Today’s Readings: Deut 23:1‐25:19, Luke 10:13‐37, Ps 75:1‐10, Prov 12:12‐14

Psalms 75:7  But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.

One of the statements I remember from our Jewish tour guide is: “The king is not really king.  The one who crowns the king is king.”  He was referring to God being the one who chose the kings of Israel and anointed Saul and David through Samuel.  God was the one who was in control of Israel.  Not Saul or David.

Apply:  I pray that I will recognize God’s control in my life.  I pray that he will be faithful to his Word and execute righteous judgment in the life of those around me.

How have you seen God lift up and put down the lives close to you?

Today’s Readings: Deut 21:1‐22:30, Luke 9:51‐10:12, Ps 74:1‐23, Prov 12:11

Luke 9:61-62 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Is it OK to say that there are parts of the Bible that are uncomfortable for me to read?  Sometimes it is because of conviction.  Sometimes it is because I am not seeing the author’s intended meaning of the passage.  Here it is a little of both.

The message of the passage is not that we must leave our family and never talk with them again if we follow Christ.  That would not be consistent with the rest of the teaching in Scripture.  The context of the verse shows us that the meaning is related to following Christ fully without hesitation.  Notice the “I will follow…but…first.”  When God say’s go, we do not pass go, we do not collect $200.  We go.

Apply: I must fully submit myself to God’s calling – no buts.

How do you avoid the “I will follow…but…first” response?

Today’s Readings: Deut 18:1‐20:20, Luke 9:28‐50, Ps 73:1‐28, Prov 12:10

(S) Luke 9:35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”

(O) During the transfiguration, God gives his disciples two statements of Christ’s identity and one command.  The command is to “listen to him!”  The Greek word listen is akouo in the present active imperative.  It is very similar to the word Sh’ma in Hebrew.  It is a responsive hearing or a heading.  I love that the next recorded statement from Christ to his disciples starts with “Let these words sink into your ears” (v44).

(A) I want to spend intentional time listening to God today.

(P) Lord, help me to listen actively.  I want your words to sink into my ears.

What helps you listen to God?

Today’s Readings: Mar 31 Deut 16:1‐17:20, Luke 9:7‐27, Ps 72:1‐20, Prov 12:8‐9

Deuteronomy 17:16-17 Only he (The King) must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

Megiddo was one of Solomon’s chariot cities.  When we were in Megiddo, we saw stalls that Solomon built to house 450 of his horses.

Observation #1: The verses that immediately follow (v18-19) state that every king in Israel “shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law” and “he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them.”  Clearly Solomon was familiar with God’s Words and disobeyed them.

Observation #2:  The motive listed in verses 16-18 is “for himself.”

Apply: What are my horses?  Today I want to look for ways that I am disobeying the Word of God.  What am I accumulating for myself?

What does this passage mean to you?

Today’s Readings: Deut 13:1‐15:23, Luke 8:40‐9:6, Ps 71:1‐24, Prov 12:5‐7

Proverbs 12:4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband,
but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.

Apply #1: Rebecca is my excellent crown.

• She is wise –Rebecca sees the world like God does.  I trust her judgment.
• She is relaxed – Rebecca does not get over worried about situations and she helps me to rest.
• She is gentle – Rebecca has an uncanny ability to use the least force necessary to direct those around her with grace.

Apply #2: How do I bring shame to my spouse?  How do I need to grow as a husband?

If you are married, I want to encourage you to focus on the beauty in your crown.  If you are not married, pray for your future crown.  Ask God how he wants to do to prepare you to bring your spouse glory and not shame.

Today’s Readings: Deut 11:1‐12:32, Luke 8:22‐39, Ps 70:1‐5, Prov 12:4

(S)cripture – Deut 11:2-5 And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 3 his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, 4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, 5 and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place…

(O)bservation – God wants the people of Israel to remember how he disciplined the Egyptians.  He wants them to know that if they live like the Egyptians, they also will be disciplined.  In addition, he wants them to remember all that he taught them when they were in the wilderness.  As Matt Lantz taught me in Israel, “God didn’t just lead his people into the wilderness to get his people out of Egypt.  He lead his people into the wilderness to get Egypt out of his people.”

(A)pplication – In wilderness times in my life, I want to look for what God is trying to teach me.  I want to consider his discipline and respond.

(P)rayer – Lord, show me how you are currently disciplining me and give me the strength to respond.

How has God disciplined you?

Today’s Readings: Deut 9:1‐10:22, Luke 8:4‐21, Ps 69:19‐36, Prov 12:2‐3

Luke 8:15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

The Luke readings today emphasized hearing.  “As he said these things, he called out, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear’” (v8), “Take care then how you hear” (v18), “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (v21).  Clearly the Sh’ma (see the March 26^th post) is not just an Old Testament instruction.

View from the mountain of prayer, Mt Arbel, of where 70% of Jesus' recorded ministry took place.

Jesus was a very visual teacher.  On our Israel trip, I was impacted by how fertile the area of Galilee is.  However, the farmers had to pull an extraordinary amount of rocks out of their fields in order to reach good soil.  Often times you would see a two acre field lined with a half-acre piled with rocks.  It is within this context that Jesus teaches the parable of the sower and the seed.

Apply:  Do you want your heart to be good soil?  We have to remove our rocks so we don’t just hear the Word with joy (v13), but have the word take root in our lives.  Jesus says that we have to hold the word fast with patience (also translated as perseverance).

What are some ways that you have found enable you to hold the Word fast after hearing it?

Today’s Readings: Deut 7:1‐8:20, Luke 7:36‐8:3, Ps 69:1‐18, Prov 12:1

Deuteronomy 7:2 – “…and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.”

There are areas in life that God want Christians to “show no mercy” in. In the opening five verses of chapter seven, God makes it clear that his people are to destroy anything that could prompt them to worship something other than him alone. They are not to intermarry with idol worshipers. They are commanded to “break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire” (v5).

Alter to Baal in Megiddo

The Israelites did not obey. Over the past two weeks, Rebecca and I saw many excavated Israelite cities with pillars, carved images, and even alters to foreign Gods. Eventually God sent them into exile to correct their worship.

Apply: There are many areas in which we allow the world to distort our worship of God alone. We let the idol of the American dream drive parts of our lives. We expose ourselves to idol worship through the media and through the desire to impress others. At times we let idol worship in by prioritizing good things like family and even ministry over God. God demands worship of him alone. Today I want to show “no mercy” to things that have the potential of affecting my worship.

I’ve heard idol worship in a Christian’s life called Jesus and … For example, yes I want to worship God …and I want to have a nice house. What areas of your life need to be shown no mercy to protect your worship of God alone?

Today’s Readings: Mar 26 Deut 5:1‐6:25, Luke 7:11‐35, Ps 68:19‐35, Prov 11:29‐31

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Each morning in Israel our group would quote the Sh’ma in Hebrew and English. The word Sh’ma that we translate as hear carries a lot more weight in Hebrew. It is a hearing that responds – more like a heeding.

Notice how clear it is in the context of chapter 6. “God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them… by keeping all his statutes and his commandments… Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them… diligently keep the commandments of the Lord … Lord commanded us to do all these statutes… And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment…”

In our western mind, it is easy to learn information and not do anything with it. For example, many of us grew up wanting to learn information from our teachers and professors, knowing that we were never going to use that information in life. However, it is not that way with God. He teaches us so that we apply what we are learning. His instructions are not something that we need to think through, decide when they are best, balk at, etc. As Nike eloquently put it… Just Do It.

Apply: Today I want to consciously think about how I can apply God’s commandment of loving him with ALL of me.

Today’s Readings: Deut 4:1‐49, Luke 6:39‐7:10, Ps 68:1‐18, Prov 11:28

Deuteronomy 4:9 – “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—“

Rebecca and I have had the privilege of spending the last two weeks in Israel. The trip has greatly impacted my view of scripture. God has given me a deeper context for the text. One of the themes on the trip was seeing the evidence of God’s people forgetting or flat out disobeying his words.

The Pine Cove family camp director team has chosen Deuteronomy 4:9 as our theme for the summer of 2011. As I read through this verse in context today, I was reminded:
• We have to be careful and diligent about remembering what we have seen.
• If we are not careful/diligent to remember, the work of God will depart from our hearts all the days of our life.
• We are to pass on what we have seen God do to our children.

Apply: I am putting together a trip journal with pictures. I want to be careful and diligent to remember.

What are you doing to help you to remember what your eyes have seen?