Christian Moments: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Today Is The Day-Lincoln Brewster

1 Timothy 4

1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

²Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

³They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

⁴For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,

⁵because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

⁶If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters,you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

⁷Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.

⁸For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

⁹This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.

¹⁰That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.

¹¹Command and teach these things.

¹²Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

¹³Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.

¹⁴Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

¹⁵Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.

¹⁶Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Jonah 2

¹From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.

²He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

³You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.

⁴I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

⁵The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

⁶To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.

⁷“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

⁸“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

⁹But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

¹⁰And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Exodus 35

1 Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, “These are the things the Lord has commanded you to do:

²For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.

³Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

⁴Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the Lord has commanded:

⁵From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze;

⁶blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair;

⁷ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood;

⁸olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;

⁹and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

¹⁰“All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded:

¹¹the tabernacle with its tent and its covering, clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases;

¹²the ark with its poles and the atonement cover and the curtain that shields it;

¹³the table with its poles and all its articles and the bread of the Presence;

¹⁴the lampstand that is for light with its accessories, lamps and oil for the light;

¹⁵the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; the curtain for the doorway at the entrance to the tabernacle;

¹⁶the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils; the bronze basin with its stand;

¹⁷the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard;

¹⁸the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the courtyard, and their ropes;

¹⁹the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary—both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests.”

²⁰Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence,

²¹and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.

²²All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord.

²³Everyone who had blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen, or goat hair, ram skins dyed red or the other durable leather brought them.

²⁴Those presenting an offering of silver or bronze brought it as an offering to the Lord, and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it.

²⁵Every skilled woman spun with her hands and brought what she had spun—blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen.

²⁶And all the women who were willing and had the skill spun the goat hair.

²⁷The leaders brought onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

²⁸They also brought spices and olive oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense.

²⁹All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the Lord freewill offerings for all the work the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do.

³⁰Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

³¹and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—

³²to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,

³³to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts.

³⁴And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others.

³⁵He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

1 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them.

²But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.

³Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.

⁴“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.

⁵“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.

⁶He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Show Me Your Glory-Third Day

1 Timothy 3

1 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.

²Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

³not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

⁴He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.

⁵(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)

⁶He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.

⁷He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

⁸In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain.

⁹They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.

¹⁰They must first be tested;and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.

¹¹In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

¹²A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well.

¹³Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that,

¹⁵if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

¹⁶Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh,
was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

Jonah 1

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:

²“Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

³But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

⁴Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.

⁵All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

⁶The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”

⁷Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

⁸So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

⁹He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)

¹¹The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

¹²“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

¹³Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.

¹⁴Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.”

¹⁵Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.

¹⁶At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.

¹⁷Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Exodus 34

1 The Lord said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

²Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain.

³No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”

⁴So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.

⁵Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord.

⁶And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

⁷maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

⁸Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.

⁹“Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

¹⁰Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.

¹¹Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

¹²Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you.

¹³Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.

¹⁴Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁵“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.

¹⁶And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

¹⁷“Do not make any idols.

¹⁸“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹“The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock.

²⁰Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. “No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

²¹“Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

²²“Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

²³Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God of Israel.

²⁴I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the Lord your God.

²⁵“Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.

²⁶“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

²⁸Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water.And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

²⁹When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.

³⁰When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.

³¹But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them.

³²Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

³³When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.

³⁴But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,

³⁵they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.

Everlasting God-Lincoln Brewster

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Mercy Came Running-Phillips, Craig, And Dean

1 Timothy 2

1I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—

²for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

³This is good, and pleases God our Savior,

⁴who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

⁵For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,

⁶who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

⁷And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

⁸Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.

⁹I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,

¹⁰but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

¹¹A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.

¹²I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.

¹³For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

¹⁴And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

¹⁵But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Obadiah 1

¹The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom—We have heard a message from the Lord: An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, let us go against her for battle”—

²“See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised.

³The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

⁴Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord.

⁵“If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night—oh, what a disaster awaits you!—would they not steal only as much as they wanted? If grape pickers came to you,
would they not leave a few grapes?

⁶But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged!

⁷All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.

⁸“In that day,” declares the Lord, “will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

⁹Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau’s mountains will be cut down in the slaughter.

¹⁰Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever.

¹¹On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.

¹²You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.

¹³You should not march through the gates of my people
in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.

¹⁴You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.

¹⁵“The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.

¹⁶Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been.

¹⁷But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy,
and Jacob will possess his inheritance.

¹⁸Jacob will be a fire and Joseph a flame; Esau will be stubble, and they will set him on fire and destroy him.
There will be no survivors from Esau.” The Lord has spoken.

¹⁹People from the Negev will occupy the mountains of Esau, and people from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

²⁰This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan
will possess the land as far as Zarephath; the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the towns of the Negev.

²¹Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

Exodus 33

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’

²I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

³Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

⁴When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments.

⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’”

⁶So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.

⁷Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.

⁸And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents,watching Moses until he entered the tent.

⁹As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses.

¹⁰Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent.

¹¹The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

¹²Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’

¹³If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

¹⁴The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

¹⁵Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

¹⁶How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

¹⁸Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

¹⁹And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

²⁰But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

²¹Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.

²²When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

²³Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

God You Reign-Lincoln Brewster

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Burn In Me-Paul Wilbur

1 Timothy 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

²To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer

⁴or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.

⁵The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

⁶Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk.

⁷They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

⁸We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.

⁹We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,

¹⁰for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine

¹¹that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

¹²I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength,that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.

¹³Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. ¹⁴The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

¹⁶But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

¹⁷Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

¹⁸Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well,

¹⁹holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.

²⁰Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

Amos 9

1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Bring them down on the heads of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword.
Not one will get away, none will escape.

²Though they dig down to the depths below, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens above, from there I will bring them down.

³Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent to bite them.

⁴Though they are driven into exile by their enemies,
there I will command the sword to slay them. “I will keep my eye on them for harm and not for good.”

⁵The Lord, the Lord Almighty—he touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn; the whole land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt;

⁶he builds his lofty palace in the heavens and sets its foundation on the earth; he calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land—
the Lord is his name.

⁷“Are not you Israelites the same to me as the Cushites?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?

⁸“Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
Yet I will not totally destroy the descendants of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.

⁹“For I will give the command, and I will shake the people of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will reach the ground.

¹⁰All the sinners among my people will die by the sword,
all those who say, ‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’

¹¹“In that day “I will restore David’s fallen shelter—I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins—and will rebuild it as it used to be,

¹²so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,” declares the Lord, who will do these things.

¹³“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills,

¹⁴and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

¹⁵I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

Exodus 32

1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

²Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”

³So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.

⁴He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.”

⁶So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

⁷Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.

⁸They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

⁹“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁰Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

¹¹But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

¹²Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.

¹³Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’”

¹⁴Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

¹⁵Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.

¹⁶The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”

¹⁸Moses replied: “It is not the sound of victory, It is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.”

¹⁹When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.

²⁰And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

²¹He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”

²²“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.

²³They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’

²⁴So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

²⁵Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughing stock to their enemies.

²⁶So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.

²⁷Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’”

²⁸The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.

²⁹Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”

³⁰The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

³¹So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold.

³²But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”

³³The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.

³⁴Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

³⁵And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.

Blow The Trumpet In Zion-Randy Rothwell

Link Roundup Sunday

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Hallelujah Chorus- The Oak Ridge Boys

2 Thessalonians 3

1 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.

²And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith.

³But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.

⁴We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command.

⁵May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

⁶In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.

⁷For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you,

⁸nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

⁹We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.

¹⁰For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

¹¹We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies.

¹²Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.

¹³And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

¹⁴Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them, in order that they may feel ashamed.

¹⁵Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer.

¹⁶Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

¹⁷I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.

¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Amos 8

1 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit.

²“What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

³“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”

⁴Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land,

⁵saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”—skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales,

⁶buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

⁷The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

⁸“Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt.

⁹“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

¹⁰I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

¹²People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.

¹³“In that day “the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst.

¹⁴Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives’—they will fall, never to rise again.”

Exodus 31

1 Then the Lord said to Moses,

²“See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

³and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—

⁴to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,

⁵to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.

⁶Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you:

⁷the tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant law with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent—

⁸the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense,

⁹the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand—

¹⁰and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests,

¹¹and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you.”

¹²Then the Lord said to Moses,

¹³“Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.

¹⁴“‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people.

¹⁵For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.

¹⁶The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant.

¹⁷It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

¹⁸When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai,he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

Holy, Holy, Holy Worthy-Paul Wilbur

Friday, February 22, 2013

Didn't It Rain-The Oak Ridge Boys

2 Thessalonians 2

2 Thessalonians 2

1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters,

²not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.

³Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

⁴He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

⁵Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?

⁶And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.

⁷For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

⁸And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

⁹The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie,

¹⁰and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

¹¹For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie

¹²and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

¹³But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

¹⁴He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,

¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Amos 7

1 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up.

²When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

³So the Lord relented. “This will not happen,” the Lord said.

⁴This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land.

⁵Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

⁶So the Lord relented. “This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.

⁷This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand.

⁸And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,” I replied. Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

⁹“The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”

¹⁰Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.

¹¹For this is what Amos is saying: “‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’”

¹²Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.

¹³Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

¹⁴Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.

¹⁵But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

¹⁶Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say, “‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’

¹⁷“Therefore this is what the Lord says: “‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’”

Exodus 30

1 “Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense.

²It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high—its horns of one piece with it.

³Overlay the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it.

⁴Make two gold rings for the altar below the molding—two on each of the opposite sides—to hold the poles used to carry it.

⁵Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

⁶Put the altar in front of the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law—before the atonement cover that is over the tablets of the covenant law—where I will meet with you.

⁷“Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps.

⁸He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come.

⁹Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt offering or grain offering, and do not pour a drink offering on it.

¹⁰Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns. This annual atonement must be made with the blood of the atoning sin offering for the generations to come. It is most holy to the Lord.”

¹¹Then the Lord said to Moses,

¹²“When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.

¹³Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord.

¹⁴All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the Lord.

¹⁵The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives.

¹⁶Receive the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord, making atonement for your lives.”

¹⁷Then the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁸“Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it.

¹⁹Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it.

²⁰Whenever they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting a food offering to the Lord,

²¹they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come.”

²²Then the Lord said to Moses,

²³“Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, 250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant calamus,

²⁴500 shekels of cassia—all according to the sanctuary shekel—and a hin^[f] of olive oil.

²⁵Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer.It will be the sacred anointing oil.

²⁶Then use it to anoint the tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant law,

²⁷the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense,

²⁸the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand.

²⁹You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and whatever touches them will be holy.

³⁰“Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve me as priests.

³¹Say to the Israelites, ‘This is to be my sacred anointing oil for the generations to come.

³²Do not pour it on anyone else’s body and do not make any other oil using the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred.

³³Whoever makes perfume like it and puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from their people.’”

³⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha and galbanum—and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts,

³⁵and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred.

³⁶Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you.

³⁷Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the Lord.

³⁸Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from their people.”

Jesus And John Wayne-The Gaither Vocal Band

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Blinded Eyes-Casting Crown

2 Thessalonians 1

1 Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

²Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.

⁴Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

⁵All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.

⁶God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you

⁷and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.

⁸He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

⁹They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might

¹⁰on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

¹¹With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.

¹²We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amos 6

1 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!

²Go to Kalneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?

³You put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of terror.

⁴You lie on beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves.

⁵You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments.

⁶You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.

⁷Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;
your feasting and lounging will end.

⁸The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself—the Lord God Almighty declares: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”

⁹If ten people are left in one house, they too will die.

¹⁰And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

¹¹For the Lord has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.

¹²Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—

¹³you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar and say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?”

¹⁴For the Lord God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”

Thursday, February 28, 2013

1 Timothy 4

Jonah 2

Exodus 35

4 Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the Lord has commanded:

5 From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze;

6 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair;

7 ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood;

8 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;

9 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—

32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,

33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts.

34 And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others.

35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

Malachi 4

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

1 Timothy 3

14 Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that,

15 if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

16 Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh,was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels,was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

Jonah 1

17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Exodus 34

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.

30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.

31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them.

32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.