Saturday 30 November 2013

Read Romans 2:4. Exodus 34:6-7

Why doesn’t God just zap everyone who commits terrible crimes? Why doesn’t He strike down the child murderer, the extortionist and the terrorist? Why doesn’t He unleash His anger and bring wrath against those who perpetrate evil against others? I have asked these questions many times myself. I’ve sat with dozens and dozens of believers who have asked these same questions as well.

The answer, in part, comes from Romans 2:4. God is rich in kindness, tolerance and patience. He is a God of love. He is a God who loves to forgive, to bless and to show compassion. God’s good character is meant to bring you to repentance. It’s there to give you the opportunity to turn around and to invite God into your life. When you do, you will find that He forgives you, renews you and accepts you totally. He will also dwell in you through His Holy Spirit and He will change you from the inside out.

But God is also a righteous God, a Judge who will exact punishment out to those who forsake or ignore His goodness and kindness. A time will come when His goodness and patience will be exhausted and His wrath will flare up and consume those who reject Him. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah stand as an example of God’s judgment. The flood of Genesis 6 stands as an example of His judgment. The exile from the Promised Land is yet another example. They all point forward to the final judgment in Revelation 20 where all who reject Christ are eternally condemned and are sent into the lake of burning fire and sulfur.  From this judgment there can be no reprieve!

Prayer:

ª Pray for the non-believers you know. Pray especially that God would prepare their hearts to receive Jesus as Lord and that He would be pleased to use you to bring Christ into their lives. 

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. Assess this statement - I’m going to sin anyway so why bother with all this obedience stuff.

2. A believer says to you, ‘God will forgive me anyway so I’ll just keep sinning and keep asking for forgiveness.’ How do you respond?

Friday 29 November 2013

Read Ecclesiastes 12:14. Revelation 20:1-15

A man was a prime suspect in a brutal murder, but all the evidence was circumstantial. Therefore the man was never arrested or tried for the crime. One night the man was traveling on an interstate highway. He became drowsy and pulled over for a short nap. As he slept, a truck loaded with logs came along. Just as the truck passed the man’s vehicle, the chain holding the logs in place broke. The logs fell on his car and crushed him to death! Was it an accident? Or was it the principle of divine justice doing what humanity’s system of justice could not do? No one can say with certainty, but it is worthy of thought.

We may avoid human judgment. We may avoid the courts. We may fool a lot of the people a lot of the time. But we will never get away with it. One day we will stand before God and everything will be revealed and reviewed by God.

The last verse of the entire book of Ecclesiastes really sums up the message of the book. It gives us the ultimate motivation for obeying God and seeking to please Him throughout all of life. Verse 14 reads, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”

God will bring every deed into judgment, even the hidden deeds we think we’ve gotten away with.

If we fear God we will live our lives seeking to please God. If we ignore God and don’t fear Him, we will find ourselves having to explain our actions to Him and then it will be far too late. But there is hope. Read tomorrow’s notes to find out what hope you have.

Prayer:

ª Pray that the reality of the final judgment would sink deep into our hearts and that we would understand what that entails. Pray that we would comprehend the eternity of those who keep rejecting God and that we’d seek to reach out to them with the love of Jesus. 

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. As you read the Bible you are convicted to do something you really don’t want to do. How should you respond?

2. If we disagree with something in the Bible, what can we do?

Thursday 28 November 2013

Read Proverbs 19:24, 15:33, 14:27, 9:10, 2:1-5

Solomon engaged in a search for meaning and value in life. At the end of his search he concluded, as we saw yesterday, with the words, ‘Fear God and keep His commands for this is the whole duty of man.’ While we might understand what it means to obey God, we have lost the meaning and value of fearing God.

Modern Western Christianity tends to treat God with contempt or over familiarity. Our prayers and singing have become more about us and our needs than about God and His character and attributes. We have adopted a freedom of speech towards God. Some churches now throw abuse at God and/or yell and scream at Him thinking that the louder you yell and scream the more you will be blessed. Another church stages wrestling matches on Sonday mornings as part of their “worship” to God. Other churches hide the Word of God and remove irritating things like the sermon and Bible reading. Others like to keep the Bible reading to a maximum of 5 or so verses.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  The fear of the Lord brings life and knowledge. The fear of the Lord protects us and guides us away from evil and sin. When the Bible talks about ‘The Fear of the Lord’ it is talking about an attitude of the heart that does not wish to anger or displease the holy and righteous God Almighty. It is the awe and reverence of standing in the presence of someone far far greater than ourselves.

Sadly we talk about our favourite sports stars and heroes with an air of reverence and awe. We defend their name against all detractors. Yet we say nothing when someone curses in the name of our Lord and Saviour. We speak of our God in half hearted terms often without respect or awe.  If only we could reverse this trend and pattern. If only we spoke reverently and in awe about our Lord and God and willingly defended His name against all detractors. If only our eyes lit up when we spoke His name like they light up when we speak of our sports heroes or favourite bands. 

How can we re-cultivate a fear of the Lord? Let’s start by praying for a right heart and a right mind before God.

Prayer:

ª Pray that God would allow us to understand and apply to ourselves the Fear of the Lord. Pray that this fear would bring holiness, godliness and Jesus-like love into our lives.

Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. Should we believe the Bible from cover to cover or should we be free to pick and choose the bits we believe? Please explain.

2. Some say that as long as you believe in Jesus you are saved. Anything else in the Bible is optional. How do you respond?

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Coming Up Sonday December 1:

Ecclesiastes 12:9-14

The Reality of Life

 Read Ecclesiastes 12:13. 1 Samuel 15:1-23

The prophet of God, Samuel, told newly crowned King Saul that he was to attack and destroy the Amalekites. God’s command was clear - destroy everything belonging to the Amalekites. Saul mustered 210,000 men and set an ambush. He defeated them in battle but rather than destroy everything, he kept the best sheep, goats and cattle. He even spared their king, King Agag.

When confronted by Samuel about his disobedience he tried to justify his actions by saying that the animals were kept as sacrifices to God.

In verses 22-23 Samuel’s haunting reply is given.

Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

²³For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

He has rejected you as king.”

The truth is clear. God loves and demands obedience from us. He doesn't want us to interpret the commands our way or to modify them to suit ourselves. God loves and demands total allegiance and obedience. Obedience is better than sacrifice! Even worse, disobedience is compared to the sin of divination and idolatry - sins which were punishable to death in Saul’s day!

We can thus understand why Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23 that it is not those who prophesy and do great miracles, or even those who drive out demons, that will enter God’s Kingdom but only those who obey God’s will. We understand why Paul says in Romans 1:5 that his mandate was to call Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

Obedience is the key to the Christian life. You can not and will not grow and mature and deepen in your love for God while walking in willful disobedience. Genuine spirituality, maturing in Christ and a life of sacrifice/worship all boil down to this single concept of obedience. That is why Solomon can conclude his search with the words, ‘Fear God and keep His commands for this is the whole duty of man.’

Prayer:

ª Ask the Lord to create a spirit of obedience in your congregation. Pray that God would break the chains of those who are bound to habitual sin or addiction. Pray that the Lord would bring freedom to serve and love Him.

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Read Ecclesiastes 12:11-12

When the Bible talks about “goads” we are tempted to keep reading without pausing to think about what God is saying to us. Do you know what a goad is? Do you know how it was used? Do you see the parallel between a goad and the Word of God?

A goad was a long thin pointed rod, sometimes tipped with iron, which a farmer used for driving or guiding cattle, especially his oxen in ploughing. The farmer used the goad to direct, to spur on and to encourage the cattle in the right direction.

“The words of the wise are like goads” means that God’s Word directs us and encourages us to go in the right direction. The Word of God spurs us on and guides us. The Word of God is the rod that God uses to keep us on the straight and narrow.

The Word of God is also described as ‘firmly embedded nails’. It pictures something that is fixed and immovable - a picture of the stability and surety of the wisdom given by God. 

Finally we are told that the words of the wise are given by one shepherd. This could refer to Solomon but it more probably refers to the Lord Himself who is the author of Scripture. The “words of the wise” does not refer to writings and sages of all religions for the surrounding nations had many sages and writings. God never encouraged His people to indulge in these writings. Rather the passage is referring to that which was revealed and given by God Himself to His people.

Prayer:

Pray that your congregation would see the Word of God as it really is, the Word from the Lord and not from mankind. Pray that there would grow a deep, reverent respect for the Word of God.

Monday 25 November 2013

Read Ecclesiastes 12:9-10. 2 Tim 3:16-17

A particular “evangelical” (which means Bible believing) website posted these words, “If Jesus as a finite human being erred from time to time, there is no reason at all to suppose that Moses, Paul, John [sic] wrote Scripture without error. Rather, we are wise to assume that the biblical authors expressed themselves as human beings writing from the perspectives of their own finite, broken horizons.” What they are basically saying is that it is highly possible that the Bible contains errors.

If the Word of God is not infallible and inerrant then a host of problems arise. How do we know which bits of the Bible are true and which bits aren’t? How do we judge between the various bits of the Bible? Do we call in an outside arbiter like science, logic or reason? How do we know which bits are allegorical and which bits are literal? Who has the ultimate say?

If the Bible contains errors then we believers have no surety. We have no foundation on which to build our life. We have not solid foundation on which to stand. Reading the Bible becomes guess work in which I determine the bits I want to believe and the bits that I don’t want to believe. The Bible quickly becomes about me and not about GOD!

2 Tim 3:16-17 says that all Scripture is inspired (literally God-breathed). It means that every Word of the Bible has been spoken out to us by God. Can God breathe out error? Can God speak what is false?

Over and over again the Word of God affirms that it is true, inerrant and infallible. Read Proverbs 30:5, 2 Peter 1:21 as well to help you see what the Bible says about itself.

The question is whether or not you and I believe the Word of God to be true in its entirety.

Prayer:

ª Ask the Lord to bring a deep seated conviction to everyone in your congregation that the Bible is inerrant, infallible and totally true from cover to cover.

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. How does today’s passage account for older non-believers who come to faith in their old age?

2. Can you explain today’s passage in you own words?

Saturday 23 November 2013

Read Isaiah 40:27-31. Ephesians 2:8-10

In times of illness or during aches and pains we can cry out bitterly to the Lord. We can wonder why He doesn’t hear our cry. The nation of Israel was bitterly complaining to the Lord that He had forgotten them. They wailed and wept in His presence.

But the Lord answered with hope. Those who hope in the Lord, those who trust in Him would be strengthened and renewed. Those who hope in God will soar like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not grow faint. God will strengthen His children to do the work which He has called them to do. In fact, we could argue that God will strengthen you to do all the work that He has prepared for you to do and to which He has called you.

This by no means implies that we can’t take holidays or have a rest from our work in the Lord. It’s not saying that we have to kill ourselves in work. The key for us is to know what God has prepared for us to do. The key is know what God is calling us to do and to live confidently knowing that God will strengthen us and be with us until everything has been completed. One writer wrote that we are immortal until God’s work in us and through us is completed. How true those words are!

As a believer don’t waste your time doing things that are not God things. You may be doing good things but are they God things? Are they the God ordained works that He has called you to be doing?

Prayer:

Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

ª Pray that God would show you and your church the works He has called you to do both individually and collectively.