Tag: serving God

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Exodus Devotions

Let everything I do…

worship

Everyone whose heart was moved and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the Lord. (Exodus 35:21)

Moses then said to the Israelites, “Look, the Lord has appointed by name Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

He has filled him with God’s Spirit, with wisdom, understanding, and ability…” (Exodus 35:30-31)

Father, let everything I do for you be from my heart. Not obligation. Not duty. Not others’ expectations of me. But from a heart that has been touched by your love and grace and is filled with gratitude.

So often I see mixed motives in myself. Help me to give my whole heart to you.

Father, you have appointed me by name.

I’m weak. I often feel inadequate. And yet you appoint me by name.

Fill me with your Spirit. Fill me with wisdom, understanding, and the ability to do what you’re asking of me.

Without you, I can do nothing. With you, I can bear much fruit. And I want to bear much fruit for you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Judges Devotionals

To whom are you offering yourself to?

Judges

Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? (Romans 6:16)

As I read today’s story, I thought about these words from Paul. The Israelites offered themselves to the gods of the nations, including the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines.

Why? We don’t know. But perhaps they thought they would find freedom and happiness in doing so. But instead, they found bondage and misery to the Ammonites and Philistines.

We may think they were foolish. But how often do we abandon God and his ways? Rather, we pursue this world’s gods of success, sex, money, and things. We think by doing so, we’ll find freedom and happiness.

But then we find out that the things that promised us freedom and happiness actually end up enslaving us and destroying us. Instead of joy and life, we find shame, misery, and ultimately death.

So let us heed the words of Paul.

For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification…

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (19, 23)

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John John 7

Who are we serving?

John

As I was reading through this passage yesterday, these verses really struck me, particularly as a teacher of God’s Word.

My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.

If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. (John 7:16-18)

The question I ask myself is, “Where is my teaching coming from? Is it coming from myself? Or is it coming from God?

“Why do I speak? Is it for my own honor that people might be impressed by me? Or is it for the glory of God?”

As Christians, we are to be people of truth with nothing false about us. Not just the pastors and teachers, but all of us.

But if we are to be people of truth, we need to be clear on who we are serving. We need to be clear about whose honor we are seeking.

Are we simply seeking our own honor? Or are we seeking God’s?

Are we truly serving God? Or are we simply serving ourselves in God’s name?

If we are merely seeking our own honor, if we are seeking the praise of men, we will tend to water down the gospel that God has given us to share…if we share it at all.

Or like the Pharisees, we become hypocrites, pretending to seek God, but in reality seeking the praise of the people around us.

Who are you serving? Whose honor are you seeking?

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Luke 8 Mark Mark 3 Matthew 12

Closer than family

The gospels

It can be painful to be misunderstood by those we love. I’ve mentioned before that Jesus experienced that in the temple when he was 12. His own parents didn’t understand him.

Here again, we see his family not understanding him. Because he was so involved in God’s work that he didn’t even have time to eat, his family started to think he was crazy, and so they came to “take charge of him.”

It would be easy to assume that it was just his (half-)brothers and sisters that thought he was crazy, but Mary was there too, apparently. She knew he wasn’t crazy, but she was probably nonetheless concerned about his health.

The crowds were so thick around Jesus, however, that they couldn’t reach him, and so they had word passed to Jesus that they were there.

But when Jesus heard this, probably knowing their intentions to take him away from doing God’s work, he didn’t go out to them. Instead, he looked around at the disciples gathered around him, and said,

“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”

Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:48-50)

And again,

“My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” (Luke 8:21)

There may be times when those you love will try to pull you away from doing God’s will. Sometimes they think you’re crazy. Sometimes they may think you’re overdoing it.

But what we need to remember is that we are not here to please them. We are here to please God. To hear what God is telling us to do, and to do it.

Now part of what God tells us to do is to honor and love our family. And God certainly doesn’t want us to do more than he’s called us to do because that can lead to burnout.

With that in mind, however, God is to be closer to our hearts than our own family. His desires for us are to supersede even our own family’s desire for us.

Does he have priority in your life? Or is our family pulling us away from the things that God has called us to do?

This is, by the way, one reason why it’s important to marry a Christian. Because when you don’t, conflicts between what your spouse wants and what God wants are inevitable.

Even if your spouse claims to be a Christian, if they are not walking with God and are not sensitive to his voice, conflicts can arise as you seek to follow Him.

So let us give our hearts to people who have given their hearts to God. More than that, let us give all our hearts, souls, and minds to the one who died for us and rose again.

Who has your heart?

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1 Kings 2 Chronicles

The difference between serving God and serving sin

Kings & Chronicles

Jeroboam got off to a bad start and never did climb his way out of the pit.  For that matter, it seems he never tried. 

Rehoboam, however, didn’t do much better.

All the priests, Levites, and other God-fearing people went to Judah to join Rehoboam, after Jeroboam rejected them, and for a few years, he seemed to be trying to please God. 

But then, for some reason, he started worshiping other gods, and Israel followed his lead. 

The reasons for this are not clear. 

One reason may have been pride.  It says in 2 Chronicles that it was after Reheboam’s position was established and he became strong that he turned his back on God. 

It’s also possible, that his mother had a bad influence on him. 

Twice in 1 Kings, it mentions that his mother was an Ammonite.  The only reason I can see for mentioning this is that she was the one responsible for corrupting him.  But that is just conjecture on my part.

At any rate, many of the Israelites in Judah started to follow the religious practices of the nations around them, and as a result, God said to them,

You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak (king of Egypt).  (2 Chronicles 12:5)

Shishak, in fact, had already captured several cities and was now attacking Jerusalem.

Rehoboam and the people, upon hearing this, humbled themselves before the Lord, and as a result, the Lord relented somewhat on his judgment. 

He told Shemaiah the prophet,

Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance.  My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. 

They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands.  (2 Chronicles 12:7-8)

When we turn our backs on God and start serving sin, he basically tells us the same thing. 

Until we repent from our sin, he will let sin reign in our lives until we see the difference between serving him and serving sin.

What’s the difference? 

When we serve sin, it may seem fun for a while, but two things happen. 

While we may initially choose to serve sin, we soon find that we cannot stop.  It enchains us and we are no longer in control.  Rather, sin controls us. 

Many men, for example, get involved in pornography, but soon find that they cannot stop themselves.  Even though it may be destroying their relationship with their wives, they cannot stop. 

Other people start abusing alcohol, and soon find that they cannot stop themselves even though it may be wrecking their families and their lives.

And that’s the second thing sin does.  It destroys us and robs us of the joy that God intended us to have.  In its place, sin leaves us with a poor substitute. 

When Shishak came, among other things, he took away all the gold shields Solomon had made.  So Rehoboam made new shields…out of bronze. 

That’s what sin does.  Instead of giving us a fulfilling marriage, it leaves us a series of broken relationships. 

Instead of giving us lasting joy, it leaves us a happiness that is only temporary and ultimately leaves us empty.

But when we follow Christ, he not only gives us eternal life, but he gives us a life on this earth that is full and complete. 

This is not to say that our lives will always be “happy, happy, joy, joy.” 

But when we look back on our lives, we will be able to say that we lived a life worth living.

Are you tired and burdened from serving sin? 

Then turn to Christ.  He’ll take that burden that is weighing you down and give you rest. 

In the words of Jesus himself,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:28-30)

Categories
Exodus

Service out of love

And so we come to the laws of the Israelite society. 

I can’t really say I’ve been looking forward to getting to this part of Exodus.  I have no desire to give a verse by verse commentary on the cultural background to all of these laws, and so I won’t. 

Basically, I’ll take the approach of gleaning what I can from these passages.

As always, since this blog has more of a devotional quality to it, I’m more concerned with practical applications we can pull from these passages.

I did find this particular passage interesting if only for certain parallels to Christ and ourselves. 

Back in those days, sometimes Israelites would sell themselves to others as servants to pay off some kind of debt, because of poverty, or because of some crime they committed that they couldn’t pay restitution for.

Generally, this service would last 6 years. 

But if his master gave him a wife (presumably also a servant) and they had children, when his six years were up, he couldn’t just take his wife and children with him.  They had to stay with the master. 

The laws on this are a bit unclear.  I’d like to talk to Moses about it, but that’s not going to happen.

I would assume that eventually the woman and her children would have to be let go because it seems that usually a woman became a servant with the idea she would marry into the master’s family, either to the master or to the master’s son. 

And since the master gave her to this other servant in marriage, I can’t see him doing either of those things.  There is no instance of one wife having two husbands in the Bible.

But according to verses 7-11, if a master doesn’t marry her or give her to his son, he had to let her go.

How long a master had to make that decision, however, is not very clear.

I don’t know if it was possible for a woman to sell herself into servanthood, but if that were possible, then she would presumably fall into the same category as the male servants, and she would have to be let go after six years of service.

At any rate, if a servant went free, but his wife and children had to stay behind, the servant could make the choice to permanently become the master’s servant. 

He would stand at the master’s door, and his ear would be pierced, and from then on, he would serve his master. 

Verse 5 is the key passage here as it expresses the reason for the servant making this choice.

I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free. (Exodus 21:5)

In other words, out of his love not only for his wife and children, but for his master as well, he chose to serve.

In Psalm 40, the Messiah (Jesus) is heard saying,

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—
but my ears you have opened—
burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.

Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—
it is written about me in the scroll.

I desire to do your will, my God;
your law is within my heart. (Psalm 40: 6-8)

When it says “my ears have been opened,” it’s possible that it’s referring to this practice of piercing the ears of a servant. 

In other words, Jesus was saying that because of his love for the Father, he was willing to submit himself to the Father and serve him.

And then there’s us. 

Like the Israelites in those times, we came to God because of our need. 

We were overloaded by the debt of sin that we were under.  Our life was a mess, and we were spiritually needy. 

But after coming to God, we soon find that he is a good master, and that he truly loves and cares for us.

Now our debt of sin is paid by the blood of Jesus, and he has made our lives whole. But this doesn’t mean we now want to leave God. Rather, out of our love for him and all he’s done for us, we continue to serve him.

Or do we? 

Are you serving him?  Or are you still just serving yourself? 

And if you are serving him, why are you doing so? 

Have you come to the place in your life where you serve him not because you have to, but because you want to?