Friday, August 31, 2012

Sep 3-9


Monday: Genesis 35
Tuesday: 1 Samuel 6
Wednesday: Psalm 60
Thursday: Isaiah 64
Friday: Malachi 1
Saturday: Acts 28
Sunday Hebrews 4

10 comments:

Denise said...

Genesis 35
35:10 God reminded Jacob of his new name, Israel, which meant “one who struggles with God.” Although Jacob’s life was littered with difficulties and trials, his new name was a tribute to his desire to stay close to God despite life’s disappointments.

Many people believe that Christianity should offer a problem-free life. Consequently, as life gets tough, they draw back disappointed. Instead, they should determine to prevail with God through life’s storms. Problems and difficulties are painful but inevitable; you might as well see them as opportunities for growth. You can’t prevail with God unless you have troubles to prevail over.

Unknown said...

1 Samuel 6:20 "Who is able to stand in the presence of of the Lord, this Holy God?"

"...God could not allow the people to think they could use His power for their own ends. He could not permit them to disregard His warnings and come into His presence lightly. He did not want the cycle of disrespect, disobedience, and defeat to start all over again. God did not kill the men of Beth Shemesh to be cruel. he killed them because overlooking their presumptuous sin would encourage the whole nation of Israel to ignore God."

The fact that God is loving and forgiving does not somehow smudge or veto the fact that He is just and holy. As a Father He reserves the right to set the rules and enforce the rules. As a Father, He resorts to discipline and consequences to crack down on rampant disobedience and rebellion in His children.

Denise said...

Hey, are you home?

Denise said...

1 Samuel 6
“The Philistines acknowledged the existence of the Hebrew God, but only as one of many deities whose favour they sought. Thinking of God in this way made it easy for them to ignore his demand that people worship him alone. Many people “worship” God this way. They see God as just one ingredient in a successful life. But God is far more than an ingredient – he is the source of life itself. Are you a “Philistine”, seeing God’s favour as only an ingredient of the good life?”

Denise said...

Psalm 60
“God said the cities and territories of Israel were his, and he knew the future of each of the nations. When the world seems out of control, we must remind ourselves that God owns the cities and knows the future of every nation. God is in control. With God’s help, we will gain the victory.”

Unknown said...

Isaiah 64. There is so much here. Our falling short, God's righteous anger against sin, that we can't be saved by our own merit, what we really deserve is punishment, and yet... despite His righteous anger, He is love and His love and grace meet us at the cross and sweep away all guilt and blame. At the end, in that desperate plea made in the last verse I get a bit frustrated with the author. God does not refuse to help, we refuse to move to the place of absolute surrender where God agrees to meet us. Many times we are frustrated with God for not responding when really the problem is that we are not ready or willing to receive what it is He has to tell us or where it is He wants to take us.

Denise said...

Isaiah 64:6
“This passage can easily be misunderstood. It doesn’t mean that God will reject us if we come to him in faith, nor that he despises our efforts to please him. It means that if we come to him demanding acceptance on the basis of our ‘good’ conduct, God will point out that our righteousness is but filthy rags compared to his infinite righteousness.”

Chris said...

Malachi 1 - Thinking about how we offer our second best to God while giving other people or other things our very best. Sometimes though, giving TO others of our best time, our best selves and the first fruits of whatever we have IS the way we make acceptable sacrifices to God.

Unknown said...

Read Acts 28 this morning, and then saw on Facebook that the mother in law of a friend of mine had been bit by a rattlesnake and air lifted to hospital. Was able to share encouragement for her from the footnotes "the poisonous snake that bit Paul was unable to harm him. Our life is in God's hands...!"

the "our life is in God's hands part" doesn't mean that we will never be hurt, or not die, but the fact that our life is in God's hands is great comfort and peace! God is God and no weapon formed against Him or us can prosper unless it is part of His greater plan.

Unknown said...

Hebrews 4:1 "...so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it."

the reality of this has only become evident to me this past year. I mean, I guess I always knew that there were people who went to church once in awhile but weren't really saved, but I never really realized how many people are out there who have grown up in the church, gone to bible camp and youth, even bible college and don't have a personal relationship with Jesus. As someone who did not grow up in a chistian home this is something I find difficult to relate to. How christianity can become a culture rather than a relationship. How important for kids to realize that praying at meals and going to church on sundays more often than not (or sometimes not even more often than not) and believing that God exists, does not make you a christian. It makes me think of the passage where the people say "but didn't we do this, that and the other thing in your name, Lord?" and He says, "depart from me, I never knew you." What an awful thought! Christianity starts with an act of faith and results in a life of ever growing personal relationship, surrender and the increase of faith as we experience all the joys and sorrows and struggles of life within that relationship.