Month: July 2018

July 1, Reading 1 – Joshua 14, 15

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Every one of the people of God had a place in the Promised Land – that place where God would walk and talk with His people again. Consider too the importance of family faith. It is Caleb’s nephew Othniel who becomes his heir and Israel’s first Judge after Joshua dies.

SJA Notes

* Dear God, prove us and try us, test our hearts and our minds – Your steadfast love is before our eyes, we walk in Your faithfulness.

“… Because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.”

Caleb loved the Lord, he walked in His God’s faithfulness.

Caleb was hale and hearty at eighty-five years old, strong as at forty – strong for war!

But that is not what recommends him.

Caleb was singular in his devotion. He chose to follow the Lord instead of man, he chose to trust in God’s power instead of wallowing in the fear of man.

Caleb was faithful in little and in much.

He wholly followed the Lord.

Can this be said of us?

It is a good example to encourage us onwards.

Choose the Lord today, choose Him and the life He brings!

* Lord God Above,

Thank You for the witness of Caleb.

Please help us to be singular in our devotion of You, rejecting idolatry in all its forms.

Thank You for the hope we have in Jesus, eternal life, and life to the full!

Thank You Lord!

Amen.

July 1, Reading 2 – Isaiah 10:5-34

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Assyria was the terrorist nation of its day. God’s tells His people that He will judge not only His Church, but also Assyria, the rod of His anger. God holds us accountable for the how of our service, as both Israel and Assyria learnt. Some hundreds of years later, Ezra, Nehemiah and the other returning exiles found these words about the remnant of comfort and hope.

SJA Notes

* Father God, thank You for Your word. Please show us Jesus today.

“For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;'”

God is against pride and arrogance.

We see this today with the King of Assyria.

And we see it in Daniel chapter 4, where King Nebuchadnezzar himself tells the story of his pride and arrogance, the Lord humbling him, and then the Lord restoring him.

“At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,”

Humility is important. Meekness is not weakness but strength under direction.

But pride in our selves, having the arrogance to think we are better than others, better than God – These are unhealthy directions for the believer and unbeliever alike.

Why?

There’s a really simple answer. One that can be hard to grapple with.

Why? From 1 Peter 5 (and James 4 carries the same message),

“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'”

God opposes the proud.

God gives grace to the humble.

Let us choose wisdom today and work and wrestle to clothe ourselves with humility before our Lord and those around us.

* Mighty God,

You are the Sovereign Creator God, praise Your Name!

Your love is steadfast and true, Your faithfulness without end.

Thank You Lord!

Amen.

July 1, Reading 3 – 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Paul reminds these people of the disturbing events of his imprisonment and beating at Philippi (another city of Macedonia), and of the validity of his apostleship. Grumblings and murmurings appear to be an ever-present evil amongst God’s people, but one to be resisted and overcome. How?

SJA Notes

* Dear Lord God, thank You for Your word. Please open our hearts to listen and obey today.

“But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.”

“For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to talk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”

Paul uses two wonderful images here.

One is the gentleness of a mother with her young children, nursing them. The other is a father exhorting and encouraging his children.

These are both used to describe what he (Paul) and others did in bring the good news to the Thessalonian church.

It is important for us to remember that both of these sets of characteristics and found in the preaching of the gospel. Gentleness alongside encouragement and exhortation.

* Gracious Father in Heaven,

Thank You for Your word.

Thank You that it shows us how we are to act.

Thank You for the example set in today’s passage of building up and encouraging a church family.

Please help us to be gentle among one another, exhorting and encouraging each other.

Amen.