How confident are you in the power of God’s Word?
28 Mar 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Joshua 21
Joshua 22
Luke 6:1-26
And the Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35).
How confident are you in the power of God’s Word?
God promises the Jews the land of Canaan. Joshua takes God at His Word and begins to conquer the Promised Land. The Book of Joshua records, “Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass” (Joshua 21:45). Godly Joshua prepares to pass the baton to the next generation; he rehearses God’s faithfulness and promises to his people. The aging warrior says, “Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed” (Joshua 23:14).
Employment Point: Have confidence in the power and promises of God’s Word.
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Reflections
“Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”Joshua 21:45 NIV
- it’s heartening to read this verse and the affirmation that what He promised will definitely come to pass. He is our faithful God, from everlasting to everlasting.
“But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.””Joshua 22:5 NIV
- This command holds true to us till this very day as well. It is all part of our faith journey, learning how to love Him, how to obey and keep His commands, to persevere through our tests and trials and remaining faithful to Him and to serve Him and also His people with all our heart and soul.
- This command has not changed at all since the beginning and it will remain the same till the very end. We need to learn to abide in Him so that we can remain in Him.
- During this season of Lent leading up to Good Friday, Father may Your light shine upon our hearts and reveal to us the areas that we need to change. Help us to come to you with willing hearts and open hands.
“Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored.”Luke 6:9-10 NIV
- whenever I read these verses, it reminds me that one cannot be too legalistic. The Pharisees’s only concern was not to do any work on Sabbath but Jesus came from the point that we are here on earth to help one another, not to turn a blind eye to others who are suffering, know that we can help but yet chose not to do anything.
- We need to examine our heart’s intent on why we are doing certain things. If whatever the Pharisees are saying is upheld in our society now, can you imagine what kind of world we will live in? Nobody will work in hospitals, police stations, fire posts, security, public transport, etc on sabbath day because it is “illegal” to do work. Even up till now, I do know of individuals who also refused to work on Sundays because it’s Sabbath.
- I guess it can be highly debatable on one’s own conviction is and whether there is a choice of working on sabbath.
- Many times as a nurse, we cannot tell our manager that we don’t want to work on Sundays, unless we are working in the institutions where they don’t operate on Sundays. It is not a choice though they usually try to rotate us so we don’t have to work all weekends in the month.
- But would you give up your Sunday off if you were asked to cover someone who is sick or when there is a shortage of manpower, especially when you are working in essential services like the ones I mentioned above? Perhaps that’s something we want to spend time thinking about and seek the Lord for answers.
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There Must Be Some Misunderstanding
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
March 28
“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” — John 11:8
At times, we are like the disciples in John 11: confused about what Jesus is saying and convinced that there must be some misunderstanding. It is dangerous to believe that simply because I don’t understand Jesus, he must be mistaken. Perhaps I think that if I obey God’s word, I’ll bring dishonor to him. I won’t. The only thing that brings dishonor to God is disobedience. To put my idea of his honor above what he is clearly telling me to do is never right, even if it’s coming from a genuine desire to prevent his being slandered or shamed.
You can always tell when an instruction comes from God, because it comes with quiet persistence. When you begin to weigh the pros and cons, you bring in an element that isn’t of God. This is when you risk coming to the conclusion that what he’s saying must be a mistake. Many of us are loyal to our own ideas about Jesus, but how many of us are loyal to him? Loyalty to Jesus means you step out even when there is no path; loyalty to your own ideas means that you try to map out the path first, using your own intelligence. Faith is not intelligent understanding; faith is deliberate commitment to a person when we see no way.
Are you loyal to Jesus, or to your idea of Jesus? Are you loyal to what he says, or are you trying to compromise, bringing in your own rationalizations? When he says something and you start to debate, it’s because you have an idea of his honor that isn’t right.
“Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). Stop debating, and obey your Lord with a glad and reckless joy.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
When a man’s heart is right with God the mysterious utterances of the Bible are spirit and life to him. Spiritual truth is discernible only to a pure heart, not to a keen intellect. It is not a question of profundity of intellect, but of purity of heart.
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Reflections
We can never understand God because indeed His thoughts and His plans are higher than ours.
Every time I hear Him speak, I either get zapped out of my own thoughts cause it’s been running on overdrive, or I get awestruck by His wisdom or amazed by His revelation or I get speechless by His commands. I guess out of everything I mentioned, the last one is the one that baffles many.
I remember the time when He dropped me a message to say to a senior leader in church, the time when He told me it’s ok because He is greater than any idols and I just need to believe, the time when He say it’s now time to learn to be still and I was jobless for few months, the time when He say make space for mum to come over and stay, the time He told me how He is teaching me to let go, the time He told me to tender my resignation at a specific date amongst other things that may be too personal to share..
Through each of those encounters, I learnt that to trust Him is the best way to go. He has proven Himself actually right from the past and up till today, He is still living it out, letting us experience Him personally. I learnt finally when He say His plans and thoughts are higher because retrospectively, I have to agree He is right and He has to be. For only He knows what is best and He loves us to want to give us the best.
Ultimately, we have no reason or perhaps even no right to reject Him as Abba Father and LORD if we truly see and deem Him as such.
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Lent devotion Day 39/53
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 26:14-75
Matthew 27:1-66
WEEK 5: SATURDAY
It isn't me, is it?
The great story, well known yet little known, bursts upon us in a deeply disturbing scene: friends at the table discovering that one of them is to be a traitor. We often wonder what it was that made Judas do it. Perhaps we should also ask what it was that held the others back. They, like Judas, had misunderstood so much. They still didn't realize what it was Jesus had to do. There is a worried humility about their question which we would do well to imitate as we approach the narrative of Jesus' last moments, such a horribly public scene of torture and death and yet such an intimate portrait of him and those closest to him. To read this story casually, glancing through and reminding ourselves of its main outline, is to trivialize and so to misread it, like hearing a great piece of music played at ten times the proper speed. Read it with the question in mind, 'Lord, it isn't me, is it?' and see what answer you get.
Because it is me — and you, and all of us. We are all here somewhere. We have all been loyal and yet disloyal. We have all wanted to do the right thing and then run away when the going got tough. We have all colluded with injustice, stayed silent when we should have spoken out, and then perhaps blurted out some give-away remark when we should have shut up. And we have all stood by scenes of sorrow and tragedy, not knowing what to say or do but feeling that somehow, if only, we could or should have prevented it.
And, maybe, some or even many of us have, in time past, looked at Jesus and decided he was mad, crazy, a deluded fanatic. 'You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!' Many have hurled insults at Jesus; the worst, perhaps, is to patronize him by saying what a fine moral teacher he was, as though he was simply trying to be another Socrates and unfortunately got mixed up in local Jewish politics and religion. 'Lord, is it me?' If it is, or has been, then stay with that memory for a bit. Find yourself in the story, wherever you are.
Only then, perhaps, can we ask the question in a different way. Because from the earliest days of the church's life the followers of Jesus told this story for another reason. The story of Jesus became their story, in the sense that they believed they had died with Jesus; they had suffered with him, been crucified with him, been buried with him. Somehow — and this mystery lies at the very heart of authentic Christian experience — they believed, and knew it to be true because of the utter difference it made to life, that through baptism and faith they were living in Jesus, and he was living in them. 'Lord — is it me? Is it me, facing misunderstanding and betrayal? Is it me, praying in agony, being arrested, tried and unjustly condemned, abandoned by my friends, mocked, beaten up, stripped and hung up to die in shame?' As we read this story in faith, we should hear the answer, life-transforming as it is: 'Yes, it is you. This is who you now are. You are not the person you once were. You are the person to whom all this has happened. This is how your life is now to be shaped and directed. You are in me, and I am in you. You have died; your life is hidden, with me, in the life of God himself.'
All this, of course, is straight out of St Paul (another much misunderstood man). When he speaks of being 'in Christ', this is basically what he means. Jesus, the Messiah, died on the cross; you are 'in him', part of his family; therefore you died with him, were nailed to the cross with him, were buried with him. This is who you now are.
Yes, there is more. Easter and all that follows gives a further dimension. But take one thing at a time. It is through Jesus' crucifixion, Matthew insists, that he becomes what he was born to be: the saviour (1.21). And this is how he does it: by extending his arms on the cross, enfolding us in that God-with-us embrace, and bringing us with him through death into a whole new life.
TODAY
Thank you, loving Lord. Thank you.
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Let’s pray:
Thank You Father, that we get to be called children of God. Thank You Lord, that we get to call You Abba Father and that You came and take away all our sins and our past life and made us new, and as white as snow. Thank You Lord for blessing us with clean hands and pure heart that we get to live a sanctified life by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Help us to yield to You will, Your ways and Your thoughts. All praise and thanks be to God. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen 🙏🏻
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