Tag: astronomy

Devo 11

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“When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and flaming torch passed between these pieces.  On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give this land.” Genesis 15:7-20

This is our third week in this passage.  Has it dawned on you yet?  Can you see the kind of covenant initiating-making-keeping-fulfilling God we serve?  God chooses a pagan moon worshipper to covenant with.  This guy sleeps through the whole covenant making process.  His descendants repeatedly break the covenant.  Finally they murder the One who came to fulfill it.  And yet.  God loves them.  And every single one of His promises to Abraham are fulfilled in Christ Jesus.  

He’s God and He became man.  He’s the heifer, the goat, the ram the dove, the pigeon, slain and cut in half.  He’s both sides of the animal pieces.  He’s the smoking fire pot and the flaming torch that passes between.  Jesus is the promise and the fulfillment.  Everything else is a shadow.  It’s all about Him.

In Exodus 12:1-28, when Moses prepares to lead Abraham’s offspring out of Egypt to the land God promised, even that was a shadow.  The slaughtered lamb, the blood on the doorposts, the feast of unleavened bread, the curse of death, the passing through, the passing over, the promised land, it was all a shadow of the perfect fulfillment to come.  

Do you know what word Peter uses to describe the hope of that fulfillment?  GRACE.  1 Peter 1:12-25 says “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  And with that grace in mind Peter continues, 

“Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”  

Before the earth was even hung in space, Jesus was the chosen Lamb for the sacrifice, made manifest for our sake, “who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”  And ONLY in God.  Not in our own ability to initiate, make, keep or fulfill any covenant.  Like Abraham, we sleep the sleep of the dead unless He awaken us.  

And how does God choose to awaken us?  “Through the living and abiding word of God… And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”  From the first book to the last, the message is clear and Revelation 5 gives us a beautiful glimpse of its heavenly proclamation: 

“Weep no more; behold, The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered.”

“Worthy are You… for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God.”

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

And just like the angelic beings around the throne of the Lamb, we can do nothing less than what we were made to do.  Let us fall down and worship. 

Friday Factoid Week 10

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A Gideon Exclusive!

My favorite part about astronomy is looking at the moon. We look at it in our telescope and it has lots of bumps. The moon goes around the earth and the earth goes around the sun and the sun goes around nothing I think. And people have gone around the moon and people have gone on the moon. But Andrew says they didn’t. Here is my sticker picture that I made about the moon and about the earth and about space shuttles and I don’t want to go on one (dictated to Mom by Gideon, 5).

Devo 10

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“As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram.  And behold, a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.  Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.  But I will bring judgement on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”  Genesis 15:12-14

In Exodus 10:21, the Lord says to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.”  As this descendant of Abraham lifted his arm did he know he was summoning through the power of God the fulfillment of those promises bestowed upon his slumbering ancestor?  Did Moses know he was summoning the same dreadful darkness God had caused to fall on Abraham?  Everything God had promised in that lop-sided covenant was now coming to pass.  Abraham’s descendants, enslaved to the Egyptians for 400 years were now innumerable like the stars.  But God was bringing judgement on the nation they served and this dreadful darkness was the ninth plague Moses had called down.  God had heard their cry and was coming to rescue His people.

Later, it was another descendant of Abraham’s who needed rescuing. In Psalm 18:6-19.  King David writes, 

“In my distress I called upon the Lord;  to my God I cried for help.  From His temple He heard my voice.”  And then David says, “He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under His feet… He made darkness His covering, His canopy around Him.”  And He rescued David.  “He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me… He rescued me, because He delighted in me.” 

Hundreds of years later, God was on another rescue mission.  This time, not just for a king, or one people, but for every tribe and tongue and nation on earth.  God bowed the heavens and came down.  He came as a man, a descendant of Abraham and heir to David’s throne.  And He came to die.  And when He gave His life as a ransom for many, darkness, once again came over the land.  But this time, the plague was on Himself.  Jesus became the curse for us, right there on the cross.  Luke 23:44 says, “It was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed.”  

Oh, but listen to the prophet’s words in Isaiah 60:1-3!  

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;  but the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you.  And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

Jesus didn’t stay dead.  He rose again!  And by His death and resurrection He rescued us from our own strong enemies, sin and death.  He rescued us from the wrath of God against our sin.  He rescued us because He delighted in us.  Just as light shone for the Israelite slaves in their little corner of Egypt when darkness was over the rest of the land, the Light that brings light to the whole world arose from their own midst.  You need only cry out for rescue and God will hear and save!  Come, friend, to the brightness of His rising.