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Thursday, Ordinary 30, Proper 25, Oct 23
HealthFitNow
Posts: 1,205 Member
Meditation
Thursday, Ordinary 30, Proper 25 reflected on the sad state of affairs that God had to contend with: the faithlessness and hypocrisy of his chosen people both Hebrew and Christian. Psalm 90 was a Song of Moses, written after God called Joshua and him into the Tent of Meeting to have a sad confab. The news was bad—Moses was about to die and the future of Israel was bleak because they were going to turn away from God and worship false idols.
Moses wrote the beautiful song so they would remember how omnipotent and omniscient God was and how much they had to be thankful for. The incredible infinite God, whose eternal nature meant a thousand years was like a moment in God’s time, was willing to care for humanity. The sadness that the Hebrew people would not stay faithful must have overwhelmed their hearts.
The New Testament was not any better. The Christian church at Crete, where Titus ministered, was devolving from the new Christian principles of grace and reverting to a works-salvation. Some were insisting that the new Christians should follow the Jewish traditions of circumcision and Paul declared them to be liars and cheats. Some were doing it to make money—perhaps the cost of having it done…or some other means of earning money.
The early church (which existed so near to the time that Christ had lived and was in touch with apostles and disciples, who had actually walked and talked with Jesus) had already shifted from the true focus of faith to a checklist style of Judeo-Christianity. The hypocrisy and fallacy was immediately proclaimed by Paul, but in fact, too often, the same problems exist today.
Preacher’s kids have been notoriously misbehaving, like the song by Dusty Springfield, Son of a Preacher Man, spoke of the behaviors that were not church like. Paul noted that the one in charge—church elders/preachers, should have children that were faithful to God and well behaved. I suspect that if those guidelines were actually implemented, we wouldn’t have so many church leaders.
Preachers and church workers have often devoted so much time to the church that they neglected home and family. Balance in life was the goal. From Moses’ song, to the private meeting of God with Joshua and Moses in the Tent of Meeting to the letter from Paul to Titus—the search was for a balance and harmony with God. Obedience to God and faithfulness to God produced balance for Moses and Joshua. The Children of Israel (then), just as today’s church goers and those who used to be church goers, have found other things to focus their lives on. It might have started with a soccer practice on Sunday, or an increased drive to work which meant no time to wake up and have ‘God time’ for things to slip away.
Gordon MacDonald’s Ordering Your Private World spoke of things that interfered with his own spiritual life. He would recognize the change within a day; his wife within a couple of days; his children soon after and his church soon after that. Being called instead of driven would result in better service to God.
That is the kind of life Moses and Joshua offered; Paul and Titus offered, but all too often, like the phony Pharisees in Jesus’ time, church leaders offer only ‘checklists’ rather than encouraging personal faithfulness and discovery of how God is calling us to serve.
We have a choice. Before the infinite God, we can humbly obey or not. We can be unfaithful and driven or faithful and called. Choose the latter and see what door opens.
Thanks be to God.
Prayer: Almighty God, Open my eyes that I might see. Open my mind that I might understand. Open my heart that I might make your words a part of me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Amen
Bible Readings
http://legacy.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17;Deuteronomy 31:14-22;Titus 1:5-16&version=KJV;ERV;GNT;NCV;NIV
Psalm 90:1-6 Psalm 90:13-17
Deuteronomy 31:14-22
Titus 1:5-16
Daily Bible Verses to Memorize for Meditating
Philippians 4:4
King James Version (KJV)
4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.
Bible Study
Titus 1:5-16
King James Version (KJV)
5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:
6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;
9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
OBSERVE:
Take a moment and write three observations of the verses. What strikes you? An observation is an observable fact from the Word.
1.
2.
3.
INTERPRETATION:
What do you interpret these verses to mean for you today?
APPLY:
Today, I learned _____________________________________and apply it to my life.
Prayer of Encouragement
Almighty God, forgive us for turning our hearts from you, who are omnipotent and all wise. Help us to hunger for you as David did. Help us to be called instead of driven and selfish. We want our lives to be in balance. In Jesus name, Amen
Conclusion
Thursday, Ordinary 30, Proper 25’s lesson sadly reviewed the many ways that believers failed to obey God and focus on the important things in life. God wants us to love and be encouraging. Instead, people have cheated and misrepresented God to others. People have turned their hearts to selfish interests and false idols instead of finding the balance of a called life in God’s will.
This is not limited to unbelievers, though it can be unbelievers. Paul’s letter to Titus addressed the Christ-following-leaders, who were insisting on the church members doing things that were not necessary by God’s standard.
Circumcision was from the Old Testament—it only included men. Baptism was the New Testament sign of being in the family of God and it included men, women and children—whole families were able to be baptized.
Even today, there are church leaders, who will insist on a specific aspect of behavior, instead of making the essential things—love of God and others, lack of arrogance, healthy relationships with family, etc.—the foci of faith.
We must self-examine and insure that our own lives are in balance so that we can sing the Song of Moses and put things into the proper perspective. The all-wise, all-knowing God, who loved us enough to offer Jesus as salvation, should not be taken lightly, lest we risk turning away from God and becoming caught up in false idols.
Go out and be ready for God to do mighty things in your life—for the glory of God.*
*If you do not know the Lord as your personal Savior and you are seeking, please contact me. A genuine and simple prayer, asking God into your heart for the forgiveness of your sins will also do.
Thursday, Ordinary 30, Proper 25 reflected on the sad state of affairs that God had to contend with: the faithlessness and hypocrisy of his chosen people both Hebrew and Christian. Psalm 90 was a Song of Moses, written after God called Joshua and him into the Tent of Meeting to have a sad confab. The news was bad—Moses was about to die and the future of Israel was bleak because they were going to turn away from God and worship false idols.
Moses wrote the beautiful song so they would remember how omnipotent and omniscient God was and how much they had to be thankful for. The incredible infinite God, whose eternal nature meant a thousand years was like a moment in God’s time, was willing to care for humanity. The sadness that the Hebrew people would not stay faithful must have overwhelmed their hearts.
The New Testament was not any better. The Christian church at Crete, where Titus ministered, was devolving from the new Christian principles of grace and reverting to a works-salvation. Some were insisting that the new Christians should follow the Jewish traditions of circumcision and Paul declared them to be liars and cheats. Some were doing it to make money—perhaps the cost of having it done…or some other means of earning money.
The early church (which existed so near to the time that Christ had lived and was in touch with apostles and disciples, who had actually walked and talked with Jesus) had already shifted from the true focus of faith to a checklist style of Judeo-Christianity. The hypocrisy and fallacy was immediately proclaimed by Paul, but in fact, too often, the same problems exist today.
Preacher’s kids have been notoriously misbehaving, like the song by Dusty Springfield, Son of a Preacher Man, spoke of the behaviors that were not church like. Paul noted that the one in charge—church elders/preachers, should have children that were faithful to God and well behaved. I suspect that if those guidelines were actually implemented, we wouldn’t have so many church leaders.
Preachers and church workers have often devoted so much time to the church that they neglected home and family. Balance in life was the goal. From Moses’ song, to the private meeting of God with Joshua and Moses in the Tent of Meeting to the letter from Paul to Titus—the search was for a balance and harmony with God. Obedience to God and faithfulness to God produced balance for Moses and Joshua. The Children of Israel (then), just as today’s church goers and those who used to be church goers, have found other things to focus their lives on. It might have started with a soccer practice on Sunday, or an increased drive to work which meant no time to wake up and have ‘God time’ for things to slip away.
Gordon MacDonald’s Ordering Your Private World spoke of things that interfered with his own spiritual life. He would recognize the change within a day; his wife within a couple of days; his children soon after and his church soon after that. Being called instead of driven would result in better service to God.
That is the kind of life Moses and Joshua offered; Paul and Titus offered, but all too often, like the phony Pharisees in Jesus’ time, church leaders offer only ‘checklists’ rather than encouraging personal faithfulness and discovery of how God is calling us to serve.
We have a choice. Before the infinite God, we can humbly obey or not. We can be unfaithful and driven or faithful and called. Choose the latter and see what door opens.
Thanks be to God.
Prayer: Almighty God, Open my eyes that I might see. Open my mind that I might understand. Open my heart that I might make your words a part of me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Amen
Bible Readings
http://legacy.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17;Deuteronomy 31:14-22;Titus 1:5-16&version=KJV;ERV;GNT;NCV;NIV
Psalm 90:1-6 Psalm 90:13-17
Deuteronomy 31:14-22
Titus 1:5-16
Daily Bible Verses to Memorize for Meditating
Philippians 4:4
King James Version (KJV)
4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.
Bible Study
Titus 1:5-16
King James Version (KJV)
5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:
6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;
9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
OBSERVE:
Take a moment and write three observations of the verses. What strikes you? An observation is an observable fact from the Word.
1.
2.
3.
INTERPRETATION:
What do you interpret these verses to mean for you today?
APPLY:
Today, I learned _____________________________________and apply it to my life.
Prayer of Encouragement
Almighty God, forgive us for turning our hearts from you, who are omnipotent and all wise. Help us to hunger for you as David did. Help us to be called instead of driven and selfish. We want our lives to be in balance. In Jesus name, Amen
Conclusion
Thursday, Ordinary 30, Proper 25’s lesson sadly reviewed the many ways that believers failed to obey God and focus on the important things in life. God wants us to love and be encouraging. Instead, people have cheated and misrepresented God to others. People have turned their hearts to selfish interests and false idols instead of finding the balance of a called life in God’s will.
This is not limited to unbelievers, though it can be unbelievers. Paul’s letter to Titus addressed the Christ-following-leaders, who were insisting on the church members doing things that were not necessary by God’s standard.
Circumcision was from the Old Testament—it only included men. Baptism was the New Testament sign of being in the family of God and it included men, women and children—whole families were able to be baptized.
Even today, there are church leaders, who will insist on a specific aspect of behavior, instead of making the essential things—love of God and others, lack of arrogance, healthy relationships with family, etc.—the foci of faith.
We must self-examine and insure that our own lives are in balance so that we can sing the Song of Moses and put things into the proper perspective. The all-wise, all-knowing God, who loved us enough to offer Jesus as salvation, should not be taken lightly, lest we risk turning away from God and becoming caught up in false idols.
Go out and be ready for God to do mighty things in your life—for the glory of God.*
*If you do not know the Lord as your personal Savior and you are seeking, please contact me. A genuine and simple prayer, asking God into your heart for the forgiveness of your sins will also do.
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