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.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him much believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

Do you want to please God with your life?  If you are like me, the answer is a resounding “yes”!  And although there are many aspects of your life that will bring pleasure to God, there is one ingredient that, if missing, will guarantee that we will NOT please him.  That ingredient is faith.  It is the foundation of our relationship with God, and a necessary part of each walking with him.  But what exactly is faith?  The bible gives us a clear definition.  Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  That may sound like a crazy statement when you just read it out loud.  What kind of person can be confident that what he hopes for will actually happen?  Who can say that they are sure about things that he cannot see?  Well, the answer to that is…anyone who is exercising faith in their everyday life.

The book of Ephesians gives us an insight into what faith is and does. Here are 8 things that this book says about faith:

1. When we have faith, others will hear about it (Ephesians 1:15)
2. Faith is the power that opens the door to salvation (Ephesians 2:8)
3. Faith paves the way to approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12)
4. Faith is the vehicle God uses through which to dwell in our hearts (Ephesians 3:17)
5. There is only one true faith (Ephesians 4:5)
6. Faith can unify us with other believers (Ephesians 4:13)
7. Faith can act as a shield for us to protect us from Satan’s flaming arrows (Ephesians 6:16)
8. God the Father and Jesus Christ provide us with the faith we need (Ephesians 6:23)

Isn’t it just like God to tell us the way to please him, and then provide the power (faith) to do so?  He is so good to us!  Now, as you look at your life, you may be thinking that you have a long way to go before you are fully pleasing to God.  And you are right.  We all have a long way to go–but each step we take in the right direction is also pleasing to him.  I have heard it said that faith is like a muscle…the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.  And I think this is true.  When we exercise our faith, and then see God act on our behalf, it makes us able to trust him for even more.  Then we see him do more, and we trust him even more.  It is a positive, upward cycle that he desires us to enter into.  Are you willing to take the chance?  Is there something that you can ask God for, and believe him for?  Why not try a 30 day experiment, and begin to pray in faith for God to act on your behalf in a way that will be clearly HIM.  Choose a request that you are sure is God’s will, but have no idea how it could happen outside of him.  Pray believing.  When you pray God’s will, you will receive what you ask!  Seek God in prayer and spend time in his word, at the same time ask him for a hunger and thirst to seek him diligently.  He will develop in you what you are seeking.  Do not be discouraged because you are not presently practicing everything God desires for you.  The Christian life is a process, and we are all in it.  Keep asking and trusting, and you will believe him for even more!

This is how you please God.  You trust him to take care of you, answer your prayers, and live like you believe it.  Revelation 4:11 says “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (KJV)  All of creation is here to please God.  Our very lives were created to please God.  If the chief purpose of our lives is to please God, then the primary means to such a valuable end is faith.  That is our part of the bargain.  God’s part is to reward those who believe him and seek him.  It is an experiment worth trying.  Our lives will never be the same!

prayer

Dear Father, we so want to please you.  We have no way to do this except through our lives.  Such a tiny offering…but you can make this gift one that pleases you and reflects your power and grace to the world.  Would you meet us where we are and give us the faith it takes to trust you in even small ways?  Would you allow us to trust you for even bigger things as we walk with you?  Thank you that you love us and that we can trust you to answer this prayer because we pray it in faith.  In Christ’s name,  Amen.

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?

Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The LORD, the God of Israel, says, `I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. I gave you his house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. Why, then, have you despised the word of the LORD and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah and stolen his wife. From this time on, the sword will be a constant threat to your family, because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own.

“`Because of what you have done, I, the LORD, will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man, and he will go to bed with them in public view. You did it secretly, but I will do this to you openly in the sight of all Israel.’”

2 Samuel 12:7-12

David is well known for this one particular event, his adultery with Bathsheba and the resulting spiral of murder and lies. This man, often identified with the phrase “a man after God’s own heart,” made a critical mistake which resulted in the virtual destruction of his family. He is a man after God’s own heart because of the way he responded to his own sin - recognizing how serious it was to God.

Not only did he recognize his sin, but he immediately went about dealing with the situation. It is here that we need to pay attention, because it is here that we often misunderstand God’s word about forgiveness. David sought God’s forgiveness and received it. But forgiveness didn’t eliminate the results of sin. There would be real implications that no amount of apology could do away with.

Forgiveness can help us respond to the trauma of sin with patience, endurance, understanding and humility. Which is good, because forgiveness rarely means that there will not be consequences. Lying to friends or betraying a trust is difficult to fix. It takes time to build the trust back into the relationship - even once forgiveness is received. Accidental death, even murder, can be forgiven - but the death and separation it causes are very real.

Every marriage, every family, struggles with sin - whether anger, jealousy, pride, or something else - as they say, “insert your problem here.” Since we know what sin does to our lives in general, we need to make every effort to guard our families. So the question is, how can we guard our families? What can we put in place as a preventive for the effects of sin?

The first, and often most overlooked, preventive measure is prayer. In prayer we can do a couple important things. We can recognize Jesus for who he is, the best example of character and sacrifice. We can thank him for all that he has done in the past, and all that he continues to do. We can seek forgiveness for the sin that is already at work in our lives, and we can ask God to help us as we deal with the results of that sin. And we can ask God to work in the lives of spouse and children - increasing their love of his word and building on his example.

We can also encourage a close relationship with God. This can be done through both words and actions, and probably should be. We should take advantage of every opportunity to encourage our families to find value in God’s word. That is one of the main points of Deuteronomy 6. But more than just asking, “Did you do your Bible study today?” we should be making sure that we have done our Bible study today. That we have spent time in prayer. Our kids are watching. Your spouse is watching. They will follow your example!

We are stewards in this life - just as much with our families as with our money. God is calling us to wisely guard his investment. It’s a responsibility that requires a close relationship with Christ. Take some time now to pray, thanking God for the family he has given you. And then pray for each family member - for their gifts and strengths as well as their weaknesses and struggles.

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.