Tuesday, September 29, 2009

This is the day.

Deuteronomy 4:39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

Wow! There is only one God! The God of the Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the only true God. There is no other God. The human race has imagined, and invented, and engineered so many "gods" that it is not even funny. Men have worshiped the sun, and the moon, the stars, and comets. People have bowed down to freshly carved images made from stone and wood, and gold or silver. Generations have prayed to their ancestors, or have gravelled at the feet of some wise man or woman. Countless multitudes have committed suicide, or sacrificed children or other humans to appease the anger of a mountain or various other made up "gods." However, the truth is clear. There is ONE God, and that is the God of the Bible. The God of Creation, Jehovah, El-Shadai, and the many other names that He is called in the Word. He is the only true God, manifesting Himself in three persons, and is the God not only of creation, but also of redemption. His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary has forever settled the sin question. Only His Blood is sufficient to pay the atonement for sin. There is truly only one God!! Do you know Him? He has provided the way for you to be saved. That way is through accepting Jesus Christ as you Saviour.

This is the day. for 9/28

Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

This passage reminds each of us that we should put for an effort. If we live a half-hearted life toward God, and put forth a mediocre effort to serve and trust in Him, the life that we live as a Christian will be shallow, and dull. However, if we seek Him with our whole heart, and we show the world that come-what-may we are going to stick with the stuff and serve God, we will see fruit for our labors, and will experience the blessings of God on our ministries and lives.

This is the day. for 9/21-9/25

Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;

Here is a reminder from God's Word to keep our thoughts on spiritual things. We need to watch what we do, and to keep ourselves pure so that we don't forget the important things that God has done for us. If we remember where we have come from, and teach others about where they can be spiritually then we can live a joyful, and fulfilled life before the Lord.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

This is the day. for 9/18

Deuteronomy 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.

What an intersesting passage! Here we see that Sihon was against God's people, and he was trying to discourage them. Even more important is the fact that God let him do this thing, and God even allowed his heart and spirit to get worse so that he would do it. God was trying to teach His people a lesson through this bad circumstance. We must all learn these hard lessons, and it is always a comfort to realize that God is still in complete control!!!!! The main reason that Sihon had risen up against Israel was so that God could tear down Sihon. Sihon would not turn to God, therefore, God allowed Sihon to mess with the wrong nation, and even "encouraged" him to do so. But when the time was right, God stepped in and destroyed Sihon, and allowed His people to go on and live for Him. Problems will come to our lives, but we must always step up, and allow God to direct us so that we may boldly overcome these problems. May God help ME and YOU to be able to do just that with our lives.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

This is the day.

Deuteronomy 1:27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.

The question for today is this.  Do we trust God?  Have we let the naysayers, and the skeptics discourage our hearts, with their mistrust of God?  God has never failed, and He will never fail.  He wants us to serve Him.  He offers us a victorious Christian life, and so often we simply doubt Him and live defeated.  What would happen if we would give ourselves wholey to Him?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

This is the day.

Numbers 32:9 For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.
 
Here is a warning!!!! Your attitude will affect others.  This is a reminder by Moses of the attitudes of the ten spies who were afraid to go into Caanan.  These ten men would not trust God, would not honor Moses, and tried to kill Joshua and Caleb, and because of their attitude caused a whole generation to be destroyed.   The attitudes of these men stank, and, therefore, they caused others to have bad attitudes as well.  These men had seen the promises of God, they had seen the land of promise, they had experienced the bounty of the land, and they had marvelled at the ablility of God to provide in this land of promise.  However, because of a perceived weakness on their part, they decided that they could not claim God's promises.  Their decision caused ALL of the adults of the nation of Israel, but two (Caleb and Joshua) to miss out on the blessings of God, and to ultimately be destroyed in a state of cursing rather than blessing.  YOUR ATTITUDE AND YOUR ACTIONS DO AFFECT THOSE AROUND YOU.

This is the day. for 9/15

Numbers 32:7 And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD hath given them?
 
The background: Gad and Reuben decide as individual tribes that they like the land on the east of Jordan better than the actual land of Caanan.
The message: The land of Caanan was the land of promise, Gad and Reuben were part of those to whom God had promised the land west of Jordan, yet they wanted to settle for second best.
The application: Moses told these two tribes that their decision would discourage the otheres that were with them.  These two tribes (and ultimately half of another one) settled for a little less than God's best, and that could have easily discouraged Israel.  Secondly, if they had decided to not lend a hand in the battle, it would have weakened the army and the ability to take what God's promise was.  As it happened, these tribes went ahead and fought, but there always seemed to be a little bit of trouble coming from that side of Jordan.  SETTLING FOR SECOND BEST IS ALWAYS A BAD CHOICE IN THE WORK OF GOD. God may bless second best, but not as much as He would bless his very best.


This is the day. for 9/14

Numbers 15:39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:
Here, God commanded His people to put a fringe on their garments in order for them to remember the Word of God.  We need to set up things in our lives so that we may remember what God has done for us.  The fringe here was to protect their hearts and minds from going back into a life of sin and denial of God.  How do we protect ourselves from wandering away from God?  We need to decide to hide God's word in our hearts, and to set up ways for us to remember Him in our lives.  Let us guard our hearts, and be pure before God.
 

Friday, September 11, 2009

This is the day.

Leviticus 26:13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:

16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

The thing that I want to focus on here is that not serving God will bring sorrow to our hearts. He may bring judgment on us like death or sickness, or pain or suffering, but when we go away from Him we can always count on one thing, sorrow. We must strive to live in a way that pleases and obeys God. Let us always resist the decision to disobey Him, and remember to follow Him, so that we may live joyful lives before Him and not have to endure the sorrow that will come if we disobey

Thursday, September 10, 2009

This is the day.

Leviticus 19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.

It is intersesting to note that this command not to hate your brother is given all the way back here in the Law. Jesus tells us later that this is the same as murder in God's eyes. We are emotional beings. It is so easy for us to allow hatred and anger and evil thoughts into our lives. This is sin, however, and God HATES sin!! By allowing God to put His love in our heart, we can avoid disobeying one of His commandments, and also avoiding the sin of having murder in our hearts.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

This is the day.

Exodus 36:2 And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it:

A very simple post for today. These are the kind of men the church needs for the Lord's work. Those men (and women) in whom the Lord has put wisdom. The world is full of knowledgeable and "wise" people, but those in whom the Lord has put wisdom are the ones that will be able to do a work for God. These are the kind of people who will have a desire to do God's work, and to do it right. Only God can truly prepare a person's heart to do a spiritual work!!!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

This is the day.

Exodus 35:34 And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.
Exo_35:35 Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work.
God had equipped these men to be workers in the building of His house.  Each one of them had a specific talent and ability that would make him useful for the work.  Even today, each Christian has a specific function and ability in the house of God.  Some may only be able to provide refreshments for those who do the work, but that is still what God has for them.  it is alway right to stay in the place that God has you.  So often, however, we seem to want to have a job that we cannot do.  God will bless each of us, if we stick with doing what He has equipped US to do.

This is the day. for 9/8

Exodus 35:26 And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair.
Exodus 35:29 The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.
 
Each of these passages again shows a willing heart to participate in the Lord's work.  Willingness on our part is always a proper responce to a call to work for God.  Even if we can't do everything, we should still be willing to do what we can do.  The women here were simply spinning the goats hair, but it was to be used for God's house, and their willingness is what made the work of God go on.

Friday, September 4, 2009

This is the day.

Exodus 35:21 And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the LORD'S offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments.
Wow, these people were stirred up about giving to God.  How often are we excited about giving?  For that matter how often are we stirred up about serving God?  Are we really stirred up about God's services in the church, and about the singing and preaching?  The Bible says that these people were stirred up.  May God stir us up to serve him.

This is the day. for 9/3

Exodus 35:5 Take ye from among you an offering unto the LORD: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the LORD; gold, and silver, and brass,

Here, again we have the admonishion to come to the Lord with a giving heart. God doesn't want us to be stingy, or to be grudging of giving to Him, He wants us to be willing and bring our increase to Him. Do we really love the Lord enough to Love giving to Him.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

This is the day.

Exodus 28:30 And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.
The thought today is this, how do you judge?  Many people want to say, "judge not," and go about their merry way as though they can do what they want and never be wrong.  The Bible does teach of judgment, however.  Aaron had the oversight of judgment in Israel, and he judged from his heart.  The tools of judgment came from Aaron's heart, and were guided by the Lord.  When Aaron judged he had God's direction and the right tools which came from his heart.  When we judge others, we must also have the right tools.  People do tend to do wrong things, and, therefore, judgments must be made.  However, if we are to judge others, it should be from our own hearts, and through the leading of God.  If we allow God to guide our hearts, and to direct our judgments, then those judgments will always be righteous, and will be pleasing to God.


Tuesday, September 1, 2009

This is the day.

Exodus 28:29 And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the LORD continually.

The thought today is this. Are you bearing any names on your heart? Aaron bore the names, as a spiritual leader, on his heart, and those names represented each of the tribes of Israel, and of course by default, bore each of the members of that tribe on his heart. When he went before God, into the holy place, (my what a picture of intercessory prayer) he bore the children of Israel on his heart before God. What kind of change would it make if we would begin to bear names on our hearts? Aaron is a picture for us that we should pray and interceed for those we know, and get a burden on our hearts for people. May God give us a burden, or at least, increase our burden for those we know.