Do we know enough to walk with God?

 17 Mar 26

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

Readings:

Deuteronomy 29

Deuteronomy 30

Mark 16

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:29). 

Do we know enough to walk with God?

God is praised by the following words in Revelation 4:8: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” The Almighty has always existed, continues to exist, and lives forever. For this reason, only He can know all things; however, God has imparted to us through His Word everything that we need to become mature Christians. As the ladies went to anoint the body of Jesus at the tomb, the angel said, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen!” (Mark 16:6). We shouldn’t fear anything knowing that Jesus was born of a virgin, died for our sin, and conquered death. 

Employment Point: Knowing and applying God’s Word are sufficient to walk with God.

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Reflections

“Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭29‬:‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• we know this is not possible in any logical terms. Our clothes or sandals would have worn out by 2years max in my opinion. Yet, the Lord not only provided, He sustained them through the 40 years with the same resources that was given to them from the start. 
• We saw how the Lord’s covering is upon them, to these slightest details of their clothes and shoes. We remember in another verse that says the birds in the sky and the flowers in the field do not labour or spin and yet they are also being provided for so what more us, whom the Lord has made in His own image, and made to do His work? We are not worth more than two sparrows?

“Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”Deuteronomy‬ ‭30‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• I see that the Lord has such a great, gracious and forgiving heart. He is so loving and can “forget” whatever things that we had done and bring us back to His arms. I’m not sure how many of us are even capable of love after being betrayed. 
• Here, He promised His people that so long they returned with all their heart and their soul, He is willing to bless them again, making them even better than before. Reminds me of the prodigal son because He still returns. It calls for rejoicing!

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭30‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• the call right from the start has been obedience. Loving our God, listening to His voice and hold fast to Him. Even after more than 2000 years has passed. It didn’t just apply to the Israelites. It applies to us as well. 

This is His reminder to us that He has risen. And we believe. 

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The Ruling Passion

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

March 17

We make it our goal to please him. — 2 Corinthians 5:9

Staying focused on the goal Paul sets in 2 Corinthians 5:9 is difficult work. It means holding ourselves, year in and year out, to the highest ideal: not the ideal of winning souls or establishing churches or ushering in revivals but the ideal of pleasing Jesus Christ. Failure in spiritual work isn’t caused by a lack of spiritual experience; it’s caused by a lack of effort to maintain the highest ideal.

At least once a week, take stock before God and see if you are keeping your life up to the standard he has set. The standard must be your ruling passion, your master ambition. Paul is like a musician who cares nothing about the approval of his audience—so long as he catches the look of approval from his master.

Follow a lesser ambition to its natural conclusion, and you will see why it is so necessary to live facing the Lord. Any ambition that is separated from the highest goal, even by the tiniest degree, may end in our disqualification. “Therefore,” Paul says, “I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:26–27). Paul was constantly watching himself, constantly keeping himself in line, lest he lose sight of the ideal.

I have to learn to relate everything to the master ambition, maintaining it at all times. My worth to God in public is what I am in private. Is my master ambition to please him and be acceptable to him, or is it something less, no matter how noble?

Deuteronomy 30-31; Mark 15:1-25

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.

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Reflections

A picture formed in my heart after I read the first part of this devotional. A kid playing violin in front of his father. It doesn’t matter how the rest of the people sees him. Even if his classmates thinks that he doesn’t play well, it does not bother him at all. The only audience that he cares about, is his father. He only looks for his father’s approval. The approval of others means nothing to him. 

When the father looks at him and says, nope this is not good enough, he continues to practice and practice till a time when the father is satisfied. It was as if all others do not even exist. Now, what if I tell you that the father is a world class violinist? I think it makes perfect sense why his approval on his son holds more weight than anyone else.

Similarly, when we look to God, He is our creator. His reaction and approval on us definitely holds more weight than any human being on earth. Not even our closest friend or parents or children or CG leader, or president or prime minister or any famous person, can compare to Him. Absolutely no one.

This is a reminder to us that our focus should be right with God and not men. Our priority should also be Him and not men. Therefore, let our service to also be to the Lord, and not men.

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Lent devotion Day 28/53

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 20

WEEK 4: TUESDAY

The game was nearly over, and neither side had scored a goal. The spectators were getting angry, and the players were exhausted. One player on the home team, in particular, had worked tirelessly the whole game, running from end to end, always in the right place, wearing himself out to stop the opposition getting through, then launching counter-attacks. Again and again he gave of his best, but the rest of the team couldn't translate his efforts into an actual score.

With five minutes to go, the manager decided to try some- thing desperate. He took the key player off, and brought on as a substitute a fresh, bright young man who had only played one or two games at the top level. Almost at once the ball came his way. With devil-may-care youthful energy he weaved his way through the defence and scored a great goal. The crowd went wild. The opposition caved in. The game was soon over.

The young man was cheered to the echo, carried around the stadium by happy fans. Eventually the older player, who had worked so hard throughout almost all the game, came out to join the party. A mixture of emotions. He had done all the hard work, and the other man, who had done none of it, had got all the glory.

That's the story Jesus told, only in a different setting. We don't so often have day-labourers lining up, waiting all day to be hired, and then paid at the boss's whim. But what is the story about?

It illustrates what Jesus had just said, which he was to repeat at the end: many who are first will be last, and the last first. As so often, this has at least three levels of meaning which we should explore.

To begin with, Jesus was facing his followers with the fact that God remains sovereign over his whole kingdom-project. Nobody can claim a special place either because they've worked hard, or because they've given up so much, or because they were in it from the beginning. 

This is a warning to the disciples themselves, who, as Jesus' closest friends and associates, might well have supposed that they were going to retain the top jobs in whatever future God had in store. Jesus does indeed indicate that they will have special places (19.28) — though since he mentions the twelve of them, and since we know that Judas then defected, we should be careful not to build too much on that either. Later on in the chapter the disciples show how much they need this lesson, as James and John try to make sure they are the first in line.

But, second, the message goes wider, right across Matthew's gospel, in relation to the place of the Jewish people within God's larger purposes. Jesus has made it clear, two or three times, that ancient Israel has a priority. He has honoured that. As St Paul says, the gospel is 'to the Jew first'. But the gospel is not only for Jews. As Paul goes on, '— and for Gentiles also'. That was bad enough for the pious Jew to contemplate. But now there was a sense, following some of Jesus' earlier sayings, that the 'obvious' people had had to go to the back of the queue. This was not only humiliating. It might have looked as though God had changed his mind.

Jesus was quite clear. God hasn't changed his mind. It was always his plan to humble the exalted and exalt the humbled.

The third level, then, reaches out to us in our life of faith today. Our western 'celebrity' culture favours those who manage to push themselves to the front, whether it's the people with the most obvious talents or the stars with the sharpest agents. Sadly, that can spill over into the life of the church: famous preachers and leaders get attention and the 'ordinary' Christian becomes a passive spectator. We need, again and again, to learn that there are no such people as 'ordinary' Christians. In the 'renewal of all things' which Jesus spoke about (19.28), all sorts of people will stand out as the real heroes and heroines of faith, though nobody has ever heard of them before. They will be the ones who, whether for five minutes or fifty years, served God with total and glad obedience, giving themselves completely to holiness, prayer, and works of love and mercy. Such people are the pure gold of the church. But, as so often, gold remains hidden and takes some finding.

TODAY

Gracious Lord, help us to be humble enough to take whatever place we are given, and zealous enough to work wholeheartedly for your glory where and when you call us.

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“‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’”Matthew‬ ‭20‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• Reading this verse today gave me a different perspective. That is whoever comes to Christ now and whoever came to Christ in the past receives the same reward. That is eternal life. The one denarius is just an analogy. So whether we first know the Lord or in time to come bring others to know Him, the ones who came later will receive the same reward as us. We too, should not be complaining about that because we wanted and agreed to His salvation first. 
• In another perspective, the ones who came to the Lord first will also have more responsibilities and have to work more. We become servants by will and ought to be servants by heart. I don’t think we mind that and I would have wished I came to the Lord even earlier but He has His timing and His plans. I am contented knowing I’m His child.
• A commentary I read says this - “He gives for His own purpose and pleasure - bestow greater blessing on someone else who seems less deserving.” Our God operates on the principle of grace, not reward. It is not about whether someone deserves it or not. We would not want that unless “you mean that you really want Him to give you what you deserve?” We are all undeserving in a way, and to be called children of God is already saving grace.

Let’s pray:

Thank You Lord, for giving us places in heaven and for teaching us that positioning is never something we should be concerned with. Help us Lord to remember the important thing of being right with You and to work for You wholeheartedly both now and forever. Amen 🙏🏻