Scripture to read today:
Job 28; Job 29; Galatians 1; Galatians 2
Scripture that spoke to me:
Galatians 1:6-7
I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ.You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.
Observation:
There is a lot of misunderstanding, and a lot of truth-twisting, by those who profess to know Christ. I’m sure some of it is unintentional- misinterpretation on the part of the teacher- but some is meant to make you take your eyes from Jesus. Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders have an important job that should be taken seriously. God is found in the Bible, and the truths that are included in the Bible should be the ones that come through in teachings.
Application:
I was speaking with a friend last night who is hesitant to return to a Bible study because of some things the leader was saying. Things that were her own opinion of God and heaven, not anything that she learned by reading the Bible. This teacher needs to recognize that she is twisting the truth, perhaps leading people away from the Good News instead of to it.
Prayer:
Lord, please help me to not be like this teacher. I know there are things that I don’t understand, but let me acknowledge these as unknowns instead of making up my own explanations for these hard concepts. Let me lead no one astray from Your Word. Amen.
Scripture to read today:
Job 25; Mark 13; Mark 14
Scripture that spoke to me:
Mark 14:36
“Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Observation:
Jesus knows that he has a job to do. We see here that he doesn’t really want to do it, but is faithful to God and His plan. He acknowledges that everything is possible for God, but not always in the plan.
Application:
Savannah had a bad experience last week- she didn’t make the school basketball team after she had made the team last year- and has always made whatever team she wanted to be on. I let her grieve, rant and rave, cry, and then we talked. We talked about how God has plans that we don’t see, don’t understand, and sometimes don’t like very much. But looking back on them, they were great! They caused lots more good in our life than any plan we had in mind. It is really hard when things don’t go the way we want them to, but God has a plan and I trust Him to turn up with something great!
Prayer:
Lord, thank You for being a faithful God and having an awesome plan. Help me understand when things don’t go my way, that Your plan will be even better than what I can conceive of. Thank you for blessing me and caring for me. Amen.
Random verse of the day:
Ezekiel 12:2- You are living among a rebellious people- they have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear.
I know that I have eyes and ears that work well, but still there are things that I do not understand. Or maybe more accurately, there are things that I only understand from my human point of view. I would like to understand much, but I’m afraid that I’d be one of those people Jack Nicholson was talking about in A Few Good Men when he said “You can’t handle the truth.” There’s just a lot about the spiritual world that is scary and spooky and I’m not sure that I want to understand. I do want to know what God has planned for me, what He wants for my life, and how best to live my life for Him.
Dear Lord, open my eyes to see the things You want me to see and understand, and help me not be frightened by what I see and hear, but be able to walk in that direction knowing that it is what You want for my life. Amen.
Scripture to read today:
Nehemiah 11; Nehemiah 12; Psalm 1; Acts 3
Scripture that spoke to me:
Nehemiah 12:31
I led the leaders of Judah to the top of the wall and organized two large choirs to give thanks. One of the choirs proceeded southward along the top of the wall to the Dung Gate.
Observation:
I’ve been reading about this wall that Nehemiah was building to fortify Jerusalem. In my mind, it has been somewhat of a primitive cinderblock wall. But here, I figured out that if they could walk along the top of it, it sure must have been more. So I went researching…. here is a picture from a Jerusalem newspaper of part of the wall that has been excavated:
Certainly, this was a much, much larger task that the one my mind has created while reading this!
Application:
This makes me even more cautious about reading the Bible. I picture places and events in my mind according to what I know today. I’m sure we all do. But to understand things more accurately means we need to do a little research into the times- if I had realized that this was a wall, I would have been way more impressed at the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, for instance. Not that this story isn’t impressive, but it surely was a larger wall than I had in mind.
Prayer:
Lord, forgive me for weighing stories from the Bible based on my knowledge of the world today. Thank you for letting me see that things aren’t always as I believe them to be- but are even more majestic than I imagined!
Scripture to read today:
Nehemiah 3; Nehemiah 4; Luke 23
Scripture that spoke to me:
Luke 23:46
Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.
Observation:
We don’t focus too much on the spirit world. Ghosts, spirits, demons, and often, even angels are left to the occult or to fictitious stories. But here we see Jesus offering His spirit to God. In death, He knew His spirit would return to heaven. What do we know? As Christians, we believe in everlasting life, but that has to validate the existence of spirits, which we don’t like to talk about too much.
Application:
I get scared in haunted houses- not ones run by the local kids at Halloween, but ones that have things happening in them that cannot be explained. Yes, I have encountered a few strange things in the past. But I want to discount the existence of these “ghosts” as being something that can be explained another way. Looking at the teachings of Jesus, he spoke of demons, ghosts, His spirit going to heaven, and even hinted at reincarnation. I just have to believe that I don’t know everything- and will never know everything- here on this earth. But I believe that there is more out there than I know about.
Prayer:
Lord, I don’t have to know everything. Please show me the things that are useful to know and let my curiosity be appeased only when it is Your will. Amen.
Scripture to read today:
Zechariah 4; Zechariah 5; Zechariah 6; Luke 12
Scripture that spoke to me:
Luke 12:51-52
Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.
Observation:
This is so different from most of the teachings of Jesus- acceptance, love, brotherhood…. but what he is saying is that some will believe in Him and others won’t. That’s just the way it is. He came to separate the “wheat from the chaff” and that’s not dividing by family, race, economic status, popularity, but dividing by those who believe and those who don’t. This was a very different method of division for the Jews and it is still for us today.
Application:
We’re taught to bind our families together- the only way to do that is to have a family where everyone believes in Jesus. I still believe that is the basis for the failure of my marriage- I grew in my love for the Lord and he didn’t. Maybe it isn’t as simple as that, but as my walk got closer to God, he got more resentful of the time I put into it, and pulled back even further. My brother, the athiest, doesn’t join us on some family events. We invite him but don’t push him to- by not accepting the Lord he has alienated himself from certain parts of our lives. It is a shame, but that’s where the division comes.
Prayer:
Lord, teach me how to either accept division or correct it. I want to show people Your way and how to get to You. Amen.
Scripture to read today:
Daniel 9; Daniel 10; Psalm 123; Luke 5
Scripture that spoke to me:
Daniel 10:12-14
Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.”
Observation:
This “man dressed in linen clothing, with a belt of pure gold around his waist” (v 5) was obviously a visitor from heaven sent to Daniel to answer his prayer. He doesn’t identify himself but does say that he was delayed by a spirit until helped by the Archangel Michael. He goes on to say that he will have to face other spirits and call on Michael for help.
Application:
We don’t focus much on the spirit world. Perhaps it is scary to think of, or since we can’t see it we don’t understand it, but even Jesus made much of the spirits around him. What is out there and more importantly, what spirits are trying to visit us to tell us things and we don’t even know it? Maybe we feel like our prayers are not answered simply because we don’t know how to listen.
Prayer:
Lord, help me learn to listen to you and your messengers. Help me not be afraid of things I know nothing about but call upon your strength and understanding to make things clearer. Amen.
Scripture to read today:
Daniel 5; Daniel 6; Psalm 130; Luke 3
Scripture that spoke to me:
Daniel 6:16-18
So at last the king gave orders for Daniel to be arrested and thrown into the den of lions. The king said to him, “May your God, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you.” A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den. The king sealed the stone with his own royal seal and the seals of his nobles, so that no one could rescue Daniel. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night fasting. He refused his usual entertainment and couldn’t sleep at all that night.
Observation:
King Darius has been suckered into making a law that sounded good at the time but wasn’t turning out to be as good as he thought. He didn’t intend for his top man to be punished for it.
Application:
I know many times as a mom, I’ve issued a decree that I’ve been forced to have to hold to, even when the outcome wasn’t what I envisioned. I’ve prayed a lot for our leaders lately- we have some heavy issues on the table and I hope they are given the foresight to look at the long term effects of these issues.
Prayer:
Lord, guide our leaders toward making smart judgments and laws. Don’t let the greed, the comraderie of the party, or the pride of the individual stand in the way of making laws that are good not only for the people of our country at this time, but for our country a century or more from now. Amen.
Scripture to read today:
Jeremiah 42; Jeremiah 43; Jeremiah 44; Psalm 48; Revelation 13
Scripture that spoke to me:
Jeremiah 42:7
Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
Observation:
Many times throughout the Bible, the Lord speaks to men (prophets)- sometimes initiated by God, other times in response to a request or prayer by the man. This time, Jeremiah has gone to the Lord on behalf of the people, who want to know whether they should stay in Judah or go to Egypt. God answered his question 10 days later. Jeremiah is obviously someone who is used to conversing with God. God speaks to him often. Yet it takes 10 days to get his answer in this case!
Application:
How many times do we ask God something and expect to hear an immediate answer. We may even cock an ear, listen for 2 seconds, and receive nothing. But God doesn’t answer immediately. Here, we see Jeremiah get an answer in 10 days. We get an answer eventually, too. Trouble is, we don’t recognize it or perhaps we have even forgotten what we prayed for. I keep a prayer journal and it is amazing to look back 6 months and see what I prayed for then and how many of those prayers have been answered.
Prayer:
Lord, help me to be patient when I don’t get an answer right away. I know You hear my prayers and will answer them in Your time. Help me receive that answer with knowledge and understanding. Amen.
Scripture to read today:
Ezekiel 12; Ezekiel 13; Ezekiel 14; Revelation 5
Scripture that spoke to me:
Ezekiel 14:13-14
“Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD.
Observation:
We are responsible for our own salvation. We can’t get it from our parents, our church, our friends- we have to do it for ourselves. We can’t save someone else, no matter how hard we try. But we can give them the tools, the lessons, the knowledge to help themselves.
Application:
I’m going through this right now with my daughter. We’re talking about why SHE believes, why SHE goes to church- if it means anything or if it is just something she does- and how she can take ownership of her own beliefs. She is almost 13 years old, and it is my responsibility to help her see these things. But I can’t do it for her. She won’t be saved because I am saved, but because she develops a relationship with her Savior.
Prayer:
Lord, help my daughter, and help those I love, to come to know You better. Amen.
