January 27th One Year Bible Readings

~ Click on this link for today's readings ~
Exodus 4:1-5:21 ~ Matthew 18:1-20
Psalm 22:19-31 ~ Proverbs 5:15-21

Old Testament - Today in Exodus chapter 4 we read about God discussing with Moses from the burning bush how Moses will lead the Israelites out of Egypt!  Below is a portrait by Guy Rowe of Moses having this conversation with God before the burning bush:

Moses has a classic line to God in Chapter 4 verse 10: “Moses said to the LORD , "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." I think what is classic about this line is that probably many of us have some sort of line similar to this one that we say to God when God is calling us to do something big for His Kingdom. Or maybe even if it is something medium-sized or small God is calling us to, we probably have some pretty good excuses. "Why me God?" "I’m too young." I’m too old." "I’m too busy." "I’m not that smart." "I’m not that talented". And I’m sure our list of excuses could go on. BUT – check out what God says to Moses in verse 12: "Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." Wow. Is there an area of your life where God is calling you to move forward? Maybe calling you to some Kingdom work? And are you making excuses? Will you leave those excuses behind? Do you realize that God will help you do whatever you need to do? Do you realize that God will teach you what to do as you go? You may not know exactly what to do right now – but if you move forward, do you believe God will show up and help you accomplish the task? Will you go? Now? Below is a wonderful stained glass image of God in the burning bush telling Moses to "now go"!

Verses 24 through 26 probably raised some questions for you today... :)   "On the journey, when Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the LORD confronted Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah, his wife, took a flint knife and circumcised her son....After that, the LORD left him alone."  The obvious question being, why was God about to kill Moses?  Didn't God just call Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?  Well, yes he did.  Commentaries I read suggest that the primary issue here was an issue of obedience.  Moses had not circumcised his son, which was a requirement of God's covenant with Israel from Genesis chapter 17 - you'll recall Abraham and his household all getting circumcised in that 1 day.  So, Moses - and actually Zipporah his wife performed the task of the covenant - had to circumcise his son before God would let Moses go forward to deliver God's people out of Egypt.  Don't you like it when the Bible throws in some quick curveballs like this?  :) Bible.org's commentary on Exodus chapter 4 is at this link - scroll down a bit.  Below is an image from the Sistine Chapel of Zipporah and her and Moses' two sons Gershom and Eliezer:

I like Exodus chapter 5 verse 1, which builds upon some of our readings in chapter 4: "After this presentation to Israel's leaders, Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh." What I like about this is that there was Moses & Aaron going to see Pharaoh - the 2 of them.  This reminds me of Jesus sending out the disciples in pairs.  Sometimes in life it seems like we can accomplish more, or stay on task better, if we are partnered with someone else.  It's sometimes tough to do things on our own.  I think sometimes we want to make ourselves out to be Lone Rangers - thinking that we can shoulder the weight of the world on our own.  But... we can't.  First and foremost we need to be in relationship with God through Jesus.  Secondly, in relationship with our family.  Thirdly, relationship with our community - as we saw Moses and Aaron spoke with the Hebrew leaders at the end of chapter 4.  And then... we are ready to take on Pharaoh!  Then, we are ready to take on the world!  Yeah, sure, on rare occasions God will call us to pull off Kingdom tasks on our own - but... 9 times out of 10, I think you are going to need brothers and sisters in Christ to help you make it.  Currently, are you in a community, a church, with brothers and sisters in Christ?  Do you know who your Aaron is???  Below is a painting by James Tissot of Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh -

New Testament - Jesus' teaching in Matthew chapter 18 verses 3 & 4 are something for each of us to consider: ""I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven."  I find it interesting the order of the words - first, turn from your sin.  THEN - after turning from your sins - become as little children.  It seems that we cannot become humble as children without first turning from our sins.  This makes sense if you think about it.  If you are still living in sin, how can you become humble like a child?  You must first repent of the sin before moving toward humility.  I think this teaching is a tough one in our modern age.  It doesn't sound quite right... become humble like a child?  Why??  But, there is so much wisdom in it.   Do you want to become humble like a child?  Will you ask God to show you how to do this in your life?

Verses 19 & 20 are awesome: "I also tell you this: If two of you agree down here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I am there among them." Again, these verses remind me of the importance of being in community with other believers regularly.  The importance of church.  And not just showing up to church on Sundays, but really investing in your church.  Serving.  Giving financially. Being part of a small group.  Doing life together with others.  Being the body of Christ.   I will admit that there have been periods of my life where I really felt like I did not need the church.  That I did not need to be in community.  These have turned out to be lonely or hurried or stressful seasons when I look back on them!  I realize now more than ever that I need the church.  I love my church.  I love everyone in my church - warts and faults and all - and I believe they love me in return, warts and faults and all.   How about you?  Do you have a church that you love?  Do you have a community of believers that you love and that loves you?  If not, will you pray to God to lead you to such a community?  Do you believe that Christian community is important for you?  (Please know that when I say church I am speaking very broadly of the body of Christ and all the various ways it manifest itself as church.  For example, I have many friends who are part of the growing house church movement, which is a wonderful way to do church for many folks.  For others it's the mega-church and for others the mainline church, and this list of examples of church could go on and on...)

Bible.org's commentary on today's readings in Matthew chapter 18 titled "Life Under Kingdom Authority" is at this link.

Psalms - Okay, since I'm going off on my church soapbox today :), I'll continue the theme here.  What's one good reason to go to church at all?  Check out Psalm 22 verse 22: "Then I will declare the wonder of your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among all your people." Praising God with other brothers and sisters through worship, tithing, learning, serving and being in community in church is a great reason to go to church!  To declare the wonder of God's name!  To praise God among all his people.  Wow... yes...  this is church!

Proverbs - Proverbs 5 verses 16 & 17 are powerful true Sex Education verses: "Why spill the water of your springs in public, having sex with just anyone? You should reserve it for yourselves. Don't share it with strangers."  I like this a lot.  Is this something we can teach young adults today?  Is this something we can teach ourselves?  Don't have sex with just anyone - it is degrading to you.  Don't share something so holy as sex with just anyone.  Save this holy bond for your spouse.  I once heard a powerful sermon by John Ortberg at Willow Creek Community Church outside of Chicago. And John was preaching on "Don't Quench the Spirit".   And it was a powerful sermon on how we are so blessed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives as followers of Jesus.  And yet, we can quench, temporarily, the power of the Spirit in our life when we sin.  It is basically like turning our back on God when we sin.  And then we need to turn our faces forward again toward God in repentance.  And while we are sinning and turning our back on God, we have effectively quenched the Spirit.  And as I heard this sermon, I realized that sexual sin is one sure-fire quick way to quench the spirit.  We degrade ourselves through sexual sin and I believe we quench the spirit.  I don't know if this line of thinking will help you at all if you are struggling with sexual sin.  But, it helps me.  It helps me to realize that the quick little temporary highs we think we might get off sexual sin are so not worth it.  What is worth quenching the Spirit in our life??  Is sexual sin?  Nope...  you know it's not.  Living fully in communion with God and with the Holy Spirit is one of the most amazing things we can possibly experience this side of heaven.  Will you please, please, no longer quench the Spirit for the cheap lies sexual sins sells?

Comments from You and Questions of the Day:  With my thoughts above on the serious topic of sexual sin - does anyone have any resources, books, websites, that you can recommend to folks that are struggling with sexual temptation or sin?  Have you seen people in your life be enslaved to sexual sin?  Hopefully you have also seen people also be freed from that enslavement through Jesus?  Do you think that sexual sin - lust, pornography, adultery, etc. - is a rampant issue in our society today?  Do you think it's worse now than the past?  Or do you think sexual sin has always been an issue in the past and will be until Jesus returns again?  (Bob Deffinbaugh with bible.org's essay on "Sex and the Spiritual Christian" based on 1 Corinthians 7 is at this link.) Also, what verses or insights stand out to you in today's readings?  Please post up by clicking on the "Comments" link below!

God bless,
Mike

Comments

[Kim]

I had to re-read Ex 4:24 four times to be certain I read it right! I feel sorry for Moses. Before God made himself seen to him in the burning bush, he's lived 80 years as an alien in both land and culture. Never really belonging with his Hebrew brothers or his adoptive Egyptian family and then living as an "Egyptian" (Ex 2:19)in a foreign land. Another good example for the importance of fellowship - EVERYONE wants to feel like they belong don't they? It makes me wonder if he had any faith in the God of Abraham up to this point. He was perhaps "cut off" or confused by the faith of the Isrealites, hence the reason for not circumcising his son before. By the way, why was only one son circumcised when "sons" were taken back to Egypt(Ex 4:20)?

Remembering Moses was the author of this book, perhaps he was deathly ill, which led him to convince his wife, and judging by her comment to Moses, she was not an impressed partipant, to perform the deed in which his obedience of the covenant is the reason for his recovery. Only God knows. I'm grasping here because I thought how strange and contradictory this passage was. Strange ride indeed. Anyways, onward ho....

[Anka]

It's so obvious Moses was not at all slow in speech,he was after all refusing God's calling and giving some pretty well thought out reasons,some even lies.He was bold enough to intervene in fights,bold enough to argue...It's strange to see God was even more angry at the fact that his son wasn't circumscised than at the fact that Moses didn't want to go back to Egypt...so angry at Moses was God that He almost killed him.
I guess Jesus works round the clock intervening for us when we disobey God...when "liberty"is abused and we ignore God's instructions.
As I read the teaching on little children,today I couldn't help thinking about the new converts,the babies in Christ.When we come to God we're full of our hurts,sins,bad habits....but we want to serve God with all we have....Sometimes older ones help us,they encourage us,pray with us,tolerate us,explain the word better...And that's how it's supposed to be....If out of self-righteousness,an older christian makes a younger one stumble,like a mother who wants to protect her new born,God will come down really hard on the "stumbling block".And like the father looked out daily for the prodigal son to return,so does the father look out for those who have stopped on their journey...This new year I was so blessed by the fact that the father used me to call back a son that had walked away from the faith....it reminded me so much of when I came back to God...I thank God for the people that He's brought into my life.My pastor has asked me to share my testimony in church and I like Moses gave excuses...My testimony includes suicide attempt,drug use...I did share it once after I was baptised...I pray God leads me on what to share,when to share it...The pastor thinks it would help others.....
God bless you all.....

[SissySue]

John,

Thank you for the explanation about how the Jews came to be in slavery in Egypt; I have not been ignoring you; work and activities have picked up so much, and it is just about all I can do to get the Scripture read.

Thank you.

[Mae]

You mention 'sexual sin'... I'm going to Amsterdam in 2 hours. I'm going to spread God's word in Amsterdam ... THE center of sexual sin ...if you ask me. Pornography, prostitution, sexsshops, sexclubs, toplessbars, etc. You name it and it's in Amsterdam! I just wish it would stop, you know! I know there are people who say "You don't have to be around those clubs, so mind your own business!". They might be right, it's their life and not mine. But there ARE girls in 'this industry' against their will and that's awful! They meet someone who makes them a drug-addict, then all of a sudden they need to pay him back for the drugs and they have to work in the porno-industry to pay him back. It's just terrible! Okay, not WHOLE Amsterdam is like this ... Amsterdam is a wonderful city. But most parts of Amsterdam need a serious awakening!

You know, I was thinking about 'sexual sin in the past' this week. Remember how surprised I was to read about so much cases of polygamy in Genesis? At that time it was normal to have several wives ... even God would bless them with children. So did God approve of the monogamy? I mean, I know there are things in the Bible that God didn't approve. So what about the monogamy? Does anyone know? I think sexual sin has always been an issue, see when Potifars wife wanted to seduce Joseph, quite early in Genesis. I mean, she KNEW she was wrong! I think sexual sin these days is more extreme than in the past.

I hope people can wake up one day and realize it's a sin ... People talk about phonesex, cybersex, adultry like it's nothing!!!!! But come on!!! Wake up!!!!!!!!!!!! How can anyone think adultry is okay????

Psalm 22:22 stood out for me today "Then I will declare the wonder of your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among all your people." I love praising the Lord with my brothers and sisters from church! Today we're going to Amsterdam, helping out our brother and sister, trying to make the people from Amsterdam going to their church! We declare our love for Jesus Christ in public today! I can't wait!!!!

[Jenny]

Our Exodus readings start off with Moses making excuses. Was he really seeking to be defiant or generally concerned that he couldnt do it, not realizing he wasnt to do it, but God's power in Him. Sometimes no matter what our reasoning is, we need to step out in faith. God told him He would be with him, then Moses was arguing with God, who anger burned within Him, this anger was because Moses wasnt being obediant. God said 'go', moses said 'i cant' God said 'you can'. that should be the end, but no moses continues, 'no God, i really cant'. I think we've all been there, not seeing how God could do it so we try to get out of it. But if God says, go, you can, we better go. This just reminds me how patient and merciful God is with us.

In vs 21 God said concerning Pharoh, "But I will harden his heart". I got in a discussion once with ppl concerning this, does God harden hearts? Well I believe God doesnt go against human will, but I beleive God uses things in our lives to test us...when the testing goes through it will possibly harden or soften our heart, so I dont beleive God took a sweet man and hardened his heart, but allowed things to occur that showed his heart, it was hardened already, but it was further hardened by Moses' plea..

In Matt v 6, we get a very stern warning from God concerning children: "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." God loves children so much, literal children and doesnt take harming a child lightly at all. If anyone leads a God loving child away from the faith, he will receive a terrible punishment. I think children today are being led away and its so awful to see. Things today are way more escalated then wen i was a child only 20 yrs ago. There are so many abductions, molestations, sex slavery of children, pornography of children!!! I believe God has a special place in hell for those who harm children. I'm sure none of us reading this can phathom hurting a child like this, its so demonic and evil.

In ch 15 we read what to do if our brother sins against us or is in sin and we need to confront him. We arent to gossip and spread it around, we are to talk to this person in private, if they will not listen take this matter to others, not just anyone, but ppl of God to confront the person, not to anger or humiate the brother, but in order to seek and restore.

Gosh, I dont know any good books regarding sexual sin, i know my dad has some he uses for his counseling work. Honestly, i dont think we need special books or websites for our personal sin, we need the word of God, which i believe is sufficient. We need a solid relationship with Him. God alone has the power to free us from sin, we have to desire to be set free and God will free us. We definately need accountability, talking to pastors counselors, brothers/sisters in Christ. But one thing i know, we need to lay things down at His feet.

Sexual sin is actually probly not getting worse, but we are hearing about it more, have access to it more, tv, movies, internet, all our technology while good is used for evil as well. prostitutes, fornication, homosexuality, adultry, incest, beastiality, this has all been around for ages, but i think we hear about it more now b'cos of technology...it is certainly easier to get caught up in i think bcos of its previlance. I've been innocently going to websites and boom, porno pops up. this happened to me at my college library once, which is bizarre bcos bad websites are blocked. I was innocently doing reseaerch and a filthy page popped up...i immediatly tried to close it...i was so embarressed bcos i was sure the ppl on computers behind me would see. God knew i didnt mean to do it, but others would think i was a lil perv, haha. but the windows wouldnt close, i started panicing but finally got it all closed. but somehow it all slipped through the parental control filters. So in that, in the ease of obtaining sinful material n the acceptance of certain sinful lifestyles is increasing.