One secret to perseverance

Illustration from Lyman Abbot Commentary on Acts

Oriental Prayer Meeting

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 13-14; Psalm 125

TO CHEW ON: "So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus." Acts 13:4

What strikes me about the disciples here is their lack of personal agendas. They have no five-year plan to evangelize the world. There seem to be only two items on their to-do list: hear and follow God's instructions.

When those instructions come via the Holy Spirit saying "Separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" there is immediate obedience. No hanging back with—'Well, we had planned to visit our families, take a vacation, write a book…'

Their sense of being appointed and sent by God Himself on this mission was, I think, key to how they would handle what was ahead on this, Paul's first missionary journey (called Saul here, but his name was later changed to Paul). They didn't know it yet, but they would face opposition from a sorcerer, city-to-city hassling by the Jews, the desertion of a team member,  the threat of stoning in one place and actual stoning in another (Acts 13 & 14).

The lesson I take from this is  that I too need to listen to God's voice when I see opportunities to be sure that what I take on is by His leading and not my own idea. I need to be open to new tasks in areas I hadn't even considered. And when I don't hear anything specific, I need to be content to carry on faithfully with what I'm doing, knowing He is perfectly able to let me know when it's time to change course.

This sense of God's call is important because it is sure that I, that you, will face opposition, discouragement, misunderstanding, maybe even threats and physical danger while on Kingdom assignments. The knowledge that God has called us to any specific task will help us to persevere.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this clear picture of how You worked in Bible times. Help me to be as available as Paul and Barnabas were, and to follow Your direction, knowing that if You call me to a job, You will see me through it no matter what comes my way. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 125

The Bible Project VIDEO: Acts - Part 2 of 2 (Ch. 13-28) Read Scripture Series 

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Seek your Lover

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Deuteronomy 4-6; Psalm 54


TO CHEW ON: "But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your soul." Deuteronomy 4:29

The Bible is a love story describing the wooing and pursuing, the back-and-forth between lovers—God and us humans. In many places Bible writers remind us of how God is seeking us. Here Moses prods Israel to seek God.

The little word "but" that begins our focus verse signals a change of thought direction. We see Moses is warning Israel in a prophetic way, that they will stray from following God. When they settle in Canaan they will serve idols and images (Deuteronomy 4:28). God doesn't give them up to these. If and when they seek Him, Moses promises, God will be there for them.

Moses goes on to remind them of all the reasons it makes sense to seek God over idols (a recitation of ways God has pursued them):

• Because of His merciful and faithful nature (Deuteronomy 4:31).

• Because of His creativity and power (Deuteronomy 4:32,33).

• Because He showed them special favor in Egypt when He helped them escape slavery with power signs (Deuteronomy 4:34-35).

• Because He guided them with His voice through the wilderness (Deuteronomy 4:36).

• Because He helped them gain independence from Egypt and other nations (Deuteronomy 4:37-38).

We can find many parallels between God's wooing of Israel and how He pursues us:

1. We too turn to Him from idols. No, these are probably not images of stone or gold, but things we serve more than Him (like success, money, fame, pleasure etc.). That turning may come when we get into trouble, or find ourselves dissatisfied, or over our heads, or any number of reasons.

2. When we return to God, He faithfully meets us with mercy, creativity, and power.

3. Our histories remind us of His faithfulness.

• This could be recent history. Many of his have faith-filled family members who have prayed for us, and whose prayers are answered by our return to God.

• It could be distant history, where we look back at the long story of God's work in our family, community, or nation through immigrants who came to experience freedom of religion, or missionaries who first brought the gospel.

For Israel and for us, the result of being rightly related to God is a future of well-being: "...that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may prolong your days" (Deuteronomy 4:40).


Where are you and I in relation to our lover, God, today? Do we sense He is pursuing us? Are we seeking Him?


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this reminder of Your love and pursuit of Israel and me. Please help me to see where I am being lured away by idols and to serve You with renewed vigor. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 54

The Bible Project VIDEO: SHEMA: Listen (Shema Word Study Series)



Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Is it time for a change?

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Genesis 29-31

TO CHEW ON: “Then the LORD said to Jacob, ‘Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.’” Genesis 31:3

Here at the beginning of the year, it’s not unusual to think about changes we would like to make in the coming 12 months, or that seem inevitable by the way they insert themselves into our awareness.

The latter was Jacob’s experience.

He had lived near Laban, his father-in-law for twenty years (Genesis 31:41). It was certainly longer than his mother had anticipated (she talked about an absence of “a few days” - Genesis 27:44).  But now change was in the air. Several things alerted Jacob to it:

1. His brothers-in-law, Laban’s sons, were restive and talking about how he had stolen their father’s wealth (and thus their inheritance) - Genesis 31:1.

2. Laban no longer seemed favourable to him either - Genesis 31:2.

3. God spoke to Jacob (the Bible doesn’t say exactly how) and told him what the change was to be. He was to return home.

It’s interesting to see what changes God told other Bible characters to make.

• God spoke directly to Abram (later Abraham) telling him to leave home and and old associations for points unknown - Genesis 12:1.

• God engineered a bush fire out of which He told Moses to lead Israel out of Egyptian slavery - Exodus 3:10.

• God told Joshua to move forward - Joshua 1:2.

• God came to Gideon as the “Angel of the LORD” and told him to fight against Israel’s oppressors, the Midianites. To start that process he was to destroy his family’s idols - Judges 6:14,25.

• God gave many directives to Elijah. He told him where to find supplies (1 Kings 17:3-4,9), when it was time to come out of retirement and get back to work (1 Kings 18:1), who to anoint as ruler and prophetic successor (1 Kings 19:15-16) and what judgments to pronounce on evil King Ahab (1 Kings 21:18,19; 2 Kings 1:3).

In the New Testament

• God told Ananias to go and pray for Saul—a seemingly dangerous assignment because Saul was legendary as a persecutor of Christians - Acts 9:10-16.

• God told Peter to go to the house of Gentile Cornelius - Acts 10:19,20.

• God told the early church’s prophets and teachers who to appoint for special assignments - Acts 13:1,2.

• God told Paul and Silas to avoid certain places (Asia and Bithynia) and to go to others (Macedonia), on their missionary journey - Acts 16:6-10.

We see that God communicates directives about many things in a variety of ways. What is He whispering (or shouting) in your ear? Let’s be open and obedient to His directions for change this year.


PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to catch Your signals about the changes You are asking me to make in 2018. Amen.
 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 9

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Thanks for reading! This year we are using The Bible Project "Timeless Reading Plan" to read through the Bible in 2018. If you'd like to read along in your own Bible, you can download a pdf of the reading plan HERE.

Piling on

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Matthew 22:15-33

TO CHEW ON: “Then the pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher…’
“That same day the Sadducees came to Him and ask Him saying, “Teacher…’  Matthew 22:15,16,23.


Jesus was a huge challenge to the Jewish religious leaders. In our reading we see two groups of them trying to trap Him into saying something they could use against Him. Farther along in the same chapter, a lawyer posed another question - Matthew 22:35-36. Their persistence reminds me of “piling on” the quarterback in football (not that Jesus was ever down, though).

In fact, Jesus seemed to relish these interchanges. In an earlier one, He provoked the back-and-forth by the way He answered a lawyer. That man, after he interpreted Jesus’ words as condemning of him and his buddies said, in effect, ‘Surely you’re not speaking of us lawyers here’ (Luke 11:45). Jesus answered with an inflammatory speech of woes (Luke 11:46-52) that stirred up the scribes and Pharisees to fever pitch (Luke 11:53,54).

Our incident in Matthew 22 came near the end of Jesus’ life. And though He consistently bested His questioners in argument, so they were eventually silenced (Matthew 22:46), we know that He was still arrested, tried, convicted (on false testimony) and put to death.

Some observations we can make about Jesus’ handling of verbal testing:

• He didn’t avoid it even though it got Him into trouble - Luke 11:37-54.

• He was nimble in His responses. He seemed to have no formula.

- Sometimes He answered with Scripture - Mark 10:2-9.
- Sometimes He told stories - Luke 10:25-37.
- Sometimes He used objects - Mark 12:15-17.

• He knew when to speak and when to be silent. Several times He simply kept His mouth shut - Luke 20:1-8; John 8:6.

Jesus’ wisdom in dealing with His questioners, no matter how they piled on, never ceases to amaze me. The beautiful thing is, we can have it too, through the Holy Spirit. Jesus has promised it:

“'Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say’” - Luke 12:11,12 (emphasis added).

May we have the faith to hear and speak!

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, help me to live so in tune with and empowered by Your Spirit that Your wisdom of words and deeds will be evident in my life. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.