April 6, 2012 … Someone To Follow – Someone to Lead

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Ruth, Chapters 1-4 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

============
Highlight Reference Passage : Ruth 1: 16… 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.

============
Highlight Reference Passage #2 : Ruth 2: 14-16… 14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”

============
Highlight Reference Passage #3 : Ruth 4: 16-17… 16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

My Journal for Today: It’s been a while since I’ve read the little book of Ruth in the Bible; but in my chronological read through God’s word this year, that’s where I was taken today. And what a lovely, heart-warming account of Godly relationships is found in this book. But once one goes beyond the surface love story, involving family loyalty and righteous living, we see an account of God’s people being Godly in the face of unrighteous living and treachery, which surrounded the main characters of this love story – Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz.

Remember, this story involved people who were living in the time of the Judges, which we just finished reading about yesterday; and these were treacherous times in the history of the Israelites. People all around these key characters in the book of Ruth were living selfishly and had been drawn into a culture of idolatry and unGodly living. Yet, in the midst of this, God lays out this lovely story of a remnant of His people who lived lives following God’s way and doing so to establish the line of the one who would become King David (Ruth’s grandchild).

And isn’t it a wonderful bit of Godly irony that Jesus’ lineage would be drawn from a converted gentile, a Moabite woman, whose life becomes an example to all of us as to how we should live and love and have our being in a relationship which first stems vertically from a deep and abiding relationship with the LORD and then becomes set in this world horizontally with abiding relationships in family and friends (real friends).

My dear ones, we live in times which mirror the times of the Israelites in the era of Ruth. Right now, like Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz, we are engulfed in a culture, a world, and a nation of ungodliness; and we are called, by our God, to follow our LORD and live uprightly in His image. The characters in the book of Ruth not only were honored by God to establish the blood lines of King David and our Lord, Jesus, through Mary; but as their lives are written about in God’s word, they become living examples of how to live Godly lives in an ungodly world.

I pray that we all see the light of Christ shining through the lives of these people as lived out in their horizontal relationships, becoming beacons for their vertical relationship with God. We all need to live, love, and have our essence flowing from our relationship with the Lord, our God; and when we can live like the lovely and loving characters in the book of Ruth, we will honor our God and shine His light in a very dark world.

My Prayer Today: … Lord, help me to live and love as You live in me and prayerfully love through me. Amen

January 20, 2012 … Ignoring Our Inheritance

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Genesis, Chapters 25-26… To study these chapters, go to this link -

Genesis 25: 27-34: … [Selling Out Our Future] ... 27 The boys [the twin sons of Isaac] grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.30 He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.)
31 Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright."
32 "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?" 33 But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

============
Genesis 26: 1-7: … [Shaping Our Family’s Future] ... 1 Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”

My Journal for Today: Today, in my chronological read through the Bible, I was led through two passages which speak to how we shape the future of our world by how we live and who we are.

The first of the two focus passages above is Genesis 25: 27-34, which is the story of Isaac’s sons, Esau and Jacob, the twin boys whose interaction and character shaped their future and our current world. And it is a study of the character of these two twins, which reveals so very much about who we’ve become in our world and lives today.

You’ve probably read this story before, … how Esau, the first-born, sold away his birthright to his conniving, con-man brother, Jacob; and we know that the enmity of the Arab nations, who were descendants of Esau, resent and hold hatred for the descendants of Jacob, who was renamed “Israel” by their God. And this enmity of the Arabs and the Jews was born in the interaction of these two blood brothers; and is felt to this day in our world, isn’t it? Can we see the lesson here as to how we live and who we become having influence on the future of our progeny?

How I live and my character, especially as a parent or as a leader in my sphere of influence, will become a driving impact on my children or upon those whom God has led me to lead in my work life. That fact is certainly seen in the outcomes of the interaction of Esau and Jacob, whose character and personal interaction shaped their family interaction and has shaped our world even today. Think about it. What we do and how we live, as parents and stewards of leadership, can – and usually does – have a powerful effect upon how others live into our – and their - future.

If I’m a parent and give my kids a certain example of my character, don’t you think that example is going to have an impact on the character of my kids and how they live into our future? Of course it will; and this was clearly exemplified in Genesis 26: 1-7 as part of the reading in my trek through the Bible this morning.

In this passage we read of Isaac developing a scheme involving his fear of how he might be treated by one of his enemies, the Philistines, whom he feared might kill him and his wife, Rebekah. So, what plot did Isaac use? Déjà vu all over again – it was the same plot which his daddy, Abraham, had used twice in the past to avoid being killed by his enemies. Family heritage impacts a family’s future.

So, I think both of these passages above powerfully illustrate that how we live and who we become has a powerful and lasting impact on our families and those whom God has led us to lead in our lives. And that is why it’s so important that we become – in character – whom God has purposed us to become. And as Christians, we are purposed to become as much like our Lord and Savior as we can [see Phil. 2: 5] so that we can shine or reflect His light (or likeness) into our families and be a witness for Him in our culture/world (see Matt. 5: 16 and Acts 1: 8). I will leave it to you to you to study and meditate upon the truth of those verses; because who we are and what we become will influence those around us, especially those in our family lines.

I pray that I can be who my kids and grandkids need to see so that they can see Christ in me and carry His image forward into our future.

My Prayer Today: … Lord, help me to become like You so that those who come after me will see and seek You. Amen

2010 – October 5 – Sniffing at the Lord’s Table

Study from God’s Word… Malachi, Chapters 1 – 4 … Passage for Reflection: Malachi 1: 12 – 13 … NIV 12 "But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, 'It is defiled,' and of its food, 'It is contemptible.' 13 And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously," says the LORD Almighty.

My Journal for Today: May I intervene here by telling you a brief personal remembrance. When I was in Kindergarten, my teacher, Mrs. Rex, used a technique to help us remember “the rules,” … i.e., those things which we were taught to protect our well being and help us grow in character. When we transgressed “the rules,” Mrs. Rex would march us into the clothes closet; and as we passed her, she would plant one brief, humiliating swat on our butts with a ping-pong paddle. So, at various times when she picked up her paddle, we knew what was about to happen; and someone was about to march to the clothes closet and be “reminded” of what righteousness was all about. Oh, how we hated that ping-pong paddle and that clothes closet. But invariably, though we knew “the rules,” we would forget and someone would be humiliated; … and I’m afraid I had my share of trips to the closet and pops with the paddle on my rear end, helping me to learn the right way to act in class.

I bring this up because I personally view some of the mornings I come to this, my quiet “closet,” for morning devotionals in the light of that little story I’ve just related. Interesting that the name of my Kindergarten Teacher was "REX," the Latin word for “King;” because some mornings here in my quiet time, my Lord, The King of kings, takes me to task, sending me to my own “clothes closet” with a rap on my emotional derriere with some of the devotionals I’m led to study and upon which I’m led to meditate from God’s word. And this morning is one of those.

And here we are, in this study of the Book by Malachi’s name; and I’m reminded of my own laxity and unwillingness to honor God and His Covenant with His children. Like the ancient and recalcitrant Jews, I profane my worship of my Lord with overt disobedience and ill treatment of God’s recognized ways. I act in many ways in contempt of my God by the way I eat. Well, maybe not at the Lord’s Table, but certainly at any table where I eat in ways that are sinful and gluttonous in my desire to satisfy self, rather than honor my Savior. And God, through the conviction of His Holy Spirit, takes me to the “clothes closet” of humiliation and gives me a swat of direction with His paddle of truth.

This morning, I stand convicted and duly “paddled” by the recognition and realization that my attitude – at times – is no different from these ancient Hebrews who were so reticent to follow the known ways of their God, Whom is the same God I love and serve. So, this morning God is giving me, in this remembrance of my Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Rex, a recognition that I need to be in a mode of humiliation and surrender; and prayerfully this will lead me to a time when I remember God’s righteous ways and honor Him with my righteous choices.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to walk in Your ways and live in Your truth. Amen

2010 – October 3 – A Twofold Tale of Courage

Study from God’s Word… Esther, Chapters 1 – 4 … Passage for Reflection: Esther 1: 12 … NIV But when the attendants delivered the King’s command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the King became furious and burned with anger.

My Journal for Today: I would expect that others reading along with me, like myself, have read the intriguing story of Esther before in your Bible studies. It is a wonderful story of political intrigue and personal spiritual character on the part of the main heroine of the story, the Jewess, Esther. But there is another precursor to Esther’s story, another courageous sub-heroine, whose story should not be lost in the focus on our Hebrew heroine; and that is the story of the King Xerxes’ bride, Vashti.

Here was a Queen who was obviously a beautiful lady and a highly respected queen in the court of King Xerxes. And she receives a summons from the King to appear before the court in the midst of drunken revelry where the king wants to show off the beauty of his queen; and she flat refuses to be degraded in this way. Well, the rest is history; and though the kind displays a bit of a soft side banishing his queen instead of having her beheaded or killed in some public execution, she still loses all access to the finery of being the queen because of her integrity. And we shouldn’t lose sight of the character lesson of this fine woman; and who knows [?], … perhaps her model might have influenced our heroine, Esther, who later would be called on to confront the king for the glory of God.

The application question from Dr. Smith in this morning’s devotional highlight is this: ”Am I sufficiently courageous to do the right thing even when the consequences are potentially disastrous?” And here we all have to do our own 2nd Cor. 13: 5 [linked for study] inventory of faith. And I don’t know what our individual confrontations of character might be. Perhaps you might be called to do the “right thing” at work by refusing to buckle to corporate pressures when your job might be on the line for such an action. Perhaps there are friends at work or in your social circles who mock God openly; and you might be called on to stand in the gap for your faith and confront your “friends” about their disbelief. Maybe there are those who are declaring that abortion is okay or “gay marriage” should be allowed; and you can’t stand back in the shadows any longer and let such opinions go unchallenged … even though the results may be being socially ostracized.

The lessons of Queen Vashti in today’s text, and later Queen Esther, tell us that character matters, especially when the prevailing politically correct forces are spitting in the face of Godly values. When – and how – we might be called on to stand up for our faith, I don’t know. But I do know we certainly have ample biblical examples; and two of them are being brought to our attention by studying the book of Esther. Had it not been for the courage of Queen Vashti, the later courage of Esther to save her people from a holocaust of horror would have not taken place; and so we get a two-for-one lesson in female courage and Godly honor by seeing how these two women stood up to the male dominant powers of the day.

Hooray for Queen Vashti; and hooray for those who stand in the gap for Godly values today!

My Prayer for Today: Lord, give me the courage to be like Queen Vashti or Esther when I’m confronted by ungodliness in my life. Amen