Bible League: Living His Word The LORD says, "My thoughts are not like yours.Your ways are not like mine. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. We have been designed, but God is the designer. We are creatures, but God is the creator. We are limited, but God is not limited by anything. We control some things, but God is in sovereign control of everything. We have some power, but God is all-powerful. We know some things, but God is all-knowing. God, in other words, is beyond us in every respect. There is a lot of mystery when it comes to God. It's true that God reveals things to us, including things about Himself, but He doesn't reveal everything to us and, as a result, there are a lot of things we don't know. Further, when God does reveal things about Himself, He does so in creaturely terms. He has to, since we are creatures. But when He does this there is still an element of mystery. God, for example, is revealed in the Bible as a "rock" (Deuteronomy 32:4, 18), but we know He's not a physical thing. We implicitly know that the words and concepts used in the Bible to refer to God---father, rock, shelter, strong tower, etc.---are figures of speech that never fully reveal the reality of God. God always seems to escape any attempts to categorize Him, limit Him, or put Him in a box. The same is true with respect to God's thoughts. Just when we think we have God figured out, He does something totally unexpected. We have to confess at those times that His thoughts are not like ours, that His thoughts are higher than ours. Our thoughts are not like His not only because we are sinful people and He is a Holy God, but also because we are limited creatures and He is the unlimited creator of all things. At those times when what God is doing in our lives is hard to understand or figure out, we must trust Him. After all, His thoughts are not wrong thoughts; they are just higher thoughts. We must trust that "in everything God works for the good of those who love him" (Romans 8:28). When it comes to God, trusting Him trumps understanding Him every time. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingLeviticus 14 Leviticus 14 -- Cleansing from Skin Diseases and Mildew NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 26:55-75 Matthew 26 -- Plot to Kill Jesus; Jesus Anointed at Bethany; Last Supper; Judas' Betrayal; Jesus before Caiaphas; Peter Disowns Jesus NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Guard me as you would guard your own eyes.Hide me in the shadow of your wings. Insight Just as we protect the pupils (literally, “apples”) of our eyes, so God will protect us. Challenge We must not conclude, however, that we have somehow missed God's protection if we experience troubles. God's protection has far greater purposes than helping us avoid pain; it is to make us better servants for him. God also protects us by guiding us through painful circumstances, not only by helping us escape them. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon John 14:16 He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.The Great Father revealed himself to believers of old before the coming of his Son, and was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the God Almighty. Then Jesus came, and the ever-blessed Son in his own proper person, was the delight of his people's eyes. At the time of the Redeemer's ascension, the Holy Spirit became the head of the present dispensation, and his power was gloriously manifested in and after Pentecost. He remains at this hour the present Immanuel--God with us, dwelling in and with his people, quickening, guiding, and ruling in their midst. Is his presence recognized as it ought to be? We cannot control his working; he is most sovereign in all his operations, but are we sufficiently anxious to obtain his help, or sufficiently watchful lest we provoke him to withdraw his aid? Without him we can do nothing, but by his almighty energy the most extraordinary results can be produced: everything depends upon his manifesting or concealing his power. Do we always look up to him both for our inner life and our outward service with the respectful dependence which is fitting? Do we not too often run before his call and act independently of his aid? Let us humble ourselves this evening for past neglects, and now entreat the heavenly dew to rest upon us, the sacred oil to anoint us, the celestial flame to burn within us. The Holy Ghost is no temporary gift, he abides with the saints. We have but to seek him aright, and he will be found of us. He is jealous, but he is pitiful; if he leaves in anger, he returns in mercy. Condescending and tender, he does not weary of us, but awaits to be gracious still. Sin has been hammering my heart Unto a hardness, void of love, Let supplying grace to cross his art Drop from above. Daily Light on the Daily Path Exodus 33:18 Then Moses said, "I pray You, show me Your glory!"2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. John 1:14,18 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. • No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 27:8 When You said, "Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, O LORD, I shall seek." 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. John 17:24 "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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