This week as we studied how God raised up a Deliverer for the children of Israel enslaved in Egypt, I was struck by how I often remove myself from the Israelites. I ask myself questions like;
how in the world did they end up in bondage?
why didn't they trust God after all those miracles?
how could they whine and complain after God had done so much for them?
how could they long for slavery and bondage at the first sign of discomfort?
why are they so afraid of freedom?
why so unable to look forward and trust God?
Oh, the questions keep on until God asks me,
"Beloved, are you so different?"
I am reminded that every one of my questions about Israel apply to me as well. I may not have had physical chains and forced labor with taskmasters but I have certainly been enslaved by sin and my on rebellion. I have seen Jehovah Jireh make provision for me over and over again only to be ungrateful for the way He provided or the time He provided it. Sometimes we choose bondage. Sometimes chains are placed on us by other people or circumstances. God has raised up a Deliverer for us that we don't have to wait 400 years to be free. We can choose freedom now. God provided the once for all Sacrificial Passover Lamb so that death and sin and bondage will PASS OVER us!
We read about the first Passover last week, about the remembrance of the angel of death passing over the houses that had the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. As innocent blood dripped down the door frames, the guilty inside the house were saved because they trusted God's provision of salvation. They ate of the lamb that had been slain, ate bitter herbs to remind them of the bitterness of their slavery, rid their homes of yeast to symbolize the removal of sin and the readiness to leave that place of bondage in hurry and walk into freedom.
We can do that same thing! We need to partake of the Passover Lamb that is Jesus, trust in His Blood to set us free... allow him to cleanse us of sin and remember JUST WHAT HE SAVED US FROM. We need to remember that a pit is a pit no matter how comfortable it is. When we are slaves to sin it is bitter and painful... Satan wants to convince us that it wasn't so bad. When we look back we need to remember the bitterness that it caused. The hurt that we cause ourselves and others. The hurt that we cause God when we turn our backs on Him, Our Creator and Lover of our souls. We need to have our eyes opened to the devastation that sin causes, even if it is within ourselves. The insecurity, the bitterness, the anger, low self-esteem... I want to remember the bitterness that it caused only long enough to thank the Lord for all that He has done. Don't wallow in the sin and let Satan hang you with it, but remember it only in the context of thankfulness that we don't have to stay in bondage. God has set us free. Let's be dressed and ready to walk in that freedom and not look back. It is for freedom sake that Christ made us free.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Making Amends and Offering Forgiveness
Last week we read alot!! We covered alot! There are a few things that I wanted to point out as we leave Genesis and head into Job.
Last week we read about God telling Jacob to take his family and leave Laban's house and go to the land He promised Abraham. Jacob obeyed but, on the way home, he knew he was going to have to face Esau and he was terrified! After planning and scheming (positioning bribes AND his wives and children between him and Esau) he prayed to God and reminded God of His promises. That night, alone at camp, Jacob wrestles with God. He doesn't give up his struggle until God blesses him and gives him a new name. Israel. When we come face to face with God, when we struggle and wrestle with Him over something, HANG ON UNTIL THE BLESSING COMES!!! It WILL come!! And after, we will be given a new name; we will never be the same. In this wrestling, God touched Jacob's hip and he walked with a limp afterward. Metaphorically speaking, sometimes God wounds us so that we will walk differently with Him. Sometimes we need to have something re-broken so God can heal us properly. God's wounding is always for our healing. Tough teaching but true.
After his encounter with God, Jacob is given the courage to face Esau. He makes amends with him. Before we can enter our personal Promised Land, we need to face God and make amends with our brothers and sisters. (Research for this segment from Beth Moore's Patriarchs Bible study)
As for Joseph, this segment of Scripture taught us alot about how God uses broken and messed up people to accomplish His purpose. God never condones sin, but uses sinful people to accomplish His will. We also see a progression of spiritual maturity in Judah as he is the ones that suggests selling Joseph, then runs away from home to marry a Canaanite woman and raises 3 godless sons (2 of which God puts to death for their evilness), then Judah's sin with Tamar and finally a return home and eventually stepping in as the leader who offers himself in lieu of Benjamin on behalf of their father. Judah is the tribe from which Christ the Messiah will come and is a picture of God using sinful people to accomplish His purpose.
With the trials that Joseph goes through, we see him living a life of integrity in the face of adversity and coming to a place where he offers forgiveness to those who hurt him most. He even came to the place where he realized that God ordained his journey. He tells his brothers in Gen. 50:20, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good..."
Oh, that we could see the hurts that others deliver as a way that God can use us to bless others. joseph had a choice. Stay bitter or be a blessing. Trials, hurts and hardships WILL come. We can choose to allow good to come from them or allow anger and bitterness to destroy us. Let's choose to allow God to use it for good...
Last week we read about God telling Jacob to take his family and leave Laban's house and go to the land He promised Abraham. Jacob obeyed but, on the way home, he knew he was going to have to face Esau and he was terrified! After planning and scheming (positioning bribes AND his wives and children between him and Esau) he prayed to God and reminded God of His promises. That night, alone at camp, Jacob wrestles with God. He doesn't give up his struggle until God blesses him and gives him a new name. Israel. When we come face to face with God, when we struggle and wrestle with Him over something, HANG ON UNTIL THE BLESSING COMES!!! It WILL come!! And after, we will be given a new name; we will never be the same. In this wrestling, God touched Jacob's hip and he walked with a limp afterward. Metaphorically speaking, sometimes God wounds us so that we will walk differently with Him. Sometimes we need to have something re-broken so God can heal us properly. God's wounding is always for our healing. Tough teaching but true.
After his encounter with God, Jacob is given the courage to face Esau. He makes amends with him. Before we can enter our personal Promised Land, we need to face God and make amends with our brothers and sisters. (Research for this segment from Beth Moore's Patriarchs Bible study)
As for Joseph, this segment of Scripture taught us alot about how God uses broken and messed up people to accomplish His purpose. God never condones sin, but uses sinful people to accomplish His will. We also see a progression of spiritual maturity in Judah as he is the ones that suggests selling Joseph, then runs away from home to marry a Canaanite woman and raises 3 godless sons (2 of which God puts to death for their evilness), then Judah's sin with Tamar and finally a return home and eventually stepping in as the leader who offers himself in lieu of Benjamin on behalf of their father. Judah is the tribe from which Christ the Messiah will come and is a picture of God using sinful people to accomplish His purpose.
With the trials that Joseph goes through, we see him living a life of integrity in the face of adversity and coming to a place where he offers forgiveness to those who hurt him most. He even came to the place where he realized that God ordained his journey. He tells his brothers in Gen. 50:20, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good..."
Oh, that we could see the hurts that others deliver as a way that God can use us to bless others. joseph had a choice. Stay bitter or be a blessing. Trials, hurts and hardships WILL come. We can choose to allow good to come from them or allow anger and bitterness to destroy us. Let's choose to allow God to use it for good...
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Karath Beriyth
Karath Beriyth is the Hebrew term for "cut covenant".
The word "covenant" or "beriyth" is used almost 300 times in the Bible. It is defined as a "solemn binding agreement" most often made by passing through pieces of flesh. The first time it is mentioned in Scripture is in Genesis 6:18 when God makes a covenant with Noah and all mankind to never destroy the population of the earth again with a flood and gives a rainbow as the sign of the covenant. When God is making this covenant, it is when He has provided an ark of safety for a remnant of those he saw as righteous from the impending judgment. The ark shielded the remnant from the judgment that was being poured out on the earth.
The next time we see covenant is in Genesis 15:1-21 when God cuts covenant with Abram. God tells Abram to bring several different specific animals and cut them in half (down the spine in symmetrical pieces) and arrange the halves side by side... this creates a wall of blood between the pieces. Over and over in Scripture we see the recurring theme of blood.. esp the shedding of innocent blood on behalf of the guilty. In blood covenant, both parties entering the covenant would pass between the pieces of flesh through the wall of blood in a figure 8 path. This figure 8 symbolizes infinity, the "eternal-ness" of the covenant. They would be agreeing to dying to self as they "put on" their covenant partner. They take on the friends and enemies of that partner, the care of that partner and descendants. It is a solemn, binding agreement that lasts forever. It implies protection and provision and the fulfillment of any covenant promises. Both parties pass through the flesh... performing a "walk into death" as they walk through the blood. Dying to self and putting on the other person.
When God cut covenant with Abram, He alone passed through the pieces of flesh because He alone could fulfill the promise of the covenant. He put Abram into a deep sleep and a smoking firepot and flaming torch passed though the pieces of flesh. So we have the bloody sacrifice, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch. These represent the Holy Trinity! Jesus is the sacrifice and the firepot and torch represent the Father and Spirit! Christ bears the cut of covenant on His hands! He is the sacrificial Lamb that offered His blood for our salvation.
After God cut covenant with Abram, He changed his name to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. In Revelation 2:17, we read that we are given a new name that no one knows but Jesus! it is given to us on a white stone... I wonder if God calls me by this name from the time I became saved? Also, in Revelation 19:12, Jesus gets a new name as well!! One that has never been misused or profaned... amazing.
In Genesis 17:9-14, God gives Abraham the sign of the covenant. Each male among his descendants were to be circumcised. Circumcision is a cut in the flesh closest to the site of paternity... closest to the site of his seed. In Genesis 12:7, God promises that a Seed will come to crush the head of the serpent and the serpent would bruise His heel. (BTW, crucifixion is the only death where the heel is bruised!!)
Marriage is a covenant that is a solemn binding agreement. It is a picture of the covenant between God and His people. The way that marriage is consummated is a picture of covenant, just in the way God created our bodies. The cut of circumcision. The union of man and wife, the passing through 2 pieces of flesh and the blood that occurs when a woman offers her virginity to her husband. That is why it is so damaging when we treat sex and marriage so casually. We enter into covenant with the person we have been physically intimate with. When we are casual with this, we are ripped apart from covenant. Covenant is two becoming one. The putting on of the other... agreeing to die to self and put on the other person as ourselves. Covenant relationship supersedes every other relationship.
We will look at covenant alot through the Bible this year. Try to pay attention whenever you see it and mark it in your Bible. We looked at other things Sunday night but it was too much to cover on this blog. We will visit them again as we come to each story in Scripture.
Mostly I want us to begin to understand the eternal-ness of covenant. When we get married, we put on the other person until death do we part. When we enter into covenant with God, we put on Christ. We need to make sure we are showing that we are new creations in Christ.
The word "covenant" or "beriyth" is used almost 300 times in the Bible. It is defined as a "solemn binding agreement" most often made by passing through pieces of flesh. The first time it is mentioned in Scripture is in Genesis 6:18 when God makes a covenant with Noah and all mankind to never destroy the population of the earth again with a flood and gives a rainbow as the sign of the covenant. When God is making this covenant, it is when He has provided an ark of safety for a remnant of those he saw as righteous from the impending judgment. The ark shielded the remnant from the judgment that was being poured out on the earth.
The next time we see covenant is in Genesis 15:1-21 when God cuts covenant with Abram. God tells Abram to bring several different specific animals and cut them in half (down the spine in symmetrical pieces) and arrange the halves side by side... this creates a wall of blood between the pieces. Over and over in Scripture we see the recurring theme of blood.. esp the shedding of innocent blood on behalf of the guilty. In blood covenant, both parties entering the covenant would pass between the pieces of flesh through the wall of blood in a figure 8 path. This figure 8 symbolizes infinity, the "eternal-ness" of the covenant. They would be agreeing to dying to self as they "put on" their covenant partner. They take on the friends and enemies of that partner, the care of that partner and descendants. It is a solemn, binding agreement that lasts forever. It implies protection and provision and the fulfillment of any covenant promises. Both parties pass through the flesh... performing a "walk into death" as they walk through the blood. Dying to self and putting on the other person.
When God cut covenant with Abram, He alone passed through the pieces of flesh because He alone could fulfill the promise of the covenant. He put Abram into a deep sleep and a smoking firepot and flaming torch passed though the pieces of flesh. So we have the bloody sacrifice, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch. These represent the Holy Trinity! Jesus is the sacrifice and the firepot and torch represent the Father and Spirit! Christ bears the cut of covenant on His hands! He is the sacrificial Lamb that offered His blood for our salvation.
After God cut covenant with Abram, He changed his name to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. In Revelation 2:17, we read that we are given a new name that no one knows but Jesus! it is given to us on a white stone... I wonder if God calls me by this name from the time I became saved? Also, in Revelation 19:12, Jesus gets a new name as well!! One that has never been misused or profaned... amazing.
In Genesis 17:9-14, God gives Abraham the sign of the covenant. Each male among his descendants were to be circumcised. Circumcision is a cut in the flesh closest to the site of paternity... closest to the site of his seed. In Genesis 12:7, God promises that a Seed will come to crush the head of the serpent and the serpent would bruise His heel. (BTW, crucifixion is the only death where the heel is bruised!!)
Marriage is a covenant that is a solemn binding agreement. It is a picture of the covenant between God and His people. The way that marriage is consummated is a picture of covenant, just in the way God created our bodies. The cut of circumcision. The union of man and wife, the passing through 2 pieces of flesh and the blood that occurs when a woman offers her virginity to her husband. That is why it is so damaging when we treat sex and marriage so casually. We enter into covenant with the person we have been physically intimate with. When we are casual with this, we are ripped apart from covenant. Covenant is two becoming one. The putting on of the other... agreeing to die to self and put on the other person as ourselves. Covenant relationship supersedes every other relationship.
We will look at covenant alot through the Bible this year. Try to pay attention whenever you see it and mark it in your Bible. We looked at other things Sunday night but it was too much to cover on this blog. We will visit them again as we come to each story in Scripture.
Mostly I want us to begin to understand the eternal-ness of covenant. When we get married, we put on the other person until death do we part. When we enter into covenant with God, we put on Christ. We need to make sure we are showing that we are new creations in Christ.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Where Are You?
"Where Are You?
God asked Adam this question after he and Eve had sinned. God knew exactly where they were and what they had done. God wanted them to acknowledge to Him where they were and what they had done. God asks the same question of us. We serve a God that is completely all-knowing and all-sufficient yet He offers us the chance to share with Him. He wants us to come to Him in all things. He knows them all. But it is different when we choose to bring it to Him.
As we begin to read and study God's Word, I feel Him asking each of us to acknowledge to Him where we are. Where are you in your journey with Him? Where are you in life? Do you find yourself lonely, overwhelmed and distant from God? Or do you find yourself in obedience to Him, content and secure in your relationship with Him? We all have different things going on in our lives. Each of us are in different stages of life and in different places in our walk with Him. Yet, we serve the same God who meets each of us RIGHT WHERE WE ARE. He makes a way to us. Just as He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, He wants that same sweet fellowship with us. Often we are reluctant to take part in the fellowship. Maybe sin has us hiding from God and trying to cover our shame in our own way. Maybe we just want to do things our way.
In Genesis 9:1, God tells Noah and his family to "go, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."
Yet in Genesis 11:1-9, we read about the people choosing to build a city and tower to "make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." (v 4b)
They were determined to do what they wanted. They were in direct disobedience to what God had told them to do. So the "Lord God came down" (v 5) and confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. (vv 7-8)
God's will is going to be done. He will accomplish His purpose. God invites us to join Him in His work but we have a choice to participate willingly. God wanted the people to scatter. They refused. He scattered them anyway. I wonder what blessings they gave up in being unwilling to obey... I wonder what blessings I give up when I refuse to obey... I know that it breaks my fellowship with the Lord. He doesn't need me to do anything for Him but allows me the opportunity to join Him and be a part. God is God and He will accomplish His purpose.
Isaiah 46:9-11,
Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
10 I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’
11 From the east I summon a bird of prey;
from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;
what I have planned, that I will do.
God desires a people to that are set apart and devoted to His Name. We need to be about making much of Him and His Name, not making a name ourselves. Often we are busy doing our own thing, building "towers" to make a name for ourselves so we can keep doing our own thing. Let's be about making His Name famous.
Here is this week's reading:
Jan 5... Gen 15:1-21; 16:1-16; 17:1-8, 9-14,15-27
Jan 6... Gen 18:1-15, 16-33; 19:1-29, 30-38; 20:1-18; 21:1-7
Jan 7... Gen 21:8-21; 22-34; 22:1-24; 23:1-20; 11:32; 24:1-67
Jan 8... Gen 25:1-4; 1 Chron 1:32-33; Gen 25:5-6, 12-18; 1 Chron 1:28-31,34; Gen 25:19-26, 7-11
Jan 9... Gen 25:27-34; 26:1-35; 27:1-41; 28:1-5
Jan 10.. Gen 28:6-22; 29:1-31; 30:1-24
Jan 11.. Gen 30:25-43; 31:1-55
Jan 12.. Gen 32:1-32; 33:1-20; 34:1-31; 35:1-27
God asked Adam this question after he and Eve had sinned. God knew exactly where they were and what they had done. God wanted them to acknowledge to Him where they were and what they had done. God asks the same question of us. We serve a God that is completely all-knowing and all-sufficient yet He offers us the chance to share with Him. He wants us to come to Him in all things. He knows them all. But it is different when we choose to bring it to Him.
As we begin to read and study God's Word, I feel Him asking each of us to acknowledge to Him where we are. Where are you in your journey with Him? Where are you in life? Do you find yourself lonely, overwhelmed and distant from God? Or do you find yourself in obedience to Him, content and secure in your relationship with Him? We all have different things going on in our lives. Each of us are in different stages of life and in different places in our walk with Him. Yet, we serve the same God who meets each of us RIGHT WHERE WE ARE. He makes a way to us. Just as He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, He wants that same sweet fellowship with us. Often we are reluctant to take part in the fellowship. Maybe sin has us hiding from God and trying to cover our shame in our own way. Maybe we just want to do things our way.
In Genesis 9:1, God tells Noah and his family to "go, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."
Yet in Genesis 11:1-9, we read about the people choosing to build a city and tower to "make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." (v 4b)
They were determined to do what they wanted. They were in direct disobedience to what God had told them to do. So the "Lord God came down" (v 5) and confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. (vv 7-8)
God's will is going to be done. He will accomplish His purpose. God invites us to join Him in His work but we have a choice to participate willingly. God wanted the people to scatter. They refused. He scattered them anyway. I wonder what blessings they gave up in being unwilling to obey... I wonder what blessings I give up when I refuse to obey... I know that it breaks my fellowship with the Lord. He doesn't need me to do anything for Him but allows me the opportunity to join Him and be a part. God is God and He will accomplish His purpose.
Isaiah 46:9-11,
Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
10 I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’
11 From the east I summon a bird of prey;
from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;
what I have planned, that I will do.
God desires a people to that are set apart and devoted to His Name. We need to be about making much of Him and His Name, not making a name ourselves. Often we are busy doing our own thing, building "towers" to make a name for ourselves so we can keep doing our own thing. Let's be about making His Name famous.
Here is this week's reading:
Jan 5... Gen 15:1-21; 16:1-16; 17:1-8, 9-14,15-27
Jan 6... Gen 18:1-15, 16-33; 19:1-29, 30-38; 20:1-18; 21:1-7
Jan 7... Gen 21:8-21; 22-34; 22:1-24; 23:1-20; 11:32; 24:1-67
Jan 8... Gen 25:1-4; 1 Chron 1:32-33; Gen 25:5-6, 12-18; 1 Chron 1:28-31,34; Gen 25:19-26, 7-11
Jan 9... Gen 25:27-34; 26:1-35; 27:1-41; 28:1-5
Jan 10.. Gen 28:6-22; 29:1-31; 30:1-24
Jan 11.. Gen 30:25-43; 31:1-55
Jan 12.. Gen 32:1-32; 33:1-20; 34:1-31; 35:1-27
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Sage Advice from Glinda the Good Witch
"It is always best to start at the beginning"
Glinda spoke these words to Dorothy as she began her quest to see the Wizard of Oz. They make pretty good sense to me, especially here on the first day of 2014.
Today we endeavor to begin at the beginning with The Beginning. Nothing has impacted my understanding of God's Word like reading it in the order in which the events happened. My prayer for you this year is to understand God's Word like you never have before... even if this isn't the first time you have read the Bible chronologically. My prayer is for His Word to fall afresh on each of our hearts... That we become doers of The Word and not just hearers only... That God's Word sits on our hearts until our hearts break and His Word falls in. I am expecting us to grow together in Christ as family.. that at the end of this year, we have a love for one another that is unlike anything because we have journeyed together in Truth.
We begin our daily reading today and for those that are joining me on Sunday nights, we will meet this Sunday at 5pm. I invite you to participate as much as you can. If you can, read every day, join me on Sunday nights and check in on this blog when you can. If you can't do all three, participate as much as you can as often as you can. You WILL get behind on your reading. Why? Because life happens... if it's only a few days... try to catch up. If it's longer than a few days and you feel like you are too far behind and think you should give up, DON'T!! Start reading the day you are on. Go back and read if you can and if you can't, don't worry about it. It's better to keep going. If you don't finish your reading, still come to class. If you are only reading and following the blog and you find yourself with free time on a Sunday night, join us!!
"And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that The Day of His returning is near." Hebrews 10:25
I will teach from our reading each week, usually from Sunday to Saturday reading and I will try to post the reading for the week on Sunday nights. This week I will teach from today's reading through Saturday.
Here is your reading for this week, including Sunday.
Wednesday January 1, Genesis 1-3:24
Thursday January 2, Genesis 4:1-5:32; 1 Chronicles 1:1-4: Gen 6:1-22
Friday January 3, Genesis 7:1-10:5; 1 Chronicles 1:5-7; Gen 10:6-20; 1 Chron. 1:8-16;
Gen.10:21-30; 1 Chron 1:17-23; Gen. 10:31-32
Saturday January 4, Genesis 11:1-26; 1 Chronicles 1:24-27; Gen. 11:27- 14:24
Sunday January 5, Genesis 15:1-17:27
All throughout the Bible, God shows His desire to dwell with us, to be in relationship with us. The Bible consistently shows how God is all about making a way to dwell with us until we can dwell with Him. He dwelt with man and walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. That is His desire. He has made a way for us. As we read His Word, focus on the fact that everything God does is to bring us into relationship with Him. Let's draw near to Him as He draws near to us.
And so it begins.....
Glinda spoke these words to Dorothy as she began her quest to see the Wizard of Oz. They make pretty good sense to me, especially here on the first day of 2014.
Today we endeavor to begin at the beginning with The Beginning. Nothing has impacted my understanding of God's Word like reading it in the order in which the events happened. My prayer for you this year is to understand God's Word like you never have before... even if this isn't the first time you have read the Bible chronologically. My prayer is for His Word to fall afresh on each of our hearts... That we become doers of The Word and not just hearers only... That God's Word sits on our hearts until our hearts break and His Word falls in. I am expecting us to grow together in Christ as family.. that at the end of this year, we have a love for one another that is unlike anything because we have journeyed together in Truth.
We begin our daily reading today and for those that are joining me on Sunday nights, we will meet this Sunday at 5pm. I invite you to participate as much as you can. If you can, read every day, join me on Sunday nights and check in on this blog when you can. If you can't do all three, participate as much as you can as often as you can. You WILL get behind on your reading. Why? Because life happens... if it's only a few days... try to catch up. If it's longer than a few days and you feel like you are too far behind and think you should give up, DON'T!! Start reading the day you are on. Go back and read if you can and if you can't, don't worry about it. It's better to keep going. If you don't finish your reading, still come to class. If you are only reading and following the blog and you find yourself with free time on a Sunday night, join us!!
"And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that The Day of His returning is near." Hebrews 10:25
I will teach from our reading each week, usually from Sunday to Saturday reading and I will try to post the reading for the week on Sunday nights. This week I will teach from today's reading through Saturday.
Here is your reading for this week, including Sunday.
Wednesday January 1, Genesis 1-3:24
Thursday January 2, Genesis 4:1-5:32; 1 Chronicles 1:1-4: Gen 6:1-22
Friday January 3, Genesis 7:1-10:5; 1 Chronicles 1:5-7; Gen 10:6-20; 1 Chron. 1:8-16;
Gen.10:21-30; 1 Chron 1:17-23; Gen. 10:31-32
Saturday January 4, Genesis 11:1-26; 1 Chronicles 1:24-27; Gen. 11:27- 14:24
Sunday January 5, Genesis 15:1-17:27
All throughout the Bible, God shows His desire to dwell with us, to be in relationship with us. The Bible consistently shows how God is all about making a way to dwell with us until we can dwell with Him. He dwelt with man and walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. That is His desire. He has made a way for us. As we read His Word, focus on the fact that everything God does is to bring us into relationship with Him. Let's draw near to Him as He draws near to us.
And so it begins.....
Thursday, December 26, 2013
The "With Us" God
Every year at Christmas time The Lord brings to my mind something to focus on about Him. It took me a long time figure that out because every year a certain theme would resonate over and over again in my mind. I always assumed that it was from a word from my pastor or something that media was hammering in my head until a few years ago I paid attention and it seemed to come out of nowhere. Just random thoughts. I usually share this with Alex and that becomes our focus for the Christmas season.
This year I have had "Immanuel" on my mind. I remember hearing Beth Moore teach on this from her study, "Jesus The One and Only" and she kept calling Him "The With Us God". This Christmas, I kept thinking about The With Us God. Over and over in Scripture God tells us that He is with us. One of my favorite verses is Joshua 1:9, "9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
In Genesis 26:24 and 28:15, God tells Abraham that He will be with Him. Joshua 3:7, God informs Joshua that He would be with him in the same way He was with Moses. The angel of the LORD appears to Gideon in Judges 6:12 and lets Him know that God is with him. He promises to be with Israel in Isaiah 41:10.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, He was first introduced in Matthew 1:23 as Immanuel, "God With Us". And when the Word ascended into Heaven in Matthew 28:20, He told His disciples, "... behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
He is with us. He is with us always. God has always been about making a way to dwell with us until we could dwell with Him. From the garden of Eden where He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, to appearing to Moses and talking to him as a friend, to the Tent of Meeting, The Most Holy Place, to sending His Son as an offering... God coming down in human form to walk around with us, teach us, sacrifice Himself and die as the punishment for our sins so that we could be blameless and holy and be with Him eternally.
God doesn't need us. He loves us. He desires a relationship with us because of that love. He pursues us. I am amazed and in awe.
This Christmas has been a blur of crazy and sickness and overwhelming tiredness... but in the midst of it all I have been extremely aware of His Presence. Not a fleeting presence that comes with the Christmas season, but an awareness that He is with me. In the crazy. In the sickness. In the laughter and the so tired I can't think straight. He is with me because He loves me and likes hanging out with me. He is the "With me God". He made a way to be with me until I can join Him eternally in Heaven.
He made a way for you too. He is the With Us God.
This year I have had "Immanuel" on my mind. I remember hearing Beth Moore teach on this from her study, "Jesus The One and Only" and she kept calling Him "The With Us God". This Christmas, I kept thinking about The With Us God. Over and over in Scripture God tells us that He is with us. One of my favorite verses is Joshua 1:9, "9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
In Genesis 26:24 and 28:15, God tells Abraham that He will be with Him. Joshua 3:7, God informs Joshua that He would be with him in the same way He was with Moses. The angel of the LORD appears to Gideon in Judges 6:12 and lets Him know that God is with him. He promises to be with Israel in Isaiah 41:10.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, He was first introduced in Matthew 1:23 as Immanuel, "God With Us". And when the Word ascended into Heaven in Matthew 28:20, He told His disciples, "... behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
He is with us. He is with us always. God has always been about making a way to dwell with us until we could dwell with Him. From the garden of Eden where He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, to appearing to Moses and talking to him as a friend, to the Tent of Meeting, The Most Holy Place, to sending His Son as an offering... God coming down in human form to walk around with us, teach us, sacrifice Himself and die as the punishment for our sins so that we could be blameless and holy and be with Him eternally.
God doesn't need us. He loves us. He desires a relationship with us because of that love. He pursues us. I am amazed and in awe.
This Christmas has been a blur of crazy and sickness and overwhelming tiredness... but in the midst of it all I have been extremely aware of His Presence. Not a fleeting presence that comes with the Christmas season, but an awareness that He is with me. In the crazy. In the sickness. In the laughter and the so tired I can't think straight. He is with me because He loves me and likes hanging out with me. He is the "With me God". He made a way to be with me until I can join Him eternally in Heaven.
He made a way for you too. He is the With Us God.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Shades and Shadows
I am studying right now in the books of the Law, mostly Genesis and Exodus right now. I am studying the Tabernacle and learning how God has chosen to dwell with us until we can finally dwell with Him and am amazed that the God of the universe wants to make His dwelling among us!! All throughout Scripture He actively pursues us and chooses to be in relationship with His people. Not because He needs us but because He delights in us! That in and of itself is MIND-BLOWING!
But in my studying last night, I was led to something new. I was watching the original taping of Beth Moore's Bible study, "A Woman's Heart: God's Dwelling Place" and something she was teaching grabbed my mind and I have been unable to let it go. She was teaching from Genesis (among other places.. she likes to jump around!) The one thing that really caught my attention was from Genesis 1:27...
27 So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.
I have known this verse for as long as I can remember and quoted it many times, picturing in my mind that somehow God looks human-like in some perfect and organically wonderful way. However, that is not the idea of the Hebrew word for "image". When I think of image I think of my "mirror image", a replica of what my real face looks like. The Hebrew word for image is "tṣelem" meaning "from an unused root meaning to shade". We are created in His shade or shadow. There are so many derogatory comments that come to mind when we think about living in someone's shadow or stand in the shade of another but when we think about the shade of Yahweh, WOW! There are a couple of things that Beth pointed out that I wanted to share.
God created us to be in His shadow. We don't have to live in anyone's shadow except for God's. We need to walk so closely with God that we are safe in His shadow.
Psalm 91
"The Protection of the Most High
1 The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty
2 I will say to the Lord , “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
... 4 He will cover you with His feathers; you will take refuge under His wings. His faithfulness will be a protective shield.
I love this! We are created in His shadow, His shade. I think of the times Scripture references finding refuge in the shade, how God shaded Israel by day for 40 years in the wilderness by a pillar of cloud, how He provided shade for Jonah.... I just realized that these 2 are examples of how He provided protection even when His people were disobedient. Israel was wandering in the wilderness because of their sin and Jonah had been disobedient to God, then obeyed and then pouted. God is faithful to us even when we are not faithful to Him. Even in discipline, God protects us. Even when we disobey or have sinful attitudes, He provides for us. From now on, when I think of God creating me in His image, it will not be with pictures of Him in my human likeness but with an image in my mind of Him creating me to dwell closely in His shadow. The shadow of His wings that provide shade, rest, security, and most importantly, the nearness of HIM who came to dwell with me until I can one day ultimately dwell with Him.
What a mighty God we have. So tender. So awesome. How can we not stand in awe?
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