Devotional Archives - Page 36 of 49

Daily Devotional-September 21st

September 21, 2020

A lot of us might tend to avoid spending time in the prophetic literature of the Bible, mainly because a lot of it is obscure and difficult to understand. But we find in these texts so much about who God is, who we are, what God has done and is doing to save us, and how we are to respond to Him in obedience! As we spend the next 3 days together in the book of Joel, ask the Lord to help you understand what He is trying to communicate through these visions of destruction, judgment, mercy, and restoration. Ask Him to help you to see the bigger picture of His Kingdom that He is trying to paint for us in this book!

In chapter 2 the prophet describes the locust plague from the first chapter as a great army coming to destroy everything in its path. He makes it quite plain for the people to understand: this army is the LORD’s army, and He goes at their head to lead them (v.11). Before all is lost, the people are called to repent once more, to return to the LORD with all their hearts! It is significant that they are commanded to “rend [their] hearts and not [their] garments” (v.13). God is calling them not only to show the outward signs of repentance, but to truly experience inward transformation!

It is also significant the way the rest of the chapter goes. The people do repent, and God does respond with restoration and forgiveness. God does not merely command the people to be inwardly transformed and repent; He gives the grace which secures that inward transformation by pouring out His Holy Spirit on His people! The Day of the Lord is a day of great judgment, but it is also a day of great salvation for the people of God!

We have to recognize and acknowledge the immensity of God’s grace towards us. He does not call us to repent and then leave us to our own power and resources, but gives us access to His power, presence, and resources through His Holy Spirit! Then God also moves to heal and to renew and to restore in response to our repentance, a repentance which He secured for us by giving us His Spirit!

Salvation is of the Lord; celebrate that truth today!

Joel 2

The Day of the Lord

2 Blow a trumpet in Zion;
    sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
²a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
    a great and powerful people;
their like has never been before,
    nor will be again after them
    through the years of all generations.

³Fire devours before them,
    and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
    but behind them a desolate wilderness,
    and nothing escapes them.

⁴Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
    and like war horses they run.
⁵As with the rumbling of chariots,
    they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of a flame of fire
    devouring the stubble,
like a powerful army
    drawn up for battle.

⁶Before them peoples are in anguish;
    all faces grow pale.
⁷Like warriors they charge;
    like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
    they do not swerve from their paths.
⁸They do not jostle one another;
    each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
    and are not halted.
⁹They leap upon the city,
    they run upon the walls,
they climb up into the houses,
    they enter through the windows like a thief.

¹⁰The earth quakes before them;
    the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.
¹¹The Lord utters his voice
    before his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
    he who executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome;
    who can endure it?

Return to the Lord

¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³    and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.
¹⁴Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord your God?

¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
¹⁶    gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
    assemble the elders;
gather the children,
    even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride her chamber.

¹⁷Between the vestibule and the altar
    let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
    and make not your heritage a reproach,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

The Lord Had Pity

¹⁸Then the Lord became jealous for his land
    and had pity on his people.
¹⁹The Lord answered and said to his people,
“Behold, I am sending to you
    grain, wine, and oil,
    and you will be satisfied;
and I will no more make you
    a reproach among the nations.

²⁰“I will remove the northerner far from you,
    and drive him into a parched and desolate land,
his vanguard into the eastern sea,
    and his rear guard into the western sea;
the stench and foul smell of him will rise,
    for he has done great things.

²¹“Fear not, O land;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things!
²²Fear not, you beasts of the field,
    for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit;
    the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

²³“Be glad, O children of Zion,
    and rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given the early rain for your vindication;
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the latter rain, as before.

²⁴“The threshing floors shall be full of grain;
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
²⁵I will restore to you the years
    that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

²⁶“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
²⁷You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.

The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit

²⁸“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,
    and your young men shall see visions.
²⁹Even on the male and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

³⁰“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.³²And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Family Discussion Question:

How do we see God’s love and provision for His people in this chapter, even though He was disciplining them? How does knowing that God responds to our repentance encourage us to live before Him?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 20th

September 20, 2020

The first chapter of Joel describes a plague of locusts that has left the land in utter desolation. This locust invasion has comprehensively decimated the good things of the land, leaving the people in a state of famine so severe that even the animals have nothing to eat. In poetic language, the prophet describes this swarm of locusts as an army, devouring all in its path and leaving absolute destruction in its wake.

While there is no indictment of any specific sin the people have committed that would result in such judgment, the prophet’s call to repentance and his designation of this event as a “day of the LORD” makes it clear: this destruction is a judgment from the hand of God. The people of Judah had in some way or another drifted from their loyalty to their God, and He had sent this swarm of locusts in order to get their attention and lead them to repentance.

This “day of the LORD” which Joel describes is what theologians call a type, which essentially means that it is a picture or representation of something greater which is to come in the future (the antitype). Understanding this is pivotal to understanding the message of the book of Joel as a whole; the great day of the Lord’s judgment is indeed coming, and it will come like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2). The prophet calls the people to repentance before that day arrives!

We see the destructive consequences of sin all around us. In many ways, the world around us lies in desolation, and we perceive the destruction and death that rebellion against God always produces. As we await the day of our Lord’s coming, the day when His judgment and salvation will be fully revealed, may we repent as a people from any rebellion against God which we have participated in, and may we be a prophetic voice in our culture calling others to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ before it is too late!

Joel 1

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

An Invasion of Locusts

²Hear this, you elders;
    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
    or in the days of your fathers?
³Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children to another generation.

⁴What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.

⁵Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
    and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
⁶For a nation has come up against my land,
    powerful and beyond number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.
⁷It has laid waste my vine
    and splintered my fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches are made white.

⁸Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
⁹The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
    the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰The fields are destroyed,
    the ground mourns,
because the grain is destroyed,
    the wine dries up,
    the oil languishes.

¹¹Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;
    wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
    because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹²The vine dries up;
    the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
    from the children of man.

A Call to Repentance

¹³Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
    wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

¹⁵Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
¹⁶Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods;
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
    because the grain has dried up.
¹⁸How the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.

¹⁹To you, O Lord, I call.
For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰Even the beasts of the field pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

Family Discussion Question:

How can you see the consequences of sin in a communal sense in the world around us? Might it be the judgment of God against those things? How can you as a believer in Jesus be a prophetic voice calling people to repentance before the great day of the LORD arrives?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 19th

September 19, 2020

Like the gospel of John, the book of 1 John is filled with sharp contrasts: light and darkness, truth and falsehood, love and hate. In John’s mind, things are fairly black and white with little if any grey area. In refreshingly simple terms, John writes his first epistle in order to give the people of God a better understanding of how they can know that they are saved, how they can tell the difference between true and false believers. He calls the church to be in a state of continual growth in faith, in obedience, and in love; let’s heed that call together as a church as we read this letter!

In the closing chapter to his first epistle, John revisits many of the themes he has addressed in the earlier chapters. He reiterates that the only trustworthy expression of love for God is to obey His commandments, and he goes further in saying that obeying God’s commandments is a demonstration of Christian love towards one another as well. John tells us here that we participate in Christ’s own victory and triumph over the world through our faith in Him, and that is very good news for us!

John ends his letter in a way that almost seems random: he commands his audience to keep themselves from idols. What does this have to do with the rest of what he is trying to say in the letter?

While John writes the letter in order to affirm the faith of his readers as well as to give them tests to discern the marks of a true believer versus a false believer, throughout the letter the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ rings out loudly. To John, Jesus is at the forefront of everything for the true believer, and all those who claim faith yet deny this fact either in word or in deed are of the devil!

Jesus has to be foremost in all our affections, all our attention, all our worship. We keep ourselves from idols because God will not suffer any competition for the worship, allegiance, and devotion of our hearts. We must be fully surrendered to Him and Him alone!

1 John 5

Overcoming the World

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. ⁴For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. ⁵Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Testimony Concerning the Son of God

⁶This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷For there are three that testify: ⁸the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. ⁹If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. ¹⁰Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. ¹¹And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

That You May Know

¹³I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.¹⁵And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. ¹⁷All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

¹⁸We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

¹⁹We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. ²¹Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Family Discussion Question:

What are some things that might compete with God for your affections or devotion? How does the promise of overcoming the world by your faith in Christ shape the way you battle idolatry in your life?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 18th

September 18, 2020

John begins this chapter with a command for his audience to “test the spirits”, to discern between the kind of teaching and prophecy which comes from God and that which is of the world. The test seems simple enough: if the spirit in question does not confess Jesus as having come in the flesh and as the Son of the living God, it is not of God but of the antichrist. John elaborates by saying that all who listen to and affirm the teaching of the apostles are from God, and all who do not are of the world. In a world that increasingly attempts to blur the line between truth and falsehood, between the church and the world, between good and evil, we must be vigilant to test everything against the truth of God taught by the apostles and prophets and preserved for us in Scripture!

In this chapter John gives his other descriptor for God; in chapter one he said God is light, and here he asserts that God is love. This statement has been co-opted and abused by those who refuse to understand it rightly, but John makes it clear what kind of love he is talking about when he says that God is love; he is talking about the kind of love that sacrifices for the other, even to the point of dying on a cross for the sins of another. He is talking about the love of God towards us in Jesus Christ, a self-sacrificial, giving, others-centered love, and John tells us here that knowing and experiencing that love always leads us to love others as well.

When we experience the love of God towards us in Christ Jesus, it produces in us love for God and love for other people. We love because He first loved us!

1 John 4

Test the Spirits

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.²By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. ⁴Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

God Is Love

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

¹³By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Family Discussion Question:

The love that God calls us to is a demonstrative love, love in action which puts others before itself. How are you demonstrating in your day to day life that the love of God abides in you?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 17th

September 17, 2020

John continues to lay before his audience different tests and measures that they can use to discern those who are truly God’s children from those who merely claim to be God’s children. The first test he gives us in this chapter is the contrast between the habitual behaviors of believers versus those of unbelievers. John proclaims the incomparable love that God has shown us in making us His children in Christ, and then asserts that all who are truly God’s children, all who place their hope in Christ in this way, purify themselves as Christ Himself is pure. John contrasts this with those who, rather than purifying themselves, make a practice of sinning; he says that all who make a practice of sinning also practice lawlessness and are of the devil.

This contrast is between the habitual behaviors we exhibit in our lives: is your life characterized by a pure and holy lifestyle, or is it characterized by habitual sin? We all sin and fall short in many ways of course, but what characterizes your living? According to John, if habitual sin characterizes you more than pure living in Christ does, any claim you make to be God’s child is a false one.

The second standard that John sets before his audience in this chapter is the contrast between love and hatred. All who are born of God have love for the people of God; in contrast, anyone who hates another believer gives evidence that they have not been born of God. So we are called to love one another, even as Christ has loved us!

In loving one another as Christ loved us, John sets another challenge before us. The love that Jesus demonstrated towards us was not merely theoretical; He demonstrated it by dying for us, through His actions. John warns us here that merely claiming to love one another, without action to back it up, demonstrates that the love of God is not in us. God’s love moves us to action, just like He demonstrated His love through action!

1 John 3

3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Love One Another

¹¹For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. ¹²We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. ¹³Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. ¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

¹⁹By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²²and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Family Discussion Question:

Why is love that does not act in compassion no real love at all? How can we do better at loving in the same way Christ has loved us?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 16th

September 16, 2020

In this chapter John gives us several measures by which we can discern a true follower of Jesus from a false one. He says that those who have truly come to know Jesus will keep His commandments, that they will walk in the way that He walked. According to John, anyone who claims to know Jesus but does not submit their lives to Him as Lord is a liar!

Again, John is not advocating some kind of sinless perfectionism for the Christian life (see verse 2). What he is saying is that all who have been truly changed from the inside out by the Holy Spirit, all who have truly come to know and place their faith in Jesus, will look progressively more and more like Him in the way that they live. All who truly love Jesus will express that love by obeying Him; Jesus Himself said as much (John 14:15, 23)!

True knowledge of Jesus, true faith in Jesus, true love for Jesus, always results in transformed living. If you really know Him, you will obey!

1 John 2

Christ Our Advocate

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ²He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. ³And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ⁶whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

The New Commandment

⁷Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. ⁸At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ⁹Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. ¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹²I am writing to you, little children,
    because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
¹³I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, children,
    because you know the Father.
¹⁴I write to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God abides in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one.

Do Not Love the World

¹⁵Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Warning Concerning Antichrists

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. ²⁰But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. ²¹I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. ²²Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.²³No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. ²⁴Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.

²⁶I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.²⁷But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Children of God

²⁸And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. ²⁹If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Family Discussion Question:

What are some of the other tests that John gives us in this chapter to help us discern between true and false claims of faith in Jesus? How can we take these tests as a challenge for ourselves?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 15th

September 15, 2020

John begins his letter by elaborating on what it means to walk in fellowship with God. He says that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (v.5). Based on that assertion, John says that only those who walk in the light can be walking with God; anyone who says they have fellowship with God but walks in darkness is a liar. What then does it mean to walk in the light?

When John says that God is light, and there is no darkness in Him, he means that God is absolutely perfect in both knowledge and purity. There is no darkness, no evil, no hidden fault, no shadow of change or of impurity in Him. He is altogether perfect, holy, and pure!

Walking in the light means that we, as those who have been made one with Christ through the Holy Spirit, reflect the perfection and purity of God in our own lives! Not that we are perfect by any means; John makes it quite clear that perfection is not what he is claiming (v.8, 10)! But as believers who are being progressively remade into Christ’s image, our lives should increasingly demonstrate the moral perfection, complete purity, and absolute glory of God to the world around us!

Part of this means that there is no hypocrisy or self-righteousness in us; walking in the light requires that we acknowledge our sinfulness and confess our sins (v.8-10). Walking in the light is walking in integrity, without falsehood, without putting up a front, without hidden sins or unspoken faults. The people of God are to walk in the light, out in the open for all to see!

This kind of living seems intimidating to so many of us, and it should; vulnerability and openness can be a scary thing! But luckily for us, in Christ God has made this kind of living something that we no longer have to be afraid of! John says it himself in this chapter: anyone who says they haven’t sinned or refuses to confess their sinfulness is deceiving themselves and calling God a liar! But if we walk in the light, freely and openly confessing our sins to God, HE is both faithful and just not only to forgive us but also to cleanse us from all unrighteousness! Admitting our ongoing need for God’s mercy and grace through confession is the pathway to true transformation and change in our lives!

Are you walking in the light?

1 John 1

The Word of Life

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ²the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— ³that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.⁴And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Walking in the Light

⁵This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Family Discussion Question:

How does the promise of forgiveness and cleansing from our sins in this chapter encourage us to live our lives out in the open, to walk in the light? What is a step you can take toward walking in this kind of life?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 14th

September 14, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

The final chapter of Deuteronomy describes the death of Moses, the man of God. In his last moments God showed Moses the entire land that he had been leading the people of Israel to inherit for 40 years. Moses got a taste of the fulfillment of God’s promises, but he didn’t get to enter into it.

We know from the rest of Scripture that God did indeed fulfill His promise to the people of Israel; He was faithful! Even though Moses never got to see the fulfillment of God’s promise, he lived and walked with God by faith, believing with confidence that God would do all that He had said He would. His faith was rooted in God’s faithfulness!

We see God’s faithfulness in another place in this chapter too: referring to. The prophetic expectation of a prophet like Moses who was to come, the author states that he hasn’t arrived on the scene yet. There has not yet been a prophet like Moses in fulfillment of that promise, and the people looked to its fulfillment sometime in the future.

We have seen the fulfillment of this promise in Jesus Christ! He is the prophet like Moses, yet He leads the people of God and speaks for God more faithfully than Moses ever could have because He is God! Like Moses, we now experience a taste of the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in Christ, and we await their full and final fulfillment in the future. God is faithful and He will surely do it!

Deuteronomy 34

The Death of Moses

34 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, ²all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, ³the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. ⁴And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” ⁵So Moses the servant of the Lorddied there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, ⁶and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. ⁷Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. ⁸And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.

⁹And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. ¹⁰And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, ¹¹none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, ¹²and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Family Discussion Question:

How do we have to operate by faith in a similar way to Moses? What can we learn from the faithful example of Moses, fulfilled and made complete in Christ Jesus Himself?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 13th

September 13, 2020

This chapter is Moses’ final blessing on the people of Israel before his death. Moses led the people for 40 years as their spokesman to God and God’s prophet to them, so this chapter carries a lot of weight and significance! Moses blesses each individual tribe of the people of Israel in rich and beautiful terms.

Finally, Moses gives the people one final reminder for them to remember and live by: there is no one like the Lord (v.26)! He reminds them how unique their God and their relationship to Him really is, how immense His grace is towards them that they, out of all the people on the earth, can call themselves a people saved by the Lord!

We can claim this title for ourselves as the church as well! Let’s celebrate as we gather today to worship that we are a people saved by the Lord!

Deuteronomy 33

Moses’ Final Blessing on Israel

33 This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death. ²He said,

“The Lord came from Sinai
    and dawned from Seir upon us;
    he shone forth from Mount Paran;
he came from the ten thousands of holy ones,
    with flaming fire at his right hand.
³Yes, he loved his people,
    all his holy ones were in his hand;
so they followed in your steps,
    receiving direction from you,
⁴when Moses commanded us a law,
    as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.
⁵Thus the Lord became king in Jeshurun,
    when the heads of the people were gathered,
    all the tribes of Israel together.

⁶“Let Reuben live, and not die,
but let his men be few.”

⁷And this he said of Judah:

“Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah,
and bring him in to his people.
With your hands contend for him,
and be a help against his adversaries.”

⁸And of Levi he said,

“Give to Levi your Thummim,
    and your Urim to your godly one,
whom you tested at Massah,
    with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah;
⁹who said of his father and mother,
    ‘I regard them not’;
he disowned his brothers
    and ignored his children.
For they observed your word
    and kept your covenant.
¹⁰They shall teach Jacob your rules
    and Israel your law;
they shall put incense before you
    and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
¹¹Bless, O Lord, his substance,
    and accept the work of his hands;
crush the loins of his adversaries,
    of those who hate him, that they rise not again.”

¹²Of Benjamin he said,

“The beloved of the Lord dwells in safety.
The High God surrounds him all day long,
and dwells between his shoulders.”

¹³And of Joseph he said,

“Blessed by the Lord be his land,
    with the choicest gifts of heaven above,
    and of the deep that crouches beneath,
¹⁴with the choicest fruits of the sun
    and the rich yield of the months,
¹⁵with the finest produce of the ancient mountains
    and the abundance of the everlasting hills,
¹⁶with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness
    and the favor of him who dwells in the bush.
May these rest on the head of Joseph,
    on the pate of him who is prince among his brothers.
¹⁷A firstborn bull—he has majesty,
    and his horns are the horns of a wild ox;
with them he shall gore the peoples,
    all of them, to the ends of the earth;
they are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
    and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

¹⁸And of Zebulun he said,

“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,
    and Issachar, in your tents.
¹⁹They shall call peoples to their mountain;
    there they offer right sacrifices;
for they draw from the abundance of the seas
    and the hidden treasures of the sand.”

²⁰And of Gad he said,

“Blessed be he who enlarges Gad!
    Gad crouches like a lion;
    he tears off arm and scalp.
²¹He chose the best of the land for himself,
    for there a commander’s portion was reserved;
and he came with the heads of the people,
    with Israel he executed the justice of the Lord,
    and his judgments for Israel.”

²²And of Dan he said,

“Dan is a lion’s cub
that leaps from Bashan.”

²³And of Naphtali he said,

“O Naphtali, sated with favor,
and full of the blessing of the Lord,
possess the lake and the south.”

²⁴And of Asher he said,

“Most blessed of sons be Asher;
    let him be the favorite of his brothers,
    and let him dip his foot in oil.
²⁵Your bars shall be iron and bronze,
    and as your days, so shall your strength be.

²⁶“There is none like God, O Jeshurun,
    who rides through the heavens to your help,
    through the skies in his majesty.
²⁷The eternal God is your dwelling place,
    and underneath are the everlasting arms.
And he thrust out the enemy before you
    and said, ‘Destroy.’
²⁸So Israel lived in safety,
    Jacob lived alone,
in a land of grain and wine,
    whose heavens drop down dew.
²⁹Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you,
    a people saved by the Lord,
the shield of your help,
    and the sword of your triumph!
Your enemies shall come fawning to you,
    and you shall tread upon their backs.”

Family Discussion Question:

What is the significance of Moses reminding the people once more of God’s holiness and God’s grace towards them at the very end of his life?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 12th

September 12, 2020

Deuteronomy 32

32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
    and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
²May my teaching drop as the rain,
    my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
    and like showers upon the herb.
³For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
    ascribe greatness to our God!

⁴“The Rock, his work is perfect,
    for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
    just and upright is he.
⁵They have dealt corruptly with him;
    they are no longer his children because they are blemished;
    they are a crooked and twisted generation.
⁶Do you thus repay the Lord,
    you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father, who created you,
    who made you and established you?
⁷Remember the days of old;
    consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
    your elders, and they will tell you.
⁸When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
    when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
    according to the number of the sons of God.
⁹But the Lord’s portion is his people,
    Jacob his allotted heritage.

¹⁰“He found him in a desert land,
    and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
    he kept him as the apple of his eye.
¹¹Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
    that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
    bearing them on its pinions,
¹²the Lord alone guided him,
    no foreign god was with him.
¹³He made him ride on the high places of the land,
    and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with honey out of the rock,
    and oil out of the flinty rock.
¹⁴Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
    with fat of lambs,
rams of Bashan and goats,
    with the very finest of the wheat—
    and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.

¹⁵“But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked;
    you grew fat, stout, and sleek;
then he forsook God who made him
    and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
¹⁶They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
    with abominations they provoked him to anger.
¹⁷They sacrificed to demons that were no gods,
    to gods they had never known,
to new gods that had come recently,
    whom your fathers had never dreaded.
¹⁸You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you,
    and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹“The Lord saw it and spurned them,
    because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
²⁰And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them;
    I will see what their end will be,
for they are a perverse generation,
    children in whom is no faithfulness.
²¹They have made me jealous with what is no god;
    they have provoked me to anger with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are no people;
    I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
²²For a fire is kindled by my anger,
    and it burns to the depths of Sheol,
devours the earth and its increase,
    and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³“‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
    I will spend my arrows on them;
²⁴they shall be wasted with hunger,
    and devoured by plague
    and poisonous pestilence;
I will send the teeth of beasts against them,
    with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.
²⁵Outdoors the sword shall bereave,
    and indoors terror,
for young man and woman alike,
    the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
²⁶I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;
    I will wipe them from human memory,”
²⁷had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
    lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant,
    it was not the Lord who did all this.”’

²⁸“For they are a nation void of counsel,
    and there is no understanding in them.
²⁹If they were wise, they would understand this;
    they would discern their latter end!
³⁰How could one have chased a thousand,
    and two have put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
    and the Lord had given them up?
³¹For their rock is not as our Rock;
    our enemies are by themselves.
³²For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
    and from the fields of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of poison;
    their clusters are bitter;
³³their wine is the poison of serpents
    and the cruel venom of asps.

³⁴“‘Is not this laid up in store with me,
    sealed up in my treasuries?
³⁵Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
    for the time when their foot shall slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
    and their doom comes swiftly.’
³⁶For the Lord will vindicate his people
    and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone
    and there is none remaining, bond or free.
³⁷Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods,
    the rock in which they took refuge,
³⁸who ate the fat of their sacrifices
    and drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you;
    let them be your protection!

³⁹“‘See now that I, even I, am he,
    and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
    I wound and I heal;
    and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
⁴⁰For I lift up my hand to heaven
    and swear, As I live forever,
⁴¹if I sharpen my flashing sword
    and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
    and will repay those who hate me.
⁴²I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
    and my sword shall devour flesh—
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
    from the long-haired heads of the enemy.’

⁴³“Rejoice with him, O heavens;
    bow down to him, all gods,
for he avenges the blood of his children
    and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
He repays those who hate him
    and cleanses his people’s land.”

⁴⁴Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. ⁴⁵And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. ⁴⁷For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Moses’ Death Foretold

⁴⁸That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, ⁴⁹“Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. ⁵⁰And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, ⁵¹because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel.⁵²For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Family Discussion Question: