Sometimes a very visual demonstration drives home the reality of scripture so much better than just talking about it.
The Good Hand of the Lord - Nehemiah 2:8
Sleeplessness - Esther 6:1a
Words Can't Be Erased - Job 21:5
The Knowledge of Good and Evil - Psalm 16:2
Trusting God - Psalm 56:3
Fix My Eyes - Psalm 141:8
Learn to Do Good - Isaiah 1:17
Wait Upon the LORD - Isaiah 40:31
Ask for the Ancient Paths - Jeremiah 6:16
Seeking God - Jeremiah 29:13
Wisdom - Jeremiah 51:15
The Soul Who Sins - Ezekiel 18:4
Holy and Common - Ezekiel 42:20
Feast Gifts - Hosea 6:6
Pride - Obadiah 3a
The Good Hand of the Lord
Memory Verse: “And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.” Nehemiah 2:8b
If you could have any super power in the world, what would it be? Would you like instantaneous travel abilities? Would you want to be able to read people’s thoughts? Would you like “Jedi mind control” capabilities? Maybe you’d like to be able to levitate objects. Maybe you’d like to be able to travel in time. Perhaps you’d like to ensure world peace or the ability to heal individuals. What do you wish you could do?
There are a lot of people who have tried various routes to the super power they desired. They have gotten involved with fortune-telling or necromancers. They have thought to make a bargain with the devil or otherwise gotten involved with demonic activity. Some think it’s harmless to read books like the Harry Potter series that have actual spells in them. They think about magic like it’s good and something anyone would want to be a part of.
It didn’t turn out well for Kings Saul or Manasseh. God’s commandments include not consulting fortune-tellers, looking at omens, dealing with necromancers and the occult, getting involved in witchcraft. It’s evil and it’s not for God’s people.
Jesus gave us an example of staying away from these things. It’s what Satan’s temptation was all about! If Jesus would just worship Satan, Jesus would get all of these things. The crazy thing is this: as long as Jesus stayed the course and followed the Father’s will, there’s nothing Satan could give Him that could even come close to what the Father has in store.
And it’s the same for us. If we stay the course, stay away from evil, stay away from pagan practices like fortune tellers, Dungeons and Dragons, and other activities which allow Satan to be a part of your life - if we stay close to God and obey His ways, what we have in store for us is far and away better than anything Satan could give us.
And today, when it looks like there’s no way things will work out, God can turn things to our good - so much better than we could have imagined! Your employer shows you favor in granting requests. The doctors are able to successfully treat your health concerns. You are able to figure out what is wrong with the car. When God is your God, you can say, as Nehemiah did, “The God of heaven will make us prosper” (Nehemiah 2:20). It’s kind of like Nehemiah asking the king if he could go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. Nehemiah gives all the credit to God for the king granting Nehemiah’s request. [Recite memory verse.]
Sleeplessness
Memory Verse: "On that night the king could not sleep.” Esther 6:1a
Have you ever found yourself lying awake in the middle of the night and you can’t get back to sleep? Do you know why? Was it too much rich food? Was it scary movies? Was it a bad sunburn or illness? What do you do when you can’t sleep?
Do you
There are lots of different tricks people have tried over the years to go to sleep when they really need to sleep.
King Ahasuerus (aka King Xerxes) couldn’t sleep one night either. So what did he do? Here’s how the story is related in the Berean translation: “That night sleep escaped the king; so he ordered the Book of Records, the Chronicles, to be brought in and read to him. 2And there it was found recorded that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.”
This is interesting. The king wanted the record of his reign to be read to him. Was his reign that boring? Or did he think it would be comforting to hear of all his accomplishments? What was keeping him awake?
I suspect it was God keeping the king awake. For it was God’s plan that Mordecai would be honored and Haman’s plot against the Jews be foiled.
I suspect there are lots of things like that in our lives - times when we have an impulse to do something and we don’t really know why. It could be that God is motivating us to do something that will bring Him glory and honor. At least, it’s something to ponder the next time you can’t sleep.
Words Can’t Be Erased
Memory Verse: “Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.” Job 21:5
Why in the world do you think I might have chosen this particular verse? It’s a little odd, isn’t it? A verse about Job telling his friends to look at him, to be appalled and to put their hands over their mouths. What in the world does that have to do with you!!
Let’s start with the situation with Job. What’s going on? He’s lost all of his children. He’s lost a huge amount of his resources (flocks, camels). He’s been afflicted with painful boils from head to foot. His friends show up to comfort him and don’t say a word - for a week! They just sit there quietly because they see his suffering was very great (Job 2:13). Then they decide to fix him. They decide that he obviously has done something really bad for God to cause this degree of suffering. They think Job just needs to confess his guilt, repent before God, and everything will be great - because, as everyone knows, it’s only the sinner who suffers. This “help” goes on for 29 chapters before Elihu rebukes Job’s three “friends” and Job for the next six chapters. At the end of it all, God says that Job’s friends did not speak what was right about Him (Job 42:1-8); in fact, God says Job will pray for them and God will accept Job’s petition on their behalf. When it was all said and done, Job’s friends would have been much better off if they had just looked at Job, been appalled at what he was suffering and put their hand over their mouths. They were a lot more comfort to Job when they sat quietly with him. And they were much less offensive to God before they started speaking.
So what does this have to do with you? There are multiple verses which talk about limiting your words:
Ecclesiastes 5:2 Do not be quick to speak, and do not be hasty in your heart to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. So let your words be few.
James 1:19 My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
Proverbs 29:20 Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
There’s a poem my children learned early:
A wise old owl lived in an oak.
The more he saw, the less he spoke.
The less he spoke, the more he heard.
Why can’t we all be like that bird?
There are many times in life when choosing your words carefully, or even being silent, is a much better option than saying exactly what is in your head. Once the words are out there, they can’t be erased.
So why did I choose this verse for you to memorize? I want you to learn to be discerning about what you say. And sometimes that means putting your hand over your mouth to keep the words from coming out!
The Knowledge of Good and Evil
“I say to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.’ ” Psalm 16:2
What good things can you think of that you get from God? Food, water, air, life, family, friends. God’s blessings are all around us. Pets, safety, protection, direction. We could be here for a very long time. Health, home, wisdom, comfort. The list is endless. Vision, taste, hearing, touch, smells. Truly our God is the source of everything.
So I’ve been picking blackberries out of the garden. Would you like one? Christopher loves them. Ron, not so much. If I asked each of them, “Aren’t they good?” I would get different answers.
What about beans? Last night I was still snapping beans when Christopher arrived for supper. Without me even having to ask, he started snapping beans. Christopher’s MO for snapping beans is: snap, one for the bowl, snap, one for my mouth. What do you think? Do you like raw green beans? All three of my kids like the raw green beans.
We all have preferences. That makes life very interesting. People are all different. Some like vanilla ice cream. Some like chocolate. Some like broccoli. Some Presidents don’t. Some people prefer to travel at 35 mph down the road. Some like to travel at 70 mph.
What happens when your preferences - and what you think is good - bothers other people? I used to like to practice piano during the evening, after I had finished my homework for the day, dinner was over and dishes were done. But my older brother didn’t particularly appreciate that. He was in his bedroom, reading and doing homework, and my piano backed up to his bedroom wall. It’s one thing to hear a proficient piano player. It’s something else to hear someone working on a particularly tricky section, over and over and over ad nauseam.
When your “good” thing infringes on the life and happiness of another person, the result can be more government regulations. Put another way: when people don’t habitually consider their actions in light of how they impact others, the government steps in to administer consequences if a person goes too far out of bounds in his conduct, i.e. the woman who decided to take the Knicks trash can home with her this week. She saw a public trash can full of trash. She liked how it was painted in Knicks colors. She dumped out all the trash and carried it home with her on the subway. Supposedly, her employer canned her.
Your memory verse is from Psalm 16:2: “I say to the LORD [Yahweh], ‘You are my Lord [Master]; I have no good [pleasant thing, prosperity, bounty, happiness, welfare] apart from you.’ ” Do you believe this? That there’s no good apart from God? Do you live your life with the worldview that God is your Master? If you do, then you can go to Him for all definitions about good and evil. In the end, simple preferences about blackberries and green beans are not what we’re talking about. It’s your conduct. And, God’s standards of right and wrong, good and evil, are really the only ones that matter.
**Trusting God
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Psalm 56: 3
Materials: water, a cup, card stock, transparency film, plastic lid, wash basin, towels
What would you say if I offered to turn a full cup of water upside down over your head? Maybe if you were outside, on a hot summer day, you might say yes. But otherwise, you’re likely to turn me down. Would you trust me if I said I could keep you from getting wet?
What if I offered to turn the full cup of water upside down over your head with a piece of card stock over the cup? Would that make any difference? Would you trust me then? Or do you think you’d get wet?
The interesting thing is that the atmospheric force should overcome the gravitational pull (but sometimes things don’t go as planned), keeping the water inside the cup - at least until the paper becomes soaked and allows air into the cup. Once air can rush in, the water will rush out all over your head.
So maybe we should use a piece of plastic. Would a piece of transparency film keep you from getting wet? It wouldn’t get soaked like the card stock. But surprisingly, it doesn’t work well at all. It looks like it would work, but it’s too flexible.
Another option, then, might be a plastic lid. If I filled the cup with water, put a plastic lid over it, and turned it upside down, would you trust me to put it over your head? Would you believe me if I said you wouldn’t get wet?
There are so many times in our lives when we’re afraid something bad might happen to us. In the analogy with the cup of water, we know we’re going to get wet. So we look around for something that can prevent the bad thing from happening. We might look to family or friends. We may look for an organization or the government. But even if they mean well, all of these people and organizations are not perfect. They can still fail at times (or all the time). They have limited power to make things right.
The only One you can trust to make everything work out for your good is God. Does that mean that nothing bad will ever happen to you? No, sometimes God does allow us to get wet. But when we trust in Him, we know it’s all going to work out for our good in the end. That means we trust that He’s working in all the good and all the bad in our lives to make sure that we are in His kingdom with Him. So in our analogy, the water falling on your head would be analogous to something negative happening, perhaps a failure on the part of another. Nevertheless, you can trust God; if you love Him and belong to Him, He will work out all things for your good.
**Fix My Eyes
"But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge..." — Psalm 141:8 (NIV)
Materials needed: card with dark arrow, glass, water, towels
Have you ever noticed when you’re riding your bicycle that you will go wherever you are looking? If you look off to the side, pretty soon that’s where your bike goes. This is an important concept to learn before you ride a motorcycle or start driving a car! If you look directly at the rock or the curb you are trying to avoid, you will steer right into it. (This is a known phenomenon called target fixation.) To avoid the obstacle, you have to consciously force your eyes to look at the clear path ahead.
In this life, if you fix your eyes on your problems, your fears, or the obstacles around us, we will steer straight towards them. You must, instead, fix your eyes on your Sovereign LORD, our awesome God who is our refuge from problems, fears, and obstacles.
Psalm 141 brings this out if we look at verse 8 in context. David wasn’t sitting in a peaceful place when he wrote this psalm; he was in a spiritual and physical war zone. In verse 3-4, he’s asking for God to help him control his tongue and avoid the evil choices of the people around him. If you focus on your enemies or the problems, instead of looking to God, then you will tend to move closer to your enemies and their choices. So what does David do to avoid the traps around him? He acknowledges that they are real, but he chooses not to focus on them. He looks to God, the Sovereign LORD, for help.
The Hebrew text reads literally, "For to you, Yahweh, are my eyes." It is a posture of intentional, unwavering attention. It means David’s primary source of information, direction, and comfort is not his physical surroundings, but God Himself. David calls God “Sovereign LORD” - Adonai Yahweh. David, then, is acknowledging that God is both His sovereign master and His personal, covenant-keeping rescuer.
So where do our eyes want to go? If we look down, we’re focusing on our weaknesses, which can lead to self-pity and despair. If we look inward, we try to fix the problem ourselves, which can lead to pride and anxiety. If we look around us, we see our storms (problems) and enemies, which can lead to comparison and fear. (Think about what happened when Peter looked at the waves around him.) But if we look up, we’re focusing our attention on God, from Whom comes peace and rescue.
Here’s an arrow. What direction is it pointed? Even if you look at it through the “lens” of a jar, it’s still pointed left. But what if we look at our problems, weaknesses, enemies, troubles through the lens of the Holy Spirit, aka a water-filled jar? Now what direction does the arrow point? Seeing the world around us through the lens of focusing our attention on God makes all the difference. It totally changes our perspective.
Think about it:
This week, make a commitment that the very first thing your eyes look at in the morning—and the very last thing you look at before sleep—will not be a screen, homework, or a to-do list. Before you look at the world, fix your eyes on the Sovereign Lord in prayer or scripture, even if only for two minutes. Let Him set your gaze for the day. It will change the direction of your perspective and your life.
Learn to Do Good
“Learn to do good. . .” Isaiah 1:17
We talked last week about doing foolish things, aka not being wise, and you all came up with a lot of things which would not be a good thing to do. It was quite a list. But let me assure you, you did not fully plumb the depths of stupidity and foolishness.
I asked you four questions this week as your assignment to prepare for today:
We could could spend some time discussing exactly what good means and come up with a definition of good. We could come up with a list of behaviors which are good - although that might involve a lot more discussion. Here’s why:
Let’s do a couple of experiments.
In each of these examples, the object itself never changed. The context surrounding the object modified how you judged it. That’s why our discussion about what is good and what is not will take a very long time. We make our choices based on what we feel or what we perceive. Those feelings and perceptions are based on our culture, how our parents have raised us, or what we think is good for us. We truly need an unchanging standard (God’s Word) to tell us actually what is true, not just what looks good in the moment.
But perfectly knowing what God considers good is going to take us a lifetime to understand. So where do we start?
Let’s start with the Bible - with the rest of the memory verse. Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good,” but it doesn’t stop there. It continues, “seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” We have a responsibility to do the right thing, to help people who cannot help themselves, to reach out and serve others.
This is just one example of something God says is good. There are many, many others! The problem is that not everyone agrees with how to interpret the Bible. So we study and we think and we counsel with others. And we pray and we read the Bible.
It takes a lifetime of adjustments, small and big, to modify our understanding of God’s definition of good. But in the end, it’s worth it! Doing good is a clear command from God. It would be very good for us to obey.
**Wait Upon the LORD
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Materials: hair dryer, ping pong ball
Do you know how far some butterflies migrate each year? Some Monarch butterflies travel 2,000 miles!
Do you know how far some hummingbirds migrate each year? Some travel 1,300 miles - 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico in 18-22 hours!!
Some eagles migrate from Northern Canada to northern Mexico each fall. That’s about 3000 miles. A stream of migrating eagles can be 20 - 30 miles long and half a mile wide, with the birds averaging about 30 miles an hour. They can travel as much as 225 miles a day. How can they go that far? They depend on the wind. If there’s no wind, the eagles can’t soar. So when there’s no wind, eagles stay put or only travel locally. Eagles take advantage of wind currents. They find a thermal - a column of rising warm air. Once the warm air carries the eagles really high, they glide until they find another column to take them up again.
Imagine how exhausted a butterfly or a hummingbird or an eagle would be if they didn’t have the wind helping them travel!!
In a similar way, when you belong to God, He gives you the support that you need in order to endure troubles and problems. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do anything. You can’t give up when faced with difficulty. You can’t just sit back and do nothing. God expects you to stay the course, to fight the good fight, to persevere to the end. But He also promises to help you - to renew your strength, to mount up with wings like eagles, to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.
It’s like a ping pong ball. The ping pong ball can fly through the air when hit or thrown. It can roll along the floor. It can bounce. But it cannot hope to lift itself up - not any more than you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But just like the air dryer can support the ping pong ball, God can give you the strength and determination, the courage and the hope to persevere in following Him and serving Him with all your heart!
Problems don’t go away, but God promises that we don’t have to go through them alone. We don’t have to find the strength on our own to endure. We can trust Him. We need to trust Him. He promises never to leave us or forsake us.
But we can lose God’s support if we decide we’re not going to walk in His ways. Here’s where the support is - in this stream of air. If we place the ball outside of that support, the ball will fall. If we try to live our lives outside of God’s support - outside of His ways, we’re going to find ourselves without the strength to persevere and succeed. Why would we want to live without God’s Spirit helping us in our lives? It would be so foolish!
So stay close to God. Read your Bible every day. Talk to God every day in prayer. Go to church. Think about God and what He wants you to do in every situation. Trust God. Wait upon Him.
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Concept from: Science and the Bible: 30 Scientific Demonstrations Illustrating Scriptural Truths, Donald B. DeYoung, “Floating on Air,” Baker Books, 1994, pg. 52-54.
**Ask for the Ancient Paths
"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." — Jeremiah 6:16
Materials needed: jar of water, a laser flashlight, a drop of milk or pinch of flour, spoon
What happens when I shine the light through the jar? Can you see the light in the water? No. The light simply passes through and you see the spot on the wall.
The light represents God’s ways, His laws and commandments. The light on the wall is the goal of being in God’s kingdom. The path of how to get there is invisible in the jar - aka where we are in our daily life. Sometimes in life when we’re at a crossroads and have to make a decision, we can feel a great deal of anxiety as we try to figure out which way to go. What if there was a way to figure out how God wants us to live? What if there was just some instruction that we could see? Some way to illuminate our path?
Look at what happens when a drop of milk falls into the jar and is stirred. The water now has a little particulate matter which catches the light as it passes through the water. Do you see what has happened? Now I can see the path of the light through the jar.
So what does the drop of milk here represent? It represents reading the Bible and listening to godly counsel. It is the way we look for the ancient paths, where the good way is, so we can follow them.
How often do you look for the ancient paths?
Seeking God
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
Think through these questions as we consider just how important seeking God is!
Seeking God looks an awful lot like living your life as a Christian. It looks like applying Proverbs 3:5-6 to every aspect of your life. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” It looks a lot like “Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated to Thee.” You are devoting every aspect (not just some, not just what’s convenient) of who you are, what you’re doing, and where you hope to end up to the God who created you, redeemed you, and adopted you into His family. It’s sacrificing what you want to what God wants - which is SO much better, even if you can’t see it right now. It means continually, faithfully, whole-heartedly looking for His ways, His laws, His strength, and His blessings. How are you doing on seeking God with all your heart?
**Wisdom
Memory Verse: “It is he . . . who established the world by his wisdom. . .” Jeremiah 51:15
Materials needed: jar, water, oil, food coloring, spoon
Your assignment was to be ready to share examples of wisdom that you have personally experienced. It can be yourself or someone around you.
What’s the difference between a wise person and a foolish person?
Does that sound like just so many words? Well, here’s what it might look like. You know that your skin has layers - three main layers: the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis. The epidermis is divided into 5 distinct layers. So that’s where the seven skin layers come from. But for our purposes, we have the outside that we can see and the inside that is not seen. That might look like a jar with water in it, with a layer of vegetable oil on top. Now James 1:5 says that if anyone lacks wisdom, he just needs to ask God who gives generously to all. That’s like the drops of food coloring on top.
Here’s where the distinction comes between a foolish person and a wise person. A foolish person gives surface attention to God’s wisdom, relying more on what he feels and his own desires. God’s wisdom doesn’t sink in very deeply in his life in order to make a real difference.
A wise person, when presented with a situation where he’d greatly benefit from Godly wisdom, anchors his choices in God’s truth, asks for Godly counsel, listens before speaking, and applies knowledge with kindness and restraint. That’s taking the wisdom God offers into the depth of your heart and mind - kind of like stirring. Once stirred, the food coloring makes a noticeable difference throughout. And once a wise person takes God’s word into their heart, it is exhibited in their words and their actions.
We all need to practice taking God’s wisdom into our lives on a daily basis, setting aside our thoughts and wants in favor of God’s will and plan for our lives.
**The Soul Who Sins
“ . . . the soul who sins shall die.” - Ezekiel 18:4b
Materials needed: candle, jar, pie pan, matches
Where does life come from? God is the cause without a cause. He created everything that is, including all life. (John 1:4; Genesis 2:7)
If God is the Author and Sustainer of Life, and He is (Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:3), what should our response be? We should make our lives a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) and express our love to Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
How do we express our love to God? Sometimes people try things like going to church on Sabbath, singing hymns of praise, reading the Bible, etc. But they act like these are things on a checklist. Once they have said their prayer for the day, they’re good; they can go about our day doing whatever they want. In other words, they compartmentalize. They say that God can be part of this section of their lives, but this over here is their jurisdiction. Oh they might never say the words out loud, but it’s evident in the decisions they make, the words they say, and the behaviors in which they engage.
What do I mean? Well, it’s telling God you love Him, but then you tell a little white lie when someone asks you a question. You aren’t willing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It’s telling God that you love Him, but then excusing the “little” sin that you do because of some flimsy reason, like “I hit my brother because he started it.” It’s telling God you love Him, but then not being willing to share your package of cookies or candy with your sister - because Mom gave them to you, after all. It’s telling God you love Him, but then being very unhappy about the tire going flat on the car or the faucet breaking a spraying water all over the room. Oh, it’s okay to not like when trouble comes, but the extreme reaction of getting angry or being very depressed, acting like God is supposed to keep every bad thing from happening to you because you love Him, that extreme reaction is not loving God - not trusting the God who gives you life and sustains it.
So what is sin? Sin is the transgression of the law, doing something you shouldn’t do (like hitting your brother or telling a lie). It is also the attitude you have - like not being generous - because God has given you all things!! It’s also the grumbling that you do when things don’t go smoothly or go the way you want them to go. Your actions, your words, and your thoughts all reflect the state of your heart - and whether it is wholly devoted to God.
So what happens when you sin? You put yourself out of fellowship with God. That looks like this: a lit candle, covered by a jar. You are the candle. The jar is your sin - which cuts you off from God. What happens when the candle no longer gets air? What happens when you are cut off from God? The flame dies. The soul who sins shall die.
We’re coming up on my favorite time of year - the fall holy days. I love the anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ as King. I love the Feast of Tabernacles - and we could talk about that for hours! But the Feast has to be more than a vacation or a fun time with family. It needs to be a time to spend time with God with no distractions - so that you can build your relationship with Him, so that you can truly love Him in your thoughts, words, and deeds. Be intentional. Make a plan to spend some extra time with God. Make sure that you don’t just go to church services (like checking it off your to-do list) and then spend the rest of the time doing what you want to do. Spend some extra time reading your Bible, praying, and being quiet before Him. This is serious stuff. God has given you an opportunity to draw closer to Him so that you won’t sin. Why is that so important? Because the soul who sins shall die.
***Holy and Common
Memory Verse: “ . . . to make a separation between the holy and the common.” - Ezekiel 42:20b
Materials needed: sets of four things, i.e. 3 pencils, 1 screwdriver; 3 bottles, 1 paperclip; 4 books (one of them the Bible); 4 cards with 3 good, 1 bad behavior; 4 stuffed animals (3 clean, 1 unclean); etc.
One of the fun pieces of Sesame Street (50 years ago!!) was the game called Three of These Things. The song went, “Three of these things belong together. Three of these things are kinda the same. But one of these things is doing its own thing. Now it’s time to play our game, time to play our game.” Then the kid had to figure out which thing didn’t belong. Sometimes (okay, all the time) it was very obvious ‘cause, after all, this was a little kids’ show. But we can apply the same concept today. We have to be discerning; we have to look at things and decide if they are good or bad. Good news! God sets the standard. We don’t have to come up with the good and bad definitions. BUT. We do have to read God’s word and study it, so that we’ll understand exactly what God’s standards are. It matters! There is a sharp distinction between good and evil, obedience and disobedience, holy and common, clean and unclean.
Once we know that God sets the standard and we can find out what the standard is by reading the Bible, the rest of our behaviors should be easy-peasy, right? We should say yes, but the reality is that we often come up with all kinds of excuses and reasons why we don’t have to pay attention to God’s laws. Oh, we would never say that out loud, but it’s obvious through our actions.
So there’s another question you have to answer: Do you want to live by God’s standards - even when God’s ways are not exactly what you would normally want to do? If the answer is yes, there’s good news. Pray that God will help you make wise choices that honor Him. Ask Him to help you discern the difference between good and evil, obedience and disobedience, holy and common, clean and unclean. And ask Him to give you the courage and determination to follow Him no matter what.
It really does matter what you do. No one gets a free pass to rebel against God. And really, if you belong to Him, why would you want to? For, in the end, God Himself will make a distinction between the holy and the common, like the verse in Ezekiel 42:20 says, with a wall. I want to be found on the holy side.
Feast Gifts
Memory Verse: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:6
When I was a kid, Mom started giving us Feast presents. I suspect it was her way of counteracting some of the pull of Christmas. When my friends at school would talk about their Christmas gifts, I could tell them about my Feast gifts. I suspect it was also her way of trying to make the Feast more special for us kids. Many times, when I was very little, our Feast presents were coloring books and crayons. Those were wonderful gifts for children who get incredibly bored day after day in services at the Feast. That tradition has carried over somewhat - after all, you all got jars of jam on the Feast of Trumpets. However, the best and biggest gift on each of the Holy Days is actually from God. His holy days show us His plan for each of us and for mankind. His gift involves Jesus Christ reconciling us to the Father and opening the way for us to be adopted into the family of God and having eternal life.
How in the world could you ever top that gift?! You can’t! Eternal life in God’s family?! As Keith would say, it just doesn’t get any better than that!
So. What do you do in response? Do you just say thank you and plan to have a great vacation at the Feast next week? I hope not. I hope that the gift God has given to us is much more valuable to each of us than that!
What gift do you intend to bring to God this Feast? In the Old Testament, there are pages of verses about the animal sacrifices and burnt offerings. But God tells His people in Hosea 6:6, that’s not what He wants - ultimately. The sacrifices were designed to teach the people what He really wants: steadfast love and knowledge of who He is. “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:6
So how do you show steadfast love to God? You seek to understand His ways - then you do them. That’s God’s love language: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15.
1 Corinthians 7:1 gives Paul’s answer. He says, “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”
Bringing an acceptable offering to God is offering nothing less than all of who you are to Him (Romans 12:1-2). That’s your reasonable worship. How do you get to that point - the point of completely surrendering your will to God’s? One choice at a time - with lots of grace from our God who is willing to help. You just need to ask.
Pride
Memory Verse: “The pride of your heart has deceived you. . .” - Obadiah 3a
Assignment: Bring one scripture to share that talks about pride.
Proverbs 6:16–17 (ESV) - “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood..."
Proverbs 16:18(ESV) - “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
James 4:6 (ESV) -"But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'"
Examples of Pride and Destruction
Proverbs 16:5 (ESV) -"Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished."
Acts 12:21–23 (ESV) - (The Example of King Herod)"On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, 'The voice of a god, and not of a man!' Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last."
Why did I give you the assignment to find a scripture which talks about pride? Because on this Day of Atonement, we are commanded to humble ourselves before the LORD. (Leviticus 23:26-29; Leviticus 16:29-31; Numbers 29:7) While the command does not specifically say that we afflict ourselves by fasting, other verses indicate afflicting oneself is closely tied to fasting (Psalm 35:13; Ezra 8:21).
Why? Why would God ask us to afflict ourselves/fast? Why do we need to be humble? Eschewing physical comforts reminds each of us just how very much we depend upon God. He is our Creator, Provider, Sustainer, Redeemer - everything that we need we find in Him.
I don’t know of anyone who really enjoys afflicting himself. That’s rather the point!! But, if you could look beyond your discomfort and rejoice that God does provide and take care of us, and if you can then go one step further to worship Him in joy and gladness for the abundance of all things, then your fasting is absolutely worth it.
Sleeplessness - Esther 6:1a
Words Can't Be Erased - Job 21:5
The Knowledge of Good and Evil - Psalm 16:2
Trusting God - Psalm 56:3
Fix My Eyes - Psalm 141:8
Learn to Do Good - Isaiah 1:17
Wait Upon the LORD - Isaiah 40:31
Ask for the Ancient Paths - Jeremiah 6:16
Seeking God - Jeremiah 29:13
Wisdom - Jeremiah 51:15
The Soul Who Sins - Ezekiel 18:4
Holy and Common - Ezekiel 42:20
Feast Gifts - Hosea 6:6
Pride - Obadiah 3a
The Good Hand of the Lord
Memory Verse: “And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.” Nehemiah 2:8b
If you could have any super power in the world, what would it be? Would you like instantaneous travel abilities? Would you want to be able to read people’s thoughts? Would you like “Jedi mind control” capabilities? Maybe you’d like to be able to levitate objects. Maybe you’d like to be able to travel in time. Perhaps you’d like to ensure world peace or the ability to heal individuals. What do you wish you could do?
There are a lot of people who have tried various routes to the super power they desired. They have gotten involved with fortune-telling or necromancers. They have thought to make a bargain with the devil or otherwise gotten involved with demonic activity. Some think it’s harmless to read books like the Harry Potter series that have actual spells in them. They think about magic like it’s good and something anyone would want to be a part of.
It didn’t turn out well for Kings Saul or Manasseh. God’s commandments include not consulting fortune-tellers, looking at omens, dealing with necromancers and the occult, getting involved in witchcraft. It’s evil and it’s not for God’s people.
Jesus gave us an example of staying away from these things. It’s what Satan’s temptation was all about! If Jesus would just worship Satan, Jesus would get all of these things. The crazy thing is this: as long as Jesus stayed the course and followed the Father’s will, there’s nothing Satan could give Him that could even come close to what the Father has in store.
And it’s the same for us. If we stay the course, stay away from evil, stay away from pagan practices like fortune tellers, Dungeons and Dragons, and other activities which allow Satan to be a part of your life - if we stay close to God and obey His ways, what we have in store for us is far and away better than anything Satan could give us.
And today, when it looks like there’s no way things will work out, God can turn things to our good - so much better than we could have imagined! Your employer shows you favor in granting requests. The doctors are able to successfully treat your health concerns. You are able to figure out what is wrong with the car. When God is your God, you can say, as Nehemiah did, “The God of heaven will make us prosper” (Nehemiah 2:20). It’s kind of like Nehemiah asking the king if he could go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. Nehemiah gives all the credit to God for the king granting Nehemiah’s request. [Recite memory verse.]
Sleeplessness
Memory Verse: "On that night the king could not sleep.” Esther 6:1a
Have you ever found yourself lying awake in the middle of the night and you can’t get back to sleep? Do you know why? Was it too much rich food? Was it scary movies? Was it a bad sunburn or illness? What do you do when you can’t sleep?
Do you
- count sheep
- make yourself some warm milk
- get another blanket/kick off the blankets
- start praying
- think about what you’re going to accomplish tomorrow
- write your English essay in your head
- sing praises to God
- start reciting as many scriptures as you can think of
There are lots of different tricks people have tried over the years to go to sleep when they really need to sleep.
King Ahasuerus (aka King Xerxes) couldn’t sleep one night either. So what did he do? Here’s how the story is related in the Berean translation: “That night sleep escaped the king; so he ordered the Book of Records, the Chronicles, to be brought in and read to him. 2And there it was found recorded that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.”
This is interesting. The king wanted the record of his reign to be read to him. Was his reign that boring? Or did he think it would be comforting to hear of all his accomplishments? What was keeping him awake?
I suspect it was God keeping the king awake. For it was God’s plan that Mordecai would be honored and Haman’s plot against the Jews be foiled.
I suspect there are lots of things like that in our lives - times when we have an impulse to do something and we don’t really know why. It could be that God is motivating us to do something that will bring Him glory and honor. At least, it’s something to ponder the next time you can’t sleep.
Words Can’t Be Erased
Memory Verse: “Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.” Job 21:5
Why in the world do you think I might have chosen this particular verse? It’s a little odd, isn’t it? A verse about Job telling his friends to look at him, to be appalled and to put their hands over their mouths. What in the world does that have to do with you!!
Let’s start with the situation with Job. What’s going on? He’s lost all of his children. He’s lost a huge amount of his resources (flocks, camels). He’s been afflicted with painful boils from head to foot. His friends show up to comfort him and don’t say a word - for a week! They just sit there quietly because they see his suffering was very great (Job 2:13). Then they decide to fix him. They decide that he obviously has done something really bad for God to cause this degree of suffering. They think Job just needs to confess his guilt, repent before God, and everything will be great - because, as everyone knows, it’s only the sinner who suffers. This “help” goes on for 29 chapters before Elihu rebukes Job’s three “friends” and Job for the next six chapters. At the end of it all, God says that Job’s friends did not speak what was right about Him (Job 42:1-8); in fact, God says Job will pray for them and God will accept Job’s petition on their behalf. When it was all said and done, Job’s friends would have been much better off if they had just looked at Job, been appalled at what he was suffering and put their hand over their mouths. They were a lot more comfort to Job when they sat quietly with him. And they were much less offensive to God before they started speaking.
So what does this have to do with you? There are multiple verses which talk about limiting your words:
Ecclesiastes 5:2 Do not be quick to speak, and do not be hasty in your heart to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. So let your words be few.
James 1:19 My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
Proverbs 29:20 Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
There’s a poem my children learned early:
A wise old owl lived in an oak.
The more he saw, the less he spoke.
The less he spoke, the more he heard.
Why can’t we all be like that bird?
There are many times in life when choosing your words carefully, or even being silent, is a much better option than saying exactly what is in your head. Once the words are out there, they can’t be erased.
So why did I choose this verse for you to memorize? I want you to learn to be discerning about what you say. And sometimes that means putting your hand over your mouth to keep the words from coming out!
The Knowledge of Good and Evil
“I say to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.’ ” Psalm 16:2
What good things can you think of that you get from God? Food, water, air, life, family, friends. God’s blessings are all around us. Pets, safety, protection, direction. We could be here for a very long time. Health, home, wisdom, comfort. The list is endless. Vision, taste, hearing, touch, smells. Truly our God is the source of everything.
So I’ve been picking blackberries out of the garden. Would you like one? Christopher loves them. Ron, not so much. If I asked each of them, “Aren’t they good?” I would get different answers.
What about beans? Last night I was still snapping beans when Christopher arrived for supper. Without me even having to ask, he started snapping beans. Christopher’s MO for snapping beans is: snap, one for the bowl, snap, one for my mouth. What do you think? Do you like raw green beans? All three of my kids like the raw green beans.
We all have preferences. That makes life very interesting. People are all different. Some like vanilla ice cream. Some like chocolate. Some like broccoli. Some Presidents don’t. Some people prefer to travel at 35 mph down the road. Some like to travel at 70 mph.
What happens when your preferences - and what you think is good - bothers other people? I used to like to practice piano during the evening, after I had finished my homework for the day, dinner was over and dishes were done. But my older brother didn’t particularly appreciate that. He was in his bedroom, reading and doing homework, and my piano backed up to his bedroom wall. It’s one thing to hear a proficient piano player. It’s something else to hear someone working on a particularly tricky section, over and over and over ad nauseam.
When your “good” thing infringes on the life and happiness of another person, the result can be more government regulations. Put another way: when people don’t habitually consider their actions in light of how they impact others, the government steps in to administer consequences if a person goes too far out of bounds in his conduct, i.e. the woman who decided to take the Knicks trash can home with her this week. She saw a public trash can full of trash. She liked how it was painted in Knicks colors. She dumped out all the trash and carried it home with her on the subway. Supposedly, her employer canned her.
Your memory verse is from Psalm 16:2: “I say to the LORD [Yahweh], ‘You are my Lord [Master]; I have no good [pleasant thing, prosperity, bounty, happiness, welfare] apart from you.’ ” Do you believe this? That there’s no good apart from God? Do you live your life with the worldview that God is your Master? If you do, then you can go to Him for all definitions about good and evil. In the end, simple preferences about blackberries and green beans are not what we’re talking about. It’s your conduct. And, God’s standards of right and wrong, good and evil, are really the only ones that matter.
**Trusting God
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Psalm 56: 3
Materials: water, a cup, card stock, transparency film, plastic lid, wash basin, towels
What would you say if I offered to turn a full cup of water upside down over your head? Maybe if you were outside, on a hot summer day, you might say yes. But otherwise, you’re likely to turn me down. Would you trust me if I said I could keep you from getting wet?
What if I offered to turn the full cup of water upside down over your head with a piece of card stock over the cup? Would that make any difference? Would you trust me then? Or do you think you’d get wet?
The interesting thing is that the atmospheric force should overcome the gravitational pull (but sometimes things don’t go as planned), keeping the water inside the cup - at least until the paper becomes soaked and allows air into the cup. Once air can rush in, the water will rush out all over your head.
So maybe we should use a piece of plastic. Would a piece of transparency film keep you from getting wet? It wouldn’t get soaked like the card stock. But surprisingly, it doesn’t work well at all. It looks like it would work, but it’s too flexible.
Another option, then, might be a plastic lid. If I filled the cup with water, put a plastic lid over it, and turned it upside down, would you trust me to put it over your head? Would you believe me if I said you wouldn’t get wet?
There are so many times in our lives when we’re afraid something bad might happen to us. In the analogy with the cup of water, we know we’re going to get wet. So we look around for something that can prevent the bad thing from happening. We might look to family or friends. We may look for an organization or the government. But even if they mean well, all of these people and organizations are not perfect. They can still fail at times (or all the time). They have limited power to make things right.
The only One you can trust to make everything work out for your good is God. Does that mean that nothing bad will ever happen to you? No, sometimes God does allow us to get wet. But when we trust in Him, we know it’s all going to work out for our good in the end. That means we trust that He’s working in all the good and all the bad in our lives to make sure that we are in His kingdom with Him. So in our analogy, the water falling on your head would be analogous to something negative happening, perhaps a failure on the part of another. Nevertheless, you can trust God; if you love Him and belong to Him, He will work out all things for your good.
**Fix My Eyes
"But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge..." — Psalm 141:8 (NIV)
Materials needed: card with dark arrow, glass, water, towels
Have you ever noticed when you’re riding your bicycle that you will go wherever you are looking? If you look off to the side, pretty soon that’s where your bike goes. This is an important concept to learn before you ride a motorcycle or start driving a car! If you look directly at the rock or the curb you are trying to avoid, you will steer right into it. (This is a known phenomenon called target fixation.) To avoid the obstacle, you have to consciously force your eyes to look at the clear path ahead.
In this life, if you fix your eyes on your problems, your fears, or the obstacles around us, we will steer straight towards them. You must, instead, fix your eyes on your Sovereign LORD, our awesome God who is our refuge from problems, fears, and obstacles.
Psalm 141 brings this out if we look at verse 8 in context. David wasn’t sitting in a peaceful place when he wrote this psalm; he was in a spiritual and physical war zone. In verse 3-4, he’s asking for God to help him control his tongue and avoid the evil choices of the people around him. If you focus on your enemies or the problems, instead of looking to God, then you will tend to move closer to your enemies and their choices. So what does David do to avoid the traps around him? He acknowledges that they are real, but he chooses not to focus on them. He looks to God, the Sovereign LORD, for help.
The Hebrew text reads literally, "For to you, Yahweh, are my eyes." It is a posture of intentional, unwavering attention. It means David’s primary source of information, direction, and comfort is not his physical surroundings, but God Himself. David calls God “Sovereign LORD” - Adonai Yahweh. David, then, is acknowledging that God is both His sovereign master and His personal, covenant-keeping rescuer.
So where do our eyes want to go? If we look down, we’re focusing on our weaknesses, which can lead to self-pity and despair. If we look inward, we try to fix the problem ourselves, which can lead to pride and anxiety. If we look around us, we see our storms (problems) and enemies, which can lead to comparison and fear. (Think about what happened when Peter looked at the waves around him.) But if we look up, we’re focusing our attention on God, from Whom comes peace and rescue.
Here’s an arrow. What direction is it pointed? Even if you look at it through the “lens” of a jar, it’s still pointed left. But what if we look at our problems, weaknesses, enemies, troubles through the lens of the Holy Spirit, aka a water-filled jar? Now what direction does the arrow point? Seeing the world around us through the lens of focusing our attention on God makes all the difference. It totally changes our perspective.
Think about it:
- What are the "rocks" or "curbs" we tend to stare at until we crash into them?
- Why is it crucial to remember God's absolute sovereignty when our personal circumstances feel completely out of control?
- What is the practical difference between glancing at God versus having our eyes fixed on Him? What daily habits help us move from a glance to a fixed gaze?
This week, make a commitment that the very first thing your eyes look at in the morning—and the very last thing you look at before sleep—will not be a screen, homework, or a to-do list. Before you look at the world, fix your eyes on the Sovereign Lord in prayer or scripture, even if only for two minutes. Let Him set your gaze for the day. It will change the direction of your perspective and your life.
Learn to Do Good
“Learn to do good. . .” Isaiah 1:17
We talked last week about doing foolish things, aka not being wise, and you all came up with a lot of things which would not be a good thing to do. It was quite a list. But let me assure you, you did not fully plumb the depths of stupidity and foolishness.
I asked you four questions this week as your assignment to prepare for today:
- What is good?
- What behaviors are good?
- What does God consider good? How do we know this is what God wants?
We could could spend some time discussing exactly what good means and come up with a definition of good. We could come up with a list of behaviors which are good - although that might involve a lot more discussion. Here’s why:
Let’s do a couple of experiments.
- [Draw two identical circles on the board. Surround one with large circles and one with small circles. ] Which is the larger circle? (Ebbinghaus Illusion)
- [Draw two identical lines. Put inward arrows on the ends of one line. Put outward arrows on the ends of the other.] Which line is longer? Müller-Lyer illusion
- [Show the students a checker shadow illusion.] Which gray square is darker? (Adelbert Ames-style / Edward Adelson) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_shadow_illusion]
- [Show the students a gray circle on white background and a gray circle on black background.] Which gray circle is darker?
In each of these examples, the object itself never changed. The context surrounding the object modified how you judged it. That’s why our discussion about what is good and what is not will take a very long time. We make our choices based on what we feel or what we perceive. Those feelings and perceptions are based on our culture, how our parents have raised us, or what we think is good for us. We truly need an unchanging standard (God’s Word) to tell us actually what is true, not just what looks good in the moment.
But perfectly knowing what God considers good is going to take us a lifetime to understand. So where do we start?
Let’s start with the Bible - with the rest of the memory verse. Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good,” but it doesn’t stop there. It continues, “seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” We have a responsibility to do the right thing, to help people who cannot help themselves, to reach out and serve others.
This is just one example of something God says is good. There are many, many others! The problem is that not everyone agrees with how to interpret the Bible. So we study and we think and we counsel with others. And we pray and we read the Bible.
It takes a lifetime of adjustments, small and big, to modify our understanding of God’s definition of good. But in the end, it’s worth it! Doing good is a clear command from God. It would be very good for us to obey.
**Wait Upon the LORD
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Materials: hair dryer, ping pong ball
Do you know how far some butterflies migrate each year? Some Monarch butterflies travel 2,000 miles!
Do you know how far some hummingbirds migrate each year? Some travel 1,300 miles - 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico in 18-22 hours!!
Some eagles migrate from Northern Canada to northern Mexico each fall. That’s about 3000 miles. A stream of migrating eagles can be 20 - 30 miles long and half a mile wide, with the birds averaging about 30 miles an hour. They can travel as much as 225 miles a day. How can they go that far? They depend on the wind. If there’s no wind, the eagles can’t soar. So when there’s no wind, eagles stay put or only travel locally. Eagles take advantage of wind currents. They find a thermal - a column of rising warm air. Once the warm air carries the eagles really high, they glide until they find another column to take them up again.
Imagine how exhausted a butterfly or a hummingbird or an eagle would be if they didn’t have the wind helping them travel!!
In a similar way, when you belong to God, He gives you the support that you need in order to endure troubles and problems. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do anything. You can’t give up when faced with difficulty. You can’t just sit back and do nothing. God expects you to stay the course, to fight the good fight, to persevere to the end. But He also promises to help you - to renew your strength, to mount up with wings like eagles, to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.
It’s like a ping pong ball. The ping pong ball can fly through the air when hit or thrown. It can roll along the floor. It can bounce. But it cannot hope to lift itself up - not any more than you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But just like the air dryer can support the ping pong ball, God can give you the strength and determination, the courage and the hope to persevere in following Him and serving Him with all your heart!
Problems don’t go away, but God promises that we don’t have to go through them alone. We don’t have to find the strength on our own to endure. We can trust Him. We need to trust Him. He promises never to leave us or forsake us.
But we can lose God’s support if we decide we’re not going to walk in His ways. Here’s where the support is - in this stream of air. If we place the ball outside of that support, the ball will fall. If we try to live our lives outside of God’s support - outside of His ways, we’re going to find ourselves without the strength to persevere and succeed. Why would we want to live without God’s Spirit helping us in our lives? It would be so foolish!
So stay close to God. Read your Bible every day. Talk to God every day in prayer. Go to church. Think about God and what He wants you to do in every situation. Trust God. Wait upon Him.
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Concept from: Science and the Bible: 30 Scientific Demonstrations Illustrating Scriptural Truths, Donald B. DeYoung, “Floating on Air,” Baker Books, 1994, pg. 52-54.
**Ask for the Ancient Paths
"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." — Jeremiah 6:16
Materials needed: jar of water, a laser flashlight, a drop of milk or pinch of flour, spoon
What happens when I shine the light through the jar? Can you see the light in the water? No. The light simply passes through and you see the spot on the wall.
The light represents God’s ways, His laws and commandments. The light on the wall is the goal of being in God’s kingdom. The path of how to get there is invisible in the jar - aka where we are in our daily life. Sometimes in life when we’re at a crossroads and have to make a decision, we can feel a great deal of anxiety as we try to figure out which way to go. What if there was a way to figure out how God wants us to live? What if there was just some instruction that we could see? Some way to illuminate our path?
Look at what happens when a drop of milk falls into the jar and is stirred. The water now has a little particulate matter which catches the light as it passes through the water. Do you see what has happened? Now I can see the path of the light through the jar.
So what does the drop of milk here represent? It represents reading the Bible and listening to godly counsel. It is the way we look for the ancient paths, where the good way is, so we can follow them.
How often do you look for the ancient paths?
Seeking God
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
Think through these questions as we consider just how important seeking God is!
- Have you ever lost anything?
- What is the first thing you do when you can’t find something?
- But what if Mom doesn’t know where it is either? Then what do you do?
- When was the last time you had to go searching for something?
- Was it a toy or something important, like your shoes?
- How important was it that you find the thing?
- Do you think the time you spent searching was proportional to how valuable the thing was?
- How valuable is your relationship with God?
- Why do you think your relationship with God is important or not important?
- How much time do you spend seeking God every day?
- What does your seeking look like? aka How do you seek God every day?
Seeking God looks an awful lot like living your life as a Christian. It looks like applying Proverbs 3:5-6 to every aspect of your life. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” It looks a lot like “Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated to Thee.” You are devoting every aspect (not just some, not just what’s convenient) of who you are, what you’re doing, and where you hope to end up to the God who created you, redeemed you, and adopted you into His family. It’s sacrificing what you want to what God wants - which is SO much better, even if you can’t see it right now. It means continually, faithfully, whole-heartedly looking for His ways, His laws, His strength, and His blessings. How are you doing on seeking God with all your heart?
**Wisdom
Memory Verse: “It is he . . . who established the world by his wisdom. . .” Jeremiah 51:15
Materials needed: jar, water, oil, food coloring, spoon
Your assignment was to be ready to share examples of wisdom that you have personally experienced. It can be yourself or someone around you.
What’s the difference between a wise person and a foolish person?
- The Wise Person: Anchors choices in God’s truth, seeks counsel, listens before speaking, and applies knowledge with kindness and restraint (Proverbs 9:10, James 3:17).
- The Foolish Person: Relies solely on self-interest or immediate impulses, rejects instruction, and operates under the assumption that "age alone" equals maturity (Proverbs 12:15, Proverbs 14:16).
Does that sound like just so many words? Well, here’s what it might look like. You know that your skin has layers - three main layers: the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis. The epidermis is divided into 5 distinct layers. So that’s where the seven skin layers come from. But for our purposes, we have the outside that we can see and the inside that is not seen. That might look like a jar with water in it, with a layer of vegetable oil on top. Now James 1:5 says that if anyone lacks wisdom, he just needs to ask God who gives generously to all. That’s like the drops of food coloring on top.
Here’s where the distinction comes between a foolish person and a wise person. A foolish person gives surface attention to God’s wisdom, relying more on what he feels and his own desires. God’s wisdom doesn’t sink in very deeply in his life in order to make a real difference.
A wise person, when presented with a situation where he’d greatly benefit from Godly wisdom, anchors his choices in God’s truth, asks for Godly counsel, listens before speaking, and applies knowledge with kindness and restraint. That’s taking the wisdom God offers into the depth of your heart and mind - kind of like stirring. Once stirred, the food coloring makes a noticeable difference throughout. And once a wise person takes God’s word into their heart, it is exhibited in their words and their actions.
We all need to practice taking God’s wisdom into our lives on a daily basis, setting aside our thoughts and wants in favor of God’s will and plan for our lives.
**The Soul Who Sins
“ . . . the soul who sins shall die.” - Ezekiel 18:4b
Materials needed: candle, jar, pie pan, matches
Where does life come from? God is the cause without a cause. He created everything that is, including all life. (John 1:4; Genesis 2:7)
If God is the Author and Sustainer of Life, and He is (Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:3), what should our response be? We should make our lives a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) and express our love to Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
How do we express our love to God? Sometimes people try things like going to church on Sabbath, singing hymns of praise, reading the Bible, etc. But they act like these are things on a checklist. Once they have said their prayer for the day, they’re good; they can go about our day doing whatever they want. In other words, they compartmentalize. They say that God can be part of this section of their lives, but this over here is their jurisdiction. Oh they might never say the words out loud, but it’s evident in the decisions they make, the words they say, and the behaviors in which they engage.
What do I mean? Well, it’s telling God you love Him, but then you tell a little white lie when someone asks you a question. You aren’t willing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It’s telling God that you love Him, but then excusing the “little” sin that you do because of some flimsy reason, like “I hit my brother because he started it.” It’s telling God you love Him, but then not being willing to share your package of cookies or candy with your sister - because Mom gave them to you, after all. It’s telling God you love Him, but then being very unhappy about the tire going flat on the car or the faucet breaking a spraying water all over the room. Oh, it’s okay to not like when trouble comes, but the extreme reaction of getting angry or being very depressed, acting like God is supposed to keep every bad thing from happening to you because you love Him, that extreme reaction is not loving God - not trusting the God who gives you life and sustains it.
So what is sin? Sin is the transgression of the law, doing something you shouldn’t do (like hitting your brother or telling a lie). It is also the attitude you have - like not being generous - because God has given you all things!! It’s also the grumbling that you do when things don’t go smoothly or go the way you want them to go. Your actions, your words, and your thoughts all reflect the state of your heart - and whether it is wholly devoted to God.
So what happens when you sin? You put yourself out of fellowship with God. That looks like this: a lit candle, covered by a jar. You are the candle. The jar is your sin - which cuts you off from God. What happens when the candle no longer gets air? What happens when you are cut off from God? The flame dies. The soul who sins shall die.
We’re coming up on my favorite time of year - the fall holy days. I love the anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ as King. I love the Feast of Tabernacles - and we could talk about that for hours! But the Feast has to be more than a vacation or a fun time with family. It needs to be a time to spend time with God with no distractions - so that you can build your relationship with Him, so that you can truly love Him in your thoughts, words, and deeds. Be intentional. Make a plan to spend some extra time with God. Make sure that you don’t just go to church services (like checking it off your to-do list) and then spend the rest of the time doing what you want to do. Spend some extra time reading your Bible, praying, and being quiet before Him. This is serious stuff. God has given you an opportunity to draw closer to Him so that you won’t sin. Why is that so important? Because the soul who sins shall die.
***Holy and Common
Memory Verse: “ . . . to make a separation between the holy and the common.” - Ezekiel 42:20b
Materials needed: sets of four things, i.e. 3 pencils, 1 screwdriver; 3 bottles, 1 paperclip; 4 books (one of them the Bible); 4 cards with 3 good, 1 bad behavior; 4 stuffed animals (3 clean, 1 unclean); etc.
One of the fun pieces of Sesame Street (50 years ago!!) was the game called Three of These Things. The song went, “Three of these things belong together. Three of these things are kinda the same. But one of these things is doing its own thing. Now it’s time to play our game, time to play our game.” Then the kid had to figure out which thing didn’t belong. Sometimes (okay, all the time) it was very obvious ‘cause, after all, this was a little kids’ show. But we can apply the same concept today. We have to be discerning; we have to look at things and decide if they are good or bad. Good news! God sets the standard. We don’t have to come up with the good and bad definitions. BUT. We do have to read God’s word and study it, so that we’ll understand exactly what God’s standards are. It matters! There is a sharp distinction between good and evil, obedience and disobedience, holy and common, clean and unclean.
Once we know that God sets the standard and we can find out what the standard is by reading the Bible, the rest of our behaviors should be easy-peasy, right? We should say yes, but the reality is that we often come up with all kinds of excuses and reasons why we don’t have to pay attention to God’s laws. Oh, we would never say that out loud, but it’s obvious through our actions.
So there’s another question you have to answer: Do you want to live by God’s standards - even when God’s ways are not exactly what you would normally want to do? If the answer is yes, there’s good news. Pray that God will help you make wise choices that honor Him. Ask Him to help you discern the difference between good and evil, obedience and disobedience, holy and common, clean and unclean. And ask Him to give you the courage and determination to follow Him no matter what.
It really does matter what you do. No one gets a free pass to rebel against God. And really, if you belong to Him, why would you want to? For, in the end, God Himself will make a distinction between the holy and the common, like the verse in Ezekiel 42:20 says, with a wall. I want to be found on the holy side.
Feast Gifts
Memory Verse: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:6
When I was a kid, Mom started giving us Feast presents. I suspect it was her way of counteracting some of the pull of Christmas. When my friends at school would talk about their Christmas gifts, I could tell them about my Feast gifts. I suspect it was also her way of trying to make the Feast more special for us kids. Many times, when I was very little, our Feast presents were coloring books and crayons. Those were wonderful gifts for children who get incredibly bored day after day in services at the Feast. That tradition has carried over somewhat - after all, you all got jars of jam on the Feast of Trumpets. However, the best and biggest gift on each of the Holy Days is actually from God. His holy days show us His plan for each of us and for mankind. His gift involves Jesus Christ reconciling us to the Father and opening the way for us to be adopted into the family of God and having eternal life.
How in the world could you ever top that gift?! You can’t! Eternal life in God’s family?! As Keith would say, it just doesn’t get any better than that!
So. What do you do in response? Do you just say thank you and plan to have a great vacation at the Feast next week? I hope not. I hope that the gift God has given to us is much more valuable to each of us than that!
What gift do you intend to bring to God this Feast? In the Old Testament, there are pages of verses about the animal sacrifices and burnt offerings. But God tells His people in Hosea 6:6, that’s not what He wants - ultimately. The sacrifices were designed to teach the people what He really wants: steadfast love and knowledge of who He is. “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:6
So how do you show steadfast love to God? You seek to understand His ways - then you do them. That’s God’s love language: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15.
1 Corinthians 7:1 gives Paul’s answer. He says, “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”
Bringing an acceptable offering to God is offering nothing less than all of who you are to Him (Romans 12:1-2). That’s your reasonable worship. How do you get to that point - the point of completely surrendering your will to God’s? One choice at a time - with lots of grace from our God who is willing to help. You just need to ask.
Pride
Memory Verse: “The pride of your heart has deceived you. . .” - Obadiah 3a
Assignment: Bring one scripture to share that talks about pride.
Proverbs 6:16–17 (ESV) - “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood..."
Proverbs 16:18(ESV) - “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
James 4:6 (ESV) -"But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'"
Examples of Pride and Destruction
Proverbs 16:5 (ESV) -"Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished."
Acts 12:21–23 (ESV) - (The Example of King Herod)"On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, 'The voice of a god, and not of a man!' Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last."
Why did I give you the assignment to find a scripture which talks about pride? Because on this Day of Atonement, we are commanded to humble ourselves before the LORD. (Leviticus 23:26-29; Leviticus 16:29-31; Numbers 29:7) While the command does not specifically say that we afflict ourselves by fasting, other verses indicate afflicting oneself is closely tied to fasting (Psalm 35:13; Ezra 8:21).
Why? Why would God ask us to afflict ourselves/fast? Why do we need to be humble? Eschewing physical comforts reminds each of us just how very much we depend upon God. He is our Creator, Provider, Sustainer, Redeemer - everything that we need we find in Him.
I don’t know of anyone who really enjoys afflicting himself. That’s rather the point!! But, if you could look beyond your discomfort and rejoice that God does provide and take care of us, and if you can then go one step further to worship Him in joy and gladness for the abundance of all things, then your fasting is absolutely worth it.