Doing Friday’s living Life first >_<

God bless!~

-Love, GinniePark

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Memory Verse of the Week:

“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.” – Exodus 34:26a

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God Alone– Exodus 34:10-26

God Alone

10: “Then the LORD said: ‘I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.”

11: “Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.”

12: “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you.”

13: “Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.”

14: “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

15: “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they e themselves to their goals and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.”

16: “And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters e themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.”

17: “Do not make any idols.”

 

Remember the Lord

18: “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.”

19: “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock.”

20: “Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.”

21: “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.”

22: “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year.”

23: “Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel.”

24: “I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.”

25: “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.”

26: “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.”

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Reflection

God Alone (34:10-17)

In this passage, God is renewing the covenant He made earlier with Moses and the Israelites. Many of these phrases are quoted verbatim from previous sections of Exodus. As the people of God prepare to enter the Promised Land, there are promises of blessings and curses for them. Obedience will bring about peace, protection, and victory over their enemies. Compromise and idolatry will bring about the wrath of God. The memory of worshipping the golden calf is still fresh in the memories of the Israelites. What is an idol? Timothy Keller states, “It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” It is the “god” in which you place ultimate worth and offer your worship.

 

Remember the Lord (34:18-26)

The major sin of the Jews throughout the Old Testament was that of forgetfulness. They were prone to wander from the promises of God, thus getting themselves into trouble. The topics of this section are a series of provisions that would govern Israel well beyond just the Ten Commandments. These provisions include:

*Keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread (v.18)

*Every firstborn in the land belongs to God (vv.19-20)

*Rest on the Sabbath Day (v.21) – plowing time and harvest time are the two busiest seasons in a farmer’s life.

*Observe the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Ingathering (v.22)

*Make three annual pilgrimages for these festivals (vv.23-24)

*The Passover meal is to be free of yeast (v25)

*Offer the best of the firstfruits of the land (v.26)

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Application

-Idolatry is not just a failure to obey God; it is a setting of the whole heart on something besides God. Examine your heart today. What has gripped your heart? On what do you build your identity?

-What is the significance of the laws listed in this passage? We need reminders to keep us on track. Whether it is Sunday services, seasons of Lent, Christmas, or offerings, these are necessary reminders of God’s goodness and grace.

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“An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought.”

-Timothy Keller

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An Awesome Thing

Jeremiah 29:11 is a passage that gives us a lot of comfort, especially I times when we are unsure of ourselves. It states, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” This verse lets us know that God does indeed have plans for us – that we have a reason to be here on earth. It shows us that we were created for a purpose and that God will fulfill that purpose.

But the end of Exodus 34:10 gives us an even greater glimpse of the plan that God has for us as God Himself declares, “How awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.” We all believe that God wants to work in our lives, but what we don’t understand is how awesome that plan is. Indeed, we realize that we serve an amazing God, but how willing are we to accept the fact that God has an absolutely outstanding, amazing plan that He wants to work through us?

As John Piper writes, “The answer is that God’s aim in history [is] to stop the mouth of human pride and magnify the greatness of his absolutely free mercy….As Roman 9:16 says, ‘So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.’ Be shocked, be astonished, be amazed.” God wants to use us to radically shape this world – for His glory. And God wants to work this amazing plan of mercy in and through our lives!

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A Letter to God

Lord, uncover the hidden things that I give worth to and worship.

Replace them with You alone.

Forgive me for allowing myself to be controlled by them.

I submit myself to You and ask that my worship to You may always be genuine.

Remind me of Your loving kindness.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.