Do you practice the Old Testament Bible Verse quoted most often in the New Testament?
6 Apr 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Judges 18
Judges 19
Luke 10:25-42
But you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18).
Do you practice the Old Testament Bible Verse quoted most often in the New Testament?
Jesus, the Master Storyteller, shares a story to express that loving God is displayed through loving your neighbor just as you would care for yourself. He powerfully makes His point through the life of the Samaritan (Luke 10:33-37). Technically speaking from the Jewish mindset, there is no such thing as a Samaritan who is good. They were half Jewish and half Assyrian; therefore, the Jews despised them--these fellow Israelites had married into an ethnicity that had captured the northern kingdom of Israel (722 BC). Yet the bad guy (the Samaritan) becomes the good guy by demonstrating God’s love through sacrificially meeting the needs of his neighbor. Likewise, we show our love for the invisible Father by caring for those He brings along our path.
Employment Point: Love your neighbor even as you would care for yourself.
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Reflections
The love your neighbour team has often been brought up during sermons, devotional readings, etc. One may wonder why this is so important.
My own perspective looks like this. Humans have lived this world caring not for others but themselves only. There is even a Chinese idiom that says “ๅไบบ่ชๆซ้จๅ้ช，่ซ็ฎกไปไบบ็ฆไธ้” which reads as “gรจ rรฉn zรฌ sวo mรฉn qiรกn xuฤ，mรฒ guวn tฤ rรฉn wว shร ng shuฤng” in hanyu pinyin. The Literal Translation means Everyone sweeps the snow from their own doorstep, and ignores the frost on others' roofs. It is meant to describe everyone for themselves.
However, Jesus’s teachings contradicts what the world thinks or practices. He taught us to love our neighbours. We are not supposed to just sweep the snow from our own doorstep. We are supposed to help our neighbours sweep snow from their doorstep too, if I try to put things into perspective. It is taking actions to love our neighbours, not just by saying we love them. Just like how Jesus showed us His love. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)
“They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.”
Judges 18:31 NIV
- it’s interesting how they inquire of the Levite priest knowing that the Lord is with them but yet worship the god which is handmade by Micah.
“While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.””Judges 19:22 NIV
- I thought this verse was repeated somewhere as I find it really familiar. Some digging around revealed that a similar verse had appeared in “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.””Genesis 19:5 NIV
- the people who are Israelites in Gilbeah, where the Levite chose to go, was meant to be filled with godly people. Instead, it was filled with people to the likes of Sodom during Lot’s time. A perverse generation of people who disregarded what the Lord has taught them.
“When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!””Judges 19:29-30 NIV
- I’m not sure what to make of the Levite who has the heart to cut up his concubine in such a manner. If I were to think like him, I’m guessing he probably was over the roof on how she was being dealt with by those men in the city and wanted to take revenge. So instead of sending a letter, he sent a physical piece of evidence.
“She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!””
Luke 10:39-40 NIV
- perhaps in this situation, Mary may not have been a good neighbour. She chose to sit rather than work. But that was not what the situation is trying to imply.
- Perhaps another perspective I see of this situation is that Martha was trying to show Jesus how good she is, a conscientious worker, preparing everything that needs to be done, making sure everything is organised, making sure all is clean and nicely prepared for the honoured guest. However, Jesus is not the most concerned about the house on how well it is cleaned or how delicious the food is.
- I think we sometimes miss the point. We get so caught up with serving, trying to do everything we can to serve in every way possible but perhaps in the midst of all the busyness, forgotten the very most important task of all tasks. That is to spend time with the Lord. To seek Him FIRST!
- It can appear that a worker is super busy, always doing something, involved in ministry but yet neglected his own quiet time. No time to pray, no time to pause and just kept running without topping up his fuel.
- Our time spent with the Lord is our fuel. If we don’t spend enough time with Him, very fast we will run on empty. We will feel stressed out, overwhelmed and eventually reached a stage of burnt out.
- You may argue and say that but there are so many things that needs to be done! But yet I tell you, nothing can be more important than seeking Him first, putting Him first and let Him be the first you run to whenever you are troubled or filled with joy.
- He is not just our LORD and Saviour. He is our Abba Father, our friend, and our everything!
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The Collision of God and Sin
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
April 06
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. — 1 Peter 2:24
There is nothing more certain in time or eternity than what Jesus Christ did upon the cross. He made redemption the basis of human life, restoring the whole of humanity to a right relationship with God. The cross of Jesus stands unique and alone. It is not the cross of a man or a woman; it is the cross of God, the exhibition of his nature. No parallel to it exists in human experience.
The cross was a superb triumph. It was the revelation of God’s judgment on sin; it shook the foundations of hell. Never tolerate the idea that Jesus Christ went to the cross as a martyr. The cross didn’t happen to Jesus; he came on purpose for it. Jesus is “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world ” (Revelation 13:8). God became flesh in order to defeat sin, not for self-realization. The incarnation was entirely for the redemption.
The cross is the center of time and eternity, the answer to the enigmas of both. It is the gateway by which any member of humanity can enter into union with God—yet when we get to the cross we do not pass through it. Rather, we abide in the life it has made possible for us, a life of communion with God.
The center of salvation is the cross of Jesus, and the reason it is so easy to obtain salvation is because it cost God so much. The cross is the point where God and sinful humanity merge with a crash and the way to life is opened—but the crash is on the heart of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me.
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Reflections
When Jesus breathed His last, the whole earth shook and the curtain that separates the holy of holies was torn into two, from top to bottom. Something that was woven together, consecrated and where only the chief priest can enter only once a year, is torn by the hands of God.
I liken it to our Istana, the place where the president stays, which only open its grounds to the public on special days. And now, it’s turned into public ground, anyone can freely come and go. Something special and privileged was taken away, to allow this public access.
This access to us, is Jesus. He has helped us unlocked the direct key to His Father’s house. He linked us up so we can freely communicate with Him. This is not just a normal key. This key carries our sins on His body. It carried with it the wrath of our sins, so much so that it needed Jesus, the Son of God to bear for us, someone innocent to redeem us. Someone who is fully God and fully man to sacrifice for us, as our redeemer lamb.
May we always remember the cost of our salvation and give thanks to Him, all the days of our life.
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Lent devotion Day 48/53
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 28:11-15
EASTER MONDAY
One of the things people have often said about the early Christians' belief in Jesus' resurrection is that they were obviously so devastated by the failure of their dreams and hopes that they found a way of saying it was all right after all. A grand-sounding phrase has been developed to describe this: 'cognitive dissonance', the clash between something you have passionately believed and something which now turns out to be true. They jangle against one another, like badly played musical notes, and eventually people find a way of bringing them back into harmony. That way they don't have to adjust their original beliefs. Much easier that way.
Part of the answer to this is that the early Christians certainly weren't expecting anything like Jesus' resurrection. It wasn't part of the game plan. 'Resurrection' was something that would happen to everyone at the end, not to one person in the middle of history. They wanted Jesus to be 'king of the Jews' in the fairly ordinary sense; look at James and John and their request in chapter 20. They weren't expecting Jesus to die, especially to be crucified. They were not twiddling their thumbs on Holy Saturday saying, 'Well, that was very nasty, but of course he'll be back tomorrow.' If they were going to make up stories to explain that Jesus' project would somehow go ahead, they would have done what other Jewish groups of their day did when their leaders were killed. They would find themselves another leader, perhaps from the same family. In fact, Jesus' own brother James became the great leader of the Jerusalem church for the next 30 years. But nobody said James was the Messiah.
But the other part of the answer to what the sceptics have said is that it is in fact the sceptics, from that day to this, who are guilty of the very thing of which they are accusing the Christians. It is the sceptical world-view that has been blown apart by Jesus' resurrection. Ever since that day they have been only too eager to find stories to tell to show that actually it didn't happen, that their original world-view (in which dead people cannot, do not and will not rise again) was correct after all, that some other story will explain it. You can feel the sigh of relief in the sceptical camp each time one of these stories is put forward, however unlikely it may be. Phew! We don't need to believe that Jesus rose again. That's all right then. We can cope with him as a great teacher (with whom we may from time to time disagree). We can even see his death as a great example of love in action. We can share his vision of a world in which people live at peace. Only don't ask us to accept that he rose from the dead. That's just too much.
This reaction of the sceptics to the news of the empty tomb began very early, as we find here. Look at the way all the different parties are involved. The guards tell the priests. The priests tell the elders. Together they bribe the soldiers. They agree to tell the governor their new story. Phew! That's all right. We can continue with business as usual. Life as before — in which we run the world, we call the shots, we are the people in power. Al Gore, the former US Vice President, wrote about the ecological crisis under the title An Inconvenient Truth. That's as may be. The biggest inconvenient truth of all — inconvenient not just for a 'modern world-view' but for all people in positions of power and responsibility — is the belief that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. Large sums of money change hands, then and now, to make sure the rumour is squashed. But it's all in vain. The best answer to the sceptics is the fact that there is now a community of people who not only say Jesus was raised from the dead. They show it by their own lives.
TODAY
Sovereign Lord, help us to meet the scorn of unbelievers with the evidence, in what we do and who we are, that you are indeed alive.
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Let’s pray:
Lord, we thank You for the cross. Be it Good Friday or Easter Sunday or any other day, Lord help us to remember this special moment where the whole history is changed forever and how our lives has been rewritten in the palms of Your hands. Lord help us to trust You, the only living God, both now and forever more. Amen ๐๐ป
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