Resource Manager Posted April 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 26 April 2011 Deuteronomy 12Ecclesiastes 5Acts 2 "EVERYONE WHOM THE LORD CALLS TO HIMSELF" What sort of person is the Lord seeking to call? As we completed reading Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 today this familiar question surfaced again. It was a remarkable speech before this great crowd intrigued to hear all these Galileans speaking in their own languages. Peter quoted from two different Psalms and the prophet Joel to show that the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, their real Messiah, had been foretold. Of course we only have the essential kernel of his speech, as the record says, “and with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’” [Acts 2:40] All generations are ‘crooked’ to differing degrees but today we live in one that is extremely so! Now, did all those who heard Peter save themselves? Peter had previously said, “the promise is for you and your children and for all who are afar off, everyone one whom the Lord calls to himself” [Acts 2:39]. This was the promise that was made to David; Peter had quoted his Psalm [Acts 2:28] “You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence” Back to our question, did all those who heard Peter act to save themselves? Acts 2:41 tells us, “So all those who received his word were baptised.” It is essential for those who hear (or read) to receive into their hearts the word, realizing what it means for them personally – and so be motivated to act. We are reading in Deuteronomy of those who heard Moses final stirring messages before he died – they received his words and so entered the promised land and were faithful in their lives. The initial effect on those who received Peter’s words and were baptised was that they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers” [Acts 2:42]. This is the result when the Lord calls men and women to himself. Our thoughts then went to those most moving words in Hebrews, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering … all the more as you see the day approaching.” [Hebrews 10:22,23,25] -------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted April 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2011 27 April 2011 Deuteronomy 13; 14Ecclesiastes 6Acts 3; 4 "FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS TESTING YOU" Today’s Deuteronomy reading brings to our attention an aspect of God’s dealings with us we need to understand and appreciate. This final message of Moses, which we are finding so interesting, in a number of places contains lessons very appropriate to our days. Moses warns the people to beware of simply following some person who forecasts correctly about a “sign or a wonder” and it “comes to pass.” [Deuteronomy 13:1,2] For if such a person “says, ‘Let us go after other gods … and let us serve them’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams.” [Deuteronomy 13:3] Then Moses makes a point we may struggle to appreciate. Moses says, “For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Our immediate question might be – why does God need to do that? We do not understand this as meaning that God makes this happen, rather that he allows this to happen and he has a good reason for allowing it. When the people entered the promised land they faced many challenges and had to fight many battles, their faithfulness to their God was tested, they had to prove themselves by their trust in God as they went to conquer the idol worshipping nations with all their bad and immoral behaviour. These were situations we saw they encountered before they crossed the Jordan and some of them died because they failed the test. Moses exhorts them, “You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.” [Deuteronomy 13:4] They (and we) would not need to hold fast if there were no situations which threatened to pull us away from him; that tested our faithfulness. Today there are a multitude of such situations. The miracles we are reading about in Acts are such that they defy any possibility that human cleverness was involved. Today we read of a man so lame from birth that he had to be carried each day and laid at the Temple Gate. He was more than 40 years old and Peter and John said to him, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately …” [Acts 3:6]. The reaction of the people gave the disciples a wonderful preaching opportunity, but the reaction of the priests was quite the opposite [Acts 4], they failed the test. The Bible message is there for all to read, but nearly all are failing the test. Will you fail?-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted April 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2011 28 April 2011 Deuteronomy 15Ecclesiastes 7Acts 5; 6 “IT IS BETTER FOR A PERSON TO HEAR THE REBUKE OF … ” Solomon’s reminiscences in Ecclesiastes are in some ways a continuation of Proverbs. Several times in today’s chapter [Ecclesiastes 7] he contemplates ways of living and asks “What is better?” and makes observations which do not always provide a clear answer, but instead provoke our thinking. The chapter begins, “A good name is better than precious ointment” which leads us to recall how we read last week about Judas lamenting [John 12:5] that the ointment used to anoint Jesus could have been sold for a lot of money – 300 days wages for a labourer! What was precious about it? It is more important to make a good name (reputation) for yourself - but make sure it is a good reputation in God’s eyes. Ecclesiastes 7:5, “It is better for a person to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.” In so many ways this world is filled with the latter – but if young people are inclined to feel Solomon is wrong – we wonder what kind of reasoning leads to that conclusion? “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit” [Ecclesiastes 7:8]. When “the end of a thing” is not good, some positive thinking is needed to draw out the lessons for doing better in the future - if there is still time. Solomon laments, “In my vain life I have seen everything” [Ecclesiastes 7:15] A simple statement, that life is “vain” - true, but we usually do not appreciate the things that are “vain” until we get to a mature age. Some modern versions render this as the pointlessness of life. Recall our thoughts a few days ago about Solomon’s attitude when he had accomplished everything that he had set his mind to do! At the end of Ecclesiastes he writes, “The preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one shepherd.” [Ecclesiastes 12:10,11] In the New Testament we have the ultimate “good shepherd” - yet Old Testament shepherds provoke much worthwhile thought. The last verse of today’s chapter says, “this alone I found, that God made man upright” (or “we were completely honest when God created us” CEV) “but now we have twisted minds” (CEV) Let us make sure our minds are untwisted by reading and reflecting on God’s word every day.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted April 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2011 29 April 2011 Deuteronomy 16Ecclesiastes 8Acts 7 “YOU MAY REMEMBER THE DAY WHEN … ” We all have memories; bad things we try to shut out of our memory, good things we try to retain and bring to the fore. Moses, in conveying a final message to his people before he died told them all the things they should retain; “all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt” [Deuteronomy 16:3]. The Passover Feast was set up to cement the memory of that day into their consciousness. The generation that had witnessed the miraculous deliverance had failed to do that; they had died in the wilderness because of their faithlessness. Now Moses is delivering the message to the next generation, those who had been teenagers and children when they came out of Egypt. The particular message in today’s chapter [Deuteronomy 16] is of the feasts that they are to keep when they are living in the promised land. As well as remembering the actual deliverance through keeping the Passover there will be 3 other feasts associated with farming the land and the reward of harvesting which they are to now keep. They will experience harvesting for the first time in their lives and they must not “appear before the LORD empty handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD” [Deuteronomy 16:16-17]. Deuteronomy 16:20 has another blunt ‘punch line’ message, “Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” Consider life around us now! The climax of all that God has planned to give to all those who truly believe and love Him is close at hand. Greater and greater storm clouds of calamity are gathering for this world. The challenge to all those who seek to “escape all the things that are going to take place” [Luke 21:36] is to “remember the day” when they made the commitment to join the Lord’s side and accept his “deliverance” by being baptised. If you have not yet experienced such a day – ask yourself – very seriously - why? Don’t let “that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” [Luke 21:34] so that you fail to enter a far greater “promised land”-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted April 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2011 30 April 2011 Deuteronomy 17Ecclesiastes 9Acts 8 “ … AND TO THE END OF THE EARTH” We should be familiar with the words of the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught his disciples….”thy will be done on earth” Our readings today show us how God creates situations to see that his will is carried out - when men neglect to do so! The last thing that Jesus said to his servants before he ascended into heaven was that they were to be his witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” [Acts 1:8]. They had witnessed in Jerusalem very effectively. A great congregation had resulted but it brought its own problems so 7 deacons had been appointed so that the 12 Apostles could concentrate on “prayer and the ministry of the word” [Acts 6:4], but there is no evidence of any attempt being made to carry out the commission to preach further afield. But with the stoning to death of Stephen there was a big change. No doubt many had expected Stephen to experience some dramatic deliverance as had happened with the Apostles earlier. There would be much heart searching because that did not happen. Now we read there was “a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered and went about preaching the word” [Acts 8:4] This preaching resulted in conversions in Samaria with men and women being baptised after they had heard “the good news about the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” [Acts 8:12] Peter and John came down from Jerusalem “and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit” [Acts 8:15] which implies that the Apostles had special authority in this and no one else, so that the ability to pass on the powers of the Spirit ceased when they died. The chapter ends with another baptism an Ethiopian who “had come to Jerusalem to worship” so he already knew of the true God. God’s spirit made Philip link up with him. God was seeing that His will was being done. God was causing “all things to work together for good” [Romans 8:28] that is for the good of God’s plan and purpose: the grieving relatives of Stephen may have seen it in time from that perspective. Now lets consider our perspective? The gospel is now going, in these last days, to the end of the earth via the wonder of the internet! What an exciting time in which to live! But also a very challenging time! Consider the opportunities to open up the full wonder of the original gospel! It now reaches everywhere, but is there any real faith and heart felt conviction among the readers and hearers? Remember what Jesus said about the last days? “Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” [Luke 18:8] That is, genuine faith, evidenced by the commitment of those who possess it.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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