Meditation

09/19/2022

“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’ ‘I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great.’” (Genesis 12:1-2 – Commitment from His People)

God revealed to Abram plans for humans and for God for the immediate present and the far future. Human beings are regularly invited to participate in God’s great plans. The first step of faith brings us to discover our own promised land. The God who reveals is always beckoning His people into the next great horizon of his purposes

PRAYER FOR THE DAY:

Dear Abba, here we have read that Your desire to share Your plans and purposes for us and that You are willing to allow us to participate with You was offered literally in the beginning of our relationship with You; that you make us into a great nation and that You will bless us; and You make our name great. Never let us forget that it is You, Abba, that is always with us, if we will only join with You to participate in those plans and purposes. Today we continue to pray our troops serving in faraway lands and those in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, that a peaceful solution might be found and let the fighting be silenced. We also pray for those who are suffering in body, mind, and/or spirit, with friends, family, and for those we don’t know. Amen

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

“For a Christian, this life is as close as we will ever get to Hell—-but, for a non-Christian, this life is as close o Heaven as you will get.”

KNOWING GOD:

“This is what the Lord says—-your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like it numberless grains; their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before me.’” (Isaiah 48:17-19–Commitment From His People)

God is coming to reveal Himself and His ways to His people. Though they refused to obey His revelation to Moses and the prophets, He willingly started over again bringing them out of the Exile. God wants His people to believe His revealed teachings lead to the best life possible in the Creator’s world. To leave Him is to lose the way. To follow Him is to find true peace and just living.

I AM:

“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at his, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has hear, but doing it—-he will be blessed in what he does. ” (James 1:23-25 – Commitment From His People)

Beloved, revelation calls people to commitment. True understanding of God’s Word produces new behavior and attitudes. Without such commitment we have no personal identity. To know the Word and fail to do it is to deceived oneself about personal security ad relationship to God.

SECOND THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

“So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, ‘Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands?’ He replied, ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the command of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.’” (Mark 7:5-8– Commitment from His People)

True understanding and commitment to God’s word brings outward and inward change. Jesus was dismayed an angered that the religious people pretended with outward gestures to believe God but showed no change of heart so that love and forgiveness did not live in them. They pretended to be converted with outward signs only. Pleasing other people by obeying human rites and rules does not please or honor God