Tag: family devos

Devo 23: repost

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“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:9

Have you ever heard verses like the one above used to explain why we can’t understand hard texts in scripture?  Or how about this one?

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” Deuteronomy 29:29

What about the statement that we are too much influenced by the Enlightenment and that we need to read scripture with a Jewish mindset which was more accepting of mystery?

We might call it an acceptance of mystery.  Jesus called it spiritual blindness and rejection of what the prophets clearly foretold.

Just look at how that Deuteronomy text continues.  

“BUT the things that are REVEALED belong to us and to our children forever, THAT WE MAY DO ALL THE WORDS OF THIS LAW.”  Moses then reiterates to the Israelites the blessing that would be theirs if they called to mind the commandments and the “statutes that are written in this Book of the Law” and the curse that would be theirs if they did not.  And then he makes this stunning statement in Deuteronomy 30:11-14,

“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.  It is NOT IN HEAVEN, that you should say, ‘who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it  to us, that we may hear it and do it?’  NEITHER IS IT BEYOND THE SEA, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hearit and do it?’  But the word is very near you.   It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do It.”  

Is Moses not saying that what the Lord has revealed in His word, He has not made unattainable to the understanding of His people? 

If the first 5 books of the Bible were meant to be understood by God’s people so that they would obey them, why are we so quick to dismiss other portions as too mysterious for human comprehension?

Now just listen to the rest of Isaiah 55:9!  The very next verses read,

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth  and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, SO SHALL MY  WORD BE THAT GOES OUT FROM MY MOUTH;  IT SHALL NOT RETURN TO ME EMPTY,  BUT IT SHALL ACCOMPLISH  THAT WHICH I PURPOSE, AND  SHALL SUCCEED IN THE THING FOR WHICH I SENT IT.“

God has sent us much more than a mystery.  He has sent us a manna-filled, purpose-succeeding Divine REVELATION!  Do you know why?

So that we would recognize in that revelation the life-giving glory of His Son, Jesus Christ.

AND SO THAT WE WOULD RENDER HIM THE WORSHIP HE IS DUE!

Oh, dear brothers and sisters, can’t you see that every time you relegate a “hard text” to the category of “unattainable mystery,” you are robbing God of the exaltation that He so deserves?

Just go back to the last post and read the texts for this week.  All of them proclaim the infinite “high-ness” of God’s thoughts and ways. 

In fact the whole Bible is the particular REVELATION OF HIS THOUGHTS AND HIS WAYS to ALL mankind concerning His son, Jesus Christ, by which WE MIGHT BE SAVED!  And where else was the magnitude of His high-ness and other-ness more on display than on the cross?

When Psalm 37:5,6 proclaims that God’s steadfast love extends to the heavens, His faithfulness to the clouds, His righteousness like the mountains, and His judgements like the deep.  Where else was the extent of His love, faithfulness, righteousness, and judgement more clearly seen than on the cross?

And again in Psalm 103:11,12 the Psalmist proclaims that not only is God’s steadfast love “as high as the heavens are above the earth” but also that “as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.”  How was that removal of transgressions accomplished but through the cross?

Read 1 Corinthians 2.  Yep.  The whole chapter.  I know this violates every rule in the blogosphere but it really is THAT important.  

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

Did you catch that?  Yes, there is a secret and hidden wisdom of God which was so misunderstood by those willing to write all the hard stuff off as a mystery that they “crucified the Lord of glory!”  And yes, no-one can comprehend the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God… but we have the Spirit who was from God THAT WE MIGHT UNDERSTAND THESE SPIRITUAL TRUTHS AND INTERPRET THEM!

It is this Spirit that enables Paul in Ephesians to address mystery after mystery with confidence and clarity.  In every instance the mystery itself is accompanied by an assurance that it CAN BE UNDERSTOOD!

God lavished His grace “upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will (1:8,9).”  “This mystery was made known to me by revelation…when you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ (3:3,4).”  “It has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs (3:5,6).”  Grace was given to Paul to preach and “bring to light for everyone the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God…so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known (3:9,10).”  About the profound mystery of marriage Paul says confidently that it refers to Christ and the church (5:32).  He closes by asking for prayer that he would proclaim boldly the mystery of the gospel (6:19).  

Now, just listen to Paul’s prayer for the church in the same letter:

“[May] the Father of glory give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you (1:17,18).”  

Please, I urge you, when you come to a text you don’t understand, dig deeper, pray harder for enlightenment. In those depths you will only find more reason to worship the crucified and risen Christ.  The one who has been made spiritually alive need not settle for mystery.  For WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST!  Let us use it to see Him more clearly, know Him more deeply, and render Him more fervently the glory due His Name!

Tolle Lege: The ESV Prayer Bible

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I grew up in an environment opposed to all things liturgical.  There was practically a liturgy developed out of being non-liturgical.  It was like, “Look, we’re so non-liturgical we do this other thing in this order every time we get together at this time instead, just to show how non-liturgical we are.”  Corporate prayers, confessions of faith, and the sacraments were viewed as remnants of Roman Catholicism and thus to be avoided at all costs.  Later in my mid-20’s my husband and I spent 7 years in a small inter-city Reformed Presbyterian Church and my eyes were opened to the value of liturgy through the confessions of faith and the singing of Psalms. The ancient beauty of the Psalter stood in such contrast to the filth and chaos all around us.  When we moved to Hawaii it was really hard to find a doctrinally sound church but the Lord led us to an aging congregation in the first and oldest church in the islands.  In general, the preaching was pretty bad, but at least we knew that the truth of the gospel would be proclaimed each Lord’s Day through the liturgy.  There would be hymns, the Apostles creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the benediction and then the doxology and the Queen’s Prayer sung in Hawaiian.  I learned to love liturgy there because I knew that my kids were learning great doctrinal truths through those repetitious means.  There is just something so Psalm 148:12 about your kids’ young voices joined with the elderly in these historical forms of worship.

But I still had a hang-up about written prayers.  Two things recently changed the way I viewed the value of composed prayers.  The first was in my thirst for understanding the Word of God.  I started praying segments of Psalm 119 each time I sat down to read scripture and then transposing them into the plural form when we’d gather as a group to study.  The second, was in reading the book of Revelation and the corporate worship of the living creatures, the elders,  the angels, and all the saints and wanting my own worship to be in accord with what was already and will be taking place around the throne.  Why are we so willing to sing lyrics written by another in worship but so opposed to repeating words written by another in prayer?  

The ESV Prayer Bible (Crossway, 2018) arrived at my door in the middle of these contemplations.  Here’s how it’s different from other Bibles.  It’s in single column format, which I love, and has prayers inserted throughout which correspond to the text.  These are written by a variety of Christians from the first century all the way into the 20th.  I think the most contemporary was Henry Wotherspoon of Scotland who died in 1930.  There are several index’s in the back including an author index and an index of the 400+ scripture passages that include a corresponding prayer.  My favorite index is a list of every passage of scripture that either is a prayer or references the subject. THAT is a feature I have already put to good use as I explore this topic further.

If you already have a rich and plentiful prayer life this Bible will only enhance that by reading these prayers in a Biblical context.  If, like me, you are wanting to grow your prayer life, this could be an invaluable resource.  The disciples themselves knew their own deficiencies in this area and asked Jesus in Luke 11:1, “Lord, teach us to pray.”  Paul confirms this in Romans 8:26, “We do not know what to pray for as we aught, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words.”  This friends, is NOT given as an excuse not to pray.  Rather it should encourage us to participate more fully through the work of the Spirit in our own hearts teaching us to pray more in accordance with God’s will, just as Jesus modeled for us.  Paul says, “we aught” to know how to pray!  This book contains many examples worthy of our emulation. 

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A final point.  Prayers like the ones included in this Bible are a fantastic tool for training up our children in the faith.  They, like the confessions, creeds, and historical hymns, can be great instructors in right doctrine.  For that reason, I think children can be the greatest benefactors of our liturgies and yet most have sadly been robbed of this instructive form of worship.  I highly recommend this Bible for use in family devotions.  Take an extra minute when you come across a prayer to read the short author’s bio in the back.  It will add a historical continuity to the faith you are instructing your children in.  And while you’re at it, why not throw in a Psalm or hymn or a little catechesis?  

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(Although I was provided with a free copy of this book from the publisher I am under no obligation to write a favorable review)

Week 29

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Memory Verse:  Isaiah 60:19,20

Reading #1:  Matthew 17:1-13

Questions:  What did the 3 disciples see in verse 8?  What didn’t they see?

Reading #2:  John 8:12-20

Questions:  What objections do the Pharisees raise against the claims of Jesus being the light?  How does Jesus answer those claims?  How does the physical property of light bear witness to itself?

Reading #3:   John 12:44-50

Questions:  It’s interesting that Jesus is said to have “cried out” the words in this passage.  What is it about His message here is so requiring of the immediate and full attention of His listeners?

Reading #4:  1 John 1:1-10

Questions:  Identify the 7 sensory references in verses 1-3.  Now, isn’t it interesting that in verse 5, John is proclaiming what he has heard, that God is light?  How does this statement point to the illuminating power of the word of God?

Psalms and Hymns:  

I Am Bound for The Promised Land:  “All over those wide extended plains shines one sternal day; there God the Son forever reigns and scatters night away.”

Praying Under the Same Sky:

United Kingdom, Vietnam, Zimbabwe