From nervousness, to confusion, even looking at what others have written here, preparing a devotional read for the following bible texts was interesting.  Many thoughts paraded my mind because writing this seemed like a major life changing event for me.  Life changing, how could writing a devotional seem life changing?  The content was preparation for a devastating phone call I got later on about a person I’ve shared Christ with.  When faced with big life changing events in our lives, what should be the focal point of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?

In Genesis 23, Abraham faced a big life changing event; the death of his wife Sarah.  Chapter 24 describes more of life’s challenges as Abraham’s chief servant takes a pledge to find Isaac a wife, among Abraham’s kindred and country.  I’m sure this guy had to be a little frightened by such a big task at hand.  Then Isaac meets his wife Rebekah, another big life changing event.

Matthew 8 makes it more evident, a leper in need to be clean from his leprosy, another desiring to go with Jesus anywhere, Peter’s mother-in-law who lay sick, and even a man possessed with demons coming into contact with Jesus Christ.  Oh yes, these are serious, life changing circumstances.  These things have the potential of producing fear, depression, frustration, nervousness, while looking to others for help.  There has to be direction which the believer in Christ can turn to.  There is!  That direction is to FOLLOW JESUS CHRIST, to follow God Almighty.

Genesis 24:12, Abrahams servant sought for this direction.  He prays to the Lord of his master to show him basically the direction in which he is to go, where to follow God at.  In verse 22 of Matthew, a similar direction, Jesus Christ admonishes a disciple to follow after Him.  Akoloutheō is the transliterated word for ‘follow’ in Matthew 8 text.  Taken from alpha (Christ as the beginning) and keleuthos (a road) it means to be a follower or companion, to follow one who precedes, join him as his attendant, accompany him.  Jesus Christ had prophesied to Peter about how his devoted life for Jesus would glorify God in death (definitely life changing); to which Jesus ends which the command to FOLLOW HIM (John 21:18-19).

Of course great multitudes followed Jesus coming down from the mountain in Matthew 8:1, but a leper was indeed in need of a life change.  Being faced with desperation, he worshipped Jesus and asks to be clean, and then Jesus gives him clear direction of a command to follow (v4).

When life throws a curve ball at you or a left hook, follow Christ.  Follow God by remembering His Word, praying and keeping your mind sober of things of this world (1 Peter 1:13).  When Sarah died, Abraham had to have been shaken.  The text says he came and wept for her (Genesis 23:2).  He experienced a real life changing event in the death of his wife. I think what would I do if my wife died (Lord help me!!!!)  Abraham followed God, we see that as he works out to find a burial place for his wife, and then in Chapter 24 get’s back to following the Lord’s promise from Genesis 12:2.  He sends his servant to search for Isaac a wife.  When there seems life has no direction, no way to turn, and even no way coming out:  FOLLOW CHRIST.  God bless and think on these words of scripture:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).

encouragement

Today’s reading has us finding Abraham on a journey again (the pilgrim motif is throughout scripture). Again when Abraham is faced with opposition he crumbles under the pressure. He has Sarah collaborate with him on the same lie he spoke earlier in our readings. Because he feared his life he tells Abimelech that his wife is really his sister (a half-truth is a full lie). Because of this Abimelech takes Sarah because she is beautiful with the full expectation to make her one of his wives.

That night God appears in a dream and scares Abimelech out of his socks. It is funny that God says “I did not allow you”. Often times we think we have free will; however, our free will, will NEVER complicate the plans and hand of God. We see here the protection of the seed. In spite of Abimelech’s anger he does not lay a hand on Sarah nor Abraham. If it were not for God’s hand Abimelech most likely would have slayed Abraham on the spot!

A quick side note is that Abimelech says that he is “innocent”. This is not totally true, yes, he may have been innocent in this act; however, no one is innocent. The true seed of Abraham will prove this by His death, burial and resurrection. Often times today we hear “why does bad things happen to good people”. This is a theological error. No one has been innocent since the fall as Paul rightfully points out “all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23).

Next in spite of Abraham’s sin God provides for the promise seed with the wealth of Abimelech (actually God owns all the wealth). This again shows us God’s provision for His people. Paul says to Timothy  “when we are faithless He remains faithful”. We will see that throughout the OT God will continually provide for His people Israel in spite of their failures.

The next provision has Gospel implications. After the promise child is born, God comes to Him and says “offer up your son for a burnt offering”. We can assume that Abraham wrestled with this idea; however, the scriptures never express this. Abraham moves collects the wood, gathers his knife and is ready to offer Isaac up. Immediately God rebukes Abraham and tells Him not to touch the child and provides a ram for him. It is funny that earlier Abraham ensures Isaac that “God will provide a lamb for Himself”. This lamb unfolds to be the Lord Jesus Christ.

However we will later see God will not spare His own son like He did Abraham’s. But what we do see in Hebrews 11 is that Abraham at this point in time was already trusting in the resurrection, he was sure if God told Him to do that He would raise Isaac from the dead, the promise depended on it and God had proved Himself faithful.  God would have raised Isaac just like the promise to us to be raised. Isaac and the ram are pictures and Jesus is the fulfillment.

Today’s reading has shown us that God’s promised plan given back in Genesis 3 is unfolding and we are getting closer and closer to that seed which will crush the serpents head. We see that God will not be prevented from accomplishing His promises. We can rest assure that what God has promised us He will do. He will protect and provide for this promise and through our faith we have been added to this promise.

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January 7, 2010 Daily Reading

In the OT (Genesis 18) reading today, we find three angels coming to get their grub on with Abraham. During the intimate fellowship, they begin to divulge many plans that would change the outcome of Abraham’s life as well as many others. They also shared that they would destroy the city of Sodom in part due to the fact that he had great plans for Abraham. This places Abraham in the midst of a “query of posterior faith.” What I mean by that is that his questioning well lead to future generations developing into great people and nations of God.

As the story continues, we begin to see Abraham starts to intercede on behalf of Sodom. He begins to initiate a conversation with God which at the time was a unique action. (Exo 33:20) As he begins to bombard God, he starts to intercede that God would change his mind if there were 50 righteous men. He continues almost in an irritating mode until he gets God to proclaim that if there are ten righteous men he will not destroy Sodom. It brings one to wonder what would have happen if he continued on with the interceding; could he have gotten God to actually forgo the entire destruction of Sodom through his intercession.

We find in Gen. 19 that God in fact destroys Sodom but Lot is saved which proved to be the main reason for Abraham’s questioning. Amazing as it may seem there were not ten righteous men in Sodom before God destroyed it. God displays his mercy by removing Lot from the destruction but displays his justice as well due to Sodom’s sin.

As we muse through Matt. 6, we see a New Testament infomercial on the process of asking, giving and receiving. Matthew lays out precise instructions about giving, fasting and asking. He is extremely keen about being humble with your giving as well as private. Within this chapter you have the Lord’s Prayer that sets a precedent for prayer. Jesus explains to the disciple how they should pray and later how they should fast. As the chapter closes out we see Jesus flipping the script on the disciples. He goes from giving the process of prayer, to telling them not to be so consumed with the very things you receive. He concludes with making your primary focus the seeking of the Kingdom of God. Nestled within that seeking you find that God will address your personal needs.

As we look at the passage together we can conclude that there is such an innate need for prayer whether in supplication form or intercession. Prayer has the potential to be an irritating presence to God from the believer when taking out of context. We can’t get away from the fact that God is impacted by prayer. But prayer has predications that are laced together with righteousness. Righteousness places you in direct harmony with God which constrains one’s prayer to be centered on Christ. At the end of the day, I would have to side that prayer is not an irritation to God but requirement. Within prayer is the lifeline for intercession and supplication that we cannot find in anything else. When we understand that God wants to help us and meet our needs we start to see that our prayers are not irritating or bothersome to God.  (Matt.6:25-33)

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January 6, 2010 Daily Reading

Today’s OT reading has us with a very concerned Abram and Sarai. Just turn back to Genesis 12:1-9 and you will see exactly what I mean. Abram has left everything to follow this call from God. He has packed up His family has left everything familiar and was told:

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

I have read that families did not do this type of thing. To say it was counter-cultural would be a gross understatement. Everything rested on your family. There were no governments or laws to protect you. All you had was your family. At any given moment, someone could come to enslave you, rob you or even wipe your entire family off the face of the earth. So for Abram to leave was to do more than relocate and miss Christmas meals, it was to separate himself from his fathers wealth, his families protection and everything he has ever known. Not to mention he wasn’t a young and naive 18 year old running to New York. He was 75 years old and this is all he has ever known. Add to that he is taking along his wife for this journey only adds to the anxiety he must have felt.

But today’s reading puts us 25 years later. And if you haven’t noticed, Sarai is still barren and this promise seems to be fading at an alarming rate. Abram is 100 years old, Sarai is 90 years old (we find this out later) and there seems to be no significant change to validate this promise that Abram has heard.

Then God comes and reaasures Abram. He revalidates His promises but this time takes it a step further. Upon this reassurance we see Abram beliving God and him being “justified” by faith. This will become one of the most important words in your New Testament and if you read anything about theology this is an issue facing the church today. It was because of Abrams faith that God made Him righteous, yet he produced the fruit of faith by leaving all he knew to follow the call of God.

Shortly after that God then enters into a unilateral covenant thus sealing Abram’s justification (Romans 4) and guaranteeing His promise. In spite of Abram’s righteousness, faith and the covenant being ratified by God Himself. Abram still sins against the Lord. He attempts to give God a child instead of God giving him a child. In spite of this God shows His faithfulness to His own covenant by giving both Abram and Sarai new identities by changing their names and even in their unfaithfulness Abram’s offspring is blessed.

Today how many of us, after being called away from everything we knew and loved and lived for, given new names, new identities still do not trust God? Yet in spite of all of our lack of trust, God is still faithful to bring His promises to pass. Today you and I are aliens in a foregin land. The Gospel has brought us into a new relationship with new identies and a new destination yet often times our circumstances blinds us on the road much like Abraham’s circumstance blinded him. I remember reading Pilgrims Progress and sometimes Christian would turn the wrong way and find himself in some difficult circumstances, yet in spite of that God was bringing Him to the celestial city.

We have to understand that in spite of all we see in our own circumstances and the failure we experience,  God’s unilateral covenant has been ratified in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just like Abraham was justified by faith we too have been justified by faith. Just like Abraham was given a sign/seal of the covenant which was circumcision we too have been given a sign/seal of the covenant and He is the Holy Spirit which produces a new heart. And as with Sarah, God does not need our assistance in bringing His promises to pass, He only wants us to yield to Him. What God began He will complete. Romans 8:28-30 gives us a wonderful promise of God’s faithfulness to His covenant people. We can rest assured that we will be what He wants us to be, though we can make this journey rough for ourselves (you will see that Ishmael will become a problem to the promised seed).

Our new testament reading is also an introduction to a covenant. This covenant is called the “New Covenant”. Jesus in the sermon of the mount is beginning to lay the ground work for this covenant. He is the master builder, a new law giver and is now calling His people to a new moral standard. It is a moral standard built on the motivation of the heart not the letter of the law. We will later come to find out that just like the covenant with Abraham, it will be a gracious covenant. This covenant will be based on faith and upheld by God. There will be fruit requirement as evidence that we are part of this covenant and we see that in what Jesus is calling us to do, just like the fruit of Abraham’s faith was him leaving his father, but just like Abraham it will not be conditional. God will see that all He promised to Abraham come to fruition and Jesus will see that all He promised to His covenant people will come to fruition!

Covenant Faithfulness, Justification, New Covenant

January 5, 2010 Daily Reading

In these two passages of scripture, we deal heavily with reward. Abram receives many rewards: one great reward that will have eternal implications (I won’t deal with this one here because I think it will be better served in Galatians ) and many small rewards of earthly value; both of which Abram will benefit greatly. He receives the promise of the Seed, favor with the pharaoh (even after being dishonest!), the promise of the land, a blessing from the high priest, Melchizedek, AND he defeated the kidnapping kings. Talk about reward! These are the kinds of rewards that excite us. We love the rewards that speak to our goodness and pat us on the back for our obedience (and disobedience at times). We love being made much of by God and having Him applaud how glorious we are to Him, how much He is happy that we’re on His team.

Abram’s reward seems more “logical” to us as humans. You do something good on earth and you reap a good earthly reward. Go when God calls you, do what God says, and He’ll bless your socks off with all your earthly desires greater than you can ever imagine! Unfortunately, many teach that we are to anticipate these earthly rewards to the detriment of the church, leaving her to chase the lusts of her flesh. I can hear many of you thinking, “Oh no, not me. I don’t want God to make much of me. He’s the glorious One!” But does your life echo those sentiments? If we take off our self-righteousness for a second or two, we’ll probably see ourselves somewhere in there because if the truth were told, we are all lovers of ourselves (even if we self loathe—especially if we self-loathe). So, what’s the cure for this? Let’s lean over into the gospel of Matthew, pull up a chair (or maybe a rock ) on the Mount, and listen to what Jesus says.

Jesus speaks of rewards that have absolutely NO earthly value. In fact, the one who receives the rewards must suffer greatly according to earthly standards of “blessedness” and receive their reward in heaven. Among the rewarded are the mourners, the poor in spirit, and those persecuted for righteousness sake. THESE are the ones who will be called the sons of God, who will be comforted, who will inherit the kingdom of heaven, who will receive mercy, who will see God (etc.)—who will receive the GREAT reward of Matthew 5:12.

Let us all take some time today to reflect on where we stand. Do an honest assessment of yourself and spend some time in prayer over the condition of your desires:

• Which reward am I most concerned with?
• If I say I am most concerned with Christ’s heavenly reward, do I possess any of the characteristics of those who are qualified for the reward? If not, what’s standing in my way?
• If I can honestly say that I am not all that excited about the heavenly reward and my heart desires all that the earth has to offer, I will pray earnestly and confide in/pray with a trusted brother/sister in the faith for Christ to detour my desires and give me a ferocious thirst for His righteousness.

Beatitudes, Rewards

In our reading today from Genesis 6:1-7, God decided to destroy mankind because of the extent of wickedness. However, God demonstrated grace (“favor”) toward Noah and his family (Genesis 6:8) in saving them from the coming flood. Thus, God remembers his promise to Noah (Genesis 8:1) and, by saving Noah’s family, keeps a remnant for himself.

This theme of a remnant continues throughout the Old Testament. From Abraham, to the Exodus, the to the exile, to the return from exile, God has always promised to keep a remnant for himself.

Now, in Matthew 3:1-3, we see God once again bringing a remnant of people to himself. He calls this people his “kingdom.” The kingdom of heaven (or the kingdom of God) is an important concept in the Gospel of Matthew, and the concept is first mentioned in Matthew 3:2, where John the Baptist calls the people to repentance because the kingdom of heaven is near. Later, in Matthew 4:17, Jesus will make the same pronouncement after reading from Isaiah 9:1-7, thereby proclaiming himself to be both the initiator and the ruler of this new kingdom – a new remnant.

We learn much about the Jesus’ reign in the approaching kingdom of heaven from John the Baptist in Matthew 3:1-17. First, we see that the kingdom was foretold. Next we see that the kingdom involves true repentance that demonstrates itself by “fruit” – that is, both internal and external righteous deeds. Finally, while baptism by water is an indication that someone has repented, Jesus Christ will bring people into his kingdom by immersing them in the Holy Spirit.

What can we take from our reading today? We can rejoice that we have been shown grace by God and included in his remnant – in his kingdom! Second, in response to being included in his kingdom and being baptized (immersed) in his Spirit, we should live by the Spirit demonstrating the fruit and power of the Spirit.

We are a new people who live as part of a new kingdom.

A Little Greek

ἐγὼ μὲν ὑμᾶς βαπτίζω ἐν ὕδατι εἰς μετάνοιαν: ὁ δὲ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἰσχυρότερός μού ἐστιν, οὗ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἱκανὸς τὰ ὑποδήματα βαστάσαι: αὐτὸς ὑμᾶς βαπτίσει ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ πυρί (Matthew 3:11)

The μὲν… δὲ (men… de) conjunctions in this sentence form a strong contrast. Sometimes, this conjunction pair is translated “on the one hand” and “on the other hand.” The emphasis is heightened by the use of the pronouns ἐγὼ (ego) and αὐτὸς (autos), which are unnecessary because the verbs themselves carry the meaning of “I” and “he.” Putting these two together (conjunctions and pronouns), we can see that John the Baptist is making a big distinction between his baptism and Jesus’ baptism.

By the way, the phrase found in Matthew 3:11 is found in all four Gospels (also Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, and John 1:31-33) and twice in Acts (Acts 1:5 and Acts 11:16).

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January 2, 2010 Daily Reading

Today’s reading plan contains the beginning of sin, grace, promise, the implications of sin, two curses, two acts of God’s grace, worship, false worship and the implications of these and finally we begin to see a promise fulfilled in the birth of Jesus the Christ.

After God has now called everything good and Adam has a wife and a law was given (don’t eat of the tree) with a promise of life if obedience was practiced, we are introduced to a “serpent”. We later come to find out that this serpent is named the Devil, Satan, Adversary or the prince of the power of the air. He enters the scene quickly and he gets right to his duties of being the enemy of God.  He convinces them to eat of the tree, their eyes are opened and we now have something called “sin” (not sins) and everything God promised would happen began to happen. There was a death, we later come to find out this death is spiritual one (Ephesians 2:1) though they will also die physically and that everyone has been infected by sin (Romans 5:12-15). God pronounces a curse over all of His creation and it doesn’t take long to see this curse working in and through humanity (Genesis 4:8-16 and Genesis 4:23-24)

Yet in spite of this we see a promise in the midst of the chaos. In Genesis 3:15 we see a promise of a seed that will crush the head of the serpent. My friends this is the beginning of what is known as redemptive history (we see a genealogy that follows the Godly Seth versus the cursed Cain) and we see this “seed” unfold to be a promised prophet, king, God with us, and later fully as the Lord Jesus Christ.  In our New Testament reading Matthew 2:1-6 the child being born to Mary and Joseph will “shepherd” the people (you will see this shepherd language throughout your reading of the Old Testament).

I want to point out a few things that we begin to see that will be clearer as we read throughout this year. We first see a picture of “substitute”. Two animals are killed in our readings. The first in Genesis 3:20-21. An animal is killed to clothe Adam and Eve (no animal has died before this point). Next we see an animal being a satisfying offering to God as worship. We read this in Genesis 4:1-7. This will become more apparent as to why the slaying (blood) of animals is necessary to worship God. We also see dissatisfaction of false worship. God will not allow false worship and Cain is angered (just as many today are angered by the Gospel) and kills his brother because of it. We see early on that God has a very SPECIFIC way to be worshipped and nothing else is accepted (today many believe they can worship God how they please, and that is because God has been created in our image not His revealed image).

Finally we end with the birth of a King, so we are left with a cliff hanger. What will this king do? He is only a child yet he is being worshipped by Magi from the East who followed his star. We see again false worship. There is another king who does not want this new king to be worshipped, so he goes into deplorable depths to ensure that this child king does not grow up to become an adult and take his rightful place as the true king., God’s king. Well we have to continue reading to see how this unfolds and how it harmonizes itself with our Old Testament readings.

Genesis, Matthew, Redemptive History, The Fall, Worship

January1, 2010 Daily Reading

Reading through the creation story always induces a feeling of awe and admiration for our great God in me. If you walk outside right now, day or night, you will behold the evidence of the sovereign goodness of our great God. The fact that He wills and does according to His own volition is a sobering reality that should drive each of us to worship Him, namely through obedience.

It is easy for one to do a brisk reading of Genesis 1-2 and see that God created the earth–the animals, the plants and trees–and humans and simply regard that as recorded history. However, a careful reading of the text reveals its complexities and glories.

For example, have you ever noticed that chapter 1 and chapter 2 are two versions of the same story? The first story gives us great detail of the actual creation of the earth and a brief summary of the creation of humans; yet, the second story gives us a condensed version of the creation of the earth and a more detailed version of the creation of humans. Also, have you ever noticed that God spoke everything into existence except humans? He formed man from the ground and woman from the man.

Despite its complexities, one cannot help but see the glory in the power of God’s speech throughout the text. Every single time the Creator spoke, the creation listened and therefore responded and it was good.

Reading and thinking on this stirred up something in me that needs to come under subjection to this great reality: I have spent a lot of time acting like the Creator instead of listening to Him. This, my friends, should never be! God is the sovereign Creator of the universe. He speaks; we listen and therefore respond. This is the essence of obedience which is the only true form of worship.

So with the beginning of this new year upon us and all the talk of new year’s resolutions buzzing around us, our resolve should forever be to listen when our God speaks.

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