Are you a carrier and distributor of God’s Word?

 10 Mar 26

Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One

Readings:

Deuteronomy 11

Deuteronomy 12

Deuteronomy 13

Mark 13:1-13

Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes (Deuteronomy 11:18). 

Are you a carrier and distributor of God’s Word?

The instruction given to the Israelites to bind the Scripture on their hands and before their eyes is probably given metaphorically, but later the Jews took this literally. They would copy Bible verses on a parchment and put them in a small container called a “frontlet.” Similarly, they took a small leather pouch called a phylactery and wore it around the head and around the left arm, which would be close to the heart. God desires us to communicate His Word to our children, “when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:7). 

Employment Point: Treasure God’s Word internally while sharing it externally.

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Reflections

As frontlets between their eyes- these words meant to say that they ought to keep it in clear view before them, so that there is no chance that they will forget to follow the commands set out to them. 

When checking google on the meaning of frontlet, it says that it is an ornamental piece of cloth hanging over the upper part of an altar frontal. Or it can also be a decorative band or ornament worn on the forehead. In this case, it is also some sort of a bible case. Whatever it is, it is a reminder to the then Jews to keep God’s commandments. We may not require to wear such ornaments to remind ourselves but God’s commandments should have already been carved upon our hearts.

“So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭11‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• When I read these verses, it is a reminder to me that all my labour will not be in vain. He knows my heart and He knows I truly and faithfully obey the commands He gave me.
• The only prayer that I pray is that the Lord grant me strength to overcome and to persevere through the seasons of my life and to always remember that He walks with me. Therefore I shall not fear or be worried about anything. 

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭11‬:‭26‬-‭28‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• I read these verses with fear and awe. It is really clear that the Lord told all these to His people before they step foot into the promise land. He set it right from the start and told them to make their choices. People should know the consequences if they finally decided they want it their way. They cannot complain and say that it’s not fair, etc because everything there is have been laid bare before them. 
• it is the same with us. The Lord often knows what is ahead and would have warned us on the things to come. We too, have choices. It’s either we ignore or we obey and He often warns us at just the right time. So if we are not careful or become too stubborn, we can possibly make the choices as well.

“and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭13‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• we serve only one Lord. And we serve Him only.

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Have a Message and Be One

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

March 10

Preach the word. — 2 Timothy 4:2

We aren’t saved to be mere mouthpieces for God; we’re saved to be his sons and daughters. God has no interest in turning his preachers into passive channels. He wants vigorous, alert, wide-awake men and women with all their powers and faculties intact. God’s disciples are spiritual messengers, not spiritual mediums, and the message they deliver must be part of themselves.

The Son of God was his message. His words were Spirit and life (John 6:63). As disciples, we must become the examples of what we preach; our lives must become the very sacrament of our message. It is natural to want to serve and give to others—that desire lies in most human hearts. But it takes a heart broken by the conviction of sin, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and crumpled into the purposes of God to turn a life into the sacrament of its message.

There is a difference between giving testimony and preaching. Anyone who is saved can give testimony. A preacher is someone who has answered the call of God and is determined to use every power to proclaim God’s truth. God takes his preachers out of their own ideas for their lives and shapes them for his use, just as the disciples were after Pentecost. Pentecost did not teach the disciples anything; it made them the embodiment of their message: “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).

Before God’s message can liberate other souls, the liberation must be real in you. Gather the material you wish to preach, and set it alight. Let God have perfect liberty when you speak.

Deuteronomy 11-13; Mark 12:1-27

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed.

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Reflections

Like what Oswald said, “As disciples, we must become the examples of what we preach; our lives must become the very sacrament of our message”.

The transformation done in our life is not due to our own efforts. It is by the grace of God, by His power, etc., that cause those changes. And the Lord puts in our hearts His truths. We learn through our everyday struggles, through challenges and the low valleys, how we are able to live that risen life through Christ Jesus.

We are indeed walking testimonies and witnesses of His great creation. And in this journey of faith, He helps us to learn or relearn concepts that are critical in the shaping of our faith. He grants us wisdom, as well as knowledge for discernment, recognising the preaching of God’s word from false prophets and spread God’s love and His message to others that edifies them.

We pray that Lord, if You truly want us to be preachers of Your word, to grant us open doors and the opportunities to share Your word to the rest of the world. Help us Lord, to remain steadfast in You and to build ourselves so that we grow deeper roots in truth and in faith. 

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Lent devotion Day 21/53

taken from YouVersion, Lent for Everyone

Lent for Everyone is a devotional created and written by N.T. (Tom) Wright. For each day of Lent, there is a reading chosen from the Gospel of Matthew, plus a reflection by Wright. These readings have grown out of a project encouraging Lent reading in Northern England. This is the second in a three-volume series based on the Revised Common Lectionary of the Church of England.

Today’s reading:

Matthew 15:1-20

WEEK 3: TUESDAY

'Germs and Jesus!' shouted the seven-year-old son of a friend of mine. 'Germs and Jesus! You keep telling me they're import- ant and I can't see either of them!'

A fascinating response to a pressing parental problem. We tell our children about Jesus. We also, at a different level, explain to them that they must wash their hands because there are things called 'germs' which we can't see but which do nasty things if we don't wash them off.

Jews in the ancient world didn't know what we know about germs (they didn't know what we know about Jesus, if it comes to that) but they knew how important it was to wash before meals. Physical purity, with its echoes of national purity (always important for a small and embattled nation), had been elevated to an art form, with careful rules precisely formulated and exactly observed, at least by those who chose to do so. There was a considerable spectrum in Judaism at the time of Jesus, from those who were eager to find and follow the ancient legal traditions more precisely to those who didn't bother too much, either because they weren't pious or, perhaps, because they weren't well off and couldn't afford the time for all the extra fuss.

The Pharisees were a popular pressure group devoted to keeping one another up to the mark of the strict rules, and doing their best, as far as they could, to apply them to other Jews as well. Physical purity made as much sense then as it does now, and without modern soap and other aids to cleanliness there was a lot of practical wisdom, as well as traditional religion, about the rules. But, as often happens in such systems, rules led to more rules, regulations to more regulations, and the original purpose was always in danger of being lost underneath.

So when the Pharisees challenged Jesus about the fact that his disciples weren't keeping the purity traditions in the proper way, Jesus reacted with a counter-charge of his own. What happens when traditions, however venerable, cut across what scripture itself said? He gave as his example a piece of special pleading. You could, in his day, make a formal declaration that the money that could have been used to support your parents was instead 'given to God' — thus neatly getting out of the open-ended, and often sad and messy, business of looking after the elderly. Scripture has been overthrown, as Isaiah said would happen, by human tradition.

This passage has been seized upon down the years by people eager to make a similar point in relation to the growth of various kinds of tradition within the church. And it has to be admitted that all segments of the church (including, paradoxically, the streams of Protestantism that have protested about other people's 'traditions') are quite capable of producing traditions which manage to get around what scripture actually says. Tradition matters because, so we believe, God hasn't stopped working in the lives of his people by his Spirit. We have learned a lot over the last two thousand years which shouldn't just be thrown away. But there is always the chance, in every branch of the church, that the traditions will take on a life of their own and distort or deny some key bit of scripture. This passage should remind us of that danger. Lent is a good time for the church to examine itself on this question.

Jesus then took the occasion to develop his own vision of purity. He didn't say physical cleanness didn't matter. What he did say was that inner purity was far more important. Follow- ing deep strains of thought in scripture itself, he warned that the human heart is the source of the greatest pollution, and that nothing in human tradition can purify it. The implication is clear: Jesus is offering a cure for the polluted heart.

That was the real bone of contention between Jesus and the Pharisees. They were supporting a system which, at its best, was pointing forward to God's great desire to find a purified people for himself. Jesus was claiming that God was now doing this, through him. 

They were setting up signposts; he claimed to offer the reality which made the signposts redundant. Here is the lesson for us: following Jesus, allowing him to cleanse us through and through, puts us in direct continuity with the ancient scriptures, and enables us to discern the good and the less good in human traditions.

TODAY

Gracious Lord, teach us so to love you that we may find ourselves transformed by your holiness; and save us from human traditions that would imprison us in our own inventions.

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Let’s pray:

Father as we walked through the halfway mark of Lent, help us to persevere and to put You first in all that we do. Center our lives on You and help us to be mindful of temptations or distractions that are trying to take away our time with You. May You guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus and teach us Your ways, so that we may be known as children of God by our speech and actions. In the precious name of Jesus we pray. Amen 🙏🏻