Will you obey God’s mission for you?
1 Apr 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Judges 6
Judges 7
Luke 8:1-21
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon (Hebrews 11:32).
Will you obey God’s mission for you?
Gideon is a reluctant judge. He is threshing wheat in a cave hoping to evade the Midianites from stealing his crop. Yet “the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!’” (Judges 6:12). God reveals to Gideon who he will become with His help. There are two reasons given why Gideon should trust the Lord. First, God asks, “Have I not sent you?” (Judges 6:14). Shortly thereafter He promises, “Surely I will be with you” (Judges 6:16).
Similarly, Jesus sends us to make disciples and also promises to be with us in the passage on the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). God has been faithful to those who obey His mission and embrace His presence.
Employment Point: Finish the mission you’ve been given knowing God is with you.
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Reflections
““Pardon me, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.””
Judges 6:15 NIV
- As one of the weakest or smallest, it is common for us to have doubts over our own ability or capability. But let us not forget that it is because of this that the Lord will choose or use us. It is all for His glory.
- I believe for Gideon it is the same. That he cannot rationalise how is he going to defeat the enemies. But we saw how the Lord can deliver enemies into his hands.
- Our learning point here is not how great we are because it is never about us. The main point here is how big our God is. He is sovereign over all. We shall have no fear. Be courageous my friends!
“Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.”
Judges 6:39-40 NIV
- interestingly we saw how Gideon has responded to all of God’s commands. He tested it and asked God to confirm that it is indeed Him that he is hearing. And it seems like the more enemies he is facing, the more number of tests that he asked for the Lord’s confirmation.
- It felt that there’s still some things which Gideon seemed to be unsure of and is thus seeking confirmation that the Lord will truly deliver to his hands.
- And the Lord answered all those requests and before they marched out, the Lord asked Gideon to lower their numbers.
“The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.””Judges 7:7 NIV
- how the Lord has tested his faith and reduced his army from 32,000 men to just 300.
- Who the Lord gave His success to, nobody can take away, no matter the numbers. Know that we have a Lord who stand with us. We shall not fear.
““A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.””Luke 8:5-8 NIV
- we know that not all seeds will have the chance to grow. And the ones that do, sometimes ended up still falling away. However, there will still be seeds that grow well, strong and also bear fruit.
- So the farmers will still sow seeds regardless how all of it will grow. Because those that do, the rewards are bountiful. The focus is not on the seeds that are gone, withered or get choked up.
- The application for us is two folds at least. One from the perspective of the farmer and the other from the seed itself. The farmer will continue to sow regardless of the outcome of the harvest. He knows it is something beyond his control. The seed may think that once it touches the ground, it will be able to grow into a big tree, but if the seed is not grounded or broken, it cannot grow.
- This teaches us that regardless of outcome, we should still pursue the truth and and being one of the runner in this walk of faith, may we never fall away and be able to surrender our life to Him, being made broken bread and pour out wine.
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Heartlessness versus Heartiness
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
April 01
The Spirit intercedes for God’s people. . . . Christ Jesus . . . is also interceding for us. — Romans 8:34,27
Do we need anything beyond these verses to convince us that we, too, should intercede? Are we living in a vital relationship to others, doing the work of interceding for them in prayer as Spirit-taught children of God?
Consider your present circumstances—your home, your business, and your country. Consider the crises that are touching you and those around you. Are your burdens crushing you? Are they crowding out the presence of God, leaving you no time to worship and no time to pray for others? If so, call a time-out. Get yourself into such a living relationship with God that your relationship to others may be maintained through the intercession in prayer by which God works his marvels.
Often we become so overwhelmed by difficulties and by the needs of the people around us that we forget to worship and to intercede. God continually introduces us to people for whom we have no affinity, and if we aren’t in the habit of worshipping and interceding, the most natural thing to do is to treat these people heartlessly—to jab a bit of Scripture at them, or make some trite, impersonal quip about God, and get away as fast as we can.
We have to beware of outpacing God in our very longing to do his will. We run ahead of him in a thousand and one activities, attempting to tackle burdens and pressures on our own, instead of bringing them directly to him. If difficulties arise and we aren’t in the worshipping frame of mind, the result will be hardness toward God, heartlessness toward others, and despair in our souls.
A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to our Lord. Bring yourself into alignment with Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and begin to intercede as they do, “in accordance with the will of God” (Romans 8:27).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The attitude of a Christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognize that God is behind it for purposes of His own.
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Reflections
Intercession to me comes from prompting or reminders, or even in person meet ups or requests. It is either I suddenly remembered their prayer requests, or their face randomly pops up in my mind. The more explicit ones that those where we happened to meet and I got to know that they have a prayer need.
The Lord is just amazing, placing us in situations where we can intercede for our brothers and sisters. We may not see the immediate effects of our prayers but the Lord does have mercy and at times showed us the aftermath.
Prayers should be part and parcel of our spiritual life, something that is like our rice bowl that we will need everyday. Deem it as having our daily bread. It is a must to keep on feeding on His word.
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Lent devotion Day 43/53
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 26:57-75
HOLY WEEK: WEDNESDAY
When I first lived in London, I already knew four or five parts of the city quite well. I knew Westminster itself, with the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and the roads leading up to Buckingham Palace. I knew the areas around the big cricket grounds. I knew the British Museum and Oxford Street, and one or two other places I had had to visit from time to time. But I had no idea how they joined up. I used to get about on the Underground, being whisked from place to place with no mental picture of what was above me. So if I tried to walk between the places I knew I would get quite lost.
Many people are like that with the stories in the gospels. They know the parables and the miracles. They know about Jesus' birth; about the transfiguration, perhaps; certainly about his riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, cleansing the Temple, and then his trial and death. But even with these final events they may have little or no idea how they join up. The cycle of readings in church carries them from event to event, like a spiritual Underground train, and they've never thought about how things actually moved from one thing to another in the real world.
So people often miss the full force of the questions Caiaphas asked Jesus in this informal night hearing. The chief priests were the guardians of the Temple. That was (in our terms) as much a political office as a spiritual one, and they took it extremely seriously. Jesus hadn't actually committed any crime in what he'd done in the Temple, but they were eager to make the links with his larger intentions. Word had got around, in a garbled form, that at some point he'd said something about destroying the Temple and rebuilding it. That could only mean one thing. The only person (other than the high priest) who could claim authority over the Temple was the Messiah. And, of course, God himself. So did Jesus' actions and words mean . . . ?
Before we can get there, we need to remind ourselves of another link of thought which they would have made. Some Jewish teachers pondered passages like Genesis 1.26, where God says 'Let us make humankind in our own image', and Daniel 7.13, where the prophet sees a vision of 'one like a son of man' coming on the clouds to the 'Ancient of Days' and being enthroned beside him. As they did so, some speculated that there might be some kind of plurality within God himself. Such ideas were severely frowned on by most people. Again, it's as much the political as the spiritual claim that was seen as dangerous, blaspheming nonsense.
So when Jesus refuses to answer the question about destroying the Temple and rebuilding it in three days, the high priest moves to the natural next step. He puts Jesus on oath, and asks him, 'Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?'
Jesus' reply is fully in line with all that we have seen in the earlier pages of Matthew's gospel. It all joins up. The high priest himself has said what needs to be said, but there is more: Caiaphas will see that Jesus will be vindicated by God after his suffering, that he will 'come with the clouds of heaven' and be enthroned at the right hand of 'Power', in other words, of God himself.
That's enough! It's blasphemy! And Jesus is condemned, mocked as a false prophet.
Meanwhile, a different sort of connection is established out in the courtyard. Peter — impetuous, blundering Peter — provides the mirror-image to Jesus. Jesus tells the truth, knowing it will condemn him. Peter tells a lie to save his skin. The stage is set. Jesus, the innocent one, will die in place of Peter, the guilty. And the rest of us, too.
TODAY
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the truth which you spoke and lived, and for which you died. Help us, afraid as we are of truth, to come out of the shadows and confess that we are your followers.
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Let’s pray:
Father, forgive us for these while not having seen Your sacrifices for us all. The willingness to bear all shame and suffering for all of us who don’t even want to acknowledge that we know You. This is just tragic and sad for someone who loves us so much. But thank You Lord for Your grace and Your forgiveness that You have given us many chances to repent and turn from our ways to the goal that You have set before us. Thank You Lord 🙌🏻
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