Are you wandering aimlessly?
6 Mar 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Deuteronomy 1
Deuteronomy 2
Mark 11:1-19
For You are my rock and my fortress; therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me (Psalm 31:3).
Are you wandering aimlessly?
Moses informs us, “It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea” (Deuteronomy 1:2). What should have been an eleven-day trek for the nation of Israel turned into a forty-year wilderness wandering, with only two of the original wanderers (Joshua and Caleb) ever entering the Promised Land.
The writer of Hebrews elaborates about those twenty years old and above who wouldn’t be permitted to enter Canaan: “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years” (Hebrews 3:8-9). What kept them out of Canaan? The author of Hebrews concludes, “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19).
Employment Point: Walk by faith, obeying God’s Word to avoid aimless living.
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Reflections
“In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go. When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: “No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.””
Deuteronomy 1:32-36 NIV
- the rebellion against the Lord will bring judgement. We saw how the Israelites were afraid of the Amorites as they seemed stronger and taller than they are. It is the same with us isn’t it? We may not be facing fights with people who may sound like Russians in this case, but I draw from the fact that we often let what we see limit or affect our judgement.
- At times we also forget that if the Lord wills it, He will bring it to pass. It is never about our own abilities but all because of Him! It’s all His plans and His thoughts and His power that make the impossible possible.
- They also made it worse when they went ahead to fight the Amorites when the Lord told them not to, which is mentioned further down in the chapter. They returned to the Lord weeping but was ignored by Him.
- Another reminder to us not to be stubborn and wanting to do things our way. Because by the time we regret and tell the Lord we are sorry, it may all be too late.
“The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.”
Deuteronomy 2:7 NIV
- it seems like a reminder from the Lord to His people as they walk on the next phase of their journey. A reminder of His past records and faithfulness and how He has never left them for the 40 years they been through even though it is the wilderness. So now when they are about to walk through the lands of Esau, in a different season, He seems to be telling them it’s ok. He is still here.
- What a comforting verse to hear.. that the Lord not only knows, but walks with us through all the years, even in wilderness and that He cared and we have no lack.
“And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’””Mark 11:17 NIV
- the temple is meant to be a holy place. In the beginning it probably begins as some people came to try sell things to make some money. But over time people turned it into a marketplace. Even a place where shrewd merchants tried to cheat people of their money.. the temple became defiled in the sense due to numerous haggling of prices, shouts for sales, etc. it no longer looked like a place that is holy in every sense.
- Can you imagine? This is like someone came into your house and invited other friends who has no business with you and don’t even know you and turned your place into a gambling den. When you come back and enter through the door, you will be furious isn’t it? Like who gave them the authority to do such things?!!
- Jesus was angry and I think we would too if we were in His shoes. There was no reverend fear of the Lord. The priority when those people go to temple is not for worship. It’s all for the wrong reasons.
- This verse to me looks like a warning to our lives as well. Where our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, are we taking good care of our bodies as we should? Are we taking enough rests, eating proper meals or a balance diet or we are sleeping late, eating too much snacks, scrolling pointlessly, etc?
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Amid a Crowd of Paltry Things
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
March 06
As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses. — 2 Corinthians 6:4
It takes almighty grace to take the next step—the next step in devotion, the next step in our studies, the next step in the kitchen, the next step in our duty—when there’s nothing to inspire us and no one to cheer us on. When there’s no vision from God and no enthusiasm, when it’s just the daily routine and the trivial task, it takes almighty grace.
Sometimes, it requires far more of the grace of God to take the next step than it does to preach the gospel. Perhaps at one time we had a clear vision of something God wanted us to accomplish, and we threw ourselves into it with excitement. But now the excitement has waned and we wonder how we’ll keep going. We begin to doubt that the vision will ever be realized. It will be, if we’ll keep working steadily until it is fulfilled.
Every Christian has to participate in the essence of the incarnation; we have to bring it down into flesh-and-blood life and work it out through our fingertips. In the long run, what counts for God—and for people—is steady, persevering work in the unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18). The only way to live our lives uncrushed is to live looking to God.
Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to crush you. Continually get away from pettiness of mind and thought. Remember Jesus’s example: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.”
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Reflections
In our recent Vicar’s sharing about devotion to the word, he asked us what resonated to us the most when we talk about reading the bible. Is it duty, discipline or delight? Someone asked what about all three? What about you? What would you think?
For me personally, I felt it is more like discipline. Because it is how I like and also prefer to start my day, else the whole day just feels out of place. So it gets my engines running and helped me to keep seeking Him first instead of doing other things. The things of the world are countless but where I focus my energy on, especially in the early mornings, kinds of anchors me.
You may say it became like a habit to me, well maybe. But to me, I also strictly choose to do that first besides other things because the Lord always remind me to put Him first. So in a way, at least for me, He wanted me to build this discipline so that He becomes my priority and my life. That He will be the one who guide my paths. It’s Him first and others second. Even my mum cannot take over His place because He is my top priority.
Without Him, I am really just nothing at all. I am born again because of Him. I have a better and harmonious family now because of Him. I learned to love my mum because of Him. I learned to forgive and make peace because of Him. And there are many learning points in my journey as a Christian which I am still learning. There are countless wisdom which we can tap on and He is soooooo willing to share! It’s just whether we are willing to listen or not..
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Lent devotion Day 17/53
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 12:22-50
WEEK 2: FRIDAY
Just in case anyone thought that the vision of a gentle, humble Messiah meant that he would be a pushover for every evil power that came along, the present passage sets the balance straight. One of the things everybody knew about the coming Messiah was that he would fight God's battles and rescue his people. The Bible had said so.
But what is the real battle? For Jesus, it wasn't the battle they all expected him to fight — with the occupying Roman troops, or with Herod and his supporters, or perhaps even with the Sadducees and their would-be aristocratic clique in charge of Jerusalem and the Temple. Jesus' followers probably thought he would fight one or all of them. Having watched as he did many other remarkable things, it was quite easy for them to believe that he could fight a supernatural battle against these natural enemies. Jesus himself spoke, later on, of being able to call several legions of angels to his help.
But on that occasion he refused; because that was the wrong sort of battle to be fighting. In fact, as gradually becomes clear, the real battle is against violence itself, against the normal human wickedness that shows itself in the desire for brute force to win the day. If you fight fire with fire, fire still wins. And Jesus has come to win the victory over fire itself, over the rule of the bullies and the power-brokers, in favour of the poor, the meek, the mourners, the pure in heart. It is precisely because Jesus is right in the middle of the real battle that it is vital not to confuse it with other battles.
The real battle, then, is against the real enemy, who is not the flesh-and-blood enemy of foreign soldiers, or even renegade Israelites. (When the Romans crushed the Jewish rebellion in ad 66—70, more Jews were killed by other Jews, in bitter factional fighting, than were killed by the Romans themselves — and they killed quite a lot.) The real enemy is the power of darkness, the insidious, sub-personal force of death, deceit and destruction that goes in scripture by the name of 'the Satan', which means 'the accuser'. It goes by other names, too; a familiar one was 'Beelzebub', which means literally 'Lord of the flies'.
One of the most familiar tactics of this nasty, underhand enemy is to hurl accusations around, which, even though they may be absurd, can be painful and damaging. Ironically, it is the accusation in verse 24 that shows how seriously the Pharisees were taking Jesus and his powerful deeds of healing. You don't bother saying that someone is in league with the devil if all they are doing is mouthing platitudes. But Jesus's response shows where things had got to from his point of view: 'If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you' (verse 28). God's sovereign power is at work — through Jesus; and he has won the right to put it into practice because he has first 'tied up the strong man' (verse 29), which presumably refers back to his initial victory over the dark enemy in his own solitary wilderness temptations (4.1—11). As is so often the case, the initial struggle that an individual has with temptation will, if successful, clear the way for fruitful work in the days and years to come. In fact, one might suggest that precisely the reason for the fierce temptation early on in someone's life, or ministry, is because the enemy knows precisely how important that later work will be, and how vital it is — from that hostile viewpoint! — to sabotage it as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
As well as being conscious of having won that earlier victory, Jesus was also fully conscious, ever since his baptism, that he had been endowed with God's own Holy Spirit, to enable him to do what had to be done. When people discounted him personally, that was one thing. They were entitled to their opinion, however mistaken. But someone who looks at the work of God's own Spirit and declares that it is instead the work of the devil is building a high wall around themselves, preventing any light or grace getting in. It isn't that 'the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit' (verse 31) is a peculiarly bad sin which God will punish in a specially harsh way. It is simply that if I deny the existence of the train that is coming in to the station, or declare that it has been sent to deceive me and take me in the wrong direction, I am automatically stopping myself from getting on it. The Spirit was at work through Jesus, to launch God's kingdom; but if someone looked at what was happening and ascribed it to the devil, they could not possibly benefit from it.
A solemn warning, of course, and one that we should heed carefully. It may be that, in our own day, God will do new things which cut against the grain of what the church, or our contemporary world, had led us to expect or hope for.
TODAY
Gracious Lord, give us the humility to see you at work, and to work alongside you in the power of the Spirit.
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““Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.”Matthew 12:33 NIV
- The words you speak really matter. Joyce Meyer writes, ‘Every word we speak can either be a brick to build or a bulldozer to destroy.’ Whatever is stored up in your heart will sooner or later be expressed by your words. Be careful what you look at, read and think about. Fill your heart with good things and you will think good thoughts, speak good words and bear good fruit
Let’s pray:
May the Lord search our hearts and point to us the areas in our lives that need to change and grant us grace. We thank You Lord for fighting the real battles that we may not even be aware of and guarding our hearts against all evil. Open our eyes O Lord, that help us to recognise Your works and to give You thanks and praise. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen 🙏🏻
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