Seize the Moment – Day 928
Today’s hymn focus will be
“Glorious Day”
“ and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”
In 2009, Mark Hall, the frontman and songwriter for Casting Crowns, wrote the music for a glorious old hymn. He took the strong lyrics of this hymn that depicted the life of Christ, a hymn he grew up on and rearranged it because people were not singing it much anymore.
The original hymn, ‘One Day’ was written by John Wilbur Chapman who was born in Richmond, Indiana. Written about 1908, he was a passionate evangelist, he wrote this hymn to provide a memorable way to share the gospel.
Both of these men wanted this message to be declared loud and clear:
Living He loved me, dying He saved me, buried He carried my sin far away
Rising He justified freely forever; One day He’s coming, O glorious day!1 Peter 2:24dkl
O glorious day!
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
If you would like to listen to this song, click on this link:
Glorious Day
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Seize the Moment – Day 927
The Rhythm of Generosity!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, September 30.
Immediately before Solomon’s coronation, David led the people in consecrating their offerings to the Lord for the building of the temple. His excitement was contagious, as 1 Chronicles 29:8-9 describes, “Whoever possessed precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord, in care of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they made their offering to the Lord with a whole heart, and King David also rejoiced greatly.”
The cause and effect found in this passage is beautiful – the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly. This is the joy that comes from living in the rhythm of generosity with Jehovah-Jireh, just as David prays in verses 12-14:
Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You.
David rightly acknowledged that God owns everything. Furthermore, he admitted that they have nothing to offer God apart from what God’s generous hand had already provided.This revelation is a game changer! Our ability to give is only because God first gave to us. It requires humility to embrace this truth, but in doing so it opens you up to the rhythm of generosity that flows from God to us as showcased by Jesus Christ – “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19; cf. John 3:16).
God bless you.
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Seize the Moment – Day 926
Put your Feet Up and Rest!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, September 29.
“Please, sit down and put your feet up. Rest and stay a while.” Maybe you’ve heard those words from family or friends after a long journey, or you have said them to a valued guest in your home.
The unique image is that of a “footstool.” It is used again in Psalm 132:7, “Let us go into His dwelling place; let us worship at His footstool” (cf. Isaiah 66:1; Matthew 5:35). David was charging his son Solomon, a man of rest (1 Chronicles 22:9), to build a resting place for God, so that God could put up His feet and stay a while. While it may sound crass to say it so unpoetically, this metaphor is about “fulfilled promises.”[1] The tabernacle was being replaced by a permanent building.
Seize the moment and trust Jesus to fulfill all the promises of God in your life by putting your feet up and resting the full weight of your life into His eternal embrace (2 Corinthians 1:20).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “For the Chronicler ‘rest’ denotes ‘fulfilled promises’ (cf. Is 14:1–3; 66:1; 30:10), for the nation then returned from captivity was ‘at rest’” (Kevin D. Zuber, “1 Chronicles,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham [Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014], 579). Furthermore, the language of a “permanent home” is significant, “The word mĕnuḥâ can also indicate a state of rest, either in general (e.g., 2 Sam 14:17; Isa 28:12) or metaphorically from war and enemies (e.g., 1 Chr 22:9)” (Joshua Joel Spoelstra, “Rest,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series [Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014]).
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Seize the Moment – Day 925
Single-minded for God’s Purposes!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, September 28.
Are you single-minded for God’s purposes in your life?
David’s activities as the king of Israel seemed to be all over the map! We read in 1 Chronicles 27:1 how David transformed Israel’s military from twelve separate tribal armies to a single professional army with twelve divisions, with each division being on duty in Jerusalem for a month, once per year. He used his organizational genius to ensure the army was loyal to the nation and its king.
After naming the divisional leaders of David’s new military organization (2-15), he then showed political savvy by wisely listing the chief officers of the tribes (16-24), followed by his appointed overseers (25-31), and his direct advisors (32-34). While this may feel like a compilation of supplemental materials, this is a critical chapter, providing the conclusion of five chapters of materials, which started in 1 Chronicles 23:1-2, “Now when David reached old age, he made his son Solomon king over Israel. And he gathered all the leaders of Israel with the priests and the Levites.” Whereas this chapter covered “all the leaders of Israel,” the previous four chapters detailed the “priests and the Levites.”
David convened the most powerful people of the land, and then he named the who’s who of Israel. He did this because he was actively uniting the nation around the building of the temple and the throne of his son. David was not scattered in his efforts, in fact, he was singularly focused on recruiting people to fulfill God’s purposes – the building of His house.
Seize the moment and be single-minded for God’s purposes in your life! Join with Paul in declaring, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Seize the Moment – Day 924
Work is Divine!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, September 27.
Comparison is often at the root of our discontentment, especially when we make value judgments about ourselves, or others, based on things like jobs and economic status. Instead of seeing all work as God’s work, we view some jobs as more important than others. That’s just not true! The Bible teaches us that work was God’s idea first (ref. Genesis 1:26-28); therefore, all work is divine, whether you get paid for it or not.
As David nears the end of his kingship, he applies the full force of his administrative abilities to organize the kingdom and amass great wealth in preparation for Solomon, his son, to rule a kingdom centered around the temple system. In 1 Chronicles 26 that includes the establishment of three additional categories of workers: the temple’s gatekeepers (1-19), the temple’s treasurers (20-28), and various civil servants who served outside of the temple (29-32). Every job was important and centered around right worship of God.
Within David’s kingdom, all work was God’s work, as God designed it to be from the beginning. Significantly, in 1 Chronicles 26:12, we find an important connection between the doormen who provided security and the priests who worked at the altar, “To these divisions of the gatekeepers, the chief men, were given duties like their relatives to minister in the house of the Lord.” David gave them equal value! Both were serving in ministry because anything you do unto the Lord is ministry in the eyes of God, whether a doorman, bookkeeper, or civil servant.
Seize the moment and “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve” (Colossians 3:23-24). Treat your work as a divine calling.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Seize the Moment – Day 923
The Prophecy of Praise!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, September 26.
Worship Leaders and their teams of singers and musicians are an important group of people in any church. Within the body of Christ, God sets apart people for specific callings, and while that does not make them better or more important than anyone else in the congregation, it does equip them uniquely to fulfill God’s purposes.
Worship leaders, singers, and musicians are no exception. Within the assemblies of God’s people, these men and women are anointed to lead us in the prophecy of praise, as taught in 1 Chronicles 25:1-2:
Moreover, David and the commanders of the army set apart for the service some of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun, who were to prophesy with lyres, harps and cymbals; and the number of those who performed their service was: Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah and Asharelah; the sons of Asaph were under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied under the direction of the king.
To illustrate the point, verse 3 ends with this purpose statement of those chosen to sing in the house of the Lord, “who prophesied in giving thanks and praising the Lord.” Keeping the theme of prophecy prevalent in this organizational chapter dealing with the Levitical singers, verse 5 emphasizes that one of the worship leaders, Heman, was the “king’s seer.”
Why all the emphasis upon prophecy in praise? God set apart anointed people who would usher in the Spirit of God during singing so that His people could know the will of God and praise Him for His revelations through their thanksgiving of praise (Ephesians 5:18-20; Colossians 3:16-17). Our worship time is a time of prophetic forthtelling of God, His attributes, and His will for His people’s lives.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Train to Live on Mission – Week 30
“Do Righteousness and Justice!”
Proverbs 21:3 (NAS95)
Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Do Righteousness and Justice!” This is an essential battle drill because, just as we learned the importance of preventing friendly fire incidents, which demoralize an army and reduce its effectiveness, so, today, we learn that we must avoid war crimes, which tarnish the reputation of the Commander and the nation he represents, as well as jeopardizes the moral high ground and legality of the mission. War crimes happen in every war, and when war criminals are brought to justice, they are tried by military tribunals and civilian courts, alike, to measure their actions according to the laws of land warfare, such as the Geneva Convention, and the specific rules of engagement as established by their Commander.
In the same way, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, when we do things outside the authority God has given us as His agents, actions which are not representative of our Commander nor the kingdom He represents, and are outside of His purposes for His army and His will for His people, we tarnish the reputation of Jesus and His kingdom, as well as jeopardize the moral high ground and legality of God’s rescue mission, as Jesus’ commissioned us in Matthew 28:18-20:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
War crimes must be avoided if we are to fulfill our mission! Let’s learn how to train today’s battle drill, “Do Righteousness and Justice,” by seeing what the Field Manual has to say about it.
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.
The word selection of “justice and righteousness,” used by Solomon in Proverbs 21:3 is found throughout the Old Testament and it “represents the ideal standards for legal and ethical behavior and an ideal for kingship modeled on the righteousness of Yahweh.”[1] These words are yoked together as a word pair to signify a larger concept of God’s kingdom and, as such, they cannot be separated in the eyes of God, nor should be in our own. We cannot shirk justice under the guise of “being righteous” and we cannot place justice on a pedestal above righteousness. The two are integral concepts to being loyal citizens of God’s kingdom.
We find this word combination in 1 Chronicles 18:14, to describe David’s kingdom, “So David reigned over all Israel; and he administered justice and righteousness for all his people.” Very interestingly, this idealistic description of David’s kingdom as one of “justice and righteousness” is used in Jeremiah 22:1-5 to establish a standard by which Israel would be judged:
Thus says the Lord, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. For if you men will indeed perform this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself,” declares the Lord, “that this house will become a desolation.” ’ ”
The word pair of “justice and righteousness” is God’s standard of conduct for His chosen people. When we carry this into the New Covenant, we realize that Jesus not only exemplified “justice and righteousness” in his own life and ministry, but He also fulfilled it on the Cross of Calvary so that we, through faith in Him, may live according to His example as citizens of His kingdom. Jesus commanded His early listeners to the equivalent of the Old Testament’s “justice and righteousness,” by teaching us in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
The kingdom of God that Jesus calls us to prioritize is His fulfillment of what Israel got only a glimpse of with David’s kingdom. As we just saw, David’s kingdom, though not perfectly, was modeled on the righteousness of Yahweh, and, in fulfillment of God’s promises, unified the twelve tribes of Israel and gave them rest from their enemies within the secure boundaries of the Promised Land – a partial and temporary fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Whereas David’s kingdom saw its fulfillment in Solomon’s Temple and his golden era of prosperity and influence, Jesus’ kingdom will not fall into decay and division, and will have its ultimate fulfillment in the eternal Kingdom of God, called the New Heaven and New Earth, with a New Jerusalem, as described in Revelation 21-22. Until that time, Jesus’ kingdom, in which we, His Church, the living temples of the Holy Spirit, are called to administrate His kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven as kings and priests, with justice and righteousness, in order to unify all nations under His banner of love, with the promise that one day Jesus will return to rule from His throne with a “rod of iron,” a symbol of God’s unerring government of justice and righteousness where there is no corruption, perversion, or favoritism (Revelation 2:27; 12:5; 19:15). Until the completion of the promise to see all nations blessed, we are to continue the work of blessing all the families of the Earth through the blessings we have received in Jesus Christ as rightful heirs to the promise of Abram, as I read from Genesis 12:1-3 earlier, and for which Jesus succinctly stated in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
We are to train ourselves to take the blessing we have been given and bless others with it – we are to bring Christ’s rule of justice and righteousness to all people. This is our mission! Now we must deal with what causes us to become distracted from the mission. This brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.
Today’s battle drill exposes our heart issues of worry and anxiety – the worry that causes us to lose focus on the mission of God and the anxiety that entangles us in the affairs of everyday life. As one pastor explained, “Our actions flow from what we actually BELIEVE to be true – not from what we SAY we believe. We worry because we really don’t believe that God owns everything, that he provides our resources and protection. Worry is a statement of belief that God will not fulfill his promises, and is not a good father.”[2]
This is a common example from our daily human experience – many of us struggle with financial security, finding ourselves worried about whether we or our loved ones will have our daily bread, enough money for retirement, or enough (and the right kind of) insurance to pay for our increasing medical care, or whatever it is we are fretting about at that moment. In that place of worry, we have a decision to make in our daily walk with Jesus Christ – to trust God and walk faithfully in His ways, or to trust in ourselves and do it our way or the world’s way.
To do justice and righteousness as a battle drill, we must trust the Commander and seek His will, His way, even in the places and times of our insecurity and fears, which cause us anxiety and worry. Simply trusting in Him is a huge step toward quelling the fears that try to overtake us. Faith moves mountain of unbelief within our own mind and hearts. Faith calms the storms that are raging inside of us. Paul promised God would do this for us in Philippians 4:6-9:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Right actions flow from right emotions which flow from right thinking. Right thinking comes from meditating on God’s Word, which is the spiritual principle behind the promise of prosperity found in Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”
We must actively separate our thinking from the thinking of the world. It is the thinking of the world that often feeds into our anxieties and fears. But God’s way is different, and better, from the world’s way.[3] We are admonished to do just that in the promise of transformation found in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” If you want do righteousness and justice, then you must submit to God’s ways.
Let’s take this into our everyday lives. Jesus explained how we are to have victory over our worry and anxiety so that we can prioritize justice and righteousness in Matthew 6:25-34:
For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear for clothing?” For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Jesus diagnosed us accurately and told us the truth of why we struggle to do justice and righteousness – we allow our worry and anxiety to control our lives, instead of living by God’s grace and walking in the Spirit. We are reacting to people and situations from fear and not faith, worry and not grace. We are not trusting God to calm the storms. Jesus is inviting you to a great faith. This leads us to the final action step of training as a good soldier to live on mission today.
Action Step #4) Live on mission.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
The conclusion of this passage, verse 25, has military image in the original language. The picture given by Paul is that when we live by the Spirit then we are walking in rank and file as His good soldiers, submitted to His commands.[4] The Commander is calling you to train yourself to live by faith and walk in the Spirit, and in doing so, you will not commit war crimes – you will do justice and righteousness – you will seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
You can listen to the message here:
You can watch the message by clicking HERE.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), Je 22:3.
[2] Shared with me in an email from Curt Ferrell on September 22, 2022.
[3] Comments to me in an email from Emily Hurst on September 23, 2022.
[4] Emily Hurst commented on this passage in an email to me on September 23, 2022, “The original Greek shows us something interesting about verse 25. The word live here comes from the Greek verb ‘zaó,’ which means both the physical vitality of being alive as well as the process of living life. The phrase ‘let us walk by’ comes from the Greek “stoicheó” WHICH IS THE MILITARY WORD FOR WALKING IN RANK, AS SOLDIERS!!! So, a paraphrase of this verse, based on the Greek roots, might be: ‘Since the Spirit gives you life, stay in rank for the Spirit.’ Which is literally the whole point of the battle drills we are learning.”
[5] Curt Ferrell commented in this statement in an email to me on September 22, 2022, “Reminds me of John 1:12-13 – ‘But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.’ This translation seems to imply that while we have the ‘right’ to become children of God, we might not claim that ‘right’ – and lose out on being called Children of God. But I recently saw a different perspective/translation – ‘he gave the AUTHORITY to become Children of God.’ If we are truly children of God, we must act within the authority that he has given us. We could simply ‘claim’ to be children of God, or be ‘identified’ as children of God – but we can only ACT as children of God if we have his authority and act according to the power inherent in that authority.”
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Seize the Moment – Day 921
Today’s modern day hymn focus will be
Great is the Lord
Psalm 145:3-4 (NASB95)
“ Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.”
In 1982, Michael W. Smith and his wife Debbie were active members of a church in Nashville TN where he also led worship. During that season of their lives, they would often sit together at night, open up the scriptures and allow God to inspire their hearts. One night, God took them to the above passage. While she wrote a few lines, he played the melody, and they saw them come together practically at the same time.
The next Sunday, he taught the song to the congregation of Belmont Church, and they were greatly moved to a spirit of worship, lifting their voices in praise as they sang this song.
Great is the Lord, He is holy and just, by His power we trust in His love
Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true, by His mercy He proves He is love
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
If you would like to listen to this song, click on this link:
Great is the Lord
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Seize the Moment – Day 920
Finding Jesus in the Details!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, September 23.
You’ve heard it said that the devil is in the details, but I tell you that you don’t need to be looking for him; rather, you need to be looking for Jesus, who desires to be found in even the smallest details of your life.
In 1 Chronicles 24, King David was flexing his administrative muscles to organize the priests into divisions. Significantly, he did so by casting lots to determine the order of the divisions for the twenty-four priestly households (5-18). Providentially, which is what casting lots presupposes, we find an interesting foreshadowing of God’s plan of salvation in the order of the eighth and ninth divisions, described in verses 10b-11a, “the eighth for Abijah, the ninth for Jeshua.”
“Jeshua” is the Hebrew name Joshua, which means, “The Lord is salvation.” From the Hebrew, into the Greek, then into the English, we get the name of “Jesus” (Luke 1:31). While Jeshua was a very common name, the one that came before it was not – “Abijah,” and here is where we find the foreshadowing.
The division of Abijah is highlighted in Luke 1:5, “In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.” This is the birth narrative of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. He was of the priestly line of Abijah! In the administrative details of 1 Chronicles 24, an event that happened nearly one thousand years before their births, we hear, “Behold, I send My messenger ahead of you, who will prepare Your way” (Mark 1:2).
Seize the moment and find Jesus in the smallest details of your life! There is no person or place too trivial in all of creation through whom God doesn’t want to lift up the name of Jesus.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Seize the Moment – Day 919
The Rhythms and Responsibilities of Worship!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, September 22.
Does your devotional life bring order and meaning to your life? In 1 Chronicles 23:30-32, David communicated clear expectations to the Levites:
They are to stand every morning to thank and to praise the Lord, and likewise at evening, and to offer all burnt offerings to the Lord, on the sabbaths, the new moons and the fixed festivals in the number set by the ordinance concerning them, continually before the Lord. Thus they are to keep charge of the tent of meeting, and charge of the holy place, and charge of the sons of Aaron their relatives, for the service of the house of the Lord.
It is important that we, like the Levites, have clear expectations upon the rhythms and responsibilities of our life of devotion to God. It is critical to know when we do, what we do – the rhythms of worship provide a framework for our lives. Equally essential, we need to know why we do what we do – the responsibilities of worship give meaning and purpose to those rhythms.
Knowing your rhythms and responsibilities of worship brings order and meaning to your life because we are shaped by that which we devote ourselves. I encourage you to write a “Rule of Life,” which serves as a trellis on which you can grow in Christ and bear fruit for His glory.[1] Jesus promised in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” When our devotional life becomes the framework of our lifestyles, then we are filled with the spiritual vitality that comes from abiding in the Vine of God’s love for us, regardless of our circumstances.
Seize the moment and develop your “rule of life” by journaling about your rhythms and responsibilities of worship – daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, and annually.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “Don’t be intimidated by the word rule. The word comes from the Greek for ‘trellis.’ A trellis is a tool that enables a grapevine to get off the ground and grow upward, becoming more fruitful and productive. In the same way, a Rule of Life is a trellis that helps us abide in Christ and become more fruitful spiritually. A Rule of Life, very simply, is an intentional, conscious plan to keep God at the center of everything we do. It provides guidelines to help us continually remember God as the Source of our lives. … The starting point and foundation of any Rule is a desire to be with God and to love him.” (Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: It’s Impossible to be Spiritually Mature While Remaining Emotionally Immature. Updated Ed. [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017], 190).
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