Month: December 2018

December 3, Reading 1 – 2 Chronicles 33

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Manasseh was the worst of kings and the best of kings. In his old age, the Assyrians captured him and imprisoned him for a while in Babylon. Manasseh is a prime example of the prodigal son. The lesson is: don’t stay in the dregs of life. Return to your Father in heaven!

SJA Notes

* God of light and righteousness, we ask that Your steadfast love and faithfulness are with us, bound around our neck, written on the tablet of our heart.

“Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.”

Here is a great big deep truth. One to wrestle with, to roll over, layer on layer, to think through, to ask God for help in understanding.

Manasseh did great evil. Manasseh committed terrible atrocities.

But Manasseh turned to the Lord.

Manasseh came to a knowledge that THE LORD WAS GOD.

Manasseh saw the truth of who God is.

And in doing so, because you cannot but know this, he saw the truth of himself – a sinner saved by grace!

Manasseh humbled himself before the Lord, the God he had for many years rejected and actively brought dishonour to.

How could God forgive such a person?

The good news of Jesus is the message that cuts through any human state or experience.

We see with Manasseh that even the most vile despot can turn to Jesus.

This should encourage us to pray for one another, for those around us, for those who are antagonistic and angry, those who fight against the church, for those who are actively doing evil.

We have a God who can overcome the greatest evil with HIS GREAT GOOD!

* Dear Lord,

Thank You for saving Manasseh. Please humble us as Manasseh was humbled.

Help us to know You, to know that You are the LORD, You are GOD.

There is none like You.

May we tell those around us of You and Your saving grace.

Amen.

December 3, Reading 2 – Daniel 1

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The book of Daniel is a ‘revelation’ like the book of Revelation in the New Testament. In the Hebrew Old Testament, Daniel is grouped with the other writings like the Psalms, and not with the Prophets like Isaiah. A brief sketch of Daniel’s personal history is given in this chapter. These four young men are faithful to God and He is to them. What an encouragement!

SJA Notes

* God Above, thank You for Your word to us today. Please plant it in our hearts today, and grow it, that we might be good soil and bear much fruit.

“And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.”

Here is a wonderful thing.

Amidst the writings of the prophets we have read, calling Israel and each of the other nations, to repentance – Here we have Daniel and his three friends.

They were in exile. Babylon.

While Isaiah and Jeremiah were being read and Ezekiel was experiencing his visions – Daniel and his three friends walked obediently under God’s will while living in exile.

“And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.”

Daniel’s life spanned multiple foreign kings. He spent time advising some of the most powerful leaders of that era. And he served God faithfully in this.

Daniel kept God in His rightful place, refusing to bow the knee to man or idol, unlike most of God’s people in exile at that time.

He would not give to the Caesar of the time what was God’s (see Mark 12).

Are we as faithful as Daniel was in our current generation? In this world where truth and lie are swapped with abandon, in a time when corruption in society is growing at an alarming rate – Are we bending our spirits to false gods and fallen humanity?

* Father God,

Please sink us in self that we might rise in You.

Please put within us a right desire to see Your Name hallowed.

Thank You for the witness of Daniel.

May we be a little more like Jesus today, and a little more tomorrow.

Amen.

December 3, Reading 3 – 1 John 3

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

We are called to two things – to discontinue in sin and to love our brother Christian. 1 Corinthians 13, Zechariah 7:9,10 and 8:16,17, Leviticus 19:18 and much else of the case law in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy will tell you what loving your brother means in practice.

SJA Notes

* Holy God, You are all we need in this life. As You write Your word upon our hearts, may our love for You grow ever onward.

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

This is a deep and chunky passage, full of hard truths.

John clearly points us again and again to the binary nature of sin and righteousness, of light and darkness, of God and of the devil.

And John exhorts us in a very practical exhortation.

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

How do we love?

We _do_.

And we do (act) out of our hearts.

Following Jesus is not a matter of the surface, of those things that are outward (words and discussion).

God’s people walk a narrow road, a path of walking and action, of decision-making through life, seeking God’s wisdom with each step.

We need to _do_.

Let us be encouraged to love in action out of the truth of the Spirit that lives within us, our hearts remade.

* Father God,

Thank You for Your love for us, that shows us how to love.

Thank You for Jesus, who showed us here on earth what it meant to love, to obey.

Please help us to love in action and in truth.

Amen.