Fri, 30 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Matthew 10:1-3

¹ And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. ² The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Jesus calls his disciples and commissions the twelve to have power over unclean spirits and to heal. He then sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of God.

What do we learn from this?

Jesus gives the twelve a special dispensation of His power to validate the message they bring to the people. The purpose of these miraculous powers was not to amaze people, or to call attention to the disciples themselves. Rather the point is to prove the messangers are truly sent by God, and people should pay attention to the message they bring.

It is easy to lose sight of the true purpose of these miracles. People focus on the unusual manifestations of God’s power, and desire to see the same things in our day. But if our desire is to see miracles rather than to hear the word of God, then we have missed the whole point. We have the full scriptures, and we know their authority. We don’t need any more miracles to validate God’s word, for it has already been proved to be authoritative.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Here we see Jesus Christ using His disciples to bring the word to the people of that day. Today it is our responsibility to bring the word to those around us, for He still works through His followers to carry the message of salvation in Jesus Christ to the lost world.

Thu, 29 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Isaiah 61:1-2

¹ The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
² to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;

Isaiah, at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes these words. The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon him, as he is God’s anointed to bring the news of judgment and and of liberty.

What do we learn from this?

Isaiah writes of God’s judgment. All sin is under His condemnation. God will have vengeance against sin. There is a day of great judgment coming, and it is a dark day for all who are under God’s wrath.

But Isaiah also brings good news. Those who humble themselves before God, confessing their sins, and coming to Him in faith will find comfort. He takes away the guilt of their sin, laying it upon Jesus Christ. He binds up their brokenheartedness. God proclaims their liberty from sin and opens the spiritual prison they were held in, freeing them to come to Him.

Just as we should, Isaiah proclaims both the bad news of God’s judgment and the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. It is important to have both. If we leave out the bad news of our sin and God’s coming judgment, the news of Jesus’ death and resurrection makes no sense. The gospel is not good news unless we understand that we need to be saved from the guilt of our sin. People need to know they need a Savior before they will come to Him for salvation.

But if we leave out the good news of salvation that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, we leave people without hope, trying to be good enough to appease a rightly angered God. There is nothing but despair without the gospel.

It is important that we present both God’s anger against our personal sin, and God’s offer of salvation to all those who come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ. We need to share both the good and the bad news.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus read this passage when He was asked to read the scripture in His hometown, saying that “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Ultimately, this passage is about Jesus Christ. He is the Anointed One, the Messiah or Christ, sent to proclaim salvation that is found in His name. He is the one who sets us free from our sins by His own life, death and resurrection.

Wed, 28 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Psalm 119:145

With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O LORD!
I will keep your statutes.

The Psalmist cries out to God with his whole heart, desiring to obey God’s word.

What do we learn from this?

What is the significance of crying with your “whole heart”? What is the cry? What does the whole heart mean?

The cry is calling out to God. The Psalmist is praying. If someone is not giving everything they have to a task, we say they are doing it half-heartedly. That is not the way the Psalmist prays. He is praying with all that he has.

We have already seen earlier in Psalm 119 that the Psalmist searches the scriptures until his eyes fail him. He is praying with the same intensity. He prays with all he has.

The Psalmist goes on the ask for the LORD to answer, followed by a promise of obedience. Is this a bargain the Psalmist is making with God? Is he asking for a quid pro quo? If You hear me (meaning grant my prayer), I will then obey.

No. This is not a bargain. The Psalmist is asking for God to grant him strength to be able to obey. If God answers the request, he will be enabled to obey. The Psalmist is not making a bargain with God. Rather, he is asking God to dramatically intervene in his life to save him. The result of this salvation will be that he will be better enabled to serve God.

Where is Christ in this passage?

We find salvation as we call out in faith to Jesus Christ. As we come to Him in faith, He grants us His righteousness and takes away the guilt of our sins. He pays the price for our sins Himself, freeing us from the the punishment due to us.

What should be the result of the salvation we find in Jesus Christ? Obedience! As God enables us, we should obey. That should be the cry of our heart in response to what Jesus Christ has done for us.

Tue, 27 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Deuteronomy 32:1-3

¹ “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
² May 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.
³ For I will proclaim the name of the LORD;
ascribe greatness to our God!”

Moses is coming to the end of his review of all that God has done for Israel. He has recalled the Exodus, and the years of wilderness wandering. He has recalled Israel’s unfaithfulness and God’s covenant faithfulness. He has reminded them of the victories God has given over the enemies who fought against them on this side of the Jordan. Moses’ purpose is to inspire obedience to God and faith in Him as the are about to enter the promised land. And so Moses teaches Israel this song to recall what God has done for them.

What do we learn from this?

It is good to sing our praise to God. There seems to be a special link between singing and remembering. We remember what we sing, and so singing of God’s great acts of mercy makes it easier for us to remember what He has done for us.

But it is also important for us to proclaim the greatness of God. Not only do we sing for our own benefit of remembering and praising God for what He has done, but we also sing to share with others what He has done. We proclaim the name of the LORD to others and ascribe greatness to Him as we sing His praises.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ has saved us through His work on our behalf, dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. We are saved from eternal punishment and welcomed into God’s presence because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now that is something God has done for us that we should be quick to proclaim to the people around us.

Mon, 26 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Matthew 6:1-4

¹ “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

² “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

It seems that in Jesus’ day, the rich would make a big display of using some of their money to help others. They would sound the trumpet, their aquivilant of calling a press conference, and make sure everyone knew about their generous giving. Almost two thousand years later, nothing has changed.

What do we learn from this?

There are many ways we can trumpet our giving. Go to any college campus and you will see many egregious examples of this: building after building named for the wealthy doner who provided the funds for the facilities. They have given their money to be seen by people as philothrapists. They have their reward as people daily see their name on the building. But that that is all they will get. God promises no eternal reward for such an action done for the glory of the person who does it.

Disturbingly, you see this in churches as well. In most cases, people do it without thinking. They want to honor someone who has done much for the church. Sometimes without the person’s knowledge after their death the church posts a plaque recounting what they have done. Obviously, this isn’t the same. But too many times, the plaque is posted at the wishes of the person as a quid pro quo. They have given to the church and served in the church, and they want everyone to know what they have done and to honor them. This is clearly wrong. And since it is difficult if not impossible to distinguish between the plaque put up by the church to honor someone without their knowledge or desire for acknowledgement, and the plaque put up at the express desire of the person seeking acknowledgement, I personally oppose both.

Our service for God should be done for Him and not for the aclaim of others.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus tells us that what we do can have eternal significance, if it is done for God. Whether it be our giving, our fasting, our prayer, or our obedience to His commands, all of these otherwise good actions can be for naught when we do them out of a desire for the praise of people. But as we do them for God, there are eternal consequences.

Sun, 25 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Isaiah 57:1-2

¹ The righteous man perishes,
and no one lays it to heart;
devout men are taken away,
while no one understands.
For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;
² he enters into peace;
they rest in their beds
who walk in their uprightness.

We don’t get many answers about why God does what He does. He is sovereign over all things, and He has no obligation to explain them all to us. But God does sometimes condescend to tell us some things.

In our reading today, God tells Isaiah why some of the righteous people died in His day: to remove them from the chaos and violence of their day.

What do we learn from this?

Death is our great enemy. We hate to see those we love die, and we have a certain element of fear about our own death. Much of death is unknown to us, and so we naturally fear it. It usually is accompanied by pain, and so we desire to avoid it. And it is so final that it ends everything we know. What comes beyond death? We know very little about that until we face it ourselves.

But God tells Isaiah that when a righteous man dies, he leaves the calamity of this world and enters into peace.

Death, though a great tragedy, is the entrance into eternal peace for the righteous. It is something we mourn, but for the Christian, there is great hope. The death of the Christian is the end of their trials and tribulations, and the entrance into the full peace of God. We still hate it, mourn it, and try to avoid it. But we have hope in the face of it.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Death is a reminder of our sin. Every one of us have violated God’s law, and apart from Christ’s return, every one of us will die. Adam’s sin brought death into the world, and therefore we all die as a result of Adam’s action on our behalf.

But because of Jesus Christ’s action on behalf of His people, death has lost its sting. Death no longer issues us into eternal judgment for our sin, but rather, death is our entrance to God’s peace. The punishment for our sins is fully paid if we are in Jesus Christ. He has taken that guilt and has atoned for it on the cross. Therefore everyone who comes to Him in faith is fully reconciled to the Father and is accepted into His heaven at death.

Sat, 24 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Psalm 119:67

Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I keep your word.

Why does God allow us to suffer? We don’t always know, but the Psalmist gives us one reason: to teach us obedience.

What do we learn from this?

When everything is going well for us, we have a tendency to fall away from God. We feel independent, and we think only of ourselves. We don’t think of God, of what He has done for us, of our need for Him, or of our responsibility to serve and obey Him. When we are content with ourselves and our circumstances, we think we don’t need God and we drift away into disobedience.

But when circumstances change, and things start to go wrong for us, we immediately remember God. The afflictions we face get our attention and cause us to realize how we have lost our moorings and have drifted away from God. In our times of fear and pain, we remember God, and repent of our sin. The troubles draw us back to Him.

It shouldn’t be that way, but unfortunately, that is how we are. When we are prospering, we tend to forget God. When we suffer, we return to Him. God knows what is best for us, and when we are suffering, at that point, it is best for us to suffer. Perhaps it is what we need to draw us back to Him, because in our suffering we learn obedience.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Our sufferings serve a purpose. God can use them to draw us back to Him.

Christ’s sufferings also served a purpose. It was in His suffering and dying on the cross that our sins were paid.

Fri, 23 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Deuteronomy 28:20-24

²⁰ “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. ²¹ The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ²² The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought [a] and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. ²³ And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. ²⁴ The LORD will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

In Deuteronomy 28, Moses reviews a vital principle: God blesses obedience and curses disobedience. The first half of the chapter deals with the blessings. That was yesterday’s reading. Today’s reading deals with the curses.

What do we learn from this?

What a graphic picture of God’s work in a society. There are results to our actions, and as we live in rebellion against God, we will suffer the natural consequences.

Today’s reading is filled with much that is disturbing, not the least of which is because as we read through the history books of the Old Testament, we see that these curses Moses describes actually came upon the Israelites in there rebellion against God. It is a graphic lesson for us: If we live in rebellion against God, we will suffer. But as we obey Him, we will be blessed.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Deuteronomy 28 is speaking to the nation of Israel, and describes what happens to an entire society.

But at a personal level, we don’t merit God’s blessing by our good obedience. Because of our sin (and we have all sinned) we all deserve God’s eternal punishment. Being good can’t make up for our sin and avert the curse we are under because of the guilt of our sin.

Our only hope is to claim the promise we have of salvation in Jesus Christ. He Himself has taken the punishment for the sins of all who come to Him, paying the penalty upon the cross. We are blessed by God as we are in Jesus Christ, whereas outside of Jesus Christ, we are under God’s curse.

Thu, 22 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Matthew 2:1-12

¹ Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, ² saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” ³ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

⁶ “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

⁷ Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” ⁹ After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ¹¹ And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Going through the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we noticed that angels refuse worship. God is the only one we are to worship. Yet we see here that the wise men offer their worship to the baby Jesus.

What do we learn from this?

Jesus Christ receives worship. We see this in the gospels and in the book of Revelation, and in every case, there is no rebuke to those who offer the worship.

Since we are to only worship God, and Jesus receives worship and does not refuse it, we must conclude that Jesus Christ claims to be God.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ is God. He is the Second Person of the Trinity and we are to worship Him.

Wed, 21 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Isaiah 53:1-6

¹ Who has believed what they heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
² For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah describes for us the suffering Servant.

What do we learn from this?

This suffering Servant is despised, rejected, wounded, and crushed, but all for a purpose. Isaiah tells us that we didn’t understand what was going on as the Servant suffered, but that suffering was for us. In fact, this suffering paid the price for our sins and brought us to peace with God. We are healed of our ultimate illness, and can accepted by God.

Where is Christ in this passage?

What an amazing picture of the atonement purchased for us by Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. His death served a purpose. It was not pointless. It did exactly what God intended: It paid the price for the guilt of the sins of all those who will come to Him in faith.