Devotionals @ The Mount Church

Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:28-31 NAS

As we read in the Old Testament, God’s promise to his people, the promise of entering into the promised land and being a blessed nation, was contingent on them being faithful to God and worshiping none other than their own God. If God allowed such calamities to happen to his own people in those days because of their disobedience, how much more so will calamity befall those who completely fall out of God’s grace or deny him altogether. As this verse, Revelation and other parts of the Bible remind us, a chilling fate awaits those who refuse to acknowledge and surrender to God.

But Christ is the answer and is more than enough to quench our thirst for happiness, joy, love, and peace. And it’s In the gospels that he makes his case.

Attempting to grasp what Christ meant when he said one must be born again, Nicodemus in the Gospel of John asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Christ then went on to say that one must believe in him to enter the kingdom of heaven. Here, we don’t take the word “believe” to be synonymous with believing that the sun is real or that the world is round. The Greek word for “believe” has two primary meanings: “1. to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in” and “2. to entrust a thing to one, i.e. his fidelity.” Our belief in Christ carries with it both meanings. We are both persuaded that Christ is who he says he is, and, to take it a step further, we are persuaded enough to entrust Christ with our lives.

Even so, some in the world live their entire lives in a decrepit spiritual condition: some spiritually asleep; others spiritual but not Christ-like; still others religion but hearers, not doers of the word. Some spend 30, 40, or 50 years running a race that has no end, for one can amass the wealth of Bill Gates and still, and assuredly will, feel empty inside. These types of people likely worship many things, including cars, careers, love, wealth, and prosperity. Ultimately, their lives and their futures are based on untruths, for one doesn’t have to worship Baal or Buddha to be an idol worshipper.

Ask yourself on what you are basing your future? The unending, unbending, eternal truths and promises of God or the faltering, finite, and fading trappings of this world.

application

Read through Psalm 31 and highlight or take note of the attributes of God given by the psalmist which validate our claim that God is truly worthy of our devotion, our praise, and our very futures.

read through Hebrews 10:26-11:12

The Bible, a story of creation, a descent into sin, eventual punishment, then reward, prophecy, then the coming of a savior, is our story. And it’s not just a story. It’s the thread by which we knit our lives. In this, we can have confidence to live out our lives in the truth and knowledge that God is the center and the source of our eternal hope.

This story starts and ends with promises, to Adam and Eve, then to Abraham, then to us. God’s initial promise to Adam was that he should “be fruitful and multiply” and God would make him ruler of the earth, holding precedence over all the other living things in creation. But as we know, man slipped out of favor with God by disobedience. Then, to Abraham, God’s promise was that his progeny would expand across the earth, making Abraham’s descendants great among the nations. Much of the rest of the Old Testament tells of the ebb-and-flow relationship between God and his people, as they were sometimes faithful and at other times, unfaithful to their end of the bargain: that they would abide by the law and not worship any other idols.

Some critics have attempted to point out that, though Israel did not always keep her promise to God, neither did God, who allowed his nation to fall into slavery and be conquered by foreign nations time and again. But this is not where our confidence should waver, for God’s promise was contingent on the people being faithful, and if they weren’t faithful, he said strife would follow. That was also a promise.

But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings … For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. (v 32-35)

Just as Sarah laughed at God when he told her she would conceive of a child in old age and just as Gideon’s men surely were astounded when God told Gideon to send away all but 300 men — the very ones who were afraid — and defeat the thousands of troops in the camp with only trumpets, pitchers, and torches, we too sometimes become disillusioned, fearful or doubtful about the future and what God has planned. While God may be audibly silent, his word to us is not. These verses remind us to remember all God has done for us, and this should be our response in good times and bad, for God’s promises are tried and tested, enduring, and irrevocable. But remembering instances in the past where God has come through for us is only the beginning, and faith is the end.

While there will surely be bright days in our lives, there will also be dark days, and our memory will only carry us so far. Our faith, which the Bible calls the “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” will take us the rest of the way and help us to finish the race, having lived a life wholly, not partly, but wholly devoted to God and his precepts.

application

Read through carefully through Hebrews 11:3-12 again, taking note of the many examples the Bible provides of people having faith in God and God coming through for them, showing up at critical times to fulfill what he said he would do for them. In the end, God always shows up. The question he asks: Will you?

read through 1 Samuel 1-5

Eli’s introduction in the Bible is brief and abrupt, but, as we see in numerous cases throughout the Bible, some men, Jabez, for instance, can be used by God in momentous ways, even though the space devoted to them in the text may be cursory. And those men can hold personal implications for us as we think about what it means to be men of God, as outlined in Ephesians 5:21-23.

Although Eli, as was written in 1 Samuel 1-5, was a judge for Israel across a time span of four decades, we really only have five chapters by which to learn about him. Despite this, his impact was far-reaching, and we can credit him with training and being a mentor to Samuel, one of the great Old Testament leaders.

At the beginning of 1 Samuel, we find Hannah weeping because she is barren. Eli, sitting on a chair at the Lord’s temple, noticed her crying and thought she was drunk. Upon talking with her, however, he learned of her sorrow and granted his blessing to her that she would conceive of a son. That son was Samuel and he was conceived, we can infer from the text, on the next day. Hannah promised to God that if she could have a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord. She did, and largely left Samuel’s care and instruction with Eli, who brought him up in the ways of God. Since Hannah had given her only son into God’s service, Eli later prayed with her and Elkanah again that they would have more children. This became a reality as well.

Samuel, who the Bible says, “ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest,” went on to be a leader for the Israel nation, helping appoint Saul, and later, David, as kings of the nation.

Eli, however, was not without flaws. His two sons, whom the Bible describes as “wicked” did not follow the ways of God and even were charged with “treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.” The Lord then charged Eli with failing to rebuke his sons because of their actions. What followed was Israel’s defeat by Palestine, first on the battlefield, and then an even more fatal defeat in Israel’s own camp, which resulted in the loss of the ark of the covenant. It was later returned by the Palestinians after many in the Palestinian camp were stricken with tumors because they possessed Israel’s ark.

The lesson of Eli, then, is that first, human parents are flawed. Though we as Christians seek to lead godly lives and rear our children in that direction, our very nature will cause us to fail at times, as Eli did. But alternately, we are to be mentors and godly examples for our children. In this  passage, we learn that Eli acted as a father figure for Samuel, teaching him and ministering to him as Samuel matures in God. So too, as witnessed by our actions, being committed to praying  daily for and with our children, reading the Bible daily and loving our wives as Christ loved the church, we can show our children that we are examples in Christ by which to follow. And the Bible says that if we teach them in the way they should go, they will never stray from it.

To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him. Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them. And He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the LORD, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

Deuteronomy 4:35-39

From the beginning of the book of Genesis, through the flood, through Israel’s escape from Egypt to the parting of the Red Sea and subsequent conquests of nations, the Bible, in its march toward the coming of Jesus, leaves no question in the reader’s mind who is ultimately in control of man’s failures and successes, physical lives and eternal souls. As Moses reminds the Israelites — and us — in these verses in Deuteronomy, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has no peers.

In the last week, I have been looking at this book, which is essentially a collection of three speeches given by Moses recounting much of what has already happened in the previous four books. Two words are poignant in knowing what the book is about. The first is the Hebrew word “devarim,” which comes from the opening words of the book, “Eleh ha-devarim,” meaning “These are the words.” The other is the Greek word, “Deuteronomion,” where we get the English title for the book, meaning “second law.” So, “these are the words” of Moses, recounting the laws God previously gave.

I found this book particularly interesting and significant for the Christian because after a series on lengthy narratives, genealogies and law-giving, the reader is given a clear, personal directive from a venerated man of God that the One they have attempted to follow — though sometimes faltering and complaining of their plight — is truly worthy of our worship. One writer summed it up well: “Obviously, a great deal of dialogue has been heard in the first four books of the Bible, some of it vivid and impassioned. And in the Book of Leviticus, as noted, the Lord recites a detailed code of law. Before Deuteronomy, however, no one has spoken to the Israelites at anything like this length in anything like so personal and rhetorical a style about themselves, their God, and their destiny.”

The key word there, I think, is “personal.” Moses isn’t just retelling all the Lord had done for them through bringing them out of Egypt and continuing to meet their needs, based on their obedience, he seems to be telling them on an intimate level why God is worthy of their devotion, just as the Lord has been devoted to them.

As we see through the Pentateuch, numerous individuals, including the Israelites at various times, fell into Baal worship. Perhaps they saw some similarities between God the Father and the Canaanite god of Baal. Baal, who was commonly associated with thunder and lightning, smoke, volcanic activity and fire, and also of fertility, had those commonalities with God the Father. As we see in Exodus 19, God comes down to on Mount Sinai in fire, and “as Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder.” Also, of fertility, God the Father, by telling Noah and Abram that he will make them great nations and commanding Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply,” He sets himself up as the the very source and cause of their ability to give birth and build their nation. But there are distinct and eternally significant differences between the God of all heaven and earth and other gods, whether they are from antiquity or from the present: God is the source of the law and the lawgiver. God is the point at which human existence begins and when it will end. He is the source of salvation. And the most impressive of all: he is the only god, ever, in human thought or mythology to offer himself as the sacrificial gift by which we may be saved.

While all the other gods require of us some effort, that something to make us worthy enough to enter into their holy places, God the Father assumes at the start that we aren’t worthy enough and never will be. Thus, he sent his son as a perfect sacrifice, as a replacement, to retell the disastrous fate that would have awaited us. But in the Gospel of John, we find Christ taking that awful burden on his own shoulders, not in some obligatory way, but freely, for our sake, all so that He may one day hear from us, “There is no other” god but God the Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

application

Read through Deuteronomy 4 and take note or write down all of the reasons Moses gives for the Israelites to know, without a doubt, that God the Father alone is worthy of their worship.

read through Matthew 25:1-12

Unless we go camping or hiking frequently, we today tend to think less about lamp oil, the sort referred to nearly 200 times in the Bible, and more about petroleum, which is obviously used to power our hustle-bustle lifestyle. But before electricity, oil lamps were crucial for educating children, working and traveling. In fact, just as people in the old days would not be able to function without oil for lamps, we would be in dire straits economically and socially without petroleum.

In this passage, Christ uses a parable about virgins wandering out to meet the bridegroom, which here represents Jesus, to make a point about the foolish versus the wise. Five virgins prepare before hand to meet the bridegroom by bringing, not only lamps to see through the night, but oil for the lamps. Bringing oil to power the lamps may seem like an obvious necessity to us, but regardless, the other five virgins chose to only bring the lamps with no oil. When the time came to meet the bridegroom, predictably, the five prudent ones were ready at midnight and the foolish ones had to go into the city and purchase oil.

There’s a lot of ground to cover here, but first, the Bible has much to say about followers who prudently navigate a world of widespread darkness, without the light of Christ in many, many people’s lives. In this passage, oil is used to represent our salvation and the wisdom we possess and should seek after because of a relationship with Him. One online commentary here notes that those who possess prudence in God: understand the ways of God, are crowned with knowledge, can identify evil and false teaching, have the ability to control anger and other destructive feelings, and many other attributes. Thus, without oil in our symbolic lamps, that is, without seeking teaching and wisdom from the word of God daily, we are left susceptible to the dangers of the dark, to the dangers of falsehood and evil and to all things void of Christ. So, it is critically important as Christians that we seek to more fully know God and his wisdom and understanding as we go about our lives. Or else, we leave ourselves open to snares. In this parable, the foolish virgins ultimately did not gain entry into the bridegroom’s house because they had not prepared and filled up their lamps. They did not wisely use the resources God had provided.

Second, and perhaps the most exciting aspect of this parable, those who are diligent, who do prepare, and who do desire God’s truth, they will be rewarded with a feast. For us, this doesn’t mean a literal feast, but an eternity with Christ, a feast of everlasting love, joy and peace in a place called heaven. It’s place with no more longing, no more suffering, thirst, hunger or pain. It’s a destiny that we can look forward to, knowing that we have lived lives fully devoted to Christ and his teaching. But, and it’s a big but, as seen in this parable, those who do not rightly prepare, that is surrendering their lives to Christ, will be turned away as were these five foolish virgins, who seemingly thought they could “borrow” someone else’s provisions to get into the bridegroom’s house. Salvation, however, is a personal decision made one soul at the time. No one else can lend you part of their salvation. Salvation comes when Christ calls a person to their knees, and it truly is an individual, personal, relationship with the most high.

This parable teaches, then, briefly gives us the spiritual decisions that we all have to make and their consequences: salvation, rejection of Christ, eternal life, and separation from Christ.

application

Read through a few or all of these verses and answer for yourself what God is teaching about wisdom and prudence in your life: Proverbs 8:12, Proverbs 12:23, Proverbs: 2:11, Proverbs 13:16, Hosea 14:9, Proverbs 14:8, Proverbs 16:21, Psalms 112:5, Ephesians 5:15, Colossians 4:5, Matthew 10:16, Ephesians 1:8.