Bible League: Living His Word ". . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."Joshua had it right. A choice must be made. A choice must be made as to what is taken to be divine. For the Israelites, the choice was between the pagan divinities of the area of the world they lived in, or the Lord. For us the choice is similar, but we have more options. Our choice is between the various pagan and pantheistic deities of the world as a whole, or the Lord. This choice must be made. It cannot be avoided. But why, you might ask? Why must a choice be made? Can we not just take a secular position on the matter and not serve anything as being divine? The reason a choice must be made is that people cannot live apart from some belief in something as the ultimate source of everything. The universe we live in demands an answer. We see the various realities of the universe come into being and go out of being and the question arises: what is the unchanging source of this ever-changing system? Even the secularist who wants nothing more than to escape from the religious options must make a choice. Something must fill in the void. Something must be taken as ultimate. For most secularists these days physical matter is taken as the ultimate source of all things. The trouble with this choice, however, is that it now seems clear to most scientists that physical matter had an origin. And anything that has come into existence cannot serve as the ultimate source of all things. The secular option, therefore, runs into the same problem as do all non-Christian options. They all elevate something that is merely a creature to divine status. They all try to make something that has an origin into something that doesn't have an origin. Whether it is the pagan option of sun, moon, stars, animals, etc., or the pantheistic option of the universe as a whole, or the secular option of physical matter, each option has an origin. Only the Lord, the God of Joshua, is the truly non-dependent divine reality upon which everything else depends for existence. Bible in a Year Old Testament Reading2 Chronicles 34, 35, 36 2 Chronicles 34 -- Josiah's Good Reign; Temple Repairs; Hilkiah recovers the Book of the Law NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 2 Chronicles 35 -- Josiah Observes the Passover, Later Dies in Battle NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 2 Chronicles 36 -- Jehoahaz; Jehoiakim; Jehoiachin; Zedekiah; Captivity in Babylon; Cyrus Permits Return NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading John 19:1-22 John 19 -- The Crown of Thorns; Jesus' Crucifixion and Burial NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike.”Insight Jesus mentioned two kinds of people in his prayer: the “wise and clever,” arrogant in their own knowledge; and the “childlike,” humbly open to receive the truth of God's Word. Challenge Are you wise in your own eyes, or do you seek the truth in childlike faith, realizing that only God holds all the answers. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon 1 John 4:19 We love him because he first loved us.There is no light in the planet but that which proceedeth from the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but that which cometh from the Lord Jesus himself. From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God, all our love to God must spring. This must ever be a great and certain truth, that we love him for no other reason than because he first loved us. Our love to him is the fair offspring of his love to us. Cold admiration, when studying the works of God, anyone may have, but the warmth of love can only be kindled in the heart by God's Spirit. How great the wonder that such as we should ever have been brought to love Jesus at all! How marvellous that when we had rebelled against him, he should, by a display of such amazing love, seek to draw us back. No! never should we have had a grain of love towards God unless it had been sown in us by the sweet seed of his love to us. Love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed abroad in the heart: but after it is thus divinely born, it must be divinely nourished. Love is an exotic; it is not a plant which will flourish naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above. Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but that which could be drawn from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither. As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly bread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by manna from on high. Love must feed on love. The very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us. "I love thee, Lord, but with no love of mine, For I have none to give; I love thee, Lord; but all the love is thine, For by thy love I live. I am as nothing, and rejoice to be Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in thee." Daily Light on the Daily Path Luke 15:20 "So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.Psalm 103:8-13 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. • He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. • He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. • For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. • As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. • Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. Romans 8:15,16 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" • The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 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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