Ezekiel 14:12-16:42, Hebrews 7:18-28, Psalm 106:1-12, Proverbs 27:4-6

Ezekiel 14:12-16:42, Hebrews 7:18-28, Psalm 106:1-12, Proverbs 27:4-6

 

            When I think back to all my years of schooling, I can think of one teacher from high school who had the greatest impact on my life.  Ms. Sal literally glided with grace in her classroom from one side to the other as she inspired us with Renaissance art, we were emotional remembering the trenches of World War I, and discussed the differences in of Greek and Roman architecture.  I am who I am for many reasons because of her.  I am a romantic and a history lover because she taught me how to see, learn, and be passionate about the past, because it shapes our present and future.  I will always love her for that.  In these chapters of Hebrews and especially Psalm 106, I thought about this love of history and some of her lessons echo in my mind.  Psalm 106 is a small chronicle of the Jewish nation and their history.  It is a representation of who they were as a nation, and this picture is what we think of the, today. 

 

            The first point that jumped out of me was God as the main character.  All

Glory goes to God first and is an example of how we should respond to Him.  Praise the Lord. Give thanks.  Why?  Because He is Good.  Thinking of history, there is a well known story about Corrie Ten Boom from World War II.  She and her family were imprisoned by the Nazis because they hid Jews.  When in their jail cells, she was separated from her sister and the prisoners would pass messages back in forth by whispering to each other…a large game of telephone.  One of the messages that the Ten Boom sisters shared to each other was "God is good."  Even in a cold, scary, hopeless Nazi prison, they still knew the goodness of God.  Sigh,  Such faith.  The author of this Psalm had the same faith and love in God.  They knew and proclaimed that God's love never fails and never gives up even though we all have lives and histories that constantly turn our backs to God. 

 

            Psalm 106 shows the character of God as Savior – verse 4 asks for God's aid WHEN he saves.  The next few verses transition into the beginning history of the Hebrew nation by leaving Egypt and slavery.  The fact that God is love and that He saves will be the hope and relief after each mess up if highlighted.  The chapter mentions rebellion, deliverance, rebuking, and being lost.  It also follows up with repentance, praise, and worship.  This is the beginning and a reminder of what we have been reading all year, and WHY we have been reading all year.  We are in the middle or our own chapters.  We are living our own histories.  This has had me thinking of what my chapter would look like.  What will Nikkie's history story say?  Will it reflect worship, love and obedience?  As verse 3 says, "Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right."  Or will the chapter be heavily coated with the mess ups, the doubt, the rebellions, the lost wanderings of my own?  Well, I know the answer, and of course it's both.  As I think about it, I'm thankful for those lost times, the rebellions, and the hopeless journeys, because just like Israel, those moments were followed with repentance and FORGIVENESS, and always filled with God's love that never fails.  We are living our histories, our stories.  My prayer is that during the bad times and during the great times we will always be able to whisper or shout that God is Good…that God Saves…that God's love never fails.        

Tuesday Novemeber 5

Ezekiel 12:1-14:11

Hebrews 7:1-17

Psalm 105:37-45

Proverbs 27:3

 

And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.

Hebrews 7:15-16

 

The law is very clear when it comes to requirements for priests. They must belong to the tribe of Levi, they must conduct themselves in a certain manner, they must wear specific clothes, they must follow an exact procedure when it comes to purifying themselves and then everyone else. This system was put in place by God as a way for people to be cleansed of their sins. There was one problem with this system: with every new sin that people commit, they have to keep going back the priest if they ever hope to be forgiven. It is a never-ending cycle of sin and atonement, back to sin again. These priests were the people's only means to be made right with God. 

 

In Hebrews 7, Paul describes a priest named Melchizedek who once encountered Abraham and blessed him. I don't fully understand who this man was and what made him so important to Abraham. But Paul makes some very interesting comparisons between Melchizedek and Jesus. Both are described as priests but are very different from the priests of the tribe of Levi. The part that jumped out to me was in verse 16: these two were considered priests not because of their ancestry, but because of their power. The priests of Levi had very limited power to actually free the people from their sins because they themselves were sinful people. Jesus, on the other hand, is God in the form of a human who lived a perfect sinless life. He was put to death and then conquered death by coming back to life 3 days later. This High Priest is the ultimate mediator between people and God because He is God. He can offer a true freedom from sin and death because He Himself conquered sin and death and He allows us to share in that victory. It didn't matter that Jesus was not of the line of Levi. What matters is that He has the power of an indestructible life.

There are countless examples from the Old Testament that point forward in time toward Jesus, like the priest Melchizedek. Thank God for the High Priest Jesus who has the power to bless us beyond what we can imagine!

Monday Blogpost (11/4/13)

Monday, November 4, 2013 [Promises]

Hebrews 6:16-18, MSG

 

When people make promises, they guarantee them by appeal to some authority above them so that if there is any question that they'll make good on the promise, the authority will back them up. When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee—God can't break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable.

 

On our way to grab a bite to eat, Keesha and I stopped at a couple's house to see if they wanted to join us.  When we arrived we found that this couple actually already had a visitor, a friend who seemed distraught and was talking about some difficult issues.  Though we invited all three, the friend especially declined – her problems had robbed her of her appetite, her peace, her joy, etc.  As we listened to her talk about the situations of her life my heart was breaking for her.  From broken relationships to disappointments, this friend continuously spoke about everything in her life that was wrong, reliving every situation that she could think of.  I felt my spirit sinking close to helplessness until Something within me told me to pray.  We gathered around this lady and began to pray, speaking God's blessings and promises over her and her family. We prayed and prayed and prayed some more.  During our time of prayer we felt something break in the spirit.  The pit of helplessness and hopelessness that my spirit was sinking into had been filled in and was overflowing with the promises of God that we had prayed.  The atmosphere of the room had changed from heavy to light.  There was Hope among us all because of the promises of God that can never change.  After prayer our friend's appetite had returned…should I have been surprised?

 

Often it seems like we fall into the trap of proclaiming our problems rather than proclaiming God's promises.  Don't get me wrong, it's emotionally and spiritually healthy to bring our feelings about a situation to the surface and acknowledge that we have issues and problems.  However, the purpose of bringing these things to the surface is to give God access to them so that He can do something about it.  The goal is never to pray our problems – the goal is to pray to the God that walks with us through our problems and to affirm His promises.  Without the promises of God what do you have to stand on (what anchors you)?

 

Today, God made me a promise and said that He would feed me His Word.  He gave me the Scripture Deuteronomy 8:3.

 

As you pause and listen to the Lord, ask Him to give you a promise from His Word. Remember that this can take different forms (a picture, a song, a Scripture, etc.).  Our God is always speaking.

 

What promise is God speaking over you today?

 

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"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26)

Kenny Sullivan

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November 3

Hebrews 5:12  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!

 A few years ago Comedian Jeff Foxworthy hosted a game show called, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Although the show was designed to produce some laughs, many times the ignorance of people was no laughing matter. Too many contestants, many who had already received high school or even college diplomas, demonstrated ignorance of the basic facts of geography, math, and English literature.

Similarly what has happened to Christians in the United States is no laughing matter. While most Christians claim to take the Bible seriously, our actions reveal just the opposite.  

Pollster George Gallup has dubbed the United States "a nation of biblical illiterates." David Van Biema of Time magazine cites a telling example of this kind of biblical illiteracy: "Only half of U.S. adults know the title of even one Gospel. Most can't name the Bible's first book. And the trend extends even to Evangelicals."

That's amazing and that's dangerous. Most Americans know more about the lives of Kim Kardasian and Lindsey Lohan than they do about Jesus. Here is the danger of the trend of our times:

Without knowledge of the Bible how will we know what God expects?

How will we know where to stand on the issues of our day?

How will we ever be salt and light in our culture?

How will we re-wallpaper our minds with the truth of Scripture to fight against the lies of the enemy?

If we don't know the Scripture, we won't know God or the world we actually live in.

At Grace Church we want everyone to be a person in God's Word every day of the year. That is why we have invited you on this Bible Reading journey. Our team of blog leaders gathered last week and they enthusiastically have committed themselves to continuing this journey in 2014.  

Would you prayerfully consider not only joining us on the journey but also inviting someone to make the journey with you? We believe the most important commitment a person can make to move from milk to meat is the daily reading of God's Word. Your commitment to spend 20 minutes reading God's Word each day will transform you and ultimately the world around you.

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"Multiplying leaders to change the world"

November 2: Switching over to standard time - falling back, and getting rest

Ezekiel 3:16-6:14

Hebrews 4:1-16

Psalm 104:24-35

Proverbs 26:27

As I write this, I am very tired.  After a long week of work, I stayed up last night waiting for my daughter to come home from a Halloween party.  She got home close to midnight, and I had to get up at 6 (on a Saturday!) to get to a 3 mile race I was running in New York.  When that was done, I came home to make lunch (Carla was out with Christian at a swim meet).  Then I had errands to run, while Carla took Thomas to his tennis lesson.  The errands took me to Costco, to a shower door store (don't ask...), to the drug store and the cleaners.  By the time I got home, it was time to make dinner.  After cleaning up, I had to assemble first the shelves (with my daughter Sophia's help), then the desk chair I'd bought at Costco earlier that day.  I also had to put the shelves into the basement storage area, then stack the boxes that were meant to go on it.  It is 9:35 PM as I write this - is it any wonder I am tired?

There is the prospect of an extra bit of rest tonight (assuming none of the kids come into our room unable to sleep) - we fall back into standard time tonight, and we get an extra hour of sleep as a result.  The truth is,though, an extra hour isn't going to do much to rejuvenate me.  I need much more.  I need the rest St Paul writes about in Hebrews 4; I need to enter into God's rest, a Sabbath-rest that lets me rest from my works, "just as God did from His." I think of it as a rest that recognizes no other need than to spend time with our Lord, that understands that on the Sabbath, one does not work; instead, one trusts in the Lord about whom the Psalmist wrote "All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time.  When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things."

As available as God makes His Sabbath rest to me, I admit it is difficult to experience, and that difficulty is my fault.  Not only does the obvious sin keep me from His rest, but the unwillingness to relinquish control to Him, to trust in His providence,, to surrender the burden He has asked for that I insist on carrying - all this keeps me from that Sabbath rest.  So in the end, if I am exhausted, it is my fault.  If I could only learn to fall back - ON HIM - I would get my rest.

Dear God, please save me from my stubbornness.  

Are you tired?  If you are, are reading this on facebook, and have suggestions on how to enter that Sabbath rest, add your comments below!

A FOOTNOTE:  I was thinking of writing a different reflection and calling it "Don't be Wile E. Coyote", and referencing today's Proverb.

11/1/13

11/1/13

You must give them my messages whether they listen or not. But they won't listen, for they are completely rebellious! Son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not join them in their rebellion. Open your mouth, and eat what I give you." Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me. It held a scroll, which he unrolled. And I saw that both sides were covered with funeral songs, words of sorrow, and pronouncements of doom. (Ezekiel 2:7-10 NLT) The voice said to me, "Son of man, eat what I am giving you—eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. "Fill your stomach with this," he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. Then he said, "Son of man, go to the people of Israel and give them my messages. (Ezekiel 3:1-4 NLT)

I love this! I love the picture we are given today of eating the scroll. The reason I like it so much, is that it shows us a couple of things. I think it gives us, through the idea of food, a pretty good visual about the word of God.

1. I am hungry for food.

2. Food sustains me.

3. Food tastes good.

4. Around food we are empowered to talk to people.

1. I am hungry for food. When we substitute "God's Word" for the word food, we get a good picture of what is happening with Ezekiel. God is giving Ezekiel His word, and sending him out to the people. You have to have a hunger for the word of God. When I was younger, I would read because I was told to, but it wasn't until I saw scripture in action that God put a hunger in me to take in (eat) His word.

2. Food sustains me. Have you ever been in a dark place, where you were pressed to the brink by situations or forces out of your control? Jesus was. When He was tested by Satan, where did He turn for rescue? Even Christ didn't turn to himself for safety, but he answered Satan with the Words of The Lord. Hiding God's word in our heart will give us the ability to get out of some bad situations.

3. Food tastes good. I like meat. Smoked ribs, grilled steak, prime rib! Good tasting food get me excited. But, unlike food, we don't have to worry about eating too much of the Word. Sometimes we can bite off more than we can chew at a time, but too much of the Word is nonsense. The Word of God is like honey on our lips. It tastes good. It gives us what we are looking for. The Word of God is a light to a dark world.

4. Around food we are empowered to talk to people. The Word of God is not something that we are supposed to keep to ourselves. Even in this passage in Ezekiel, he was instructed to share these Words with the people. It wasn't a good word for Israel, but he still had to share it. The Word of God is a healing salve for people who are hurting, and a light for those who are seeking, and it is even a boat anchor for those who refuse to believe. It is a living thing. The work of God begins when His people are devouring and sharing His Word.

Discussion questions: what is God doing in your life through being in His Word? Has having scripture memorized ever bailed you out of a dark place?

You can join in the discussion in the comments section on our Facebook group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/192897197465389/#

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