Friday February 28, 2014

Read Exodus 3

Moses spent about 40 years in the desert as a shepherd. He had fled Egypt leaving the people of God in slavery. But God called Moses from within a burning bush that was not destroyed by the flames.

As Moses spoke with God, he asked God what His name was (v13). God replied by giving Moses His personal name. In our English Bibles we read “I AM WHO I AM. The Hebrew transliteration is Yahweh. Sometimes we see in our Bibles the word Lord written in capitals as Lord. Have a look at verse 4 and you’ll see this clearly.

Lord or Yahweh is the covenant name of God and captures the kingship of God over His people. It means that the people are bound to God in every way, shape and form.

As with the Glory of God, the lordship of God also implies several things. It implies that God is omnipotent. God is all powerful (Gen 17:1). Nothing is impossible for God (Gen 18:14, Matt 19:26). 

It also implies that God is omnipresent, which means that God is everywhere present at one time and sees/hears all things. As the Psalmist found out (Ps 139) there is no place in the heavens or the depths that one can hide from God. God’s omnipresence is a blessing in the face of evil for the believer knows that God is present and will bring all evil/wickedness to account. The evil doer will not escape the judgment of God.

The Lordship of God also implies the omniscience of God. God sees all things and is present in all places. He thus knows all things. This is the background for the opening of the books in Revelation 20. All the deeds of mankind are recorded because God sees and knows all. Every deed, no matter how well we think we’ve hidden it, is seen by God and will be recorded in the books.

The Lordship of God affects our worship because God looks at the heart and knows our motives. We may sing with gusto at church but God sees the heart. We may serve the poor and the needy but God sees our real motivation. We may give sacrificially to the Lord but God knows our intention. God calls us to worship Him with our entire heart and soul and mind and strength. He calls us to give Him everything because at the cross He has given us everything.

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 bless our youth leaders with deep seated wisdom and a great knowledge of the Bible. Pray that they would have opportunity to model Christ-likeness and godliness in their dealings with youth tonight.

ª Pray that the parents of teenagers would be wise in their parenting and able to negotiate the many twists and turns that come with having teenagers in the house. Pray for patience, endurance and for a steadiness in the parents that draws the teens closer to Christ.

Worship Moment – Do we include God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in our ‘worship’, including our Sonday gatherings? Some do by praying to each of the persons of the Godhead.  But do we know the roles of Father, Son and Spirit and do we incorporate them in our life for God and our celebration of God on Sondays?

Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. What is the role/place of the Father in our Sonday services?

2. What is the role/place of the Son in our Sonday services?

3. What is the role/place of the Spirit in our Sonday services?

Thursday February 27, 2014

Read Isaiah 42:8. Exodus 24:15-18

When we speak of the glory of the Lord, we often picture the glory cloud or shekinah glory that descended upon the mountain that Moses ascended to be with God. This same glory is assigned to Christ in Revelation 1:14-16 and 2 Corinthians 4:6.

But the designation ‘the Glory of God’ is far more than the brilliance of light emanating from Him. It includes the infinity of God. God is without limitation. He lives in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:6) and His paths are beyond tracing out (Romans 11:33).

It also includes the self existence of God. God depends on no one or nothing. He doesn’t need anything in creation to be fulfilled or to exist. Genesis 1:1 does not seek to prove God nor to introduce Him. It simply assumes His pre-existence and allows Him to burst onto the scene. God was there before creation. God was self existent before creation.

Yet this same glory of God is the glory that caused Jesus to descend from heaven, to be found in appearance as a man and to die a cursed death on a tree. It is the same glory that draws us to God to share in the glory of Christ.

Unfortunately for many Christians today worshipping God has inadvertently become about ME! Many Christians today worship God for what they can get out of Him. They attend a church while it serves their own purposes and feeds/nourishes and blesses them! Church and worship of God has become about “self”. Many Christians seek a church that sings songs they like or a church with a style that suits them, or a church that has people like them, or a church that entertains them, or a church that makes them feel good, or a church that … If the focus is ME and MY NEEDS then I am no longer a worshipper, but a consumer! God is not after consumers but worshippers. Richard Wurmbrand highlighted the difference after years of imprisonment for his faith. He acknowledged that people can come to Jesus as consumers for what they can get out of Him, or as apprentices ready to learn from the Master. Which description best fits your life? Are you an apprentice or a consumer?

In the Scriptures we read that God is a jealous God and will not give His glory to another. He will NOT give His deserved and demanded glory to you or I or to any false god. God demands that He be worshipped acceptably in reverence and awe, in Spirit and in truth.

Are you worshipping God acceptably or are you just seeking to please yourself?

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

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

ª Ask your God to give you and your fellow believers a greater understanding of the glory of God and that this growing understanding would lead to changed and more God-honouring lives.

ª Pray that our youth would grow strong in Christ and that they’d be willing to serve Him, speak out for Him and to shine Him to other youth in their spheres of influence.

 Word Moment –  A text without a context is a pretext to say anything you like. Never read a passage out of context and always ask yourself how that particular passage fits into the rest of Scripture.  We must always let Scripture interpret Scripture.

Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. Even though proof texting can be unhelpful, why is it important to know/memorise Bible verses?

2. Why is it important to know which heresies were fought in history and also how they were defeated?

Wednesday February 26, 2014

Read 1 Peter 1:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:13

Patripassionism is not a word in general circulation. It is derived from patri, meaning father and passion, meaning suffering. Hence this doctrine teaches that God the Father became incarnate and suffered and died on the cross.

If true then Jesus was simply speaking to Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done’. (Luke 22:42). When Jesus said, ‘I have come to do your will’ (Hebrews 10:7) or ‘I have come down from heaven to do the will of Him who sent me’ (John 6:28) Jesus is merely referring to Himself in some vague way. Even more absurd is the implication of this teaching when Jesus was on the cross. He cried out, ’My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?’ This cry makes no sense if we adopt the patripassionist view point! To ask oneself such questions is nonsensical.

While I would doubt if many people hold to this theory today, I do hear many prayers that are theologically and biblically sloppy and unprepared. I’ve heard people pray things like, ‘Thank you Father that you died on the cross for our sins’, or ‘Thank you God for dying on the cross’. The Bible never says that God died on the cross. It always says Jesus did!

When we pray or when we ’worship’ God we need to be exceedingly clear as to what we are saying/doing and who we are worshipping or praying to. In clear reformation terms, we worship God the Father through the redeeming work of God the Son illuminated to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.

We need to be aware of the roles of each of the persons of the Godhead so that we don’t become confused and inadvertently lead each other astray.

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 cell groups would grow and mature each believer in their relationship with God. Pray that cell leaders would be wise in their leadership of their particular cell. Ask God to bring an evangelistic desires into the very heart of cell groups.

ª Pray that the people who are not currently in a cell group would desire to be in a cell and that opportunities for them to join a cell would open up. Pray that every person in your congregation would be in a cell.

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. If unity is more than just standing together and declaring our belief in God, how can we build true unity across all denominational lines?

2. Should the church of today strive for unity like the early church did? Why or why not?

Tuesday February 25, 2014

Coming Up Sonday March 2:

God the Father.

 Read Colossians 1:9-14

It’s never enough to simply state a Bible verse and think that you have done your bit to prove your case. Such proof texting is relatively pointless. The men who formulated the Westminster Confession of Faith, which stands as one of the greatest confessions of all time, understood this. When ordered by Parliament to draw up a statement of what the Bible teaches they produced a body of literature with no proof texts. Their goal was to show what the Bible taught in its entirety - something proof texting cannot do. But the Parliament simply ordered them to go back to the drawing board to put in proof texts. As such many of our current versions of the Westminster Confession of Faith have proof texts in it.

Monarchianism arose because of such an imbalanced view of Scripture, often caused by proof texting. The word is made up of mono - "one"; and arche - "rule". This teaching was an error concerning the nature of God that developed in the second century A.D.  It arose as an attempt to maintain Monotheism and refute tritheism.  Unfortunately, it also contradicts the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. Monarchianism teaches that there is one God as one person: the Father. Monarchians were divided into two main groups, the dynamic monarchians and the modal monarchians.

Dynamic Monarchianism teaches that God is the Father and that Jesus is only a man, void of the personal substance of the Logos and that the Holy Spirit was a force or presence of God the Father. Present day groups in this category are the Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians, and Unitarians. Some ancient dynamic monarchianists were also known as Adoptionists who taught that Jesus was tested by God and after passing this test and upon His baptism, He was granted supernatural powers by God and adopted as the Son. 

Modal Monarchianism teaches that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are just modes of the single person who is God.  In other words, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not simultaneous and separate persons, but consecutive modes of one person. Praxeas, a priest from Asia Minor, taught this in Rome around 200 AD.  Modern groups in this general category are the Oneness Pentecostal groups known as the United Pentecostal and United Apostolic Churches.

If we rely solely on proof texting it is very easy to defend and promulgate heresy without even realizing it. What is needed is biblical literacy and a desire to know what the entire Bible teaches!  What we need to be praying for each other is the kind of prayer in Colossians 1:9-14 - a prayer for growth in knowledge, spiritual wisdom and understanding!

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 for a growing knowledge of God among your congregation and that this growing knowledge would bear much fruit.

ª Pray that God would enable each person to be passing on their knowledge and wisdom as they enter into mentoring relationships.

Walk Moment –  In Psalm 139:23-24 the Psalmist prays that God would search him out thoroughly,  remove the sinful bits and lead him in the way of holiness and righteousness. Are you able to pray this prayer and to completely repent of all the things/attitudes that the Lord reveals to you?

  

Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. Of what benefit would it be for a modern day Christian to study the struggles and battles of theology throughout the last 2,000 years?

2. How could it help to study and learn the creeds and confessions of church history?

Monday February 24, 2014

Read 1 Corinthians 1:10. John 17:20-26

Unity has evaded the church for almost 2,000 years. Even the briefest perusal of church history will reveal that the church has been wracked with dissension and turmoil and disunity almost from the day of its inception.

Unity is not built upon verbal agreement. Much of today’s unity is simply built upon standing side by side and declaring to the world that we believe together in God or Jesus. What each party actually believes is left unspoken because there-in lies a huge source of disunity. We simply agree to disagree.

In what has become to be known as the High Priestly prayer, Jesus prays that all believers become one as He and the Father are One. This unity within the Godhead is not a verbal unity with different underlying interpretations and beliefs. God the Father and God the Son (and, indeed God the Holy Spirit) were perfectly united in every sense. True unity would show the world that God had sent His Son into the world to bring salvation and judgment.

 When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about unity (1 Cor 1:10) he appealed to no less than the name above all names for unity. He called all of them to agree - not just leaders and not just those within specific groups. He wanted unity so that there would be no divisions among them and so that they would be perfectly united in mind and thought.

It’s hard to imagine that Jesus or Paul were simply saying stand together and confess the name of God or Jesus even though you have different beliefs about the Word of God. Nothing in the words of Paul or Jesus could bring us to that conclusion.

What Jesus and Paul desired is what the early church sought to achieve. When many tried, for example, to uphold the doctrine of modalism—that is the belief that there is one God who reveals Himself in different modes throughout history (Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit) - the early church wrestled with the idea and affirmed the concept of the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD. They could have stood arm in arm and just declared that they all believed in God but they didn’t. They meticulously sought to separate truth from error and encouraged, even demanded, that everyone stand upon the truth not error.

The modern day church would do well to adopt such a passionate desire to stand unified.

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

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

ª Ask the Lord to bless the work of Student Life as they seek to make disciples throughout uni/TAFE campuses around Australia. Pray for workers to be brought into this harvest field, for funds and for resources to be available.

ª Ask the Lord to bring genuine unity across the city/town you live in.

 Word Moment –  In our relativistic and individualistic world it’s become totally taboo to tell anyone that they are wrong or incorrect in their beliefs. Within this world view it is imperative that Christians know what they believe and why they believe. More than ever we need to know our Bibles well so that we can stand up for the truth at a moment’s notice.