Tag: chosen

  • Salvation Praise

    Psalm 107:1–3, 17–22; Genesis 9:8–17; Ephesians 1:3–6 (read online ⧉)

    Destined to be a child of God. This is such a comforting phrase. As in all comfortable things, there is a danger. This comforting phrase is often, and understandably, taken as being directed toward individuals. Yet, if we use both Old Testament and New Testament phrasing, it is better (and more safely) understood as a corporate destiny.

    As part of Noah’s , we are corporately covered insofar as God will never flood the entirety of the earth again. Just as the 12 Tribes of Israel were the Chosen of God, corporately, so too is the . How an individual behaved and responded toward God was, and remains, separate from the corporate selection.

    We are all part of the corporate destiny, and we have our place in it (accepting the of and ). To be clear, accepting the gift does not mean that the act required (Christ’s death on the cross) for salvation was anything but God’s.

    There is a tension here. Salvation is also quite personal and individual. Salvation is best expressed and the saved best lived within the community of believers. There is a balance, and we don’t want to be overly weighted to individual or corporate salvation.

    We testify and give thanks through our and praise of God. As part of both our corporate and personal activity (our “liturgy”) is to praise “… his glorious that he freely on us….”

    The psalmist declared…

    1O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
         for his steadfast  endures forever.
    2Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
         those he redeemed from trouble
    21Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
         for his wonderful works to humankind.
    22And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices,
         and tell of his deeds with songs of joy

    1) When thinking of your salvation do you tend to think of yourself as an individual?

    2) Have you ever thought of your salvation as being part of the Body of Christ (the Church)?

    3) Why do you think there is a difference? What difference does it make to you?

  • Is It All About the Experience?

    Psalm 19; Exodus 19:16–25; Mark 9:2–8 (read online ⧉)

    Spend enough time in (at least) circles, and you will likely the phrase, “mountain-top experience.” This is usually described as a deeply powerful encounter with God that emotionally and spiritually separates someone from the “real” world.

    Moses, the Israelites, and Aaron have different experiences with the same event. Moses is personally interacting with God. The Israelites are repeatedly told to stay away during this time. Aaron, after a time, is called up the mountain to be with Moses and God. This event is not the same kind of mountain-top experience that we usually of. Moses was there because God told him to be, and this was also God’s testimony to the Israelites that Moses was God’s of the Israelites.

    The Israelites, on the other hand, were a ways away. Culturally, they didn’t want to be anywhere near any god, let alone the God that was in and cloud. This was on top of the warning they also received to not step foot on the mountain or they would die. This is definitely not the mountain-top experience we would think of positively.

    Lastly, Aaron was called up. Partially, this is to set the groundwork for his role as head priest. With Moses, he would stand before God. Yet, it was Moses who was first. While Aaron was still called up, it wasn’t quite the same.

    The disciples had a different experience altogether. They saw transformed into something wholly, then they saw Moses and Elijah, the two traditional great prophets of the Jews. They wanted to capture the experience and to maintain it by building lodging for Moses and Elijah, but it was not to be. Jesus was restored to , the two prophets vanished.

    1) Have you ever had your own mountain-top experience? Have you ever shared it with someone?

    2) If you, or someone you know, has had a mountain-top experience, how did that affect you (them) a day, week, a month, a year later?

    3) Was that experience a springboard to a deeper and more fulfilling spiritual , or did it become just another event (even though powerful) in life?

  • Child Identified

    Exodus 3:1–12, 1 John 2:28–29, 1 John 4:7 (read online ⧉)

    Moses was not a shining example of humanity. He was…human. He had a temper. He certainly had a confused . He was a child of the court of Egypt. How he fit (or didn’t ) into the courts of the Pharoahs is an unknown. A Pharoah’s daughter pulled him from the Nile, knowing he was a Hebrew. Then she gave him to a Hebrew to be a nurse. We don’t know anything that really occurred in his life from his assigning to a Hebrew nursemaid to the day he killed an Egyptian overseer. We can reasonably that Moses dealt with two identities, one as an adopted child of the Pharoahic court, and one the blood child of a Hebrew. Moses was, in many respects, destined to be forever confused and torn by his two identities. This is much the same with us. We have our human earthly identity, and we have our heavenly identity. We often become confused between them.

    John writes, “ Everyone who does what is right, has been born of him.” Most of us look at these words and ask, “What about me?” We see them in the of our own weaknesses and failures. With that , it’s hard for the words to bring us . Knowing to whom John was writing (people he , cared for, and wanted the best for), we can be assured that it wasn’t his goal. Our identity in Jesus Christ is something far different than our identity on earth. It is to that identity that John writes. That identity has done what is right and has been born of him.

    When John speaks later about everyone born of God loves, we are again tied back to the one of whom we are born…Jesus Christ. So much of who we are is our identity. Some of our identity is nothing we can control (i.e., family of origin, birth nation, native tongue, etc.). Other things we can identify with. Hopefully, you have —at this point—to identify as a Child of God through Jesus Christ and the . Holding onto and affirming this identity is what creates the space in our hearts and lives to be right and (Godly) loving.

    Moses, like us, had two identities, Hebrew and of Pharaoh. In many respects, both are earthly identities prone to failures and flaws. Yet, Moses did choose to be a Hebrew. Then he accepted (granted, somewhat grudgingly) the leadership of a people taking them from earthly nation to Godly nation. Moses made mistakes before and during the journey. The Hebrews made plenty of their own mistakes. Despite all of that, however, God still identified them as his chosen people.

    1) What do you see as your earthly identities? How do they coexist, and how do they conflict?

    2) While God calls us his children, why do we tend to undermine that identity by identifying with our failures, mistakes, and tendencies?

    3) Say out loud, “I am a loved child of God.” What was your emotional and physical reaction to that? Why do you think that is?

  • Another Test?

    Nehemiah 8:1–6; Luke 24:18–27; Acts 17:10–15 (read online ⧉)

    The Israelite Exiles have returned home, sort of. As Ezra reads the , the remnant of Israel learns what it means to be God’s people. Generations had already wandered away emotionally and spiritually. Then they went into exile in a foreign land with various gods and practices and unlearned even more. The confrontation with God’s was probably startling to many, and -wrenching for .

    Even when theoretically well-established with the Scriptures, and even being (outer) disciples of , disciples such as Cleopas still needed to have things explained further to him. Perhaps, like many of us, it needed that “one more time” to get. Perhaps Jesus said it the “right” way this time so that Cleopas understood. Maybe for Cleopas, it took the report of the and Jesus’ explanation and the breaking of the bread to “get it”. We just don’t know why it took so much for Cleopas (and we really can’t forget Cleopas’ companion) to get it, but each of us has had a similar experience, where we just need to go over it and over it and over it (whatever “it” is).

    This is what makes the Bereans a good example. They eagerly dug into the Scriptures to validate what they were told.

    1) When was the last time you eagerly dug into the Scriptures?

    2) The Israelites needed to test things against the Scriptures but didn’t. How is your habit of things against the Scriptures?

    3) Do you recall that we are to test the Scriptures through the lens of God’s for us as displayed by Jesus Christ? In what ways is this displayed by Jesus’ explanations to Cleopas and his companion?

    : take one opinion or commentary regarding or from the world and test it against the Scriptures.

  • Choose Your Answer?

    Judges 6:11–24, Psalm 27:7–14, Isaiah 6:8–10 (read online ⧉)

    Gideon had a . Likely many of the Israelites had the same prayer, “Save us!” It was certainly a worthwhile prayer. We could say that Gideon was . He was. We look backward to and we say, “Of course, Gideon was chosen.” Gideon certainly did not feel that way.

    In fact, his was, “It couldn’t be me!” Gideon was either confirming () that this really was from God, or Gideon was testing so that God would choose someone else. With God’s direction, Gideon was the answer to his own prayer. He had to face a well-trained and numerically superior force. That is the risk in prayer; having to be the answer to it.

    The “trick”, of course, is thinking that we must do it all on our own, without God. As Gideon lived it out, it was answering his own prayer by working with and on the behalf of God that things came to fruition.

    Isaiah, too, was an answer to prayer. The prayer, ultimately, was about the descendants of Israel needing a prophetic to call them back to relationship with God. In his own , God asked (not of him) who would go. Isaiah volunteers. It just popped out. Whoops! Isaiah became the prophetic voice and suffered greatly because of it.

    The psalmist talks about his struggles, and how he wants to ‘s face. He seeks God’s aid and sustenance. It is in verse 11, that we really see what each of us should be asking in our prayers, especially our audacious ones…
    “…show me your way, LORD,
    and lead me on a level path…”
    …follow the way of the Lord. Neither Gideon’s or Isaiah’s path (of the Lord that they followed) was level on the surface. Spiritually it was. Our lives of , failure, , and even mediocrity, will not be “level.” When one fully rests, trusts, and follows God, the spiritual path will be level.

    1) When was the last time you made an audacious prayer request? What did you think of the answer?

    2) What is your limit to what God asks you to do? [and be honest…God already knows the answer.]

    3) What are thoughts about be the answer to your own prayers (at least some of them)?

    Action: Ask for God’s guidance for the path you are to walk.

  • Same Change, Different Day

    Galatians 1:21–2:10 (read online ⧉)

    The often states that the message from God has never changed. That’s not entirely accurate. God’s amazing grace was before all and in all. God’s expression of grace was certainly in multiple forms from Adam to Jacob’s (Israel’s) sons. Through Moses, the message changed from a family group to a (we often miss this change). The nation and Law was not something we see as grace, yet it took a nation of slaves and transformed them into God’s chosen people. From there grace transformed them into a powerful nation. From there grace kept their identity as God’s people intact, even when they abandoned God, and ended up in other nations. The message always changed. The Truth did not.

    We Christians look at Jesus and the Gospel as the message that never changed. It is possibly more accurate to say that through Jesus and the Gospel that the message was expressed to its fullest. Yes, that is a nuance. However, that nuance is not small in any way, , or form. If it was small, wouldn’t have gone to Jerusalem.

    Jesus’ first followers, and his core followers, were Jews. Everything was from a Jewish perspective. For them, therefore, this was a Jewish thing. It makes perfect sense that many would not be able to separate Jewish practices from their Messiah. Hence we ourselves need to be more grace-filled towards those we read about in the New Testament. , they were learning just what all this meant. Paul was pretty sure what it all meant. He just had to convince others.

    This is a long preface to a new and old truth. Mode and method do not equal message. Not too long ago, we had church splits over worship music. Mostly, that’s over, though some still complain about one sort of music or the other. There is the comparisons between contemporary format (which all Generations Sunday services have) and “traditional” liturgical services. It seems so obvious to many now that these are merely different ways to still the Gospel and gather . Now there are digital churches. Then there are microexpression churches. This form of church caters to a specific interest group or demographic. Is it bad? In many respects, yes, for it continues the “one hour on Sunday is the most segregated hour of the week.” Granted, it is often no longer over race. It does reach people who would not otherwise be reached by “” church.

    The church has long needed to reinvent itself, perhaps not so much to reach new people (though that really does help), but to reinvigorate itself. The church seems to have entered a period of stagnation. Either the stagnation needs to be flushed out, or the church can suffocate. It seems harsh, yet in many respects that is exactly what Paul had to deal with. The church that was forming had to reinvent itself. It had to separate itself from the ways that kept in mired in the past. Once it broke free, the freeing message of the Gospel got wings.

    1) Why do people hold onto traditions? How do you know when a is stagnate, and when it is -giving?

    2) What “how church is done” thing do you hold onto? Why? How does it give you life?

    3) What is one “new” church thing that you enjoyed and/or found life-giving once you actually started doing it?

    Action: Take your “church thing” and explain not only what it is, but also how it builds up the church and fellow Christians.

  • Strength and Joy

    Deuteronomy 28:45–48, Isaiah 29:17–21, John 15:11 (read online ⧉)

    “The of the Lord is my
    Nehemiah 8:10
    Why is it God’s joy, and not our own this our strength? First, we are finite. Even the physically strongest person alive is not stronger than God. Second, our joy as much as it can be Godly is still . Our perception of joy is so flawed because we are so flawed as a result of the Fall, and our ongoing battle with the worst of our thoughts and behaviors, plus all of the ungodly stuff that the throws at and on top of us.

    Oddly enough, sometimes joy is a duty. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Yet, often we do as we ought because we ought because God is who we have to follow. Joy does come out of that, just not always immediately. This is another aspect of ourselves, we always want to feel the joy, not just have it.

    Joy does come in obedience, not necessarily blind obedience, but obedience that trusts in the one who is obeyed. Those that God even when obedience costs something, are those who put God first, and themselves second. This is where we can find Godly joy. God is our Creator, why would we not find joy in following?

    wants us to be part of Godly joy. He told his disciples that their joy would be complete if his joy was in them. Who wouldn’t want that in them? Well, Judas had left the gathering at that point. That’s pretty telling. While we don’t know what Jesus said every day for 3 years, this couldn’t have been the only time he had said something similar. Judas just didn’t get it. Sadly, most people don’t. It would be nice if the ratio of believers in the world matched the ratio of believers of the disciples. However, it’s almost the opposite.

    1) How can joy the world? How can your joy change the world?

    2) What do you think about feeling joy versus having joy?

    3) Are obedience and joy truly tied ? Why or why not?

  • Hope Together

    1 Chronicles 29:14–19, Psalm 31, Isaiah 2:1–5 (read online ⧉)

    It is pretty universal across humanity for people to question their value and their purpose. In the ancient world, the view of gods was often not particularly positive. Much of the activity was done to appease the wrathful gods and to “bribe” them enough to maybe get what was desired. The progressive understanding of the Israelites was that while God required sacrifice it was much more than that.

    David rarely seemed to view himself particularly highly (which have actually been a problem, at times). This gave David an interesting perspective insofar as he knew that while God had chosen him (and his ), he didn’t take it for granted. He was grateful and amazed. In addition, part of his history (and that of Israel) was one of constant strife with the nations around them, and often at the losing .

    It was the non-losing end that remained the underlying story of the Israelites…. David understood that while Israel was often in trouble, often through its own misbehavior, with God’s selection of David and his family that there was indeed hope that the people would finally be unified. Through unification, perhaps the people of Israel would finally be strong enough to stand against the forces around them.

    Regardless, for David at least, it all relied on God. While David and his military might could protect the nation to some degree, it was only through God’s mighty hand and care that the nation, and its people, would thrive. In Psalm 31, David calls upon God’s love. Foreshadowing a significant event in the of his descendant, David wrote, “…into your hand I entrust my spirit.” Hope and in God are what allows us to continue forward in when we cannot see in the dark.

    Isaiah’s vision shows us that even then God was looking forward to everyone worshiping God with each other. This worship would cross national, ethnic, language, and cultural barriers. This hope, of a world in worship of God, is what we have to with those who don’t know God. Let us take the light of hope forward into our lives.
    1) Have you ever questioned your value or purpose? What do David’s words say to that?

    2) Why is entrusting yourself to God such an important perspective?

    3) There is more than just worship involved in Isaiah’s vision? What else is there?

    FD) What do you think David means by his spirit to God?