Read Leviticus 19:1-4; Psalms 13; and Acts 19
“Those who have long been without joy,
begin to be without hope. Nothing is
more killing to a soul than the want of God's favor; nothing more reviving than
the return of it. If we bring our cares and grief to the throne of grace, and
leave them there, we may go away like Hannah; for joy and peace come by
believing. In this way believers pour
out their prayers, renouncing all hopes but in the mercy of God. And sometimes suddenly, at others gradually,
they will find their burdens removed, and their comforts restored.”
-
Matthew
Henry’s concise commentary on Psalms 13
S.O.A.P.
Scripture
– Observation – Application - Prayer
S: Psalm 13:5-6 I trust in your faithful love, Lord. I will be happy when you save me. Then I will sing to the Lord because He was so good to me. (Easy to Read Version)
O: It is God who makes us holy and happy. By following His ways we find love, joy and
peace, and so much more. When we walk
apart from Him however there is no peace, and there is no joy. Even the love for others falls away from
us. God reminds us in Leviticus that his
commandments (His Word) are binding upon us – not to be legalistic, but because
in following them we find life. They are
for our good.
Paul tells us
in Acts that in Christ, the Living Word, is where our joy and peace
reside. In Acts we learn of a group
called the “Ephesus Dozen”. They had not
learned all of the gospel at the time when they met Paul. They told Paul they only knew of John the
Baptist and his baptism.
John the
Baptist’s ministry was one of preparation for people to receive Christ (Mark 1:2). It was only part of the
story. He preached repentance of sins, yes,
and, as people repented, they showed their change of heart by an outward
cleansing and baptism. But beyond repentance we must have Christ. John himself
understood the limitations of his ministry: “I baptize you with water for
repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I
am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Apollos that we looked at yesterday and the
“Ephesus Dozen,” in today’s passage stopped with John’s baptism and they only had
half the story. They needed more than repentance; they needed faith in Christ
which they did accept once Paul enlightened them. **
It is hard to
imagine in our day and age that people of that time did not have the full story,
like so many of us do, but there were no TVs or radios or social media. There weren’t 5 billion Bibles floating
around in Paul’s day like we have now.
News traveled very slowly from town to town by people like Paul who
brought the good news of the gospel with them.
This is why Paul’s journeys and the spread of the gospel were so
important.
Paul and the
other apostles who were bringing the gospel to the Gentile world were fighting
against Greek mythology and Greek gods.
It was not just about accepting “Jesus”; it was about renouncing gods
like Artemis and all the “big business” that went along with the worship of
these pagan gods that Paul was up against.
We too fight
against our culture today. I just went
through this with one of my children.
Will we compromise or hold fast to what we believe in according to what
we have been taught in the Bible? It is
not an easy decision! And it is not just
within our worldly culture either; we may even find these difficult decisions
in our Christian circles as well. But in
the end of days it will not be our Christian friends we stand before, but
God. What I have learned is that we must
not compromise! If we do there is repentance,
yes, but we also lose out on the joy of knowing we followed Him with our whole
hearts.
A: To know the
fullness of Christ, his resurrection and His power and the Holy Spirit in my
life so that I can live the best and fullest life that He has for me.
P: Dear Jesus, I
feel like we live in a time that has an incredible amount of light shown to us
about Your Word and Your ways and yet I know there is still a great variance
among Believers in how we live out Your Word.
Paul and the
other apostles tried to be unified on a lot of the teachings that were being
spread throughout the world in those days.
I pray LORD that we as Believers would seek Your Word for absolute
truth and that You would bring us into unity. Convict us when we
go astray and I pray You would bring us back into alignment with the Way, the
Truth and the Life that is found in Jesus, Yeshua our Messiah. In Christ’s name I pray.
Amen & Amen.
** http://www.gotquestions.org/receive-Spirit-Acts-19.html You can read more about this here.
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