One Year Bible, August 15

NEHEMIAH 9:22 - 10:39                                                                                                      
SELF-IMPOSED COVENANT:  After public confession and repentance, promises are made to God to follow His revealed will. V.32 - "NOW therefore, our God, the great, the mighty and the terrible God, who keeps covenant and mercy..."   They seek His continued greatness, His grace and His goodness.   This commitment on OUR part in not a ONE-TIME thing, but requires ONGOING COMMITMENT to continue, because each time we fail, we must repent and re-commit to stay close to Him.   We have to SEPARATE ourselves, but we can't ISOLATE ourselves. We are SALT AND LIGHT in the world - but we must not blend in.   We may not be in covenant with non-believers, and we must teach our children right.   God has given us the Holy Spirit (Nehemiah) to help us.

WHAT HAVE WE AGREED TO?: (1) To be faithful to God in our dependence on Him for Life. (2) To submit to the authority of the Word of God. (3) To stay separate and distinct, having God's Presence on us and in us. (4) Maintaining the Temple - the inner reality of God's Presence. (5) To pay our tithes - the outward evidence of our gratitude to and dependence on God.

RESPONSE:   The young people in Jerusalem may have grown up in Babylon on "junk food" - not much real food. "Spiritual junk food" is when we eat just what we want, but don't grow much muscle. Things like using our faith for "things", expecting God to perform at our command. NOW, inside the Kingdom, we eat "real food" - we are expected to be faithful, to believe God even when He won't do what we ask. To stay distinct from surrounding people because God is with us. To pay our tithes!!!! We have responsibilities as God's representatives.

1 CORINTHIANS 9:19-10:13                                                                                                    
REAL FREEDOM:  Pride preserves its way of thinking in terms of "right and wrong". But when you are dead to yourself, you have the power and ability (freedom) from the Holy Spirit to lay your life down for the UNSAVED, and for the BODY of Christ.  The joy of serving God comes from knowing we are FREE,  we are not FORCED to serve by obligation or by fear.  We are no one's victim - we are a willing sacrifice.

SPIRITUAL MATURITY'S STANDPOINT:  Spiritual maturity means being a voluntary sacrifice (Rom 12:1).   We "lose" our lives (lay them down, as dead), and live by the Life of God in us.   This means crucifixion to the FLESH (soul and body), in order that Jesus may Live through us.   In hard terms, it is DIFFICULT, and means we must keep our BODY IN SUBJECTION.  If we "keep" our lives, then we'll lose the prize. (Luke 17:33; Mat 16:25) The way to the CROWN, is through SELF-DENIAL.

WHAT IS THE "PRIZE"?  The crown, the prize, the Land, the "high calling" (Phil 3:14; Heb 3:1) are all the same thing: Life in the Presence of God.   It is attainable NOW, in THIS LIFE.....but it will cost you everything!   Your life for His.  Moses is the "castaway" that Paul is referring to.  Going to heaven will lose its glow if we "fall short of the glory of God".  We lose our rewards because we won't have lived up to our call.  Losing the prize is the one and only thing that Paul feared. He wasn't even afraid of the devil!

COMING OUT OF THE WORLD (Egypt):  Paul calls up Exodus: Chap 12: blood washed (Passover) - SAVED. Chap 13: Filled with the Holy Spirit (cloud & fire). Chap 14-15: baptized in water. Chap 16: Eating bread (partaking of Life of Jesus). Chap 17: Drinking water (partaking of the ministry of God).  We are a called-out body with legal ownership of all things, kept during the hour of trial, delivered by blood, water, and the spirit.   NOW HERE COMES THE FLESH.   From Exodus chap 17 onward, we see the example of a people rejected by God because of their loose abandonment to their LUSTS.

DISQUALIFIERS: Doubt and unbelief grieve the Holy Spirit. Lust is defined as wanting something outside of God to satisfy our flesh.  Idolatry is seeking fulfillment from substitutes for God. It is a system of lies, vanity, and impotence. It lacks the ability to satisfy. Fornication is an OT word for uncleanness.  It is like idolatry in that we seek to make ourselves happy with anything other than God.  We want the benefits without the responsibility (like a prostitute). Rebellion and a lack of submission to the Word of God is how we "tempt Christ".  Murmuring is whining and complaining, evidence of ingratitude and unthankfulness.   We are being tried, tested, sifted to remove and cleanse away all of these forms of lust by the Holy Spirit.

RESPONSE: Paul said he "brought his body into subjection" - and the original language says he GAVE IT A BLACK EYE!   In keeping it "under" the original language says he took it at spearpoint!  Whatever it takes!   In Philippians 3, Paul says he counted EVERYTHING as nothing, rather than lose the prize.  There is nothing that feels as good as God's approval.  And there is nothing that feels as wretched as grieving the Holy Spirit.

PSALM 34:1-10                                                                                                                     
REJOICE WITH ME: David probably sang this to the 400 "losers" (1 Sam 22:1-2) who came to join him in his cave (Adullam).   He had just escaped from King Saul (the flesh), and then Abimelech, the King of Darkness.  This is the key to overcoming adversity: teach your heart to trust in the goodness and greatness of God.   We PURSUE God, and then He delivers us from fear and from our troubles. "taste and see that the Lord is good" - Get first-hand experience of deliverance by trusting God in the midst of trouble.  We are all brought to a crisis of decision: will we fear God, or will we fear everything else that threatens us?  Once we make the decision to "fear God", the rest is settled.

PROVERBS 21:13                                                                                                          
What goes around, comes around. Luke 6:36-38 says that if we want mercy, we have to show mercy first.

RESPONSE:   I used to be trapped by phobias. I was afraid of the dark, of heights, of open spaces, of riding in a car, of doctors, of being touched, of being the focus of attention, just to list a FEW. One summer, our family (Hubby, 8-year-old girl, 12-year-old son) went to Mexico to do some volunteer missionary work. I had to be sedated to ride in the car all the way. When we got there, I was miserable. One day, another family wanted to take us to a mountaintop (in Monterey) that overlooked the city. I didn't want to go, and had to confess that I was terrified of heights. I got "stuffed" into a big SUV with everyone else, and away we went! This was back in the 80's and there were no guard rails on the one-lane road up the mountain! Our friends quoted Scripture to me: "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." (1 Jo 4:4) "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Tim 1:7) AND, OF COURSE, PSALM 34:4, "I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."   I didn't realize it at the time, but they were teaching and instructing my heart with Truth - that God is worthy to be trusted and He would keep me safe.   At the top of the mountain, I stepped out of the car and walked to the edge, looked down at the city, and for the first time in my life, realized that I didn't ever have to be afraid again!  And, even better, that the Word was Truth, and it was Truth to me.   After that day, I devoured God's Word like a starving woman, because I had opened my heart to receive from God.