So What About...?
Memory Verse:
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16
Sermon Sentence: God's work in your life cannot be overturned, but you have the ability to open the door to the powers of darkness for your destruction.
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16
Sermon Sentence: God's work in your life cannot be overturned, but you have the ability to open the door to the powers of darkness for your destruction.
Day 1
Read Joshua 24:1-28
I am really looking forward to the series of sermons in January that we will spend in this book. This chapter is the conclusion of the book, but we have covered enough of the backstory to see the point and get the idea. Joshua took over for Moses as the leader of this group of people and brought them for the very first time into the Promised Land. I wonder, as I read this, if Joshua knew the pattern that had happened when people made promises to God, and what would happen when he was gone. This idea is what later became his legacy. Joshua is known as a man that stood apart from everyone around him and stood up for what was right with integrity and courage. Did that matter being that we know what happens in the book of Judges and throughout the rest of history as the people returned back to the false idols that led them to destruction in the first place? Of course it did. To this day we are reading these sorts of stories and applying them in our situations, because Joshua chose to do life differently than those around him, and he chose to influence the people around him to be different as well.
How have you declared before others a similar message like Joshua?
How have you had experiences in your life like the people that were there that day, declaring one thing, but soon finding yourself living out something else?
How do you influence people around you to live a life like Joshua?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
I am really looking forward to the series of sermons in January that we will spend in this book. This chapter is the conclusion of the book, but we have covered enough of the backstory to see the point and get the idea. Joshua took over for Moses as the leader of this group of people and brought them for the very first time into the Promised Land. I wonder, as I read this, if Joshua knew the pattern that had happened when people made promises to God, and what would happen when he was gone. This idea is what later became his legacy. Joshua is known as a man that stood apart from everyone around him and stood up for what was right with integrity and courage. Did that matter being that we know what happens in the book of Judges and throughout the rest of history as the people returned back to the false idols that led them to destruction in the first place? Of course it did. To this day we are reading these sorts of stories and applying them in our situations, because Joshua chose to do life differently than those around him, and he chose to influence the people around him to be different as well.
How have you declared before others a similar message like Joshua?
How have you had experiences in your life like the people that were there that day, declaring one thing, but soon finding yourself living out something else?
How do you influence people around you to live a life like Joshua?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
How does today’s devotion inform your prayers?
Day 3
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Romans 14:1-23
In our readings this week, we have already gone through some of what Paul is working out here, but this does seem to go into more detail. In this version of the argument, Paul brings in the idea that some people were esteeming one day as more holy than another and therefore looking down on those that didn’t do that as well. Notice that his argument is not that one esteems a day as more holy (set apart) and another one doesn’t even acknowledge a day as holy. The difference is not in the practice, but the formula. He holds onto the Old Testament teaching that the days should be considered holy, just not the practice of those days having to line up with the exact days of the older calendar. This is an important difference that often gets missed. Paul is not dismissing the Old Testament teachings in place of New Testament ideas. In fact, he would be appalled at that idea and vehemently stand against it. Paul declares that we have freedoms in Christ that are absolutely important, but there is no room for arrogance in our beliefs that alienates people from us more than it draws them to God. Most of these discussions are not as cut and dry as we sometimes like to think them to be. They involve a balance of wisdom and consideration of those around us and their relationship with God as well.
What new thing do you learn in what Paul is saying here?
How would you describe Romans 14:20 to someone that is new to the Bible?
What does Paul mean for us to do if we have doubts about something and whether or not it is right?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
In our readings this week, we have already gone through some of what Paul is working out here, but this does seem to go into more detail. In this version of the argument, Paul brings in the idea that some people were esteeming one day as more holy than another and therefore looking down on those that didn’t do that as well. Notice that his argument is not that one esteems a day as more holy (set apart) and another one doesn’t even acknowledge a day as holy. The difference is not in the practice, but the formula. He holds onto the Old Testament teaching that the days should be considered holy, just not the practice of those days having to line up with the exact days of the older calendar. This is an important difference that often gets missed. Paul is not dismissing the Old Testament teachings in place of New Testament ideas. In fact, he would be appalled at that idea and vehemently stand against it. Paul declares that we have freedoms in Christ that are absolutely important, but there is no room for arrogance in our beliefs that alienates people from us more than it draws them to God. Most of these discussions are not as cut and dry as we sometimes like to think them to be. They involve a balance of wisdom and consideration of those around us and their relationship with God as well.
What new thing do you learn in what Paul is saying here?
How would you describe Romans 14:20 to someone that is new to the Bible?
What does Paul mean for us to do if we have doubts about something and whether or not it is right?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Galatians 5:1-26
This is a good chapter to merge all of our thoughts for the week together. We (followers of Jesus) are people of the Spirit. We make decisions based off of a Spirit-filled way of thinking and plan for the future in a Spirit-guided way. We are not like the rest of the world and we do not decide based off of our worldly desires and whims. To live that way would not be to keep in step with the Spirit. To contrast this, Paul explains the behavior of the flesh versus the fruit that comes from the Spirit. Notice how many of those things that Paul calls out are similar to the struggles of the Canaanite gods and the way those given to their religion acted.
What does Galatians 5:13 mean and how do you explain how to live like this?
What are the things that you do to “keep in step with the Spirit?”
What does envying one another and provoking one another have to do with living in the Spirit?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
This is a good chapter to merge all of our thoughts for the week together. We (followers of Jesus) are people of the Spirit. We make decisions based off of a Spirit-filled way of thinking and plan for the future in a Spirit-guided way. We are not like the rest of the world and we do not decide based off of our worldly desires and whims. To live that way would not be to keep in step with the Spirit. To contrast this, Paul explains the behavior of the flesh versus the fruit that comes from the Spirit. Notice how many of those things that Paul calls out are similar to the struggles of the Canaanite gods and the way those given to their religion acted.
What does Galatians 5:13 mean and how do you explain how to live like this?
What are the things that you do to “keep in step with the Spirit?”
What does envying one another and provoking one another have to do with living in the Spirit?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
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1 Comment
A thought in answer to the question of, “How do you ‘live out’ Gal 5:13?”
n
nAn idea could be to pursue “freedom” as “serving in a way that is an empowered follower of Jesus, being a positive example and an encourager.”