Devotional

Micah (all)
memory verse Philippians 2:1-5

Feb:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Proverbs 3:5-8

Advent readings here.

Jesse tree here.

Here’s a great Advent resouce. You can print out the sheets for free.

2 Samuel 7:11b-16

11 ‘The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’ “

**These are Messianic verses talking about Jesus, the ‘One who will build a house’, ‘have a kingdom’, ‘He will be my son.’ Also it tells of the flogging He received before the cross and that God will always love Him and His throne will be established forever. That’s why the people of Jesus’ time didn’t know who He was. They were looking for a person that would reign as an Earthly king and overthrow the Earthly government. But, Jesus came to raise up to a Heavenly throne, not one here on Earth.

Isaiah 64:4-9
4 Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
you were angry.
How then can we be saved?
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
7 No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and made us waste away because of our sins.
8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD;
do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look upon us, we pray,
for we are all your people.

**We thought the beginning of this was cool – no one has seen a god that acts on our behalf. When the people worshipping idols challenged Elijah to make God come down and consume the offering, who came? The people cut and wailed and their god did not act on their behalf, but Elijah poured water all over the offering and slab and God consumed it all to show His power, he acted on Elijah’s behalf. Also in these verses we see our righteous acts as filthy rags because of our sin. We see that God is able to mold us into the person He wants us to be and God will not remember our sins forever, good thing!

Genesis 18:1-15

1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”
“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread.”
7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There, in the tent,” he said.
10 Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD ? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

**Okay, Abraham is very perceptive, he has a feeling that these 3 men are not ordinary men, and they aren’t. They are God. God himself is coming to visit Abraham to tell him that Sarah will have a baby and that God will bless them through this baby. Poor Sarah, she’s really old, she can’t help it - she laughs. How can God do this thing? But, sure enough a year later Sarah has a son whom she names Isaac (laughter.) We also know this is God because Sarah only thinks a thought in her head and then God says “Did Sarah just say I can’t do this and laugh?” Sarah lies to cover her shame, but how did the person outside know her thoughts? He was God of course! These verses show us that we should never assume that God can’t do anything because of our circumstances; He can do something if it’s in His will to do it.

Genesis 3:20-24

20 Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

**One of the interesting things in this passage is that God says “us.” He doesn’t say the man became like ‘Me’, knowing good and evil, He says the man became like ‘Us’. That is very telling since in the New Testament we read that Jesus was with God in the beginning and that when God made the world the spirit and Jesus were there. The three persons of God are right there! We talked about why Adam and Eve had to leave the garden (so they wouldn’t eat of the tree of life and live forever – since the consequence of sin is death.) God put a barrier (the flaming sword) in the way of eternal life because with sin there can be no eternal life without a payment for that sin.

Matthew 19:16-29

16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, ” ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother, and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.”
20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” 28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

**The kids asked why in this passage does Jesus only give some of the commandments and why does He not just say trust in Me (because we all know we can’t keep the commandments anyway, we’re not perfect.) I said Jesus is telling you this story to illustrate a point. The rich man had been a good man in his life; maybe he helped the poor and served in the hospital. But, he didn’t trust in Jesus, he trusted in stuff: doing things, money and himself. That’s why when the rich man asked what he lacked, Jesus went to his heart and said, “Give up your money and you will enter heaven.” Did He really mean for the man to give up his money? No, I think it is a question of where the man’s heart was. At that point it was tied up in money first, myself second, God last. Jesus was trying to get him to rearrange the order of what is important. It is important to do good, but without a trust in Jesus it isn’t going to get you to Heaven. Also the disciples were like, “Hey, we gave up a lot more, what do we get?” So, Jesus let them know that in giving up things for Him they would receive a hundred-fold blessing in return, and eternal life.

Isaiah 55:8
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.

Genesis 32: 24-30

24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” 29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

Deuteronomy 4:32 -40
32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. 37 Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, 38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.

Luke 6:46-49
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Isaiah 65:1-2
1 “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’
2 All day long I have held out my hands
to an obstinate people,
who walk in ways not good,
pursuing their own imaginations-