Month: March 2019

March 7, Reading 1 – Exodus 26:1-30

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

When reading these passages from Exodus, it is a good idea to read chapters 9 and 10 of Hebrews for a New Testament perspective. One instructive lesson is that if God took such excessive care for this small mobile Tabernacle, how much more care will He be taking over that more glorious Tabernacle – the body of Christ, the Church .

SJA Notes

* Dear God, this day is Yours. Thank You for Your word to us today.

“Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain.”

Curtains and loops, clasps and wooden frames, bars and rings of gold. A single whole.

This was a meeting place designed to be transportable. Able to be put up and then taken down. Moved. Then put up again.

There’s an interesting symmetry here.

Israel were to worship at the portable tabernacle as they wandered through the desert, the approach to the promised land. The tabernacle, the meeting place of man with God, went with them.

Once they make it in, and David secures the kingdom, his son Solomon then builds the temple. A fixed building in a fixed location. Not portable. God’s presence fixed in His chosen land amongst His chosen people.

On this side of Messiah, of Jesus, we God’s people wander about as little tabernacles ourselves. Immanuel, God with us!

Jesus sent the Helper, God in the Person of the Spirit, to be our guide and comforter, our companion and INDWELLER.

And just like Israel travelling through the desert, we too look forward to the land God has promised to us – GLORY!

Where He will dwell with us, and we will be His people in all full truth and reality. The heavens and earth made new, no more death or decay or pain or frustration. A fixed location, God on His throne, we worshipping in His light – No more sun, no more travelling as sojourners.

HOME.

How good is our God!

* Father God,

Thank You for this great hope we have in You, in Your great promises to us for the not yet.

We believe Lord, please help our unbelief!

Amen.


March 7, Reading 2 – Psalm 70, 71

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The troubles of life can come thick and fast for the believer, just as for David. Look again at Psalm 71:17-20 and notice the resurrection hope. Let us finish our pilgrimage as we began it – with persevering hope, joy and faith.

SJA Notes

* Faithful God, thank You for opening our eyes, that we might see, and our ears, that we might hear.

“So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those who come.”

David’s words, his intent, to proclaim God’s wondrous deeds and might to another generation – They are all part of God’s word.

We can sometimes be at a loss to describe God with intent, His character, His acts. It can be hard at times to ascribe greatness to Him.

But it is here in God’s word that we discover who God is and what He has done.

So it is HIS WORD that teaches us how to praise Him, how to give Him the glory due His Name, how to teach and proclaim to the next generation.

What a wonderful thing this is! What an active-intentional-loving God we have that He would be so kind and generous to give us His word that tells us who He is.

And blessing upon blessing, God the Son (Je3sus) sent God the Spirit to us, to be our helper – And He writes His word upon our hearts!

God’s word is far better than any textbook, it is more than a roadmap, it runs deeper than a best-selling highly-acclaimed story – God’s word is written on the hearts of God’s people and planted deep within us in a way that no other _word_ can be.

Praise God for these wonderful truths. His deeds are marvellous, His faithfulness without end!

* Father God,

Thank You for Your word that You have given to us. Please write it upon our hearts today, little by little, line upon line.

Please plant Your word deep down in us, and grow it, that we might be good soil and bear much fruit.

Amen.

March 7, Reading 3 – Acts 15:1-21

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

This chapter shows that an Assembly of elders governed the church. An Apostle chaired the meeting and another, Peter, was the influential speaker, who set the scene for James to propose the way forward for the inclusion of Gentiles into the Church. Think about the four Apostolic requests made of Gentiles.

SJA Notes

* Merciful God, thank You for Your faithfulness which we read of in Your word and experience in our lives.

“And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.”

Faith is a gift from God.

Faith cleanses our hearts.

What then is faith?

Hebrews 11 tells us,

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Regardless of what the world tells us, this is what God says faith is. And He gave it to us as a gift!

Paul tells us in Ephesians 2,

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

From all nations God calls His people. And He gifts us faith. And this is a wonderful thing, a thing that outworks into the hope of glory!

* Father God,

Thank You for the hope we have in You.

Thank You that we can have a life now that is marked by Your saving grace, gifting us with faith.

And thank You that we look forward to glory, a conviction of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for.

Amen.