Welcome to our second month! We're off to a great start. If you got behind, just rejoin the group. I have been doing something similar to this for over 20 years and still find passages that leave me scratching my head. Every year I'm more in awe of God who gives us life.
Exodus. The portrayal of the Red Sea crossing is breathtaking. I want to interject this one truth: the deliverance from Egypt (which, in Scripture, symbolizes the power of the world) was all the people needed. God had set them free! However, God provided a second event to make them completely aware of their freedom. That second event, crossing the Sea, was used to make them fully aware of what God had done in the first event.
Both events are pictures of something that becomes clear in the New Testament. Deliverance from Egypt is like what happens to us when we give our hearts to Christ -- we are set free from our slavery to the world and its sin. Jesus was firm in His command, though, that we participate in a second event -- passing through the waters of baptism -- in order to seal the power of the first event in our hearts and minds. That is why we (at SRC) don't waver on the fact that New Testament baptism always occurred after someone chose to receive Christ and was always by immersion in water.
I marvel at God's kindness when He led them by a longer route to keep them from battle at first. Battles would come later, but God wanted these early days to be full of gratitude that they had been delivered. This is an area I have never prayed over when I see people come to Christ, but it would be consistent with the heart of God to intercede like that.
Notice the celebration of the Hebrews. What does it bring to mind?
Matthew. The position of the religious leaders in Jesus' day was all about authority passed down certain respected lines. Jesus didn't have their endorsement so He wasn't approved by them. His point was that their line of authority was no longer from God because of how corrupt it was. This is an important lesson to me: we must always go back to Christ as our life and the Bible as our textbook. When in doubt, choose God!
Psalm 26 is about the joy of walking in integrity. I don't find myself quite as bold as David did when declaring his innocence. What do you think?
Proverbs is worth a few moments of meditation today. I noticed that "haughty eyes" are the first thing in the list. Could it be that pride and arrogance are more hated by God than lies or immorality?
What are your thoughts today?
Notice the celebration of the Hebrews. What does it bring to mind?
Matthew. The position of the religious leaders in Jesus' day was all about authority passed down certain respected lines. Jesus didn't have their endorsement so He wasn't approved by them. His point was that their line of authority was no longer from God because of how corrupt it was. This is an important lesson to me: we must always go back to Christ as our life and the Bible as our textbook. When in doubt, choose God!
Psalm 26 is about the joy of walking in integrity. I don't find myself quite as bold as David did when declaring his innocence. What do you think?
Proverbs is worth a few moments of meditation today. I noticed that "haughty eyes" are the first thing in the list. Could it be that pride and arrogance are more hated by God than lies or immorality?
What are your thoughts today?
I'm with u Sam! When David asks god to "test my motives and my heart" I cringed a bit because I know my own motives and heart aren't perfect!
ReplyDeleteDo u think 'haughty eyes' are listed first because it's the hardest for us to recognize in ourself and get rid of? Most people feel a little pang of guilt when they lie but wouldn't even realize they were being prideful...?
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about haughty eyes, Julie. However, I think that a portion of our heart callouses on this come from living where we do. We Americans were born with a since of entitlement. I have been in other parts of the world and have seen people groups whose eyes speak of anything but haughtiness. They speak of humility, pain and even love.
ReplyDeleteI am reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson and he said, One of our fundamental misunderstandings of spiritual maturity is thinking that it should result in self-sufficiency. It’s the exact opposite. The goal isn’t independence; the goal is codependence on God." That truth is something which God has been teaching me in other ways. I got my eyes opened initially when we started going to the DR. We thought we were there to bring them the answers. Instead, we got there and discovered that they knew more about walking with God than we did. Our work became far more about what we received from them than about what we gave them.