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Everlasting Covenant – Week 2 The Sabbath

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Three more days on the memory challenge! Here’s a jumps tarter for this verse: Ask yourself, how are we to love the Lord our God

Today’s Scripture: Exodus 31:12-17; Mark 2:23-3:6 (S.O.A.P. Mark 2:27-28)

Instructions for the Sabbath

The Lord then gave these instructions to Moses: 13 “Tell the people of Israel: ‘Be careful to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you from generation to generation. It is given so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy. 14 You must keep the Sabbath day, for it is a holy day for you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. 15 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day must be a Sabbath day of complete rest, a holy day dedicated to the Lord. Anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death. 16 The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day by observing it from generation to generation. This is a covenant obligation for all time. 17 It is a permanent sign of my covenant with the people of Israel. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he stopped working and was refreshed.’”

A Discussion about the Sabbath

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. 24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”

25 Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 26 He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.”

27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. 2 Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath.

3 Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” 4 Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him.

5 He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! 6 At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.

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Mark 2:27 Reference
Mark 2:28 Reference
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Everlasting Covenant – Week2 Tuesday – Christ Fulfills the Law

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Question of the Day: What is the law’s purpose?

Today’s Scritpure: Exodus 24:3-8; Matthew 5:17-20 (S.O.A.P. Matthew 5:17)

Teaching about the Law
Exodus 24:3-8 New Living Translation

Then Moses went down to the people and repeated all the instructions and regulations the Lord had given him. All the people answered with one voice, “We will do everything the Lord has commanded.”

4 Then Moses carefully wrote down all the Lord’s instructions. Early the next morning Moses got up and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He also set up twelve pillars, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent some of the young Israelite men to present burnt offerings and to sacrifice bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses drained half the blood from these animals into basins. The other half he splattered against the altar.

7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people. Again they all responded, “We will do everything the Lord has commanded. We will obey.”

8 Then Moses took the blood from the basins and splattered it over the people, declaring, “Look, this blood confirms the covenant the Lord has made with you in giving you these instructions.”

Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. 19 So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

20 “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

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Matthew 5:17 Reference
Posted in Bible study, LGG Study

Everlasting Covenant: Monday-2 The Greatest Commandments

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  • Week 2 Focus Verse

What did Jesus say the greatest commandment was?

Today’s Scripture: Exodus 20:1-17; Matthew 22:36-40 (S.O.A.P. Matthew 22:36-40)

Ten Commandments for the Covenant Community

Then God gave the people all these instructions[a]:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

3 “You must not have any other god but me.

4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those[b] who love me and obey my commands.

7 “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.

8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

12 “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

13 “You must not murder.

14 “You must not commit adultery.

15 “You must not steal.

16 “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.

17 “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”

Matthew 22:36-40 New Living Translation

 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

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Weekly Wrap Up

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Good evening! Here is a weekly wrap up video. Can’t wait to study with you all next week.

Make sure to like or comment for an extra entry in this weeks giveaway!

Posted in From the Insideout

Thanksgiving 2020

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In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

What a year we have had! Different from any other than we have known – which may be said of any year – but let’s be honest – not with quite the magnitude of 2020! It’s been filled with a pandemic that’s included confusion, fears, deaths, arguments, economic struggles, and disasters, loss of lives and jobs and sanity – and the list goes on. We have watched riots of various degrees and reasons, and political chaos, not to mention all of the individual happenings in our own lives.

So how, in this crazy messed up world, can we be thankful? And, for what can we be thankful? As I was typing these questions, a song I heard and sang often growing up in church came to mind. Count Your Blessings, was just a hymn in those days but little did I know that the words were teaching me a lesson I would use throughout the course of my life. I don’t know when it happened, but for as long as I can remember it has actually been a ‘go-to’ for me in times of trouble or sadness. I have used its underlying principle of naming my blessings whenever life is challenging, or disappointing, depressing, discouraging … well, you get the picture. Since any of those words could easily sum up 2020 it isn’t surprising that it comes to mind now.

In looking up the lyrics – so that I could make sure to include all the right words and the writers name, I came across this quote published in a “Story Behind the Song“, in the St. Augustine Record. Since it goes to the heart of the issue that led to me writing today’s post it seems very fitting to share here –

All too often, in this great land of America, we seem to lapse into a state of ingratitude, taking for granted all of the blessings and comforts we enjoy. We revert into an attitude of self-satisfaction, expecting that peace and bliss will always follow us. During those times we should, with sincerity of heart, count our blessings!”

Posted November 20, 2014

The author of the quote, whose name I could not find, hits the proverbial nail on the head with saying that – “we seem to lapse into a state of ingratitude”, though, I would add self-entitlement to the reasoning of “self-satisfaction”. Here’s why, the word attitude is defined as – “a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior.” Let’s face it – if our gratitude is dependent on self our preconceived satisfaction and entitlements will always fall short and leave us, ultimately, in some form of despair. However, when our settled way of thinking and feeling about anything is based on God, who He is and what He’s done, we will always find something to be thankful for. Ann VosKamp said it like this, Joy is a function of gratitude – and gratitude is a function of perspective. Yes, even in this epic year there is something to be thankful for. I encourage you – here and now – name one blessing – one thing in 2020 that you are thankful for … then another and another. Count them – name them one by one – I promise you will be surprised at what God has done – in your life, in another’s, or in our world. Stop and take a minute to comment below with one thing you’re thankful for … you might just inspire a list of gratitude in someone else.

No amount of regret changes the past,

no amount of anxiety changes the future,

any amount of gratitude changes the present.

– Ann VosKamp
Count Your Blessings Lyrics
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Everlasting Covenant: The Blessing of Christ

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  • Today’s SOAP Passage

Today’s Scripture: Genesis 22:15-18; Ephesians 1:3-14 (S.O.A.P. Ephesians 1:11-12)

Genesis 22:15-18 New Living Translation

Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. 16 “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed M and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by My own name that 17 I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants[a] beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. 18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed Me.”

Ephesians 1:3-14 New Living Translation
Spiritual Blessings

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.[a] 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill His own good plan. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,[b] for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.

12 God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own[c] by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.

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Ephesians 1:11 Reference
Ephesians 1:12 Reference

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Everlasting Covenant: The Promised Land

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Today’s Scripture: Genesis 15:7-21; Hebrews 11:8-10 (S.O.A.P. Hebrews 11:9-10)

Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”

8 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”

9 The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. 11 Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.

12 As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. 14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. 15 (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) 16 After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”

17 After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. 18 So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt[a] to the great Euphrates River— 19 the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Hebrews 11:8-10

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

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Hebrews 11:9 Reference
Hebrews 11:10 ReFERENCE
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Everlasting Covenant

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Today’s Scripture: Genesis 15:1-6; Galatians 3:15-18 (S.O.A.P. Genesis 15:6)

The Lord’s Covenant Promise to Abram

Some time later, the LORD spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”

2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, what good are all Your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since You’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3 You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”

4 Then the LORD said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” 5 Then the LORD took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

6 And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.

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Everlasting Covenant: An Unconditional Covenant

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Today’s Scripture: Genesis 9:12-17 (S.O.A.P. Genesis 9:12-13)

12 Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. 13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. 14 When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, 15 and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. 16 When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” 17 Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”

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From the Insideout: Everlasting Covenant – Week 1, Tuesday

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The rainbow has been used in many different ways throughout history, such as an acronym, Roy G. Biv, for the sequence of hues commonly described as making up a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, or as a trademark in the advertisement of a popular cereal, and the infamous path to a pot of gold. However, it’s first use as a symbol precedes each of these by centuries and carries much more importance.

We find it mentioned for the first time as a sign of a covenant between Noah and all generations that followed. God said it was to signify that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. He called it a guarantee, and to this day He has held true to His promise.

Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. 13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth.

Genesis 9:12-13

Since childhood, when I see a rainbow I’ve been intrigued. First of all – where’s it’s end and is there really a pot of gold there? (Ok, be honest, you’ve wondered the same thing.) However, having been raised in a Christian home and taken to church from birth – I learned very early on through Bible story books and flannel graph lessons (yes, I am that old) – that what I was seeing meant God had made a promise. Somewhere along the way, as I grew and matured in my understanding of that promise I moved from simple intrigue and being mesmerized by it’s beauty to giving thanks to God for His promise, and then to being humbled by His faithful grace and mercies to His people.

As I reread the passage today, I noticed three things –

He gave a sign for Noah and all generations to come. God could have simply said, “I promise.”, but He’s a relational God and He chose to give His people a visible sign. He called it a guarantee, a term meant to imply or encourage trust in the one making the promise.

Then there’s the placement of the sign. “I will place My rainbow in the clouds.” When I think about clouds, I think of “looking up”, an act I immediately associate with “looking to God”. I think of Scriptures like Psalm 121: 1-2, where the Psalmist said he looked up to the hills because he knew his help came from the Lord, and of Luke 21:25-28 where Jesus, Himself, said that the people were to look up because their redemption was coming.

25 “And there will be strange signs in the sun, moon, and stars. And here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. 26 People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the earth, for the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. 28 So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!”

Luke 21:25-28

However, the thing I found most interesting is that Scripture doesn’t say that the rainbow is to be a reminder for Noah and the generations to come, I guess that’s a given since a sign is meant to be noticed. It does, however, say that He will notice it and remember it as the guarantee He made to His children. God is God – He is the omniscient – all knowing – God. Forgetfulness is not one of His characteristics, but just as He can declare that He will not remember our sins against us* – He can “claim the right” to remember a promise made. His statement, as the symbol itself, is an indication of the how serious He is about the promise.

*31 “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

God is serious about His promise so He gives His people a visible sign to confirm it, a sign that is a reminder still today. A symbol of trust that has not worn out with the passing of time. A symbol that awakens a fresh remembrance of a faithful and loving God. A symbol of hope, of grace, of mercy, and of love.