1-6/7-2018 Take It Through The Week

Monday – Deuteronomy 4:19 While the heavens speak of the majesty and glory of
God, they are not God. No form of cosmic consciousness exists throughout the
universe, that we are a part of or can be a part of. God created the universe and man
to be independent creations. Separate creations, both speaking of Him, both totally
dependent on Him. At no time, are we told in the Bible that we can or should form
our own opinions about what we see in creation. When you look to the heavens and
and see the sun, moon, and stars…do not be led astray to bow down and worship
them. By the language here, we can see that God is heading something off. He is
stopping an inclination that is as common to man as breathing. When we see the
beauty of the heavens, we will be inclined to worship them, rather than the creator.
There are many unbelievers who are more comfortable praying to the “Universe”
rather than to a personal God who created everything in the universe and warned
man not to worship His Creations. Pray with me. My Father, Creator God. You are
the maker of the universe and by You all things hold together and continue. You
sustain all that we see, you reign over all that is unseen. You are victorious in Your
creation and we worship only You. We worship nothing that is created, we only
worship the Creator. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Tuesday – Psalms 14:1-3 The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race to
see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God. The Bible teaches that the
“Universe” is silent and static with no personal attributes and no power to influence or
control. But the Bible teaches that God is constantly looking down from heaven on
the human race… to see if there is someone looking for Him. Why would God do
that? Because He knows us completely, yet loves us unconditionally. And he knows
that man without a Savior is bent to foolishness. The fool says in his heart, God does
not exist. Even worse, the man who says God does not exist is likely to be proud in
his decision and even to be aggressive toward those who say God does exist. That
is why God also says here in this passage There is no one who does good, not even
one. Of course, that does not mean that there aren’t men who do good to other men.
There are some. But concerning a Holy God who created all men for a specific
purpose, we all fail miserably. God created man to want to be with God. He created
us to want to worship Him. When sin entered the world, then the only way for God’s
plan to be carried out, is for men’s hearts to be changed. The fool says in his heart,
there is no God. But the wise man says in his heart, I am not God. The wise man
says in his heart, I need God. The wise man says in his heart, to please God, I need
help. Pray with me. Lord, You are God. You have created all that there is. And You
have created me. I reach out to You and with all of my heart, I want to learn to be
pleasing to You. I want you to change my heart and make it pleasing to You. Not just
what I do, but the reason I do it. May it be pleasing to You. In Jesus Name I pray,
Amen.
Wednesday – Eph. 4:1-6 There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called
to one hope at your calling- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
all, who is above all and through all and in all. That’s a whole lotta “ones”. Notice
there is nothing about a dual nature. There’s nothing about a balanced good and
evil. There is only the single purpose, surrounding the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s
single plan for man; not two equal and opposite “forces” in the universe. There is
only one. And this one is above all and through all and in all. Virtually all Eastern
religions rely on a dualistic non-personal circle of life, that must be balanced between
two equal and opposite forces. The Bible is clear. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have
one plan for every man. Read John 14:6. The goes hand in hand with the word, one,
that we saw in the last scripture. They are the same. No one comes to the Father
except through Jesus. He is the way, the truth, the life, and the one.
Thursday – 1 Tim. 1:15-17 I am the worst of them. You would think of all the
sinners in this broken world, surely Paul would feel that he could not be the worst of
them. And yet Paul says it, not once, but twice. Why, of all the heinous sinners in the
world would Paul say he was the worst? Two reasons. One, Paul was so committed
to stamping out Christianity. He hated Christians and the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
the champion of the opposition. So yes, He was a sinner. But the second reason is
not quite as obvious. Paul, more than anyone else, saw the revealed plan of God
unfolded, like a tapestry. He was shown things that no man had ever seen. And the
more he saw, the more the majesty and brilliance of our Lord dwarfed him. God just
kept getting bigger and bigger to him, even as he himself felt smaller, under the
weight of God’s glory. Take a moment and ask God to show Himself to you. Ask Him
to be glorified in your life. Exalt Him and worship Him, right now.
Friday – Jeremiah 10:12-13 He made the earth by His power, established the
world by His wisdom, and spread out the heavens by His understanding.
Power…wisdom…understanding. God says that He created all that there is, simply
because He can. How did He do it? By His Power. By His wisdom. We will
understand it completely some day. In the meantime, it is enough to know that He
alone, has created the universe. It had a beginning point from which the universe
expanded outward in every direction. Thus, just as it says, He spread out the
heavens by His understanding. He set the cosmos in motion. Then He started the
earth’s rotation and weather patterns. He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of
the earth. We have seen today the earth rotating on its axis and where the weather
comes from, but how did they know it back then? Because God had the Prophets
write down what He was doing, and He said it very specifically so that we would
know His might and power. So when you see the clouds passing by, take a few
moments to think about how our God, thought them up and set their movement in
motion. All creation cries out His glory. Pray with me. God, Your power, Your
wisdom, and Your understanding cascades throughout Your creation. All that is, was
invented by You and is sustained through You. You alone are God. You hold
creation in Your hands. And You hold me. No one can take me out of your hands. In
Jesus Name, I pray, Amen.
Saturday- 2 Tim. 3:2-5 For people will be lovers of self… Paul is speaking to
Timothy about latter times. About a time, when time ends. What will be the signs of
time coming to an end? People will love themselves. They will indulge themselves.
They will create for themselves worldviews that will allow them to be unholy. The
word “holy” means set apart unto God. So unholy would mean set apart to self. And
we see that today in so many ways. We see an escalation of lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God. But perhaps the most disturbing is the holding to the form
of godliness but denying its power. Looking and sounding spiritual, while being dead
spiritually. And yet, the gates of hell have not prevailed against the coming Kingdom
of God. The Kingdom of God is coming. Every false system of self that the devil
originates simply whispers that God’s brand new tomorrow is not far away. Come
quickly, Lord Jesus Christ.