Are there times when you say: If only ... I would ...? Do you realize that today is a day when you can consider stepping out in faith? Do you realize you aren't going to get to have a February 29th for another 4 years? Ask God for wisdom to help you make a difference today.

Your routine Friday may not be depending on what you normally do. Some programs are different, so information will either be missing or a repeat from yesterday. God doesn't want us to be in a rut. God want us to treat each day like a new gift from God. For people born today, imagine how they feel that they get a birthday today?

What will you do today that will be special in the eyes of God?

Today's Reading: Matthew 8.1-13, Exodus 39-40 and Proverbs 18

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this new day. I pray for wisdom and faith. I pray that You will give me wisdom to speak into every situation I have today. I pray that You will give me the wisdom when to speak and when to remain silent. I pray for wisdom in all areas surrounding my career and what You see as my next steps. I pray Lord that You will take the faith You have built up in me through miracles and so many situations that I will not draw back from all that You have before me, but will step forward, step out with fervor and with passion to accomplish what You have in store for me next. Help me to reach out, step out of my comfort zone and stretch myself in order that I can see more of You through all the areas of my life. Show me my next step I pray - I don't need to know the final destination, help me to have the faith and trust of an Abraham who left his home as I left my country in hopes and ambitions of what You had for him and for his generational future. I love You and praise You and honor You and worship You, in Jesus' name. Holy Spirit speak to me in each situation today. Help me to not allow the devil to rob from me the glorious things God has positioned in my life. Amen.

Today's Devotional: Coming out of Babylon

Today's Reading: Matthew 7, Exodus 37-38 and Proverbs 17

Heavenly Father,
I ask that You forgive me for the thoughts and words I have spoken in response and in reality in judgement. Help me Lord to keep thoughts that should not be spoken in my head. Help me Lord to prevent the enemy from getting any footholds in my life by the responses I have or make or by the words I speak. Give me wisdom when to speak. Give me wisdom when I speak. Give me wisdom I pray for it is only by Your grace and Your mercy that I know that I have received a position with You eternally in heaven. God allow Your Word to be like a double edge sword that will cut off the things I need removed from my life. God use Your Word to prune the areas of my life that need to be taken away while at the same time show me areas that need more focus and improvement if I am to become all that You have called me to be. Lord, I thank You for another day and another opportunity to be a light into this world. I thank You for another day in which to try and reverse the attacks of the enemy. Our battle isn't against flesh and blood but against the powers and principalities of darkness. So help me Lord to find where he is trying to invade, help me to bring and speak freedom and hope to the team. Help me I pray to shine for You, to be a good and faithful servant, to be a light that cannot be hidden in this dark world. I thank You and praise You and turn to Your Word for wisdom, for clarification, for correction, and for focus, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Judging Others
(Luke 6.37, 38, 41, 42)

Matthew 7 "Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, ²for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others. ³Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? ⁴How dare you say to your brother, 'Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,' when you have a log in your own eye? ⁵You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
⁶"Do not give what is holy to dogs--they will only turn and attack you. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs--they will only trample them underfoot.

Ask, Seek, Knock
(Luke 11.9-13)

⁷"Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock. ⁹Would any of you who are fathers give your son a stone when he asks for bread? ¹⁰Or would you give him a snake when he asks for a fish? ¹¹As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
¹²"Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets.

The Narrow Gate
(Luke 13.24)

¹³"Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. ¹⁴But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it.

A Tree and Its Fruit
(Luke 6.43, 44)

¹⁵"Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves. ¹⁶You will know them by what they do. Thorn bushes do not bear grapes, and briers do not bear figs. ¹⁷A healthy tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a poor tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹And any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. ²⁰So then, you will know the false prophets by what they do.

I Never Knew You
(Luke 13.25-27)

²¹"Not everyone who calls me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do. ²²When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!' ²³Then I will say to them, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!'

The Two House Builders
(Luke 6.47-49)

²⁴"So then, anyone who hears these words of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵The rain poured down, the rivers flooded over, and the wind blew hard against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on rock.
²⁶"But anyone who hears these words of mine and does not obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain poured down, the rivers flooded over, the wind blew hard against that house, and it fell. And what a terrible fall that was!"

The Authority of Jesus

²⁸When Jesus finished saying these things, the crowd was amazed at the way he taught. ²⁹He wasn't like the teachers of the Law; instead, he taught with authority.

Making the Covenant Box
(Exodus 25.10-22)

Exodus 37 Bezalel made the Covenant Box out of acacia wood, 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high. ²He covered it with pure gold inside and out and put a gold border all around it. ³He made four carrying rings of gold for it and attached them to its four feet, with two rings on each side. ⁴He made carrying poles of acacia wood, covered them with gold, ⁵and put them through the rings on each side of the Box. ⁶He made a lid of pure gold, 45 inches long and 27 inches wide. ⁷He made two winged creatures of hammered gold, ⁸one for each end of the lid. He made them so that they formed one piece with the lid. ⁹The winged creatures faced each other across the lid, and their outspread wings covered it.

Making the Table for the Bread Offered to God
(Exodus 25.23-30)

¹⁰He made the table out of acacia wood, 36 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 27 inches high. ¹¹He covered it with pure gold and put a gold border around it. ¹²He made a rim 3 inches wide around it and put a gold border around the rim. ¹³He made four carrying rings of gold for it and put them at the four corners, where the legs were. ¹⁴The rings to hold the poles for carrying the table were placed near the rim. ¹⁵He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with gold. ¹⁶He made the dishes of pure gold for the table: the plates, the cups, the jars, and the bowls to be used for the wine offering.

Making the Lampstand
(Exodus 25.31-40)

¹⁷He made the lampstand of pure gold. He made its base and its shaft of hammered gold; its decorative flowers, including buds and petals, formed one piece with it. ¹⁸Six branches extended from its sides, three from each side. ¹⁹Each of the six branches had three decorative flowers shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals. ²⁰The shaft of the lampstand had four decorative flowers shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals. ²¹There was one bud below each of the three pairs of branches. ²²The buds, the branches, and the lampstand were a single piece of pure hammered gold. ²³He made seven lamps for the lampstand, and he made its tongs and trays of pure gold. ²⁴He used seventy-five pounds of pure gold to make the lampstand and all its equipment.

Making the Altar for Burning Incense
(Exodus 30.1-5)

²⁵He made an altar out of acacia wood, for burning incense. It was square, 18 inches long and 18 inches wide, and it was 36 inches high. Its projections at the four corners formed one piece with it. ²⁶He covered its top, all four sides, and its projections with pure gold and put a gold border around it. ²⁷He made two gold carrying rings for it and attached them below the border on the two sides, to hold the poles with which it was to be carried. ²⁸He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with gold.

Making the Anointing Oil and the Incense
(Exodus 30.22-38)

²⁹He also made the sacred anointing oil and the pure sweet-smelling incense, mixed like perfume.

Making the Altar for Burning Offerings
(Exodus 27.1-8)

Exodus 38 For burning offerings, he made an altar out of acacia wood. It was square, 7½ feet long and 7½ feet wide, and it was 4½ feet high. ²He made the projections at the top of the four corners, so that they formed one piece with the altar. He covered it all with bronze. ³He also made all the equipment for the altar: the pans, the shovels, the bowls, the hooks, and the fire pans. All this equipment was made of bronze. ⁴He made a bronze grating and put it under the rim of the altar, so that it reached halfway up the altar. ⁵He made four carrying rings and put them on the four corners. ⁶He made carrying poles of acacia wood, covered them with bronze, ⁷and put them in the rings on each side of the altar. The altar was made of boards and was hollow.

Making the Bronze Basin
(Exodus 30.18)

⁸He made the bronze basin and its bronze base out of the mirrors belonging to the women who served at the entrance of the Tent of the LORD's presence.

The Enclosure for the Tent of the LORD's Presence
(Exodus 27.9-19)

⁹For the Tent of the LORD's presence he made the enclosure out of fine linen curtains. On the south side the curtains were 50 yards long, ¹⁰supported by twenty bronze posts in twenty bronze bases, with hooks and rods made of silver. ¹¹The enclosure was the same on the north side. ¹²On the west side there were curtains 25 yards long, with ten posts and ten bases and with hooks and rods made of silver. ¹³On the east side, where the entrance was, the enclosure was also 25 yards wide. ^14-15On each side of the entrance there were 7½ yards of curtains, with three posts and three bases. ¹⁶All the curtains around the enclosure were made of fine linen. ¹⁷The bases for the posts were made of bronze, and the hooks, the rods, and the covering of the tops of the posts were made of silver. All the posts around the enclosure were connected with silver rods. ¹⁸The curtain for the entrance of the enclosure was made of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool and decorated with embroidery. It was 10 yards long and 2½ yards high, like the curtains of the enclosure. ¹⁹It was supported by four posts in four bronze bases. Their hooks, the covering of their tops, and their rods were made of silver. ²⁰All the pegs for the Tent and for the surrounding enclosure were made of bronze.

Metals Used in the Tent of the LORD's Presence

²¹Here is a list of the amounts of the metals used in the Tent of the LORD's presence, where the two stone tablets were kept on which the Ten Commandments were written. The list was ordered by Moses and made by the Levites who worked under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.
²²Bezalel, the son of Uri and grandson of Hur from the tribe of Judah, made everything that the LORD had commanded. ²³His helper, Oholiab son of Ahisamach, from the tribe of Dan, was an engraver, a designer, and a weaver of fine linen and of blue, purple, and red wool.
²⁴All the gold that had been dedicated to the LORD for the sacred Tent weighed 2,195 pounds, weighed according to the official standard. ²⁵The silver from the census of the community weighed 7,550 pounds, weighed according to the official standard. ²⁶This amount equaled the total paid by all persons enrolled in the census, each one paying the required amount, weighed according to the official standard. There were 603,550 men twenty years old or older enrolled in the census. ²⁷Of the silver, 7,500 pounds were used to make the hundred bases for the sacred Tent and for the curtain, 75 pounds for each base. ²⁸With the remaining 50 pounds of silver Bezalel made the rods, the hooks for the posts, and the covering for their tops. ²⁹The bronze which was dedicated to the LORD amounted to 5,310 pounds. ³⁰With it he made the bases for the entrance of the Tent of the LORD's presence, the bronze altar with its bronze grating, all the equipment for the altar, ³¹the bases for the surrounding enclosure and for the entrance of the enclosure, and all the pegs for the Tent and the surrounding enclosure.

Proverbs 17 Better to eat a dry crust of bread with peace of mind than have a banquet in a house full of trouble.
²A shrewd servant will gain authority over a master's worthless son and receive a part of the inheritance.
³Gold and silver are tested by fire, and a person's heart is tested by the LORD.
⁴Evil people listen to evil ideas, and liars listen to lies.
⁵If you make fun of poor people, you insult the God who made them. You will be punished if you take pleasure in someone's misfortune.
⁶Grandparents are proud of their grandchildren, just as children are proud of their parents.
⁷Respected people do not tell lies, and fools have nothing worthwhile to say.
⁸Some people think a bribe works like magic; they believe it can do anything.
⁹If you want people to like you, forgive them when they wrong you. Remembering wrongs can break up a friendship.
¹⁰An intelligent person learns more from one rebuke than a fool learns from being beaten a hundred times.
¹¹Death will come like a cruel messenger to wicked people who are always stirring up trouble.
¹²It is better to meet a mother bear robbed of her cubs than to meet some fool busy with a stupid project.
¹³If you repay good with evil, you will never get evil out of your house.
¹⁴The start of an argument is like the first break in a dam; stop it before it goes any further.
¹⁵Condemning the innocent or letting the wicked go--both are hateful to the LORD.
¹⁶It does a fool no good to spend money on an education, because he has no common sense.
¹⁷Friends always show their love. What are relatives for if not to share trouble?
¹⁸Only someone with no sense would promise to be responsible for someone else's debts.
¹⁹To like sin is to like making trouble. If you brag all the time, you are asking for trouble.
²⁰Anyone who thinks and speaks evil can expect to find nothing good--only disaster.
²¹There is nothing but sadness and sorrow for parents whose children do foolish things.
²²Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is slow death to be gloomy all the time.
²³Corrupt judges accept secret bribes, and then justice is not done.
²⁴An intelligent person aims at wise action, but a fool starts off in many directions.
²⁵Foolish children bring grief to their fathers and bitter regrets to their mothers.
²⁶It is not right to make an innocent person pay a fine; justice is perverted when good people are punished.
²⁷Those who are sure of themselves do not talk all the time. People who stay calm have real insight. ²⁸After all, even fools may be thought wise and intelligent if they stay quiet and keep their mouths shut.

This reading is from The Holy Bible, Today's English Version, Second Edition copyright © American Bible Society, 1992;
Old Testament copyright © American Bible Society, 1976, 1992; New Testament © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

Today's Reading: Matthew 6.19-34, Exodus 35-36 and Proverbs 16

Have you taken a look at your checkbook?
Have you reviewed your bank statements?

It's that time of year when we will need to get our tax paperwork completed and by looking at where our money goes, people are able to see where our priorities are.

How important is God and the work of God to You?

How important is the hear and now compared to the eternal ever after?

Where is your trust? In whom do you put your trust? Who don't you trust? Why won't you trust them?

Do you realize that God wants to bless you? Do you realize that God's goal is to give you a hope and a future?

Riches in Heaven
(Luke 12.33, 34)

Matthew 6 ¹⁹"Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. ²⁰Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. ²¹For your heart will always be where your riches are.

The Light of the Body
(Luke 11.34-36)

²²"The eyes are like a lamp for the body. If your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light; ²³but if your eyes are no good, your body will be in darkness. So if the light in you is darkness, how terribly dark it will be!

God and Possessions
(Luke 16.13; 12.22-31)

²⁴"You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
²⁵"This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn't life worth more than food? And isn't the body worth more than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds: they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren't you worth much more than birds? ²⁷Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?
²⁸"And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not work or make clothes for themselves. ²⁹But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers. ³⁰It is God who clothes the wild grass--grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burned up in the oven. Won't he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you have!
³¹"So do not start worrying: 'Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?' ³²(These are the things the pagans are always concerned about.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. ³³Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things. ³⁴So do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings.

Regulations for the Sabbath

Exodus 35 Moses called together the whole community of the people of Israel and said to them, "This is what the LORD has commanded you to do: ²You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is to be sacred, a solemn day of rest dedicated to me, the LORD. Anyone who does any work on that day is to be put to death. ³Do not even light a fire in your homes on the Sabbath."

Offerings for the Sacred Tent
(Exodus 25.1-9)

⁴Moses said to all the people of Israel, "This is what the LORD has commanded: ⁵Make an offering to the LORD. Everyone who wishes to do so is to bring an offering of gold, silver, or bronze; ⁶fine linen; blue, purple, and red wool; cloth made of goats' hair; ⁷rams' skin dyed red; fine leather; acacia wood; ⁸oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet-smelling incense; ⁹carnelians and other jewels to be set in the High Priest's ephod and in his breastpiece.

Articles for the Tent of the LORD's Presence
(Exodus 39.32-43)

¹⁰"All the skilled workers among you are to come and make everything that the LORD commanded: ¹¹the Tent, its covering and its outer covering, its hooks and its frames, its crossbars, its posts, and its bases; ¹²the Covenant Box, its poles, its lid, and the curtain to screen it off; ¹³the table, its poles, and all its equipment; the bread offered to God; ¹⁴the lampstand for the light and its equipment; the lamps with their oil; ¹⁵the altar for burning incense and its poles; the anointing oil; the sweet-smelling incense; the curtain for the entrance of the Tent; ¹⁶the altar on which to burn offerings, with its bronze grating attached, its poles, and all its equipment; the washbasin and its base; ¹⁷the curtains for the enclosure, its posts and bases; the curtain for the entrance of the enclosure; ¹⁸the Tent pegs and ropes for the Tent and the enclosure; ¹⁹and the magnificent garments the priests are to wear when they serve in the Holy Place--the sacred clothes for Aaron the priest and for his sons."

The People Bring Their Offerings

²⁰All the people of Israel left, ²¹and everyone who wished to do so brought an offering to the LORD for making the Tent of the LORD's presence. They brought everything needed for use in worship and for making the priestly garments. ²²All who wanted to, both men and women, brought decorative pins, earrings, rings, necklaces, and all kinds of gold jewelry and dedicated them to the LORD. ²³Everyone who had fine linen; blue, purple, or red wool; cloth of goats' hair; rams' skin dyed red; or fine leather, brought it. ²⁴All who were able to contribute silver or bronze brought their offering for the LORD, and all who had acacia wood which could be used for any of the work brought it. ²⁵All the skilled women brought fine linen thread and thread of blue, purple, and red wool, which they had made. ²⁶They also made thread of goats' hair. ²⁷The leaders brought carnelians and other jewels to be set in the ephod and the breastpiece ²⁸and spices and oil for the lamps, for the anointing oil, and for the sweet-smelling incense. ²⁹All the people of Israel who wanted to brought their offering to the LORD for the work which he had commanded Moses to do.

Workers to Make the Tent of the LORD's Presence
(Exodus 31.1-11)

³⁰Moses said to the Israelites, "The LORD has chosen Bezalel, the son of Uri and grandson of Hur from the tribe of Judah. ³¹God has filled him with his power and given him skill, ability, and understanding for every kind of artistic work, ³²for planning skillful designs and working them in gold, silver, and bronze; ³³for cutting jewels to be set; for carving wood; and for every other kind of artistic work. ³⁴The LORD has given to him and to Oholiab son of Ahisamach, from the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach their crafts to others. ³⁵He has given them skill in all kinds of work done by engravers, designers, and weavers of fine linen; blue, purple, and red wool; and other cloth. They are able to do all kinds of work and are skillful designers.
Exodus 36 "Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the other workers to whom the LORD has given skill and understanding, who know how to make everything needed to build the sacred Tent, are to make everything just as the LORD has commanded."

The People Bring Many Gifts

²Moses called Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the other skilled men to whom the LORD had given ability and who were willing to help, and Moses told them to start working. ³They received from him all the offerings which the Israelites had brought for constructing the sacred Tent. But the people of Israel continued to bring Moses their offerings every morning. ⁴Then the skilled men who were doing the work went ⁵and told Moses, "The people are bringing more than is needed for the work which the LORD commanded to be done."
⁶So Moses sent a command throughout the camp that no one was to make any further contribution for the sacred Tent; so the people did not bring any more. ⁷What had already been brought was more than enough to finish all the work.

Making the Tent of the LORD's Presence
(Exodus 26.1-37)

⁸The most skilled men among those doing the work made the Tent of the LORD's presence. They made it out of ten pieces of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered with figures of winged creatures. ⁹Each piece was the same size, 14 yards long and 2 yards wide. ¹⁰They sewed five of them together in one set and did the same with the other five. ¹¹They made loops of blue cloth on the edge of the outside piece in each set. ¹²They put fifty loops on the first piece of the first set and fifty loops matching them on the last piece of the second set. ¹³They made fifty gold hooks, with which to join the two sets into one piece.
¹⁴Then they made a cover for the Tent out of eleven pieces of cloth made of goats' hair. ¹⁵They made them all the same size, 15 yards long and 2 yards wide. ¹⁶They sewed five of them together in one set and the other six in another set. ¹⁷They put fifty loops on the edge of the last piece of one set and fifty loops on the edge of the other set. ¹⁸They made fifty bronze hooks to join the two sets, so as to form one cover. ¹⁹They made two more coverings, one of rams' skin dyed red and the other of fine leather, to serve as an outer cover.
²⁰They made upright frames of acacia wood for the Tent. ²¹Each frame was 15 feet tall and 27 inches wide, ²²with two matching projections, so that the frames could be joined together. All the frames had these projections. ²³They made twenty frames for the south side ²⁴and forty silver bases to go under them, two bases under each frame to hold its two projections. ²⁵They made twenty frames for the north side of the Tent ²⁶and forty silver bases, two under each frame. ²⁷For the back of the Tent, on the west, they made six frames ²⁸and two frames for the corners. ²⁹These corner frames were joined at the bottom and connected all the way to the top. The two frames that formed the two corners were made in this way. ³⁰So there were eight frames and sixteen silver bases, two under each frame.
³¹They made fifteen crossbars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the Tent, ³²five for the frames on the other side, and five for the frames on the west end, at the back. ³³The middle crossbar, set halfway up the frames, extended from one end of the Tent to the other. ³⁴They covered the frames with gold and fitted them with gold rings to hold the crossbars, which were also covered with gold.
³⁵They made a curtain of fine linen, woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered it with figures of winged creatures. ³⁶They made four posts of acacia wood to hold the curtain, covered them with gold, and fitted them with gold hooks. Then they made four silver bases to hold the posts. ³⁷For the entrance of the Tent they made a curtain of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool and decorated with embroidery. ³⁸For this curtain they made five posts fitted with hooks, covered their tops and their rods with gold, and made five bronze bases for the posts.

Today's Reading:

Matthew 6.1-18, Exodus 33-34 and Proverbs 15

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People may only see what is on the outside. People may only know the shell of the man. People may praise you. People may worship you. (for a season). But what if you slip up? But what if you let them down? But what if you let your pride be how you are shining?

God sees the heart. God knows your mind and every thought you have. God is where we need to be directing the praise. God is whom people should be worshipping. When you slip, God will help you back up. When you let God down, he will forgive you and help you to be restored. But we need to be humble and not prideful. We need to be shining for Jesus and letting His love and His passions and the gifts He gave us direct people to God.

If people start to depend on you instead of God, then when something comes up that you aren't able to solve, they may forget to look to God, they may become mad or disappointed with you.

We are people and in this world, we will have trouble. We aren't perfect and are daily in need of help from God as well as His grace and mercy. It is by grace that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. It is only because God cares so much about us that He sent Jesus to come and be an example for us to follow. It is only because God cares so much about us that He sent Jesus to come and give up His life on the cross so that we could be eternally reconciled to God. It is by Jesus' sacrifice that we can be healed of our sicknesses. It is by Jesus' resurrection that we are able to overcome the challenges and trials of this world. Let's start pointing people to Jesus so that they can come to the relationship with Jesus that will transform not only their lives, but this world we live in.

Do you have a relationship with God? Have you met Jesus and asked Him to step into your heart? Would you like to? He is just waiting for you to ask. He wants you to be able to walk in the confidence that He has a great plan for you. He wants you to be able to walk in the confidence that He is with you - He will never leave You nor forsake You. He wants you to be able to walk in the confidence of the unseen, knowing and believing that You will get to spend eternity in Heaven with Him.

Heavenly Father,
You hear the cry of those who want to receive Jesus into their hearts. I pray Lord that they will ask for forgiveness for the things they have done and that they desire to have Jesus come into their hearts and into their lives. Lord, send Your Holy Spirit to confirm a peace that goes beyond understanding into their minds and hearts. Lord, help them to realize this isn't about "religion", this is about a new and incredible relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And Lord, we will give You the praise and You the glory, and You the honor, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Teaching about Charity

Matthew 6 "Make certain you do not perform your religious duties in public so that people will see what you do. If you do these things publicly, you will not have any reward from your Father in heaven.
²"So when you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it, as the hypocrites do in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do it so that people will praise them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. ³But when you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it. ⁴Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.

Teaching about Prayer
(Luke 11.2-4)

⁵"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. ⁶But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.
⁷"When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. ⁸Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him. ⁹This, then, is how you should pray:
'Our Father in heaven:
May your holy name be honored;
¹⁰ may your Kingdom come;
may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today the food we need.
¹² Forgive us the wrongs we have done,
as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.
¹³ Do not bring us to hard testing,
but keep us safe from the Evil One.'
¹⁴"If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.

Teaching about Fasting

¹⁶"And when you fast, do not put on a sad face as the hypocrites do. They neglect their appearance so that everyone will see that they are fasting. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. ¹⁷When you go without food, wash your face and comb your hair, ¹⁸so that others cannot know that you are fasting--only your Father, who is unseen, will know. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.

The LORD Orders Israel to Leave Mount Sinai

Exodus 33 The LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought out of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to their descendants. ²I will send an angel to guide you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ³You are going to a rich and fertile land. But I will not go with you myself, because you are a stubborn people, and I might destroy you on the way."
⁴When the people heard this, they began to mourn and did not wear jewelry any more. ⁵For the LORD had commanded Moses to tell them, "You are a stubborn people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I would completely destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you." ⁶So after they left Mount Sinai, the people of Israel no longer wore jewelry.

The Tent of the LORD's Presence

⁷Whenever the people of Israel set up camp, Moses would take the sacred Tent and put it up some distance outside the camp. It was called the Tent of the LORD's presence, and anyone who wanted to consult the LORD would go out to it. ⁸Whenever Moses went out there, the people would stand at the door of their tents and watch Moses until he entered it. ⁹After Moses had gone in, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the door of the Tent, and the LORD would speak to Moses from the cloud. ¹⁰As soon as the people saw the pillar of cloud at the door of the Tent, they would bow down. ¹¹The LORD would speak with Moses face-to-face, just as someone speaks with a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp. But the young man who was his helper, Joshua son of Nun, stayed in the Tent.

The LORD Promises to Be with His People

¹²Moses said to the LORD, "It is true that you have told me to lead these people to that land, but you did not tell me whom you would send with me. You have said that you know me well and are pleased with me. ¹³Now if you are, tell me your plans, so that I may serve you and continue to please you. Remember also that you have chosen this nation to be your own."
¹⁴The LORD said, "I will go with you, and I will give you victory."
¹⁵Moses replied, "If you do not go with us, don't make us leave this place. ¹⁶How will anyone know that you are pleased with your people and with me if you do not go with us? Your presence with us will distinguish us from any other people on earth."
¹⁷The LORD said to Moses, "I will do just as you have asked, because I know you very well and I am pleased with you."
¹⁸Then Moses requested, "Please, let me see the dazzling light of your presence."
¹⁹The LORD answered, "I will make all my splendor pass before you and in your presence I will pronounce my sacred name. I am the LORD, and I show compassion and pity on those I choose. ²⁰I will not let you see my face, because no one can see me and stay alive, ²¹but here is a place beside me where you can stand on a rock. ²²When the dazzling light of my presence passes by, I will put you in an opening in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back but not my face."

The Second Set of Stone Tablets
(Deuteronomy 10.1-5)

Exodus 34 The LORD said to Moses, "Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ²Get ready tomorrow morning, and come up Mount Sinai to meet me there at the top. ³No one is to come up with you; no one is to be seen on any part of the mountain; and no sheep or cattle are to graze at the foot of the mountain." ⁴So Moses cut two more stone tablets, and early the next morning he carried them up Mount Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded.
⁵The LORD came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and pronounced his holy name, the LORD. ⁶The LORD then passed in front of him and called out, "I, the LORD, am a God who is full of compassion and pity, who is not easily angered and who shows great love and faithfulness. ⁷I keep my promise for thousands of generations and forgive evil and sin; but I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents."
⁸Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshiped. ⁹He said, "Lord, if you really are pleased with me, I ask you to go with us. These people are stubborn, but forgive our evil and our sin, and accept us as your own people."

The Covenant Is Renewed
(Exodus 23.14-19; Deuteronomy 7.1-5; 16.1-17)

¹⁰The LORD said to Moses, "I now make a covenant with the people of Israel. In their presence I will do great things such as have never been done anywhere on earth among any of the nations. All the people will see what great things I, the LORD, can do, because I am going to do an awesome thing for you. ¹¹Obey the laws that I am giving you today. I will drive out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as you advance. ¹²Do not make any treaties with the people of the country into which you are going, because this could be a fatal trap for you. ¹³Instead, tear down their altars, destroy their sacred pillars, and cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah.
¹⁴"Do not worship any other god, because I, the LORD, tolerate no rivals. ¹⁵Do not make any treaties with the people of the country, because when they worship their pagan gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you to join them, and you will be tempted to eat the food they offer to their gods. ¹⁶Your sons might marry those foreign women, who would lead them to be unfaithful to me and to worship their pagan gods.
¹⁷"Do not make gods of metal and worship them.
¹⁸"Keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I have commanded you, eat unleavened bread for seven days in the month of Abib, because it was in that month that you left Egypt.
¹⁹"Every first-born son and first-born male domestic animal belongs to me, ²⁰but you are to buy back every first-born donkey by offering a lamb in its place. If you do not buy it back, break its neck. Buy back every first-born son.
"No one is to appear before me without an offering.
²¹"You have six days in which to do your work, but do not work on the seventh day, not even during plowing time or harvest.
²²"Keep the Harvest Festival when you begin to harvest the first crop of your wheat, and keep the Festival of Shelters in the autumn when you gather your fruit.
²³"Three times a year all of your men must come to worship me, the LORD, the God of Israel. ²⁴After I have driven out the nations before you and extended your territory, no one will try to conquer your country during the three festivals.
²⁵"Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. Do not keep until the following morning any part of the animal killed at the Passover Festival.
²⁶"Each year bring to the house of the LORD the first grain that you harvest.
"Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk."
²⁷The LORD said to Moses, "Write these words down, because it is on the basis of these words that I am making a covenant with you and with Israel." ²⁸Moses stayed there with the LORD forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant--the Ten Commandments.

Moses Goes Down from Mount Sinai

²⁹When Moses went down from Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, his face was shining because he had been speaking with the LORD; but he did not know it. ³⁰Aaron and all the people looked at Moses and saw that his face was shining, and they were afraid to go near him. ³¹But Moses called them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the community went to him, and Moses spoke with them. ³²After that, all the people of Israel gathered around him, and Moses gave them all the laws that the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai. ³³When Moses had finished speaking with them, he covered his face with a veil. ³⁴Whenever Moses went into the Tent of the LORD's presence to speak to the LORD, he would take the veil off. When he came out, he would tell the people of Israel everything that he had been commanded to say, ³⁵and they would see that his face was shining. Then he would put the veil back on until the next time he went to speak with the LORD.

Today's Reading: Matthew 5.21-48, Exodus 30-32 and Proverbs 14

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this day. I thank You that You speak hope and love, direction and correction to me through Your Word. Help me today to keep my focus on You. Help me today to bring Glory to Your name. Let the wisdom of today's Word sharpen me and help me to become even more effective for the glory of Your Kingdom. Help me to be an example not only to my children, but to those who I meet and encounter this week. Help me to win souls I pray. And Lord, I will give You all the praise and all the glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Teaching about Anger

Matthew 5 ²¹"You have heard that people were told in the past, 'Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.' ²²But now I tell you: if you are angry with your brother you will be brought to trial, if you call your brother 'You good-for-nothing!' you will be brought before the Council, and if you call your brother a worthless fool you will be in danger of going to the fire of hell. ²³So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to God.
²⁵"If someone brings a lawsuit against you and takes you to court, settle the dispute while there is time, before you get to court. Once you are there, you will be turned over to the judge, who will hand you over to the police, and you will be put in jail. ²⁶There you will stay, I tell you, until you pay the last penny of your fine.

Teaching about Adultery

²⁷"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' ²⁸But now I tell you: anyone who looks at a woman and wants to possess her is guilty of committing adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹So if your right eye causes you to sin, take it out and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose a part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell. ³⁰If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose one of your limbs than to have your whole body go off to hell.

Teaching about Divorce
(Matthew 19.9; Mark 10.11, 12; Luke 16.18)

³¹"It was also said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce.' ³²But now I tell you: if a man divorces his wife for any cause other than her unfaithfulness, then he is guilty of making her commit adultery if she marries again; and the man who marries her commits adultery also.

Teaching about Vows

³³"You have also heard that people were told in the past, 'Do not break your promise, but do what you have vowed to the Lord to do.' ³⁴But now I tell you: do not use any vow when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven, for it is God's throne; ³⁵nor by earth, for it is the resting place for his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶Do not even swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. ³⁷Just say 'Yes' or 'No'--anything else you say comes from the Evil One.

Teaching about Revenge
(Luke 6.29, 30)

³⁸"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' ³⁹But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. ⁴⁰And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. ⁴¹And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. ⁴²When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him.

Love for Enemies
(Luke 6.27, 28, 32-36)

⁴³"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your friends, hate your enemies.' ⁴⁴But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. ⁴⁶Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! ⁴⁷And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even the pagans do that! ⁴⁸You must be perfect--just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

The Altar for Burning Incense
(Exodus 37.25-28)

Exodus 30 "Make an altar out of acacia wood, for burning incense. ²It is to be square, 18 inches long and 18 inches wide, and it is to be 36 inches high. Its projections at the four corners are to form one piece with it. ³Cover its top, all four sides, and its projections with pure gold, and put a gold border around it. ⁴Make two gold carrying rings for it and attach them below the border on two sides to hold the poles with which it is to be carried. ⁵Make these poles of acacia wood and cover them with gold. ⁶Put this altar outside the curtain which hangs in front of the Covenant Box. That is the place where I will meet you. ⁷Every morning when Aaron comes to take care of the lamps, he is to burn sweet-smelling incense on it. ⁸He must do the same when he lights the lamps in the evening. This offering of incense is to continue without interruption for all time to come. ⁹Do not offer on this altar any forbidden incense, any animal offering, or any grain offering, and do not pour out any wine offering on it. ¹⁰Once a year Aaron is to perform the ritual for purifying the altar by putting on its four projections the blood of the animal sacrificed for sin. This is to be done every year for all time to come. This altar is to be completely holy, dedicated to me, the LORD."

The Tax for the Tent of the LORD's Presence

¹¹The LORD said to Moses, ¹²"When you take a census of the people of Israel, each man is to pay me a price for his life, so that no disaster will come on him while the census is being taken. ¹³Everyone included in the census must pay the required amount of money, weighed according to the official standard. Everyone must pay this as an offering to me. ¹⁴Everyone being counted in the census, that is, every man twenty years old or older, is to pay me this amount. ¹⁵The rich man is not to pay more, nor the poor man less, when they pay this amount for their lives. ¹⁶Collect this money from the people of Israel and spend it for the upkeep of the Tent of my presence. This tax will be the payment for their lives, and I will remember to protect them."

The Bronze Basin

¹⁷The LORD said to Moses, ¹⁸"Make a bronze basin with a bronze base. Place it between the Tent and the altar, and put water in it. ¹⁹Aaron and his sons are to use the water to wash their hands and feet ²⁰before they go into the Tent or approach the altar to offer the food offering. Then they will not be killed. ²¹They must wash their hands and feet, so that they will not die. This is a rule which they and their descendants are to observe forever."

The Anointing Oil

²²The LORD said to Moses, ²³"Take the finest spices--12 pounds of liquid myrrh, 6 pounds of sweet-smelling cinnamon, 6 pounds of sweet-smelling cane, ²⁴and 12 pounds of cassia (all weighed according to the official standard). Add one gallon of olive oil, ²⁵and make a sacred anointing oil, mixed like perfume. ²⁶Use it to anoint the Tent of my presence, the Covenant Box, ²⁷the table and all its equipment, the lampstand and its equipment, the altar for burning incense, ²⁸the altar for burning offerings, together with all its equipment, and the washbasin with its base. ²⁹Dedicate these things in this way, and they will be completely holy, and anyone or anything that touches them will be harmed by the power of its holiness. ³⁰Then anoint Aaron and his sons, and ordain them as priests in my service. ³¹Say to the people of Israel, 'This holy anointing oil is to be used in my service for all time to come. ³²It must not be poured on ordinary men, and you must not use the same formula to make any mixture like it. It is holy, and you must treat it as holy. ³³Whoever makes any like it or uses any of it on anyone who is not a priest will no longer be considered one of my people.'"

The Incense

³⁴The LORD said to Moses, "Take an equal part of each of the following sweet spices--stacte, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense. ³⁵Use them to make incense, mixed like perfume. Add salt to keep it pure and holy. ³⁶Beat part of it into a fine powder, take it into the Tent of my presence, and sprinkle it in front of the Covenant Box. Treat this incense as completely holy. ³⁷Do not use the same formula to make any incense like it for yourselves. Treat it as a holy thing dedicated to me. ³⁸If anyone makes any like it for use as perfume, he will no longer be considered one of my people."

Craftsmen for the Tent of the LORD's Presence
(Exodus 35.30--36.1)

Exodus 31 The LORD said to Moses, ²"I have chosen Bezalel, the son of Uri and grandson of Hur, from the tribe of Judah, ³and I have filled him with my power. I have given him understanding, skill, and ability for every kind of artistic work-- ⁴for planning skillful designs and working them in gold, silver, and bronze; ⁵for cutting jewels to be set; for carving wood; and for every other kind of artistic work. ⁶I have also selected Oholiab son of Ahisamach, from the tribe of Dan, to work with him. I have also given great ability to all the other skilled workers, so that they can make everything I have commanded to be made: ⁷the Tent of my presence, the Covenant Box and its lid, all the furnishings of the Tent, ⁸the table and its equipment, the lampstand of pure gold and all its equipment, the altar for burning incense, ⁹the altar for burnt offerings and all its equipment, the washbasin and its base, ¹⁰the magnificent priestly garments for Aaron and his sons to use when they serve as priests, ¹¹the anointing oil, and the sweet-smelling incense for the Holy Place. In making all these things, they are to do exactly as I have commanded you."

Sabbath, the Day of Rest

¹²The LORD commanded Moses ¹³to tell the people of Israel, "Keep the Sabbath, my day of rest, because it is a sign between you and me for all time to come, to show that I, the LORD, have made you my own people. ¹⁴You must keep the day of rest, because it is sacred. Whoever does not keep it, but works on that day, is to be put to death. ¹⁵You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a solemn day of rest dedicated to me. Whoever does any work on that day is to be put to death. ¹⁶The people of Israel are to keep this day as a sign of the covenant. ¹⁷It is a permanent sign between the people of Israel and me, because I, the LORD, made heaven and earth in six days, and on the seventh day I stopped working and rested."
¹⁸When God had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two stone tablets on which God himself had written the commandments.

The Gold Bull-Calf
(Deuteronomy 9.6-29)

Exodus 32 When the people saw that Moses had not come down from the mountain but was staying there a long time, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, "We do not know what has happened to this man Moses, who led us out of Egypt; so make us a god to lead us."
²Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold earrings which your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." ³So all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴He took the earrings, melted them, poured the gold into a mold, and made a gold bull-calf.
The people said, "Israel, this is our god, who led us out of Egypt!"
⁵Then Aaron built an altar in front of the gold bull-calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to honor the LORD." ⁶Early the next morning they brought some animals to burn as sacrifices and others to eat as fellowship offerings. The people sat down to a feast, which turned into an orgy of drinking and sex.
⁷The LORD said to Moses, "Hurry and go back down, because your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have sinned and rejected me. ⁸They have already left the way that I commanded them to follow; they have made a bull-calf out of melted gold and have worshiped it and offered sacrifices to it. They are saying that this is their god, who led them out of Egypt. ⁹I know how stubborn these people are. ¹⁰Now, don't try to stop me. I am angry with them, and I am going to destroy them. Then I will make you and your descendants into a great nation."
¹¹But Moses pleaded with the LORD his God and said, "LORD, why should you be so angry with your people, whom you rescued from Egypt with great might and power? ¹²Why should the Egyptians be able to say that you led your people out of Egypt, planning to kill them in the mountains and destroy them completely? Stop being angry; change your mind and do not bring this disaster on your people. ¹³Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember the solemn promise you made to them to give them as many descendants as there are stars in the sky and to give their descendants all that land you promised would be their possession forever." ¹⁴So the LORD changed his mind and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
¹⁵Moses went back down the mountain, carrying the two stone tablets with the commandments written on both sides. ¹⁶God himself had made the tablets and had engraved the commandments on them.
¹⁷Joshua heard the people shouting and said to Moses, "I hear the sound of battle in the camp."
¹⁸Moses said, "That doesn't sound like a shout of victory or a cry of defeat; it's the sound of singing."
¹⁹When Moses came close enough to the camp to see the bull-calf and to see the people dancing, he became furious. There at the foot of the mountain, he threw down the tablets he was carrying and broke them. ²⁰He took the bull-calf which they had made, melted it, ground it into fine powder, and mixed it with water. Then he made the people of Israel drink it. ²¹He said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you have made them commit such a terrible sin?"
²²Aaron answered, "Don't be angry with me; you know how determined these people are to do evil. ²³They said to me, 'We don't know what has happened to this man Moses, who brought us out of Egypt; so make us a god to lead us.' ²⁴I asked them to bring me their gold ornaments, and those who had any took them off and gave them to me. I threw the ornaments into the fire and out came this bull-calf!"
²⁵Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get out of control and make fools of themselves in front of their enemies. ²⁶So he stood at the gate of the camp and shouted, "Everyone who is on the LORD's side come over here!" So all the Levites gathered around him, ²⁷and he said to them, "The LORD God of Israel commands every one of you to put on your sword and go through the camp from this gate to the other and kill your brothers, your friends, and your neighbors." ²⁸The Levites obeyed, and killed about three thousand men that day. ²⁹Moses said to the Levites, "Today you have consecrated yourselves as priests in the service of the LORD by killing your sons and brothers, so the LORD has given you his blessing."
³⁰The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a terrible sin. But now I will again go up the mountain to the LORD; perhaps I can obtain forgiveness for your sin." ³¹Moses then returned to the LORD and said, "These people have committed a terrible sin. They have made a god out of gold and worshiped it. ³²Please forgive their sin; but if you won't, then remove my name from the book in which you have written the names of your people."
³³The LORD answered, "It is those who have sinned against me whose names I will remove from my book. ³⁴Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about. Remember that my angel will guide you, but the time is coming when I will punish these people for their sin."
³⁵So the LORD sent a disease on the people, because they had caused Aaron to make the gold bull-calf.

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this new day. I thank You that You have given us the Word of God, Your Word that was written down in order for us to be able to hear from You and receive from You wisdom and direction, correction and encouragement. I ask Lord that as I go out today that people will come to share their testimonies about Your love and Your greatness. I pray that You will allow others to open up and share their troubles and burdens that we may be able to come together and help carry their load. Lord, You Word is clear that we were never made to go through life alone, which is why You speak of "one another". Help me to be available for others today. Help me to be able to speak hope, love, and truth into the their lives and to testify of Your greatness. I ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Preaching of John the Baptist
(Mark 1.1-8; Luke 3.1-18; John 1.19-28)

Matthew 3 At that time John the Baptist came to the desert of Judea and started preaching. ²"Turn away from your sins," he said, "because the Kingdom of heaven is near!" ³John was the man the prophet Isaiah was talking about when he said,
"Someone is shouting in the desert,
'Prepare a road for the Lord;
make a straight path for him to travel!'"
⁴John's clothes were made of camel's hair; he wore a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵People came to him from Jerusalem, from the whole province of Judea, and from all over the country near the Jordan River. ⁶They confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan.
⁷When John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to him to be baptized, he said to them, "You snakes--who told you that you could escape from the punishment God is about to send? ⁸Do those things that will show that you have turned from your sins. ⁹And don't think you can escape punishment by saying that Abraham is your ancestor. I tell you that God can take these rocks and make descendants for Abraham! ¹⁰The ax is ready to cut down the trees at the roots; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire. ¹¹I baptize you with water to show that you have repented, but the one who will come after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He is much greater than I am; and I am not good enough even to carry his sandals. ¹²He has his winnowing shovel with him to thresh out all the grain. He will gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out."

The Baptism of Jesus
(Mark 1.9-11; Luke 3.21, 22)

¹³At that time Jesus arrived from Galilee and came to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. ¹⁴But John tried to make him change his mind. "I ought to be baptized by you," John said, "and yet you have come to me!"
¹⁵But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires." So John agreed.
¹⁶As soon as Jesus was baptized, he came up out of the water. Then heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and lighting on him. ¹⁷Then a voice said from heaven, "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased."

The Covenant Is Sealed

Exodus 24 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up the mountain to me, you and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel; and while you are still some distance away, bow down in worship. ²You alone, and none of the others, are to come near me. The people are not even to come up the mountain."
³Moses went and told the people all the LORD's commands and all the ordinances, and all the people answered together, "We will do everything that the LORD has said." ⁴Moses wrote down all the LORD's commands. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵Then he sent young men, and they burned sacrifices to the LORD and sacrificed some cattle as fellowship offerings. ⁶Moses took half of the blood of the animals and put it in bowls; and the other half he threw against the altar. ⁷Then he took the book of the covenant, in which the LORD's commands were written, and read it aloud to the people. They said, "We will obey the LORD and do everything that he has commanded."
⁸Then Moses took the blood in the bowls and threw it on the people. He said, "This is the blood that seals the covenant which the LORD made with you when he gave all these commands."
⁹Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel went up the mountain ¹⁰and they saw the God of Israel. Beneath his feet was what looked like a pavement of sapphire, as blue as the sky. ¹¹God did not harm these leading men of Israel; they saw God, and then they ate and drank together.

Moses on Mount Sinai

¹²The LORD said to Moses, "Come up the mountain to me, and while you are here, I will give you two stone tablets which contain all the laws that I have written for the instruction of the people." ¹³Moses and his helper Joshua got ready, and Moses began to go up the holy mountain. ¹⁴Moses said to the leaders, "Wait here in the camp for us until we come back. Aaron and Hur are here with you; and so whoever has a dispute to settle can go to them."
¹⁵Moses went up Mount Sinai, and a cloud covered it. ^16-17The dazzling light of the LORD's presence came down on the mountain. To the Israelites the light looked like a fire burning on top of the mountain. The cloud covered the mountain for six days, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from the cloud. ¹⁸Moses went on up the mountain into the cloud. There he stayed for forty days and nights.

Today's Reading: Matthew 2, Exodus 22-23 and Proverbs 10

In the person of Jesus Christ, there are so many things that had been prophesied hundreds and in some cases thousands of years earlier.

Visitors from the East

Matthew 2 Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the time when Herod was king. Soon afterward, some men who studied the stars came from the East to Jerusalem ²and asked, "Where is the baby born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star when it came up in the east, and we have come to worship him."
³When King Herod heard about this, he was very upset, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem. ⁴He called together all the chief priests and the teachers of the Law and asked them, "Where will the Messiah be born?"
⁵"In the town of Bethlehem in Judea," they answered. "For this is what the prophet wrote:
⁶'Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
you are by no means the least of the leading cities of Judah;
for from you will come a leader
who will guide my people Israel.'"
⁷So Herod called the visitors from the East to a secret meeting and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem with these instructions: "Go and make a careful search for the child; and when you find him, let me know, so that I too may go and worship him."
^9-10And so they left, and on their way they saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it, how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹¹They went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him.
¹²Then they returned to their country by another road, since God had warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod.

The Escape to Egypt

¹³After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, "Herod will be looking for the child in order to kill him. So get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave."
¹⁴Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left during the night for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until Herod died. This was done to make come true what the Lord had said through the prophet, "I called my Son out of Egypt."

The Killing of the Children

¹⁶When Herod realized that the visitors from the East had tricked him, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighborhood who were two years old and younger--this was done in accordance with what he had learned from the visitors about the time when the star had appeared.
¹⁷In this way what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true:
¹⁸"A sound is heard in Ramah,
the sound of bitter weeping.
Rachel is crying for her children;
she refuses to be comforted,
for they are dead."

The Return from Egypt

¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go back to the land of Israel, because those who tried to kill the child are dead." ²¹So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went back to Israel.
²²But when Joseph heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, he was afraid to go there. He was given more instructions in a dream, so he went to the province of Galilee ²³and made his home in a town named Nazareth. And so what the prophets had said came true: "He will be called a Nazarene."

Solomon's Proverbs

Proverbs 10 These are Solomon's proverbs:
Wise children make their fathers proud of them; foolish ones bring their mothers grief.
²Wealth you get by dishonesty will do you no good, but honesty can save your life.
³The LORD will not let good people go hungry, but he will keep the wicked from getting what they want.
⁴Being lazy will make you poor, but hard work will make you rich.
⁵A sensible person gathers the crops when they are ready; it is a disgrace to sleep through the time of harvest.
⁶Good people will receive blessings. The words of the wicked hide a violent nature.
⁷Good people will be remembered as a blessing, but the wicked will soon be forgotten.
⁸Sensible people accept good advice. People who talk foolishly will come to ruin.
⁹Honest people are safe and secure, but the dishonest will be caught.
¹⁰Someone who holds back the truth causes trouble, but one who openly criticizes works for peace.
¹¹A good person's words are a fountain of life, but a wicked person's words hide a violent nature.
¹²Hate stirs up trouble, but love forgives all offenses.
¹³Intelligent people talk sense, but stupid people need to be punished.
¹⁴The wise get all the knowledge they can, but when fools speak, trouble is not far off.
¹⁵Wealth protects the rich; poverty destroys the poor.
¹⁶The reward for doing good is life, but sin leads only to more sin.
¹⁷People who listen when they are corrected will live, but those who will not admit that they are wrong are in danger.
¹⁸Anyone who hides hatred is a liar. Anyone who spreads gossip is a fool.
¹⁹The more you talk, the more likely you are to sin. If you are wise, you will keep quiet.
²⁰A good person's words are like pure silver; a wicked person's ideas are worthless.
²¹A good person's words will benefit many people, but you can kill yourself with stupidity.
²²It is the LORD's blessing that makes you wealthy. Hard work can make you no richer.
²³It is foolish to enjoy doing wrong. Intelligent people take pleasure in wisdom.
²⁴The righteous get what they want, but the wicked will get what they fear most.
²⁵Storms come, and the wicked are blown away, but honest people are always safe.
²⁶Never get a lazy person to do something for you; he will be as irritating as vinegar on your teeth or smoke in your eyes.
²⁷Obey the LORD, and you will live longer. The wicked die before their time.
²⁸The hopes of good people lead to joy, but wicked people can look forward to nothing.
²⁹The LORD protects honest people, but destroys those who do wrong.
³⁰Righteous people will always have security, but the wicked will not survive in the land.
³¹Righteous people speak wisdom, but the tongue that speaks evil will be stopped.
³²Righteous people know the kind thing to say, but the wicked are always saying things that hurt.

Today's Reading: Matthew 1, Exodus 20-21 and Proverbs 9
Today's Devotional: Saved From Such Men by Os Hillman

Lord,
I am finding that I am struggling with keeping "First Things First". I am finding that there is a lot of sand that is trying to get into my bowl and I need to look into finding a way to stop this. Lord, I need Your wisdom in this matter. Lord, I need to find a way to clear my calendar in order to make traction and take actions that will bring greater fruit into my life. Help me to review all my meetings and see if there might be a way for me to clear parts of my calendar by delegating or removing myself from them. Help me to find favor in those around me so that I may shine the love of Jesus into their lives and that they be open to receive it. Someone needs to do the tilling, some will need to do the planning, and some will need to water, but Lord, it is You who will make it grow. Be it life or be it faith, Lord, it is You who makes it grow. Send Your Holy Spirit into my work and my home life so that I can make the right decisions. Help me to grab onto Your truths and run with them. May today be a day that will be bring You great praise and honor, worship and glory, as I work for You in all I choose to do, in Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.

Did you ever notice the number of people between Abraham and David or between David and the exile to Babylon or between David and Jesus?

14 is the number of generations for each of these.

(Also found in Deuteronomy 5.1-21)

Exodus 20 God spoke, and these were his words: ²"I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves.
³"Worship no god but me. (1)
⁴"Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. ⁵Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the LORD your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. ⁶But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my laws. (2)
⁷"Do not use my name for evil purposes, for I, the LORD your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name. (3)
⁸"Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. ⁹You have six days in which to do your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. On that day no one is to work--neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country. ¹¹In six days I, the LORD, made the earth, the sky, the seas, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That is why I, the LORD, blessed the Sabbath and made it holy. (4)
¹²"Respect your father and your mother, so that you may live a long time in the land that I am giving you. (5)
¹³"Do not commit murder. (6)
¹⁴"Do not commit adultery. (7)
¹⁵"Do not steal. (8)
¹⁶"Do not accuse anyone falsely. (9)
¹⁷"Do not desire another man's house; do not desire his wife, his slaves, his cattle, his donkeys, or anything else that he owns." (10)

¹⁰If a man takes a second wife, he must continue to give his first wife the same amount of food and clothing and the same rights that she had before. ¹¹If he does not fulfill these duties to her, he must set her free and not receive any payment.

Laws about Violent Acts

¹²"Whoever hits someone and kills him is to be put to death. ¹³But if it was an accident and he did not mean to kill him, he can escape to a place which I will choose for you, and there he will be safe. ¹⁴But when someone gets angry and deliberately kills someone else, he is to be put to death, even if he has run to my altar for safety.
¹⁵"Whoever hits his father or his mother is to be put to death.
¹⁶"Whoever kidnaps someone, either to sell him or to keep him as a slave, is to be put to death.
¹⁷"Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death.
^18-19"If there is a fight and someone hits someone else with a stone or with his fist, but does not kill him, he is not to be punished. If the one who was hit has to stay in bed, but later is able to get up and walk outside with the help of a cane, the one who hit him is to pay for his lost time and take care of him until he gets well.
²⁰"If a slave owner takes a stick and beats his slave, whether male or female, and the slave dies on the spot, the owner is to be punished. ²¹But if the slave does not die for a day or two, the master is not to be punished. The loss of his property is punishment enough.
²²"If some men are fighting and hurt a pregnant woman so that she loses her child, but she is not injured in any other way, the one who hurt her is to be fined whatever amount the woman's husband demands, subject to the approval of the judges. ²³But if the woman herself is injured, the punishment shall be life for life, ²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
²⁶"If someone hits his male or female slave in the eye and puts it out, he is to free the slave as payment for the eye. ²⁷If he knocks out a tooth, he is to free the slave as payment for the tooth.

The Responsibility of Owners

²⁸"If a bull gores someone to death, it is to be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but its owner is not to be punished. ²⁹But if the bull had been in the habit of attacking people and its owner had been warned, but did not keep it penned up--then if it gores someone to death, it is to be stoned, and its owner is to be put to death also. ³⁰However, if the owner is allowed to pay a fine to save his life, he must pay the full amount required. ³¹If the bull kills a boy or a girl, the same rule applies. ³²If the bull kills a male or female slave, its owner shall pay the owner of the slave thirty pieces of silver, and the bull shall be stoned to death.
³³"If someone takes the cover off a pit or if he digs one and does not cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it, ³⁴he must pay for the animal. He is to pay the money to the owner and may keep the dead animal. ³⁵If someone's bull kills someone else's bull, the two of them shall sell the live bull and divide the money; they shall also divide up the meat from the dead animal. ³⁶But if it was known that the bull had been in the habit of attacking and its owner did not keep it penned up, he must make good the loss by giving the other man a live bull, but he may keep the dead animal.

Wisdom and Stupidity

Proverbs 9 Wisdom has built her house and made seven columns for it. ²She has had an animal killed for a feast, mixed spices in the wine, and set the table. ³She has sent her servant women to call out from the highest place in town: ⁴"Come in, ignorant people!" And to the foolish she says, ⁵"Come, eat my food and drink the wine that I have mixed. ⁶Leave the company of ignorant people, and live. Follow the way of knowledge."
⁷If you correct conceited people, you will only be insulted. If you reprimand evil people, you will only get hurt. ⁸Never correct conceited people; they will hate you for it. But if you correct the wise, they will respect you. ⁹Anything you say to the wise will make them wiser. Whatever you tell the righteous will add to their knowledge.
¹⁰To be wise you must first have reverence for the LORD. If you know the Holy One, you have understanding. ¹¹Wisdom will add years to your life. ¹²You are the one who will profit if you have wisdom, and if you reject it, you are the one who will suffer.
¹³Stupidity is like a loud, ignorant, shameless woman. ¹⁴She sits at the door of her house or on a seat in the highest part of town, ¹⁵and calls out to people passing by, who are minding their own business: ¹⁶"Come in, ignorant people!" To the foolish she says, ¹⁷"Stolen water is sweeter. Stolen bread tastes better." ¹⁸Her victims do not know that the people die who go to her house, that those who have already entered are now deep in the world of the dead.

by Os Hillman

Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. - Joel 3:10a
In this third chapter of Joel, we hear the prophet describe a time yet to come. It will be a time of great harvest on the earth, and this verse describes the catalyst. A plowshare is an agricultural instrument used to till the soil. At this point in history, it was a tool that spoke of one's vocation. However, the prophet was speaking of a time yet to come. The prophet described the plowshare as an instrument that will be turned into a sword. The sword is often used in the Bible to describe God's Word. The only way a plowshare can be turned into a sword is for it to go through extreme heat, and then the blacksmith must beat that plowshare into shape. Heat and punishment of the metal turns that plowshare into an instrument of battle. God must do this in each of our lives in order for us to be useable as a worthy sword. We are all in a battle - a spiritual battle. Paul describes our battle as one against the principalities of the unseen world. I believe God is going to raise up many in the workplace to use their plowshare as a weapon of righteousness in these last days. That weapon won't be used for destruction, but as a weapon of love. That weapon of love will yield a great harvest in our lifetime. But this is only part of the story.
God is also going to turn our pruning hooks into spears. A pruning hook is used in two ways. First, it is used to prune a tree for greater growth and productivity. It is also used to cut the fruit from taller trees in which one cannot reach the fruit. This fruit from our vocation is going to be cast forth like a spear, but even more as seed planted to bring the harvest of which Joel speaks. Fruit from our work life is often the financial rewards generated. God wants to use our finances and everything else for His purposes. We must use our vocations and the fruit that comes from them as seed to bring the great harvest that God is planning.
How are you using your plowshare and your pruning hook for God's glory today? Ask God to show you how He wants to use your skills, resources, and relationships to prepare for the great harvest He has planned.

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Today's Reading:Hebrews 13, Exodus 18-19 and Proverbs 8
Today's Devotional: Weapons of Warfare

Heavenly Father,
Let Your Love as a Father shine into and through me today so that I can speak into the lives of those people around me bringing them hope and truth. Lord, You have taught me and revealed to me that Your love is so great that You have forgiven me, You have corrected me, You have encouraged me, You sent Your Son Jesus to open the door of salvation to me. I thank You and Love You Lord for all of this.

Lord, I know You have great plans for Aaron. I pray Lord that You will break the strongholds of fear and disappointment from him. Lord, help him to look to You has his Heavenly Father and to help him in redirecting and refocusing his life from a stand of fear and disappointment to one of hope and faith. Lord, it is by grace we have been saved through faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Lord, by turning from what we had and turning and running to You, there are such opportunities and we are able to look beyond our circumstances. By turning off the violence on television and in games, we can work to purify our minds through reading the Word of God and transforming our hearts and minds to be of greater good for God.  Help Aaron to realize that You are the God of the second chances and that by taking a risk (stepping out in faith) that is called for by You, He doesn't have to worry about screwing up. Lord, we are to show and bring reverence to You and let You keep us on the straight path.

Lord, I pray for my brother Isaac who is about to visit a brother in a psych hospital. Lord, reveal Yourself to this brother in word and in deed, and let Your power bring freedom to many people today I pray. Let strongholds that are affecting their minds as well as physical strongholds that are caused by fear and distrust of people and government be broken and the people of the facility as well as the patients be transformed through the Holy Spirit.

Lord, Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path. Keep me on the narrow path today so that You will be glorified in all I say and do, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

How to Please God

Hebrews 13 Keep on loving one another as Christians. ²Remember to welcome strangers in your homes. There were some who did that and welcomed angels without knowing it. ³Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering, as though you were suffering as they are.
⁴Marriage is to be honored by all, and husbands and wives must be faithful to each other. God will judge those who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, "I will never leave you; I will never abandon you." ⁶Let us be bold, then, and say,
"The Lord is my helper,
I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?"
⁷Remember your former leaders, who spoke God's message to you. Think back on how they lived and died, and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹Do not let all kinds of strange teachings lead you from the right way. It is good to receive inner strength from God's grace, and not by obeying rules about foods; those who obey these rules have not been helped by them.
¹⁰The priests who serve in the Jewish place of worship have no right to eat any of the sacrifice on our altar. ¹¹The Jewish high priest brings the blood of the animals into the Most Holy Place to offer it as a sacrifice for sins; but the bodies of the animals are burned outside the camp. ¹²For this reason Jesus also died outside the city, in order to purify the people from sin with his own blood. ¹³Let us, then, go to him outside the camp and share his shame. ¹⁴For there is no permanent city for us here on earth; we are looking for the city which is to come. ¹⁵Let us, then, always offer praise to God as our sacrifice through Jesus, which is the offering presented by lips that confess him as Lord. ¹⁶Do not forget to do good and to help one another, because these are the sacrifices that please God.
¹⁷Obey your leaders and follow their orders. They watch over your souls without resting, since they must give to God an account of their service. If you obey them, they will do their work gladly; if not, they will do it with sadness, and that would be of no help to you.
¹⁸Keep on praying for us. We are sure we have a clear conscience, because we want to do the right thing at all times. ¹⁹And I beg you even more earnestly to pray that God will send me back to you soon.

Closing Prayer

^20-21God has raised from death our Lord Jesus, who is the Great Shepherd of the sheep as the result of his blood, by which the eternal covenant is sealed. May the God of peace provide you with every good thing you need in order to do his will, and may he, through Jesus Christ, do in us what pleases him. And to Christ be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

Final Words

²²I beg you, my friends, to listen patiently to this message of encouragement; for this letter I have written you is not very long. ²³I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been let out of prison. If he comes soon enough, I will have him with me when I see you.
²⁴Give our greetings to all your leaders and to all God's people. The believers from Italy send you their greetings.
²⁵May God's grace be with you all.

Jethro Visits Moses

Exodus 18 Moses' father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard about everything that God had done for Moses and the people of Israel when he led them out of Egypt. ²So he came to Moses, bringing with him Moses' wife Zipporah, who had been left behind, ³and Gershom and Eliezer, her two sons. (Moses had said, "I have been a foreigner in a strange land"; so he had named one son Gershom. ⁴He had also said, "The God of my father helped me and saved me from being killed by the king of Egypt"; so he had named the other son Eliezer.) ⁵Jethro came with Moses' wife and her two sons into the desert where Moses was camped at the holy mountain. ⁶He had sent word to Moses that they were coming, ⁷so Moses went out to meet him, bowed before him, and kissed him. They asked about each other's health and then went into Moses' tent. ⁸Moses told Jethro everything that the LORD had done to the king and the people of Egypt in order to rescue the Israelites. He also told him about the hardships the people had faced on the way and how the LORD had saved them. ⁹When Jethro heard all this, he was happy ¹⁰and said, "Praise the LORD, who saved you from the king and the people of Egypt! Praise the LORD, who saved his people from slavery! ¹¹Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods, because he did this when the Egyptians treated the Israelites with such contempt." ¹²Then Jethro brought an offering to be burned whole and other sacrifices to be offered to God; and Aaron and all the leaders of Israel went with him to eat the sacred meal as an act of worship.

The Appointment of Judges

(Deuteronomy 1.9-18)

¹³The next day Moses was settling disputes among the people, and he was kept busy from morning till night. ¹⁴When Jethro saw everything that Moses had to do, he asked, "What is all this that you are doing for the people? Why are you doing this all alone, with people standing here from morning till night to consult you?"
¹⁵Moses answered, "I must do this because the people come to me to learn God's will. ¹⁶When two people have a dispute, they come to me, and I decide which one of them is right, and I tell them God's commands and laws."
¹⁷Then Jethro said, "You are not doing this right. ¹⁸You will wear yourself out and these people as well. This is too much for you to do alone. ¹⁹Now let me give you some good advice, and God will be with you. It is right for you to represent the people before God and bring their disputes to him. ²⁰You should teach them God's commands and explain to them how they should live and what they should do. ²¹But in addition, you should choose some capable men and appoint them as leaders of the people: leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. They must be God-fearing men who can be trusted and who cannot be bribed. ²²Let them serve as judges for the people on a permanent basis. They can bring all the difficult cases to you, but they themselves can decide all the smaller disputes. That will make it easier for you, as they share your burden. ²³If you do this, as God commands, you will not wear yourself out, and all these people can go home with their disputes settled."
²⁴Moses took Jethro's advice ²⁵and chose capable men from among all the Israelites. He appointed them as leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. ²⁶They served as judges for the people on a permanent basis, bringing the difficult cases to Moses but deciding the smaller disputes themselves.
²⁷Then Moses said good-bye to Jethro, and Jethro went back home.

The Israelites at Mount Sinai

Exodus 19 ^1-2The people of Israel left Rephidim, and on the first day of the third month after they had left Egypt they came to the desert of Sinai. There they set up camp at the foot of Mount Sinai, ³and Moses went up the mountain to meet with God.
The LORD called to him from the mountain and told him to say to the Israelites, Jacob's descendants: ⁴"You saw what I, the LORD, did to the Egyptians and how I carried you as an eagle carries her young on her wings, and brought you here to me. ⁵Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people, ⁶a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests." ⁷So Moses went down and called the leaders of the people together and told them everything that the LORD had commanded him. ⁸Then all the people answered together, "We will do everything that the LORD has said," and Moses reported this to the LORD.
⁹The LORD said to Moses, "I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will believe you from now on."
Moses told the LORD what the people had answered, ¹⁰and the LORD said to him, "Go to the people and tell them to spend today and tomorrow purifying themselves for worship. They must wash their clothes ¹¹and be ready the day after tomorrow. On that day I will come down on Mount Sinai, where all the people can see me. ¹²Mark a boundary around the mountain that the people must not cross, and tell them not to go up the mountain or even get near it. If any of you set foot on it, you are to be put to death; ¹³you must either be stoned or shot with arrows, without anyone touching you. This applies to both people and animals; they must be put to death. But when the trumpet is blown, then the people are to go up to the mountain."
¹⁴Then Moses came down the mountain and told the people to get ready for worship. So they washed their clothes, ¹⁵and Moses told them, "Be ready by the day after tomorrow and don't have sexual intercourse in the meantime."
¹⁶On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud appeared on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast was heard. All the people in the camp trembled with fear. ¹⁷Moses led them out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD had come down on it in fire. The smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and all the people trembled violently. ¹⁹The sound of the trumpet became louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder. ²⁰The LORD came down on the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. Moses went up ²¹and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people not to cross the boundary to come and look at me; if they do, many of them will die. ²²Even the priests who come near me must purify themselves, or I will punish them."
²³Moses said to the LORD, "The people cannot come up, because you commanded us to consider the mountain sacred and to mark a boundary around it."
²⁴The LORD replied, "Go down and bring Aaron back with you. But the priests and the people must not cross the boundary to come up to me, or I will punish them." ²⁵Moses then went down to the people and told them what the LORD had said.

In Praise of Wisdom

Proverbs 8 Listen! Wisdom is calling out.
Reason is making herself heard.
²On the hilltops near the road
and at the crossroads she stands.
³At the entrance to the city,
beside the gates, she calls:
⁴"I appeal to all of you;
I call to everyone on earth.
⁵Are you immature? Learn to be mature.
Are you foolish? Learn to have sense.
⁶Listen to my excellent words;
all I tell you is right.
⁷What I say is the truth;
lies are hateful to me.
⁸Everything I say is true;
nothing is false or misleading.
⁹To those with insight, it is all clear;
to the well-informed, it is all plain.
¹⁰Choose my instruction instead of silver;
choose knowledge rather than the finest gold.
¹¹"I am Wisdom, I am better than jewels;
nothing you want can compare with me.
¹²I am Wisdom, and I have insight;
I have knowledge and sound judgment.
¹³To honor the LORD is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance,
evil ways and false words.
¹⁴I make plans and carry them out.
I have understanding, and I am strong.
¹⁵I help kings to govern
and rulers to make good laws.
¹⁶Every ruler on earth governs with my help,
officials and nobles alike.
¹⁷I love those who love me;
whoever looks for me can find me.
¹⁸I have riches and honor to give,
prosperity and success.
¹⁹What you get from me is better than the finest gold,
better than the purest silver.
²⁰I walk the way of righteousness;
I follow the paths of justice,
²¹giving wealth to those who love me,
filling their houses with treasures.
²²"The LORD created me first of all,
the first of his works, long ago.
²³I was made in the very beginning,
at the first, before the world began.
²⁴I was born before the oceans,
when there were no springs of water.
²⁵I was born before the mountains,
before the hills were set in place,
²⁶before God made the earth and its fields
or even the first handful of soil.
²⁷I was there when he set the sky in place,
when he stretched the horizon across the ocean,
²⁸when he placed the clouds in the sky,
when he opened the springs of the ocean
²⁹and ordered the waters of the sea
to rise no further than he said.
I was there when he laid the earth's foundations.
³⁰I was beside him like an architect,
I was his daily source of joy,
always happy in his presence--
³¹happy with the world
and pleased with the human race.
³²"Now, young people, listen to me.
Do as I say, and you will be happy.
³³Listen to what you are taught.
Be wise; do not neglect it.
³⁴Those who listen to me will be happy--
those who stay at my door every day,
waiting at the entrance to my home.
³⁵Those who find me find life,
and the LORD will be pleased with them.
³⁶Those who do not find me hurt themselves;
anyone who hates me loves death."

Today's Reading: Hebrews 12, Exodus 16-17 and Proverbs 7.6-27
Today's Devotional from TGIF: Unexplainable Power

Lord, through Your Word and Your Spirit, I know that You send Jesus into the Word to save us and provide a way to bridge the gap between ourselves and You. I also know that You sent Jesus to save us and allow a way for us to find and have eternal life, not to condemn us. We also receive encouragement that although "In this world you will have trouble.", that we should "take heart! I have overcome the world." Jesus came and conquered the grave and the power of death, once for all. He isn't a sacrifice that keeps being sacrificed, but He was a sacrifice once for all times.

Help us Lord, to realize that our ways are not Your ways and that Your ways are higher than our ways. Help us to draw closer to You. Help us to hold on to the truths of the Word of God and not let the circumstantial truths of this world deteriorate the fact that there is TRUTH.

I lift up all these cares and all these people to You today in Jesus' name.

I thank You and praise You, honor You and worship You, in Jesus' name. Amen.

God Our Father

Hebrews 12 As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us. ²Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God's throne.
³Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners! So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up. ⁴For in your struggle against sin you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed. ⁵Have you forgotten the encouraging words which God speaks to you as his children?
"My child, pay attention when the Lord corrects you,
and do not be discouraged when he rebukes you.
⁶Because the Lord corrects everyone he loves,
and punishes everyone he accepts as a child."
⁷Endure what you suffer as being a father's punishment; your suffering shows that God is treating you as his children. Was there ever a child who was not punished by his father? ⁸If you are not punished, as all his children are, it means you are not real children, but bastards. ⁹In the case of our human fathers, they punished us and we respected them. How much more, then, should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! ¹⁰Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them; but God does it for our own good, so that we may share his holiness. ¹¹When we are punished, it seems to us at the time something to make us sad, not glad. Later, however, those who have been disciplined by such punishment reap the peaceful reward of a righteous life.

Instructions and Warnings

¹²Lift up your tired hands, then, and strengthen your trembling knees! ¹³Keep walking on straight paths, so that the lame foot may not be disabled, but instead be healed.
¹⁴Try to be at peace with everyone, and try to live a holy life, because no one will see the Lord without it. ¹⁵Guard against turning back from the grace of God. Let no one become like a bitter plant that grows up and causes many troubles with its poison. ¹⁶Let no one become immoral or unspiritual like Esau, who for a single meal sold his rights as the older son. ¹⁷Afterward, you know, he wanted to receive his father's blessing; but he was turned back, because he could not find any way to change what he had done, even though in tears he looked for it.
¹⁸You have not come, as the people of Israel came, to what you can feel, to Mount Sinai with its blazing fire, the darkness and the gloom, the storm, ¹⁹the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of a voice. When the people heard the voice, they begged not to hear another word, ²⁰because they could not bear the order which said, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death." ²¹The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling and afraid!"
²²Instead, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, with its thousands of angels. ²³You have come to the joyful gathering of God's first-born, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, who is the judge of all people, and to the spirits of good people made perfect. ²⁴You have come to Jesus, who arranged the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that promises much better things than does the blood of Abel.
²⁵Be careful, then, and do not refuse to hear him who speaks. Those who refused to hear the one who gave the divine message on earth did not escape. How much less shall we escape, then, if we turn away from the one who speaks from heaven! ²⁶His voice shook the earth at that time, but now he has promised, "I will once more shake not only the earth but heaven as well." ²⁷The words "once more" plainly show that the created things will be shaken and removed, so that the things that cannot be shaken will remain.
²⁸Let us be thankful, then, because we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please him, with reverence and awe; ²⁹because our God is indeed a destroying fire.

The Manna and the Quails

Exodus 16 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim, and on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt, they came to the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai. ²There in the desert they all complained to Moses and Aaron ³and said to them, "We wish that the LORD had killed us in Egypt. There we could at least sit down and eat meat and as much other food as we wanted. But you have brought us out into this desert to starve us all to death."
⁴The LORD said to Moses, "Now I am going to cause food to rain down from the sky for all of you. The people must go out every day and gather enough for that day. In this way I can test them to find out if they will follow my instructions. ⁵On the sixth day they are to bring in twice as much as usual and prepare it."
⁶So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "This evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt. ⁷In the morning you will see the dazzling light of the LORD's presence. He has heard your complaints against him--yes, against him, because we are only carrying out his instructions." ⁸Then Moses said, "It is the LORD who will give you meat to eat in the evening and as much bread as you want in the morning, because he has heard how much you have complained against him. When you complain against us, you are really complaining against the LORD."
⁹Moses said to Aaron, "Tell the whole community to come and stand before the LORD, because he has heard their complaints." ¹⁰As Aaron spoke to the whole community, they turned toward the desert, and suddenly the dazzling light of the LORD appeared in a cloud. ¹¹The LORD said to Moses, ¹²"I have heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them that at twilight they will have meat to eat, and in the morning they will have all the bread they want. Then they will know that I, the LORD, am their God."
¹³In the evening a large flock of quails flew in, enough to cover the camp, and in the morning there was dew all around the camp. ¹⁴When the dew evaporated, there was something thin and flaky on the surface of the desert. It was as delicate as frost. ¹⁵When the Israelites saw it, they didn't know what it was and asked each other, "What is it?"
Moses said to them, "This is the food that the LORD has given you to eat. ¹⁶The LORD has commanded that each of you is to gather as much of it as he needs, two quarts for each member of his household."
¹⁷The Israelites did this, some gathering more, others less. ¹⁸When they measured it, those who gathered much did not have too much, and those who gathered less did not have too little. Each had gathered just what he needed. ¹⁹Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it for tomorrow." ²⁰But some of them did not listen to Moses and saved part of it. The next morning it was full of worms and smelled rotten, and Moses was angry with them. ²¹Every morning each one gathered as much as he needed; and when the sun grew hot, what was left on the ground melted.
²²On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, four quarts for each person. All the leaders of the community came and told Moses about it, ²³and he said to them, "The LORD has commanded that tomorrow is a holy day of rest, dedicated to him. Bake today what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Whatever is left should be put aside and kept for tomorrow." ²⁴As Moses had commanded, they kept what was left until the next day; it did not spoil or get worms in it. ²⁵Moses said, "Eat this today, because today is the Sabbath, a day of rest dedicated to the LORD, and you will not find any food outside the camp. ²⁶You must gather food for six days, but on the seventh day, the day of rest, there will be none."
²⁷On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather food, but they did not find any. ²⁸Then the LORD said to Moses, "How much longer will you people refuse to obey my commands? ²⁹Remember that I, the LORD, have given you a day of rest, and that is why on the sixth day I will always give you enough food for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day and not leave his home." ³⁰So the people did no work on the seventh day.
³¹The people of Israel called the food manna. It was like a small white seed, and tasted like thin cakes made with honey. ³²Moses said, "The LORD has commanded us to save some manna, to be kept for our descendants, so that they can see the food which he gave us to eat in the desert when he brought us out of Egypt." ³³Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar, put two quarts of manna in it, and place it in the LORD's presence to be kept for our descendants." ³⁴As the LORD had commanded Moses, Aaron put it in front of the Covenant Box, so that it could be kept. ³⁵The Israelites ate manna for the next forty years, until they reached the land of Canaan, where they settled. ( ³⁶The standard dry measure then in use equaled twenty quarts.)

Water from the Rock

(Numbers 20.1-13)

Exodus 17 The whole Israelite community left the desert of Sin, moving from one place to another at the command of the LORD. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there to drink. ²They complained to Moses and said, "Give us water to drink."
Moses answered, "Why are you complaining? Why are you putting the LORD to the test?"
³But the people were very thirsty and continued to complain to Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt? To kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?"
⁴Moses prayed earnestly to the LORD and said, "What can I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."
⁵The LORD said to Moses, "Take some of the leaders of Israel with you, and go on ahead of the people. Take along the stick with which you struck the Nile. ⁶I will stand before you on a rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." Moses did so in the presence of the leaders of Israel.
⁷The place was named Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites complained and put the LORD to the test when they asked, "Is the LORD with us or not?"

War with the Amalekites

⁸The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. ⁹Moses said to Joshua, "Pick out some men to go and fight the Amalekites tomorrow. I will stand on top of the hill holding the stick that God told me to carry." ¹⁰Joshua did as Moses commanded him and went out to fight the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. ¹¹As long as Moses held up his arms, the Israelites won, but when he put his arms down, the Amalekites started winning. ¹²When Moses' arms grew tired, Aaron and Hur brought a stone for him to sit on, while they stood beside him and held up his arms, holding them steady until the sun went down. ¹³In this way Joshua totally defeated the Amalekites.
¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write an account of this victory, so that it will be remembered. Tell Joshua that I will completely destroy the Amalekites." ¹⁵Moses built an altar and named it "The LORD is my Banner." ¹⁶He said, "Hold high the banner of the LORD! The LORD will continue to fight against the Amalekites forever!"

The Immoral Woman

Proverbs 7⁶Once I was looking out the window of my house, ⁷and I saw many inexperienced young men, but noticed one foolish fellow in particular. ⁸He was walking along the street near the corner where a certain woman lived. He was passing near her house ⁹in the evening after it was dark. ¹⁰And then she met him; she was dressed like a prostitute and was making plans. ¹¹She was a bold and shameless woman who always walked the streets ¹²or stood waiting at a corner, sometimes in the streets, sometimes in the marketplace. ¹³She threw her arms around the young man, kissed him, looked him straight in the eye, and said, ¹⁴"I made my offerings today and have the meat from the sacrifices. ¹⁵So I came out looking for you. I wanted to find you, and here you are! ¹⁶I've covered my bed with sheets of colored linen from Egypt. ¹⁷I've perfumed it with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ¹⁸Come on! Let's make love all night long. We'll be happy in each other's arms. ¹⁹My husband isn't at home. He's on a long trip. ²⁰He took plenty of money with him and won't be back for two weeks." ²¹So she tempted him with her charms, and he gave in to her smooth talk. ²²Suddenly he was going with her like an ox on the way to be slaughtered, like a deer prancing into a trap ²³where an arrow would pierce its heart. He was like a bird going into a net--he did not know that his life was in danger.
²⁴Now then, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to what I say. ²⁵Do not let such a woman win your heart; don't go wandering after her. ²⁶She has been the ruin of many men and caused the death of too many to count. ²⁷If you go to her house, you are on the way to the world of the dead. It is a shortcut to death.

Today's Reading: Hebrews 11.22-40, Exodus 15 and Proverbs 6.1-7.5

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this new day. There is no one like You who can continuously prove their Word to be true. The discovery of the Egyptians at the bottom of the Red Sea is so miraculous and for that I thank You and praise You and ask that You lead me and guide me, protect me and strengthen me to accomplish all that You call me to, in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Song of Moses

Exodus 15 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD:
"I will sing to the LORD, because he has won a glorious victory;
he has thrown the horses and their riders into the sea.
²The LORD is my strong defender;
he is the one who has saved me.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father's God, and I will sing about his greatness.
³The LORD is a warrior;
the LORD is his name.
⁴"He threw Egypt's army and its chariots into the sea;
the best of its officers were drowned in the Red Sea.
⁵The deep sea covered them;
they sank to the bottom like a stone.
⁶"Your right hand, LORD, is awesome in power;
it breaks the enemy in pieces.
⁷In majestic triumph you overthrow your foes;
your anger blazes out and burns them up like straw.
⁸You blew on the sea and the water piled up high;
it stood up straight like a wall;
the deepest part of the sea became solid.
⁹The enemy said, 'I will pursue them and catch them;
I will divide their wealth and take all I want;
I will draw my sword and take all they have.'
¹⁰But one breath from you, LORD, and the Egyptians were drowned;
they sank like lead in the terrible water.
¹¹"LORD, who among the gods is like you?
Who is like you, wonderful in holiness?
Who can work miracles and mighty acts like yours?
¹²You stretched out your right hand,
and the earth swallowed our enemies.
¹³Faithful to your promise, you led the people you had rescued;
by your strength you guided them to your sacred land.
¹⁴The nations have heard, and they tremble with fear;
the Philistines are seized with terror.
¹⁵The leaders of Edom are terrified;
Moab's mighty men are trembling;
the people of Canaan lose their courage.
¹⁶Terror and dread fall upon them.
They see your strength, O LORD,
and stand helpless with fear
until your people have marched past--
the people you set free from slavery.
¹⁷You bring them in and plant them on your mountain,
the place that you, LORD, have chosen for your home,
the Temple that you yourself have built.
¹⁸You, LORD, will be king forever and ever."

The Song of Miriam

¹⁹The Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. But when the Egyptian chariots with their horses and drivers went into the sea, the LORD brought the water back, and it covered them.
²⁰The prophet Miriam, Aaron's sister, took her tambourine, and all the women followed her, playing tambourines and dancing. ²¹Miriam sang for them:
"Sing to the LORD, because he has won a glorious victory;
he has thrown the horses and their riders into the sea."

Bitter Water

²²Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea into the desert of Shur. For three days they walked through the desert, but found no water. ²³Then they came to a place called Marah, but the water there was so bitter that they could not drink it. That is why it was named Marah. ²⁴The people complained to Moses and asked, "What are we going to drink?" ²⁵Moses prayed earnestly to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood, which he threw into the water; and the water became fit to drink.
There the LORD gave them laws to live by, and there he also tested them. ²⁶He said, "If you will obey me completely by doing what I consider right and by keeping my commands, I will not punish you with any of the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians. I am the LORD, the one who heals you."
²⁷Next they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees; there they camped by the water.

More Warnings

Proverbs 6 My child, have you promised to be responsible for someone else's debts? ²Have you been caught by your own words, trapped by your own promises? ³Well then, my child, you are in that person's power, but this is how to get out of it: hurry to him, and beg him to release you. ⁴Don't let yourself go to sleep or even stop to rest. ⁵Get out of the trap like a bird or a deer escaping from a hunter.
⁶Lazy people should learn a lesson from the way ants live. ⁷They have no leader, chief, or ruler, ⁸but they store up their food during the summer, getting ready for winter. ⁹How long is the lazy man going to lie around? When is he ever going to get up? ¹⁰"I'll just take a short nap," he says; "I'll fold my hands and rest a while." ¹¹But while he sleeps, poverty will attack him like an armed robber.
¹²Worthless, wicked people go around telling lies. ¹³They wink and make gestures to deceive you, ¹⁴all the while planning evil in their perverted minds, stirring up trouble everywhere. ¹⁵Because of this, disaster will strike them without warning, and they will be fatally wounded.
^16-19There are seven things that the LORD hates and cannot tolerate:
   A proud look,
a lying tongue,
hands that kill innocent people,
a mind that thinks up wicked plans,
feet that hurry off to do evil,
a witness who tells one lie after another,
and someone who stirs up trouble among friends.

Warning against Adultery

²⁰Son, do what your father tells you and never forget what your mother taught you. ²¹Keep their words with you always, locked in your heart. ²²Their teaching will lead you when you travel, protect you at night, and advise you during the day. ²³Their instructions are a shining light; their correction can teach you how to live. ²⁴It can keep you away from bad women, from the seductive words of other men's wives. ²⁵Don't be tempted by their beauty; don't be trapped by their flirting eyes. ²⁶A man can hire a prostitute for the price of a loaf of bread, but adultery will cost him all he has.
²⁷Can you carry fire against your chest without burning your clothes? ²⁸Can you walk on hot coals without burning your feet? ²⁹It is just as dangerous to sleep with another man's wife. Whoever does it will suffer. ³⁰People don't despise a thief if he steals food when he is hungry; ³¹yet if he is caught, he must pay back seven times more--he must give up everything he has. ³²But a man who commits adultery doesn't have any sense. He is just destroying himself. ³³He will be dishonored and beaten up; he will be permanently disgraced. ³⁴A husband is never angrier than when he is jealous; his revenge knows no limits. ³⁵He will not accept any payment; no amount of gifts will satisfy his anger.
Proverbs 7 My child, remember what I say and never forget what I tell you to do. ²Do what I say, and you will live. Be as careful to follow my teaching as you are to protect your eyes. ³Keep my teaching with you all the time; write it on your heart. ⁴Treat wisdom as your sister, and insight as your closest friend. ⁵They will keep you away from other men's wives, from women with seductive words.

Today's Reading: Hebrews 11.1-21, Exodus 13-14 and Proverbs 5

---

Heavenly Father,
I know that You can see the entire picture - the beginning and the end. I know the enemy will also try to tempt me with things that are not from You in order to distract me from the calling You have for me. Help me Lord to consider my option. Help me Lord to pursue what is in Your will and for me not to leave from the path You have put before me. Lord, Your Word says that if I test You in giving my tithe (giving 10% of my income) that You will throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Lord, Your Word says that if I need wisdom, I should ask You for You give generously to all without finding fault. Lord, I need You wisdom daily, but in view of the various things that have been revealed and communicated to me, I need help to keep me focused, I need help to listen to Your will for my next steps, I need help to keep my time focused on bringing praise, glory, and honor to You - for I will work hard and cheerfully with enthusiasm, as though for the Lord - for Lord, I don't want to just receive the praise of man, but I want to hear well done my good and faithful servant for having used the talents I have given you and provide a return that has multiplied.

Lord I will lift up to You today the areas of family, church, work, finances, and all other relationships and work that come my way, for Lord You are my number 1 priority. Help me in keeping first things first. Help me to not fill up my day with the small things and loose sight of the fact that I don't have room for the big things that are so important to You and to my future and the future of those You have brought into my path.

Lord, be glorified today in all I do and say. May my faith be evident and evidence to those around my by the work I do and the way I speak with others. I will give You all the praise and all the glory, in Jesus' name. I lift up these praises and prayers to You in Jesus' name. Amen.

Faith

Hebrews 11 To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. ²It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God's approval.
³It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God's word, so that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.
⁴It was faith that made Abel offer to God a better sacrifice than Cain's. Through his faith he won God's approval as a righteous man, because God himself approved of his gifts. By means of his faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
⁵It was faith that kept Enoch from dying. Instead, he was taken up to God, and nobody could find him, because God had taken him up. The scripture says that before Enoch was taken up, he had pleased God. ⁶No one can please God without faith, for whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek him.
⁷It was faith that made Noah hear God's warnings about things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God and built a boat in which he and his family were saved. As a result, the world was condemned, and Noah received from God the righteousness that comes by faith.
⁸It was faith that made Abraham obey when God called him to go out to a country which God had promised to give him. He left his own country without knowing where he was going. ⁹By faith he lived as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God. ¹⁰For Abraham was waiting for the city which God has designed and built, the city with permanent foundations.
¹¹It was faith that made Abraham able to become a father, even though he was too old and Sarah herself could not have children. He trusted God to keep his promise. ¹²Though Abraham was practically dead, from this one man came as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, as many as the numberless grains of sand on the seashore.
¹³It was in faith that all these persons died. They did not receive the things God had promised, but from a long way off they saw them and welcomed them, and admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth. ¹⁴Those who say such things make it clear that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵They did not keep thinking about the country they had left; if they had, they would have had the chance to return. ¹⁶Instead, it was a better country they longed for, the heavenly country. And so God is not ashamed for them to call him their God, because he has prepared a city for them.
¹⁷It was faith that made Abraham offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice when God put Abraham to the test. Abraham was the one to whom God had made the promise, yet he was ready to offer his only son as a sacrifice. ¹⁸God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised." ¹⁹Abraham reckoned that God was able to raise Isaac from death--and, so to speak, Abraham did receive Isaac back from death.
²⁰It was faith that made Isaac promise blessings for the future to Jacob and Esau.
²¹It was faith that made Jacob bless each of the sons of Joseph just before he died. He leaned on the top of his walking stick and worshiped God.

Dedication of the First-Born

Exodus 13 The LORD said to Moses, ²"Dedicate all the first-born males to me, for every first-born male Israelite and every first-born male animal belongs to me."

The Festival of Unleavened Bread

³Moses said to the people, "Remember this day--the day on which you left Egypt, the place where you were slaves. This is the day the LORD brought you out by his great power. No leavened bread is to be eaten. ⁴You are leaving Egypt on this day in the first month, the month of Abib. ⁵The LORD solemnly promised your ancestors to give you the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. When he brings you into that rich and fertile land, you must celebrate this festival in the first month of every year. ⁶For seven days you must eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to honor the LORD. ⁷For seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast; there must be no yeast or leavened bread anywhere in your land. ⁸When the festival begins, explain to your sons that you do all this because of what the LORD did for you when you left Egypt. ⁹This observance will be a reminder, like something tied on your hand or on your forehead; it will remind you to continue to recite and study the Law of the LORD, because the LORD brought you out of Egypt by his great power. ¹⁰Celebrate this festival at the appointed time each year.

The First-Born

¹¹"The LORD will bring you into the land of the Canaanites, which he solemnly promised to you and your ancestors. When he gives it to you, ¹²you must offer every first-born male to the LORD. Every first-born male of your animals belongs to the LORD, ¹³but you must buy back from him every first-born male donkey by offering a lamb in its place. If you do not want to buy back the donkey, break its neck. You must buy back every first-born male child of yours. ¹⁴In the future, when your son asks what this observance means, you will answer him, 'By using great power the LORD brought us out of Egypt, the place where we were slaves. ¹⁵When the king of Egypt was stubborn and refused to let us go, the LORD killed every first-born male in the land of Egypt, both human and animal. That is why we sacrifice every first-born male animal to the LORD, but buy back our first-born sons. ¹⁶This observance will be a reminder, like something tied on our hands or on our foreheads; it will remind us that the LORD brought us out of Egypt by his great power.'"

The Pillar of Cloud and the Pillar of Fire

¹⁷When the king of Egypt let the people go, God did not take them by the road that goes up the coast to Philistia, although it was the shortest way. God thought, "I do not want the people to change their minds and return to Egypt when they see that they are going to have to fight." ¹⁸Instead, he led them in a roundabout way through the desert toward the Red Sea. The Israelites were armed for battle.
¹⁹Moses took the body of Joseph with him, as Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly promise to do. Joseph had said, "When God rescues you, you must carry my body with you from this place."
²⁰The Israelites left Sukkoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. ²¹During the day the LORD went in front of them in a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and during the night he went in front of them in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel night and day. ²²The pillar of cloud was always in front of the people during the day, and the pillar of fire at night.

Crossing the Red Sea

Exodus 14 Then the LORD said to Moses, ²"Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the Red Sea, near Baal Zephon. ³The king will think that the Israelites are wandering around in the country and are closed in by the desert. ⁴I will make him stubborn, and he will pursue you, and my victory over the king and his army will bring me honor. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." The Israelites did as they were told.
⁵When the king of Egypt was told that the people had escaped, he and his officials changed their minds and said, "What have we done? We have let the Israelites escape, and we have lost them as our slaves!" ⁶The king got his war chariot and his army ready. ⁷He set out with all his chariots, including the six hundred finest, commanded by their officers. ⁸The LORD made the king stubborn, and he pursued the Israelites, who were leaving triumphantly. ⁹The Egyptian army, with all the horses, chariots, and drivers, pursued them and caught up with them where they were camped by the Red Sea near Pi Hahiroth and Baal Zephon.
¹⁰When the Israelites saw the king and his army marching against them, they were terrified and cried out to the LORD for help. ¹¹They said to Moses, "Weren't there any graves in Egypt? Did you have to bring us out here in the desert to die? Look what you have done by bringing us out of Egypt! ¹²Didn't we tell you before we left that this would happen? We told you to leave us alone and let us go on being slaves of the Egyptians. It would be better to be slaves there than to die here in the desert."
¹³Moses answered, "Don't be afraid! Stand your ground, and you will see what the LORD will do to save you today; you will never see these Egyptians again. ¹⁴The LORD will fight for you, and all you have to do is keep still."
¹⁵The LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out for help? Tell the people to move forward. ¹⁶Lift up your walking stick and hold it out over the sea. The water will divide, and the Israelites will be able to walk through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷I will make the Egyptians so stubborn that they will go in after them, and I will gain honor by my victory over the king, his army, his chariots, and his drivers. ¹⁸When I defeat them, the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD."
¹⁹The angel of God, who had been in front of the army of Israel, moved and went to the rear. The pillar of cloud also moved until it was ²⁰between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The cloud made it dark for the Egyptians, but gave light to the people of Israel, and so the armies could not come near each other all night.
²¹Moses held out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind. It blew all night and turned the sea into dry land. The water was divided, ²²and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on both sides. ²³The Egyptians pursued them and went after them into the sea with all their horses, chariots, and drivers. ²⁴Just before dawn the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw them into a panic. ²⁵He made the wheels of their chariots get stuck, so that they moved with great difficulty. The Egyptians said, "The LORD is fighting for the Israelites against us. Let's get out of here!"
²⁶The LORD said to Moses, "Hold out your hand over the sea, and the water will come back over the Egyptians and their chariots and drivers." ²⁷So Moses held out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the water returned to its normal level. The Egyptians tried to escape from the water, but the LORD threw them into the sea. ²⁸The water returned and covered the chariots, the drivers, and all the Egyptian army that had followed the Israelites into the sea; not one of them was left. ²⁹But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on both sides.
³⁰On that day the LORD saved the people of Israel from the Egyptians, and the Israelites saw them lying dead on the seashore. ³¹When the Israelites saw the great power with which the LORD had defeated the Egyptians, they stood in awe of the LORD; and they had faith in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Warning against Adultery

Proverbs 5 My child, pay attention and listen to my wisdom and insight. ²Then you will know how to behave properly, and your words will show that you have knowledge. ³The lips of another man's wife may be as sweet as honey and her kisses as smooth as olive oil, ⁴but when it is all over, she leaves you nothing but bitterness and pain. ⁵She will take you down to the world of the dead; the road she walks is the road to death. ⁶She does not stay on the road to life; but wanders off, and does not realize what is happening.
⁷Now listen to me, sons, and never forget what I am saying. ⁸Keep away from such a woman! Don't even go near her door! ⁹If you do, others will gain the respect that you once had, and you will die young at the hands of merciless people. ¹⁰Yes, strangers will take all your wealth, and what you have worked for will belong to someone else. ¹¹You will lie groaning on your deathbed, your flesh and muscles being eaten away, ¹²and you will say, "Why would I never learn? Why would I never let anyone correct me? ¹³I wouldn't listen to my teachers. I paid no attention to them. ¹⁴And suddenly I found myself publicly disgraced."
¹⁵Be faithful to your own wife and give your love to her alone. ¹⁶Children that you have by other women will do you no good. ¹⁷Your children should grow up to help you, not strangers. ¹⁸So be happy with your wife and find your joy with the woman you married-- ¹⁹pretty and graceful as a deer. Let her charms keep you happy; let her surround you with her love. ²⁰Son, why should you give your love to another woman? Why should you prefer the charms of another man's wife? ²¹The LORD sees everything you do. Wherever you go, he is watching. ²²The sins of the wicked are a trap. They get caught in the net of their own sin. ²³They die because they have no self-control. Their utter stupidity will send them to their graves.

Today's Reading: Hebrews 10.19-39, Exodus 11-12 and Proverbs 4

Let Us Come Near to God

Hebrews 10 ¹⁹We have, then, my friends, complete freedom to go into the Most Holy Place by means of the death of Jesus. ²⁰He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain--that is, through his own body. ²¹We have a great priest in charge of the house of God. ²²So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water. ²³Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise. ²⁴Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. ²⁵Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.
²⁶For there is no longer any sacrifice that will take away sins if we purposely go on sinning after the truth has been made known to us. ²⁷Instead, all that is left is to wait in fear for the coming Judgment and the fierce fire which will destroy those who oppose God! ²⁸Anyone who disobeys the Law of Moses is put to death without any mercy when judged guilty from the evidence of two or more witnesses. ²⁹What, then, of those who despise the Son of God? who treat as a cheap thing the blood of God's covenant which purified them from sin? who insult the Spirit of grace? Just think how much worse is the punishment they will deserve! ³⁰For we know who said, "I will take revenge, I will repay"; and who also said, "The Lord will judge his people." ³¹It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
³²Remember how it was with you in the past. In those days, after God's light had shone on you, you suffered many things, yet were not defeated by the struggle. ³³You were at times publicly insulted and mistreated, and at other times you were ready to join those who were being treated in this way. ³⁴You shared the sufferings of prisoners, and when all your belongings were seized, you endured your loss gladly, because you knew that you still possessed something much better, which would last forever. ³⁵Do not lose your courage, then, because it brings with it a great reward. ³⁶You need to be patient, in order to do the will of God and receive what he promises. ³⁷For, as the scripture says,
"Just a little while longer,
and he who is coming will come;
he will not delay.
³⁸My righteous people, however, will believe and live;
but if any of them turns back,
I will not be pleased with them."
³⁹We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.

Moses Announces the Death of the First-Born

Exodus 11 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will send only one more punishment on the king of Egypt and his people. After that he will let you leave. In fact, he will drive all of you out of here. ²Now speak to the people of Israel and tell all of them to ask their neighbors for gold and silver jewelry." ³The LORD made the Egyptians respect the Israelites. Indeed, the officials and all the people considered Moses to be a very great man.
⁴Moses then said to the king, "The LORD says, 'At about midnight I will go through Egypt, ⁵and every first-born son in Egypt will die, from the king's son, who is heir to the throne, to the son of the slave woman who grinds grain. The first-born of all the cattle will die also. ⁶There will be loud crying all over Egypt, such as there has never been before or ever will be again. ⁷But not even a dog will bark at the Israelites or their animals. Then you will know that I, the LORD, make a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites.'" ⁸Moses concluded by saying, "All your officials will come to me and bow down before me, and they will beg me to take all my people and go away. After that, I will leave." Then in great anger Moses left the king.
⁹The LORD had said to Moses, "The king will continue to refuse to listen to you, in order that I may do more of my miracles in Egypt." ¹⁰Moses and Aaron performed all these miracles before the king, but the LORD made him stubborn, and he would not let the Israelites leave his country.

The Passover

Exodus 12 The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt: ²"This month is to be the first month of the year for you. ³Give these instructions to the whole community of Israel: On the tenth day of this month each man must choose either a lamb or a young goat for his household. ⁴If his family is too small to eat a whole animal, he and his next-door neighbor may share an animal, in proportion to the number of people and the amount that each person can eat. ⁵You may choose either a sheep or a goat, but it must be a one-year-old male without any defects. ⁶Then, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, the whole community of Israel will kill the animals. ⁷The people are to take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and above the doors of the houses in which the animals are to be eaten. ⁸That night the meat is to be roasted, and eaten with bitter herbs and with bread made without yeast. ⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled, but eat it roasted whole, including the head, the legs, and the internal organs. ¹⁰You must not leave any of it until morning; if any is left over, it must be burned. ¹¹You are to eat it quickly, for you are to be dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. It is the Passover Festival to honor me, the LORD.
¹²"On that night I will go through the land of Egypt, killing every first-born male, both human and animal, and punishing all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. ¹³The blood on the doorposts will be a sign to mark the houses in which you live. When I see the blood, I will pass over you and will not harm you when I punish the Egyptians. ¹⁴You must celebrate this day as a religious festival to remind you of what I, the LORD, have done. Celebrate it for all time to come."

The Festival of Unleavened Bread

¹⁵The LORD said, "For seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast--eat only unleavened bread. On the first day you are to get rid of all the yeast in your houses, for if anyone during those seven days eats bread made with yeast, he shall no longer be considered one of my people. ¹⁶On the first day and again on the seventh day you are to meet for worship. No work is to be done on those days, but you may prepare food. ¹⁷Keep this festival, because it was on this day that I brought your tribes out of Egypt. For all time to come you must celebrate this day as a festival. ¹⁸From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month to the evening of the twenty-first day, you must not eat any bread made with yeast. ^19-20For seven days no yeast must be found in your houses, for if anyone, native-born or foreign, eats bread made with yeast, he shall no longer be considered one of my people."

The First Passover

²¹Moses called for all the leaders of Israel and said to them, "Each of you is to choose a lamb or a young goat and kill it, so that your families can celebrate Passover. ²²Take a sprig of hyssop, dip it in the bowl containing the animal's blood, and wipe the blood on the doorposts and the beam above the door of your house. Not one of you is to leave the house until morning. ²³When the LORD goes through Egypt to kill the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the beams and the doorposts and will not let the Angel of Death enter your houses and kill you. ²⁴You and your children must obey these rules forever. ²⁵When you enter the land that the LORD has promised to give you, you must perform this ritual. ²⁶When your children ask you, 'What does this ritual mean?' ²⁷you will answer, 'It is the sacrifice of Passover to honor the LORD, because he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians, but spared us.'"
The Israelites knelt down and worshiped. ²⁸Then they went and did what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The Death of the First-Born

²⁹At midnight the LORD killed all the first-born sons in Egypt, from the king's son, who was heir to the throne, to the son of the prisoner in the dungeon; all the first-born of the animals were also killed. ³⁰That night, the king, his officials, and all the other Egyptians were awakened. There was loud crying throughout Egypt, because there was not one home in which there was not a dead son. ³¹That same night the king sent for Moses and Aaron and said, "Get out, you and your Israelites! Leave my country; go and worship the LORD, as you asked. ³²Take your sheep, goats, and cattle, and leave. Also pray for a blessing on me."
³³The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country; they said, "We will all be dead if you don't leave." ³⁴So the people filled their baking pans with unleavened dough, wrapped them in clothing, and carried them on their shoulders. ³⁵The Israelites had done as Moses had said, and had asked the Egyptians for gold and silver jewelry and for clothes. ³⁶The LORD made the Egyptians respect the people and give them what they asked for. In this way the Israelites carried away the wealth of the Egyptians.

The Israelites Leave Egypt

³⁷The Israelites set out on foot from Rameses for Sukkoth. There were about 600,000 men, not counting women and children. ³⁸A large number of other people and many sheep, goats, and cattle also went with them. ³⁹They baked unleavened bread from the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for they had been driven out of Egypt so suddenly that they did not have time to get their food ready or to prepare leavened dough.
⁴⁰The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years. ⁴¹On the day the 430 years ended, all the tribes of the LORD's people left Egypt. ⁴²It was a night when the LORD kept watch to bring them out of Egypt; this same night is dedicated to the LORD for all time to come as a night when the Israelites must keep watch.

Regulations about Passover

⁴³The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the Passover regulations: No foreigner shall eat the Passover meal, ⁴⁴but any slave that you have bought may eat it if you circumcise him first. ⁴⁵No temporary resident or hired worker may eat it. ⁴⁶The whole meal must be eaten in the house in which it was prepared; it must not be taken outside. And do not break any of the animal's bones. ⁴⁷The whole community of Israel must celebrate this festival, ⁴⁸but no uncircumcised man may eat it. If a foreigner has settled among you and wants to celebrate Passover to honor the LORD, you must first circumcise all the males of his household. He is then to be treated like a native-born Israelite and may join in the festival. ⁴⁹The same regulations apply to native-born Israelites and to foreigners who settle among you." ⁵⁰All the Israelites obeyed and did what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹On that day the LORD brought the Israelite tribes out of Egypt.

The Benefits of Wisdom

Proverbs 4 My children, listen to what your father teaches you. Pay attention, and you will have understanding. ²What I am teaching you is good, so remember it all. ³When I was only a little boy, my parents' only son, ⁴my father would teach me. He would say, "Remember what I say and never forget it. Do as I tell you, and you will live. ⁵Get wisdom and insight! Do not forget or ignore what I say. ⁶Do not abandon wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will keep you safe. ⁷Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do. Whatever else you get, get insight. ⁸Love wisdom, and she will make you great. Embrace her, and she will bring you honor. ⁹She will be your crowning glory."
¹⁰Listen to me, my child. Take seriously what I am telling you, and you will live a long life. ¹¹I have taught you wisdom and the right way to live. ¹²Nothing will stand in your way if you walk wisely, and you will not stumble when you run. ¹³Always remember what you have learned. Your education is your life--guard it well. ¹⁴Do not go where evil people go. Do not follow the example of the wicked. ¹⁵Don't do it! Keep away from evil! Refuse it and go on your way. ¹⁶Wicked people cannot sleep unless they have done something wrong. They lie awake unless they have hurt someone. ¹⁷Wickedness and violence are like food and drink to them.
¹⁸The road the righteous travel is like the sunrise, getting brighter and brighter until daylight has come. ¹⁹The road of the wicked, however, is dark as night. They fall, but cannot see what they have stumbled over.
²⁰My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen to my words. ²¹Never let them get away from you. Remember them and keep them in your heart. ²²They will give life and health to anyone who understands them. ²³Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts. ²⁴Never say anything that isn't true. Have nothing to do with lies and misleading words. ²⁵Look straight ahead with honest confidence; don't hang your head in shame. ²⁶Plan carefully what you do, and whatever you do will turn out right. ²⁷Avoid evil and walk straight ahead. Don't go one step off the right way.

Today's Reading: Hebrews 9.23-10.18, Exodus 9-10 and Proverbs 3

Advice to the Young

Proverbs 3 My child, don't forget what I teach you. Always remember what I tell you to do. ²My teaching will give you a long and prosperous life. ³Never let go of loyalty and faithfulness. Tie them around your neck; write them on your heart. ⁴If you do this, both God and people will be pleased with you.
⁵Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. ⁶Remember the LORD in everything you do, and he will show you the right way. ⁷Never let yourself think that you are wiser than you are; simply obey the LORD and refuse to do wrong. ⁸If you do, it will be like good medicine, healing your wounds and easing your pains. ⁹Honor the LORD by making him an offering from the best of all that your land produces. ¹⁰If you do, your barns will be filled with grain, and you will have too much wine to store it all.
¹¹My child, when the LORD corrects you, pay close attention and take it as a warning. ¹²The LORD corrects those he loves, as parents correct a child of whom they are proud. ¹³Happy is anyone who becomes wise--who comes to have understanding. ¹⁴There is more profit in it than there is in silver; it is worth more to you than gold. ¹⁵Wisdom is more valuable than jewels; nothing you could want can compare with it. ¹⁶Wisdom offers you long life, as well as wealth and honor. ¹⁷Wisdom can make your life pleasant and lead you safely through it. ¹⁸Those who become wise are happy; wisdom will give them life.
¹⁹The LORD created the earth by his wisdom;
by his knowledge he set the sky in place.
²⁰His wisdom caused the rivers to flow
and the clouds to give rain to the earth.
²¹My child, hold on to your wisdom and insight. Never let them get away from you. ²²They will provide you with life--a pleasant and happy life. ²³You can go safely on your way and never even stumble. ²⁴You will not be afraid when you go to bed, and you will sleep soundly through the night. ²⁵You will not have to worry about sudden disasters, such as come on the wicked like a storm. ²⁶The LORD will keep you safe. He will not let you fall into a trap.
²⁷Whenever you possibly can, do good to those who need it. ²⁸Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now. ²⁹Don't plan anything that will hurt your neighbors; they live beside you, trusting you. ³⁰Don't argue with others for no reason when they have never done you any harm. ³¹Don't be jealous of violent people or decide to act as they do, ³²because the LORD hates people who do evil, but he takes righteous people into his confidence. ³³The LORD puts a curse on the homes of the wicked, but blesses the homes of the righteous. ³⁴He has no use for conceited people, but shows favor to those who are humble. ³⁵Wise people will gain an honorable reputation, but stupid people will only add to their own disgrace.

Christ's Sacrifice Takes Away Sins

Hebrews 9²³Those things, which are copies of the heavenly originals, had to be purified in that way. But the heavenly things themselves require much better sacrifices. ²⁴For Christ did not go into a Holy Place made by human hands, which was a copy of the real one. He went into heaven itself, where he now appears on our behalf in the presence of God. ²⁵The Jewish high priest goes into the Most Holy Place every year with the blood of an animal. But Christ did not go in to offer himself many times, ²⁶for then he would have had to suffer many times ever since the creation of the world. Instead, now when all ages of time are nearing the end, he has appeared once and for all, to remove sin through the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God. ²⁸In the same manner Christ also was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are waiting for him.
Hebrews 10 The Jewish Law is not a full and faithful model of the real things; it is only a faint outline of the good things to come. The same sacrifices are offered forever, year after year. How can the Law, then, by means of these sacrifices make perfect the people who come to God? ²If the people worshiping God had really been purified from their sins, they would not feel guilty of sin any more, and all sacrifices would stop. ³As it is, however, the sacrifices serve year after year to remind people of their sins. ⁴For the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins.
⁵For this reason, when Christ was about to come into the world, he said to God:
"You do not want sacrifices and offerings,
but you have prepared a body for me.
⁶You are not pleased with animals burned whole on the altar
or with sacrifices to take away sins.
⁷Then I said, 'Here I am,
to do your will, O God,
just as it is written of me in the book of the Law.'"
⁸First he said, "You neither want nor are you pleased with sacrifices and offerings or with animals burned on the altar and the sacrifices to take away sins." He said this even though all these sacrifices are offered according to the Law. ⁹Then he said, "Here I am, O God, to do your will." So God does away with all the old sacrifices and puts the sacrifice of Christ in their place. ¹⁰Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that he made of his own body once and for all.
¹¹Every Jewish priest performs his services every day and offers the same sacrifices many times; but these sacrifices can never take away sins. ¹²Christ, however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective forever, and then he sat down at the right side of God. ¹³There he now waits until God puts his enemies as a footstool under his feet. ¹⁴With one sacrifice, then, he has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin.
¹⁵And the Holy Spirit also gives us his witness. First he says,
¹⁶"This is the covenant that I will make with them
in the days to come, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts
and write them on their minds."
¹⁷And then he says, "I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer." ¹⁸So when these have been forgiven, an offering to take away sins is no longer needed.

Death of the Animals

Exodus 9 The LORD said to Moses, "Go to the king and tell him that the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says, 'Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ²If you again refuse to let them go, ³I will punish you by sending a terrible disease on all your animals--your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats. ⁴I will make a distinction between the animals of the Israelites and those of the Egyptians, and no animal that belongs to the Israelites will die. ⁵I, the LORD, have set tomorrow as the time when I will do this.'"
⁶The next day the LORD did as he had said, and all the animals of the Egyptians died, but not one of the animals of the Israelites died. ⁷The king asked what had happened and was told that none of the animals of the Israelites had died. But he was stubborn and would not let the people go.

Boils

⁸Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take a few handfuls of ashes from a furnace; Moses is to throw them into the air in front of the king. ⁹They will spread out like fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and everywhere they will produce boils that become open sores on the people and the animals." ¹⁰So they got some ashes and stood before the king; Moses threw them into the air, and they produced boils that became open sores on the people and the animals. ¹¹The magicians were not able to appear before Moses, because they were covered with boils, like all the other Egyptians. ¹²But the LORD made the king stubborn and, just as the LORD had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

Hail

¹³The LORD then said to Moses, "Early tomorrow morning meet with the king and tell him that the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says, 'Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ¹⁴This time I will punish not only your officials and your people, but I will punish you as well, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the world. ¹⁵If I had raised my hand to strike you and your people with disease, you would have been completely destroyed. ¹⁶But to show you my power I have let you live so that my fame might spread over the whole world. ¹⁷Yet you are still arrogant and refuse to let my people go. ¹⁸This time tomorrow I will cause a heavy hailstorm, such as Egypt has never known in all its history. ¹⁹Now give orders for your livestock and everything else you have in the open to be put under shelter. Hail will fall on the people and animals left outside unprotected, and they will all die.'" ²⁰Some of the king's officials were afraid because of what the LORD had said, and they brought their slaves and animals indoors for shelter. ²¹Others, however, paid no attention to the LORD's warning and left their slaves and animals out in the open.
²²Then the LORD said to Moses, "Raise your hand toward the sky, and hail will fall over the whole land of Egypt--on the people, the animals, and all the plants in the fields." ²³So Moses raised his stick toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the ground. The LORD sent ²⁴a heavy hailstorm, with lightning flashing back and forth. It was the worst storm that Egypt had ever known in all its history. ²⁵All over Egypt the hail struck down everything in the open, including all the people and all the animals. It beat down all the plants in the fields and broke all the trees. ²⁶The region of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was the only place where there was no hail.
²⁷The king sent for Moses and Aaron and said, "This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and my people and I are in the wrong. ²⁸Pray to the LORD! We have had enough of this thunder and hail! I promise to let you go; you don't have to stay here any longer."
²⁹Moses said to him, "As soon as I go out of the city, I will lift up my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to the LORD. ³⁰But I know that you and your officials do not yet fear the LORD God."
³¹The flax and the barley were ruined, because the barley was ripe, and the flax was budding. ³²But none of the wheat was ruined, because it ripens later.
³³Moses left the king, went out of the city, and lifted up his hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder, the hail, and the rain all stopped. ³⁴When the king saw what had happened, he sinned again. He and his officials remained as stubborn as ever ³⁵and, just as the LORD had foretold through Moses, the king would not let the Israelites go.

Locusts

Exodus 10 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go and see the king. I have made him and his officials stubborn, in order that I may perform these miracles among them ²and in order that you may be able to tell your children and grandchildren how I made fools of the Egyptians when I performed the miracles. All of you will know that I am the LORD."
³So Moses and Aaron went to the king and said to him, "The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says, 'How much longer will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ⁴If you keep on refusing, then I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. ⁵There will be so many that they will completely cover the ground. They will eat everything that the hail did not destroy, even the trees that are left. ⁶They will fill your palaces and the houses of all your officials and all your people. They will be worse than anything your ancestors ever saw.'" Then Moses turned and left.
⁷The king's officials said to him, "How long is this man going to give us trouble? Let the Israelite men go, so that they can worship the LORD their God. Don't you realize that Egypt is ruined?"
⁸So Moses and Aaron were brought back to the king, and he said to them, "You may go and worship the LORD your God. But exactly who will go?"
⁹Moses answered, "We will all go, including our children and our old people. We will take our sons and daughters, our sheep and goats, and our cattle, because we must hold a festival to honor the LORD."
¹⁰The king said, "I swear by the LORD that I will never let you take your women and children! It is clear that you are plotting to revolt. ¹¹No! Only the men may go and worship the LORD if that is what you want." With that, Moses and Aaron were driven out of the king's presence.
¹²Then the LORD said to Moses, "Raise your hand over the land of Egypt to bring the locusts. They will come and eat everything that grows, everything that has survived the hail." ¹³So Moses raised his stick, and the LORD caused a wind from the east to blow on the land all that day and all that night. By morning it had brought the locusts. ¹⁴They came in swarms and settled over the whole country. It was the largest swarm of locusts that had ever been seen or that ever would be seen again. ¹⁵They covered the ground until it was black with them; they ate everything that the hail had left, including all the fruit on the trees. Not a green thing was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.
¹⁶Then the king hurriedly called Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. ¹⁷Now forgive my sin this one time and pray to the LORD your God to take away this fatal punishment from me." ¹⁸Moses left the king and prayed to the LORD. ¹⁹And the LORD changed the east wind into a very strong west wind, which picked up the locusts and blew them into the Gulf of Suez. Not one locust was left in all of Egypt. ²⁰But the LORD made the king stubborn, and he did not let the Israelites go.

Darkness

²¹The LORD then said to Moses, "Raise your hand toward the sky, and a darkness thick enough to be felt will cover the land of Egypt." ²²Moses raised his hand toward the sky, and there was total darkness throughout Egypt for three days. ²³The Egyptians could not see each other, and no one left his house during that time. But the Israelites had light where they were living.
²⁴The king called Moses and said, "You may go and worship the LORD; even your women and children may go with you. But your sheep, goats, and cattle must stay here."
²⁵Moses answered, "Then you would have to provide us with animals for sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer to the LORD our God. ²⁶No, we will take our animals with us; not one will be left behind. We ourselves must select the animals with which to worship the LORD our God. And until we get there, we will not know what animals to sacrifice to him."
²⁷The LORD made the king stubborn, and he would not let them go. ²⁸He said to Moses, "Get out of my sight! Don't let me ever see you again! On the day I do, you will die!"
²⁹"You are right," Moses answered. "You will never see me again."

Today's Reading:
Hebrews 9.1-22, Exodus 6.28-8.32 and Proverbs 2

How is your conscience? Do you feel that you can walk through today with a clear conscience? How is the Holy Spirit speaking to you today? Is He showing you things that should change? Is He looking to prepare you for a meeting you are about to have? Is He wanting to make sure that you are in the right frame of mind for a big opportunity?

It is only by the blood of Jesus that He shed on the cross for our sins that we can be cleansed. He died once for all our sins, with no need to do it over and over again. By this, Jesus opened the door and the opportunity for us to enter into the thrown room of God and be able to speak to Him. We no longer need someone to go for us, we have direct access to God through Jesus Christ who gave so much for us.

Earthly and Heavenly Worship

Hebrews 9

¹¹But Christ has already come as the High Priest of the good things that are already here. The tent in which he serves is greater and more perfect; it is not a tent made by human hands, that is, it is not a part of this created world. ¹²When Christ went through the tent and entered once and for all into the Most Holy Place, he did not take the blood of goats and bulls to offer as a sacrifice; rather, he took his own blood and obtained eternal salvation for us. ¹³The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a burnt calf are sprinkled on the people who are ritually unclean, and this purifies them by taking away their ritual impurity. ¹⁴Since this is true, how much more is accomplished by the blood of Christ! Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will purify our consciences from useless rituals, so that we may serve the living God.

It might not be easy, but will you do what God asks you to do? It might be hard, but will you do what God asks you to do? Will you do what God asks you to do the first time? How many times would you want to have to go around a big mountain before you listen and just go over it? How many times would you want to go over a mountain before you listen and go around it? Will you stop and listen to the Holy Spirit and then go which ever way He recommends?

God sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter. God sent the Holy Spirit to be our counselor. He will speak in a still quiet voice and let us know what we are and need to do.

Can you hear Him?

The LORD's Command to Moses and Aaron

Exodus 6²⁸When the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹he said, "I am the LORD. Tell the king of Egypt everything I tell you."
³⁰But Moses answered, "You know that I am such a poor speaker; why should the king listen to me?"
Exodus 7 The LORD said, "I am going to make you like God to the king, and your brother Aaron will speak to him as your prophet. ²Tell Aaron everything I command you, and he will tell the king to let the Israelites leave his country. ^3-4But I will make the king stubborn, and he will not listen to you, no matter how many terrifying things I do in Egypt. Then I will bring severe punishment on Egypt and lead the tribes of my people out of the land. ⁵The Egyptians will then know that I am the LORD, when I raise my hand against them and bring the Israelites out of their country." ⁶Moses and Aaron did what the LORD commanded. ⁷At the time when they spoke to the king, Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three.

Aaron's Walking Stick

⁸The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹"If the king demands that you prove yourselves by performing a miracle, tell Aaron to take his walking stick and throw it down in front of the king, and it will turn into a snake." ¹⁰So Moses and Aaron went to the king and did as the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw his walking stick down in front of the king and his officers, and it turned into a snake. ¹¹Then the king called for his wise men and magicians, and by their magic they did the same thing. ¹²They threw down their walking sticks, and the sticks turned into snakes. But Aaron's stick swallowed theirs. ¹³The king, however, remained stubborn and, just as the LORD had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

Disasters Strike Egypt

Blood

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, "The king is very stubborn and refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵So go and meet him in the morning when he goes down to the Nile. Take with you the walking stick that was turned into a snake, and wait for him on the riverbank. ¹⁶Then say to the king, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to tell you to let his people go, so that they can worship him in the desert. But until now you have not listened. ¹⁷Now, Your Majesty, the LORD says that you will find out who he is by what he is going to do. Look, I am going to strike the surface of the river with this stick, and the water will be turned into blood. ¹⁸The fish will die, and the river will stink so much that the Egyptians will not be able to drink from it.'"
¹⁹The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron to take his stick and hold it out over all the rivers, canals, and pools in Egypt. The water will become blood, and all over the land there will be blood, even in the wooden tubs and stone jars."
²⁰Then Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. In the presence of the king and his officers, Aaron raised his stick and struck the surface of the river, and all the water in it was turned into blood. ²¹The fish in the river died, and it smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink from it. There was blood everywhere in Egypt. ²²Then the king's magicians did the same thing by means of their magic, and the king was as stubborn as ever. Just as the LORD had said, the king refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. ²³Instead, he turned and went back to his palace without paying any attention even to this. ²⁴All the Egyptians dug along the bank of the river for drinking water, because they were not able to drink water from the river.
²⁵Seven days passed after the LORD struck the river.

Frogs

Exodus 8 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the king and tell him that the LORD says, 'Let my people go, so that they can worship me. ²If you refuse, I will punish your country by covering it with frogs. ³The Nile will be so full of frogs that they will leave it and go into your palace, your bedroom, your bed, the houses of your officials and your people, and even into your ovens and baking pans. ⁴They will jump up on you, your people, and all your officials.'"
⁵The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron to hold out his walking stick over the rivers, the canals, and the pools, and make frogs come up and cover the land of Egypt." ⁶So Aaron held it out over all the water, and the frogs came out and covered the land. ⁷But the magicians used magic, and they also made frogs come up on the land.
⁸The king called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the LORD to take away these frogs, and I will let your people go, so that they can offer sacrifices to the LORD."
⁹Moses replied, "I will be glad to pray for you. Just set the time when I am to pray for you, your officers, and your people. Then you will be rid of the frogs, and there will be none left except in the Nile."
¹⁰The king answered, "Pray for me tomorrow."
Moses said, "I will do as you ask, and then you will know that there is no other god like the LORD, our God. ¹¹You, your officials, and your people will be rid of the frogs, and there will be none left except in the Nile." ¹²Then Moses and Aaron left the king, and Moses prayed to the LORD to take away the frogs which he had brought on the king. ¹³The LORD did as Moses asked, and the frogs in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields died. ¹⁴The Egyptians piled them up in great heaps, until the land stank with them. ¹⁵When the king saw that the frogs were dead, he became stubborn again and, just as the LORD had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

Gnats

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron to strike the ground with his stick, and all over the land of Egypt the dust will change into gnats." ¹⁷So Aaron struck the ground with his stick, and all the dust in Egypt was turned into gnats, which covered the people and the animals. ¹⁸The magicians tried to use their magic to make gnats appear, but they failed. There were gnats everywhere, ¹⁹and the magicians said to the king, "God has done this!" But the king was stubborn and, just as the LORD had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

Flies

²⁰The LORD said to Moses, "Early tomorrow morning go and meet the king as he goes to the river, and tell him that the LORD says, 'Let my people go, so that they can worship me. ²¹I warn you that if you refuse, I will punish you by sending flies on you, your officials, and your people. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and the ground will be covered with them. ²²But I will spare the region of Goshen, where my people live, so that there will be no flies there. I will do this so that you will know that I, the LORD, am at work in this land. ²³I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miracle will take place tomorrow.'" ²⁴The LORD sent great swarms of flies into the king's palace and the houses of his officials. The whole land of Egypt was brought to ruin by the flies.
²⁵Then the king called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Go and offer sacrifices to your God here in this country."
²⁶"It would not be right to do that," Moses answered, "because the Egyptians would be offended by our sacrificing the animals that we offer to the LORD our God. If we use these animals and offend the Egyptians by sacrificing them where they can see us, they will stone us to death. ²⁷We must travel three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, just as he commanded us."
²⁸The king said, "I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD, your God, in the desert, if you do not go very far. Pray for me."
²⁹Moses answered, "As soon as I leave, I will pray to the LORD that tomorrow the flies will leave you, your officials, and your people. But you must not deceive us again and prevent the people from going to sacrifice to the LORD."
³⁰Moses left the king and prayed to the LORD, ³¹and the LORD did as Moses asked. The flies left the king, his officials, and his people; not one fly remained. ³²But even this time the king became stubborn, and again he would not let the people go.

Let's seek wisdom today. Let's prepare our hearts together to be able to receive wisdom. Let's be like Solomon who when God asks him what he would like, he chose wisdom.

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Heavenly Father, as we ready from Proverbs 2 today, I pray that not only will you hear our prayer, but that we will also hear Your heart and desire God's wisdom in our lives and every event or circumstance. I pray that we will look for and receive wisdom with every step we take. Help us to lean not on our understanding, but to trust in every word that comes from the mouth of God. Thank You Lord for the Bible which is Your Word, living and breathing, guiding our every thought and every action. We thank You and praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Rewards of Wisdom

Proverbs 2 My child, learn what I teach you and never forget what I tell you to do. ²Listen to what is wise and try to understand it. ³Yes, beg for knowledge; plead for insight. ⁴Look for it as hard as you would for silver or some hidden treasure. ⁵If you do, you will know what it means to fear the LORD and you will succeed in learning about God. ⁶It is the LORD who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding. ⁷He provides help and protection for those who are righteous and honest. ⁸He protects those who treat others fairly, and guards those who are devoted to him.
⁹If you listen to me, you will know what is right, just, and fair. You will know what you should do. ¹⁰You will become wise, and your knowledge will give you pleasure. ¹¹Your insight and understanding will protect you ¹²and prevent you from doing the wrong thing. They will keep you away from people who stir up trouble by what they say-- ¹³those who have abandoned a righteous life to live in the darkness of sin, ¹⁴those who find pleasure in doing wrong and who enjoy senseless evil, ¹⁵unreliable people who cannot be trusted.
¹⁶You will be able to resist any immoral woman who tries to seduce you with her smooth talk, ¹⁷who is faithless to her own husband and forgets her sacred vows. ¹⁸If you go to her house, you are traveling the road to death. To go there is to approach the world of the dead. ¹⁹No one who visits her ever comes back. He never returns to the road to life. ²⁰So you must follow the example of good people and live a righteous life. ²¹Righteous people--people of integrity--will live in this land of ours. ²²But God will snatch the wicked from the land and pull sinners out of it like plants from the ground.

Today's Reading:

From Jeremiah to Hebrews, we see that God had a plan for a new covenant with man. We here it prophesied long before Jesus in the book of Jeremiah where we read:

31 The Lord says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. ^R54 32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. 33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ^R55 34 None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken." ^R56

which matches what we see in today's reading from Hebrews:

Jesus Our High Priest

Hebrews 8 The whole point of what we are saying is that we have such a High Priest, who sits at the right of the throne of the Divine Majesty in heaven. ²He serves as high priest in the Most Holy Place, that is, in the real tent which was put up by the Lord, not by human hands.
³Every high priest is appointed to present offerings and animal sacrifices to God, and so our High Priest must also have something to offer. ⁴If he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer the gifts required by the Jewish Law. ⁵The work they do as priests is really only a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. It is the same as it was with Moses. When he was about to build the Sacred Tent, God told him, "Be sure to make everything according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain." ⁶But now, Jesus has been given priestly work which is superior to theirs, just as the covenant which he arranged between God and his people is a better one, because it is based on promises of better things.
⁷If there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, there would have been no need for a second one. ⁸But God finds fault with his people when he says,
"The days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will draw up a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
⁹It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors
on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt.
They were not faithful to the covenant I made with them,
and so I paid no attention to them.
¹⁰Now, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel
in the days to come, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
¹¹None of them will have to teach their friends
or tell their neighbors,
'Know the Lord.'
For they will all know me,
from the least to the greatest.
¹²I will forgive their sins
and will no longer remember their wrongs."
¹³By speaking of a new covenant, God has made the first one old; and anything that becomes old and worn out will soon disappear.

It is so incredible that God would speak of these events so many years ahead of time so that people would know the truth and see the evidence of the many prophecies in order that they would believe. Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear today what You have planned for us. Lord, help us to speak in ways that others will be able to receive the truth that comes from You and not miss out as in times of old. Help me today I pray to have compassion and patience for those around me Help me today I pray to show true compassion and purpose to those around me in order to bring praise and glory to You my Lord and King. And Lord, I will give You all the praise and all the glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Have you been called to go before kings, executives, politicians, etc? God's Word says that we will and that we shouldn't worry about it as He will provide the right words in the right time. Fear Not, Just Believe. Be anxious for nothing, but in prayer and supplication, bring your needs before God.

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Moses and Aaron before the King of Egypt

Exodus 5 Then Moses and Aaron went to the king of Egypt and said, "The LORD, the God of Israel, says, 'Let my people go, so that they can hold a festival in the desert to honor me.'"
²"Who is the LORD?" the king demanded. "Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD; and I will not let Israel go."
³Moses and Aaron replied, "The God of the Hebrews has revealed himself to us. Allow us to travel three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God. If we don't do so, he will kill us with disease or by war."
⁴The king said to Moses and Aaron, "What do you mean by making the people neglect their work? Get those slaves back to work! ⁵You people have become more numerous than the Egyptians. And now you want to stop working!"
⁶That same day the king commanded the Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foremen: ⁷"Stop giving the people straw for making bricks. Make them go and find it for themselves. ⁸But still require them to make the same number of bricks as before, not one brick less. They don't have enough work to do, and that is why they keep asking me to let them go and offer sacrifices to their God! ⁹Make them work harder and keep them busy, so that they won't have time to listen to a pack of lies."
¹⁰The slave drivers and the Israelite foremen went out and said to the Israelites, "The king has said that he will not supply you with any more straw. ¹¹He says that you must go and get it for yourselves wherever you can find it, but you must still make the same number of bricks." ¹²So the people went all over Egypt looking for straw. ¹³The slave drivers kept trying to force them to make the same number of bricks every day as they had made when they were given straw. ¹⁴The Egyptian slave drivers beat the Israelite foremen, whom they had put in charge of the work. They demanded, "Why aren't you people making the same number of bricks that you made before?"
¹⁵Then the foremen went to the king and complained, "Why do you do this to us, Your Majesty? ¹⁶We are given no straw, but we are still ordered to make bricks! And now we are being beaten. It is your people that are at fault."
¹⁷The king answered, "You are lazy and don't want to work, and that is why you ask me to let you go and offer sacrifices to the LORD. ¹⁸Now get back to work! You will not be given any straw, but you must still make the same number of bricks." ¹⁹The foremen realized that they were in trouble when they were told that they had to make the same number of bricks every day as they had made before.
²⁰As they were leaving, they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them. ²¹They said to Moses and Aaron, "The LORD has seen what you have done and will punish you for making the king and his officers hate us. You have given them an excuse to kill us."

Moses Complains to the LORD

²²Then Moses turned to the LORD again and said, "Lord, why do you mistreat your people? Why did you send me here? ²³Ever since I went to the king to speak for you, he has treated them cruelly. And you have done nothing to help them!"
Exodus 6 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you are going to see what I will do to the king. I will force him to let my people go. In fact, I will force him to drive them out of his land."

God Calls Moses

²God spoke to Moses and said, "I am the LORD. ³I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as Almighty God, but I did not make myself known to them by my holy name, the LORD. ⁴I also made my covenant with them, promising to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they had lived as foreigners. ⁵Now I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians have enslaved, and I have remembered my covenant. ⁶So tell the Israelites that I say to them, 'I am the LORD; I will rescue you and set you free from your slavery to the Egyptians. I will raise my mighty arm to bring terrible punishment upon them, and I will save you. ⁷I will make you my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the LORD your God when I set you free from slavery in Egypt. ⁸I will bring you to the land that I solemnly promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as your own possession. I am the LORD.'" ⁹Moses told this to the Israelites, but they would not listen to him, because their spirit had been broken by their cruel slavery.
¹⁰Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹¹"Go and tell the king of Egypt that he must let the Israelites leave his land."
¹²But Moses replied, "Even the Israelites will not listen to me, so why should the king? I am such a poor speaker."
¹³The LORD commanded Moses and Aaron: "Tell the Israelites and the king of Egypt that I have ordered you to lead the Israelites out of Egypt."

The Family Record of Moses and Aaron

¹⁴Reuben, Jacob's first-born, had four sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; they were the ancestors of the clans that bear their names. ¹⁵Simeon had six sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; they were the ancestors of the clans that bear their names. ¹⁶Levi had three sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; they were the ancestors of the clans that bear their names. Levi lived 137 years. ¹⁷Gershon had two sons: Libni and Shimei, and they had many descendants. ¹⁸Kohath had four sons: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years. ¹⁹Merari had two sons: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of Levi with their descendants.
²⁰Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years. ²¹Izhar had three sons: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri. ²²Uzziel also had three sons: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.
²³Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon; she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. ²⁴Korah had three sons: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph; they were the ancestors of the divisions of the clan of Korah. ²⁵Eleazar, Aaron's son, married one of Putiel's daughters, who bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the families and the clans of the tribe of Levi.
²⁶Aaron and Moses were the ones to whom the LORD said, "Lead the tribes of Israel out of Egypt." ²⁷They were the men who told the king of Egypt to free the Israelites.

Are you searching for answers? Are you searching for wisdom? Are you searching for direction? Let's read Proverbs 1 together and gain wisdom from God.

The Value of Proverbs

Proverbs 1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David and king of Israel.
²Here are proverbs that will help you recognize wisdom and good advice, and understand sayings with deep meaning. ³They can teach you how to live intelligently and how to be honest, just, and fair. ⁴They can make an inexperienced person clever and teach young people how to be resourceful. ⁵These proverbs can even add to the knowledge of the wise and give guidance to the educated, ⁶so that they can understand the hidden meanings of proverbs and the problems that the wise raise.

Advice to the Young

⁷To have knowledge, you must first have reverence for the LORD. Stupid people have no respect for wisdom and refuse to learn.
⁸My child, pay attention to what your father and mother tell you. ⁹Their teaching will improve your character as a handsome turban or a necklace improves your appearance.
¹⁰My child, when sinners tempt you, don't give in. ¹¹Suppose they say, "Come on; let's find someone to kill! Let's attack some innocent people for the fun of it! ¹²They may be alive and well when we find them, but they'll be dead when we're through with them! ¹³We'll find all kinds of riches and fill our houses with loot! ¹⁴Come and join us, and we'll all share what we steal."
¹⁵My child, don't go with people like that. Stay away from them. ¹⁶They can't wait to do something bad. They're always ready to kill. ¹⁷It does no good to spread a net when the bird you want to catch is watching, ¹⁸but people like that are setting a trap for themselves, a trap in which they will die. ¹⁹Robbery always claims the life of the robber--this is what happens to anyone who lives by violence.

Wisdom Calls

²⁰Listen! Wisdom is calling out in the streets and marketplaces, ²¹calling loudly at the city gates and wherever people come together:
²²"Foolish people! How long do you want to be foolish? How long will you enjoy making fun of knowledge? Will you never learn? ²³Listen when I reprimand you; I will give you good advice and share my knowledge with you. ²⁴I have been calling you, inviting you to come, but you would not listen. You paid no attention to me. ²⁵You have ignored all my advice and have not been willing to let me correct you. ²⁶So when you get into trouble, I will laugh at you. I will make fun of you when terror strikes-- ²⁷when it comes on you like a storm, bringing fierce winds of trouble, and you are in pain and misery. ²⁸Then you will call for wisdom, but I will not answer. You may look for me everywhere, but you will not find me. ²⁹You have never had any use for knowledge and have always refused to obey the LORD. ³⁰You have never wanted my advice or paid any attention when I corrected you. ³¹So then, you will get what you deserve, and your own actions will make you sick. ³²Inexperienced people die because they reject wisdom. Stupid people are destroyed by their own lack of concern. ³³But whoever listens to me will have security. He will be safe, with no reason to be afraid."

Today's Reading from Hebrews 7, Exodus 3-4 and Psalm 41

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this new day and for the energy and passion that You have returned into my life. I thank You Lord, for affirming through the preaching of the Word what is and needs to be done. Help me to be not only a visionary and an encourager to others, but help me to speak truth, life, and hope into the lives of those around me. Help me to call them to a higher level. Help me to provide a leadership which makes them step out and step up, because our trust is in You. Help me Lord, to remove the element of fear that the enemy brings to try and hold them back, so that they can receive the love and grace that come from You and that is available daily for those who will seek You. As I turn to Your Word, I pray that You will speak to me as Your Word is alive, never returns void, is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Help me today to also step up and step out to keep myself and other accountable for what we do and what we say so that in all we do and all we say, You will be praised and glorified, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Never forget to return onto God what is God's. Remember what he has given You and how you can show Him that You trust Him.

Your Part (90%)	God's Part (10%)

The Priest Melchizedek

Hebrews 7 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and a priest of the Most High God. As Abraham was coming back from the battle in which he defeated the four kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him, ²and Abraham gave him one tenth of all he had taken. (The first meaning of Melchizedek's name is "King of Righteousness"; and because he was king of Salem, his name also means "King of Peace.") ³There is no record of Melchizedek's father or mother or of any of his ancestors; no record of his birth or of his death. He is like the Son of God; he remains a priest forever.
⁴You see, then, how great he was. Abraham, our famous ancestor, gave him one tenth of all he got in the battle. ⁵And those descendants of Levi who are priests are commanded by the Law to collect one tenth from the people of Israel, that is, from their own people, even though they are also descendants of Abraham. ⁶Melchizedek was not descended from Levi, but he collected one tenth from Abraham and blessed him, the man who received God's promises. ⁷There is no doubt that the one who blesses is greater than the one who is blessed. ⁸In the case of the priests the tenth is collected by men who die; but as for Melchizedek the tenth was collected by one who lives, as the scripture says. ⁹And, so to speak, when Abraham paid the tenth, Levi (whose descendants collect the tenth) also paid it. ¹⁰For Levi had not yet been born, but was, so to speak, in the body of his ancestor Abraham when Melchizedek met him.
¹¹It was on the basis of the levitical priesthood that the Law was given to the people of Israel. Now, if the work of the levitical priests had been perfect, there would have been no need for a different kind of priest to appear, one who is in the priestly order of Melchizedek, not of Aaron. ¹²For when the priesthood is changed, there also has to be a change in the law. ¹³And our Lord, of whom these things are said, belonged to a different tribe, and no member of his tribe ever served as a priest. ¹⁴It is well known that he was born a member of the tribe of Judah; and Moses did not mention this tribe when he spoke of priests.

Another Priest, like Melchizedek

¹⁵The matter becomes even plainer; a different priest has appeared, who is like Melchizedek. ¹⁶He was made a priest, not by human rules and regulations, but through the power of a life which has no end. ¹⁷For the scripture says, "You will be a priest forever, in the priestly order of Melchizedek." ¹⁸The old rule, then, is set aside, because it was weak and useless. ¹⁹For the Law of Moses could not make anything perfect. And now a better hope has been provided through which we come near to God.
²⁰In addition, there is also God's vow. There was no such vow when the others were made priests. ²¹But Jesus became a priest by means of a vow when God said to him,
"The Lord has made a solemn promise
and will not take it back:
'You will be a priest forever.'"
²²This difference, then, also makes Jesus the guarantee of a better covenant.
²³There is another difference: there were many of those other priests, because they died and could not continue their work. ²⁴But Jesus lives on forever, and his work as priest does not pass on to someone else. ²⁵And so he is able, now and always, to save those who come to God through him, because he lives forever to plead with God for them.
²⁶Jesus, then, is the High Priest that meets our needs. He is holy; he has no fault or sin in him; he has been set apart from sinners and raised above the heavens. ²⁷He is not like other high priests; he does not need to offer sacrifices every day for his own sins first and then for the sins of the people. He offered one sacrifice, once and for all, when he offered himself. ²⁸The Law of Moses appoints men who are imperfect to be high priests; but God's promise made with the vow, which came later than the Law, appoints the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

When God calls you, how will you respond? When God speaks to your heart a direction, a vision, a goal, a purpose, a plan, how will you respond? Will you trust Him? Will you step out in faith, one step at a time and watch God connect the dots? Will you be a person of action - for we read that faith without action is dead. Remember first comes the plan, then the promise and then will come the power. So let's step out and watch the power of God come upon us in order to accomplish His purpose and plan and promise.

God Calls Moses

Exodus 3 One day while Moses was taking care of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he led the flock across the desert and came to Sinai, the holy mountain. ²There the angel of the LORD appeared to him as a flame coming from the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire but that it was not burning up. ³"This is strange," he thought. "Why isn't the bush burning up? I will go closer and see."
⁴When the LORD saw that Moses was coming closer, he called to him from the middle of the bush and said, "Moses! Moses!"
He answered, "Yes, here I am."
⁵God said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground. ⁶I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." So Moses covered his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
⁷Then the LORD said, "I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave drivers. I know all about their sufferings, ⁸and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of Egypt to a spacious land, one which is rich and fertile and in which the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites now live. ⁹I have indeed heard the cry of my people, and I see how the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰Now I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead my people out of his country."
¹¹But Moses said to God, "I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
¹²God answered, "I will be with you, and when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will worship me on this mountain. That will be the proof that I have sent you."
¹³But Moses replied, "When I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors sent me to you,' they will ask me, 'What is his name?' So what can I tell them?"
¹⁴God said, "I am who I am. You must tell them: 'The one who is called I AM has sent me to you.' ¹⁵Tell the Israelites that I, the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have sent you to them. This is my name forever; this is what all future generations are to call me. ¹⁶Go and gather the leaders of Israel together and tell them that I, the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to you. Tell them that I have come to them and have seen what the Egyptians are doing to them. ¹⁷I have decided that I will bring them out of Egypt, where they are being treated cruelly, and will take them to a rich and fertile land--the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
¹⁸"My people will listen to what you say to them. Then you must go with the leaders of Israel to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has revealed himself to us. Now allow us to travel three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD, our God.' ¹⁹I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless he is forced to do so. ²⁰But I will use my power and will punish Egypt by doing terrifying things there. After that he will let you go.
²¹"I will make the Egyptians respect you so that when my people leave, they will not go empty-handed. ²²Every Israelite woman will go to her Egyptian neighbors and to any Egyptian woman living in her house and will ask for clothing and for gold and silver jewelry. The Israelites will put these things on their sons and daughters and carry away the wealth of the Egyptians."

God Gives Moses Miraculous Power

Exodus 4 Then Moses answered the LORD, "But suppose the Israelites do not believe me and will not listen to what I say. What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?"
²So the LORD asked him, "What are you holding?"
"A walking stick," he answered.
³The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." When Moses threw it down, it turned into a snake, and he ran away from it. ⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, "Reach down and pick it up by the tail." So Moses reached down and caught it, and it became a walking stick again. ⁵The LORD said, "Do this to prove to the Israelites that the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to you."
⁶The LORD spoke to Moses again, "Put your hand inside your robe." Moses obeyed; and when he took his hand out, it was diseased, covered with white spots, like snow. ⁷Then the LORD said, "Put your hand inside your robe again." He did so, and when he took it out this time, it was healthy, just like the rest of his body. ⁸The LORD said, "If they will not believe you or be convinced by the first miracle, then this one will convince them. ⁹If in spite of these two miracles they still will not believe you, and if they refuse to listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the ground. The water will turn into blood."
¹⁰But Moses said, "No, LORD, don't send me. I have never been a good speaker, and I haven't become one since you began to speak to me. I am a poor speaker, slow and hesitant."
¹¹The LORD said to him, "Who gives man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or dumb? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? It is I, the LORD. ¹²Now, go! I will help you to speak, and I will tell you what to say."
¹³But Moses answered, "No, Lord, please send someone else."
¹⁴At this the LORD became angry with Moses and said, "What about your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. In fact, he is now coming to meet you and will be glad to see you. ¹⁵You can speak to him and tell him what to say. I will help both of you to speak, and I will tell you both what to do. ¹⁶He will be your spokesman and speak to the people for you. Then you will be like God, telling him what to say. ¹⁷Take this walking stick with you; for with it you will perform miracles."

Moses Returns to Egypt

¹⁸Then Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go back to my relatives in Egypt to see if they are still alive." Jethro agreed and told him good-bye.
¹⁹While Moses was still in Midian, the LORD said to him, "Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead." ²⁰So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and set out with them for Egypt, carrying the walking stick that God had told him to take.
²¹Again the LORD said to Moses, "Now that you are going back to Egypt, be sure to perform before the king all the miracles which I have given you the power to do. But I will make the king stubborn, and he will not let the people go. ²²Then you must tell him that I, the LORD, say, 'Israel is my first-born son. ²³I told you to let my son go, so that he might worship me, but you refused. Now I am going to kill your first-born son.'"
²⁴At a camping place on the way to Egypt, the LORD met Moses and tried to kill him. ^25-26Then Zipporah, his wife, took a sharp stone, cut off the foreskin of her son, and touched Moses' feet with it. Because of the rite of circumcision she said to Moses, "You are a husband of blood to me." And so the LORD spared Moses' life.
²⁷Meanwhile the LORD had said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he went to meet him at the holy mountain; and when he met him, he kissed him. ²⁸Then Moses told Aaron everything that the LORD had said when he told him to return to Egypt; he also told him about the miracles which the LORD had ordered him to perform. ²⁹So Moses and Aaron went to Egypt and gathered all the Israelite leaders together. ³⁰Aaron told them everything that the LORD had said to Moses, and then Moses performed all the miracles in front of the people. ³¹They believed, and when they heard that the LORD had come to them and had seen how they were being treated cruelly, they bowed down and worshiped.

Realize that God's ways are not our ways, but are higher than our ways. Remember that the process will bring even greater glory to the King of kings, the Lord of lords.

Are you feeling sick? Let's pray together for the sick with Psalm 41

A Prayer in Sickness

Psalm 41 Happy are those who are concerned for the poor;
the LORD will help them when they are in trouble.
²The LORD will protect them and preserve their lives;
he will make them happy in the land;
he will not abandon them to the power of their enemies.
³The LORD will help them when they are sick
and will restore them to health.
⁴I said, "I have sinned against you, LORD;
be merciful to me and heal me."
⁵My enemies say cruel things about me.
They want me to die and be forgotten.
⁶Those who come to see me are not sincere;
they gather bad news about me
and then go out and tell it everywhere.
⁷All who hate me whisper to each other about me,
they imagine the worst about me.
⁸They say, "He is fatally ill;
he will never leave his bed again."
⁹Even my best friend, the one I trusted most,
the one who shared my food,
has turned against me.
¹⁰Be merciful to me, LORD, and restore my health,
and I will pay my enemies back.
¹¹They will not triumph over me,
and I will know that you are pleased with me.
¹²You will help me, because I do what is right;
you will keep me in your presence forever.
¹³Praise the LORD, the God of Israel!
Praise him now and forever!

Amen! Amen!

Heavenly Father,

I thank You for this new day and lift up the needs of all those around me. I lift up especially those who don't know You as when they come to face trouble, they are unaware of the grace and the mercy that is available to them in You and through Jesus Christ who is interceding for us. Lord, I pray also for the believers who feel like they are in the valley and are doubting because they can't feel or see You. May they find hope today. May they cling to the faith they have, for if we have faith the size of a mustard see, we could say to the mountain in our way to be cast into the see and it will. Help us to see what it is that You want for us to learn. Help us to realize that our ways aren't as high as Your ways. Help us to realize that we need not to lean on our own understanding (since our emotions and thoughts can simply drive us even further down), but on every Word that comes from You. Let us look for the promises in Your Word - that You will never leave us nor forsake us, that You didn't send Jesus to condemn the world, but that You sent Him so that we could all have life and life to the full, You want us to hope for the future, You will give us a way out when we are being tempted (it is up to us to decide if we will choose it), and so many others. Help us today to look to You. Help us to reach out to others around us in order that they could see the hope and the light and the life that is within us, and bring praise and glory, honor and worship, to You, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please feel free to leave a comment or send me a message if you would like me to pray or talk with you.

Jesus the Great High Priest

Hebrews 4¹⁴Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest who has gone into the very presence of God--Jesus, the Son of God. ¹⁵Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. ¹⁶Let us have confidence, then, and approach God's throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.
Hebrews 5 Every high priest is chosen from his fellow-men and appointed to serve God on their behalf, to offer sacrifices and offerings for sins. ²Since he himself is weak in many ways, he is able to be gentle with those who are ignorant and make mistakes. ³And because he is himself weak, he must offer sacrifices not only for the sins of the people but also for his own sins. ⁴No one chooses for himself the honor of being a high priest. It is only by God's call that a man is made a high priest--just as Aaron was.
⁵In the same way, Christ did not take upon himself the honor of being a high priest. Instead, God said to him,
"You are my Son;
today I have become your Father."
⁶He also said in another place,
"You will be a priest forever,
in the priestly order of Melchizedek."
⁷In his life on earth Jesus made his prayers and requests with loud cries and tears to God, who could save him from death. Because he was humble and devoted, God heard him. ⁸But even though he was God's Son, he learned through his sufferings to be obedient. ⁹When he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him, ¹⁰and God declared him to be high priest, in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

... We know that you have the better blessings that belong to your salvation. ¹⁰God is not unfair. He will not forget the work you did or the love you showed for him in the help you gave and are still giving to other Christians. ¹¹Our great desire is that each of you keep up your eagerness to the end, so that the things you hope for will come true. ¹²We do not want you to become lazy, but to be like those who believe and are patient, and so receive what God has promised.

Ever wonder when Judah was spoken of becoming the ruling part of Jacob's family?

Check out Genesis 49:

...

⁸"Judah, your brothers will praise you.
You hold your enemies by the neck.
Your brothers will bow down before you.
⁹Judah is like a lion,
Killing his victim and returning to his den,
Stretching out and lying down.
No one dares disturb him.
¹⁰Judah will hold the royal scepter,
And his descendants will always rule.
Nations will bring him tribute
And bow in obedience before him.
¹¹He ties his young donkey to a grapevine,
To the very best of the vines.
He washes his clothes in blood-red wine.
¹²His eyes are bloodshot from drinking wine,
His teeth white from drinking milk.

...

Will you remember that God is for you and not against you? Let's consider what happened to Joseph and look at his response to his brothers:

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

¹⁵After the death of their father, Joseph's brothers said, "What if Joseph still hates us and plans to pay us back for all the harm we did to him?" ¹⁶So they sent a message to Joseph: "Before our father died, ¹⁷he told us to ask you, 'Please forgive the crime your brothers committed when they wronged you.' Now please forgive us the wrong that we, the servants of your father's God, have done." Joseph cried when he received this message.
¹⁸Then his brothers themselves came and bowed down before him. "Here we are before you as your slaves," they said.
¹⁹But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid; I can't put myself in the place of God. ²⁰You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened. ²¹You have nothing to fear. I will take care of you and your children." So he reassured them with kind words that touched their hearts.

Are you suffering? Have brought it before God? Let's pray together the prayer of confession of a sufferer in Psalm 39

The Confession of a Sufferer

Psalm 39 I said, "I will be careful about what I do
and will not let my tongue make me sin;
I will not say anything
while evil people are near."
²I kept quiet, not saying a word,
not even about anything good!
But my suffering only grew worse,
³and I was overcome with anxiety.
The more I thought, the more troubled I became;
I could not keep from asking:
⁴"LORD, how long will I live?
When will I die?
Tell me how soon my life will end."
⁵How short you have made my life!
In your sight my lifetime seems nothing.
Indeed every living being is no more than a puff of wind,
⁶no more than a shadow.
All we do is for nothing;
we gather wealth, but don't know who will get it.
⁷What, then, can I hope for, Lord?
I put my hope in you.
⁸Save me from all my sins,
and don't let fools make fun of me.
⁹I will keep quiet, I will not say a word,
for you are the one who made me suffer like this.
¹⁰Don't punish me any more!
I am about to die from your blows.
¹¹You punish our sins by your rebukes,
and like a moth you destroy what we love.
Indeed we are no more than a puff of wind!
¹²Hear my prayer, LORD,
and listen to my cry;
come to my aid when I weep.
Like all my ancestors
I am only your guest for a little while.
¹³Leave me alone so that I may have some happiness
before I go away and am no more.