Day 14

Reading-Genesis 15, Matthew 14, Nehemiah 4, Acts 14

In the hard times, we should run to God.  After Abram met God Most High who possesses heaven and earth, he showed his trust in Him by not taking what was his from the battle he had just one.  Yet, it is obvious what Abram wants and does not have.  God speaks to him to affirm him that he will have a child at some point.  In fact, God tells him about what will happen for the next four hundred plus years.  It is good to know that God is there when we run to Him, but also that He is drawing up to Himself in these times.

We know Jesus wept in John 11.  He is also grieving in Matthew 14.  John the Baptist has been killed.  Jesus seeks a place to grieve only to be found by thousands of people.  In His grace He knows He will find time with the Father in His grief, but He is still compassionate towards the crowds.  After feeding the multitudes, Jesus finds His isolation with the Father and walks on water to get back to the disciples.  Our God can do anything and He works in us to do whatever He desires.

Nehemiah is a great example again of praying without ceasing.  He constantly calls out to God.  He trusts God to protect them.  Still, like praying for rain-Nehemiah holds out his umbrella.  He arms his people and tells them to remember God and trust God to fight for them and in this case through them.  God again fights their battle by preventing their enemies from even coming against them as they build.

Finally, we all know how quickly things can change.  Paul and Barnabas are being celebrated as gods one minute and Paul is being stoned and left for dead the next.  We are so fickle at times.  Still, Paul’s work was not done and God caused Paul to regain his strength and walk right back into the city that stoned him.  We are grateful for hearing how the gospel spread in these early days.

Day 13

Reading-Genesis 14, Matthew 13, Nehemiah 3, Acts 13

God reveals Himself often in the Old Testament by name.  El Elyon is the name God Most High.  Following a battle of five kings against four, Abram pursues the four victorious kings to rescue Lot.  Having brought him back God Most High meets him through the priest Melchizedek (who later becomes an explanation of Jesus’ priesthood in Hebrews).  We learn a lot about God in a few verses and the lesson that we can trust in God to provide for us.

Parables are a common teaching tool of Jesus.  They are ways to explain truth in pictures.  This chapter is discouraging and encouraging at the same time.  It is discouraging to hear of the times when the Word will be shared and yet won’t have the impact it should.  On the other hand, we gain an understanding of the world around us.  We learn how some people will appear to be believers for a season and how the righteous and unrighteous will live together for a time.  We learn to see the treasure that is God and how His Kingdom is having an impact even when it doesn’t appear to be at times.  Finally, we get to see the discouraging side of truth when Jesus is rejected merely because the people were familiar with Him.

In Nehemiah, we learn how you rebuild a wall.  You do it one block at a time.  Families take up the cause and the work begins to proceed.

Look how the Holy Spirit speaks in Acts.  As they seek God through prayer and fasting God speaks and sends missionaries from this church.  I pray He will from ours.  As in Matthew we see the challenges to ministry, but God overwhelms this challenge.  We also see the reality of rejection, but the joy of those who believe.

Day 12

Reading-Genesis 13, Matthew 12, Nehemiah 2, Acts 12

I love the trust that Abram shows in Genesis 13.  He recognizes that he and Lot need to part ways because of their size.  Instead of making the first choice, he invites Lot to choose where he would like to go.  Lot, we will see soon, makes a bad choice.  Still, despite the choice God makes it clear to Abram that all the land is part of God’s promise to him.  Abram seems to spend a lot of time worshiping in these chapters.  it reminds us that worship is a lifestyle, not an event.

In Matthew we see the people who just do not get it and the ones who are truly Jesus’ family-those who do the will of the Father.  The Pharisees are so caught up on the rules they miss God in flesh.  It frightens me because I know it gets too easy to fall into routine, to follow rules, and to miss God.

Nehemiah lives a life that is anything but missing God.  As the king’s cupbearer he had access to the king, but to be sad in the king’s presence means death.  He just cannot hold his grief for his city in any longer and the king notices.  Nehemiah teaches us to pray without ceasing as he calls out to God silently before he speaks to the king.  He reminds us of God’s favor over him again and again until the point of sharing it with the people and finding that they jump at the chance to be a part of what God is doing.

Finally, in Acts 12 we see who wins when man fights God.  Herod kills a disciple and then intends to kill Peter.  God frees Peter, but the event reminds us that we actually want to believe God will do what we are asking Him to do.  (It is possible they were praying for God to strengthen him in his situation.)  When the answer to prayer comes to the door, no one believes it.  Finally, Herod refuses to give God glory and pays the ultimate consequence for it.

Faith comes by hearing the word of God and these reminders of how God works stir up my faith today.

Day 11

Reading-Genesis 12, Matthew 11, Nehemiah 1, Acts 11

Failure and success.  They seem to be linked very closely in our lives at times.  Sometimes our failures lead to success and sometimes success precedes our greatest failures.  I am grateful for a man who will step out of routine and stay sensitive to the call of God at the age of 75.  Abram shows great faith to go not knowing where God will lead him, but trusting God to lead.  We are blessed literally through Abram’s faith.  Still, with his obedience and worship, he fails to trust God by lying about his wife.  We do that sometimes–we seem to exclude God from a specific area of our life and we are oblivious to it.

John the Baptist falls in this same camp.  He has so many statements of faith, particularly in John’s Gospel.  He is so humble.  In jail he reveals a low-point.  Something about his expectations of Jesus did not match up with what Jesus was doing.  It should be comforting that Jesus did not live up to expectations because so often we cannot live up to other people’s expectations.  Still, Jesus affirms John and does the same for us.  He offers us life in the midst of these times unlike anything anyone else offers.  He offers the simple invitation to come and take up His yoke.

Nehemiah lives in a time when failure is all he can see from his people.  Like Ezra he is willing to pray in confession embracing the sins of his people and praying corporately.  He remembers God’s promise to forgive and he comes in faith.  These two leaders tell us how we must stand with others to be a leader.

Finally, in Acts we see a church that does not yet get it.  They think salvation is only for Jews.  To their credit, when Peter tells his story-they believe.  The final encouragement comes from the son of encouragement known as Barnabas.  Barnabas is sent to see the work God is doing in Antioch.  He realizes that Antioch is a perfect match for Saul.  He gets him and they invest in this community for God’s glory.

Day 10

Reading-Genesis 11, Matthew 10, Ezra 10, Acts 10

Lots of names.  Three of our four chapters are filled with lists of names.  In Genesis, we have just heard of the re-poplulating of the earth after the flood through Noah’s sons in chapter 10.  In chapter 11, we see a genealogy of Shem that leads us to Abram and Abram becomes our main character for the coming weeks.  The verse that stands out to me in chapter 11 is that of the people wanting to make a name for themselves.  Clearly God is left out of the equation in this desire.

In Matthew, we hear of who Jesus selected to be His twelve disciples.  Chapter 10 is a preparation chapter of what life would be like for believers after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to the Father.  He sends the twelve out on mission as we should be on mission.  He tells them of the conflict that will come from authorities and even our families.  Yet, He also tells them that in the face of conflict God will give them words to say and that the very hairs on their heads are numbered.  He has great reward waiting for those who are faithful.

The only theme that stands out in these last three chapters is that of fear.  We must choose who we fear.  It is not that we should just be frightened of someone or something.  The truth is that we make decisions daily that are done in reverence to God or man.  We need to make sure we are allowing God to hold the supreme place of reverence in our lives and living accordingly.  He has authority over us temporally and eternally.

In Ezra, the people confess their sin response to Ezra’s prayer and fasting and grief.  They do not want to stir up God’s wrath so they determine to put away the relationships with the local people because they fear God not man.

Finally, Peter learns a great lesson in Acts.  Even later in Galatians Paul will rebuke Peter because he would only interact with non-Jews when Jews were not around.  He was fearful of man’s response.  Peter had a hard time getting over this principle of separation he had been taught.  Still, God went to great lengths to convince Peter that salvation is for everyone.  Praise God for that!

Day 9

Reading-Genesis 9-10, Matthew 9, Ezra 9, Acts 9

Oh, how great our God is in mercy and forgiveness!  Though so undeserving, God constantly offers us new beginnings as we ask.  Of course Noah’s life after the flood demonstrates that on a global scale.  Despite the wickedness on the earth, mankind is given a second chance with a demonstration of mercy as God declares He will not cause a destroying flood as He just has.

Jesus declares the truth of new beginnings as He teaches about new wine skins.  He came to inaugurate a new covenant.  Everyone He goes He encounters people who receive new beginnings.  He is criticized for this very thing.  Jesus doesn’t hang with the religious elite.  He eats with sinners.  He lives with people who recognize they need help.

Ezra’s prayer in chapter 9 is an eye-opening prayer of repentance and confession.  Ezra appears to be a righteous man, yet you would not know it by his prayer.  He does not exalt himself above the people, but identifies with them.  It is as if their sins are his sins because they are living in community.  He knows that these sins impact everyone.  He rehearses how God is righteous for every consequence that has come to the Israelites.  He would be righteous if he never showed mercy, but He had through foreign kings and He would again.  This repentance is the groundwork for revival.

Finally, it is hard to find a more obvious new beginning than the one that Saul (later Paul) experienced.  He comes to Damascus to arrest Christians; he leaves Damascus a short time later as a Christian whom others want to arrest.  It is amazing how Jesus can step into a life and change it forever.

Day 8

Reading-Genesis 8, Matthew 8, Ezra 8, Acts 8

In Genesis we find  a new beginning.  Finally, the flood waters have receded.  Noah, his family, and the animals are off the Ark.  God tells us that some things change and some don’t.  He will not bring destruction in the same way He had just done, but He tells us that people have not changed.  Noah and all of us still have an inclination towards evil.  We still need a Savior after the flood.  Life is so often God bringing good out of the bad we put ourselves in or that is around us.

Jesus, of course, is the epitome of this as He takes on human flesh.  In Matthew 8, Jesus shows His power over most everything in one brief encounter after another.  He heals, He casts out demons, He calms the winds and waves.  I find it most amazing how Jesus fulfills prophecy of taking our weaknesses and diseases by healing them.  It is a foretaste of what He will do on the cross.

In Ezra it is hard to not be moved by the recounting of how God’s hand was on he and the people.  He is in tune with God enough to recognize that how he lives shows what he believes about God.  Thus, instead of asking man for help, he prays and fasts and asks God for help.  He wants God to show the king and others that He protects His people.  That is a challenge to our everyday life.

Finally, persecution takes root in Acts 8.  Does that destroy the church?  No.  It actually causes them to be faithful to the Great Commission.  Who knows how long they would have taken to move from Jerusalem and start reaching Judea, Samara, and the ends of the earth.  Take note that the apostles are able to stay in Jerusalem.  It is the deacons and church members who have to leave and they leave faithfully sharing the Word.  It is great to know our God is all-powerful in a sin-tainted world.