20-20 Blog

Today’s Bible Reading: Lamentations 3; Lamentations 4; Lamentations 5; Revelation 15 (The Message)

Scripture Focus:

Lamentations 5:22 Bring us back to you, God—we’re ready to come back.
Give us a fresh start.
As it is, you’ve cruelly disowned us.
You’ve been so very angry with us.

Observation:

The chapters I read today in Lamentations and Revelation are full of God’s wrath. We don’t hear much about God’s wrath in sermons these days. It’s not really a popular subject, but it is true, none-the-less.

There comes a time, after God pleads over and over and warns us over and over, that his justice prevails, and his anger with sin takes action, but always—until we die, God is ready to receive us back, to completely forgive and restore our relationship with him, to give us a fresh start.

Application:

What am I doing that is breaking God’s heart? Am I living a life that brings God pleasure or makes him angry? If I’ve drifted away, I can ask God to bring me back. I can ask him for a fresh start.

Prayer:

Father God, give me a fresh start today. Give me a heart that willingly follows hard after you!

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Today’s Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 11; 2 Samuel 12; Psalm 51; Matthew 23 (The Message)

Scripture Focus:

Matthew 23:28 People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

Observation:

Wow! Today’s Scripture reading was pointed and convicting. God knows the truth about me. Everything. I may totally have other people fooled, but God sees everything, knows everything I do, and knows the motive behind it.

First I read from 2 Samuel 11 & 12 about David and Bathsheeba, and then in Matthew 23, Jesus tells the Pharisees their real character, the one nobody else sees.

Application:

All I can do is say with David in Psalm 51 (also today’s reading):
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!

Prayer:

Father God, help me live with the knowledge that you are WITH me at every moment, knowing all I say, do, and think. May that be a comforting thought. May that knowledge be like a plumb line that keeps me walking in your ways today. God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.

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Today’s Bible Reading: Lamentations 3, 4, 5; Revelation 15

Scripture Focus:

Lamentations 3:40–41 Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the LORD;
Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.

Observation:

With regularity, but especially during times of trials and testing, we must search out and examine our ways. Sometimes the hardships are due to sin in our lives, sin from which we must repent and turn back to the Lord. First comes the searching and examining our ways, and then comes the lifting of our hearts and hands to God in heaven—asking forgiveness, turning from our ways to follow his way.

Application:

When was the last time I truly asked God to read me like an open book and let me know what he sees? If I do this regularly, the corrections will be minor and easy. If I wait until God is disciplining me, it’s much more unpleasant and difficult.

Prayer:

Father God, I’m willing for your Spirit to convict me of sin.

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Today’s Bible Reading:Lamentations 1, 2; Obadiah 1; Revelation 14

Scripture Focus:

Lamentations 2:4 Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.

Observation:

The Bible says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The opposite is also true. If God be against us, who can be for us?

This verse talks of God as Israel’s enemy, an adversary. How did that happen—that God should be against the very people he chose and blessed? It was because they were disobedient to his laws and commandments, and though he warned them through his prophets for years and years, they refused to turn from their ways.

God is patient and gives his people ample opportunity to turn around, but there comes a point when it is time for judgment. Then, beware, for God “stands as an enemy.”

Application:

Has God been trying to tell me something? Am I listening? Am I making adjustments in my life to line up with God’s perfect will for me? It’s better to be sensitive to God’s direction than to ignore his voice and eventually find that God becomes like an enemy to me.

Prayer:

Father God, keep me sensitive to your corrective voice.

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Today’s Bible Reading: Ezekiel 5, 6, 7; Revelation 3

Scripture Focus:

Revelation 3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write,
‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

Revelation 3:9 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

Observation:

For each of the churches this phrase is repeated in Revelation 3: I know your works. In the case of the church at Sardis, God knew the truth. Even though Sardis had a reputation of being alive, he knew that they were really dead. It was all a show.

God rebukes and chastens those whom he loves with the hope that they will be zealous and repent.

Application:

No matter what other people see, God knows the truth about us. We can’t fool God with counterfeit spirituality.

What does God see when he looks at my life? Does he see life, or am I dead inside?

Prayer:

God, show me what you see when you look at my life. Help me to be zealous and repent even before you need to discipline me.

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Today’s Bible Reading: Isaiah 60, 62, 62; John 1

Scripture Focus:

Isaiah 60:16 You shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

Isaiah 61:3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

Observation:

I’ve noticed that Isaiah uses the word Redeemer a number of times in his book. Today it particularly jumped out at me. When something or someone is redeemed, it means it was lost or somehow off track from it’s original purpose, but is now restored.

God is in the business of redeeming me when I get off track. He gives me beauty for ashes, the oil of joy in place of mourning, and the garment of praise to replace a spirit of heaviness.

The ultimate redemption, of course took place on the cross, where Jesus performed his greatest act of redemption, allowing me back into the family of God, the place I truly belong.

Application:

I have received the ultimate redemption from my sins, and I’m part of the family of God. Will I let God redeem other areas of my life as well? Where things have gotten out of wack (work overtaking life and degenerating into workaholism, for example) will I let God bring redemption?

Prayer:

Father God, may it be so! I’m ready for the beauty, joy, and praise that comes as a result of your redemption!

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Today’s Bible Reading: Amos 4,5,6; Psalms 86; Titus 1

Scripture Focus:

Amos 4:12–13 Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
For behold,
He who forms mountains,
And creates the wind,
Who declares to man what his thought is,
And makes the morning darkness,
Who treads the high places of the earth—
The LORD God of hosts is His name.

Psalm 86:5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

Observation:

The book of Amos is about the judgment of God on nations who worshipped false gods and oppressed the poor and needy while lounging in luxury. Those who do such things need to know that the day of judgment will eventually arrive, when God has had enough.

The phrase, “Prepare to meet your God!” is a fearful phrase to someone who has lived a life of sin and utter selfishness.

However, God’s heart is not for judgment, but for mercy and forgiveness as we read in today’s other passage, Psalm 86:5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

Application:

I’m so grateful for God’s mercy and forgiveness! Even so, the phrase, “Prepare to meet your God!” makes me realize that I may not be entirely ready to meet my Maker at this moment. Living in God’s mercy and forgiveness is not a one time event, but a daily, ongoing, way of life.

Prayer:

Father God, You have my permission to be God in my life today. I am the steward of the life and gifts you’ve given me. I want to be ready at any moment to stand before you and give an account for how I’ve lived my life.

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Today’s Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 17; Psalm 71; Matthew 26

Scripture Focus:

Matthew 26:31 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:

‘I will strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”
33 Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”
34 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”
And so said all the disciples.

74 Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!”
Immediately a rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.

Observation:

Jesus tells the disciples that ALL of them will stumble because of Jesus that night. They all deny it, beginning with Peter, but the rest of the story shows that Jesus was right.

Application:

We ALL stumble in our faith at one time or another. We do the unthinkable. We disappoint ourselves and our Lord, but that’s not where we should stay. If we are truly believers we will have remorse when we recognize our failings, and we will repent and return.

It’s no good to simply feel remorse, like Judas Iscariot, who hanged himself when he realized what he had done. God knows we will fail, but he also provided the means to return to him through repentance.

Prayer:

Abba Father, how grateful I am that you are ready to take me back, even after I fail!

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Today’s Bible Reading: 1 Samuel 18; 1 Chronicles 6; Psalm 11; Matthew 3

Scripture Focus:

Matthew 3:1–2 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!:
vs 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father . . . vs 10 Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Observation:

John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, became the prophet that prepared the way for the Messiah, Jesus. His message of preparation was “Repent!” This message wasn’t just for rank sinners. It was for the smugly religious as well. Notice how he says, “Do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father . . .’” In other words, we’re in like flin. We’ve got it made. We’re part of the establishment.

Repentance isn’t true if there isn’t a change in my actions. “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.”

John speaks of the judgement day when “every tree which does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” God is serious about this repentance thing.

Application:

Repentance applies to all, including me today. What am I doing that I need to stop doing? What am I not doing that I should start doing? I want to stand before God on Judgement Day and have him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Prayer:

Abba Father, open my eyes to see the sin in my life. Give me zero tolerance for it once I see it, and help me bear fruit worthy of repentance. Amen.

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Today’s Bible Reading: Leviticus 23–24; Psalm 24; Acts 21

Scripture Focus:

Leviticus 23: 26–29 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people.

Observation:

According to Wikipedia “the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn and important of the Jewish holidays. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services.

Yom Kippur is the tenth and final day of the Ten Days of Repentance which begin with Rosh Hashanah. According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person’s fate for the coming year into a “book” on Rosh Hashanah and waits until Yom Kippur to “seal” the verdict. During the Ten Days of Repentance, a Jew tries to amend his behavior and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against his fellow man. The evening and day of Yom Kippur are set aside for public and private petitions and confessions of guilt. At the end of Yom Kippur, one considers himself absolved by God.”

The Bible speaks nothing of God inscribing each person’s fate for the coming year into a “book,” but it does say that any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. That’s a pretty strong statement. God is serious about people repenting.

Application:

Although I’m not bound to the Law, as a Christian I have a mandate to confess my sin on a daily, ongoing basis (I John 1:9). It is appropriate to be sorrowful (afflicted in soul) about my sin.

In 2 Corinthians 7:9–10 Paul says, “Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance . . . for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted.”

Do I examine myself daily against the measurement of God’s holiness? Am I sad when I see where I fall short, and do I confess my sins to a holy God?

Prayer:

Abba Father, I confess my sin to you. Thank you for being faithful and just to forgive my sins.

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