Month: November 2018

November 27, Reading 1 – 2 Chronicles 26

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Notice verse 5: as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. Pride becomes Uzziah’s downfall too as with his father. Such histories are examples for our meditation, guidance and instruction today.

SJA Notes

* God Almighty, Your holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. The city of You, the Lord of hosts, Mount Zion!

“But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.”

Here is the story of a person who sought the Lord, and when the Lord blessed them they began to believe more in themselves than in God.

This should not be a foreign story for us.

See the pattern the order.

When we are given strength from the Lord, blessing and honor perhaps – Pride is at the door.

To combat this, we read from 1 Peter 5,

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

Humility is the weapon to combat pride.

Easy to say. Hard to do.

Our King Jesus showed us how to be clothed in humility. He showed us how to resist pride in ourselves.

Let us follow our King.

* God Above,

Thank You for Your faithfulness, without end.

Thank You for Your love, steadfast and true.

Please help us to clothe ourselves with humility, to each day have a hard-won hard-fought combatting of pride in our selves.

Amen.

November 27, Reading 2 – Ezekiel 43

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The Glory returns! We know the joy that the Apostles felt when Jesus rose again! Jesus’ atonement is one cornerstone of the true Temple. Read Hebrews 7:27,28.

SJA Notes

* God Above, thank You for Your word. Please teach us from it today.

“… and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple.”

Ezekiel had borne witness to the glory of the Lord leaving the temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 10).

In today’s passage we see the glory of the Lord coming to rest and filling this new (not made with human hands, instead heavenly reality) temple.

God’s glory is a significant concept.

When the Lord met with Moses on the mountain, it was the _train_ of His glory that Moses saw (Exodus 33).

At the dedication of the temple built by King Solomon, the glory of the LORD filled that earthly-built temple (2 Chronicles 7).

God has GLORY in and of Himself. He manifests the full truth of what glory means, without any human interaction or intervention, such that our humanity cannot be in the presence of this glory and live.

And yet.

This heavenly-reality temple is where God rests His glory.

This Zion where the cornerstone was placed by God (1 Peter 2), where we are living stones being built up as a spiritual house.

This now and not yet deep truth, that God will dwell with us, in us! We the mini-tabernacles of His presence, God making His home in us (John 14).

So while we humanity cannot approach God’s glory and live, God approaches us through Jesus, living in us, His glory come to shine bright through frail clay jars.

This is our God, this is His glory!

* Father God,

Thank You that through Jesus You come and make Your home in us.

Thank You that we are able to dwell with Your glory and not die, but instead in Your steadfast love and faithfulness, we have life … And life to the full!

Amen.

November 27, Reading 3 – John 19:17-42

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Joseph of Arithamea and Nicodemus gave Jesus a costly burial, suitable for royalty. It is their declaration that Jesus is their King, their Messiah. They are drawn to Him in His death and confess their allegiance openly.

SJA Notes

* Dear God, thank You for this day, and for Your word to us. Please write it on our hearts through You the Spirit at work in us.

“Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written.'”

These are some steadfast words.

Whether he is in glory or not, Pilate here stands strong in his affirmation of the truth of Jesus.

THE KING OF THE JEWS

Pilate had been pushed around, politically manipulated, by the Jewish chief priests and teachers of the law, the leaders of the church gunning for Jesus.

And he would be pushed no further.

Whether Pilate became a believer, whether he grasped the depths of what it meant for Jesus to be King – That’s not the point here.

God was working all things through His Sovereign Will. And through Him, His Spirit at work in us, we can understand.

Jesus was the true King of the Jews. God’s people called through Abraham.

And He is the true King of God’s people, who brought blessing to all nations through Abraham.

Pilate’s inscription describes the truth of Jesus. To those at that time who wished Jesus dead. It speaks backwards to all from Adam. And it is true for all time since then and through to the end of days.

Jesus is King!

* Great God Above,

Thank You for Jesus, the true King!

Thank You for Your love for us, that through the death of the king we who were enemies might have life.

Thank You that You open our eyes to the truths in Your word.

Please write Your word on our hearts this day, and each day.

Amen.