could gain supernatural power through the false gods." It was a slippery slope, it seems, because 'their city, Dan, became a rival worship center to the tabernacle in Shiloh and also a center of idolatry".
Doesn't it make you wonder why God seemingly blessed with with victory though, when they were doing all these bad things?

Unknown said...

I love the message sometimes. Sometimes not so much. I loved it this morning. v10 "I'm on my way, I'm moving into your neighborhood" just gave me goosebumps as well as v 13 "Something's afoot in His holy house. He's on the move!"

That last part reminded me of Aslan being on the move and the emotions that stirred in me. I truly do believe that God is at work, on the move, awakening many in our "neighborhood" to a more surrendered, more spirit filled, more God in tune relationship. I feel privileged and excited to be in this place at this time in History and witness His work in us.

Elisa said...

Zechariah:8
The Lord rules over all. His angel says to Israel, "The Lord has sent me to honor Him. He wants me to punish the nations that have robbed you of everything. After all, anyone who hurts you hurts those the Lord loves and guards.

Well, I thought the Israelites turned against God before, but He still loved them and guarded them.
This shows only a little of Gods love for us. I love the bible partly because it gives us so many examples of how much God loves ME.

Unknown said...

Acts 15

v1. "It wasn't lo9ng before some Jews showedu p from Judea insisting that everyone be circumcised. 'If you're not circumcised in the Mosaic fashion you can't be saved.'"

v10,11 "So why are you now trying to out-god God, loading these new believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us, too? Don't we believe we are saved because the Master Jesus amazingly and out of sheer generosity moved to save us...?"


how quick we are to attach rules and regulations to the relationship. I am so guilty of this. I feel convicted about the level of judgementalism and criticism of the outer things that I fall into so often. I want to be shaken free of that mentality, this is one of those worldview things that was built into my life during tender years that takes strong pruning and re-shaping, to get myself growing in the good and godly direction.

v41 "to build up muscle and sinew in those congregations."

I love that. If only we each could see our potential and embrace the call to "coach" those coming up behind us, urging them to build up muscle and sinew in faith and spiritual growth.

Elisa said...

Acts 15:8-9
God knows the human heart. By giving the holy spirit to non-Jews, He showed that He accepted them. He did the same for them as He had done for us. He showed that there is no difference between us and them. He made their hearts pure because of their faith.

Isn't it a wonderful thing that God has no favorites, that He loves everyone the same? The bible says so right here, '...there is no difference between us...' God doesn't think of others as some do,
He doesn't think, 'oh, I want to be popular so I will hang out with cool people and ignore the 'weirdos' ' He thinks 'Every one needs a friend and I am going to be a friend to everyone who will let me be their friend.' God is NOT exclusive, and you do NOT have to be popular to be his friend.

Elisa said...

2 Timothy 4:2
Preach the word. Be ready to serve God in good times and bad. Correct peoples mistakes. Warn them. Cheer them up with words of hope. Be very patient as you do these things. Teach them carefully.

2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.

Those two verses stood out to me. 'correct peoples mistakes... cheer them up with words of hope. be very patient as you do these things.'One thing you have to understand here is when it says 'correct peoples mistakes' that it doesn't mean to say 'Well that's not right' or 'you've got that totally wrong' with a sneering face and then walk off, but explain to the person what they got wrong (it could be just about anything) and help them fix it.

I like the 2nd verse, 2 Timothy 4:7
'I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.' I keep on asking myself 'WILL I BE ABLE TO TELL MYSELF THAT WHEN I GR0W OLD?' I like that verse and I want to be able to tell myself that 'I have fought the good fight' and 'I have kept the faith, so I am going to try to 'fight the good fight' and 'keep the faith' in my everyday life.

Unknown said...

what a blessing for me to see God's Word at work in the heart of my little girl!