Deuteronomy 23-26; Luke 11

When I finished talking, she asked me, “But what does God say about you?” I knew the intellectual response. But when I held his words in my hand, why did it feel like the weight of circumstance felt heavier? When God knows my history, my thoughts, my heart, my dreams, why couldn’t his word weigh more?

“But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam. He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the Lord your God loves you.” (Deuteronomy 23:5, NLT)

When I know where I came from and who I should have been, I can see the Lord’s saving hand in my life. This remembrance shows me his great love and mercy. He is so kind. And I am so grateful.

“Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from slavery.” (Deuteronomy 24:18, NLT)

Why couldn’t his word weigh more?

¹⁶ “Today the Lord your God has commanded you to obey all these decrees and regulations. So be careful to obey them wholeheartedly. ¹⁷ You have declared today that the Lord is your God. And you have promised to walk in his ways, and to obey his decrees, commands, and regulations, and to do everything he tells you. ¹⁸ The Lord has declared today that you are his people, his own special treasure, just as he promised, and that you must obey all his commands. ¹⁹ And if you do, he will set you high above all the other nations he has made. Then you will receive praise, honor, and renown. You will be a nation that is holy to the Lord your God, just as he promised.” (Deuteronomy 26:16-19, NLT)

Because I wasn’t focused on it. I focused on opinions of people whose minds were already made up. I focused on perception that took in only fragments instead of the whole. I gave weight to those whose hearts weren’t for me, were riddled with pockets of darkness. And when my focus was there, no wonder the weight was heavy.

³⁴ “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is unhealthy, your body is filled with darkness. ³⁵ Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. ³⁶ If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” (Luke 11:34-36, NLT)

The Lord reminds me to be persistent in prayer. Keep on asking, seeking, knocking. I know this prayer by heart, but I write it out in a new translation. I write it out by hand.

² Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:

“Father, may your name be kept holy.
    May your Kingdom come soon.
³ Give us each day the food we need,
⁴ and forgive us our sins,
    as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.” (Luke 11:2-4, NLT)

Keep on.

Courtney (66books365)

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2 Chronicles 10; Revelation 1; Zephaniah 2; Luke 24

“If you don’t know, then you don’t know.” It’s a phrase a friend captions online on shared images of movies or other images from the past. Some of the images I don’t recognize at all, and think to myself, I guess I’ll never know (unless I wanted to ask, and I don’t feel I need to). Some things I don’t need to know, and some things I do.

The Bible reminds me book after book of all the things God said would happen. Reminds me so I will know what He said would happen actually happened, so I will know His Word is truth.

Like here:

⁵ The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? ⁶ He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”

⁸ Then they remembered that he had said this. (Luke 245-8, NLT, emphasis added)

And here:

²⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. ²⁶ Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” ²⁷ Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27, NLT, emphasis added)

And here:

¹⁵ So the king paid no attention to the people. This turn of events was the will of God, for it fulfilled the Lord’s message to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh. (2 Chronicles 10:15, NLT, emphasis added)

I open His Word like it’s a gift of life itself–with hope, comfort and gratitude. Some people are fortunate to have parents or mentors to speak wisdom and guidance into their lives. But for me, it is a great treasure to have the Bible, Word living and active. His Word is truth. Trustworthy. Sound.

This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant John, ² who faithfully reported everything he saw. This is his report of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

³ God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near. (Revelation 1:1-3, NLT)

If you don’t know, then you don’t know. But you can know.

Lord, you’ve made known (and available) all that you want to make known. You give your word to us–a promise. All through time, you’ve made movement toward man to be in relationship and restore what was broken. You’ve demonstrated your power, sovereignty, faithfulness, trustworthiness, integrity. I can take you at your word. I will run to you, turn to you, seek you. Thank you.

Courtney (66books365)

Exodus 5-8; Luke 18

My friend for more than twenty-five years died the other week. I listened as his wife spoke in eulogy of his lifetime–told about this man I loved, and shared many things about him I never knew. He had delightful interests, so much talent, and his life story was full and generous and loving and adventurous. How I wished I’d had more time with him–he was truly like a father to me. His life, even in death, continues to inspire me: to live in purpose, on purpose.

The weight of grief, worry, strife and stress has felt oppressive in recent years–these things can take me off course, derail me from life and its purposes. I live in the woods, and find myself wishing I was deeper in the forest, averting my eyes and sometimes my heart from making contact—it feels an awful lot like despair.

I’m not sure if it’s circumstance or the things one tells himself or hears from others, but I hear it in Pharaoh’s voice as he tells Moses, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work! ⁵ Look, there are many of your people in the land, and you are stopping them from their work (Exodus 5:4-5, NLT).”

I can get caught up in the task (of work or routine or stress or grief) at hand, that my focus is redirected into a worldly (small) view instead of a deeper calling and purpose. And whether one places it upon himself, or it’s the voices of those in his life, Kingdom work and purpose can become muddled and muted. Moses and Aaron weren’t distracting the people from their tasks–they were pointing them to it. The world gets it so very backwards, and I fall for it too. Too many hoops, too many tasks, too much people pleasing and accommodating that I neglect the very One who gives me strength, neglect the passions He’s put in my heart and compromise my focus and time until I am weary and worn out. It feels an awful lot like despair.

⁶ “Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. ⁷ I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. ⁸ I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!’”

⁹ So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery (Exodus 6:6-9 NLT).

Lord, repeatedly I train myself to order my tasks but to keep my eyes on you. Again. Again. When my focus slips to what’s in front of me, I forget what’s inside of me and what’s ahead of me. The shrill of the ringtone, the chipping away at peace, when I lose sight of you, I become too discouraged too.

I set my thoughts on a Kingdom purpose, a Kingdom focus.

²⁹ “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, ³⁰ will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come (Luke 18:29-30, NLT).”

That rich man was disheartened because, perhaps, his (wealth/success/pride/ability) was his real focus, not the inheritance of eternal life he believed he wanted.

Lord, help me to do what I need to do, and let go of what needs to go. I want to walk in truth, and keep my eyes focused on you. Thank you for a friend like David, whose life spoke of intention and inclusion, generosity and love. Thank you for challenging me to see things in a new way, for revealing truths I didn’t see, and for reminding me to seek your Kingdom first.

Courtney (66books365)

Leviticus 1-3; Psalm 27; Hebrews 2

Procedures for the Burnt Offering

The LORD called Moses from the Tabernacle and said to him, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you present an animal as an offering to the LORD, you may take it from your herd of cattle or your flock of sheep and goats.” (Leviticus 1:1-2 NLT)

Through Moses God gave the Israelites very detailed instructions on how to prepare sacrifices to him. He wanted the Israelites to obey him and pay close attention to what he had Moses say to them.

A Warning against Drifting Away

So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? (Hebrews 2:1-3 NLT)

God’s intention of the Israelites’ sacrifices to him was for people to revisit what he said more regularly so that they wouldn’t get too caught up in other things and forget him and his promises.

What we do see is Jesus, who was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone. God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. (Hebrews 3:9-10 NLT)

Dear Jesus,

What you’ve done is so important to me. Thank you so much for sacrificing yourself so that I can live. You know how precious time with you is to me and how it helps me. Please help me to make you even more of a priority of my life so that I don’t begin to forget any of the amazing things you’ve done. I love you. Amen.

Lanie (llilly2017)

Job 21-23; Psalm 101; Revelation 16

With a broad brush, I wipe the words across the page: sometimes life doesn’t seem fair. And isn’t that what Job and his friends were saying?

⁷ “Why do the wicked prosper,
    growing old and powerful?
⁸ They live to see their children grow up and settle down,
    and they enjoy their grandchildren.
⁹ Their homes are safe from every fear,
    and God does not punish them.
¹⁰ Their bulls never fail to breed.
    Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.
¹¹ They let their children frisk about like lambs.
    Their little ones skip and dance.
¹² They sing with tambourine and harp.
    They celebrate to the sound of the flute.
¹³ They spend their days in prosperity,
    then go down to the grave in peace.
¹⁴ And yet they say to God, ‘Go away.
    We want no part of you and your ways.
¹⁵ Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him?
    What good will it do us to pray?’
¹⁶ (They think their prosperity is of their own doing,
    but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)

¹⁷ “Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished.
    Do they ever have trouble?
    Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?
¹⁸ Are they driven before the wind like straw?
    Are they carried away by the storm like chaff?
    Not at all! (Read Job 21:7-18, NLT)

Job’s story spans the spectrum–loss, grief, pain, anger, condemnation, confusion, despair, fear. He’s trying to make sense of heartache. Oh, aren’t we all?

I will sing of your love and justice, Lord.
    I will praise you with songs. Psalm 101:1, NLT

Sometimes my worship song rang out through tears this year as he taught me about trust and his sovereignty. This advent season of wait and hope, an end of year reflection of 2016 events near and far–I think of what God is doing in my own heart.

Father God, you care for every tear that falls from my eyes. You care for the condition of my thoughts and heart. You stand with me and encourage me through the difficulties and trials. Thank you for loving me as your dear daughter. Thank you for teaching me and guiding me. Oh, how I need you!

Courtney (66books365)