Course Description: There are 90 lessons. Each lesson begins with a cross reference that came to mind as I was reading. They aren’t necessarily your typical cross references! Each lesson also references the cross of Christ.
Scriptures are mostly from the NKJV. Where noted, other versions were used.
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*My husband reads everything I write. All my teachings have his permission to be shared. Please take the teachings as a whole. I don’t prescribe to any particular doctrinal or denominational label; I am a member of the body of Christ only.
Lesson 1
I read Zechariah 6:7 Then the strong steeds went out, eager to go, that they might walk to and fro throughout the earth. And He said, “Go, walk to and fro throughout the earth.” So they walked to and fro throughout the earth.
and it made me think of
Job 1:7 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
Now, here’s what struck me, the next verse of Zechariah 6, verse 8. It’s the angel talking to Zechariah about the horses he sent walking to and fro throughout the earth.
Zechariah 6:8 And He called to me, and spoke to me, saying, “See, those who go toward the north country have given rest to My Spirit in the north country.”
What were the horses doing out there in the earth? They were carrying out the Lord’s purposes. What did Satan do when God sent him out into the earth? God sent Satan to carry out God’s own purposes. God didn’t do the evil plotting. But He knows very well what the devil will do. And God will allow it to carry out His divine purposes, His purposes which are perfectly planned, timed, always motivated by love, and only for the ultimate good.
If you have been bought by the blood of the Lamb, shed on the cross of Christ, then Satan is used by God to bring blessing into your life. Satan can’t act outside God’s boundaries for your life, and if you love God and are called according to His purposes, then God is working EVERYTHING together for your good, and all Satan is doing is carrying out the Lord’s good and perfect purposes in your life.
Lesson 2
I read Zechariah 7:6 When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?
and it made me think of
1 Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Now, let me read the context of the Zechariah verse. Here’s chapter 7 and verses 5 though most of 7.
Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me? When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous…?
God didn’t want them fasting. He didn’t care about their sacrifice. Why? Because they weren’t obeying. God doesn’t want your “Hallelujah” if you aren’t walking in obedience. You are better off keeping it to yourself.
How does our 1 Corinthians verse help us understand and apply what it’s saying in Zechariah?
If you aren’t living for God, He doesn’t want you sacrificing for Him. We show God in all the little choices of our day that we are living for Him and not for ourselves. He’s not after a big gesture. He wants your heart, and you show your heart in your words and actions all day long. So, whether you eat or drink, WHATEVER, meaning EVERYTHING, you do, do ALL to the glory of God. It’s all for Him. It’s not about you!
Christ conquered sin and death and we celebrate His victory by giving Him glory and honor in all that we do.
Lesson 3
I read Luke 15:4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
and it made me think of…
Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
According to Scripture, who goes after the lost sheep? EVERYONE.
We’re all meant to go after the lost sheep. What does that mean? We have to leave the flock. We need to spend time away from our comfort zone, our cliques and gangs, away from our friends and familiar groups.
Evangelism isn’t trying to make your meetings look attractive to outsiders. Evangelism is going out to seek and save the lost. It’s going. It’s going to where people are outside of your church circles and showing them the light and love of Christ.
Jesus said, “If I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself.” He was lifted up on the cross so that all might be saved. Peter and John tell us that it’s God’s desire that all come to a saving knowledge of Jesus, and that all come to repentance and turn from unbelief to belief.
Don’t let them die for the lack of knowledge. Be willing to step out of the comfort and safety of the flock and share Christ with the lost.
Lesson 4
I read 2 Chronicles 20:21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.”
and it made me think of
Psalm 29:2 Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
The phrases are slightly different, but they use the same words for beauty and holiness. In the first it’s talking about the beauty of God’s holiness and in the second, it’s talking about the beauty of our holiness.
We have no holiness apart from God’s holiness.
Jesus came to reconcile us to the Father, restore the relationship with God that sin destroyed. He made that peace by shedding His blood. Colossians 1:22 says, “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight…”
We can be presented holy before the Father because of Jesus. He makes us beautiful in God’s sight, by washing us clean, and filling us with His beauty by His Spirit. God’s beautiful because He’s untouched by this corrupt and decaying world. And when we gaze on the beauty of God’s holiness, He gazes on His holiness in us. And in that state of mutual delight and pleasure, we give, and God receives, our praise.
Lesson 5
I read Zechariah 10:2 For the idols speak delusion; the diviners envision lies, and tell false dreams; they comfort in vain. Therefore the people went their way like sheep; they are in trouble because there is no shepherd.
and it made me think of
Ezekiel 34:5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.
Why was there no shepherd? Let me read the next verse from Zechariah 10. This is verse 3.
My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the goatherds…
Why were there no shepherds? They were herding goats.
This is an indictment on the modern church, the seeker-friendly church, and the church growth movement.
Don’t get involved in a movement. Move with God. Don’t move with man. You’ll end up off track.
But back to my point. When you go after numbers, when your goal is simply getting new people into the church, then you end up attracting goats, not sheep. There are far more goats than sheep. They are easier to attract, though more costly. You give them gifts for visiting. You have appealing lights and popular (and loud) music. You teach on topics instead of straight from Scripture. You have social events. Small groups become about making social connections instead of making disciples. The focus is food, fun, and friendship.
The sheep get scattered or malnourished in such an environment.
We need shepherds, not goatherds. Preach the gospel. Know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Lead your flock to walk in the righteousness of Christ by the life in the Spirit. Shepherd your flock with integrity.
You can all be a part of shepherding. Make your goal not fitting in and being popular, but leading by example.
Lesson 6
I read Zechariah 10:6 I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back, because I have mercy on them. They shall be as though I had not cast them aside; for I am the LORD their God, and I will hear them.
and it made me think of
Psalm 25:7 Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.
Why is David pleading with God to not remember his sin but to remember him according to God’s mercy? Our sin is our death and destruction. His mercy is our life and peace. It’s all because of His mercy.
We can’t earn our salvation. You know Israel’s history of rebellion that we read in the Old Testament. The New Testament tells us we are brought into Israel. That’s us, rebellious. We keep looking at the shiny things in the world instead of the glorious Light. We will never be good. As Jesus Himself said, “Only God is good.”
We need His mercy, every day, every moment. His mercy brought us near and keeps us close to Him.
He doesn’t give us favor, the blessing of His grace, because of our good works, but because of His mercy.
A bad example of how to approach God is Hezekiah, who prays, “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.”
Then Hezekiah weeps bitterly. The Lord doesn’t respond to his righteous deeds. We’re told the Lord responds to his tears. He has compassion. He’s a merciful God.
A good example for us of how to approach God is Daniel who prayed, “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.”
We have this deep ocean of mercy that swallows up our sin because of the infinite love shown us by the Father sending His only begotten Son; and that Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, taking our sin on Himself and its guilt and putting it to death on the cross.
He paid such a great price for it, no wonder He delights in showing mercy.
Recognize how great a price was paid so you can be shown mercy, and offer mercy to others.
Lesson 7
I read Luke 14:33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
and it made me think of
Mark 10:21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
Jesus says we have to forsake all to become His disciple. What does it mean to forsake all?
Some would say it means to hold lightly. We don’t leave our families so we can be a disciple of Christ. We see apostles like Peter bring their wives with them as they traveled.
But Jesus tells the rich young ruler, not to just be ready to give, but to get rid of that which he wanted to hold onto.
Where your heart is attached, you have to severe the ties. It’s one thing to say you love God, but it’s another to let go of your other loves.
Mine was TV and movies. It took me longer than I would care to admit before I finally cut the cord. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Jesus became all of my delight because I removed my other love from my life.
Anything that can call to you and you answer, needs to go. Don’t deceive yourself thinking you are “holding it lightly.” If you aren’t willing to get rid of it, then you are holding on too tightly.
Whatever you are justifying to yourself right now, that’s the thing you need to get rid of. The thing that you say you would get rid of if you knew God wanted you to. That thing. It needs to get out of our life.
The end is being His disciple and learning from Him. The end is following Him, being with Him, going with Him.
What is it you want? Your lusts and the things of this world? Or is it Jesus?
One of those things loves you back. What does Jesus describe as the greatest show of love a man can give? Laying down one’s life for his friends.
Jesus did that for you. Be a friend in return and lay it down for His sake.
Lesson 8
I read Malachi 2:5 “My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear Me; so he feared Me and was reverent before My name.”
and it made me think of
Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
God’s promise to us is life and peace. How does He give us life and peace? By His Spirit. When we live in the Spirit, we have life and peace. How do we live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit? By being spiritually minded. It says so in verse 5.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
To live in the Spirit, we set our minds on the things of the Spirit. The opposite is to be carnally minded, thinking of the things of the flesh, of this world. If your mind is on what you stream, you are carnally minded. If your mind is set on worry and fear, you are carnally minded. If your mind is set on money and ambition, you are carnally minded. If your mind is set on anger and frustration, you are carnally minded. If your mind is set on unforgiveness and gossip, you are carnally minded. You are living in death, not life.
If you are spiritually minded, you are thinking on God, His Word, His love, His mercy and grace, and how to teach and show His loving ways to others. All Jesus. All the time. That’s what our life is meant to be.
Our lives are meant to be swallowed up in Christ because a Christian is supposed to be able to say, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Our own lives as selfish, self-focused individuals, are supposed to be dead, non-existent. We’re to be swallowed up in Christ, dead, buried, and resurrected into the life of Christ, into the life of the Spirit.
And that’s His promise to us, His life. He gave us life and peace in Christ by His Spirit, that we might fear Him.
There’s a good kind of fear, one that keeps us in life and peace instead of stealing it away from us.
Trust in the Lord’s good promise of His life and peace in us, of His constant presence and leading, of His overcoming of the world and sin in our lives, and know you need Him to do it all entirely.
Lesson 9
I read Psalm 105:19 Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.
and it made me think of
Genesis 41:1 Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the river.
Do you know what those two years were? Joseph thought he had some hope of getting out of prison. He tries to help things along. He says to the cupbearer, “Remember me.” The man forgets, for two years that is.
Why did he forget and then remember two years later? Because God had an appointed time. The word was going to come to pass at the time the Lord decided. Part of the test was the wait, the long wait. But why the test?
Let’s not think of it as a test. We can interchangeably use the words testing and trial. The trial is the preparation for the blessing. That’s not some trite phrase. It’s a biblical principle. The Lord has done it in my life, and we see it in the Bible. Joseph had to make the choice to serve the Lord while in prison, while falsely accused, while betrayed, because it was going to be even harder to serve the Lord in a position of power and wealth. He had to be trained, and the Lord made sure he was. Peter had to deny Christ before he could be the head of the church. Paul had to suffer so much, so he would learn to rely on the Lord. There’s a blessing on the other side of the trial. We’re not earning the blessing. We’re learning to handle the blessing.
While every curse can become a blessing (“cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” became our biggest blessing), every blessing can become a curse. Money isn’t a blessing when we hoard it and act like we earned it and it’s ours to do with as we want. It becomes a curse. Health isn’t a blessing when we use it to bring attention to ourselves instead of to serve others. Ministry isn’t a blessing when we use it to build our own kingdom instead of God’s. Every blessing can be its own trial.
God protects us by preparing us. Be thankful for the trial. Be thankful for the waiting. Don’t think of it as waiting for something to happen. Think of it as God taking just as long as you need to make sure you can receive and thrive in the blessing.
God has a plan. He may have given you a vision. You may have a hope in your heart. Don’t be discouraged as you wait. You aren’t waiting for the future. You are living in God’s perfect purposes today.
Lesson 10
I read Isaiah 21:12 The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!”
and it made me think of
Exodus 14:27 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.
“The morning comes, and also the night.” The morning and night come together. That’s what reminded me of God’s presence being both light and darkness. God’s presence in the cloud was darkness to Egypt, to the world, but it was light to Israel, God’s people.
In the Exodus story, the darkness and the light, God’s presence, separated the two from each other. In the end, that meant deliverance for God’s people and death for those of the world, even though they faced the same obstacle. They both faced having to cross the Red Sea. One was able to cross through the troubled waters safely and victoriously. The other was killed in the attempt.
The watchman cries out. “Return!” That’s a turning around, a repenting.
We don’t repent by trying to do God’s ways in our own strength. You won’t overcome sin, self, and the world by your own power.
Repentance is turning from sin, self, and the world, and turning to God. When our eyes are on Jesus, our eyes are off of everything else. We’ve turned towards him and away from everything else because He is holy and separate. He’s not in any of the rest of that. If you are looking to Him who is set apart, then you will have your eyes off of anything and everything else.
We have the chance to repent because of the cross of Christ. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin so that we could live a repented life, a life where all day, every day we are choosing to look to Him and keep our lives turned around and pointed in His direction.
We keep the cross before us and the world behind us, no turning back, except for turning back to Jesus!
Lesson 11
I read Revelation 15:2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.
and it reminded me of
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
They had victory over the image of the beast. How do we do that? We are transformed into the image of God by the renewing of the mind.
The mind is the battlefield. Who has their imprint on your mind? Look at this other pair of verses.
Revelation 22:3-4 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
Revelation 13:16-17 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Everyone is marked one way or the other. Whose name is on your life?
What’s in a name? Your name defines you. It’s who you are. Does your character, your nature, match Christ’s or the devil’s?
We are all born with sin in our nature. We are naturally selfish people. That’s the devil’s character. He’s in love with himself, meaning he thinks about himself. We fall in line and do things like lie and steal because our concern is ourselves not others.
But Jesus came to earth and lived a life free from the trap of sin. He was perfect because of His love for His Father and the Father’s love for us. He sacrificed Himself in the ultimate act of selfless love so that we could overcome sin and be joined together with our Father whose heart is reconciliation with His rebellious children.
And in Christ we can be putting to death the old nature of the devil and put on the divine nature of Jesus Christ Himself. We can live selfless, loving lives by the Spirit of Christ in us.
Lesson 12
I read Revelation 15:4 Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested.”
and it made me think of
1 Peter 1:16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
If God alone is holy, how can anyone else be holy? There is only one way – by joining ourselves to the one who is holy.
When we are holy, we are set apart from the world and to God. Sin, self, and the world die to us and God becomes alive in us. That’s what happens at baptism, death and resurrection. But it’s also what happens every day. We choose God, to be with Him, which means being set apart with Him. That means choosing to deny self, forsake sin, and turn your back on the things of the world. Day after day. Moment after moment.
In a way, it’s a one and done decision. We give our lives to God. But we choose to leave our lives in His hands.
That First Peter verse starts with “because.” What’s it talking about? The previous verse says, “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
We are holy because He is holy and we give our lives to Him. We receive His HOLY Spirit in us. We join our life to His. We become one with Jesus.
It’s all made possible, only made possible because of the cross of Christ, the great life exchange. He gave up His life and gives us His life. We give up our lives and receive His life.
Lesson 13
I read Revelation 15:8 The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
and it made me think of
2 Chronicles 7:2-3 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying: “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever.”
These two scenes are of the same thing in terms of God’s presence filling the temple and no one being able to enter. However, they are completely different in their context. The first is about God’s wrath being poured out in judgment. The second is the celebration of the completion of the temple and God coming to put His name there.
In the second scene, they see the glory of the Lord and what do they praise? His power? No, His goodness and mercy.
Revelation 16:5 comes after these plagues and God’s wrath has been poured out. What is proclaimed? “You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and who was and who is to be,
because You have judged these things.”
God is righteous because He has judged. His goodness is scene in His judging. His mercy can be seen in His judging. Those being persecuted and murdered see the goodness and mercy of God in the judgment of those persecuting and murdering who refuse to repent.
Psalm 130:4 says: But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. Forgiveness, fear; goodness and judgment. They all go together in God through Christ Jesus. And because we fear the Lord, we seek forgiveness, and when we face judgment, we’ll see the goodness of the Lord, experiencing the enduring grace and mercy of God.
Lesson 14
I read Revelation 12:6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
and it made me think of
Jonah 1:17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
That’s the verse that came to mind, but if you stop for a moment and think about it, there’s no end to the verses we could use. God had a man carrying water prepared to lead the disciples to the upper room. God had a donkey ready to borrow for the triumphal entry. God had a widow with a guest room prepared for Elijah. God had Esther born in a certain time and place for such a time as this.
God is sovereign, in control, and He is prepared. Nothing catches Him off guard. He is big enough and wise enough to use our free will in His plans and purposes. He knows it all, beginning to end. He is perfectly orchestrating the lives of the saints, His chosen children, to bring them home to Himself. He works it all, even our past sin and the things we call regrets, into good in our lives if we love God and live in His purposes.
Because He has great things prepared for you. Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for you. He’s bringing you home to Himself. But we get to experience the blessedness of His preparedness here and now.
Psalm 31:19 Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!
Psalm 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
Lesson 15
I heard Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
and it made me think of
John 1:23 He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord,” ’as the prophet Isaiah said.”
How are ways made straight? By submitting to God. Other translations say that we’re to acknowledge God in all our ways. I like the submitting translation (which is NIV) because it makes clear what that acknowledgement is. It’s not making your plans and then asking God to bless them. It’s acknowledging God as the only one who knows the way because He is the way. It’s acknowledging that God is our wisdom, the light to our path, that He gives us the knowledge and understanding that we need or we don’t have it. He knows the plan and His purposes. We need to submit our lives to Him to direct our paths; otherwise, we go crooked.
John is referring to the prophecy in Isaiah 40, found in verses 3 and 4. Why are ways made straight?
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth.
Why do we want our ways straightened out? To prepare the way of the Lord. We want the Lord to come and rescue His people, but we also want Him to come in us. Jesus comes in His people. We want His Kingdom come now, in us. We want the way prepared for Him to fill us and use us for His Kingdom purposes, for His glory.
The only reason Christ can come into our lives is because of His submission to His Father, being obedient to death on the cross. He was raised to life for our justification, so that we can walk rightly with God on straight paths because the life of Christ is resurrected in us by the Spirit given us.
Lesson 16
I read Psalm 132:17 There I will make the horn of David grow; I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed.
and it made me think of
Matthew 5:15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
The Lord taught me about the lamp and lampstand. He showed me that the lamp gives no light, that it just holds the light, and that the lamp doesn’t put itself on the lampstand, its owner does. Christ is the light in us and God wants to display His glory. He exalts His servant to glorify His Son.
Consider that understanding as you read Psalm 132. Making the horn of David grow means growing David’s authority. The Lord promises him that his descendants will be on the throne. God is exalting His servant and extending His rule. We understand that his descendant Jesus will sit on the throne forever.
God says that He will prepare a lamp for His Anointed. Who is the Anointed One? Jesus Christ. Christ means Anointed. He is the one sent into this world, and God prepared a lamp for Him.
Who’s the lamp? We are! Jesus is the light of the world. We are the lamp. We have the high and holy privilege of hosting the light of the world in our earthen vessels, these lamps that God the Father prepared for His Son’s Spirit to dwell in.
How did God prepare a lamp? We were chosen before the foundation of the world to be blameless and accepted in the Beloved. He sent His only begotten son to take our sins and remove them and their guilt. He doesn’t dwell with sin, but He has prepared clean vessels, vessels of honor that will hold His light and let it shine before men, bringing Him glory.
Lesson 17
I read Revelation 20:3 …cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him…
and it made me think of
Matthew 27:66 So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.
Are you smiling at the contrast? The first verse is about the devil. The second is about Jesus. They are both sealed in. Only one has the power to break the seal.
That reminds me of another verse. In Revelation 5, John weeps because no one is able to break the seal and open the scroll. But worthy is the Lamb who was slain! He was able to break the seals on the scroll because He overcame death and broke that first seal on the tomb.
As believers in Christ, we live on the other side of the tomb. The grave has been open, death has been swallowed up in life. We live in authority and favor on earth. The devil has sway over the whole world, but we have overcome the world in Christ. The devil is bound in our lives, sealed off from us because of the blood of Christ. He has no authority in our lives except to bring God’s blessing through his own mandatory submission to the boundaries God sets on Him to ensure His own purposes are carried out in the lives of His children.
Lesson 18
I read Matthew 4:2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.
and it made me think of
Psalm 34:10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.
It was after fasting forty days and nights that Jesus became hungry. How is that possible? He knew He lacked no good thing. You can call on the Lord. You can rely on Him. He can be your strength when you have no strength. He can take away your pain if you call on Him and keep your eyes on him instead of on what you are feeling. Our feelings don’t have to rule our lives. They shouldn’t rule our lives. We control our thoughts and our feelings come into submission.
Jesus had rule over His thoughts. He was the truth. He didn’t entertain lies. He knew He lacked nothing, and so He lacked nothing. He was, however, fully human, and after forty days, His human body had a need. And God met the need. I’m guessing Jesus asked for bread and fish. When a serpent showed up trying to make Him prove Himself by providing bread for Himself, Jesus knows His good Father wouldn’t send the provision that way. He waits on His Father to meet the need and sends away the devil. When Jesus teaches that a good father doesn’t give his son a stone when he asks for bread or a serpent when he asks for fish, I think He was speaking from experience!
How can we become partakers of all the great and precious promises we’re offered in Christ?
Philippians 4:9 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Our every need is met by an abundance of grace afforded by the riches of Christ’s glory. We receive grace through faith. We receive faith by grace. It’s all because of Christ. All we have is because of Christ. All we will ever have is because of Christ. Thank God for the cross of Christ! In Christ we have all we need. We will never suffer lack.
Lesson 19
I read Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
and it made me think of
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
When did Satan come to tempt Jesus? He came to Him when He is alone in the wilderness and after He becomes hungry. Satan was looking for a time when Jesus would be weak in the flesh. Be extra aware of Satan’s schemes when you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. Weak prey is easy prey.
We are certainly weak in our flesh, and that’s not a bad thing! Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, into that forty-day fast, into that trial. God wants us weak. Why? Because then He can be our strength. As long as we are relying on ourselves, we aren’t relying on His strength.
Our weaknesses – and Paul there was talking about all of his different problems and troubles, of every sort – are things to boast in. We don’t pretend we can. We proclaim, “We can’t! But God can!”
Allow God to lead you into weakness, into a place of utter reliance on Him. It will be your rest, your peace, your joy, your strength, your power, your glory to allow Christ to be all to you, for you, through you to His glory alone, because we have nothing to boast in except Christ.
We boast in the cross of Christ and all He accomplished by His perfect obedience. He triumphed over temptation, over sin, over death, and gives us the same power through His life in us by the Spirit poured out.
Rejoice in weakness and boast in Christ!
Lesson 20
I studied Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
and it reminded me of
Hebrews 12:12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.
This lesson starts with a different word, “studied” instead of I “read.” That’s where this connection comes from. Here’s the Strong’s definition of “still” in Psalm 46:10.
“abate, cease, consume, draw toward evening, fail, be faint, be wax, feeble, forsake”
It was the word “feeble” that connected the verses for me.
In Psalm 46:10 the world’s falling apart, and we’re told to be still. That’s not a peaceful scene. Then it talks about mountains being thrown into the sea, the nations raging, and the earth melting.
The scene reminds me of Revelation 6 where mountains are being removed and everyone is hiding. They are scared. The idea of feeble knees is of one who is scared or one who thinks they can’t go on. It’s a desperate place.
How do we strengthen the weak hands and feeble knees? We remind them of who their God is. When we stop striving, and here it makes it sound like we stop striving because we can’t go on, we’ve been brought to the end of our strength, then we embrace the weakness and know we have a God. He is strength. He is the mighty God. He is our strength, our help, the lifter of our head, the one who gives boldness by strengthening our souls.
Psalm 46 begins with God being our help in trouble. We lift each other up by pointing them to the one who is strong enough to lift them. We strengthen each other by pointing to the one who can be their strength.
Paul teaches us to boast in our weakness, our feebleness, because God’s power is made perfect in weakness. It’s okay to come to the end of yourself. It’s God helping you remember: He is God!
Lesson 21
I read John 13:4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.
and it reminded me of
Philippians 2:7 but [Christ] made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Jesus was a servant. He was king of the universe, and He came to serve humanity. Jesus reminds us, “A servant is not greater than his master.” If Jesus lowered himself to perform menial tasks, the tasks of a servant, then we can too, then we should too.
Pick up the broom. You aren’t above the task. Help someone across the road. Carry the load. Help one another. Bear a burden. Listen to the story. Give the handout and the hand up.
This is more than performing little tasks, though. This is a heart attitude of being a servant instead of the one served. We go to church to serve, not be served. We go to be a blessing, not receive a blessing. If you go to church to get, then you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and gifting so you have something to give.
God gives gifts, not so we can keep them to ourselves, but so we can give them to others. Gifts are given. Use your gifting. Your gifting is whatever comes naturally to you. You don’t have to work at it. It’s easy and energizing. It’s life-giving to you and others when you operate in it. It could be helping others. It can be encouragement. It doesn’t just have to be teaching or evangelism or music or something like that.
And we don’t just serve on Sundays. We live for God, not for ourselves. That’s 24/7/365. There is no time off in Christ. He gives us rest. He is our rest. But we don’t live to ourselves. Our days shouldn’t be spent seeking out money and position and pleasure and entertainment and relaxation, etc. for ourselves.
We serve. We live to be a blessing. We bless God and others. We are not our own. We were bought with a price. We serve a master. But it was a precious price, our Master’s own blood. He gave His life for you. In rejoicing gratitude, lay your life down for Him.
Lesson 22
I read John 13:3-4 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.
and it reminded me of
Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
To become a servant, there’s something that needs to happen. We need to humble ourselves. Jesus knew He had come from God. He knew that all things were given into His hands. He had all power and possession, and He served. He humbled Himself as a servant. Who did He serve?
In the moment, He washed the disciples’ feet as a servant would. He patiently taught them and all His disciples. That was His service. He healed and delivered. That was His service. But He was really only serving His Father.
He did nothing of Himself. He lived in obedience to His Father. He was submitted to His Father’s will.
We are to serve and serve the church in our gifting, but we really serve a single Master. If we work for man, we will be disappointed. They won’t appreciate. They will turn on us. Any number of things. We serve God, and then we can rejoice in whatever the outcome. We live for the smile of our Father and the “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
We serve God alone. We love God alone. It’s His love we pour out for others. It’s His strength and ability that moves through us in serving.
And we receive His strength and ability by humbling ourselves, by knowing we have nothing apart from Him. Jesus tells us we can do nothing apart from Him. We need to believe it! Anything of lasting value comes from God. Humbling ourselves is saying, “I can’t, but You can.”
Know your complete need of Him to do His work, to bring Him honor, to be a servant. We receive it by doing just like Jesus. We empty ourselves. We die with Christ, crucified and buried in baptism, and raised with Christ in His resurrection. He literally becomes our life.
Lesson 23
I read Genesis 3:11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
and it reminded me of
Galatians 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Who told you that you were “naked”? The law. As Paul says in Romans 7:7, “I would not have known sin except through the law.” It’s the law that teaches us we are sinners. If there is no rule, we can’t break it. The law shows us our hearts. It is a gift to us.
When we see our hearts apart from Christ, we know we need a Savior. When we see our inability to live in a way that produces life instead of death, we cry out for a Savior.
It wasn’t the law that ruined things. It wasn’t the knowledge of being naked. It was love directed at self. The law shows us our selfishness and directs our love outward, where it belongs, what we were created for.
Our destruction is in our self-love. We’re supposed to love ourselves by loving others.
When we pour out love, God has to replace that love by pouring Love back into us, by His Spirit given us. It’s more blessed to give than to receive.
God Himself showed the ultimate example, giving up heaven, giving up His Son, giving up His life, uniting with us in love by pouring out love seen in His blood poured out for us, the rebels, the lawbreakers, those who crave love and who find it in the ultimate source, Love Himself.
Lesson 24
I read Genesis 6:18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
and it made me think of
Acts 27:24 saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’
We can bring people along with us.
Noah was granted his family, even the ones married into the family. Paul was granted the lives of pagan sailors and other criminals.
In Acts 16 we read two stories of household salvations. When the jailor is saved, he is baptized along with his household. When Lydia hears the gospel, she believes along with her household.
We can be granted our families.
Our faith matters. Our faith isn’t just a personal faith. A faith kept to yourself is a missed opportunity to sweep souls into the kingdom.
If God will keep millions for His servant (Abraham, Moses, David), He is willing and able to keep your family, all your families, those He’s put around you to pray for and to extend His heart to.
Love covers a multitude of sins. God delights to show mercy. God desires all to be saved. Those three sentences are all Bible verses. That’s God’s truth. That’s God’s heart for those you love.
God demonstrated His heart for us. While we were sinners, God sent His Son. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. While we were sinners, God’s love pursued us with His grace. While we were sinners, God forgives us and teaches us and guides us. And He did and does all that for those you love.
Love them. Pray for them. Put them in God’s hands and trust Him to bring into His kingdom.
Live out your faith in truth and love by God’s grace and trust His never-ending, super-abundant grace is enough to bring you and those you love home safely into His kingdom.
Lesson 25
I read Psalm 105:44-45 He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, and they inherited the labor of the nations, that they might observe His statutes and keep His laws. Praise the LORD!
and it made me think of
Deuteronomy 8:16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—
Why does God do the things He does?
These verses are talking about the Israelites, God’s children. As believers, we are now part of Israel and are certainly God’s children, adopted into the family. He gave His children their inheritance that they might obey. God gives us His Holy Spirit, our guarantee of our inheritance, in order that we may obey His law.
Know God’s heart. He wants us to obey because He wants us to live in the blessing of obedience, the biggest of which is being able to abide in His presence.
Listen to God’s heart. He humbled His children to test them. That sounds hard. But why? Why does He do the things He does? “To do you good in the end.”
He’s after our good. He’s after what’s best for us. He’s the best for us, so He’s after our salvation, and that of everyone else. He wants us with Him and that’s what we want as well.
We can rejoice and rest because our God is good and loving and in control. He’s got a plan and it’s to do us good.
His good plan was put in place from before there was time when the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. He’s been working out His redemptive plan where He makes all things new and brings all His children safely home to Himself.
Lesson 26
I read Matthew 13:29 But he said, “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.”
and it made me think of
Exodus 23:29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
The verse from Matthew is part of the parable of the wheat and the tares. An enemy sows weeds into the field, the tares, and the servants ask if they should pull up the weeds, but they are told no, because they might uproot the wheat.
The second is from Israel’s history. They are being given the Promised Land, but they aren’t going to get it all at once. The wild animals would overwhelm them.
God delays for a reason – your good! He’s only doing what is best for His children. He’s a good Father. You can trust His delays. You can trust when you have to wait.
In these examples, God is wanting to make sure His children are able to receive the blessing prepared for them. He brings us into His promises bit by bit. We have them at salvation, but during our sanctification, as He is bringing us more and more into the fullness of what He offers us and more and more into freedom from everything not of Him, He does it piece by piece, in the best way. There is often suffering and attack and God is in control of how much and when and is using it to accomplish His purposes in and through us.
And He’s maturing us, so when the weeds are pulled, we will be deeply rooted and unaffected.
Those deep roots are our abiding in Christ. We become one with Him through the abiding presence of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit given us, which was made possible only by the blood of Christ shed for us for the forgiveness of sins so that we can be cleansed of our sin and united with a holy God. To the praise of the glory of Jesus.
Lesson 27
I read Psalm 132:14 This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
and it made me think of
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
God has chosen a resting place, a place to dwell forever. It’s you. God comes and makes a home with us. He settles in. He rests. It’s a permanent dwelling. He doesn’t go away on vacations or business trips. He’s there to stay. His work is finished. He is at rest, and we are His resting place.
Why does God choose us to dwell within? He has desired us.
John 14:23 can make it sound like God loves us because we love Him, but we know that we love because He first loved us.
Love is free flowing. It can’t stagnate or it stops being love. Love is selfless. It’s not greedy. It’s not storing up for itself. Love gives itself away. God pours love into us and we pour it back and it just comes back to us.
The Holy Spirit is God’s Love poured out into our hearts and the Holy Spirit is described as rivers and wind. Those are powerful forces that are ever moving. They don’t exist if they don’t move. They are defined by their movement.
Love has to keep moving. And yet, Love rests. The Christian life is full of tension, full of paradoxes. We live the Christian life by rest. We fight the good fight by surrender. We move in power by submitting. Victory is won by laying down your life.
God rests in us so that we can rest in Him. We can live in the security of His love resting on and in us. It’s not going anywhere. Any love poured out is immediately replaced. There is never a lack of love. There’s never a moment without His presence if we just choose to be in His presence.
The Father chose to love us and sent His Son to die for us. Jesus chose to love the Father by being obedient to the point of death on the cross. We choose to be a vehicle of their love by the Holy Spirit poured in and out of us.
Lesson 28
I read Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
and it made me think of
Nehemiah 9:36 Here we are, servants today! And the land that You gave to our fathers, to eat its fruit and its bounty, here we are, servants in it!
God gave Adam and Eve a beautiful garden to live in and beautiful fruit to eat. It was all intended to be a blessing. They just had to live in the fear of the Lord, in the freedom of the boundaries God put up to protect them. They go outside the boundaries and instead of freedom, they lived in fear, hiding themselves.
The Israelites were given a land flowing with milk and honey. It was promised to them and their children. But, like the ancestors they inherited their sin nature from, they choose sin over God’s perfect blessing. They gave up their freedom as well and ended up in servitude.
God gave His children a blessing and their sin turned it into a curse.
God’s boundaries are our freedom. We need to walk in the love of God and the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord keeps us in His boundaries. The love of God keeps us trusting that the boundaries are for our good.
God’s ways are for our good. God is perfect and loving and only and always good. It’s always a lie to think that something else would be better in some way. There’s no greener grass outside of the Promised Land where God created you to live in.
We live in the promise by living in the Spirit, putting to death the wants of the flesh. We can live free because Christ set us free from sin. By faith, sin nature can be crucified and God’s divine nature resurrected in us. It is for freedom that we have been set free. Jesus took our sin and shame and put it to death on the cross and rose again to give us new life, His life of freedom and blessing in God’s promises.
Lesson 29
I read Psalm 20:3 May He remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah
and it reminded me of
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
God desires mercy not sacrifice. He’s never been after sacrifice. And your sacrifice is not necessarily accepted. He doesn’t just want a sacrifice. His heart is mercy. His heart is love. The offering He wants is your heart, your life.
God’s accepted sacrifices were without blemish. You can be the perfect sacrifice, just what God desires, but there’s only one way, and that’s to be without blemish. There’s only one way to be without blemish, and it’s through the cross of Christ.
Jesus takes away sin. He washes us clean and He frees us from slavery to sin. There’s no hidden sin in Christ. We are hidden in Christ.
Ask Him to expose your heart, to search it and show you what needs confessing. Repent when He shows you. Confess and ask Him to take it away. You want it gone, so you keep making the righteous choice with His help as it’s being put to death. And the day will come when you realize He’s given you a new heart and there’s no temptation in that area. There doesn’t always have to be a struggle. Jesus sets us free. You are only losing what steals, kills, and destroys, and you are gaining an abundant life of peace, joy, and love.
As a Christian our victory is in surrender. Lay it all down. Don’t hold anything back. Put it on the altar of sacrifice. And while there’s a work of perfecting what is already perfect in Christ Jesus, there’s also a work of living love out in service of others.
The sacrifice is without blemish, not to remove the blemish. We lay down our clean-before-God lives and offer them to God to be consecrated for His purposes, set apart for Him. We want to be used of God for His work of redemption, bringing His children home.
Get your sin, your selfishness, your worldliness confessed and turned over to God to remove so that you can be a “perfect” sacrifice, acceptable before God for His service to the great glory of Jesus Christ.
Lesson 30
I read Nehemiah 9:12 Moreover You led them by day with a cloudy pillar, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the road which they should travel.
and it made me think of
Psalm 139:11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” even the night shall be light about me.
There is no darkness in God. Jesus is the light of the world. When darkness comes and the way forward isn’t clear, Jesus lights the way. When darkness comes and fear and worry want to stop forward progress, Jesus lights the way. When darkness comes and pain and sickness do stop us in our tracks, Jesus lights the way.
When the Lord led Israel going with them in both the dark cloud and the pillar of fire and light, sometimes His leading was to stop, to be still.
The Lord directed the times of marching on and the times of resting. He lights the way. We don’t like the darkness, but light shines brightest in the dark.
The dark is just as light to the Lord as the noonday.
The Lord is merciful. He does not leave us or forsake us. He continually leads and guides.
The believer has the guarantee of Christ with us, by Christ in us by the Holy Spirit, made possible by the cleansing of sin by the shed blood of Christ.
And just an encouragement here, the darkness and the light can coexist at the same time, but God’s light is always there. Here is another pair of verses for that thought.
Exodus 14:20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.
and its pairing
Isaiah 21:12 The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!”
The morning and the night can come at the same time. The same cloud was darkness to one and light to the other, to God’s children. If things look dark, look for the light. It’s always there.
Lesson 31
I read Revelation 18:5 For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
and it made me think of
Psalm 25:7 Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
The first verse is talking about wicked Babylon that is going to be destroyed. The second verse is David asking for mercy. Does he get it? Look at this verse.
Micah 7:18 Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.
What’s the difference? Why are some forgiven and some destroyed? Some get heaven. Some get wrath.
David is forgiven because he is a child of God, part of the remnant of God’s heritage. He calls on God to show mercy; he remembers God’s character, and he receives mercy according to God’s goodness.
God doesn’t just overlook sin, though that Micah verse sounds like it. God can remove our sin and put it out of His sight because our sin was put on Jesus when He became sin on the cross. Because that sin was dealt with already, punished and defeated on the cross, the Father can forgive and forget. He no longer sees our sin when He looks at us. When we confess, it is forgiven and forgotten, and we are washed clean. And He overlooks the sins we’re ignorant of, not rebellious in. He can do that because of the blood paid for that sin.
God is merciful and delights in showing mercy. His desire is mercy, not the blood sacrifice. But He is also a holy God and He has to remain holy. He can’t be joined to anything unholy.
The demand for holiness must always go together with the desire to show mercy. They must coexist and intermingle in our understanding.
God’s love covers a multitude of sins, but that’s made possible through the cross of Christ.
Lesson 32
I read 2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.
and it made me think of
1 John 5:18 NASB We know that no one who has been born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
There is no fear of evil. Can you believe that? We are guarded from the evil one. Evil cannot touch us as children of God. We have a Shield about us.
So, what can evil do? We feel the attacks. It seems like they can touch us!
Think about where our real life lies. This temporary tent we dwell in is not our real life. Evil can’t touch us if our faith isn’t shaken by the attacks. If we come through in the love and joy and peace of God, Satan hasn’t stolen any ground just shored up our faith in the goodness and faithfulness of God.
Let me give you an example from Scripture. Jesus tells Peter that Satan is going to “sift him like wheat” and that He Himself has prayed for Peter that Peter’s faith wouldn’t fail.
Peter denies Jesus three times. Would you call that a faith fail? Here’s the thing. It’s impossible for Jesus’ prayer to go unanswered. Peter’s faith didn’t fail. He comes out of that and becomes the first pastor of the first church. God allowed Satan to have his request because God was going to use it for His glorious purposes, preparing Peter for his new role.
We may fumble around through the trial, but we go through in faith and righteousness, we keep choosing God instead of the “out” by our own ways, by thinking we know best and doing what is right in our own eyes.
In our example, Peter took the “out” by denying Jesus. He didn’t get through the trial in righteousness, but the evil one couldn’t snatch away his faith. He came out better for it.
Was Peter “touched?” Was Peter “harmed?” The trial is no fun. The trial can be painful. But the trial is a blessing.
So many times, my husband and I have stopped and assessed and realized that nothing was actually wrong. There was just a threat of something awful happening. It hadn’t happened. Nothing had actually happened. We had no reason to lose peace over something that would likely never happen. And even if it did, it would be in the perfect purposes of our good and loving God! It would be a blessing.
When all that can happen to us is blessing, we can rest in trusting confidence in our good God.
Lesson 33
I read Hebrews 12:4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
and it made me think of
Luke 22:44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Who has shed blood in striving against sin? Maybe you could say the martyrs have in shedding their blood in refusing to deny Christ. Except, I would say they weren’t striving against sin, that there was no temptation to unbelief or denying Christ. They went to their deaths willingly, laying down their lives for the One who laid down His life for them. There are stories of martyrs going to their deaths with hymns on their lips.
Jesus certainly wasn’t less courageous than the martyrs. Jesus shed blood in the Garden striving against sin, not against death. He knew He was going to die. He came for that purpose and He knew it. This wrestling in the Garden was the toughest thing Jesus ever faced. It wasn’t the cross; it wasn’t His faceoff with the devil in the wilderness; it was the Garden prayer.
The hardest thing Jesus ever had to deal with was sin. Jesus had never sinned. He had never known separation from His Father. He relied on the His Father for all things and did nothing of Himself. He had watched sin steal, kill, and destroy everything He created out of His love, and now He had to become sin and the Father would have to turn His face away. Jesus would cry out, “Why have You forsaken Me?” He would anguish in the separation, all the while trusting that His Father wouldn’t leave Him to decay.
Do you understand that sin is the worst thing you will ever have to deal with? All the corruption in the world is due to sin. All the trouble and harm in your life is due to sin. It’s not a diagnosis. It’s not a trauma. It’s sin in you and sin in this world.
But Jesus chose the will of the Father. “Not My will, but Yours” Jesus repeats again and then again until it’s settled in His Spirit.
He chose the Father’s joy, His obedience, and the reconciliation of His lost children to Himself. He chose to take our sin and bear our pain and shame and suffering and wrathful punishment, so that we could know the nearness He experienced with the Father.
Because of the cross of Christ, we live in freedom from sin, not by our striving, but by His overcoming sin and death. His Spirit life in us gives us overcoming power. We can live as slaves to righteousness instead of as slaves to sin.
Jesus fought the good fight, so we can rest in His victory.
Lesson 34
I read Genesis 30:20 And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.
and it made me think of
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Leah thought her husband would love her and choose her and dwell with her because she had a sixth son. She thought his love and approval were tied to her performance. She thought she could earn his affection.
Jesus taught His disciples that He and the Father will dwell with them if they loved Him.
It’s actually tied to keeping His Word, but it says that we’ll keep His word if we love Him. We just have to love Him. But that still sounds conditional. Like we could fail to love Him, so we’d fail to keep His word, so they’d move out.
But here’s the thing about loving God. We love because He first loved us.
God the Father, so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, while we were enemies of God.
Jesus, our Lord, took on our sin and died in our place on the cross, while we were yet sinners (i.e., completely unlovable).
The Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Advocate, fills us with His presence, the very love of God Himself dwelling permanently in our midst, in the temple of each of our bodies and in the temple of us collectively.
He loves us. He loves you. Each of those things is true for you individually.
He knew your name before you were born because He named you and wrote your name in His book before He even created the world, before you possibly could have done anything to earn His love and devotion. You were His permanently, start to finish and into eternity. There’s nothing you can do to earn more of His love. He loves fully. He is love and He’s not divided. You get His full love today and always.
Your part is to receive that love. That’s all. Open your heart to Him to pour in His love. You will love Him because He first loved you. You can’t fail at it because His love never fails.
Lesson 35
I read Proverbs 4:23 (BSB) Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.
and it made me think of
Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
We’re told to guard our hearts and how important that is. But how do we guard our heart?
We’re told we can have God’s peace guard our hearts. How do we get God to guard our hearts with His peace?
The verse just before it tells us. Here’s verse six. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
The peace of God will guard our hearts if we pray instead of being anxious about things. But there’s another part. We’re to pray with thanksgiving.
We don’t pray with desperation and despair as if God had forsaken us and we were without what we needed, as if God hadn’t taken care of us and was doing us wrong because we don’t have what we want or think we need right now.
We approach God with reverence and gratitude. We give thanks. We thank Him for who He is and for what He’s done and is doing. He’s working out His perfect purposes right now. Give thanks for His choice for you today. This is a day the Lord has made and we should rejoice and be glad in it!
When we approach God with thanksgiving, we’re recognizing not our problems, but His goodness, His love, His provision, His promises. When we approach the throne of grace with thanksgiving, we’re acknowledging that it’s a throne of grace, meaning a place of undeserved favor.
Don’t speak to God as if He hasn’t come through, as if He failed you or was late in fulfilling His promises.
Look to Him for the help you need. Look to Him for your “salvation” in whatever you are facing. Jesus is the Savior! Give thanks because your salvation was finished on the cross. God will come through for you because He already has.
Give thanks. It will be a guard to your heart.
Lesson 36
I was reminded of Colossians 2:10 (BSB) And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
and it made me think of
Psalm 23:1 (NIV) A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
We mostly know the twenty-third psalm as saying “I shall not want.” What that means is that you lack nothing. There’s nothing you are wanting for. You know that in Christ you lack no good thing.
We are complete in Christ. We are not lacking.
If we have the Spirit of the Living God, the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, the Spirit that was there in the forming of the universe, the Spirit that carries out the word of the Father, then we have the fullness of God in us! There is no lack. We are told that we are blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. There is no lack.
Don’t seek more from God. He’s given you Himself. What more could you possibly need! Know you don’t lack anything from God.
Our flesh is lacking, but our God is not withholding anything from us. He’s bringing us into the land of promise, step by step, by His abundant grace and in His perfect purposes, always thinking of our good.
The Hebrew word that we know as meaning peace is shalom. What it really means is full, complete. There’s nothing missing, so there’s no searching.
We can come to a place of shalom in Christ when we know that we love Him and He has made His home in us, when we are His dwelling place. When we know the security of His presence in us, then we know we can live in shalom, in abundance, not lack. The one who is all in all has given us Himself.
We are full. We dwell in shalom.
Lesson 37
I read Revelation 16:14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
and it made me think of
Nehemiah 8:1 Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded Israel.
Reading Revelation and how Satan is about to gather them together for battle against God made me think about the things we gather around. We see it all the time these days, people gathering around a cause.
I find it frustrating when people are suddenly so passionately caring about something they didn’t care about at all the year before. They are caring now because they are being told to care. You can hear people repeat the same phrases, and you know they are learning it from social media and parroting what they are being told and feeling what they are being told to feel.
The contrasting verse here is from when the Jews return to Israel after the exile and they rebuild. They gather together, not to fight God, but to hear His Word. The Law is read, and it united them. They are gathered as one, not against others, just for God, His ways, His righteousness. The enemy is sin.
Those gathering against God celebrate sin because they have been taught to call what’s good evil and what’s evil good.
We’re to gather together as believers regularly. We’re supposed to have public reading of Scriptures, as the Bible tells us. We’re to learn His Word. We’re to meditate on, think on, His Word. The Bible is truth; we need to know the truth for ourselves.
Jesus is the Truth. The Truth sets free. Jesus is the Way. We need to be in Christ to be in the right way! Walking with Jesus means joining Him in His death, crucifying self; but it also means joining Him in His life and resurrection, by His Spirit life in us now, and a glorious eternity united with Him and gathered with all believers forever.
Lesson 38
I read Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
and it made me think of
Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
We are to do good. God has prepared a people for Himself who are zealous for good works. We’re not to grow weary. We don’t want to grow weary in doing good because there’s a harvest to reap if we don’t give up.
How can we keep from weariness in the day in and day out? We can’t. Life will tire you out. But the grace of God is sufficient for all things in life.
If we look to the Lord instead of to ourselves, there is hope for strength for each day. Who can not grow weary even while they are running their race in such a way to win the prize, as Paul puts it? Those who wait on the Lord.
What does it mean to wait on the Lord? How can that renew our strength? Waiting on the Lord means looking to Him for your salvation, for your provision, for whatever you need. Knowing the Lord is your helper. Knowing the Lord is your God.
Waiting is being still. Waiting on the Lord is being still and knowing that the Lord is your God.
You have a ready help. You have all that you need in Christ. His work is finished and your job is to rest in His finished work, trust that it is accomplished and He will accomplish it for you.
Waiting on the Lord to renew your strength is knowing that you can carry on in the battle. It’s not giving up. It’s keeping hope. It’s rejoicing in your heart.
Why can you rejoice? Because the Lord is your God! Renewing your strength doesn’t mean you get depleted over and over and have to go refill. Renewing can happen continually as you continually keep your eyes on Jesus, as you continually have your faith strengthened by seeing Him set before you and knowing that it’s His Wind under your wings lifting you up and carrying you as you just glide on His strength holding you up.
Jesus fought the good fight of faith and didn’t weary of us or this world. He completed all the works His Father gave Him to do until He could say, “It is finished.”
God has prepared good works for you. May you follow Jesus to their completion in His strength to accomplish.
Lesson 39
I read Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
and it made me think of
Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
God Himself is our reward. I hope you are not hoping for a mansion in heaven. I have no idea what’s waiting for us there, though I am sure it is perfect. If you are hoping for fleshly worldly desires, your heart is in the wrong place! John tells us that if you love the things of this world, the love of the Father is not in you. You aren’t loving God if you are loving the things in this world. Jesus says it even more starkly when He tells us that you can’t love God and money. Pick one. What reward makes your heart leap for joy and your eyes grow wide, billions of dollars or Jesus?
Billions of dollars comes with death. Jesus comes with life. He shows us the path of life because He IS the path of life. He said, “I am the way.” He is the way. He said, “I am the life.” He is the life.
The gift of Jesus isn’t just life after death. It’s life today. The life Jesus gives isn’t survival. It’s abundant life. He offers the fullness of joy and forever pleasures.
That joy and pleasure are offered to us as a constant in our lives. They are found in His presence. We have Christ with us by His Spirit dwelling in us. His resurrection made the way for us to join Jesus in His resurrection. We join Him in His death in baptism, crucifying self and putting to death the body of sin, but then we join Him in His resurrection and His life comes into us so that we can live justified, in right standing before the throne of God.
That throne is a throne of grace. We approach it freely in Christ and receive all the help we need for life and godliness. We receive all the help we need for overcoming temptation so that we can live in His righteousness that He’s given us freely.
That free gift of the righteousness of Christ keeps us in the joyful, pleasurable presence of the one who cannot be joined to sin, who can’t dwell in the presence of sin. The cleansing blood of Jesus and His perfect life in us keep us united forever in the full pleasure of His joyful presence.
Do you know Christ as your reward? Is He all your desire? Do you know the fullness of joy? Do you know the pleasure of His presence?
Lesson 40
I read 1 Peter 1:7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ
and it made me think of
Revelation 3:18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
In Revelation 3, we have recorded God speaking to the lukewarm church that makes Him want to vomit. He’s got advice for them. “Buy from Me gold.”
These are people who think they have it all. God says you are poor, but I can make you rich. What are our riches in Christ? What is God “selling?”
He says that this gold that He’s offering is refined in the fire. In First Peter we read about gold being tested by fire as our faith is tested by fire. The fire proves the purity of the gold. The fire proves the purity of the faith.
What does that have to do with the church that has it all? They don’t go through the trial. They do all that they can to avoid the trial, to not need God. The trial is when we call on God to save us. Our faith is tested and shown and strengthened when we call on Him and He delivers.
When we think we need nothing, we don’t call on God to supply our need. When we turn to other saviors, the “experts” we think have the answer, we are turning our backs on the One who could save us, who truly knows all things, who has all the wisdom we need.
We need to know our poverty and our need of a Savior. In America, we set up our lives to not need God. When my husband and I joined a missions agency, we had to have insurance; we had to have college savings; we had to have resettling back in America savings, etc. We weren’t allowed to trust God. When we felt God was calling us to “step out of the boat,” we left our agency. We left support raising. We looked to God as our provider. We found Him able to provide!
But if you never need saving, how do you know you have faith to be saved?
Do you have saving faith? Where’s the gold tested by fire to prove it?
Lesson 41
I read Exodus 23:29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
and it made me think of
Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
God is talking to the Israelites in the first verse. God has brought them into the Promised Land. They finally made it, except, it’s not really all theirs yet. It’s promised, but they haven’t taken possession.
God’s goodness is sovereign over that, though. He brought them into the land, but He knew they wouldn’t be able to handle the land being passed over to them right away. The land would be empty and it would fill up with unwanted things.
As believers in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have been brought into the land of promise. We are brought out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of Light. In a moment, the old has passed away and the new has come. We are perfected in Christ Jesus, and yet, we are being perfected. There are still promises to attain.
Christ is our sanctification, complete. We are being sanctified, process. They are both true. We are complete in Christ and He’s going to complete the work He’s begun in us.
Why? Why can’t we just be like Jesus?
We couldn’t handle it. God is good. He knows how to lead us safely home to Himself. He will bring us fully into our promised land. But He will do it perfectly, in His perfect ways, in His perfect timing, for our good.
We can give thanks in all our circumstances because they are God-ordained steps toward walking in the fulness of every promise. We can rejoice always because our perfection, the fulfillment of the promise, was finished on the cross.
We are already promised the fulfillment of every promise, and God’s word is as good as done. Jesus said it Himself on the cross. “It is finished.” You can count on it.
Lesson 42
I read John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
and it made me think of
2 Corinthians 2:16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?
The verse from John is Jesus speaking to the religious leaders. Jesus’ appearing on the scene and demonstrating the works of the Father and giving them the words of life from the Father, is what makes the guilty. They were ignorant before. Now they are not. They will be found guilty of rejecting Jesus and God Himself.
If Jesus had not come, they would have no sin. His coming made them guilty. Was it bad for Jesus to come since He made them guilty? Of course not! His coming is what gives us life. His coming was darkness to them but light and love everlasting to us!
Just like where we read in Exodus how God’s presence was light to the Israelites and darkness to the Egyptians. Same presence. Different effect.
As Christ’s image bearers, we have the same effect. We are light to some and darkness to others because we are the image of Christ in this world and carry His presence. They will love us or hate us. We are the aroma of death to some and the aroma of life to others!
Jesus tells us that the world will hate us. If everyone loves you, then maybe you are missing something of Christ in your life!
We take on the life of Christ by being crucified with Christ. We lay our lives down for our friend who laid down His life for us. We give Him our lives. He gives us His life. We receive His life by the Spirit poured out, our guarantee of being hated in this world, but also of producing abiding fruit to everlasting life.
Lesson 43
I read Genesis 37:28 Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
and it made me think of
Psalm 40:2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.
Joseph was delivered from the pit, the horrible pit. The pit was as much God ordained as the deliverance from the pit. The pit saved his life. Joseph’s brothers were talking of killing him. The eldest brother suggests the pit instead. The trial of the pit was his deliverance from death. That older brother wants to bring Joseph back home, but the brothers still would have hated him and that hate would continue to want to birth murder. The trial of being sold as a slave was deliverance from his brothers’ plots against him.
The next trial is being thrown into prison based on a false accusation. Was that deliverance? It was deliverance from man’s plans into God’s purposes. The official Potiphar wasn’t going to give up his best worker. But there was more going on. The trials aren’t just for deliverance. They are for preparation. God had a job for Joseph and He knew how to prepare him for the task.
Being delivered from prison was also a trial, maybe one of the hardest Joseph had to face. Joseph had to stay faithful to his God when he was given great power and wealth and also married into the family of a priest to a false god.
But it all served a purpose. God used Joseph to spare a remnant alive. God made a promise to His people and it will come to pass. He will keep His people.
David is delivered for the sake of the people Israel as well. David is also set as ruler. They both knew God’s deliverance by trial. They both knew God’s preparation in the years leading up to their attaining position.
But God’s purposes aren’t just for the individual. They were both blessed by God. They were upright in heart and worshiped God. And God blessed them. But God also used them. They didn’t go through all that just so they could get a blessing. They brought others along with them into God’s blessing. God used them to save the lives of others.
We give our lives to the Lord not just so that we can be saved, but so that through our lives God can bring the many into His righteousness. We point people to the cross by our lives lived in the shadow of the cross.
Psalm 40:3 …Many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.
Amen. So be it Lord!
Lesson 44
I read Psalm 94:19 In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.
and it made me think of
Isaiah 11:3 His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears.
What do you delight in? Here it’s talking about delighting in God’s comforts and delighting in the fear of the Lord. Could they be the same thing?
What do you think of as the Lord’s comforts?
We can think of the nearness of His presence. We can think of the encouragement of His Word. We can think of answered prayers and seeing God’s fingerprints, seeing how He has His hand on your life and the situation. We can think of rejoicing and giving thanks in all circumstances and remembering His goodness and enduring love.
But what about the fear of the Lord? If the Lord’s comforts delight and there is delight in the fear of the Lord, could the fear of the Lord be a comfort?
I have often taught that the right kind of the fear of the Lord drives us to God, not away from Him. What is the right kind of fear of the Lord? What are we fearing?
We aren’t fearing punishment. Perfect love casts out the fear of being punished. Love covers a multitude of sins, and we’re forgiven.
We know that we are needy people, desperately needing God for all things. If He doesn’t sustain us, we die. If He doesn’t keep us, we sin and lose faith and fall away. If He doesn’t lead us, we’re lost. If He doesn’t teach us truth, we go after lies. We need Him.
Why is it a comfort to be so desperately needy?
Because God meets our needs and He is our God! Because God is always faithful and He is our God! Because God is completely trustworthy and He is our God!
Our God demonstrated His perfect love for us that casts out the wrong kind of fear by dying for us while we were enemies. That’s the love that chooses you. It’s not based on your goodness, but His. In fact, the more you realize you have no good and He’s all your good, the more you will delight in Him and delight in the fear of the Lord and delight in the comfort of knowing He is your God!
Lesson 45
I read Psalm 41:12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, and set me before Your face forever.
and it made me think of
Numbers 6:24-26 The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you,
and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
This famous blessing from Numbers 6 is prayed daily by Jews and Christians. We want, we need His face turned toward us. The light of His face is shining His glory. We reflect His glory when His face shines on us. We want to receive His blessing and pour it out to others. We need Him to keep us because the narrow way to heaven is impossibly narrow. It’s Jesus shaped, and we need God to keep us in Christ. And, of course, we want to live in His peace, dwell in shalom, with no lack, no striving.
We want that blessing, but what if we already have it?
Psalm 41 was written by David. He knew something. In his song recorded in Psalm 16, David says, “I have set the Lord always before me.” He’s looking at the Lord. He’s looking to the Lord. That’s our salvation, looking to the Lord. God says, “Look to me and be saved.” When David looked to the Lord, he wasn’t seeing the Lord’s back. He was looking into the Lord’s face. David knew how to sit and gaze on the beauty of the Lord.
But our salvation isn’t in our works. Our salvation is reliant on the Lord. We want our salvation dependent on God because we fail; He doesn’t.
But here in Psalm 41, David shares with us something he knows about God and His children, His chosen. The Lord sets us before His face.
The Lord keeps us where His face shines on us. The Lord keeps us in the place of blessing. The Lord keeps us in integrity. The Lord keeps us in the light of His countenance.
We receive the blessing of His keeping and His grace and His peace because we live in the light of the beauty of His countenance because He Himself puts us in the light and keeps us there.
He won’t let us out of His sight.
Jesus does it all. Jesus did it all. He triumphed over sin and death so that we could be transformed from glory to glory, from light to light, reflecting His glory, being transformed into the image of the Beautiful One.
Lesson 46
I read John 19:12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.”
and it made me think of
Daniel 6:14 And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him.
Here we have two “evil” leaders who are seeking to help God’s people escape punishment, but neither of them is successful.
King Darius in Daniel’s story is stopped by the leaders who remind him that the law cannot be changed. It would seem that fear of man won over fear of God.
We read specifically of Pilate’s fear of God. It even says he grows more afraid when the Jews say that Jesus made Himself out to be the Son of God. Both of these leaders want to release the prisoner, but neither can accomplish their purposes. Man wins the argument. The devil seems to win.
But no man and no devil can thwart God’s purposes. He will always accomplish His purposes.
There’s no frustration or regret when man seems to win, when things seem to go all wrong, even when you are found guilty of a false accusation!
Jesus recognized that Pilate had no real authority over Him. He knew that all authority came from above and He willingly submitted Himself to His Father’s purposes. He struggled and wrestled in prayer, but He submitted fully and willingly.
We don’t get Daniel’s reaction to what happens to him, but we know that he believed God delivered him because he was found innocent. Jesus is raised from the dead because He was found innocent. Justice is in God’s hands. He is righteous and He will make things right.
Is there anything you are fighting now, trying to make something right? Do you need to relinquish it into God’s hands and trust He is the one who makes things right? All our striving very often makes things worse not better, even if we accomplish temporary wins.
Our understanding is lacking. God’s the one with infinite wisdom and understanding. His ways are definitely not ours and we want it that way. There’s no regret to God’s perfect ways and the ultimate fulfillment of His good and perfect purposes.
Thy will be done, Lord! Be like Jesus, accept the cross for the glory it will bring the Father.
Lesson 47
I read Genesis 45:20 “Also do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.”
and it made me think of
Matthew 4:9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You…”
The Genesis quote is Pharaoh speaking to Joseph’s family. The Matthew quote is Satan speaking to Jesus.
I’m so used to reading Joseph’s story and focusing on how God prepared for this deliverance, how He worked all things out for good. But this verse from the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness came to mind this time through, and it gave me pause.
Pharaoh is a type of “ruler of this world,” a title given to Satan. He’s offering all the best of the “world” to God’s people, just as Satan was offering what he considered the best the world had to offer to Jesus.
Jesus doesn’t take up the offer. Jacob and his family, the Israelites, do, at Joseph’s encouragement. Were they right to do so?
It’s weird to consider that question. This decision is what sets up their slavery, which then sets up God’s deliverance. God told Abraham that his people would be enslaved 400 years in a strange land. I’m assuming that prophecy was known to Jacob. It didn’t mention Egypt, but it did strike me as I thought about the connection between these verses, that they gave up the Promised Land for this promise of a better land.
We have a saying, “A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.” They had a concrete offer. They followed after earthly wisdom. They could have said, “This is the land the Lord promised us, and we’re going to stay here,” and just sent the men each year to get more grain.
Is there any place where you’ve given up the future promise for what you can have in the here and now?
When have you given up on waiting on God and took what seemed like a great way out? It can seem like a cause for celebration when you come out of a trial, but if you didn’t look to God as your savior, and just solved your own problem with your own wisdom and in your own strength and ways, then maybe you are doing what humans do best and just multiplying the curse. Maybe giving up the temporal blessing for the future greater blessing is the way of living in God’s abundant life He has for us. Trust in the Lord. Don’t lean on your own understanding!
Lesson 48
I read John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace…
and it made me think of
John 15:11 I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
Why does Jesus say the things He says? We could say He wants us to have peace and joy. He is the giver of good and perfect gifts, and He certainly gives us peace and joy. But is that all? Let me point out a word found in both verses: in.
“In Me” and “in you” – there’s no “complete” outside of Christ. We must be in Christ; He must be in us. That’s how we can be complete. That’s how we can have anything good. Only God is good. We need Him.
What’s He doing by speaking to us, by giving us His word?
Listen to these verses from Ephesians 5. “…Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
He’s getting Himself in us and us in Him, not just today, but for always. He’s preparing us as His bride.
Let His words wash over you. He’s sanctifying you, meaning He’s setting you apart for Himself. He wants you to be His bride. Brides only belong to one groom. There’s just the two of you in the union. There can’t be another. He washes away our other loves, so that He will be our one and only, so that the union will be blessed forever and ever.
I live in a most blessed marriage, and it is pure joy, and it yields such peace. And that’s just an earthly marriage, though very much a supernatural marriage that God has ordained to experience divine unity and true love expressed. Our union with Christ is even more blissful. He’s ordained that in Christ we will experience divine unity and true love expressed and it will yield true peace and joy. If you will live in that oneness and receive His true love, it will be an unshakeable peace and joy because it’s from an unshakable source.
Receive His love. Receive His word. Let Him speak His words to you and take them to heart.
We know His word is trustworthy because He demonstrated the greatest love for you, laying down one’s life for a friend.
Lesson 49
I read Luke 1:79 “To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
and it made me think of
Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
The verse in Luke is from the prophecy given Zacharias concerning his son, John the Baptist, and the coming Messiah. The verse I quoted is specifically talking about Jesus in the prophecy.
In John 1 we read about Jesus bringing light to those in darkness, but He doesn’t mention the way of peace.
We could think about God’s word being a light to our path, but I want to look at these two paths Jesus leads us on. He guides our feet into the way of peace and in the paths of righteousness.
He’s not leading us all over the place. There’s only one destination, Himself. The way of righteousness is the way of peace.
It’s the cross that reconciled us to God. We were enemies of God. Jesus made peace between us and the Father. He’s brought us into unity.
God is holy and set apart and can’t be joined to sin. To be with God, we have to be holy and set apart with Him. We have to join Him in His holiness.
Being with God, that’s our peace. Shalom means complete, lacking nothing. In Christ we have everything. There’s no want for anything. If we are united with Christ, we are at rest. Peace.
But to be with God, at peace, we have to be holy, set apart to God, set apart from sin. Righteous.
Christ is our peace, and He’s also our righteousness. He becomes our righteousness and we become the righteousness of God. In baptism we are crucified and buried and resurrected with the life of Christ by the Spirit. Our life becomes hid in Christ and our good Father sees His perfect Son’s righteousness and not our sin. At the same time, He grows us up in Christ and we become partakers of the Divine nature as we put off the old and put on the new.
The good news? Jesus leads us and He leads us perfectly. He will keep us in the paths of peace and righteousness because He is the path of peace and righteousness. For His name sake, He will lead us; He will keep us. He will be our light and make sure we find our way home, to Himself.
Lesson 50
I read Genesis 8:7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.
and it made me again think of
Job 1:7 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
The raven was looking for a place to land and didn’t stop until it found one. It needed a place where the waters had dried up.
I’ve used this verse before, but the phrase “to and fro” made me think of Satan saying he went to and fro on the earth. He’s seeking out someone to devour. Who would that be? Someone whose waters have dried up.
When would a Christian’s living water dry up? How can that be possible? The Spirit, the Living Waters, will never run dry, but your outflowing can. If you have a river flowing through you, how could that river run dry? God’s not going to leave. But you can dam up the works. You can block its flow and the river would run dry.
How can we block the flow of the Spirit? What are the tools of the enemy? Sin, self, and the world. And he gets us blocked up in those areas through lies. He tells us that we know best, that we deserve better, that the world offers better, that things other than Christ will satisfy and meet our desire, etc. Or, on the other hand, he might try to convince us to be anxious and afraid, that we have to rely on ourselves because God’s not trustworthy, that God’s against us and abandoned us, that God’s not good and merciful, etc.
Lies, lies, lies. That’s why it’s the truth that sets free. The Christian life is about faith, about what we believe. That’s why Satan goes after it. He wants us believing lies. He’s not after our health and wealth. He’s after our hearts and minds. Those other things are just tools to mess with our minds, and if he can get us thinking a certain way, our hearts will follow.
The cross is the ultimate expression of truth, of God’s love, dedication, trustworthiness, goodness, desire to show mercy, and of the fact that He’ll stop at nothing to get you for Himself. So, we look to the cross. We look to Jesus. He is our salvation. He bought our lives because He loves us, because He alone was able, because He chose us, because He knows us, because we’re His children, His people, His treasured possession.
You are loved with an everlasting love. Don’t doubt it. Get to know the God of the Bible and believe the truth. It’s your freedom.
Lesson 51
I read Genesis 9:7 “And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.”
and it made me think of
John 15:16 “…I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…”
John 15:8 “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
The command to be fruitful and multiply for the New Testament believer isn’t about having lots of kids but about bringing forth fruit for the kingdom. We multiply ourselves through fulfilling the Great Commission, going, baptizing, and discipling.
Fruit isn’t numbers brought into the Kingdom. Fruit is the life of Christ produced in our lives. Baptizing and discipling will produce the life of Christ in others, producing fruit, but fruit means a lot more than counting hands raised.
It’s not just about bringing people into the Kingdom. It’s about the life of Christ formed, which includes the life of Christ being formed in you.
What does the life of Christ look like? It looks like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What do those things look like? They look like Jesus.
How do we bring forth abundant fruit? It’s what Jesus’ disciples do. He chose them to bear good fruit. It will happen. He will bring forth the abundant harvest. We just offer ourselves to Him.
Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. The branches don’t produce the fruit. They produce fruit by staying connected to the vine and letting the life flow through them to produce the fruit. The branch bears fruit by just drinking in the Water and holding its arms to the Son. And they keep their arms stretched out when the fruit ripens, offering it for the sake of others to be nourished and to take part in communion with the Vine.
And in that way, the Seed is passed on and fruit multiplies. Truly lasting fruit is fruit that multiplies and multiplied fruit is abundant fruit.
Lesson 52
I read Genesis 11:8 “So the Lord scattered them abroad…”
and it made me think of
Ezekiel 34:5 “So they were scattered because there was no shepherd…”
The first verse is from the story of The Tower of Babel. Why were they building a city and the tower so tall it would reach the heavens? They wanted to make a name for themselves. They also thought it would keep them from being scattered.
God says something remarkable about it. He says that nothing they set their mind to will be impossible for them.
Why is that a bad thing? Why does God intervene?
Because human hearts are evil apart from God. Their plans and schemes aren’t God’s good and perfect plans. What man is good at is multiplying the curse.
Our other verse is about the leaders of God’s people being the cause of the sheep being scattered. What did they do? They loved themselves instead of the flock. They were making themselves fat instead of feeding the flock.
They were building their own kingdom and building up their own name instead of building God’s kingdom and building up the Body of Christ. Ever know a church intent on growing its numbers, intent on attracting people to themselves? Are they making themselves fat while driving away sheep who aren’t interested in the worldly enticements that draw in the numbers?
As someone who was out of church for a few years, but not away from the Lord at all, I can relate to the Bible talking about God’s children being scattered by their shepherds. But it’s interesting to me to look at it in light of the Babel story. It was God who scattered them.
Why? He was protecting them from themselves. I bet He’s done the same with the church. We’ve separated and divided into so many groups to protect us from building our own city instead of looking for our heavenly city. It kept us from building the tower to heaven instead of needing God to get us there. We try. We still try, but in disunity, we keep dividing instead of getting as great as we might desire in our ambition. It’s the Lord’s mercy, even though it’s not His desire for us.
God will gather His children in the church just like He has and will with His children in Israel. He will make us one in His hand and we will be one flock, all the church, all Israel. By the blood of Jesus all the dividing walls get torn down, and we can and will be one in Christ Jesus, and He Himself will be our Shepherd who will always keep us with Himself.
Lesson 53
I read Genesis 22:2 “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
and it made me think of
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Reading Genesis 22:2, I felt the halting nature of the beginning of that line, with comma after comma, making certain, making clear. “Yes, this is really what I am asking. And yes, I want you to know that I know you love your son. I love My Son too.”
It was because Abraham loved his son that God asked him to sacrifice his son, his only son, the one he loved. God doesn’t ask anything of us that He hasn’t already done for us. He gave His Son, His only Son, the one He loved, to die for us. He sacrificed Him for us.
When God asks us to pick up our cross and die daily, offering ourselves as a sacrifice, it’s because He loves us. We give ourselves as a sacrifice because He loves us. You are the child He loves.
He doesn’t desire sacrifice. Jesus says it Himself. “I desire mercy not sacrifice.” Mercy, “chesed,” love, that’s the desire, that’s the aim.
Abraham had to sacrifice what he loved to ensure his heart fully belonged to God. We lay down our lives on the altar, we go to our deaths, to ensure our hearts fully belong to God.
He doesn’t need our love. He is love. We only love because He first loved us. But it’s because He loves us that He asks us to kill what we love, ourselves, not to destroy ourselves, but so that we can become who we were created to be, God’s image-bearers, holy and acceptable to God.
We were created for a purpose and we can’t get there clinging to this world. We offer our lives, all that we love of this world, on the altar of sacrifice, because we love God because He loves us and because we want to share His love with the world that God loved so much He gave His only Son to die for us, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but live forever.
Lesson 54
I read Genesis 39:3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand.
and it made me think of
Psalm 1:3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
The first verse is about Joseph. He is sold as a slave by his envious brothers. Joseph excels at all his work and is put in charge of the household, then the prison, then all of Egypt. What made him so good at everything he did?
In Psalm 1 we have a description of the man who prospers. The previous verse says that he delights in God’s law, meditating on it day and night. Because this person delights in God’s word and ways, he doesn’t get his counsel from the ungodly and doesn’t join himself with sinners and the prideful.
Because he turns to God and walks in His ways and not in the world’s ways, he is blessed, and so he prospers.
We don’t hear about Joseph’s relationship with God. But I can certainly believe that being thrown in a pit and sold as a slave would fast track his way to humility. We do see a glimpse of how he refused evil and walked in integrity to God’s ways when he refuses the seductive advances of his master’s wife.
Is it possible that pride was creeping in as he was in charge of everything? Was prison another blessing from God to help him on the way to prosperity? God is far from the proud but gives grace to the humble. God wants to bless His people. He will help us be able to receive and keep the blessing. We are good at turning blessings into curses through our selfishness and pride!
Joseph tries to help himself out of prison by asking someone to speak to Pharaoh on his behalf. He has to wait two more years to get out. We don’t save ourselves. True humility is about relying on God and not ourselves because we know we can’t but He can. Joseph tried to help himself. It didn’t work. He had a little more humility to learn.
But God’s intentions were good. God blesses the man who looks to Him and His word. God wants to bless us but He loves us. He wants us to be able to receive and live safely in the blessing. When Joseph is elevated over all of Egypt, he was ready to handle it without losing his faith. God had perfectly prepared not only the blessing but Joseph to be able to handle it.
In perfect obedience to God’s word, Jesus clothed Himself in humility and prospered, overcoming death for us all.
Lesson 55
I read Genesis 41:1 Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the river.
and it made me think of
Psalm 105:19 Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.
This verse from Psalm 105 is talking about Joseph. What word was Joseph waiting on to come to pass?
God had given him dreams of his family bowing down to him. More than twenty years pass between the dream and seeing it come to pass. The last seven of those he was in his position over Egypt. That may seem like that was the point the trial ended, when he was released from the prison he was unjustly thrown into after being unjustly sold as a slave. But the blessing can be a trial. He had to hold onto faith in God when in a position of great power and wealth and married into a family that worshiped false gods.
Joseph never turns on God, never accusing God of doing him wrong. He holds onto the faith of his fathers. The word was testing him. It tested him until the time came to pass.
There was a time for the trial to end. The test had to pass and he had to pass the test. But he did. He held onto hope.
God wasn’t absent during the trial. People say that the teacher is silent during the test. That’s not necessarily the case. That can be a test, but God walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death. That’s why we can not fear. He’s with us. He hadn’t abandoned Joseph for decades. Joseph walked with God the whole time. He stayed connected by faith. And the Lord prospered him for it. Joseph could see the Lord’s hand prospering him.
God was remembering Joseph and Joseph was remembering the Lord. Joseph acts with integrity. It wasn’t always easy. He had his moments. But he held on to the Lord.
What’s the word that’s testing you? What promise are you waiting on? For freedom from sin, for children to be saved, for a need to be met, for the nations to come to Christ, for Christ’s return…
The truth is, it’s all “yes and amen” in Christ Jesus. We aren’t waiting on anything. It is finished. We lack nothing. Every need is met in Christ. We walk by faith in His completed work. Yes, circumstances change, but the fulfillment of the promise is assured, and we don’t have to wait and wait on God. He’s already come through. We can walk in the joy of the fulfilled promise. We don’t live in the grind of the test, but in the rejoicing of having already overcome.
Lesson 56
I read Genesis 49:11 …he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.
and it made me think of
Revelation 7:14 …“These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Is this a surprising one? The verse in Genesis is from Jacob blessing his sons before he dies. All the future tribes of Israel have a word spoken over them. Jacob says, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days.” The phrase, “last days,” struck me as I read it. Maybe that helped prompt me to connect Genesis to Revelation, but the connection is obvious.
If you have ever spilled grape juice on fabric, you know that it’s not the easiest thing to wash out. Grape juice stains. It’s the opposite of what you would want to use to wash something, certainly not something that should be white! Blood, of grapes or bodies, is not going to clean but to stain.
Yet here, it’s exactly what is used, not only to clean but to make white. How startling would that have sounded to the sons of Jacob!
There is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. There’s no atonement, no forgiveness, no wiping clean the slate, no spots removed.
We have a wedding invitation. It’s for the wedding of the Lamb, but it’s only for guests who are dressed appropriately for the occasion. Only those with white garments are able to attend. We need to look like Jesus.
As John points out in his gospel, Jesus, when transformed, is wearing clothes that are brilliantly white, whiter than any launderer’s soap could make it. We can’t by any human effort have the spotless white garments of a wedding guest. All our righteousness is filthy rags. The best we can offer is filthy and worthy of being tossed out with the rubbish.
There’s only one way to clean and it’s through the blood, the wine poured out. The blood of Christ was shed as an atoning sacrifice, a payment for our sins. Our debt, our list of sins against the Almighty, pure, and holy God was wiped out. It was as if it never happened. God removes our sin from His sight. They get tossed into the sea.
We are forgiven, cleansed, made new. On the cross, Jesus had been stripped so that we could be clothed. He makes all things new and makes us holy and blameless in His sight, dressing us in spotless garments fit for a bride.
Lesson 57
I read Exodus 1:10 “Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.”
and it made me think of
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Here we have the devil shrewdly tricking Eve in the Garden of Eden and Pharaoh shrewdly plotting to enslave God’s people.
Did their shrewdness work? The Hebrews are enslaved and it will lead to the death of their infant sons. They do still multiply, and God Himself will fight against Pharaoh and win.
Satan certainly tricks Eve into breaking God’s commandment and introducing sin into the hearts of all humans. It was a crushing defeat for humanity, but leads to the ultimate victory of Christ on the cross, defeating sin and death.
No matter the plots against us, God gets the final victory, no matter the battle wounds faced along the way. God’s ultimately in control and working out His glorious purposes.
But then we have this interesting thing where Jesus tells His disciples to be shrewd as serpents. He’s certainly not encouraging us to be like the devil. What is good about being shrewd?
We can’t look at the devil or Pharaoh for our examples, but we can look to Jesus and Paul. Paul uses his citizenship to escape a whipping. He realizes that his audience is from two different factions and gets them turned on each other instead of all turned against him. Jesus perceives when his questioners are really trying to trick Him and responds with questions of His own.
God stays in complete control. He doesn’t allow others to manipulate Him. Jesus went to the cross because He laid down His life. He says Himself that He could call on angels to rescue Him, and they would, because they would obey God. Jesus doesn’t do this, though. Instead, He gives Himself over. He didn’t succumb to their plot. Their plot fell in line with God’s own plans.
Jesus knew He had to die on the Passover. The Jewish leaders decide not to arrest Jesus during the Passover feast to avoid a riot. God, not the Pharisees, gets His perfect timing and Jesus becomes the perfect Passover Lamb sacrifice we needed to be made free from sin.
Christ is our wisdom. He is our everything. He is your source of shrewdness for God’s good purposes and His glory alone.
Lesson 58
I read Exodus 1:12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.
and it made me think of
Acts 8:1 …At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Satan is not creative. He has his ways of doing things and he does them again and again. He afflicts God’s people. He will persecute them. He steals, kills, and destroys. We know the things he does. But all that the enemy intends for evil for God’s people, God uses for good.
God’s people multiplied and grew when they were afflicted. The same things happened with God’s children in the Church.
In the next handful of verses of Acts chapter eight, we read how the persecution scattered many of the Christians and they “went everywhere preaching the word.” The affliction spread the gospel. We also read that they were effective. We’re told that “the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip.”
God accomplishes good out of everything. It was for the good of His children, which included both those being scattered and those being saved!
If you are filled with God’s Spirit, which is a spirit of love because God is love, then you have in you a compelling to see others come to know the love of God. The love of God compels us. It moves us to love God and love others because we have been so loved. God gave His only Son. The Son was obedient to death for us, sinners deserving of death.
Let me go back and point something out from the verses. God’s people are afflicted and they multiply and grow. This is true of all of God’s children. The church grows because the people are scattered. God had told them to go and make disciples in Jerusalem and then in Judea and Samaria. Now, that’s where they were going to go and preach. The church grows.
But some people don’t flee when there is persecution. The apostles. It says, “except the apostles.” They stay in Jerusalem.
There’s more than one way to grow. The Church doesn’t just grow in numbers. If that’s all the church does, we’re in trouble. We need to grow up in Christ. We need to grow into maturity. As a Body, we need to grow into the full stature of Christ. The persecution has a point. God is good all the time.
Lesson 59
I read Exodus 14:20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.
and it made me think of
2 Corinthians 2:16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life…
Believers should be like Jesus. To some Jesus was a cornerstone foundation and to others a rock of offense. Jesus showed up for the Israelites as a light to guide them, but His same presence was darkness and obscuring the path of the Egyptians.
As believers we can have the same dual presence, light and darkness. Paul calls it the aroma of death and the aroma of life.
How can believers, who are the light of the world, be the aroma of death? The aroma of life leading to life is easier to understand. We bring the light and love of Christ everywhere we go by the presence of God in us by the Holy Spirit. We speak words of life. We show kindness. We share the gospel.
But the aroma of death? Our same good works that glorify God can condemn others. The same kind words that uplift one can grind on the nerves of someone else. The gospel message offers life, but to those who love their sin, it’s a message of hate to be rejected. Oil and water do not mix. There is no fellowship between light and darkness.
To those in whom a spark of light has been given by the Holy Spirit, your light is a lifeline, a calling home to something longed for and sought. To those who have loved self and rejected the idea of goodness outside of themselves, it’s a message of self-loathing.
One can see God as perfect and selflessly loving and absolutely worthy of all praise and another sees the same God as a megalomaniac just in love with Himself and needing everyone else to love Him too.
What can we do? We can only be like Jesus. We walk among them, bearing the name and image of Christ, and we love fully and freely. Heart work is God’s work. We show up. He does the work of reaching people in dark places with the light of Christ. We share the news that God so loved them all that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for their sins, so that whoever believes in Him and His atoning sacrifice to pay the guilt price of our sin will have everlasting life, and the light of Christ and His sweet aroma will enter them forever.
Lesson 60
I read Exodus 16:8 …the LORD hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD.”
and it made me think of
Psalm 55:17 NASB Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and moan, And He will hear my voice.
In the NKJV, which I have been typically using for these, the word complain, in the psalm, is translated pray. Another synonym for pray in Psalms is to cry or to cry out.
There’s a place for complaint. It’s not to others. We don’t complain and murmur among ourselves. That’s destructive. Complaining is a tool of Satan to steal, kill, and destroy.
On the other hand, God can handle our emotions. Going to God with our complaints, not mocking Him, but expressing our hearts, is okay. He can handle it.
We don’t want to complain to God. We want to give thanks always and for all things. We want to speak to Him with reverence. We want to treat Him as holy.
But He understands. He hears our hearts. He can hear past the noise of complaining and answer the prayer of a broken heart that He deeply cares for.
Now, let’s go back and look at those other complaints. The Israelites were complaining against their leaders. Moses tells them they are complaining against God. Why are you complaining against God when you are complaining?
Because He ordained this day. He ordained your circumstances. If you are God’s child, co-heir with Christ, called according to God’s purposes, God’s working good from your circumstances. He is a good Father. He loves you. He is doing His redemptive work in your life.
Complaining about your circumstances is telling God He made a bad choice. It’s telling God He’s not perfect. It’s telling God He’s not trustworthy. It’s telling God He’s not wise. It’s telling God He’s not good. It’s speaking all sorts of lies. It’s cooperating with Satan.
Complaining against people is all that and worse because you are complaining about God’s work in other people’s lives. Especially within the church, these are God’s image bearers. They may need some polishing up for that to shine through, but He’s working in them, just like He’s working on you. He will complete the good work, in both of you. Be grateful for how God is using them in your life!
We should be thankful for all things. All things have been freely given us by the One who freely gave His own Son. We lack no good thing. The Lord is our Shepherd. I SHALL NOT WANT.
Lesson 61
I read Matthew 17:20 …if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
and it made me think of
Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Jesus tells the disciples that nothing will be impossible for them if they act in faith. Jesus also says that it’s impossible for man to be saved. Which is true?
It’s impossible for God to lie. Jesus is the truth. Both statements are true. How can nothing be impossible for the disciples and salvation be impossible for the disciples?
“With men this is impossible.” With whom are all things possible? With God. With God alone are all things possible.
How then can all things become possible for disciples of Christ? With God. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Jesus says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Can His disciples do nothing or all things? Yes! Alone, nothing. With God, all things.
With man, it is impossible. With God, it is possible.
We can’t just decide what we want to believe to happen and make it happen. We have to know it will happen. That kind of true faith only comes from God. We can’t will things to happen. He can say the word and the world forms itself. He has the power to make it happen. He partners with us through prayer and faith.
We can believe for anything, but He is the author of faith. He shows us what we can know is true. We stand in faith by knowing God, by knowing He is true and faithful and His Word is sure. We can trust and stand firm in faith and see all things as possible.
Get to know God. Get to know Christ in you. Get to know the faithful promises of Scripture. Don’t quote Scripture trying to stir up faith or cause something to happen. When God gives you faith, you will know it. You won’t have to declare it. There’s no work to faith. It’s just being still and knowing He’s God.
God is the giver of faith. Rely on Him and rest. Be still and rejoice, knowing all of God’s faithful promises are possible for you.
Lesson 62
I read Exodus 10:4-5 Or else, if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field.
and it made me think of
Joel 2:25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.”
God sends the plague on every tree. What do we know about trees in the Bible? We’re compared to them. In Psalm 1:3 and Jeremiah 17:8 we’re compared to trees planted by the waters. Jesus talks about us being branches that produce fruit. John the Baptist and Isaiah talk about God cutting down what produces bad fruit.
What about when the fruit is eaten up by locusts? What do we do then?
God acknowledges that He sent the locusts. In both cases, He’s saying that He’s doing it. He’s sending the locusts. They were His army at His command.
Think of the story of Job. Was it Satan or God who sent all those things on Job? God is the one who suggests Job and chooses the boundaries of the attacks. Satan carries it out.
Does Satan want to steal, kill, and destroy? Yes, he is predictable. God knows what he will do. It’s all firmly in God’s control. But in the life of a believer, in the life of the elect, God will send troubles. Paul lists his many troubles from being beaten to being shipwrecked and even to being cold and hungry. He says that God allowed it so that he would learn to rely on God and not himself. God was also helping Paul not be proud of all the revelation he received.
God was protecting Paul and those he would minister to by sending the troubles. God’s intentions are always good and loving.
But we have promises that come along with our troubles. He delivers out of them all. He Himself will restore what the locusts have eaten. He sent them, but when His perfect purposes are accomplished, for your good, He will make things right, make things new. He delivers. He redeems. He restores.
God allowed His own son to be beaten, tortured, and killed. He did it because He is good and loving. He was loving Jesus and He was loving the rest of us. He restored Jesus through the resurrection and redeemed it by placing Jesus as the head of all creation. Not to mention the redemption of our own lives. His intentions are always good and loving. He is perfect in all His ways.
Lesson 63
I read Exodus 10:2 “and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”
and it made me think of
Egyptians 14:4 Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.
For God so loved the world…He loves everyone. In the first verse here we have God showing His signs so that His children, the Israelites, would know that He is the Lord. To know God is eternal life, so knowing Him is a big deal. God desires all to be saved, so He wants to make Himself known.
But God didn’t just love the Israelites. He wanted the Egyptians to know that He is Lord. He loved the Egyptians. He loves the whole world. His purposes are gloriously good. He wasn’t seeking to destroy Egypt. He was seeking to save Egypt. Some of the Egyptians learn the fear of God and are saved because of it. We read about the plague of hail for instance. Some feared God and believed He could and would send the plague as He said, and they brought in their cattle and workers, which protected them from being killed by the hail.
He created people to love them, not destroy them, even Egyptians, even you and me.
Jesus said that if He is lifted up, He will draw all to Himself. He was lifted up on the cross for us all. 1 John 2:2 says that His blood paid the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. He desires all to be saved because He so loves the whole world.
His intentions are good. His intentions are loving. God’s purposes are glorious. He is only ever doing what is right and perfect. Recognize that God’s works are only good works. His heart is to reach your heart. Thank Him for the troubles. Thank Him in all circumstances. And rejoice always. You have a good God who loves you enough to move heaven, earth, and hell on your behalf, to get you to know Him and be saved.
Lesson 64
I read Exodus 16:18 So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need.
and it made me think of
Mark 8:19-20 “When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” “Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?” And they said, “Seven.”
God’s people suffer no lack. We see that in more ways than one. In Exodus the Israelites are gathering up manna, God’s daily provision of bread for forty years. He provided for every family what they needed. There was no lack but also no extra. The need was perfectly met.
In the second verse, Jesus is talking to His disciples. They had two experiences with Jesus of feeding a multitude. The one time seven loaves turned into seven baskets for them and the other time five loaves turned into twelve baskets for them, as well as feeding thousands.
Was there a lack when there was only seven baskets for the twelve disciples? No, of course not. Why was there more bread left over for the disciples when they fed the five thousand? If you go look at the context, you’ll see that the disciples weren’t even able to eat because the people were coming so continually seeking healing. Jesus suggests they go to a secluded place. When they get there, a multitude of people follow. There’s still no time to eat. The disciples give up what they do have and serve others, and they end up with more as a result. There’s enough for them each to have a basketful.
But the disciples didn’t only not suffer lack in receiving ample provision for themselves. They suffered no lack in what they had to provide for others. God met the need for their ministry.
There is lack in this world, but there is no lack for God’s children. Our family has experienced God providing food, strangers showing up at our door with fruit, veggies, beef, and cake! And our family has experienced God providing money from it showing up in our bank account to strangers handing us money. God meets needs. But He really does more than that. God provides cake too! He’s a good Father.
Jesus gave up His life so that we could have life. Jesus gave us all the riches of the glories of heaven so that we could have all the riches of the glories of heaven. He meets needs, yes, but He also gives an abundance. Jesus came that we might have an abundant life!
Lesson 65
I read Psalm 68:20 Our God is the God of salvation; And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.
and it made me think of
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Escapes from death belong to God. What a great phrase. The wages of sin is death. We needed an escape, and God provided the way.
The way of escape isn’t an open door to slip out of. It’s Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the way.” He is the way of escape. Jesus is our ark of safety. He’s our shelter, our strong tower, our fortress. All of it. He’s what we need.
He not only delivers out of every trouble, causing us to escape from all sorts of troubles and catastrophes, but He delivers us from sin. We pray in the Lord’s prayer to be delivered from evil. He delivers us from sin.
Jesus came to take away the sins of the world. That’s what the Bible says. The cross of Christ wasn’t just so that we could be offered forgiveness. Jesus took our sins on Himself. He took away our sins. Jesus came to set us free. If you are living in bondage to a sin, you can be free in Christ Jesus.
Ask Him to help you hate the sin. When you hate it and want it gone, ask Him to take it away. You have to want Him to take it away, and you have to choose it. You don’t get to keep choosing your sin, justifying yourself by saying that God hadn’t taken away its draw. You say no to temptation, looking to God to help you, believing He is the way of escape and empowers you to overcome.
Our salvation is in believing our salvation. There’s nothing to boast of in getting free of whatever sin or habit has us in bondage. It’s all the work of Christ in our life. It’s all a work of grace. We go to God in prayer and put off the old man, remembering that he was crucified with Christ and that we have been cleansed of our former sins, and we put on our new man, remembering that in Christ we are a new creation and can become partakers of the divine nature, created to be like Christ in this world, walking in light and love just as He walked. We give ourselves over to God to make it our reality. We say no to sin, self, and the world, and yes to God. We choose Him over and over and one day we realize there is no choice, because your new heart automatically chooses Him. And you are free!
Lesson 66
I read Exodus 35:2 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
and it made me think of
2 Corinthians 1:9 (ESV) Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
The first verse here is one of the ten commandments. It’s the command to rest on the Sabbath. It says that whoever works on the Sabbath will be put to death.
The second verse is from a letter Paul wrote. He’s talking about himself and his ministry companions. In the previous verse to what’s quoted above he was talking about all the afflictions that came on them. Things got so bad, they thought they were going to physically die, but God had another death in mind.
Paul teaches that we are free from the law. He doesn’t teach we’re to obey the ten commandments. (Jesus, by the way, commands His disciples to make disciples by teaching them to obey all He taught, so to avoid being hypocrites, something Jesus taught against, we need to obey all Jesus taught.) Jesus never taught the Sabbath law from the ten commandments, but He does teach all the other commandments.
What’s special about the Sabbath? It existed outside of the law. Before there was a rule about it, there was the concept of resting when the work is done. When was the work done? Here’s a hint. “It is finished.” Jesus said that and then died. The work was done. Jesus had come into the human experience, lived the perfect life that we couldn’t, and died as the perfect once-and-for-all sacrifice that we needed.
What does it mean that the work is finished? We don’t have to work. We are saved by grace and not by works. We are to not work but to rely on God for our salvation and for the salvation of others. Paul had to learn to rest when he was learning to “rely not on ourselves but on God.” He had to learn that his education wasn’t what was needed, that his skills were not what was needed, he himself was not what was needed. The Spirit had to move through Paul or all his work didn’t work. It wasn’t accomplishing eternal glory without the Glorious One doing the work.
Paul had to die to self to live as Christ. And he learned. He would say, “I no longer live but Christ lives in me.” He had worked when it was Christ’s mission being accomplished. He had to be put to death. He surrendered his life into God’s hands to carry out His perfect work, Paul’s “death” to bring many into life.
Lesson 67
I read Exodus 34:24 For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year.
and it made me think of
Proverbs 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.
The first verse there is God speaking to Israel about the feasts. He promises them that when the men are required to congregate in Jerusalem for the feasts, their land will be safe. God will make sure no one will attack and plunder while they are away. How will He do that? He will make sure no one will covet their land while they are going. He will keep their hearts from sin. God can keep a heart.
God can turn the heart of a king, however it is best to be turned. When God wants His people restored to their land, He turns the heart of the king and the people go home. God can move a heart.
John will tell us that the whole world is under the sway of the evil one. That doesn’t keep God from being the ultimate authority. God is all-powerful. We ascribe to God power and authority. Satan doesn’t have the power and authority. He “sways” the world through his deceptions. He’s a liar. That’s what he does, and he convinces people of lies. That’s how he sways them in the direction he wants them to go.
God, however, doesn’t stoop to low-brow tactics. Jesus is the truth. He is also the way. He will lead people into life because He loves people. And in leading people into life, He can keep a person from sin. What should your response be to that? “Lord, keep me from sin!”
Psalm 119 is a great psalm for praying that God would cause you to walk in the right way. And, of course, Jesus taught us to pray, “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.” He can do it. He can keep you from the wrong way, keeping your heart, and He can lead you into the right way, moving your heart.
God has all the authority. One of the ways we see the deity of Jesus is in Him saying that He has the authority to lay down His life and to take it up again. The cross was a choice. The heart of Christ was kept from sin and moved in all the ways of righteousness. He had placed his heart in the hands of His Father. We can too, but we can also trust that the Father holds the whole world in His hands.
Lesson 68
I read Exodus 13:3 And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
and it made me think of
2 Peter 1:9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
The first verse is spoken to the Israelites just before they are going to leave Egypt, just before the plague of the death of the firstborn is about to pass over them. They are urged to remember. They are to remember that it was by the strength of God’s hand that they were brought out of bondage.
Peter is writing to believers who are lacking in godliness and self-control. They weren’t remembering that they were cleansed from their old sins.
In baptism our sins are washed away; the old goes, the new comes. We then walk in faith, putting off the old man and putting on the new man, always remembering that we were cleansed and have been made new. We just have to believe it.
Our salvation is a work of grace. It’s God work. It’s God’s work to make us a new creation. Heart work is God’s work. He changes our hearts. Our work is to believe. We believe and by faith receive His grace to walk in newness of life. When the old life rears its ugly head, we, by faith, put it away, put it death, remembering that’s not our life. That person who gets offended, who gets angry, who gets impatient, who lusts after the things of the flesh or of the world, who is prideful, who is anxious, etc., is crucified with Christ.
Now, the life we live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God, who gave Himself for us. The cross accomplishes more than forgiveness of sins. His death gives us His life. By faith we live as Christ. By faith we walk in love and in light just as Christ did. It’s by His grace alone, but His grace isn’t just sufficient; it’s abundant.
Get to know Your great God who freely gives you all things, whose great promises make you able to become a partaker of the divine nature, who calls you into an abiding relationship where you are one with Him and rest in the knowledge you can do nothing apart from Him but all things through Him, because in Christ, by the hand of God, you have been delivered from your bondage, free from sin to become a slave of righteousness.
Lesson 69
I read Jonah 2:4 Then I said, “I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.”
and it made me think of
Psalm 31:22 For I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You.
The first verse is Jonah talking about being thrown into the sea. The waves are crashing over him. He thinks he’s going to die, but that makes him cry out to God.
David, in a tough spot, thinks he’s going to die. Things must not have been going well. But that makes him cry out to God.
God hears both their prayers. Jonah says, “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice.”
They both get delivered.
David knew God as deliverer, but he had a moment here where he’s looking with his eyes of flesh instead of his eyes of faith. But David knows God. He knows God as deliverer and cries out to him. God shows mercy and overlooks his hasty comment.
Jonah seems to know about God more than he knows God. David gazed on the Lord’s beauty. Jonah didn’t have that kind of relationship.
Jonah knows that the Lord is merciful. He doesn’t want to go to Nineveh because he thinks God is going to show mercy. But he’s not thinking God’s going to show him mercy. Jonah tells the sailors to throw him into the sea to cease its raging. There’s no statement of faith of God rescuing him. But God was way ahead of him. He had appointed a fish to be in the right place at the right time to swallow Jonah. That wasn’t a punishment. That was God’s mercy, graciously saving him.
But even though Jonah didn’t know God enough to rest in His mercy, he knew enough to cry out.
They both believed in a God who heard His children’s cries, who hears their prayers, who answers.
When Jesus cried out, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” His Father heard. He was poised for the rescue, three day and three nights in the “belly of the whale,” then deliverance from the tomb. God heard. He hears your prayers. Deliverance is on the way.
Lesson 70
I read Jonah 2:2-5 And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head.”
and it made me think of
Psalm 18:4-6 (ESV) The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.
The picture of the weeds wrapping around Jonah’s head and the “cords” entangling sparked this connection for me, but then I saw many similarities.
We have similar words from two very different men. Psalm 18 is a psalm of David. At the top of the psalm it says, “A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord.” In verse 19, David will say that the Lord delivered him because the Lord delighted in him. Psalm 18 is talking about deliverance from Saul, before David is even king, when righteous David wouldn’t even lift a finger against the Lord’s anointed even though he wanted to kill David.
Did the Lord deliver David because He delighted in David? The Lord delivers Jonah. Was the Lord delighted in Jonah?
We have two different servants of the Lord, one in submission, knowing he is pleasing the Lord, and one in rebellion, knowing he has run from the Lord.
They both have the same response in their trouble. They call on the Lord. Distress has a way of doing that for us. For us. Distress is a gift to us. It causes us to call on the Lord. The Lord wanted Jonah to return to Him. The Lord wanted to ensure David kept looking to Him for help and not to start relying on his own skill and strength, which of course the Lord gave him.
The Lord sends the distress as a gift, for our good. The Lord delivers from the distress, for His glory, which is His goodness on display.
Don’t lament your circumstances. Give thanks for the God-ordained troubles. They are a gift. We don’t seek trouble. Jesus prayed the cup be taken away, but then He went to the cross for the joy set before Him. We pray, “Lead us not into temptation (trials).” But then we joyfully follow the Spirit wherever He might lead.
Lesson 71
I read Luke 8:15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
and it made me think of
1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials.
The first verse is from the parable of the soils (or the sower). There are four types of soil. The good soil is the only one that produces mature fruit, fruit that’s able to be a blessing to someone else and pass on its seed and thereby multiply itself.
But even these mature plants have to wait for the fruit to mature to be of use. Jesus waited thirty years before starting His ministry. We wait with patience. There’s a reason it’s called “fruit.” The Bible talks about the patience of farmers. They have to wait on God to grow the plant and produce the fruit. There’s nothing they can do to truly make that happen, but what they can do is care for the soil. They can remove the thorns and the rocks, for one.
We partner with God in the work of soil preparation. Heart work is God’s work, but we do have a role. We hate the sin. We choose God. We need to be honest about our sin and confess it, not justify it. We have to recognize where we still love our sin. Face it, it wouldn’t be a temptation if you didn’t want to do it on some level! Eating something you find disgusting isn’t a temptation. You want God to change your heart so that you hate the sin, so it is no longer able to tempt you. You choose God, and ask Him to accomplish it in your heart. And you keep choosing God over self and sin.
This process will include various trials. If you need help hating your sin, God will help you hate it. Accept the process and wait under God’s heavy hand. Let the trial accomplish its purpose. Don’t just try to get yourself out of the discomfort. Wait on the Lord to do the work your heart needs. When it’s finished its work, He will deliver you from the trial.
And so we need patience. With patience we produce fruit. We need patience to endure the trial so that our heart soil will be good and we’ll be able to be a blessing to the nations.
Jesus endured patiently the womb, childhood, being a working man, persecution, crucifixion. He knew the joy on the other side. We’re also to find the joy as we patiently endure.
James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Lesson 72
I read Psalm 22:8 “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”
and it made me think of
Psalm 18:19 He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.
The first verse is from a Messianic psalm talking about Jesus’ death on the cross. People did mock just like that when the time came. They weren’t remembering this psalm, though I like to think that someone was convicted one day reading it and realizing that they were the mocker fulfilling that Scripture. They were saying, “If God really loved you, He would deliver you.”
Maybe they were thinking of other psalms like our other verse, where David is sure that God delivered him because God delighted in him.
Why does God save? Who does He delight in?
God delights in His children. He loved Israel because He loved Israel. He loves them with an everlasting love. All believers are part of Israel, God’s chosen people, children of God. We are loved, eternally loved, unconditionally loved. No outward circumstance will ever change that.
David, when in distress as recorded in Psalm 31, cries out that God has cut him off, but God saves him anyway. God still loved him. David didn’t have to stand strong in faith to get delivered. He was loved. God did delight in him. He was his child.
Children make messes, and the parents love them anyway. Sometimes those messes are in the name of wanting to be helpful or in wanting to give the parent a present. The parents find delight in it.
The psalmist in Psalm 91:14 says, ““Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him…” But we only love because He first loved us. We are chosen, precious, devotedly loved.
God demonstrated that love for us on the cross, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, the Father giving up for us His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him will have everlasting life – will be loved eternally.
Lesson 73
I read Numbers 11:1 Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp.
and it made me think of
2 Corinthians 5:9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
If it’s our aim to be pleasing to the Lord, what do we need to not do? We need to not complain. We are told specifically that complaining displeases the Lord. Hearing His children complain made Him angry.
Do you want to live pleasing to the Lord? Live a life of gratitude. A thankful heart that is thankful in all circumstances isn’t just one that thanks God for the good things each day. A grateful heart isn’t one that looks for the good in each day. A heart that always gives thanks is one that knows its Maker and Master.
Is there a good God ordaining your days? Is He in control? Is He working everything for your good? Does He know what’s going on and care? Does He love you devotedly? Does He have the power and authority to do as He chooses?
A heart that is grateful doesn’t just say thanks for what it likes and lament about the rest. A heart full of thanksgiving knows that everything is something to be thankful for because their good God chose it for His good purposes.
Do you want God to have His way in your life? Then give it to Him and be thankful for His choices for your life. They are good. He’s doing good. He’s not punishing you for your sins; He doesn’t deal with us according to our guilt (Psalm 103:10). “Bad” things happening aren’t us getting what we deserve. We deserve hell. Jesus paid our debt on the cross and we are justified before God. We not only have our guilt cleared, but we are given Christ’s righteousness. A perfectly righteous person is not punished for their sins.
The “bad” things are gifts to a believer. A BELIEVER. Believe that you have a good God who is bringing you home to Himself and using you in His redemptive plan to gather to Himself the people He loves. Give thanks for everything in your life, and in doing so, you are honoring your Father who is caring for you and perfectly shepherding you and growing you up into the image of Christ. Give thanks with a grateful heart – for all things, always.
Lesson 74
I read Numbers 11:4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?”
and it made me think of
Psalm 27:4 One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.
Do you see the connection? Though the real question is: what do you desire? What is your craving? David longs for the Lord. Is He your longing?
When you have a free moment, what do you do? If you had an afternoon to yourself and knew there would be no interruptions, what would you do? That’s what you are desiring.
We’re to live with one desire. Is your heart united? Or do you have a divided heart? Is there just one love in your heart? Is there something/someone you need beside Jesus? Is there something or someone you would say you couldn’t live without?
Those are all wrong. There is one thing we are to desire, the Lord alone.
David wants to sit with the Lord and just look at His beautiful face. He wants to sit with Him and ask Him questions.
Do you spend time with the Lord like that? Do you sit with Him just to be with Him, just to look at His beauty? Just to sit with Him and spend time together, not to accomplish, not to read or intercede, just quietly being together.
Do you go to Him with your questions or do you search online? Do you talk to Him and ask questions expecting answers? Those aren’t answers to prayer. This is not time for asking for things. I mean conversation with the Lord, sitting and talking with Him. Asking Him about things in your life or in His Word, just questions you have.
Ask the Lord to remove your other desires. They all need to be surrendered to the Lord. Ask the Lord to help you love Him alone. Then it’s His love that reaches out from you to others.
Don’t let anything or anyone become too important in your life; only One matters.
Only Jesus will love you, truly love you, in return. He’s the only one who can meet your needs. He’s the only one who can always satisfy. He’s already proven Himself, giving up His life for you, so that you could be reconciled in love to the One who created you, named you, and called you His own.
Lesson 75
I read Numbers 11:29 Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!”
and it made me think of
Joel 2:28 (Acts 2:17) “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
God’s Spirit is for everyone. Paul wrote that “He [Christ] died for all”. And Jesus said, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.” Those are from 2 Corinthians 5:15 and John 3:16.
Of course, not all receive God’s Spirit. The verse from Joel tells us that it’s YOUR sons, YOUR daughters, YOUR old men, YOUR young men. It’s not everyone. Who was he talking to? Who is you? It’s Israel. It’s for those who are part of Israel, those who are God’s chosen people.
All believers, even the Gentile ones, become part of Israel, grafted in, adopted into God’s family, and called God’s chosen.
Anyone can come into the family. It’s a grace gift paid for by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. The fact that it’s a gift means it’s unearned. It’s for the desperate and needy who are looking for rescue and glance God’s way. It’s enough. He’s near the brokenhearted.
Moses wished all would know the Lord as he did, but he didn’t see that happen. We seek salvation for all people because we know God’s heart is for all to be saved, but we won’t see all saved. It’s heartbreaking, but a day is coming, when the Lord will perfectly redeem all things and all will be made new, and everyone will know the Lord and live by the power of the Spirit. We will be a resurrection people.
We want as many people as possible to be part of God’s perfect design for how we are to live and love, because Jesus paid for their lives and because we love the people God loves. So make sure your heart is soft, compassionate, toward everyone. They are not too far gone for God to save. No one is rejected by God if they come in humility, in need. Jesus came to save sinners and that’s just what they are. Jesus came for them because He loves them. Love them too. Show them God’s love. Tell them about Jesus’ life given for them. And His Spirit will be poured into their flesh too.
Lesson 76
I read Numbers 11:34 So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.
and it made me think of
Philippians 3:19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
The first verse is from the Israelite’s wanderings in the wilderness. They complain about their angel food, their bread from heaven, their daily miracle that tastes like sweet fried bread! They want to return to their bondage because they had more food there. They were being directed, controlled, by their appetites, which were directing and controlling their attitudes.
The second verse is from Paul’s letter to one of the churches. He’s talking about people who are enemies of Christ. He may be talking about people who had been in the church. The have gone after their appetites instead of going after God. “Their god is their belly.” Their appetites, what they crave, what they desire, are the things that direct their steps. They aren’t compelled by the love of Christ. They are compelled by the thing they want. It can control their time, their money.
What was wrong with both of these groups? What was their downfall?
They set their minds on earthly things.
That’s a description of those who walk according to the flesh as opposed to those who walk according to the Spirit, in Romans 8. And Paul tells us that having a mind set on earthly things is death and that setting your mind on spiritual things is life and peace.
Are you thinking your way to life or death?
Going after a momentary fleshly pleasure is killing you. That’s the way to death, not life, because it’s choosing self and not God, who is life itself.
We’re to be putting to death the deeds of the flesh so that we can walk in newness of life.
We start with baptism, laying down our sinful lives and taking up Christ’s righteous life. Then we continue by walking in faith that it is no longer I who live but Christ that lives in me.
Our safeguard against becoming like those who chose their own destruction is our thanksgiving. Giving thanks is the antidote to a lot of things! We give thanks for all God has given us and done for us. We give thanks for the cross and the resurrection that redeems us into a spiritual kingdom, setting us free from this earthly one. We are free to live in the heavenlies, to not give thought to this world, but to think on things above, where we dwell with Christ!
Lesson 77
I read Psalm 138:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me.
and it made me think of
Job 1:11 “But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
We have two verses here talking about God stretching out His hand, but it’s for two very different reasons. Or is it?
The first verse is talking about being in the midst of trouble. This is a psalm of David. We certainly know lots of stories of the troubles David went through. But he believed that God would stretch out His hand and save him.
The second verse is obviously from the story of Job. This is Satan saying to God, “Stretch out Your hand.” Satan wants to inflict Job. He can’t. God has to stretch out His hand. When God stretches out His hand in this case, He’s moving the boundary that’s been hedging Job and allowing Satan to act on his life. Job will lose almost everything, but not his fear of the Lord, and God will stretch out His hand and restore it all double-fold.
God’s outstretched hand both caused the devastation and the restoration.
God tears down and destroys. He sends plagues and wipes out in His wrath.
Is He a God of devastation or restoration? What is accomplished by the hand of the Lord?
“To do you good in the end” That’s from Deuteronomy 8:16. God is only good. God is always good. He’s only and always going to be for your good.
God tears down to build up. “Demo day” is how a restoration project starts. Before the temple was restored, the debris had to be cleared out and thrown away. There’s a process to redemption and sanctification. It’s a finished work since our Head has already crossed the finish line, and so the body is sure to follow, but it’s also a work that He is doing and will complete.
God is at work making all things new. Don’t hide from His hand. Reach for it. It’s the one that stretched out and was nailed to the cross to demonstrate just how much He loved you.
Lesson 78
I read Numbers 15:39 And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined.
and it made me think of
Psalm 119:36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness.
Our hearts are inclined to idolatry, to other loves. We need His help to fix our eyes on Jesus, to keep our hearts united to love and fear God alone.
The second verse is a prayer asking God to do the work of inclining the heart to His word and away from things we might desire apart from Him. The first verse is a command to the Israelites to put a reminder before their eyes to remember the Lord’s commandments so that they walk in obedience.
But the thing about the Old Covenant is that man can’t walk in holiness. We break the covenant. We can’t walk in righteousness. God blesses us and we forget Him. We start thinking we’re pretty great. If we could live in our own ability to be righteous, we wouldn’t need a new covenant; we wouldn’t need the cross.
But we can’t. And so Jesus came and lived the perfect righteous life that we couldn’t and died the perfect death, the undeserved death on our behalf.
The story of Israel is a story of a chosen people who again and again turn away from their God and again and again are turned back to their God. The only way to have a faithful, unbreakable covenant is if God does the whole thing. And that’s what the new covenant accomplishes. God accomplishes for us.
He gives a new heart with His word written on it. He calls us holy. He sanctifies us. In fact, we’re told that Jesus becomes for us our righteousness and sanctification. That sanctification is our holiness. He sets us apart for Himself and calls us His own.
Even back in the Old Testament, that holiness was the goal. They were to remember the commandments to do that so that they would “be holy for your God.” That’s from the next verse.
In the natural, we fail to walk in His ways. We need the supernatural. We need the cause me. We need God to do the work. We need Him to hold us fast and to turn our hearts to Him.
2 Thessalonians 3:5 Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.
Lesson 79
I read Luke 10:16 “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”
and it made me think of
Numbers 14:43 “For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.”
How are you treating God’s servants?
If we reject the Lord, it means He will not go with us in His power. We will be defeated by our enemies, sin.
But we can reject the Lord by rejecting His servant. In our modern age, teachers have multiplied. Social media has given us all a voice, and people use it to pronounce their opinions and judgments. While I would caution you about teaching that is out there, I do want to caution you the other way as well. If the Lord has planted you in a church, then you submit to and respect the leaders the Lord has chosen to place over you.
I do want you to be in a church that values God’s Word as the authority, but I would caution you in leaving a church without the Lord’s very, very, very clear direction. Because the Scriptures say we are to be united, loving one another, bearing with each other, and certainly forgiving one another.
I was realizing just the other day in all its lists about unity and loving one another and to be at peace with one another and such, there’s no direction to trust one another.
We trust God. And that’s how we can stay when things aren’t right. We stay and pray and trust God. We trust God with answering the prayer, and we trust Him in the right now and the process to get to the fullness of the answer to your prayer.
Jesus paid it all on the cross. There’s no debt outstanding. If you want to consider your debt paid in full, then you must consider everyone else’s debt paid in full. No one owes you anything. We love and forgive fully and we trust God’s workmanship to bring about His beautiful design and ultimate good redemptive purposes.
If we don’t love the person in front of us, we can’t say God’s love is in us. Listen to those the Lord has placed as your teachers. He has wisdom in who He has brought into your life. We submit to Christ alone as our Lord, but we honor those who serve as our pastors and teachers and elders. And we honor all the brethren, fellow laborers in the cause of Christ.
And the Lord will bring us all the victory.
Lesson 80
I read Numbers 18:4-5 They shall be joined with you and attend to the needs of the tabernacle of meeting, for all the work of the tabernacle; but an outsider shall not come near you. And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, that there may be no more wrath on the children of Israel.
and it made me think of
Acts 6:2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.”
The first verse is about serving in the Lord’s house. There were two different kinds of servants mentioned, two different kinds of duties. The priests were to attend to the duties of the sanctuary and the altar. That was an important job. The atonement of the blood sacrifice turned away God’s deserved wrath! So that they could do their needed assignment, others attended to the needs of the tabernacle. There was work to be done. But the priests needed to be free to do their important task.
The second verse is a similar idea in the church era. This is very early in church history. The apostles had an assignment, a commission to preach the gospel. They were in danger of being sidetracked by other work that needed doing. Other workers come to do the work of serving and meeting needs, so that the apostles can focus on prayer and teaching God’s Word.
Each servant has a place to serve. They are all positions of honor. They all serve God’s kingdom. We’re to use our giftings to serve the Body. Gifts are for service. Numbers 18:7 says, “…I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service…”
We have what we have so we can use it for others. We don’t live for ourselves. If our gift is helping, then we help. If our gift is teaching, then we teach. God is the gift giver. It’s His choice what our area of service will be. We thank the perfect Gift Giver and we offer our gifts right back to Him in service of the brethren.
The only way to produce lasting fruit, fruit that will withstand the fire and produce reward when judged, is to offer your life to the Giver and allow Him to use your life as He chooses. It’s His life that produces good fruit, lasting, multiplying fruit.
What happened when the disciples stepped in and helped so that the apostles could preach?
Acts 6:7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Give your life and see what God can accomplish. Jesus gave us an example. He gave His life, and the world has never been the same.
Lesson 81
I read Numbers 22:22 Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the LORD took His stand in the way as an adversary against him. And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him.
and it made me think of
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
They are two stories of adversaries, but they are two very different adversaries. Peter is warning about the devil being the adversary of the believer. The first story is about the false prophet Balaam and God being his adversary.
God and the devil are both described as an adversary. What’s the difference? The difference is in whom they are against.
Balaam is on his way to curse Israel, sort of. That’s what he’s being hired to do. He won’t be able to because God stops him and controls the prophecy, but before that, God is showing up and getting in Balaam’s way. This is the famous story of the talking donkey. The donkey sees Jesus standing there. Balaam doesn’t at first. The capital letter Angel of the Lord that appears at times in the Old Testament, we believe is the preincarnate Jesus. Jesus is a warrior. We see the Mighty One with a sword strapped to His side in Psalm 45:3 and the Commander of the Lord’s Armies with a sword in His hand when He appears to Joshua (Jos 5:13).
Joshua asks Jesus if He is “for us or for our enemies?” He answers neither. He didn’t come as an adversary. He came to give instructions. He was for Israel’s obedience. Jesus isn’t always an adversary.
I would tend to think that Satan is always an adversary, that he’s always working against. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus is out to bring abundant life. Jesus only tears down to build up, only in goodness for His people and in carrying out God’s perfectly loving redemptive purposes. Satan wants to destroy. He is against you. God wants to bring you to Himself. He is for you.
And when the Angel of the Lord allows Balaam to pass, it’s only because He’s working all things together for good. The cross is the ultimate example of the adversary Satan getting his way but God using it for our good, everyone’s good, the ultimate good. He is for His children, never against us.
Lesson 82
I read Luke 11:54 lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him
and it made me think of
Psalm 37:32 (BSB) Though the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, and seek to slay them
The first verse there is about the Pharisees questioning Jesus. They weren’t seeking truth. They were out for blood. They were trying to lay traps for Jesus, to snare him in a net.
The second verse is David speaking, or maybe I should say singing. He had people lying in wait for him too, just like Jesus. They wanted to snare him and kill him. The religious leaders do end up killing Jesus. David escapes every trap.
David calls himself righteous. They aren’t out to get him because he did something wrong. The wicked hate the righteous. There is a battle of kingdom forces going on. If you represent the kingdom of light, darkness will seek to destroy you. But light always overcomes darkness. In fact, the darker it is, the more distinct the light is.
What did David know was true, even though the wicked lay in wait to kill him? Verse 33: “The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.”
The Lord will rescue His children. The Lord will defend His children.
The Father rescued Jesus as well. They were never able to trap Jesus in His words. He had the wisdom of God to respond to each attempt. Jesus overcame them. He overcame them in death as well. No one took Jesus’ life. He laid it down in obedience. And He raised it up again.
It doesn’t matter how well the trap is laid. God is King of the universe, and no plot of man will prevail against God’s purposes. God knows how to shelter and preserve His people. God will never be outwitted.
There is an enemy on the prowl. He wants to trick you. He’s laying traps. You don’t have the wisdom to outsmart him. But Christ is your wisdom. You have the Spirit of Wisdom. He knows the way out. In fact, Jesus is the way out. He is the way of escape. If you are in Christ, you live day to day, abiding in the escape route! No weapon formed against you will prosper because in Christ you escape all the plots of the enemy. You overcome in Christ Jesus by your victorious faith that keeps you abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in you.
We live free in Christ Jesus.
Lesson 83
I read Numbers 29:7 “On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall afflict your souls; you shall not do any work.”
and it made me think of
Isaiah 58:10 If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.
The first verse it talking about the Day of Atonement. This is a fall holiday on the Jewish calendar. Jews understand it as the day judgment is sealed. Your fate for the coming year is written into the books. Jesus’ death fulfilled the spring feast of Passover. The Day of Atonement is not fulfilled in Christ’s death but in His return. When His feet land on the Mount of Olives, fates will be sealed. Then God’s wrath will be poured out. It will be too late.
But what about that second verse? The second verse is from the chapter in Isaiah which talks about the fast the Lord desires. He didn’t want their sacrifices. He wanted their love poured out to others. But how can a believer satisfy the afflicted soul?
What will those need who are mourning over not understanding that Jesus was their Messiah? They will afflict their souls. What will they need?
They need Jesus. They need to repent, to change their mind. We show them where to set their mind. They need to turn from looking at their mistake to looking at the Savior, the Rescuer, the Deliverer. The mind set on the things of the Spirit is life and peace. That’s how we go from mourning to dancing!
So how can we satisfy an afflicted soul? We offer them Jesus. We share the good news that sins can be forgiven through the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Jesus’ death on the cross. We tell them the good news of being cleansed by His blood and the good news of the righteous life of Christ coming to dwell in us by the Holy Spirit.
Christ is our atonement. Our fate is sealed if we have the seal of the Holy Spirit in us. Since we are assured of our salvation, let us go with assurance in sharing the good news that others in mourning and affliction long to hear.
Lesson 84
I read Psalm 90:6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and withers.
and it made me think of
Psalm 1:3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
There are other verses that say the same thing as Psalm 90:6, such as Psalm 103:15-16, that man is like the grass, here today and gone tomorrow. But I thought of a verse that points in a different direction.
Our earthly lives may be but a vapor, barely a blip on the screen of eternity, but there is a way for man to not wither.
The difference is abiding in Christ or not. An earthly life ends with withering away and being tossed into the fire. There is no future hope for such a one.
But to the one who is connected to the Vine, the one whose roots go down deep in the love of Christ and who receives sustaining from the Living Waters, his leaf will not wither. He will prosper.
I was wondering about the leaf. The connection I think of is the tree planted by a river of water in Revelation 22 whose leaves offer healing to the nations.
There is life in the leaf, a life of peace, reconciliation, healing. There are many kinds of healing. God offers them all. They were all bought by the blood of Jesus. They will all be possible through the redemption, the all-things-being-made-new, because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
We are ministers of reconciliation in Christ Jesus. But we’ll only fulfill our role if we abide in Christ, if we surrender our lives over to the death, to take up the life of Christ in us.
Your life is a vapor. It’s here today and gone tomorrow. Even if you live to 100, your life on this earth is temporal. It will end. Lasting life is eternal life, and it’s only found in knowing Jesus. We have the privilege of bearing the name of Jesus and being His ambassador for reconciliation. Not for world peace through diplomacy, but peace with God and then man, only possible through the cross of Christ.
Lesson 85
I read Psalm 92:5 O Lord, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.
and it made me think of
Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
The Lord’s thoughts are deep and high. There’s no getting around them. We can’t think as deeply as God. We can’t think as lofty as God. We don’t have the capacity as humans to handle all the thoughts God thinks.
He will share His thoughts with us sometimes. But until He does, we don’t know. He opens our understanding to His ways, to His word, to our situations. We don’t know His word if He doesn’t give it to us. His thoughts are not ours.
I had a friend say to me once, “I just want one time to get straight from point A to point B. Why can’t God let me do that?”
I answered, “Because you make a terrible God and God is good and loves you.”
What did I mean? She wanted to set a goal and accomplish it. She wanted to get where she was going without detour or delay, troubles or trials.
God’s not as interested in our accomplishing as we are. He has a goal for us, but it looks like Jesus, not like our getting anywhere on this earth.
We don’t get to make the decision of where we’re going and how we’re going to get there. We aren’t God. We don’t know everything. We aren’t all wise and all knowing. We don’t know best. God does.
God is the one who orchestrates our lives, not us. You shouldn’t want to. You should want the Perfect One to make the decisions, not the fool (that’s you!). God is good and will only do what’s going to bring about good for you. That’s His plan, not yours. And God loves you so much, that He wants to do what’s best for you. He wants to give you Himself. We don’t gain the life, the nature, of Christ by things going smooth and easy. We transform from glory to glory through the struggle and the suffering, through trial and trouble. It’s bringing about a greater work of glory than our day going well according to our plans.
Jesus gave the ultimate example of good coming from the thing gone horribly wrong according to man’s plan. He died on the cross and defeated death and is bringing about an eternal kingdom. Man’s “good” plans would have stopped Him before the cross and tried to bring about a temporary kingdom. Aren’t you glad God’s thoughts are not ours?
Lesson 86
I read Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
and it made me think of
Isaiah 61:11 For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
These verses are about the Lord springing forth the new thing. We can always be looking for the new thing, but we need to learn to be content where we are and with what we have. The Bible says that we’ve been freely given all things. What are we lacking? Nothing. We have God Himself! We are filled with all the fullness of God. The Lord Himself is our shepherd. We shall not want. There’s nothing we’re wanting for.
But God Himself promises that new things are coming. He will cause them to spring forth. What new thing is God bringing about in the nations? Righteousness and praise is what He is springing forth.
Is that what you are desiring?
Your discontent should be longing for the nations to live in the righteousness of Christ and to praise the one true and holy God. That’s our longing. That’s what we’re to desire to see and be part of.
Be content with all that you have and all that God has called you to today and be excited for the new thing He is doing, the righteousness and praise He is springing forth among the nations to His glory.
May the nations praise the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world to bring forth His righteousness on this earth, that we might live in the blessing of it.
Lesson 87
I read 2 Corinthians 11:2 For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
and it made me think of
Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.
We are the bride. There is one who has claimed us as His own and calls us by His name. When Jesus returns, one of the feast fulfillments to come is the wedding supper of the Lamb. We will be one forever, with each other and with Jesus, with no flesh getting in the way of our oneness, our intimacy.
Jesus is our husband and we are being prepared as His bride. Paul is the one speaking in the first verse. He wants to present a blameless, spotless bride to Christ because that’s the only bride He will accept. But He, Himself, sanctifies us and cleanses us with His Word, with His blood shed on the cross, and with the water and fire of baptism.
There is only one bride and only one husband. Unity, complete unity is the goal. It starts with a heart united to love God alone. Tell the Father that you want to love Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and ask Him to accomplish it in you.
When we are loving God purely, we will love others purely. We can’t love anyone, but God loves everyone. It’s His love through us that loves others in our lives. It’s a selfless love that doesn’t love with expectation of return. It can pour out love without growing weary or diminished because the love is always perfectly being refilled by the Lord because the love is always truly being directed at the Lord, even as it is serving others. He alone is the object of our love. We love others because we are loving Him in doing so.
A married woman cares about pleasing her husband, and so we no longer live for ourselves but to please our husband, our maker, the one who makes us pure to be accepted as His own.
Lesson 88
I read 2 Sam 13:18 Now she had on a robe of many colors, for the king’s virgin daughters wore such apparel.
and it made me think of
Psalm 45:13-14 The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace…She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors.
We are our Father’s children and our Father is a king. In His second letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about presenting the church to Christ as a virgin bride. We are the virgin dressed in a robe of many colors.
In Psalm 45, she and her virgin companions are brought to the King with much gladness and rejoicing. That’s how we come into the Lord’s presence, righteous, robed, rejoicing.
The Bible also talks of us being dressed in garments of praise, of salvation, and a robe of righteousness.
We are to be a pure bride for Christ, and He presents us faultless before God’s throne with much joy.
Jude 1:24-25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
Paul didn’t have the power to present the church pure. But our God did and does. He has clothed us in Christ. He is bringing us into His majesty, to rule and reign.
Coming before our King, the Great Almighty God, is a joy. It calls for gladness and rejoicing. He has made us pure. Christ cleanses us by His shed blood. He presents us spotless before the Father. There is no shame, nothing to hide. Nothing to feel but joy and gladness.
Lesson 89
I read 2 Corinthians 9:10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.
and it made me think of
Isaiah 55:10-11 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
The first verse is a prayer for God to take what they gave and multiply the result in an abundant harvest, a heavenly profit from their investment. It’s a prayer that God would take what we give in righteousness, whether it be our time, money, energy, prayers, service, words, etc., and produce the fruits of salvation, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, righteousness, holiness, etc.
In the second verse God speaks of how He ensures that there will be a harvest and seed to sow by providing the rain and establishing all the cycles we learn in science class. God designed rain to go into the earth and designed plants to take up the water and to give off water, which can then return to the sky to do it again, but not without having accomplished its purpose. Those cycles that keep our world spinning and the sun rising every morning are there because God said the word, and if He says the word it comes to pass.
God’s word is righteous, and it’s producing fruit in our lives and in the church and in the world. It must. His word will accomplish its purposes. Not one word fails. He will send His “rain” to ensure it.
You can trust Him with your gifts, with all that you sow. He will water it and produce an abundant harvest.
Lesson 90
I read Isaiah 54:7 For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you.
and it made me think of
Deuteronomy 31:8 And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.
God says, “I will never forsake you,” and God says, “I have forsaken you.” What’s going on? How can God forsake His people?
How? Because He’s done it before.
“Why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus cries out on the cross. Did He mean it? Was it true?
In Isaiah 53:10, we read that it pleased the Father to crush His Son.
Is it God’s pleasure to crush us?
In Romans 8:17, we read that we will be glorified together with Christ if we suffer with Him.
God’s will is life. God’s will is healing and wholeness. God created a good creation. God’s design for us had nothing to do with suffering. Sin brought suffering into the world. But God allowed sin into the world for our benefit because His good creation chose self over God, and self is destructive. Sin shows us the consequences of our choices apart from God, shows us our desperate need for God, our need for a Savior so that we call out for a Savior and can be saved.
Jesus had to suffer so that we could be joined with Him. We have to suffer so that we can be joined with Him.
Why?
It pleased the Father to crush His Son because He so loved the world. He loved us enough to give His only Son as a sacrifice in our place. It was the only way; a perfect human had to take the punishment for sinful human. I do believe the Father turned His face away when Jesus became sin. I don’t think He could look. Did He forsake His Son? He never stopped thinking of His Son. Did He forsake Him even for a mere moment? Only in the sense that He was doing the most good and loving thing possible in that moment.
God is only good and His only motivation is only ever love.
This teaching is from my book Out of This World if you would like to read more.