God bless~

And BTW, the eclipse yesterday seemed amazing, although I missed it =.= Hope you guys saw it too~

-Love, GinniePark

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Memory Verse of the Week:

"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not ert justice by siding with the crowd." - Exodus 23:2

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For God's Glory - Exodus 23:14-33

Worship Together

14: "Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me."

15: "Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed."

16: "Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field."

17: "Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD."

18: "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning."

19: "Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."

 

Complete Obedience

20: "See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared."

21: "Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him."

22: "If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you."

23: "My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out."

24: "Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stone into pieces."

25: "Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you,"

26: "and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span."

27: "I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run."

28: "I will send the horney ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way."

29: "But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you."

30: "Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land."

31: "I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you."

32: "Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods."

33: "Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods wll certainly be a snare to you."

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Reflection

Worship Together (23:14-19)

The Israelites are commanded to gather three times a year to celebrate a destival and to worship the Sovereign LORD. The three festivals are not merely religious celebrations of national history. Rather, God calls all Israelites to participate in holy worship (v.17). Especially prominent in the Old Testament - and also in the New Testament - is the notion of corporate worship. Although individuals were to observe various religious laws, worship was always corporate. That is because all worship on Earth is an imitation of our eternal worship in Heaven, whichi is also practiced in a corporate setting. We, as the body of Christ, are also called to worship in both personal and corporate settings. Claiming a private spirituality or abandoning organized corporate worship is not in step with God's will.

 

Complete Obedience (23:20-33)

God promises blessings as the conclusion of the section on the covenant. Blessings require obedience, and the Israelites are to trust in the Lord who will provide perfect protection (v.23). This section reminds the Israelites of who they are: without the Lord, they are nothing and can do nothing. They are utterly dependant on God. Knowing the Israelites' capability to disobey, the Lord graciously warns them again and again of their identity, that without Yahweh they cannot do anything. Unfortunately, the Israelites later fail to trust in God's protection, and they arrange their own invasion of the Promised Land (Numbers 14:41-45). Their faith - which seems absolute when they are promising their unconditional trust in God - gets shaken, and they begin to think that they might not be able to enter the Promise Land. The Lord wants our undivided faith, which is completely independent of circumstances.

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Application

-Many times we think, "What can I get out of the church experience?" However, the Bible tells us that worship is not about us, but all about God. Instead, let's ask, "What can I give to the Lord and to the community of believers?"

-It is easy to trust God when things are going well. The Israelites enthusiastically promised to put their full trust in Him when things were going well too. God requires a perfect obedience and faith even when things are rough. Ask God to give you an undivided faith.

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"Worship is recognizing God for who He is; it is abscribing worth to Him; it is God's people telling Him about the worth they see in Him."

-Don Weaver

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Testify about Love or Law?

There are people who walk up and down streets with signs that say "Turn or Burn" or "Without Jesus, You Are Going to Hell!" These words may be true, but they are also a scare tactic. It induces fear so that people will seek fire insurance rather than a genuine relationship with Jesus.

Christ was no doubt grieved by the people of His day, but He did not condemn or try to scare them into submission. We only see Christ speak of death and hell with those who should have known better : the scribes and the teachers of the Law. As Arthur Pink writes, "'You shall not die for your sins' (John 8:24) said Christ - not to avowed infidels - but to the religious professors of His day. And why? Because they refused to take His 'yoke' upon them, because they declared, 'We will not have this man to reign over us!' (Luke 19:14)."

As Christians, we are called to share the Gospel. And we need to do so in love, wisdom, and respect. At the same time, we cannot preach a watered-down Gospel. God is not only a God of love, but a God who is holy. He takes sin very seriously, as we see in Exodus 23:21. Pink states about this verse, "Something more than mere believing is necessary. Christ is 'the Author of eternal salvation unto all those who obey Him (Hebrews 5:9)."

Jesus did not die so that we could continue to sin but just believe and be saved; he died to set us free so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. When we share the Gospel, our focus should not be about convincing people to believe in Jesus. It should be about leading people to follow Jesus. After all, God did not call us to make converts, but disciples of all nations.

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A Letter to God

Dear Father, thank You for the yearning that we have in our hearts to worship You.

I pray that our worship would be something that glorifies You.

Help us to focus on You rather on ourselves. In Jesus' name. Amen.