Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For
what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not
disciplined--and everyone undergoes discipline--then you are not
legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all
had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How
much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They
disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God
disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his
holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later
on, however, it produces
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Words Of Encouragement
How vigilant we must be to ensure that we don’t allow our
impression of Jesus to be held captive by the prevailing mores of our
secular culture! Rather, it is essential that we continue to return to
the Gospels to ensure that the reverse occurs: to allow Jesus to hold
our hearts and imaginations captive in response to the dominant
thinking of our time. For exiles trying to live faithfully within the
host empire of post-Christendom, the Gospel stories are our most
dangerous memories. They continue to fire our imaginations and remind
us that it’s possible to thrive on foreign soil while serving Yahweh,
but it’s the kind of thriving that often rejects popular wisdom. These
stories are the standards by which we judge all other stories, all
other descriptors of life today. If, after reading these dangerous
biblical stories, you can’t imagine Jesus the Messiah as a
televangelist, strutting around on stage in a flashy suit, playing it
up for the cameras, then you are forced to reject this image and seek
another mode of being Christ today.
Morning Wise Word
God has a purpose for each of us, a role to play in His
cosmic drama of redemption for a lost world. Your role will be
different from mine and, indeed, from that of anyone else. We are each
unique. God has ordained a part for you that you alone can play. The
tragedy is that so many people never discover their part until after
the curtain call. God calls us to turn to Him for guidance. “Trust in
the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in
all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
(Prov. 3:5-6). Another way to render that last phrase is “He will
direct your paths.”………..If we trust God and obey His will, He will
bring us “onstage” at just the right time to play the “role of a
lifetime” – a role He has been preparing us for all along.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The Pattern Of Prayer
In my time, I’ve been to school assemblies, weddings and funerals
that all had one thing in common. In each of these contexts I had to
recite the “Lord’s Prayer“. And sadly, in many of these
contexts, this most familiar prayer has become a liturgical, religious
poem that has had all its meaning and intent shaken from it, leaving a
mere collection of words and phrases.
In Matthew 6:1-13, Jesus gives us the “Lord’s Prayer“. But what was His intention? Was it a formulaic prayer, a rote prayer to be mindlessly muttered? Or did he have deeper, more intentional purposes behind his words?
I believe that is we truly grasp Jesus’ intention in vv.5-13, it will help us in our praying. Because I believe a right understanding will teach us how to pray for the rest of our lives. It will help us discern when we have prayed and if we have prayed the right things. You see, vv.5-13 are a model prayer for us, a structure for our prayers. Not so much exactly what to pray, but a pattern of prayer.
However, before we explore the pattern of prayer Jesus gives us, let us follow him as he clears up some wrong thinking about prayer.
Firstly, verses 1 and 5-6, tell us that God doesn’t reward prayers prayed to impress. Jesus tells us not to pray like the hypocrites, don’t parade a form of righteousness before people simply to impress them. This is not a condemnation of public prayer, far from it, but rather, a question of motive. Our goal when we pray is not that people are awed by our eloquence, but that they pray with us and get caught up in God and his glory. One of the best ways to discern whether you are tempted into this trap is to make sure we are praying far more in private than we do in public!
Secondly, verses 7-8 tell us that God doesn’t reward prayers that seek to manipulate him. Jesus tell us not to pray like the gentiles. The Gentile pagans had the idea that if you manipulated your deity, if you made enough sacrifices and offerings, if you prayed with zeal and fervor, then that particular ‘god’ would be impressed and be forced to hear and answer.
But our God is THE Sovereign God and a God of grace. He answers, not because we have worked ourselves up into a lather and he feels somehow obligated, but when it is according to His will. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying Jesus is outlawing persevering in prayer, and that we should just prayer once and never pray or think about that particular thing again. In fact, Luke 18 commends people people who come to the Father again and again in prayer. What I am saying is that we should not think that if we pray enough we can somehow twist God’s arm and force him to act on our behalf. That would be erroneous!
In verse 9, Jesus begins to outline how we should pray. He begins by drawing our attention to the fact that we pray to ‘Our Father in heaven‘. We pray to a Father, a Father who chose us and redeemed us and reconciled us through sacrificing his own son, adopting us into his family. He is also ‘Our Father in heaven’ which is designed to protect us from over-familiarity. God is NOT my buddy, my pops! He is a Father in heaven. A Holy King. So verse 9 captures the relationship we have with God, a close Father-Child relationship of acceptance, love, protection and provision, but also highlights kingly glory and majesty.
I’m going to break the rest of the “Lord’s Prayer” down into 2 parts to help us benefit from it. My hope in doing this is to help us see the pattern of prayer as establishing our concerns in God’s concerns.
1. Pray God’s Concerns for His Glory.
In verses 9-10 there are 3 requests that form one petition to God. The context of this petition and these requests is that they might come to fruition “…on earth as it is in heaven.“.
a. “Hallowed Be Your Name”
As I mentioned in a previous post, in Jesus day someone’s “name” spoke of their person and character. So when we pray for God’s name to be hallowed we are requesting that we might recognise him and treat him as His name deserves. That we would grow in our awe, reverence and respect for his person and character and revere him as Holy, powerful, just, merciful, lovely, etc.
b. “Your Kingdom Come”
Kingdom implies a king! Someone who rules and reigns. God. When we pray for his kingdom we are not thinking about a geographical location but rather that we would grow in our condition of submission to the king. That we would bow our knee before Him and acknowledge him everything as our Sovereign master and Saviour. That we would live differently in light of his kingly rule over us. We pray that others (unbelievers) would come to recognise God as King and bow their knee in submission to Him and confess him as Lord and Saviour, to the glory of God.
c. “Your Will Be Done”
The Sovereign God has a plan and purpose for his creation and for each of our lives. We pray that we would seek out His will in his word and humbly obey. That he would grant us wisdom and guidance, and tha we would trust God for his power to change and grow.
3 interlocking requests. One petition. That people, starting with ourselves, will recognise God, his nature and character, respond in acknowledging Him as King over their life and willing submit to his kingly rule and will for them and live for his glory.
Many times my prayers begin with what I need. Perhaps an awareness of sin that leads me to pray, “Oh God, forgive me.” or an awareness of what I lack or think I need, “Oh God, come and give me what I want!“. But rightly understanding this opening section of the Lord’s Prayer and the pattern Jesus institutes should lead me to begin by praying about God’s concerns for His glory, for His kingly rule and will to be done – in my life and on earth as it is in heaven.
2. Pray God’s Concerns for the Care of His People.
You and I are fragile, frail people. We may think that we are healthy and full of vitality and life, but James 4:14 reminds us we are just a mist that appears for a while and then vanishes! We aren’t the people we think we are! And we need help. Daily. Prayer is an acknowledgemetn of our need of God, our proclamation of daily dependence upon him for life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:25).
Our prayer life is a gauge of how much we depend on God. Prayer is an act of humility and dependent trust. If we know we need God, we pray. If we don’t pray, its rooted in pride and self-sufficiency.
Notice how in this second section of the Lord’s prayer the words switch from “YOUR” (name, kingdom, will) to “OUR” (sins, daily bread, temptations). The pattern now moves to praying God’s concerns for the care of his people. Again there are 3 requests.
a. “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
Daily bread here represents all the necessities of life. This is perhaps hard for us to pray because most of us have enough food in our cupboards and freezers for a whole month! We have no need to worry! But we must pray for our daily bread. It is an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God for our lives. We kid ourselves if we think what we have is done to our own hard work and ingenuity! All we have is from the good hand of our good and generous and gracious God. Our house, car, food, clothes and job to pay for it all. He provides. And the reality is it could all be gone in a day. Look at the story of Job. So out of dependency and humility we pray for God to provide, and continue to provide, for us.
b. “Forgive Us Our Debts”
Sin creates a debt, a debt against God, punishable by death. But the gospel changes that. Our punishment has been taken by Christ, and we have been set free. Yet, we must go daily to the Father and humbly confess our sins and seek His grace to put that sin to death and change.
Yet, Christ also links our forgiveness to the forgiveness of others. What does he mean? I don’t believe that he is teaching that God’s forgiveness of us is somehow conditional upon my works towards others. Forgiveness of my sin is because of the free gift of the gospel. I think He means that if we truly trust in what Christ has done for us we will quickly forgive others. The sincerity of our hearts and our repentance before God is revealed by how we respond to the sin of others.
As John Loftness, pastor of Solid Rock Church , in Maryland, USA, says, “If we are unforgiving that is a sign of a lack of true repentance before God and any confession to God in that spirit is fake! Confession is real when it is done in humility, when it is done recognising that the greatest sins I’m aware of are sins I have committed against God.”
So we pray searching our own hearts, seeking grace to change and forgive.
c. “Lead Us Not Into Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil”
This is not a prayer for a pressure-free, suffering-free life, but rather asking God to prvide grace and strength in the midst of trials and during times of suffering and temptation. It is not, “Lord, keep all the problems out of my life“. God doesn’t work that way. He uses trials to refine us. But it is a prayer that pleads, “Lord, give me grace, strengthen me, provide a means of escape to come out of this temptation I’m facing.”
John Stott writes: “Perhaps we could paraphrase the whole request as ‘Do not allow us to be so led into temptation that it overwhelms us, but rescue us from the evil one.’ So, behind these words that Jesus gives us to pray are the implications that the devil is too strong for us, that we are to weak to stand up to him, but that our heavnely Father will deliver us if we call upon him.”
The pattern of prayer: First praying God’s concerns for his glory, then praying his concerns for the care of his people. If we pray like this we will know how to pray, what to pray and when you are done praying.
In the next post, I plan on developing some further thoughts on the content of our prayers.
In Matthew 6:1-13, Jesus gives us the “Lord’s Prayer“. But what was His intention? Was it a formulaic prayer, a rote prayer to be mindlessly muttered? Or did he have deeper, more intentional purposes behind his words?
I believe that is we truly grasp Jesus’ intention in vv.5-13, it will help us in our praying. Because I believe a right understanding will teach us how to pray for the rest of our lives. It will help us discern when we have prayed and if we have prayed the right things. You see, vv.5-13 are a model prayer for us, a structure for our prayers. Not so much exactly what to pray, but a pattern of prayer.
However, before we explore the pattern of prayer Jesus gives us, let us follow him as he clears up some wrong thinking about prayer.
Firstly, verses 1 and 5-6, tell us that God doesn’t reward prayers prayed to impress. Jesus tells us not to pray like the hypocrites, don’t parade a form of righteousness before people simply to impress them. This is not a condemnation of public prayer, far from it, but rather, a question of motive. Our goal when we pray is not that people are awed by our eloquence, but that they pray with us and get caught up in God and his glory. One of the best ways to discern whether you are tempted into this trap is to make sure we are praying far more in private than we do in public!
Secondly, verses 7-8 tell us that God doesn’t reward prayers that seek to manipulate him. Jesus tell us not to pray like the gentiles. The Gentile pagans had the idea that if you manipulated your deity, if you made enough sacrifices and offerings, if you prayed with zeal and fervor, then that particular ‘god’ would be impressed and be forced to hear and answer.
But our God is THE Sovereign God and a God of grace. He answers, not because we have worked ourselves up into a lather and he feels somehow obligated, but when it is according to His will. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying Jesus is outlawing persevering in prayer, and that we should just prayer once and never pray or think about that particular thing again. In fact, Luke 18 commends people people who come to the Father again and again in prayer. What I am saying is that we should not think that if we pray enough we can somehow twist God’s arm and force him to act on our behalf. That would be erroneous!
In verse 9, Jesus begins to outline how we should pray. He begins by drawing our attention to the fact that we pray to ‘Our Father in heaven‘. We pray to a Father, a Father who chose us and redeemed us and reconciled us through sacrificing his own son, adopting us into his family. He is also ‘Our Father in heaven’ which is designed to protect us from over-familiarity. God is NOT my buddy, my pops! He is a Father in heaven. A Holy King. So verse 9 captures the relationship we have with God, a close Father-Child relationship of acceptance, love, protection and provision, but also highlights kingly glory and majesty.
I’m going to break the rest of the “Lord’s Prayer” down into 2 parts to help us benefit from it. My hope in doing this is to help us see the pattern of prayer as establishing our concerns in God’s concerns.
1. Pray God’s Concerns for His Glory.
In verses 9-10 there are 3 requests that form one petition to God. The context of this petition and these requests is that they might come to fruition “…on earth as it is in heaven.“.
a. “Hallowed Be Your Name”
As I mentioned in a previous post, in Jesus day someone’s “name” spoke of their person and character. So when we pray for God’s name to be hallowed we are requesting that we might recognise him and treat him as His name deserves. That we would grow in our awe, reverence and respect for his person and character and revere him as Holy, powerful, just, merciful, lovely, etc.
b. “Your Kingdom Come”
Kingdom implies a king! Someone who rules and reigns. God. When we pray for his kingdom we are not thinking about a geographical location but rather that we would grow in our condition of submission to the king. That we would bow our knee before Him and acknowledge him everything as our Sovereign master and Saviour. That we would live differently in light of his kingly rule over us. We pray that others (unbelievers) would come to recognise God as King and bow their knee in submission to Him and confess him as Lord and Saviour, to the glory of God.
c. “Your Will Be Done”
The Sovereign God has a plan and purpose for his creation and for each of our lives. We pray that we would seek out His will in his word and humbly obey. That he would grant us wisdom and guidance, and tha we would trust God for his power to change and grow.
3 interlocking requests. One petition. That people, starting with ourselves, will recognise God, his nature and character, respond in acknowledging Him as King over their life and willing submit to his kingly rule and will for them and live for his glory.
Many times my prayers begin with what I need. Perhaps an awareness of sin that leads me to pray, “Oh God, forgive me.” or an awareness of what I lack or think I need, “Oh God, come and give me what I want!“. But rightly understanding this opening section of the Lord’s Prayer and the pattern Jesus institutes should lead me to begin by praying about God’s concerns for His glory, for His kingly rule and will to be done – in my life and on earth as it is in heaven.
2. Pray God’s Concerns for the Care of His People.
You and I are fragile, frail people. We may think that we are healthy and full of vitality and life, but James 4:14 reminds us we are just a mist that appears for a while and then vanishes! We aren’t the people we think we are! And we need help. Daily. Prayer is an acknowledgemetn of our need of God, our proclamation of daily dependence upon him for life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:25).
Our prayer life is a gauge of how much we depend on God. Prayer is an act of humility and dependent trust. If we know we need God, we pray. If we don’t pray, its rooted in pride and self-sufficiency.
Notice how in this second section of the Lord’s prayer the words switch from “YOUR” (name, kingdom, will) to “OUR” (sins, daily bread, temptations). The pattern now moves to praying God’s concerns for the care of his people. Again there are 3 requests.
a. “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
Daily bread here represents all the necessities of life. This is perhaps hard for us to pray because most of us have enough food in our cupboards and freezers for a whole month! We have no need to worry! But we must pray for our daily bread. It is an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God for our lives. We kid ourselves if we think what we have is done to our own hard work and ingenuity! All we have is from the good hand of our good and generous and gracious God. Our house, car, food, clothes and job to pay for it all. He provides. And the reality is it could all be gone in a day. Look at the story of Job. So out of dependency and humility we pray for God to provide, and continue to provide, for us.
b. “Forgive Us Our Debts”
Sin creates a debt, a debt against God, punishable by death. But the gospel changes that. Our punishment has been taken by Christ, and we have been set free. Yet, we must go daily to the Father and humbly confess our sins and seek His grace to put that sin to death and change.
Yet, Christ also links our forgiveness to the forgiveness of others. What does he mean? I don’t believe that he is teaching that God’s forgiveness of us is somehow conditional upon my works towards others. Forgiveness of my sin is because of the free gift of the gospel. I think He means that if we truly trust in what Christ has done for us we will quickly forgive others. The sincerity of our hearts and our repentance before God is revealed by how we respond to the sin of others.
As John Loftness, pastor of Solid Rock Church , in Maryland, USA, says, “If we are unforgiving that is a sign of a lack of true repentance before God and any confession to God in that spirit is fake! Confession is real when it is done in humility, when it is done recognising that the greatest sins I’m aware of are sins I have committed against God.”
So we pray searching our own hearts, seeking grace to change and forgive.
c. “Lead Us Not Into Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil”
This is not a prayer for a pressure-free, suffering-free life, but rather asking God to prvide grace and strength in the midst of trials and during times of suffering and temptation. It is not, “Lord, keep all the problems out of my life“. God doesn’t work that way. He uses trials to refine us. But it is a prayer that pleads, “Lord, give me grace, strengthen me, provide a means of escape to come out of this temptation I’m facing.”
John Stott writes: “Perhaps we could paraphrase the whole request as ‘Do not allow us to be so led into temptation that it overwhelms us, but rescue us from the evil one.’ So, behind these words that Jesus gives us to pray are the implications that the devil is too strong for us, that we are to weak to stand up to him, but that our heavnely Father will deliver us if we call upon him.”
The pattern of prayer: First praying God’s concerns for his glory, then praying his concerns for the care of his people. If we pray like this we will know how to pray, what to pray and when you are done praying.
In the next post, I plan on developing some further thoughts on the content of our prayers.
Don't be selfish Share with people
Best Morning Wishes...........Is For You
Cause
me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust:
cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul
unto thee. Psalm 143:8
Father,
I thank You for waking me up this morning. I am grateful for taking
care of me through the night. Blessed be Your holy name. As I wake up
this morning Lord, I pray You cause and make me to hear Your
loving-kindness this morning. I live in a world of sin, a world filled
with noises of hatred, violence and evil. But in the midst of this
terrible situation Lord, cause me, make me, help me to hear what You
alone are saying.
I
can hear some noises around me already. More will still come. None of
these will bless me like Your love. Your voice calms my fears and takes
away my pain. That’s why I want to hear You talk and speak to me. I
trust in You Lord, so speak to me today in Jesus name.
And
please Lord, cause me to know the way I should walk today. Direct my
life, my ways and my walk. I am prone to making mistakes so please
cause me to walk in a way that will please You. Like David the
Psalmist, I am surrounded by many angry people like Saul who do not
want my progress and success. Please guide me and direct my actions
today so that I will do only the things that pleases You alone. I am
sure that if You guide and direct me today, no enemy will take
advantage of me. And best of all, I would have spent this day doing
things that honour
You and make You happy. Dear Father, cause me to hear Thy
loving-kindness in the morning and please cause me to know the way I
should walk in Jesus name.
Wise Word: Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
Prayer: Make me to wait on You and look up to You for instructions in all that I do today in Jesus name.
Prayer For The Month Of December...............Claim it
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up Psalm 5: 3
David was a man after God’s own heart. God gladly spoke concerning him that, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will
(Acts 13: 22). It is God’s will for you to wake up early in the morning
to have communion with Him in prayer. In our text today, David
expresses his commitment to pray at cock-crow. He decided to make God
hear his voice early in the morning by directing his prayers to Him.
David prefers to look unto God rather than looking unto man for help.
This is highly profitable for every adolescent. The Psalmist declares, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth (Psalm 121: 1, 2).
Prayer
is an integral part of the Christian life. Each day must begin with
prayer and end with it. The first things true believers do very early
in the morning is to pray, read the Bible and spend
enough time to pray during the period of quite time. Your quiet time is
better observed in the dawn of the day before the mind is engaged in
the day’s business activities. The Bible says, And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed (Mark 1: 35). You need a quiet and an undisturbed moment to really pray and study the Bible
every morning if you will grow as a Christian. Believers who are
careless with their quiet time at the break of day often find it
difficult to overcome the temptations of the devil during the day.
Question: Does God know your voice?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to be consistent in observing my quiet time for growth and strength.
Blessings for Obedience (Deuteronomy 28 )
28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
Curses for Disobedience
15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.[a] 21 The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope
about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in
everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with
no one to rescue you.30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. 34 The sights you see will drive you mad. 35 The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
36 The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. 37 You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.
38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. 42 Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.
43 The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. 52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.
53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.
58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God— 59 the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. 68 The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Daily Message
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Luke 9:57-62
And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Luke 9:57-62
And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Christ lives in me
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer
live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
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