Cleansing Worship
Read Joshua 3-6
Josh 3:5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”
I’M THINKING of Sunday morning, going to church and being in God’s presence. I wonder what would happen if I would “consecrate” myself on Sunday morning. And then I would leave worship in faith, expecting God to do amazing things in my life.
To consecrate means to become clean or to be morally purified. Now I can’t purify myself morally or “clean” myself spiritually. But I can, in the presence of God, open myself to his Spirit to do the cleansing.
How would I open myself to cleansing? I would confess my sins. I would pray to God in praise and adoration. I would sing songs of praise and worship in gratitude for his salvation on my soul. I would raise my hands in love, or sit in contemplation of his Word.
I would listen closely to the Word spoken to determine where I fall short of following God. And I would pray for God’s protection on my heart in order to live more closely with him.
Then I would leave. I would go home in expectation of his blessings, his power, his grace on my life. I would give thanks all week long for his “amazing things” in my life.
Then I would be excited to go back the next week to “get clean” all over again, gathered with God’s people to worship him.
Sound good? It is.
Pause and Consider: how good it is to be clean.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
March 9, 2011 God Can Change Your Life
God Can Change Your Life
Joshua 1-2
Josh 2:10-11 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Re d Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
DO YOU see how God’s reputation has gone before his people? God’s miracles in Egypt and in the desert gave his people victory, and they frightened all the nations who heard of them. How could they stand against a people whose God changed the laws of nature?
I’m thinking right now of someone who experienced a very deep brokenness in her life a few years ago. Her family split apart. Her health declined, her job was in jeopardy, her husband left, and now what could she do?
I suggested she open her bible and meet her miracle working God. He could part a sea to free his people. He could heal broken bodies and broken spirits. His power could raise his Son from the grave.
I offered that God could do miracles in her life—conquer her enemies and open her life to new hope and peace. But she wouldn’t go for it. She didn’t think it would help to read the bible, to get to know God. She didn’t trust he had prepared for her a Life of Promise.
I hope someday she’ll change her mind and trust her God. I pray she’ll follow him to the place he has already gone, waiting for her to follow.
Pause and Consider: God’s Word heals broken lives.
Joshua 1-2
Josh 2:10-11 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Re d Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
DO YOU see how God’s reputation has gone before his people? God’s miracles in Egypt and in the desert gave his people victory, and they frightened all the nations who heard of them. How could they stand against a people whose God changed the laws of nature?
I’m thinking right now of someone who experienced a very deep brokenness in her life a few years ago. Her family split apart. Her health declined, her job was in jeopardy, her husband left, and now what could she do?
I suggested she open her bible and meet her miracle working God. He could part a sea to free his people. He could heal broken bodies and broken spirits. His power could raise his Son from the grave.
I offered that God could do miracles in her life—conquer her enemies and open her life to new hope and peace. But she wouldn’t go for it. She didn’t think it would help to read the bible, to get to know God. She didn’t trust he had prepared for her a Life of Promise.
I hope someday she’ll change her mind and trust her God. I pray she’ll follow him to the place he has already gone, waiting for her to follow.
Pause and Consider: God’s Word heals broken lives.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
march 6, 2011 A Great Dad
A Great Dad
Read Deuteronomy 25-27
Deut 26:19 God has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.
FOCUS ON the phrase “he will set you in praise”. What does that mean to you?
I’m thinking of a loving father at graduation time. He sits in the audience and watches his son cross the stage to receive his diploma. He thinks of the difficult times his son has endured, working through the homework, struggling with the math, rebelling against some teachers. He is mindful that his son’s journey through school hasn’t been perfect—and even has been terribly difficult.
And then he considers his son’s successes. The improvement in his grades from his freshman year to his senior year, his acceptance into college, and this moment of graduation.
His son has made it. The difficulties of getting to this day are behind. There will be difficulties in the future. Today is a day to celebrate. He gives praise to his son. He points him out to a stranger nearby. No one else in the auditorium matters. That is his son, and he is pleased. He praises his son in his heart for many things, but most of all he praises his son because he is his son.
God loves you in this same way. He stays with you. You matter so much to your Father he sent Jesus, his son, to die for you, to welcome you across the stage to life eternal. He loves you so much he has sent his Holy Spirit to care for you, to guide you through the tough times, to keep you walking across the stage, to keep loving you and honoring you—to stay with you.
Yes, God the Father stays with you. After all, you are his child.
Pause and Consider: isn’t God a great Dad?
Read Deuteronomy 25-27
Deut 26:19 God has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.
FOCUS ON the phrase “he will set you in praise”. What does that mean to you?
I’m thinking of a loving father at graduation time. He sits in the audience and watches his son cross the stage to receive his diploma. He thinks of the difficult times his son has endured, working through the homework, struggling with the math, rebelling against some teachers. He is mindful that his son’s journey through school hasn’t been perfect—and even has been terribly difficult.
And then he considers his son’s successes. The improvement in his grades from his freshman year to his senior year, his acceptance into college, and this moment of graduation.
His son has made it. The difficulties of getting to this day are behind. There will be difficulties in the future. Today is a day to celebrate. He gives praise to his son. He points him out to a stranger nearby. No one else in the auditorium matters. That is his son, and he is pleased. He praises his son in his heart for many things, but most of all he praises his son because he is his son.
God loves you in this same way. He stays with you. You matter so much to your Father he sent Jesus, his son, to die for you, to welcome you across the stage to life eternal. He loves you so much he has sent his Holy Spirit to care for you, to guide you through the tough times, to keep you walking across the stage, to keep loving you and honoring you—to stay with you.
Yes, God the Father stays with you. After all, you are his child.
Pause and Consider: isn’t God a great Dad?
Friday, March 4, 2011
March 5, 2011 A Tree A Cross
A Tree-A Cross
Read Deuteronomy 21-24
Deut 21:22-23 If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, 23 you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.
THIS PASSAGE isn’t very inspiring is it? Or is it?
Now think. How did Jesus die? The cross was considered a “tree”. The Romans often nailed people to trees along roadways.
The One who died on a tree was one who had committed a capital offense. Jesus was accused of blasphemy, words against God, punishable by death. (Matt 26:65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy!”)
The one hung on a tree was to be taken down before nightfall and buried. Nicodemus and Joseph did that to Jesus. (Matt 27:57-58 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea , named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.)
The one hung on a tree was under God’s curse. Jesus, the Son of God, was under God’s curse for the sin of the world—yours and mine. (Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.)
Now, does this inspire you? God sent his Son to the worst death on earth for the best life in Heaven. God killed His Son that you might live.
What will you do with this gift that cost God everything?
Pause and Consider: salvation, free to you, cost God everything.
Read Deuteronomy 21-24
Deut 21:22-23 If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, 23 you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.
THIS PASSAGE isn’t very inspiring is it? Or is it?
Now think. How did Jesus die? The cross was considered a “tree”. The Romans often nailed people to trees along roadways.
The One who died on a tree was one who had committed a capital offense. Jesus was accused of blasphemy, words against God, punishable by death. (Matt 26:65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy!”)
The one hung on a tree was to be taken down before nightfall and buried. Nicodemus and Joseph did that to Jesus. (Matt 27:57-58 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea , named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.)
The one hung on a tree was under God’s curse. Jesus, the Son of God, was under God’s curse for the sin of the world—yours and mine. (Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.)
Now, does this inspire you? God sent his Son to the worst death on earth for the best life in Heaven. God killed His Son that you might live.
What will you do with this gift that cost God everything?
Pause and Consider: salvation, free to you, cost God everything.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
March 4, 3011 On Your Face
40 Days on Your Face
Read Deut 10-12
Deut 9:18 Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and so provoking him to anger.
WHEN I consider my prayer life, I have none contrasted to Moses’ passionate petitions for his people. Can you imagine being prostrate before the LORD for 40 days and nights? Lying on the ground praying with no food, no water, I couldn’t. I can’t imagine it. No way. Why would I want to do that?
Oh, wait a minute. What if my wife or my children were living lives opposed to God? What if God threatened to annihilate them? Would I then prostrate myself? For 40 days?
40 days. That’s how long it rained to wash the sin from the earth in the Great Flood (Gen 7). That’s how long Jesus battled the devil in the wilderness (Luke 4). 40 days of cleansing, 40 days of battle…the struggle is enormous, the struggle continues.
We must then, be prepared to wage war against the evil that threatens our lives and our loved ones’ lives.
Moses was on the ground for a people he originally wanted to run from. God had turned his heart to a great, sacrificial love for a people that consistently disobeyed their God. Yet, Moses didn’t give up on them, and God responded to his prayers. God blessed his people.
Who in your family needs your prayers? How do you respond? Is if for a minute? Is it once a day? Once a week? Once a year?
Or is it “prostrate for 40 days”?
Pause and Consider: prayer must consume us.
Read Deut 10-12
Deut 9:18 Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and so provoking him to anger.
WHEN I consider my prayer life, I have none contrasted to Moses’ passionate petitions for his people. Can you imagine being prostrate before the LORD for 40 days and nights? Lying on the ground praying with no food, no water, I couldn’t. I can’t imagine it. No way. Why would I want to do that?
Oh, wait a minute. What if my wife or my children were living lives opposed to God? What if God threatened to annihilate them? Would I then prostrate myself? For 40 days?
40 days. That’s how long it rained to wash the sin from the earth in the Great Flood (Gen 7). That’s how long Jesus battled the devil in the wilderness (Luke 4). 40 days of cleansing, 40 days of battle…the struggle is enormous, the struggle continues.
We must then, be prepared to wage war against the evil that threatens our lives and our loved ones’ lives.
Moses was on the ground for a people he originally wanted to run from. God had turned his heart to a great, sacrificial love for a people that consistently disobeyed their God. Yet, Moses didn’t give up on them, and God responded to his prayers. God blessed his people.
Who in your family needs your prayers? How do you respond? Is if for a minute? Is it once a day? Once a week? Once a year?
Or is it “prostrate for 40 days”?
Pause and Consider: prayer must consume us.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
March 3, 2011 Called Heavenward
Called Heavenward
Read Deuteronomy 4-6
Deut 4:33-34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
I HAD a difficult time deciding on what to write. This chapter is loaded with honor and worship to God. Read verses 26-28 and you will see a picture of the Exile to happen about 1,000 years later. Read of the promises from God through Moses to care for his people. And contemplate the power of these 2 verses above. Who is God?
Who is God, indeed. Do you really want to know? Then look back over the eons and see LORD JEHOVAH act to make a nation out of all the other nations.
Look and you will see a people called from slavery and from the iron furnaces of Egypt into a land of plenty and peace. They are a nation called to a heavenly purpose. That purpose is for you.
Yes, look and see the LORD JEHOVAH, the provider, choose a nomad and make him the father of a powerful, world-changing nation. He did so to choose you to be a member of the most powerful organization in the world—the Kingdom of God. You are called heavenward because God has called you to him!
Oh, what a blessing! Trust the God who has called you heavenward. Celebrate and rejoice!
Pause and Consider: following God, you are bound for Heaven.
Read Deuteronomy 4-6
Deut 4:33-34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
I HAD a difficult time deciding on what to write. This chapter is loaded with honor and worship to God. Read verses 26-28 and you will see a picture of the Exile to happen about 1,000 years later. Read of the promises from God through Moses to care for his people. And contemplate the power of these 2 verses above. Who is God?
Who is God, indeed. Do you really want to know? Then look back over the eons and see LORD JEHOVAH act to make a nation out of all the other nations.
Look and you will see a people called from slavery and from the iron furnaces of Egypt into a land of plenty and peace. They are a nation called to a heavenly purpose. That purpose is for you.
Yes, look and see the LORD JEHOVAH, the provider, choose a nomad and make him the father of a powerful, world-changing nation. He did so to choose you to be a member of the most powerful organization in the world—the Kingdom of God. You are called heavenward because God has called you to him!
Oh, what a blessing! Trust the God who has called you heavenward. Celebrate and rejoice!
Pause and Consider: following God, you are bound for Heaven.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
March 2, 2011 Release Fear
Release Fear
Read Deuteronomy 2-3
Deut 3:21-22 At that time I commanded Joshua: “You have seen with your own eyes all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. The LORD will do the same to all the kingdoms over there where you are going. 22 Do not be afraid of them; the LORD your God himself will fight for you.”
THE 40 years between Egypt and the Promised Land was not all about the desert. God gave the Hebrews towns to live in and pasture for their livestock. It was better than the desert, but it wasn’t the best God had promised, “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8).
Then the Hebrews came into the land to the east and south of the Jordan River to get a picture of what God would do for them. They had to settle in and put their fears aside as they followed God into a new territory.
Yes, before they conquered the land, they had to conquer fear. Fear had kept them from God’s promise for 40 years. Fear imprisoned them in a place less than God had promised. Fear does that.
Then Jesus came to release the fear. He demonstrated living in the Spirit free of fear and conquering the forces that bind us.
When I settle into the land of God’s Word and prayer, I am reminded, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27) I feel the Father’s strength through his Son and his Spirit. And I am prepared to enter into the spiritual Promised Land of peace with Jesus.
Pause and Consider: it is good to release fear and to trust God.
Read Deuteronomy 2-3
Deut 3:21-22 At that time I commanded Joshua: “You have seen with your own eyes all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. The LORD will do the same to all the kingdoms over there where you are going. 22 Do not be afraid of them; the LORD your God himself will fight for you.”
THE 40 years between Egypt and the Promised Land was not all about the desert. God gave the Hebrews towns to live in and pasture for their livestock. It was better than the desert, but it wasn’t the best God had promised, “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8).
Then the Hebrews came into the land to the east and south of the Jordan River to get a picture of what God would do for them. They had to settle in and put their fears aside as they followed God into a new territory.
Yes, before they conquered the land, they had to conquer fear. Fear had kept them from God’s promise for 40 years. Fear imprisoned them in a place less than God had promised. Fear does that.
Then Jesus came to release the fear. He demonstrated living in the Spirit free of fear and conquering the forces that bind us.
When I settle into the land of God’s Word and prayer, I am reminded, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27) I feel the Father’s strength through his Son and his Spirit. And I am prepared to enter into the spiritual Promised Land of peace with Jesus.
Pause and Consider: it is good to release fear and to trust God.
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