Read the Bible in a Year (28JUN19)

PSALMS MOMENT – (28JUN19) The psalmist recalled the miracles that God did in Israel’s history when He delivered them from Pharaoh. Miracle after miracle was done, and yet, Israel doubted the ability of what God could do. The psalmist wrote, “They spoke against God; they said, ‘Can God really spread a table in the wilderness?’ ” (Psalm 78:19). They had seen God send plagues upon Egypt, so that Pharaoh released them from bondage. They witnessed how He parted the Red Sea and they walked on dry land. They saw how God destroyed Pharaoh’s army where they did not have to worry about the Egyptians chasing after them again. They were able to tell their children of how the cloud led them by day and a pillar of fire guided them at night. Israel had witnessed countless miracles that God did for them, but they refused to believe in Him completely when they faced situations in their lives that required for them to walk in faith and obedience. Sometimes, we can be the same way in our dealings with God.

We allow the devil to plant seeds of doubt in our minds as to what God can and will do. The enemy causes us to forget how God delivered us in times’ past and sprouts up plants of fear, anxiety, worry, panic, and restlessness. The enemy tempts us with the urge to take matters into our own hands prior to consulting God, and then when we make a mess of things, we have to do what we should have done in the beginning – trust God. Just as Israel often turned to foreign gods instead of the Lord, we can sometimes make self-reliance our Baal, impatience our Asherah pole, and pride our golden calf. Yet, these gods can do nothing to help us, and only God can deliver us when we are in need of help. The thing that we must remember is to have a solid foundation in God before the trial begins, so that during the trial, we will do what has already become natural to us – pray and trust in God’s ability to work it out. Only then can we truly please God and not allow the enemy to make us doubt God’s ability to bring us out on top. The Bible says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Something to ponder…. 

QUESTION OF THE DAY – (28JUN19) Does God hold the sins of past generations against us? The psalmist wrote, “Do not hold against us the sins of past generations; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need” (Psalm 79:8). The psalmist was asking God for His help because they had been overtaken by their enemies, and although he knew that it was because of their sins, he did not want God to continue in His anger against them for sins past and present. God had continuously warned Israel about their sin of idolatry. They were His chosen people and yet, they felt that it was trivial to honor their covenant with God. Even though He had been faithful to them and had freed them out of slavery, they were just as unfaithful to Him as an adulterous wife, which is what He often referred to them as in the Bible. God sent prophet after prophet to warn them of their wicked ways, but they rejected the prophets and ignored their warnings. Therefore, God turned them over to their enemies to receive their due judgment.

If the next generation had been faithful to God, He would not have held the sins of their ancestors against them. This is why He told Israel to teach their children the ways of the Lord because He did not want the next generation to be rebellious as they were; instead, He wanted to bless them. The Bible says, “He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children, so the next generation would know them…Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. They would not be like their ancestors—a stubborn and rebellious generation…” (Psalm 78:5-8). God gives each generation a chance to serve Him independent of what the former generation did. Unfortunately, Israel kept repeating the sins of the past, and never learned to totally be faithful to God. As a result, each generation saw judgments take place on them not so much for the past, but what they continued to do that was like the generation of the past.

The same thing applies today. God is not holding the sins of our forefathers against us, but He does hold it against us when we continue to walk down the same sinful road as they did. The Bible says, “Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ ‘Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them’ ” (Ezekiel 18:19-20). Since everyone is held accountable for their own actions, that includes generations as well. If a generation is righteous, God will uphold them, but if they repeat the sins of their ancestors, that generation takes on the curse of their ancestors for their rebellion against God. Therefore, let us be mindful that even though we cannot undo the errors of generations before us, we can CHOOSE to follow in the ways of the Lord now. Something to ponder….

PSALMS MOMENT – (28JUN19) Israel had a serious spiritual ailment – a heart condition. They praised the Lord with their mouths, but they did not honor Him with their hearts. The psalmist wrote, “Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.  They remembered that God was their Rock…but then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant” (Psalm 78:34-36). It was easy for Israel to turn away from God repeatedly because they had not given themselves completely to Him with their heart, soul, and mind. They only wanted to give Him a part of themselves – the part that did not require complete obedience, which was like handing Him a half-baked cake. Israel wanted to delight in their being able to say that they were the Children of Abraham, but they did not want to live as Abraham did, which was a life of total faith and humility to God. Therefore, the story of their lives reflected their lack of devotion towards God as they lost hold of the many blessings that He had given to them in times past. Despite their constant disobedience and rejection, God still forgave them and did not completely wipe them out as He could have done.   

Many in the church are suffering from a heart condition as well. It is brought on by the love of sin. We desire to hang on to the sins we like and disregard the ones we don’t. But God does not want us to be cherry-picker sinners. He wants us to have our whole hearts devoted to Him. He requires our undying love because He gives more than what He asks for. God desires that in our relationship with Him, we become just as appalled by sin as He is, so that we will seek, ask and pray for deliverance from it. When we do not fully embrace Christ in our hearts, we are leaving room for the enemy to come in to occupy the space that we have not fully submitted to God. The devil acts as a squatter, setting up camp rent free in our hearts, and runs operations from within because He knows that God will not dwell where sin is. Nevertheless, we are the only ones who can evict the enemy from our hearts, so that the Holy Spirit can maintain a permanent space. All we have to do is fully submit to Him and allow for His will to be done in our lives. Something to ponder….