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22 BSF Matthew Week 22, Day 3

My Daily Journal:

People often misunderstand the term “Fear of God.” I don’t think this means a fear of punishment, viewing God as someone to cower from or to avoid so as not to anger him. Instead, I think it means fear of disappointing.

I grew up in my father’s home town. When I went someone, anywhere, the odds were very high that someone there knew my dad and knew I was his son. My actions, and my mis-deeds, reflected not only on me but on him. I did not fear so much his anger or punishment, but that I would dishonor or disappoint him by my callous behavior.

I think having that same type of fear of God is important and that it reflect love and honor and respect for our Heavenly Father. But that is not whom the spiritual leaders in the temple feared. When Jesus challenged them about John the Baptist, there was nothing in their thought process about God or truth. It was all about fear of men.

Whom you fear reflects whom you honor and respect.

My Answers:

5.
a.
show us your qualifications, license, certification, authority – Union card, who died and made you the messiah?

b.
Every day Jesus taught in the temple – teachers of the law and the leaders were trying to kill him

6.
a.
They decided to not believe John the Baptist, the prophets, the prophecies of scriptures

b.
seeing don’t see, hearing don’t hear, hear don’t understand, see, not perceive, calloused heart, blind

7.
a.
Gentiles, tax collectors, prostitutes – others that were considered blatant sinners

b.
The jews, particularly the teachers of the law and pharisees

8.
a.
Said no, but did: Same, drugs, prostitution, open sin. Said yes, but no: Church going hypocrites

b.
I was the later, but now am the says yes and does

03.5 BSF Matthew: Week 3, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

Forewarning: At the risk of sounding gross… Here is an illustration about the different baptisms of John and Jesus and a perspective on why Jesus decided to be baptized:

Imagine you have a sack or bag made out of cotton, like t-shirt material. You use this sack when “walking your dog” and you use it to pick up the dog poo. You then carry this bag with you wherever you go, and it gets more and more full every day.

As gross as this sounds to be carrying around, this is what sin is in our life. Every time we sin, we scoop a little more gross, offensive material in our bag. That was, in particular, how it was in the time of John the Baptist. Everyone had sin, everyone had a gross, stinky, porous bag of poo.

John called people to recognize they were carrying this around with them every day and to do something about it. They couldn’t get rid of it, but by confessing and being baptized they could at least clean the outside of it. By repenting they could commit to putting less new poo in the bag.

People got the message. They came from near and far. But some people (mostly the leaders) were in denial about their bag of poo. They thought that if their bag was less full than someone else’s, theirs didn’t stink. Some of them tried to dress up their bag of poo to mask or hide it. They would dress it up in pretty robes or sprinkle it with perfume. When they showed up at the river they tried to not even bring their bag of poo with them – pretending it didn’t exist. But it did. John caught a strong whiff of it and rebuked them. He called it what it was!

But here is the deal – John only had the ability to wash the outside of the bag. Then one day, along comes Jesus and an amazing thing happens.

Jesus, the one and only person ever who did not have a bag of poo (because he had no sin), chose to get in the water. Imagine what this water (where all the poo bags where being rinsed) was like. Along comes the King of Kings, perfectly clean, and he made the choice to climb in this filthy water with His subjects, the commoners and all their sin

He chose to take on our filthy rags so that he could “fulfill all righteousness) so we could become clean and enter into His Father’s Palace. This choice was huge – in many ways just as big if not bigger than being born a human, because this marks the start of His choice to His obedience to the Father’s plan of salvation. This is the start to the pain and suffering. This is the start to the path that leads to an undeserved death.

But, in so doing, Jesus is setting the stage for a new baptism. One that doesn’t just clean the outside in water, but through the blood of His sacrifice, it opened the door to the Holy Spirit to do the work in us of cleaning and purifying us inside and out, transforming us into saints, pure and clean.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.”
– Isaiah 1:18

Like the “wool” of the unblemished Lamb of God.

My Answers:

12.
a.
‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’

b.
The voice of God and the spirit came down as a dove and remained on him

c.
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

13.
a.
Hear the preaching of baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, Come to the river, Confess their sins, be baptized

b.
He had no sins to confess

c.
To fulfill all righteousness – to submit to the plan of God in obedience as fully human to be joined with mankind.
Ps 40:8 I desire to do your will, my God. Isaiah 11:2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him (as he came out of the waters of baptism)

02.4 BSF Matthew: Week 2, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

I was convicted by the obedience that Mary and Joseph demonstrated as parents. There is an interested contrast in Adam and Eve and Joseph and Mary. We see disobedience in the first leading to the fall of man, the first sin wasn’t an accident, it was an intentional act of disobedience of the one rule given in the garden. But time and again we see the man and woman entrusted with the responsibility of raising the infant Son of the Living God with act after act of obedience. Joseph gets direction in a dream and he obeys, even getting up in the middle of the night rousting his wife and child and setting off to a distant and foreign land.

We think about demonstrating strength and leadership as parents of our children. We want to provide for them, educate them, lead them, help them. None of these are bad or wrong, but listen to these inspired words in Matthew about the man and woman God chose for His only Son. He doesn’t talk about any of those things – He talks about obedience.

I was also challenged with the question about Nathanael and his views of Nazareth. (In the process of researching this I found this website about why people looked down on Nazareth) Like him, I am filled with preconceived notions about people. These are prejudices, but not in the way we often use the word. I clearly, however, pay more attention to a well dressed and monetarily successful, highly educated leader than I do to someone on the opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum. God reminds us it is the heart that counts – not what we can see on the outside, but what He puts on the inside, that really matters.

My Answers:

8.
a.
Angel said – he obeyed. Joseph and Mary both demonstrate amazing obedience. A lack of obedience afflicted Adam and Eve (1st parents), but Mary and Joseph model obedience as parents of the holy One.

b.
Herod’s son, Archelaus, was now ruler. Having been warned in a dream he withdrew to Galilee, Nazareth

9.
a.
Differences between Northerners and Southerners. Race, dialect, prejudices, etc. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/08/17/7-differences-between-galilee-and-judea-in-the-time-of-jesus/

b.
God turned everything upside down. All our prejudices and ideas about how “we would do things” – He did the opposite.

c.
Beings of might and power, in human thought, do not sacrifice that, even unto death, for those without any power and might. There is nothing in it for them. But God loved the world. Love is not human ration – it is divine.

BSF Genesis: Week 31, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

11.
God will come to your aid and be true to promise ==> go home

12.
a.
God will come to aid, take my bones

b.
Ex 13:19 Moses took Joseph’s bones, Joshua 24:34 Joseph buried in the cave in Canaan

13.
God will come to your aid

My Daily Journal:

I know many people find comfort in the words of Genesis 50:24 that God will come to your aid. But, as a husband, father and provider to my family, church and community I find special promise in these words and a comfort, a real lifting of a burden through these words.

I want to provide for those I love. I want to protect them and care for them. I want to serve them and model the love of God to them. But how do you continue to do that after you die. There is, obviously, financial planning that should take place and seeds that are planted throughout the years, but how can you possibly know if the best laid plans will be enough?

But, the reassurance that God will come to their aid is a huge relief. And, as it was when the Holy Spirit was sent after Christ left, this verse tells me that there is actually a special outpouring of blessing that God will send to the ones I love and care for to specifically fill the void that would otherwise be present with my inevitable passing some day. What a powerful and reassuring promise!

BSF Genesis: Week 31, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

6.
Pharaoh honored him by the entourage he sent to his graveside. Dignitaries of his court, all the dignitaries of Egypt, Chariots and horsemen, a very large company, so great the the Canaanites renamed the place to mourning of the Egyptians. Only Hebrew children and livestock left behind.

7.
a.
The size and scale and the mourning that occurred at the threshing floor of Atad

b.
v12. Did as he commanded them, carried him, buried him.

c.
We are aliens here – our citizenship is in heaven. We have been saved through Christ.

My Daily Journal:

Jacob was a mirror who reflected God. When the bible says God is the God of Israel or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it does not mean these men owned God. It means that they reflected God for others to see.

Jacob reflected God in his prayer life. He reflected God in His trust of God’s word. He reflected God in his willingness to speak truth (especially in his later years). He reflected God in his blessings (which were actually God’s blessings). He reflected God in and through his children and especially through Joseph.

When pharoah send a very large company, chariots, horsemen; when he sent all the riches of Egypt; when he provided the royal embalmers; when the Egyptians mourned at the threshing floor; when the Egyptians stayed with the Israelite children and flocks so their parents could all go back to Canaan (even though they found shepherds detestable)… When all of these things occurred they reflected directly through Jacob back to God, His God, The God of Israel.

When we go to a funeral and participate in eulogies today it is the same thing. When a christian has spent their life reflecting the glory of God, there is absolutely nothing wrong with spending some time reflecting on that reflection! The glory is not going to the individual, it is going to the source of the light that they helped shine.

BSF Genesis: Week 31, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.
a.
No. He spent his last breath blessing others. He looked forward to being gathered to his people, pulled his feet up into his bed and died

b.
God is the God of Jacob – He is not the God of the dead but of the living – Jacob is experiencing eternal life

4.
a.
H.
people are destined to die once and after that to face judgment

R.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Wages of sin are death but the gift of God is eternal life

J5.
Whoever hears word and believes God has eternal life, will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life

J8.
told that you would die in yoru sins, if don’t believe then you will indeed die in your sins

J11.
Whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?

b.
Spiritually ready and confident. I believe there is still work for me to do here and more lives to touch and shepherd

5.
Honored the promise he made to his father. Sought Pharaoh’s blessing.

My Daily Journal:

Death. Until Christ comes again and calls us up to Him in heaven, we are all going to die. Death is a doorway we all must cross through.

For a few years I had the opportunity to work with a motivational speaker who used board breaking in coaching and leading people. The piece of pine represented a barrier to the individual, something that prevented them from “breaking through” to a higher level or better place. One of the key things that he taught, and which I saw to be true, was that the more you focus on the board, the harder it is to break. You don’t try to hit the board, you pick a focus point beyond the board and strike to it. You don’t focus on the barrier, your focus on what things look like beyond the barrier.

The challenge for us is that we tend to focus on the door more than what’s on the other side when it comes to death. Some might say that we don’t know what is on the other side, but I disagree. While the door may be a solid door, Christ has provided a window for us to look through. He tells us that “in My father’s house there are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you.” He tells us that upon death “Today you will be with me in paradise.” We know from Revelation that heaven is a real place, measurable, with walls of jasper and city of pure gold. But, most importantly, we know it is where God is and where we go to be with Him. This was revealed in the martyrdom of Stephen when he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God in heaven. Jesus tells us about God and Heaven over and over again. I am the way… no one comes to the Father but by me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who believes in me shall not perish but have eternal life.

When Christ came back from the dead he showed that death has no hold over us. There need be no uncertainty of what is on the other side of the door of death, Christ has shown us. We, like Jacob need to be willing to trust in Him and put our focus on the beauty of breaking through to the other side, not on the door. When we focus on death, we bang in to something hard and difficult and painful, just like when someone would focus on the board, they would bang into the board. Instead, we must focus on the life after death and break through death in joy and celebration.

BSF Genesis: Week 30, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

10.
fruitful vine near a spring: his actions in Egypt, by the Nile, saved nations from starvation. branches climb over a wall: moved from Canaan to Egypt received Egyptian name and honors, Archer attach: Brothers, Potiphars wife, forgotten in prison – he faced many attacks; Bow remained steady, strong arms limber: despite hardship he stayed true and honorable to God; because of hand of Mighty One, Shepherd, Rock: All was because of God and for His glory.

11.
blessings from skies above waters below, sun and moon; gifts from ancient mountains and hills; let all these rest on the head of Joseph the prince among his brothers

12.
Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders. He may be a ravenous wolf to the world, but he carries the lamb upon his shoulders

My Daily Journal:

We are wisely encouraged in life to save and set funds aside for our old age and for an inheritance to our children. While the bible warns against placing our faith in this accumulation, it is also clearly taught to set funds aside in the years of plenty for the lean years that often follow.

We can see a parallel in these spiritual blessings that Jacob has accumulated for his sons. Do these things belong to Jacob, no, they belong to God. But through a life devoted to God and setting aside treasures of faith in his heart, Jacob can bestow these blessings onto his sons and the sons of Joseph. Blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb. Blessings greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills.

What am I, through faith, receiving as a spiritual blessing that I, through the almighty hand of God, will be able to bestow upon my children and grandchildren? Is my inheritance to them measured in dollars or measured in blessings and grace and truth? What words do I need to say to my children? Shouldn’t I say them now until waiting until my deathbed?

BSF Genesis: Week 28, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

15.
a.
wept loudly, come close to me, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves – it was to save lives, God did this, tell and bring father, threw his arms around them and wept

b.
embracing, wept, spoke truth and willingness to sacrifice for each other

16.
be truthful and heartfelt. Forgive and see God’s good in all.

My Daily Journal:

I loved Genesis 45:1.

We have talked over the past few weeks about the parallels between Joseph and Christ and how, in many ways, Joseph was a foreshadowing pointing to Christ. I think we see that so strongly in verse 1.

I’m a dad and there are times I need to use my dad voice and make decisions that, while not necessarily popular, are in the best interests of my family. I have to discipline my children and allow them to make mistakes even when I know they are mistakes. My natural desire is to protect them, to help them, to do for them and provide for them. But for them to grow and learn, I have to control that nature and allow them to experience and learn.

In Genesis 45:1, we see how God has placed that same “control” for Joseph to direct with his brothers. Then, Joseph could control himself no longer and we see the heart of God that beat inside Joseph pour out. What did he do when he was “out of control”? He poured out love. He poured out tears of joy. He poured kisses upon his brothers. He hugged them. He forgave them. He told them about God. He told them not to condemn themselves. He provided a new home for them. He provided everything they would need for themselves, their children, their grandchildren. He commanded them to reunite the entire family.

So, what does your “out of control” look like?

BSF Genesis: Week 27, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions

6.
a.
my master has withheld nothing from me except you. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? Not only did he flee the scene but he let go of his cloak

b.
Recognize it as a sin against God, not just men and not just myself. Look for God’s strength and provision and blessing

7.
a.
While he was a servant, he was put in charge of everything in the household and in the field. Recognized and relied on God being with him and showing him favor and kindness through his obedience

b.
By being with me and continuing to teach me to trust and rely in Him alone and not myself. By reminding me to be humble and obedient and show that all the glory is His.

My Daily Journal:

There are some great lessons in temptation in today’s lesson with Joseph. To start with, Joseph knew the rules and didn’t try to bend them or find loop holes. His right and wrong were black and white, not scales of gray. In this regard he recognized that to do wrong was not only against his earthly master but was a sin against God. When we do wrong we tarnish our ability to reflect God’s righteousness.

Within this I also found it very interesting that Joseph had to part with his cloak to be obedient to God. His brothers had already stripped him of his ornate coat, a gift from his father. Now Potiphar’s wife strips him of the cloak given to him as a slave by his master. Each of these trials seems to result in stripping coats from Joseph. This brought to mind the process involved in refinishing furniture. I wonder if God might have a new coat planned in Joseph’s future that, to wear, he needs to abandon his old uniform.

What do I need to let go of so God can bless me with something new? How firm is my conviction to keeping my mirror clean to reflect God’s full glory instead of tarnishing it with sin?

BSF Genesis: Week 27, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.
a.
Lord is present, Lord gives success, Lord is with people (like Joseph)

Shows kindness and grants favor

Be strong and courageous for God is with us wherever we may go. Expects obedience

b.
Obedience, avoidance of sin, walking in the path of the righteous, meditating on the law (the scriptures) day and night

4.
He was trustworthy. Potiphar was a leader of men and he saw Joseph’s trustworthiness and character. These were not of his own, but a gift from God who continued to bless him and bless everything he did (to the benefit of Potiphar)

5.
a.
Faith in God and in His promises delivered through dreams and a walk with the Lord. He had sustained Joseph through everything so far

b.
through prosperity

My Daily Journal:

Potiphar trusted Joseph because Joseph was trustworthy. Joseph was worthy of trust (trustworthy) not because of his own background, status, heritage, power, position or wealth but because Joseph trusted God. Joseph showed his obedience to God by trusting in Him. God showed his love for Joseph and his power and mercy by blessing everything that Joseph oversaw.

So what does obedience and trust mean. Our Joshua 1 and Psalm 1 references are great illustrations, and I love the way they paint the picture. As parents we learned that it is important not only to teach your kids what not to do but to teach them what to do instead. I remember teaching woodworking. It was important to not only say, don’t put your hand there, but to also say, put your hands here and here instead.

These aren’t do’s and don’ts, but proper methods of teaching and learning. Don’t be afraid, don’t be terrified, don’t be discouraged but instead be strong, be courageous, obey the laws, know that God is with you wherever you may go. Do not walk in step with the wicked, do not stand in the way that sinners take, do not sit in the company of mockers, but instead delight in the law, meditate on it day and night, stand in the assembly of the righteous.