No god is like our God.

Readings for March 20, 2015: Deuteronomy 1-4, Psalm 40.

Deuteronomy is a recap and a repeat of everything that has been happening among the people of Israel and done by God since the time they left Egypt 40 years previously.  Through Moses God is going to help this new generation of Israelites know and remember who he is, what he has done, and what he is going to do among them.

Why?  He’s going to spend 34 chapters repeating and rehashing history.  Why? Because this was a new generation.  Because each generation has to make God’s Word and truth their own.  Because each generation is prone to forget and turn away.  Sounds like this generation.  Sounds like the upcoming generation.  Sounds like the past generation. Sounds like me.

Learn this today from God as if it were the first time.  Learn it and make this truth your own.  There is no god like our God.  Listen to him Deuteronomy 4:5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? … 32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Moreover, what god the men have dreamed up, that people boy down to and worship, has ever come down from his thrown, lived among his people as a human being, and then died for those same people.  What god has ever saved his people? Every god in this world demands that his people come to him.  Every god in this world demands that his people earn their blessings.  Every god demands.  Only our God, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gives and forgives.  Only our God came down from heaven, lived among the people of this world, was killed by the people of this world, died for the people of this world – even me, and then rose for us all.  No one is like our God!

So, let’s enter the land and take it back for our God!  For the people of Israel this meant conquest for property.  For us this means conquest of souls, not with swords but with the Word.

O God, our Father in heaven above, no one is like you!  No one and no thing in heaven or on earth is comparable to you in power or in might, in justice, in mercy. None is like you.  And yet so often I turn created things that you created to be good into ultimate things.  I turned created things into godlike things.  I look to them to rescue me, to satisfy me, to please me.  Forgive me for setting up as god things that are not god.  You are truly the only God the world has ever seen. You along are God and there is no other.  You proved it when you entered humanity and died for humanity.  You died to make me your own.  Thank you Jesus!  Thank you Father!  Thank you Spirit.  Amen.

Who’s in control?

Readings for January 12, 2015: Genesis 27-29, Psalm 10.

Jacob was a tricky fella.  That’s how he got his name.  In his mother’s belly he was wrestling with his brother, Esau.  When Esau came out first he was grabbing his brother’s heel.  Thus the name, “Heel grabber,” with the connotation, “Deceiver” or “guy who trips other people up” became his.  And he did.  He tricked his brother out of his birthright.  He manipulated that situation for his own interests.  Later he and his mother manipulated another situation for his own interests.  He got what he wanted but it didn’t work out so well.  He had to run from home and then found himself getting manipulated by his uncle Laban.  What a crazy turn of events!

The problem is we’re not all that different.  Maybe we’re not playing dress up to trick people around us, but how often aren’t we trying to (or thinking that we can) manipulate God.  How much of our life is doing something in order to get something? A tit for a tat kind of arrangement.  Kids are very obedient when they want something.  Spouses are really nice to each other when they want something.  We work really hard to obey God when we want something.

But that’s not the way God rolls; it’s not the way God works.  He isn’t one to be manipulated by us, as if we could pull the wool over his eyes by putting on goats hair (you’ll have to read if you want to know what I’m talking about).  He isn’t one to put out just because we put in, as if he were a slot machine. Learn this about God and how he works.

God does what he does because he is sovereign (that means he’s ruling).  He makes decisions and does what he does absolutely independently of anyone else.  Jacob is manipulating the situation, but it isn’t manipulating God or God’s plan.  The deception is not what God wanted to happen.  But what God wanted to happen, happened.  God is ruling all things and what he wills (wants, desires, plans) always comes to pass.

God does what he does because he is gracious (that means it does it without us earning or deserving a thing!).  He makes decisions and does what he does because he loves us, not because we’ve earned or deserved it.  Crazy thing about this account is this.  Jacob did so much that should have alienated him from God, but God never abandoned him.  Instead God assured him that he was always with him.  God does what he does for us because he is gracious and loving, merciful and compassionate.  If there is anything about us that moves God to action it is our utter and complete helpLESSness (not helpFULness as we would like to think.)

God’s in control.  He’s gracious. And that’s a good thing because he only wants what is best for you and I.

Father, assure me today that through faith I am in your grip and you’re ruling all things for me and for my good, simply and only because you love me.  Amen.

Lord, I need you!

There is a theme running through Genesis, a theme that gets repeated again and again by different people, in different situations, but doing the same things.  Sin brings trouble.  Sinful people cause trouble.  Sinful people make their own trouble worse.  Sinful people always run away.  Consider. Adam and Eve hid from God in the garden.  Their first response was not to go to God, they hid from him.  Consider.  Abraham was afraid that he would get killed (two different times) because his wife was beautiful.  He hid from God and created his own plan of rescue.  Consider.  Hagar was abused by Sarai and she ran away and tried to get away from the problems.

Sounds a lot like what I do.  Does it sound like you?  I sin against God and other people and I want to minimize, rationalize, explain away, even deny what I’ve done to God and to others.  I hide my sin.  I have a problem that needs to get solved and I turn to my own ingenuity and devices.  Instead of running to God, I (we) turn from him.

But that’s the other theme.  God’s people run away, but God follows close behind.  Adam and Eve hide and God finds them out.  Abraham devices plans, but God is right there to bring him rescue. Hagar runs into the desert and God sees here there and calls her back.  God never runs away, but rather runs after us.

We need him.  Today and every day let’s come to him with our sin, let’s confess them, and let him do what he promises.  He always forgives and restores us.  Let’s come to him with our prayers.  Let’s open up our wounds, our troubles, our challenges… let’s open up our hearts to him and let him help us through whatever it is that faces us.  He’s chasing us down because he loves us.  And we need him.

Wouldn’t you like to know?

Readings for January 8, 2015: Genesis 18-20, Psalm 7.

God didn’t have to tell him.  God didn’t have to tell him anything, nothing at all.  God was under no obligation to come to Abraham that evening and tell him that in one year Isaac would be born.  And sure enough, a year later, Isaac was born and they laughed.  But God didn’t have to tell him.  And God didn’t have to tell him about Sodom and Gomorrah, about the destruction that was coming.  But he did.  And Lot, along with his daughters, were saved.  His son-in-laws could have been rescued too, but they laughed.  His wife could have been saved too, but she looked back.  God didn’t have to tell him anything, he didn’t have to reveal a thing.  But. He. Did.

Sometimes, maybe you’re like me in this, I want God to tell me what’s going to happen.  I want God to come and tell me that in one year really good news is coming, news that will make you laugh as Isaac made Abraham and Sarah laugh.  I want God to tell me what he’s doing in the world so I understand.

But he doesn’t? Or did he.  Okay, so maybe God hasn’t told me what’s going to happen in my life a year from today, even though he knows.  But he warns me (and you) about a destruction far worse than what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah.  My wickedness (and yours) has risen up before him like a stench.  He can’t stand it.  Destruction is coming.  God has told us this.  God has revealed this.  He didn’t have to tell us.  But. He. Did.

And then, then so that I (and you) wouldn’t be devoured by raining, fiery sulphur, he sent his Son to pull us out.  It’s crazy isn’t it, that angels from God are pulling you out of a burning city and you look back.  Why would Lot’s wife do that?  Why do we?  Why are we attracted to the evil and sin in our world?  Why do we who know Jesus look back?  But see, we’re not salt pillars. Yet God is still speaking to us and pulling us out of the fire.  He sent his Son.  He sent his Word so that we’d know.  He sent it all to pull us out of ruined and burning city.  God didn’t have to tell us.  But. He. Did.  He wanted to save us so badly he told us about the fire and about the freedom, about the destruction and about the rescue.  He didn’t have to.  But he did.

Father, today I thank you that I know what I know, that you’ve given me your Word so I can know what you want me to know, so that I can know what I need to know.  Your Word, the Bible, is where you speak to me.  Help me to listen and to seek your voice there.  Amen.

God sees!

Readings for January 7, 2015: Genesis 15-17, Psalm 6.

What a mess!  Abram started so strong to trust God and follow him wherever he led. Then doubt set in and the plotting began.  It’s never a good idea to take things into your own hands.  But Sarah did.  She gave Hagar to Abram.  Hagar conceived a son by Abram.  Then Sarah started to hate Hagar.  And Hagar ran.  She couldn’t take it anymore.  It was a mess.

David’s life was a mess.  His was a mess because of his own sin and failures.  As you read Psalm 6 the context is likely this.  David is repenting of his sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah.  David had brought this mess on himself, but now he had to deal with his own sin and the mess he brought on his life.

Our lives are messes in their own way.  Broken homes.  Broken relationships.  Broken hearts.  Each of our lives is their own kind of screwed up.  Each of our lives has their own kind of mess.

But that is where God steps in. Hagar was in a field at the end of her rope.  “I’m running away,” she said.  But that’s where God stepped in.  “Don’t run away.  Go back and I’ll handle this.  I will bless you and care for you.”  And that’s when Hagar knew that she wasn’t alone.  That she wouldn’t suffer through this mess all on her own.  And she gave God a name, “You are the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:13).

God sees us too!  He sees us in our mess and he’s with us.  He’s in charge of the mess.  It’s really not as messy as it all seems.  He is controlling over the chaos for for our good (Romans 8:28).  He is forgiving sin and hearing our prayers as he did for David.  David knew it, “The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer” (Psalm 6:9).  We’re not alone in the mess.  The chaos isn’t out of control.  God sees us in it all and he’s with us through it all.

Father, my life is a mess and I see it clearly.  The burden of it is more than I can handle or bear.  Assure me today that you see me and you’re with me.  Be with me in life’s messes and turn them for good, your good.  Amen.

Daily Worship.

Readings for January 6, 2015: Genesis 12-14, Psalm 5.

Abram (later to be re-named “Abraham”) had quite the journey.  He was called to leave his homeland in Haran and go to a place God would show him.  “Go, I’ll tell you when you get there.”  And Abram did.  Abraham never built a house.  He always lived in a tent, like a wandering nomad.  He moved from place to place.  Probably trying to feed and water his herds and care for his family.  He even had to travel down to Egypt.  But did you notice, wherever Abram stopped to camp for the night he built an altar and called on the name of the LORD.  It’s almost a refrain during Abram sojourning.  David finds a similar refrain for his life: “But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple”  (Psalm 5:7).

Abram knew and understood that worship was not confined to a building, to four walls where the organist plays or the band leads.  Worship was where God was. So, wherever he went, there was God.  And where God was, there Abram worshipped him. Worship happened wherever Abram was when Abram met with God.

What a powerful reminder.  Wherever I am, there God is; and where God is there I can call on him.  Like David I can lay my requests, all of them, before the Lord and he hears me.  I can open up my heart to him in the morning and lay my fears about the day on him.  I can grab on to his leg and ask him to hear my like a kid trying to get dads attention.  Except I know he pays attention to me.  As I lay my head at night and my evening prayer rises before him I can give thanks for what he’s done throughout the day.  Because of God’s great love, I – WE – get to come into God’s presence all day, everyday, wherever we are.  We get to worship him.  We get to thank him.  We get to call on him in every trouble.  We get to pray to him. We get to praise him.  We get to thank him.

Oh God, how great and gracious you are to be with me today.  You come and speak to me in your Word.  You promise to go with me and be with me wherever I am today.  Let worship of you be my main concern today.  Let my eating and drinking, my talking, my working, my playing, my serving give you worship and praise.  I start today at your altar finding refuge in your Son, who sacrificed himself for me.  I end today finding comfort in his sacrifice, that is sufficient to cover all my sins of this day.  This days is yours.  Help me to honor you in it.

Seeking!

There are two choices for us this year and we see them side by side in the readings this last week.  Pastor Jeff Gunn blogged about it and talks about the stark contrast there is in the two paths we can take as followers of Jesus. One is a path that walks with Jesus, seeks him, follows him, obeys him.  This path is tough because it goes against everything that’s natural to us.  This is the path that God says is “blessed” (Psalm 1).

One is a path that seeks me, my desires (boy, that fruit sure looks good!), my wants.  It’s a path that’s way easy because it goes right along with everything that’s normal to us.  Yup, I said it. It’s normal and natural for us to do what God doesn’t want.  God identified that for us when he said, “Every inclination of the thoughts of humans is always evil all the time” (Genesis 8:21).  Easy as it is, this path leads only to destruction.  Sadly, this is the path the people of the past (and we) often want to walk.  Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Cain killed his brother.  Noah got drunk and his son laughed about it.  The world was so wicked God wiped almost everybody by a flood.

God had a choice too and it would have been absolutely just.  Destroy Adam and Eve in the garden the moment they tasted the fruit.  After all, he had said, “The day you eat of the fruit, you will die.”  Destroy Cain for killing his brother, after all God had warned Cain about it quite strenuously.  “Told you so,” he could have said.  But God went further.  I’ll make sure that you live a full and long life.  Yes, God did destroy the world by water.  But did you notice… how long did God wait before the flood came?  And did you know that Noah was a preacher during that time (cf. 2 Peter 2:5)?  God could have destroyed everyone and would have been absolutely just in doing it.

But. He. Didn’t!

Instead, he loved the world.  He loved Adam and Eve and gave them time to know his love and forgiveness.  He gave them ears to hear the promise of the Savior.  He loved Cain and made sure he had a long and full life so that he’d repent.  He loved the world and gave them time and a preacher so that they might believe.  God was patient.  God was seeking.

God is still the same today.  He still seeks us even when – especially when – we don’t seek him.  He chases us down in reckless abandon like a shepherd who leaves behind 99 sheep to go find one lost sheep; Jesus used that picture.  Absolutely crazy.  Bad business decision.  Leave 99 for the 1? But what about the 99?  But that’s the reckless abandon with which our God in heaven loves us and seeks us.  He seeks us passionately.  So passionately he sent his Son to settle the debt we owed him, the Father.

You’re probably reading this because you love your Father in heaven.  Take a moment today to ponder the way God sought you and found you.  Who did he put in your life so that you’d find him and know him?  Was it a parent? A friend? A spouse? A child?  How did you come to faith? Who did God use to seek you out and find you and put you on the path to heaven?  Thank God for those people today.

If you’re reading this because you’re seeking him, take a moment to consider the way that God is working in your life.  What people? What events? What struggles? What questions?   How is God working so that right now you’re seeking him? Know this.  God wants you to be his more than you could ever know, more than you would ever dare believe.  He gave up what was most precious to him (his Son Jesus!) so that you could be his.

Father in heaven, your patient and passionate pursuit is on display.  You never give up on your people; you haven’t given up on me.  You seek me daily. You sent your Son to die for me.  Thank you for the people you put in my life that have led me to you.  Thank you for the things that you’ve used to draw me to you.  Thank you for showing me your great love for me.  Help me to seek you every day all year long.

Note: There are no readings today. Today is a “catch-up day” on readings you might have missed. It is also a day to look back and consider and meditate on what God has taught you in the past readings.  If you ever have any questions or comments, post away!  I’d love to hear from you.

Hope! Always hope!

Readings for January 3, 2015: Genesis 6-9, Psalm 3 (The link will take you to Bible Gateway so you can read there!)

Hopeless. That’s how I feel when I read this section.  The world is steeped in sin so badly that God destroys it with a flood.  Noah is described as a righteous man as the story begins, someone who walks with God but the story ends with Noah’s drunkenness and one of his son laughing about it.  If this is what happens to the best of God’s people, what hope do I have to walk in his paths? We’re in trouble.  Hopeless.  Discouraged. Afraid. Doomed.  That’s how I feel when I read this section and look at me.

But then I look outside of me to the God who is in action.  He is faithful.  He doesn’t tolerate wickedness or sin even a little bit; we see this quite clearly in the flood.  BUT, there is a bright rainbow of HOPE not from Noah or his sons, but from God and his heart of grace and mercy.  A rainbow promise from God that he will never destroy the earth by a flood of water as he did in the days of Noah.  And this promise comes in spirt of what God knows we’re like, even though he knows that we’re thoroughly evil from childhood.  “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood (Genesis 8:21)… “Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind” (Genesis 9:14-15).

God’s faithfulness to his promise to forgive.  God’s patience is on full display.  Today we have time, a gift of grace from him.  We have life and breath.  Proof that God loves us and hasn’t given up on yet, not today, not ever.  Today we have his promise of forgiveness.  “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  Today we have his promise that just as he ruled the winds and the waves in Noah’s day for destruction and for rescue (remember – he rescued Noah and his family), so he rules the winds and the wave for us.  He wants to rule for our salvation for our good.

So, wake up today and know this: God is patient, loving and forgiving.  Ready to walk with God as Noah did.  When you stumble, run to him and he’ll forgive.  Then, go to bed, because the LORD sustains you.  Day by day the cycle continues.  “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me” (Psalm 3:5). It’s not hopeless after all.  Each day, in the Lord, hope springs up new.

Lord God, I am yours today!  Walk with me and help me to walk with you.  When I stumble, bring me back.  When I sleep, give me rest.  When I wake, give me strength to do and to serve as you have done and have served.  Amen.

Note: Tomorrow there will be no schedule readings.  We’ll gather in worship. Take Sunday as a day to rest in God’s Word.  And to ponder a little bit more the truth’s you read this last week.  I will share some devotional thoughts looking back at the last readings.

A Good Idea – January 2

Readings for January 2: Genesis 3-5, Psalm 2.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Eve saw the fruit and it looked good to her.  She ate it.  It seemed like a good idea to Cain.  Get rid of Abel and I won’t have to compete for God’s affection anymore.  But, oh what trouble came to them, to the world, to their relationships, even to us because of that one bite from the fruit of that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Sin is like that, you know.  It always seems like a good idea at the time.  I can’t think of a single sin that I’ve committed where I thought, “That’s a bad idea, but I think I’ll do it anyway.”  My conscience may have been screaming at the time, but I wasn’t listening.  And once it sucks us in it destroys us.  Sin destroys us with guilt, with shame. One sin leads to another.

But God never quits on us.  I hope you see that as you read through this section. Look how God seeks Adam and Eve in the garden even after they had blatantly disobeyed him.  Look how God seeks Cain to warn him about his sin, to seek him after he murdered his brother, even to make sure his life was full and long so that Cain would have time to turn back.  God never quits on us, ever.  He seeks us.  He gives us time to turn back to him.  He shows us that he has something better for us, someone better for us – his Son!

In the middle of Adam and Eve’s rebellion and hiding is a nugget that we don’t want to miss.  Genesis 3:15 – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers, he will crush your head and you will strike his heal.” Right there God promised a remedy to Adam and Eve’s sin, to Cain’s sin, to my sin and yours.  Right there God promised to send his Son to sit on his throne and to be a Savior for us all.  Right there God promised to send his Son to be a refuge for us all.  Psalm 2:12 – “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”  That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.  Hide in Jesus!

Father, sin seems like such a great idea, but it only brings me heartache and pain.  Forgive me for being so selfish, self-serving, self-preserving, so self seeking.  You only want what is good for me, to save me, to forgive me, to guide me and to help me.  And you never quit on me as often as I seek my own way.  Help me to find refuge in you and to seek you.  That’s the best idea. Help me do it.  Amen.