Week 30 Devotions

July 23 - - Human beings were made to worship. The One who brought us into existence, has also created us to long for something and/or someone beyond ourselves (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Whether it is a gene or a chromosome; or whether it is an emotion or a feeling; there is an awareness inside all of us that knows there is something and/or someone greater outside ourselves. Unfortunately, we often reduce this Creator to an idol that we can see and touch. Humans create a thing to represent a god that first of all, does not exist. And then, these idols are nothing more than inanimate objects. What idol has ever talked to us? What idol has ever answered our prayers? What idol has ever told us where we came from? Or, where we are going to? Though we cannot see our God, or reach out and touch Him, the evidence of His existence is all around us. When we grow tired, “He offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted....But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength” (Isaiah 40:28-31). When we are tempted to be afraid, He promises, “I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you” (Isaiah 43:1-3a). Our God assures us, “You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God; there never has been and (there) never will be. I am the Lord, and there is no other Savior ......” He tells us, “From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do. No one can reverse my actions” (Isaiah 43:10-13). Why do insist on reducing that which we worship to something/someone we can under-stand? Why are we content to put our trust in something we have made with our own hands? What possible comfort can come from something that cannot even communicate? The God we worship has accurately predicted events long before they occurred. Our God has made promise after promise to us and kept everyone of them. And yet, we still stubbornly refuse to put our faith and our trust in Him! Those wise enough to acknowledge Him, find truth. Those humble enough to trust Him, find assurance. I know for sure where I am putting my trust. How about you? July 26 - - “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8&9). For centuries, the Jewish people looked forward to the day when a military messiah would liberate them from their enemies. What they longed for was an army general whose genius would lead them to victory over those who had become smug in their oppression of God’s chosen people. But, God’s ways of doing things don’t always match what we think God should do. God’s methods sometimes seem mad to us, but God sees the bigger picture. God knows where every chess piece on the game board of life is located and God knows where and when they should be moved. Approximately, 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, God revealed the kind of Messiah He would send and what that Messiah would accomplish. “There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him... He was despised, and we did not care......he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all......From prison and trial they led him away to his death. But who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins - - that he was suffering their punishment? He had done no wrong, and he never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal....it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and fill him with grief....And because of what he has experienced, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins” (Isaiah 53:2-11). What God’s chosen Messiah was establishing was a spiritual kingdom and not a physical kingdom. Jesus did not say God’s kingdom would have borders. Quite the opposite. “One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, ‘When will the kingdom of God come?’ Jesus replied, ‘The Kingdom of God isn’t ushered in with visible signs. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is among you’” (Luke 17:20&21). God’s kingdom would not consist of those who lived in a certain place, pledged allegiance to a certain flag, and paid homage to a certain king. God’s kingdom would consist of people living all over the world, who swear allegiance to the suffering servant Isaiah prophesied about 700 years earlier, Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God would exist inside of people, those who know Jesus Christ as their personal savior and are filled with God’s Holy Spirit. Many in the Jewish community are still waiting for the Messiah to come because Jesus did not fit the description they were looking for. What about you?