Be blessed

Jacob blessing Joseph's sons
- Artist unknown

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Numbers 5-7; Psalm 41

TO CHEW ON: "The Lord bless you and keep you." Numbers 6:24

Doesn't your heart just take a deep breath and settle down as you read the verses of blessing in today's scripture? There is something in this Aaronic blessing that feels like a warm blanket when you're shivering, or a cool breeze on a hot day, or a table loaded with food when you're hungry.

This blessing of only three lines (actually one, partitioned by semicolons) contains six actions. Let's look closely at them in order to soak up every bit of this blessing's goodness.

"The Lord bless..."
To bless someone means to consecrate, make holy, honour, exalt, glorify, bestow happiness and prosperity on. It's a powerful enough interaction between people—how much more when the blessing bestowed is the blessing of the Lord. How rich we are!

"..and keep you"
Keep (shamar) means to guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save the life of. When we keep something we retain the possession of it; we don't give it away. God holds onto us in that way. How safe we are!

"The Lord make His face shine upon you..."
The word "shine" ('owr) alludes to the shine of the sun, to illumine, to become lighted up, to make shine as of the face. Watch a mother's face light up when she sees her child. That's how God's face lights up when He looks at you and me. How loved we are!

"...and be gracious to you"
Gracious (chanan[a]) means to show favour, be gracious toward, have mercy on. It is characterized by showing kindness, affability. To be gracious means to be full of compassion and mercy. God is disposed that way toward us. How favored we are!

"The Lord lift up His countenance upon you..."
The picture here is similar to God making His face shine on us. I see, in addition, a focused attention, like a parent looking straight into a child's eyes. God looks straight at and into us. How known we are!

"...and give you peace."
Give (suwm) means to extend, establish, bring to pass peace - a state of mental or physical quiet or tranquility, calm, repose, reconciliation, freedom from mental agitation or anxiety. When God pours His peace over  and into us, how settled we are!

May we realize every part of this blessing as we head into 2015.

PRAYER: Dear God, Your blessing is what we need and want more than anything else, as we enter the new year. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 41

The Bible Project VIDEO: Numbers (Torah 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.

The hovering Spirit

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Today we begin our new Bible reading plan from The Bible Project! 
You can download a PDF of it HERE. 
 

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Genesis 1-3

TO CHEW ON: “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:2


Here, early in Genesis, we have the first mention of the Holy Spirit, active in creation. The word used to describe His action (rachap) means to “hover”:

“The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters” - Genesis 1:2 AMP.

Maybe it’s a stretch, but I can’t help but transfer the picture of the Spirit moving, hovering, brooding over the unformed earth to Him moving, hovering, brooding over my 2018—this new and yet unformed year of my life.

I notice that the first thing that God created after that “hovering” was light—created several days before even the light-makers were made (on the fourth day - Genesis 1:14-19).

My prayer for this year is that the Spirit’s presence will also fill my life with light. May it cause something beautiful and useful to be formed from each of 2018’s yet unlived days. May the verdict be: “And God saw that it was good.”

PRAYER: Dear Holy Spirit, move, hover, brood over my life today. Bring Your light and creative life to this day and each day and moment of 2018. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 1

The Bible Project VIDEO:  Genesis 1-11 (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.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible,
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Could goals be an idol?

Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Isaiah 42:14-25

 TO CHEW ON: “They shall be turned back,
They shall be greatly ashamed,
Who trust in carved images,
Who say to the molded images
‘You are our gods.’” Isaiah 42:17.

This section of Isaiah 42, says my Bible’s study notes, is a “… lament looking back on the disobedience that led to God’s judging anger. The fundamental problem leading to the judgments was trust in carved images (Isaiah 42:17)” - Nathaniel M. Van Cleave, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible notes on Isaiah, p. 992.

Here at the beginning of a new year, the internet is full of hints on how to make resolutions that we’ll keep and goals that we’ll accomplish. The pristine calendars of 2017 ooze with optimism. So much could fill their pages!

For me there is in this a temptation to a 21st century brand of idolatry—not of the worship of molded images but of the worship of oneself—one’s own abilities, determination, agenda, 5-year-plan, productivity.

Now I’m not against writing down resolutions and goals for the new year. But I must always guard against making them and the accomplishing of them the main thing. I realize that what must trump them for me is the willingness to change all, or maybe not to make them in the first place, when the shepherd says something different.

My “one little word” for 2017 is LISTEN. My verses for 2017 are the words of Jesus in John 10:3,4,11: “‘To him (the shepherd of the sheep - John 10:2) the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. … I am the good shepherd.’”  

May all my / our idolatrous supports and confidences for 2017 lose their siren appeal as we listen for and obey the Shepherd’s voice.

“Get into the habit of saying, ‘Speak Lord’ and life will become a romance” - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest - January 30 reading.

“Obey Him with glad reckless joy … ‘Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it’” - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, March 28 reading.


PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to recognize the idols in my life and turn from them for good. 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.

We are not alone

The Holy Spirit 

descends on Christ 

at His baptism. 

(Photo © 2016 by V. Nesdoly)

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Galatians 3:26-4:7

TO CHEW ON: “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out Abba Father!’” Galatians 4:6

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

On this day, when we cross the threshold of the new year, we may come with a variety of emotions. There may be anticipation over all those crisp new calendars and empty date blocks yet to fill. There may be a feeling of “here we are again” jadedness. Or there may be outright dread of the unknown that we will face in the next 365 days.

Our reading today reassures us, however we’re feeling, we are not alone on this journey. If we have believed in Christ’s atonement for us (…were baptized into Christ have put on Christ - Galatians 3:27), have accepted His buying us back (are “redeemed” - Galatians 4:5), then we are His responsibility. He has adopted us as His sons and daughters. Our hearts witness to this and now recognize Father God as “Daddy” (“Abba Father”).

It’s not on our own that we come to this place of belonging, dependence and security, though, but through the Holy Spirit: “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts…” Galatians 4:6.

We have a companion for the days ahead, a multi-faceted helper, as witnessed to by His many names:

Eternal Spirit - Hebrews 9:14
Holy Spirit - Psalm 51:11; Ephesians 1:13, 4:30
Power of the Most High - Luke 1:35
Spirit of Adoption - Romans 8:15
Spirit of Christ - 1 Peter 1:11
Spirit of Counsel - Isaiah 11:2
Spirit of Glory - 1 Peter 4:14
Spirit of God - Genesis 1:2
Spirit of grace - Zechariah 12:10
Spirit of Holiness - Romans 1:4
Spirit of Judgment - Isaiah 4:4
Spirit of Knowledge - Isaiah 11:2
Spirit of Life - Romans 8:2
Spirit of Lord God - Isaiah 61:1
Spirit of Strength - Isaiah 11:2
Spirit of Prophecy - Revelation 19:10
Spirit of the Father - Matthew 10:20
Spirit of the Lord - Isaiah 11:2
Spirit of the Son - Galatians 4:6
Spirit of Understanding - Isaiah 11:2
Spirit of Wisdom - Isaiah 11:2

(The above list from the NKJV Thompson Chain Bible - “Titles and Names of the Holy Spirit” #3634.)

With such a companion we can go into the year with the confidence of well-taken-care-of children!

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You that I don’t enter 2017 alone, but have the Holy Spirit as my companion and helper. Amen.

MORE: Holy Name Day

Today the church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Name. The day’s liturgy begins with this collect:

"Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. 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.

A template for the new year's goals and dreams

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Ephesians 1:1-14

TO CHEW ON: "that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory." Ephesians 1:12

Here is a grand passage on which to feed as we enter the new year! It could even become the template or mold into which we pour or resolutions, plans, goals and dreams. Let me explain.

Within the passage, our focus verse (Ephesians 1:12) is a consequence of the blessings Paul has just listed. He reminds Christians in Ephesus and us, we have been (Ephesians 1:4-11):

• Chosen.
• Predestined.
• Accepted.
• Redeemed.
• Forgiven.
• Extended grace.
• Made privy to mysteries.
• Made heirs.

All this works toward the grand climax and consequence: "that we… should be to the praise of His glory" - Ephesians 1:12.

As we sit down to dream about and plan for 2016, I submit that we could use this consequence (to "be to the praise of His glory"), as a test for the items on our list. We might ask ourselves questions like:

1. If I achieve this goal or realize this dream, who gets the glory?

2. Am I open to God moving me from these plans to other things that serve His glory more?

3. How can I glorify God in the humdrum of everyday living? (A possible answer to that last question might be that we live aware of and thankful for the blessings Paul has listed.)

PRAYER:  Dear Jesus, thank You for choosing me, adopting me, redeeming and forgiving me so I have a future with You in heaven. Help me to remember to test my activities, projects, and goals with the question, "Who gets the glory here?" 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.

Enter 2014 with confidence

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

TO CHEW ON: "…And He has put eternity in their hearts…"  Ecclesiastes 3:11

In his book Despite Doubt, Michael E. Wittmer explores the realm of belief, doubt, who or what we believe in and why. He starts out at the ground level, showing how a belief in God is embedded in our very DNA, as it were.

He shows that without a god, two things we instinctively do would make no sense:

1. Make judgements between right and wrong.
Wittmer says:

"If God does not exist, then everything is permitted. You may not like an act, and that's your preference, but that's all it is. Without God, you cannot explain why anything is ultimately good or evil" - p. 46.

2. Trust that we are rational.
We assume that our minds and senses function properly and correspond with the way the world is. However, if we're all a product of random chance, how can we have any such guarantee? Wittmer concludes: 

"Here's the point: we assume God's existence every time we think, utter an intelligible sentence, or declare that some act is right or wrong. Everyone who relies on their minds and morality in this way assumes the existence of God. As even the skeptical Voltaire admitted: 'If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him'" - p. 48.

As we enter 2014, let's reassure ourselves that God is real and His presence will be with us in the moments, days, weeks and months of 2014. The God of the Bible—who Wittmer goes on to connect to the God we instinctively "know":

• Loves us with an everlasting love - Jeremiah 31:3; Psalm 25:6; John 6:44.

• Knows the way ahead - Job 23:20, Psalm 32:8; Psalm 33:18.

• Has good plans for us - Jeremiah 29:11; Isaiah 55:8-12.

• Is able to work even the seemingly bad, painful stuff together for good in our lives - Romans 8:28-30.

We can go into 2014 with confidence and hope.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for evidences of Your existence all around me, even within my own mind. Help me to grow in knowing You, trusting You and obeying You in 2014. Amen.

MORE: Holy Name Day

Today the church celebrates the naming of Jesus, called Feast of the Holy Name. This prayer begins the liturgy of the day:

"Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen."

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New King James Version (NKJV) Used with permission. The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Will you trust in 2012?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

TO CHEW ON: "God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end" - Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT

In the last little while I have been reading A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider. The book (an anthology of writings by members of the The Word Guild) contains many first-person stories of difficulty, crisis, and just plain hard stuff.

One woman's three-year-old son dies unexpectedly just after being given a clean bill of health for a chronic illness. A mom of young kids gets a diagnosis of liver cancer. A businesswoman suffers a stroke at age 36. Another mom's 22-year-old son leaves home and hasn't been heard from since. So much pain! How can the wise man possibly say, "He has made everything beautiful..."?

Yet even in all the pain of these stories, each teller does come out with something beautiful. For example, the mother who loses her three-year-old says, "Not everyone loses a child, but at some point in our lives, most of us face something that devastates us ... We will grieve but we don't have to endure a life of continuous sorrow. 'God is close to the broken-hearted and He rescues those of us who are crushed in spirit' - Psalm 34:18. I don't know how He does it, but I've experienced it for myself" - Evangeline Inman, "Live Life to the Full," A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider, p. 63.

We know we too will face a variety of things in the year ahead. We anticipate the good stuff—babies being born, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, vacations. However, chances are good 2012 will also hold some hard stuff—storms, accidents, illnesses, deaths... Will we continue to trust God, and believe that He knows what He's doing when He allows these into our lives?

The old Bible commenter explains it well:

"God has made everything, as all things in creation are made by Him, for His pleasure and glory, and all well and wise. There is a beauty in them all. So all things in providence. He upholds all things. He governs and orders all things according to the counsel of His will .... Times of plucking up and breaking down, of weeping and mourning, of losing and casting away are all necessary and seasonable and beautiful .... All His judgments will be, when made manifest ... like a piece of tapestry. When only viewed in parts no beauty appears in it. But when all is put together it is most beautiful and harmonious" - Excerpts from Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible on Ecclesiastes 3:11 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to trust You implicitly as You oversee the weaving of my life's tapestry in 2012. Amen.

MORE: "Do I Trust You Lord?" by Twila Paris




Today the church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. The liturgy for this day begins with this collect:

"Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen."

Pondering God's promises

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 2:15-21

TO CHEW ON: "But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19

From the day the angel came to Mary with the almost incomprehensible message, "The Lord is with you; blessed are you among women .... You shall bring forth a Son .... and of His kingdom there will be no end," her life was changed (Luke 1:28-33).

When she went to visit her relative Elizabeth, she was greeted with more unusual words: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" - Luke 1:42.

The strangenesses continue in today's reading when shepherds find the new parents in their cowshed accommodation and tell them that an angel has announced their baby's birth, identified Him by His manger bed and swaddling clothes, and proclaimed Him "A Savior who is Christ the Lord."

Mary's response: "She kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." And at least three more times in Luke we find Mary puzzled and pondering things that are playing out in the life of her child Jesus - Luke 2:33,50,51.

Though our experience will never mirror Mary's we too may have promises and dreams that set us pondering. They may be dreams God has put in our hearts for our own futures. They may be things people have spoken over us. They may be the destiny we see for our kids. They may be the role we envision our church will play in the community, or our country will have on the world stage.

Joyce Meyer had such a dream. Early in her Christian life she caught a vision of a ministry she believed God had for her. In her book Battlefield of the Mind, she describes how that vision was challenged. But claiming Romans 8:26 for the things she did not understand, she confronted naysaying thoughts with a determination to believe, not doubt, God's promises. She says:

"As Christians, we need to learn to decide to believe. God often gives us faith (a product of the Spirit) for things our minds just can't always seem to come into agreement with. The mind wants to understand everything—the why, the when, and the how of it all...


I had decided long before to believe what the Word says, and to believe the rhema (the revealed Word) that God gave me (the things He spoke to me or the promises He gave me personally), even if I didn't understand why, when, or how it would come to pass in my life" - Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind, p. 51.

As we ponder the promises God has given us, let us too channel those musings through the filter of faith. Mary obviously did. Why else would she have told the servants, troubled at running out of wine during the wedding in Cana, "Whatever He (Jesus) says to you, do it" (John 2:5)?

PRAYER: Dear God, as I stand on the threshold of the new year, please help me to ponder Your promises to me with faith, knowing that You can do "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). Amen.

MORE: New Year's Eve

In Canada New Year's Eve is a time for celebration and partying. People gather in houses, hotel ballrooms, and city squares to eat, drink, and dance as they count down to 12 midnight. Then they welcome the new year with fireworks, kisses and the singing of Auld Lang Syne.

Churches often sponsor gatherings that bring in the new year a little differently. These New Year's Eve events, sometimes called Watchnight Services, find people welcoming the new year on their knees or singing praises to God.