January 14, 2013

Monday: January 14, 2013

READ: 2 Samuel 1:1-3:5

BACKGROUND: This section deals with the aftermath of King Saul’s death and David’s appointment as King. It is interesting (and powerful) to see the way that David responds and the incredible respect that David has for the sovereignty and will of God. We kick things off with this situation: King Saul (who tried to kill David many times) and his son, Jonathan (David’s best friend) are dead. And David composes a song of lament in response to their death.

THINK: Sometimes pain and suffering are the central emotions of our hearts. We cannot avoid pain and suffering, but we can control how we respond to them. David’s reaction is to be honest and open about the pain rather than avoid it or pretend it isn’t there.

What is your response to heartbreak? Do you think David’s response is healthy? Why or why not? What thoughts and feelings go through you as David honors the evil king in death?

PRAY: Think of the pain and heartbreak you have experienced in your lifetime. Maybe that pain is a current reality. Though doing so may be difficult, spend time expressing your pain in a lament to God. See him attentively listening to you and reaching out to comfort you. What does it feel like to be comforted?

LIVE: Live knowing that God is loving enough to listen to you and big enough to care for you in your pain.

Adapted from Eugene Peterson in Solo

Posted by on January 14, 2013 in Uncategorized.

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January 13, 2013

Sunday: January 13, 2013

READ: Job 30

THINK: Reread verses 15-20 slowly, attempting to identify in your own heart and mind with the expressions of the speaker, and let the words sink into your consciousness, becoming familiar to you and resonating with your present state of mind. Don’t try to analyze Job’s response or determine its validity. Simply open yourself to his experience.

PRAY: What goes on inside you when you hear Job talk about God’s silence? Perhaps you feel irritated, or maybe you can relate because you’ve experienced times when God seemed inaccessible. Talk to God about your reaction to this passage. Give yourself permission to be completely open and honest.

LIVE: Right now, practice resting in the knowledge that God is with you in both words and silence – whether you’re doing things right or doing nothing at all, whether you feel he’d near or you feel nothing. If this is especially tough for you to do, pray the prayer, “Lord, I believe a little; help me believe more.”

– Adapted from Eugene Peterson in Solo

Posted by on January 13, 2013 in Uncategorized.

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January 12, 2013

Saturday: January 12, 2013

Read: 2 Corinthians 9-10

Think: Have you ever been driving along a street you’ve been down a bazillion times, and notice a house you’ve never seen before? This happened to me the other day. It was so weird. I had seriously been down this certain road hundreds of times, but must have been paying extra close attention this last time and noticed a house. I seriously even asked my husband, “Has that always been there?” He assured me it had. I just wasn’t paying attention.

All too often I find that I do the same thing with scripture. I’ve read 2 Corinthians 10:4 a thousand times, but I read it today and paused, backed up, and read it again. What did that just say? I know I’ve read it before, but I’m not sure I’ve payed real close attention to what is going on. Let’s take a deeper look at this verse.

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”

Did you see that? It says we (being those who have allowed the Holy Spirit to take over our lives) have divine power (that is power from God) to demolish strongholds (that is to free what otherwise is in bondage). This is awesome! Because Christ lives in us, we have the power to demolish strongholds. A stronghold might be a horrible attitude we have because of hard words once spoken to us, or an addiction to gossip. It could even look like the constant need to be filled with the attention of a guy or girl. None of these things are helpful, and actually lead us down a path of destruction. But not so with Christ! In Christ we can stand up to these strongholds and say, “You are OVER!”

Why do we choose to continue living in sin when Jesus clearly offers us a way out? Why do we feel defeated when the truth of God’s word says He has overcome all evil. Is it because we are not paying attention to God’s promises? Clothe yourself with Christ Jesus and fight the strongholds in your life. There are no good excuses about having a natural tendency to worry or having a really hard situation that you just have to talk to everyone about (that’s gossip). Jesus provides a way of obedience if we will only accept his help and pay attention to what he will do through us!

Pray: Ask God to reveal to you areas where you are not paying attention. Pray that he gives you listening ears and open eyes to be able to pay attention to the great things he has for you!

Posted by on January 12, 2013 in Epistles.

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January 11, 2013

Friday: January 11, 2013

READ: Psalm 73 & 74

THINK:

“So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was a beast before thee.” Psalm 73:22

Remember this is the confession of the man after God’s own heart; and in telling us his inner life, he writes, “So foolish was I, and ignorant.” The word “foolish,” here, means more than it signifies in ordinary language. David, in a former verse of the Psalm, writes, “I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked,” which shows that the folly he intended had sin in it. He puts himself down as being thus “foolish,” and adds a word which is to give intensity to it; “so foolish was I.” How foolish he could not tell. It was a sinful folly, a folly which was not to be excused by frailty, but to be condemned because of its perverseness and willful ignorance, for he had been envious of the present prosperity of the ungodly, forgetful of the dreadful end awaiting all such. And are we better than David that we should call ourselves wise! Do we profess that we have attained perfection, or to have been so chastened that the rod has taken all our wilfulness out of us? Ah, this were pride indeed! If David was foolish, how foolish should we be in our own esteem if we could but see ourselves! Look back, believer: think of your doubting God when he has been so faithful to you-think of your foolish outcry of “Not so, my Father,” when he crossed his hands in affliction to give you the larger blessing; think of the many times when you have read his providences in the dark, misinterpreted his dispensations, and groaned out, “All these things are against me,” when they are all working together for your good! Think how often you have chosen sin because of its pleasure, when indeed, that pleasure was a root of bitterness to you! Surely if we know our own heart we must plead guilty to the indictment of a sinful folly; and conscious of this “foolishness,” we must make David’s consequent resolve our own-“Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel.”

Charles Spurgeon

Posted by on January 11, 2013 in Psalms.

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January 10, 2013

Thursday: January 10, 2013

READ: 1 Samuel 29-31

THINK: Charlie Plumb was a fighter pilot who flew an F-4 on 74 successful combat missions before being shot down on his 75th mission, less than one week before he was due to return him. He spent the next 2103 days as a prisoner of war, being tortured in communist war prisons. Years after this experience, Plumb was eating in a restaurant when he noticed a man who kept looking at him from a few tables away. Eventually the man came up to him and said, “You’re Captain Plumb. He said, “You flew jet fighters in Vietnam. You were on the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down. You parachuted into enemy hands and spent six years as a prisoner of war.”

Plumb asked the man, “How in the world did you know all that?”

He replied, “Because, I packed your parachute.”

This interaction not only amazed and surprised Plumb, but it also caused him to stay up late into that night thinking about this man who had packed his parachute. He realized that he had probably seen the man many times aboard the Kitty Hawk. He wondered how many times he had walked right past the parachute packer without so much as acknowledging his existence or saying a word to him because Plumb was a hero fighter pilot and this man was a simple sailor. Plumb realized that he took the very existence of this man for granted until one day when his plane was shot down and he needed that parachute to save his life.

This story calls to mind David’s actions in 1 Samuel 30. Not once but twice do we find David showing concern for those the world would overlook. First, David’s men come upon a young man who had been abandoned by the retreating enemy army. David took pity on him. He gave him water to drink and food to eat, and the man ended up providing David with some valuable information to help him save his family. Later, when some of his men were too exhausted to fight in battle, David left them behind to guard the supplies. When the army got back they didn’t want to share in the spoils with those who had stayed, but David refused to make a distinction and treat them as “less than.”

There are so many people who are overlooked and forgotten, even within the church. Many serve in silence and obscurity, and nobody ever celebrates them or makes much of their contributions. They work behind the scenes, they pray fervently, they set up and clean up, and more. You may be one of those people. If you are, thank you! I think there are two things for all of us to take away: 1. Every single job in God’s economy is critically important. God gifts each of us in special ways so that we can work together and compliment each other to build his church. 2. We need to appreciate each other and be thankful for the roles that others play. We need each other; that’s how God designed it. And there are no small people or small jobs in God’s kingdom!

PRAY: Take some time to think about all the people – and all the small and often details that they take care of – that have blessed you by their willingness to use the gifts God has given them to serve others. Thank God for them today.

Posted by on January 10, 2013 in History.

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January 9, 2013

Wednesday: January 9, 2013

READ: Exodus 19-20

THINK: I want to spend some time with the 10 commandments today, meditating on them, pondering them, and filling up our hearts with God’s great Decalogue. It is easy to read them quickly and give ourselves a pass by saying, “Hey, I’m good. I’ve never killed anybody” but Jesus made it clear that God’s heart in giving us the 10 commandments wasn’t about providing us with some very specific laws to follow according to the letter. It was to see our hearts transformed and aligned with his. So today, I’m going to ask 10 questions. Please take some time to really reflect on them and use this as a time of confession to God for the ways in which you have fallen short. Be honest with God about the condition of your heart over the course of the last few weeks (or months).

1. What things have I placed above God in my priority list and sought after more than I seek him?

2. What objects or possessions am I clinging to and finding my identity in?

3. In what ways have I minimized God lately and made far to little of him?

4. How has my schedule crowded God out of my daily life?

5. In what ways have I been disrespectful or disobedient to those whom God has placed in authority over me?

6. What sort of hateful and spiteful feelings toward another person have arisen in my heart?

7. How, when, and where has lust shown up in my thought patterns and what have I done about it?

8. What opportunities to be generous and selfless with my resources have I passed up?

9. How have I been untruthful in my words and actions, either through outright lies or intentionally allowing others to be mislead?

10. What things have I seen that caused me to obsess over getting them to the point that I was distracted?

If you’re like me, sadly, you have an answer to each and every one of these questions. Hopefully your answers led to a powerful time of confession. But please understand this: the point of confession is not to feel guilty and the point of confession is not to tell God something he doesn’t know so that he can finally forgive you for it. He knows and he has already forgiven because he bore our guilt. The point of confession is to change our hearts. To help us fully realize the gift of God’s grace that has been bestowed upon us, to help us fully repent and turn from our sin, and to help us grasp a vision for how we can move forward in a more healthy way than the way which brought us to the point of confession. The Bible isn’t an oppressive list of rules that are meant to be followed, it is an incredible gift that serves as an instruction manual for life as it was designed to be lived! Confess, accept God’s forgiveness, and then go out and follow these commandments because that is what you were designed to do. 🙂

Posted by on January 9, 2013 in Law.

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January 8, 2013

Tuesday: January 8, 2013

READ: Ezekiel 1-3

BACKGROUND: Ezekiel is an incredible book for many reasons, but especially the fact that he lived in such a unique place and time. Ezekiel was a prophet who lived in Babylonian exile, at a time when the Assyrian empire was crumbling under pressure from a resurgent Babylon and Jerusalem, because of rebellion against Babylon, was put under siege and eventually burned. Ezekiel was called, by God, to minister to the Israelite people and often to act out God’s word for them through prophetic symbolism. Above all else, Ezekiel highlights the theme of God’s sovereignty and his presence in all places.
By Verse –
1:3 – Ezekiel means “God strengthens”
5 – The number 4 signifies completeness (and it’s used often in this book). The 4 creatures are cherubim – angels who attend God’s throne – and they represent God’s creation: Man (the ruler of God’s creation), the Lion (king of the wild beasts), the Ox (strongest of domestic animals), and Eagle (most majestic and powerful of birds).
18 – Full of eyes symbolizes the fact that God sees everything.
22 – The expanse separates the creatures from the glory of the Lord.
2:1 – The son of man is used 93 times in Ezekiel as he emphasizes his humanity in the face of a transcendent God.
6 – Briars, thorns, & scorpions symbolize those who will oppose Ezekiel and reject his message.
10 – The fact that there was writing on both sides jumps out as weird. Ancient scrolls only contained writing on 1 side. So why both? Because this was completely filled and saturated with Divine judgment.
3:4 – He ate God’s words and was then asked to speak them back out to the nation.
11 – Many of the Israelites in exile (along with Ezekiel) believed that God would never allow anything to happen to Jerusalem, even though they were in exile. When it fell to the Babylonians, they were in despair so they needed God’s words.
17 – Ezekiel had great responsibility to tell the people God’s words.
26 – Ezekiel’s forced silence symbolized Israel’s stubborn refusal to take God’s word seriously.

THINK: Emperor penguins are pretty incredible. After the females lay eggs, they transfer them to the feet of the males and then have to travel over 60 miles to get the ocean so that they can eat – and eat enough to feed their baby chicks when they get back. The males, then, spend 9 weeks sitting on eggs, pressed together in a giant huddle because the temperatures hover around 80 degrees below zero. During these 9 weeks in freezing temperatures the male emperor penguins do not eat anything, because no food is available and they only are able to get water by consuming the snow that falls on them. Then, at the end of the 9 weeks, the eggs begin to hatch. And what is the first thing that the new emperor penguin dads do? They regurgitate food in order to feed their new chicks. They don’t eat for 9 weeks, they lose a large percentage of their body weight, and yet they are able to give up something of what they have left to feed the babies.

The first 3 chapters – and the whole book – of Ezekiel are full of unbelievable and mind-blowing imagery. But I think that one of the coolest parts of the entire book is when God has Ezekiel eat a scroll full of words for the people of Israel. It’s pretty cool of God to at least make it taste delicious. I don’t know what a regular old scroll would taste like, but I bet it wouldn’t be good. But God’s purpose in this wasn’t feeding Ezekiel a meal. He was having Ezekiel ingest the words so that Ezekiel could, in a sense, regurgitate these words to the people of Israel. And God told Ezekiel that he was a watchman. He possessed the words of God and so he had a responsibility to deliver them to those around him because they were in desperate need.

I believe that we are God’s watchmen today. The Bible makes it clear that every Christian is part of a royal priesthood. And we have a responsibility to bring his words to the people around us. It doesn’t take a long look at the newspaper to see that our world needs them just as badly as Ezekiel’s did. If we’re going to take that responsibility seriously then this passage gives us a very clear first step: We have to ingest the word of God! We have to take it in, develop a habit of reading and applying and digesting it. We have to fill ourselves up on God’s word.

Our dark and broken world, like a newly hatched penguin chick, will die if it doesn’t receive the nourishment that it desperately needs. That nourishment is at our fingertips. Only once we have submitted to God and taken it in and applied it to our own lives will we be fully equipped to regurgitate his truth for those around us. We are watchmen; we have a great responsibility. The only question is: will we fulfill it?

PRAY: Thank God for the incredible blessing of his word. We have the Bible at our fingertips 24/7 in the 21st century and it is incredible! We shouldn’t take it for granted. Ask God to fill you up with his word so that you’ll be equipped to share it with others.

Posted by on January 8, 2013 in Prophecy.

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January 7, 2013

Monday: January 7, 2013

READ: Psalm 72

THINK: “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.” – Psalm 72:19
This is a large petition. To intercede for a whole city needs a stretch of faith, and there are times when a prayer for one man is enough to stagger us. But how far-reaching was the psalmist’s dying intercession! How comprehensive! How sublime! “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory.” It doth not exempt a single country however crushed by the foot of superstition; it doth not exclude a single nation however barbarous. For the cannibal as well as for the civilized, for all climes and races this prayer is uttered: the whole circle of the earth it encompasses, and omits no son of Adam. We must be up and doing for our Master, or we cannot honestly offer such a prayer. The petition is not asked with a sincere heart unless we endeavour, as God shall help us, to extend the kingdom of our Master.

Are there not some who neglect both to plead and to labour? Reader, is it your prayer? Turn your eyes to Calvary. Behold the Lord of Life nailed to a cross, with the thorn-crown about his brow, with bleeding head, and hands, and feet. What! can you look upon this miracle of miracles, the death of the Son of God, without feeling within your bosom a marvellous adoration that language never can express? And when you feel the blood applied to your conscience, and know that he has blotted out your sins, you are not a man unless you start from your knees and cry, “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.” Can you bow before the Crucified in loving homage, and not wish to see your Monarch master of the world? Out on you if you can pretend to love your Prince, and desire not to see him the universal ruler. Your piety is worthless unless it leads you to wish that the same mercy which has been extended to you may bless the whole world. Lord, it is harvest-time, put in thy sickle and reap.

By: Charles Spurgeon

PRAY: Spurgeon’s challenge here is a powerful one, as is David’s vision! We are here – at this place at this time in history – to make our world full of the glory of God. We are here to let it know that his call is for everyone everywhere. Thank God for who he is today. Pray, along with David, that the whole earth would be filled with his glory. Ask him what role he has for you to play in making that happen today – who you can show his love to and who you can share the glorious truth of the gospel with.

Posted by on January 7, 2013 in Psalms.

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January 6, 2013

Sunday: January 6, 2013

READ: Job 29

THINK: Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me. – Luke 9:48

Poet Shel Silverstein wrote a heart-touching verse titled, “The Little Boy and the Old Man.” In it he portrays a young boy talking to an elderly gentleman.

The boy says, “Sometimes I drop my spoon.” “I do that too,” replies the old man.

“I often cry,” continues the boy. The old man nods, “So do I.”

“But worst of all,” says the boy, “it seems grownups don’t pay any attention to me.” Just then the boy feels “the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.” “I know what you mean,” says the little old man.

But do we really know what those two meant? Are we like the righteous patriarch Job, who was a man of compassion, helping the helpless? (Job 29:12-13). We consider Job good and godly (Job 1:8) because he demonstrated love to others, not just because he believed in God and offered prayers for his own family. He had Christlike compassion long before Jesus walked this earth.

The concerns of the Lord’s heart have not changed. He still is asking all who have accepted Him as Savior to be instruments of His love for those who need help (Mt. 22:39; Lk. 10:30-37; 1 Cor. 13; 1 Pet. 3:8). He longs to touch others’ lives through you and me.

By: Mart De Haan in Our Daily Bread

PRAY: Ask God whose life you can touch with his love this week.

Posted by on January 6, 2013 in Poetry.

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January 5, 2013

Saturday: January 5, 2013

READ: Luke 3

THINK: There is a road very close to my parents’ house in Iowa that we affectionately refer to as “Pig’s Trail.” I’m pretty sure that it was my mom who coined the term, and even after spending years driving on it I have no idea what the actual name of the road is. It’s not a frequently traveled road – it contains just a few houses and a junkyard – but Pig’s Trail occasionally proves useful as a back-road shortcut when going certain places. The unique quality of Pig’s Trail though – and the origin of it’s nickname – is the fact that it has to be one of the worst paved roads in America. I’ve driven on gravel roads that were a smoother ride. There are potholes all over the place and the whole road is slanted sideways. The slant is so severe that once, when we were in high school, my girlfriend – now wife – braked to avoid hitting a dog and the car didn’t slide forward on the ice, it slid sideways right off the road and into a “Yield” sign. The sign is still tilted a decade later. At the end of the day, this unkempt road seems a more fitting passage for a herd of pigs to traverse than a car.

Luke 3 talks about another road that was desperately in need of repair, “the way of the Lord.” By the time that John the Baptist came onto the scene, the way of the Lord in Israel was in pretty bad shape. The people had largely neglected their relationship with God, and pursued sin and selfishness instead. They figured that they could walk down worldly paths and still be just fine with God because they were “children of Abraham” which is to say that they were part of God’s chosen people. John called them to wake up and repent. He warned them that if they were to be ready for the Messiah then they needed to get things straightened out and turn back to God’s paths and repent for their sinful rejection of him.

Too often we are in the same boat as the Israelites. We sit back and neglect our relationships with God because we feel like we’re “in.” Not because we’re children of Abraham but because we said a prayer many years ago and we go to church on Sundays. But John’s words echo just as true for us as they did 2000 years ago. We need to repent for our selfishness and our greed. We need to turn away from the sin of the world around us. Our sins are the potholes in our Christian journey. And we were created for so much more than a life wasted on sin. We were created for the way of the Lord, not for an unfulfilling, painful, pothole-filled journey along the spiritual equivalent of Pig’s Trail.

PRAY: Confess your sins to God. Lay them all out there – your selfishness, your greed, your lust, your untruthfulness, etc. Commit yourself to walking in the way of the Lord and letting him use you to shine his light to others as you do.

Posted by on January 5, 2013 in Gospels.

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