Month: August 2018

August 30, Reading 1 – 2 Samuel 14

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Intra-family relationships can be fraught with many tensions. Joab is Absalom’s cousin though much older. The big questions in all this history are: Who will be David’s heir? and What is the worth of that heir? That is still the question today for Jews today. Is Jesus of Nazareth David’s heir?

SJA Notes

* O lord, let Your enemies be put to shame and dismayed forever, that they may know that You alone, whose name is THE LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.

“Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God?”

The subterfuge and politicking is thick in this reading!

David shows both his discernment and his lack of discernment – absolving himself of the responsibility of resolution and restoration.

We need to look to the LORD and not to man!

David is fracturing, showing big cracks in his character – just as we all do.

But the LORD.

It is HE who works salvation, bringing the banished home, drawing close the outcast.

As the woman says to David,

“But God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast.”

Hallelujah for God’s redemption to us through His Son, Jesus!

More Jesus. Less us.

* Father God,

Thank You for redeeming us through Your work at Calvary.

Thank You for bringing home the banished and drawing close the outcast.

Please help us to turn to You today when trouble and turmoil come.

Amen.

August 30, Reading 2 – Zephaniah 2

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Zephaniah cries out: seek the LORD, seek righteousness, seek humility. The NKJV puts the translation: It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD’s anger. Jew and Gentile, all are accountable to God for their actions, policies, plans. Whatever other Australians do, let us seek the Lord!

SJA Notes

* Lord God, please show us Your truth today.

“Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD.”

Here is a truth, a hard word, that we have seen and will continue to see through all of God’s word.

The Lord’s anger burns against both God’s people and the rest of the world because of our sin against Him.

God has His purposes, He is working them out, and will bring them to completion at the end; for all the earth to bow down before Him (whether in judgement or in thankful worship).

BUT.

In the now, this temporary vale, what is the word for us?

Seek the Lord. Seek righteousness. Seek humility.

Where do we find those things?

In Jesus. He is the answer. He is God in the Person of the Son. He is the Righteous One. He submitted Himself as Son under the will of His Father in all humility.

HE IS OUR HIDING PLACE!

In Jesus we are hidden on the day when God’s wrath will be poured out on all this broken creation that lives in opposition to Him.

Jesus is the answer.

Jesus is our hiding place.

* Gracious Father,

Please put within us a heart for the lost.

Please break the hearts of our loved ones, those around us, of our suburbs and cities and nations – Please let people seek and find rescue and refuge in Jesus.

Amen.

August 30, Reading 3 – Galatians 2

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The Apostles stood for the one and the same Gospel. There is a modern teaching that Paul gave one gospel and Peter a different version. This is just baseless speculation that goes against what the Apostles themselves wrote. Was Paul justified in his treatment of Peter?

SJA Notes

* Mighty God, thank You for this day, and for Your word to us. Thank You for Your grace, that we live in.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

Paul points us to a radical set of truths.

What? Aren’t we ourselves made alive in Christ? Why does Paul say that it is not us who live but Christ in us?

Yes _we_ are alive in Christ! Ephesians 2:4-7 tells us that we are, no question.

But. It is our Lord and Saviour alive in us through the gift of faith, by God’s grace, that gives us life, sustains our life. He makes His dwelling in us, we are little tabernacles!

Paul wants us to understand, like in the book of Romans, to understand RIGHTEOUSNESS.

“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

The “me” in me wants to work salvation through the law, some man-given gospel, through my own actions and thoughts and determination.

When we are live in Christ, Him living in us, we are both covered by His righteousness (a white robe replacing our filthy rags) _and_ we grow toward righteousness (and better understand it, little by little) through the sanctification the Holy Spirit works within us.

Let us be encouraged and exhorted to continually be returning to the Lord. To His word, hearing His precepts, His laws, His command and statutes, His testimonies – So that day by day we can grow more like Jesus.

That He would live in us!

Hallelujah!

* Saviour God,

Thank You for Jesus, who lives in us – Your people!

Thank You for calling us, from before we were born!

Thank You for the free gift of faith, that You are so full of grace as to bring life into dead hearts, to wrap in love those who were Your enemies.

Thank You Lord!

Amen.