Tag: the God Who Pursues

Posted in Bible study, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Our God Who Pursues, Quiet Time

Choosing The Jesus Way

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Based on the LGG Study, Our God Who Pursues,/w3d2

Read: MICAH 3:9-12; 4:1-5 and 4:10-12
Bad morals corrupt good character

Today’s journey through Micah reveals an unflattering picture of God’s people and disturbing news of what was to come. Israel’s leaders had forgotten the God whom they were committed to serve. Micah writes that they hated justice and perverted all that was right. They were building Zion through bloody crimes and Jerusalem through unjust violence. Legal cases were decided on bribes that the leaders received, even the priests proclaimed rulings for profit, and the prophets read omens for pay. As if this corruption was not bad enough, despite the fact that devastation and destruction were already wreaking havoc within the nation, the leaders continued to claim to trust the LORD and were telling the people, “The LORD is among us. Disaster will not overtake us!”

What About You?

We, too, face a similar choice. In a world that says that serving self and doing what seems right to you is the most important, we must, as Joshua told the people in his day, decide whom we will serve. Will we serve self or God? Take a moment to think about your own heart. Are you willing to set aside your wants and desires to follow what God may be calling you to? Are you willing to put others first over getting something you want? Is your heart’s desire to make the name of Jesus known over building your platform or building your own renown? It’s a choice we all must make.

Our God Who Pursues/LGG Journal p99
The hope of Future Days

In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all— the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. 2 People from many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem. 3 The Lord will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes between strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore 4 Everyone will live in peace and prosperity, enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees, for there will be nothing to fear. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has made this promise! 5 Though the nations around us follow their idols, we will follow the Lord our God forever and ever.

Micah 4:1 -5

The Temple Mount/Mountain of the LORD’S House written about by Micah: A hill in the Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a holy site for thousands of years, including in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The Jesus Way

Admittedly, serving oneself or garnering the applause or approval of others can be pretty enticing. Goodness knows I have succumbed to those choices more than I care to admit, but I can tell you it generally led to disappointment or heartache. Choosing the Jesus Way isn’t always the easiest, most desirable, or most comfortable way, but it is most certainly the best way, for it leads to immeasurable blessings and joys.

As I wrote that last sentence, A group of women I used to lead on Sunday mornings came to mind. The name of our group was JOY, which stood for Jesus … Others … You. Seems like a great acronym for our focus today. Jesus first, then others, and then yourself. Whether it is in serving or living out our day-to-day lives, or even in our prayer lives, pay our eyes to stay on Jesus, the One we chose to follow.

23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

Luke 9:23-24

But I say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Matthew 5:44

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Mark 12:29-31
Prayer of Response

Father, do not let us be like the leaders of Israel, who forgot their commitment to serve You and Your call on their lives to serve the people. Help me to remember Jesus’ similar call to let go of my life and follow Him. It isn’t always easy, but You knew that, and You sent the Spirit to empower us to do all that You have called us to do. Holy Spirit, keep my focus Heavenward, guard me from the distractions of this world and the enticements of the flesh. May I be known for living a J.O.Y.-focused life: Keeping Jesus first in all things and serving and loving others before myself. In the name of Jesus – I pray and believe – Amen!

The More We Know
The Jesus Way Devotional
The Jesus Way Song

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Our God Who Pursues, Quiet Time

The Hope of Restoration

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based on the LGG Study, Our God Who Pursues/w1d4

Scripture: Joel 2:18-32 (SOAP verse 19)

Three things I noted from the reading today:

  • We move the heart of God when we do as He directs.
    • When the people cried out as they were directed, when they returned to the LORD as He gave them the opportunity to do – it was “Then the LORD became zealous for His land;
  • It is a wonderful thing when the LORD responds to His people.
    • “Then the LORD became zealous for His land; He had compassion on His people. The LORD responded to His people.”
  • The LORD sends His people hope of restoration.
    • He tells them, “Look! I am about to restore your grain as well as fresh wine and olive oil.” He promises them that they “will be fully satisfied” and that He would “never again make them an object of mockery among the nations.”

While I realize that this passage probably has a wealth of other truths and teachings, I was struggling to put it into words – but then I read the journal entry1 today from Love God Greatly’s study, “Our God Who Pursues.” I’m sharing it here because it is, in my opinion, the perfect commentary for today’s journey. I pray it is as rich a blessing for you as it is for me.

redeeming what was lost

We read in the previous chapter of Joel how God brought destruction on the people of Israel through the locust plague. His aim was to secure their undivided commitment to Him. They had been half- hearted in their worship, and they had gone after other things and other gods. That’s why God was fighting against His own people in order to bring them to repentance. He still does the same with His people today when we wander away from Him, our first love. He sometimes allows problems and hardships to bring us to repentance and draw us back to Himself.


But now God was going to bring restoration. He was going to make beauty from ashes. Can you imagine the hope that this message brought to the people? After their land had been decimated, God, in His kindness, promises to restore and renew that which was lost.


We see that with God there is hope. Even when we, His people, wander away from Him and let other things or people take priority over Him, God will not let us go. In His fierce love and jealousy, He will draw us back to Himself. He gives us His Holy Spirit who convicts us of our half-heartedness and pours His love into us again as we seek Him.


You may find yourself in a season when the locusts of this life have taken away everything. God, because of His great love for you, is allowing hardship in order to have your full allegiance, your whole- hearted worship. Turn to Him in repentance and put your full trust in Him, because one day He will make all things new. You don’t know how or when, but you know that He will. He has promised it. Believe Him.


PRAYER
God, life on this earth is hard, but you are a God of restoration. Help me to trust you no matter what may happen in my life, knowing that you have a plan to one day make all things new. Amen.

Our God Who Pursues/Journal Entry/p 53
The More We Know

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, God is good, Journey Through The Word, Know These Truths, LGG Study, Our God Who Pursues, Quiet Time

A Change of Heart

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Based on: Our God Who Pursues w1/d3

Many people mistakenly believe that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath and judgment, whereas in the New Testament He is solely characterized by love. However, Joel 2 shows us that God is both angry at sin but full of love towards the sinner. It’s important to know and understand God’s character as it greatly impacts how we live. … While we wait for that coming day, we are charged to live faithful lives. We are to regularly repent and live a life of obedience. When our hearts can view God truly for who he is, it changes the way we live.

LGG Journal/Our God Who Pursues/p49

Friends, as the LGG journal points out today, “It’s important to know and understand God’s character as it greatly impacts how we live.” So, while our focus is on verses 12 and 13, we must first address the overriding theme of Joel’s prophecy, which is “the day of the LORD,1” or as Gotquestions.org describes it, “a day of God’s wrath and judgment.”

It will be such a terrible day that Job’s opening words of the second chapter are a message from the LORD, to “Blow the trumpets in Zion, sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear, for the day of the LORD is about to come.” If we know the hope of salvation, we may not be as prone to fear the day – yet surely, if we look around us today, it seems there is undoubtedly great cause for alarm – a truth that prompted me to write in the margin of my journal: Should this not also be our message to the people around us and across the world? After all, if the day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing, threatening the survival of mankind, as verse eleven announces, should we not also heed the call of repentance and sound the alarm to alert ‘all the inhabitants of the land?’

The day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing.
    Who can possibly survive?

A Call to Repentance

12 That is why the Lord says,
    “Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
    Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
13 Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
    but tear your hearts instead.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
    He is eager to relent and not punish.

Joel 2:11-13

I’ve heard it said that God is a God of second chances, and in verses twelve and thirteen, we see an example of this truth. Joel’s announcement of the coming awesome, terrible day is followed by his message from the Lord for the people to turn to Him while there is still time. You see, God wasn’t interested in their outward expressions of tearing their clothes but rather an inward change of heart that they might return to Him. He desires their hearts be broken for what breaks His heart, and he was giving them more time, or a second opportunity, it would seem, to repent. Don’t miss the beauty of His message that He was ready and waiting to pour out His mercy and compassion as a wonderful reminder that He is slow to get angry and abounding in unfailing love. – When we know this side of God’s character, it shouldn’t just change the way we live, but it should spur us on to sound the alarm so that the people around us will turn to the Lord while there is time.

God doesn’t desire an outward repentance of tearing the clothes, but instead desires an awareness of our sin that brings sorrow on the deepest level – so that we turn to Him and away from the sin.

Prayer of Response

Father, You are a merciful and compassionate God. You are slow to anger and filled with unfailing love. Thank You for letting me know this side of You and for the way it has changed my life through the years. Help me to be better about sounding the alarm so that those around me can turn to You while there is still time. May my heart be broken for what breaks Yours, and may my will align with Yours. – Let sin break my heart so that I always turn away from it – for Your glory – Amen!

The More We Know