Bible League: Living His Word "God is spirit. So the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."— John 4:24 ERV God reveals Himself as spirit in the Bible. What does this mean? It means that God is revealed in the Bible as being spirit and nothing else. He is not a part of the material realm, even though He can reveal Himself within the material realm and in material terms if He chooses. Further, God is revealed in the Bible as an uncreated spirit that has created and sustains everything else. Unlike the angels, the rest of the spiritual realm, and the material realm, God does not have an origin. He just is. Everything else depends upon Him for its origin and existence. Even further, as uncreated spirit, God rules and reigns over the spiritual realm, over the material realm, and over human beings (who participate in both the spiritual and material realms). As uncreated spirit, God is unlike any other god that human beings have ever concocted as a substitute for Him. All other gods are mere created realities that have been unjustifiably elevated by people to god status. If you reject God as the source and sustainer of all things, then all you have left as an alternative is something from within the created order. That's why there is no god that has ever been conceived by the mind of a human being that has the same majesty and might as God. The false gods concocted by human beings are not much more than pale shadows of the God of the Bible. Since God is revealed as uncreated spirit, He must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. What does this mean? It means that the worship should come from the spirit of a person and should be directed to the one and only true God. Worship should be more than an external and disingenuous observance of a ritual or a rite. Genuine worship should come from the spirit, from the heart and be in line with what God has commanded. When it comes to the worship of God, going through the motions just doesn't cut it. The supreme uncreated spirit deserves worship in spirit and in truth. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJob 38, 39 Job 38 -- God, Speaks, Convinces Job of Ignorance NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Job 39 -- God Speaks of His Creation NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Acts 15:1-21 Acts 15 -- The Council at Jerusalem; James' Support; Barnabas and Paul Part Ways; Second Missionary Journey begins NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”Insight Overflowing love is the natural response to forgiveness and the appropriate consequence of faith. But only those who realize the depth of their sin can appreciate the complete forgiveness God offers them. Jesus has rescued all of his followers, whether they were once extremely wicked or conventionally good, from eternal death. Challenge Do you appreciate the wideness of God's mercy? Are you grateful for his forgiveness? Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Psalm 25:5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.When the believer has begun with trembling feet to walk in the way of the Lord, he asks to be still led onward like a little child upheld by its parent's helping hand, and he craves to be further instructed in the alphabet of truth. Experimental teaching is the burden of this prayer. David knew much, but he felt his ignorance, and desired to be still in the Lord's school: four times over in two verses he applies for a scholarship in the college of grace. It were well for many professors if instead of following their own devices, and cutting out new paths of thought for themselves, they would enquire for the good old ways of God's own truth, and beseech the Holy Ghost to give them sanctified understandings and teachable spirits. "For thou art the God of my salvation." The Three-One Jehovah is the Author and Perfecter of salvation to his people. Reader, is he the God of your salvation? Do you find in the Father's election, in the Son's atonement, and in the Spirit's quickening, all the grounds of your eternal hopes? If so, you may use this as an argument for obtaining further blessings; if the Lord has ordained to save you, surely he will not refuse to instruct you in his ways. It is a happy thing when we can address the Lord with the confidence which David here manifests, it gives us great power in prayer, and comfort in trial. "On thee do I wait all the day." Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain. It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life. Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding. We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us. Daily Light on the Daily Path Psalm 94:20 Can a throne of destruction be allied with You, One which devises mischief by decree?1 John 1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 3:2,3 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. • And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. John 14:30 "I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; Hebrews 7:26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 2:2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 1 John 5:18,19 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. • We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 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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