Deuteronomy 5:6 - The Law Covenant

Deuteronomy 5:6
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Message: The Law Covenant

Time: This book chronicles farewell messages by Moses, the 120 year old leader of the Israelite, primarily intended for the lay person. It covers about one month, at the end of the forty-year period in the wilderness - 1405 BC. It is a renewal of the old covenant given at Mount Sinai to the plains of Moab.

What the Lord is Saying:

I am now in a series of lessons on grace and God's overall providence. God sets forth his message to save mankind. This is what we know as salvation. Inside the garden, man had everything he needed and yet man chose to disobey God, opting for something God said was off limits. Without that sin, man would live in perfect obedience, but once Adam and Eve sinned, they were thrown out of the garden and away from the tree of life. Yet, God would continue to provide for them -- all that they would need to live, but also provide them all they need for salvation. There are many covenants  - the Edenic, Adamic, Noahic, Abraham -- and all of these covenants speak of God providing. Man has been given responsibilities by God, but earning God's favor is not one of them. Instead, we are declared righteous by faith. Responsibilities or the work we do is for a wage or a result on this earth, but it is not for God's acceptance. Righteousness from God comes through faith.

In this world we now live the ruler of this world is Satan. God pledges to redeem us from this enemy - the prince of this world - Satan. On one hand, it was our choice to align ourselves with this enemy, when we ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil -- but God will continue to provide the way back to Him, as He provided His creation, our coverings, our responsibilities, all that we have. We must stay clear or the propensity we all have to think that adhering to rules or responsibilities results in acceptance. As I think of my parents' love for me, it is based upon nothing else but their desire for me. It is not based upon my works.

Today's passage - Deuteronomy 5:6 - I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery - precedes the giving of the Law which begins in verse 7 with You shall have no other gods before Me. The message should be clear. First comes the providence of God (brought you out), next comes the command (You shall...). God rescues then God asks for obedience. Thus, obedience follows grace. God does not declare that a rescue will occur upon obedience or after all that we can do, but rather his rescue is complete prior to the giving of the Law. One could say we are complete before the Law is given.

Yet, this passage addresses the Israelites as the ones he brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He addresses here specifically the chosen ones - the Jews - but God makes it clear that his salvation message of rescue is open to all.

Granted, the law comes with it everlasting life, when it is lived to the full. Leviticus 18:5 - you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if He does them. Yet, the Law will be broken. We cannot do all that it says. Thus, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). Jesus Christ ends the law. Keeping the law, the entire law yields righteousness. And only one has kept it - Jesus. Thus, He is our Savior. He is our Redeemer. He is our Salvation. He succeeds where we can not.

Promise: We trust the redeemer who has brought us out of slavery to the prince of the world. Jesus is our visible propitiation for the fulfillment of the Law. We are made righteous by faith.

Prayer: O God, you are rich in mercy and love. You have provided to me all that I need in brining me out of slavery to the king of this world. O God, the world is distracted, I am distracted all too often by this worldly king who takes us residence in this world and drives us away from you. I want to turn my eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face so that the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Help me to be watchful as to how I can so easily get sidetracked. Thank you for the Law and the clarity of it in helping me to see what I can do to have a fulfilling life. You show me clearly how I can trust You and do what You have said. Help me to be a light to this world I live in and to my family and everyone in my path. Be glorified.

Genesis 15 - The Covenant of Faith-Righteousness

Genesis 12:1-3
1 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;
2 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;
3 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.”

Message: The Covenant of Faith-Righteousness

Time: Genesis is the first book and Moses is credited as authoring. The book spans 2400 years of time. It was originally written in Hebrew.

What the Lord is Saying:

Thus far in this study of God's grace and saving mankind through the substitution of another, I have learned that God's original plan, offered through the Covenant of Eden, was that man would through works be accepted by God. But at the time this covenant was made there was not any knowledge of good and evil and so doing works—walking with God daily, listening to His commands, doing what He said—was everything. Once sin came into the picture everything changed. This covenant was now impossible and so it was a broken covenant and we could never go back there. Even as the original plan changed, the Word told us that God would continue to provide the answer. It wasn’t then that there was a shift to man being responsible for earning God’s acceptance. God originally provided and He would continue to provide.

Right now is a lesson of God providing. God declared a plan for man. He set up creation and man was put in charge of it (Genesis 1:28-31). He created them male and female. He defined their responsibilities. Thus he still defines life today. He orders creation. He orders my life.

God’s continued provision for man is spelled out after this first sin is committed. The Lord God speaks to the serpent and states how their will be enmity between Satan and woman. But it would be through the seed of the woman that God would provide restitution for mankind. Genesis 3:15 states that through the seed of woman, the birth, and specifically the birth of this seed Jesus he would bruise the head of the serpent. Our head represents our power and bruising the head means the power of Satan would be bruised or rather crushed. Thus, Jesus would overthrow everything Satan wanted to do. Thus, once again, God provides the answer man needs. Thus, He redeems mankind.

Throughout this early history of mankind, God was delivering to mankind promises that have been termed covenants. These covenants are to remind us of His promise to us, and then our responsibility. When sin came on the scene the Lord sent Adam out from the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23). In the garden everything was very good (1:31). The tree of life is in the garden. Man does not have access to the tree of life and the Lord says that man must eat from the tree of life to live forever (1:22) because by eating from it he will die (2:17). God would provide the way for us to have eternal life as life is in His Son.

We are never made right with God through our own efforts or merit but we are redeemed by God's provision. But in the world - hard work pays off and this message often then is equated to the idea that God is also looking for good deeds in order to merit heaven. But, just as our love for our earthly children does not change based upon their behavior, so also God's love does not change. Following the flood God gave us promises to never flood the land again and gave us a rainbow as a sign. We are still responsible for this creation of ours and for this he gives us directions to follow. Again, like a child, those directions are meant to guide us and protect us.

As I turn to this lesson about the covenant of Abraham, I see once again that this covenant depends solely on God. The Lord says in Genesis 12 I will show you the land and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and I will bless those who bless you. Over and over in these verses is the simple promise from God that He will: I will...I will...I will...I will.  God chose Abraham not based upon works of righteousness. He chose him.

Genesis 12 is a broad brush stroke of what God will do, but in subsequent texts he more clearly points out his promise to Abram in other verses:

• Genesis 13:15-16 - for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. 
• Genesis 15:2 - Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great. 
• Genesis 15:5 - Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them. 
• Genesis 15:13 - Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. 

Over and over and over the message was from God is that He will do the work, He will provide, He will redeem. He makes promises to us not based upon performance but based upon His Good Name and His Good Ways. Then after this promise is a declaration of faith by Abraham. Genesis 15:6 says,  Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. And then in Genesis 17 God says Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant. Commands follow promises from God. They don't precede them.

The response of the person is faith. Paul confirmed this in Romans 4:5 - the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. Evidently this is too simple and yes, this is somewhat contrary to the system we have in our world, namely 'hard work pays off.' Paul states in Romans 4:4 - Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. Thus, work for a wage is correct. One works for a wage and receives what is due. Faith is the mechanism for the ungodly to receive righteousness. Working is not the means for righteousness.

I was speaking to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and he quoted this verse from the Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 25:23 - "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." It says we labor, we labor to persuade children and fellow brothers so that they may believe, after all that we can do. This bridges these two concepts of faith righteousness and working to receive what is due. The problem is the means of being saved is not through working. God, in the garden gave access to the tree of life, not on the condition of man doing anything, but out of his provision. He provides eternal life. To say that it is after all we can do undermines the Bible, undermines the New Testament and undermines Jesus. It confuses two different subjects: works and faith; earnings and righteousness.

After the parable of the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10, verse 26 and 27 states - They were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” Looking at them, Jesus *said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” I commented in my study of this that God makes things happen. Man can't get to God for it is impossible Jesus states. Salvation is only possible with God. Again, never was a relationship with God based upon earning. Jesus also said that we can only come to the Father through Himself (John 14:6).

Thus, this is another example of God's grace or God providing.

Promise: The means to salvation is not through man's works as this is impossible, but only with God as the provider.

Prayer: God, you are provider. You are creator and you are a God of order. You created me and you provide life and my mission. I am directed by you. Lord, forgive me of my short-sighted thinking often. You promise that you will be there always for me and yet the moment a problem becomes too big for me, I wonder. Lord, even in my time at work lately I have wrestled with doing things I don't like doing. I have time but I don't manage that time wisely. There are questions that rise up. There are challenges and Lord I don't think I run to You for the answers, but instead try to muster up in me the strength to keep going.

Genesis 8:20-22 - The Covenant of Preservation

Genesis 8:20-22

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

22 “While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”

Message: The Covenant of Preservation

Time: Genesis is the first book and Moses is credited as authoring. The book spans 2400 years of time. It was originally written in Hebrew.

What the Lord is Saying:

The Adamic covenant of works was instituted before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thus, works were possible to earn eternal life because sin was not yet evident and perfect obedience was possible. Once man sinned though, perfect obedience was not possible. Thus, God instituted the grace principle of redemption which means that blessings are obtained not by our own good works but by inheriting those good works from someone else through faith alone. Man on his own is incapable of being redeemed because sin always darkens even our best intentions.

Yet, the covenant of works remains. God still expects man to keep those works and he repeats commands of obedience. But, we cannot keep God's law. We will always fail.

I am still enamored by the principle here that is so elementary. It is so simply, almost too simple. And in seeing this early entry of grace in Genesis 3:15 I see how this idea is then weaved throughout all of scripture and life - God is the rescuer. And those that end up getting rescued are a small subset of people.

It is an interesting idea that the Bible provides us with laws that we are not actually expected to keep, but asked to keep. What I learn is only Jesus can really keep these laws. Yet, they are laws given to man throughout the ages to follow. And then God knows who will follow them and who will not. He is sovereign in working them all out. Each of us has free will to choose yet God will take all of those choices and work them out to his glory. Yet he asks us to pray. It remains that the Bible speaks of this predetermined state almost by God throughout history and yet man lives like this is not so. Most of religious thought is honed in on the idea that man works his future out himself through adhering to laws. Man works. In the same way that man works to get a paycheck, man works to get heaven or God's acceptance. Yet, the principle in the Bible stands contrary to this type of thinking - namely that their is substitution atonement. Man may be able to work to get a paycheck, but man can't work to get God's acceptance. What is expected at work is to do our best, but God expects us to be perfect.

Thus, the answer in the Bible is Jesus. It has always been Jesus. The Bible shows us how serious sin is to God because we see how we acts when laws are broken, when he is not revered or feared. God is jealous and doesn't want to share Himself with anything in life. God knew Jesus would be needed. But he didn't come on the scene immediately. Instead he gave man other men that would do things similar to Jesus. These men were prophets. They saw a problem, but they had an allegiance to God because the problem was man was not listening to God - listening to God's plan. Man selfishly gets off track. Jesus saw this with the Jewish leaders. There was never any intention for only Jews to receive the message from God. Even the temple had a place for non-Jews to be welcomed in. Thus, the idea of the gospel is it is open to all.

Today I examine the Noahic Covenant. Noah became the first one to be called to store away a small remnant of people from a world that had simply gone astray. Sin ushered in a "every man for himself" mentality in which there was no need for God. There were 10 generations from Adam to Noah and each of those men lived 1,000 years with one new generation being every 100 years. After the flood the life span changed from 1,000 years to 120. The Covenant that came about with Adam in the garden was the Edenic Covenant, but it was terminated by man's sin. At the time of this covenant there are 8 people which constitute the world's population. Our reminder of this covenant is the rainbow which is a promise by God to never destroy the earth by flood. Beyond that it reaffirms provisions from the Adamic Covenant and its provisions are:

1. Populate the earth
2. The animal kingdom is subjected to man
3. Man can eat animals, but must refrain from eating blood.
4. Human life is sacred
5. This covenant is to every living creature
6. God will next destroy the earth by fire
7. The rainbow is given as a sign that he will not destroy the earth by a flood. 

These are all doable provisions. Man can do these without sin. This covenant reminds us that God is the active agent. God preserves a stable order in life and He will provide salvation at the appropriate time through Jesus.

Promise: God ordains life; he creates and he can take it away.

Prayer: God, I thank you for the natural order that You have created. There is stability in what you have established. You are to get all the glory God.


Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with April being about salvation by grace alone and how the Lord never fails to save the one whom He has purposed to save.

Genesis 3:15 - Covenantal Intervention

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.

Message: Covenantal Intervention

Time: Genesis is the first book and Moses is credited as authoring. The book spans 2400 years of time. It was originally written in Hebrew.

What the Lord is Saying:

I have always tried to look at the gospel in a very simple way. The basic idea that I see is God created order, man broke that order, and God fixed it. Rather than God fixing it alone most of religion and life think that man is the one who fixes things. The problem I see with this is there is never any peace for man on earth because man is always trying to figure out which formula will result in things getting fixed. It also assumes that man can fix it on his own and eventually goodness will outweigh all of the bad's committed. On the contrary, when God is the one who fixes it, he does it completely and without any error.

Thus the idea of God's grace or rather God delivering man is quite foreign to man's thinking. As a reminder, the first covenant of the Bible between God and man marked the idea that man's works would inherit eternal life. But, this was a covenant that came about before man ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thus, the covenant of works was possible when there was no knowledge of good and evil. But when Adam and Eve broke the covenant of works, pain and futility entered the picture and men and women face great sorrow and hardship.

Man became bent toward disobedience. Before Adam and Eve ate from the tree they had a desire to do those things pleasing to God, but sin twisted this and on our own we can't ever truly seek truth. So we need God to intervene. God's intervention is now known as God's grace. God redeems His creation. God does the work. God intercedes for man. This verse in Genesis 3:15 marks what is known as the first gospel or the protoevangelion. It is the first revelation of the covenant of grace. Under works, blessings come from doing good works. The problem is God's acceptance is based upon perfect obedience, not simply doing more good than bad. Grace is focused instead on faith not obedience. When people understand this grace and the gift of God, they naturally want to live good lives, but all the time they are forgiven by God whenever they sin.

Paul speaks of this in Romans 4 where he talks about Abraham becoming righteous apart from the work of circumcision. He was credited with righteousness while uncircumcised. We are made righteous apart from works.

In Genesis 3:15, God is in the middle of addressing the serpent (v. 14) and he remarks a conflict between the serpent and the woman. The serpent has a conflict with mankind, but it is most clearly seen toward the woman. I think this is evident as we see the power men often have over women and the damage of things like pornography which has convinced the woman the value she has is not who she is but what she looks like. And the difficult she has to work with the man instead of being independent of the man is a chore. We in society, we as men have not done a good job in this either.

But the point of this message is that the seed of the serpent or wicked man will be bruised by the seed of the woman. Thus, the seed of the woman is to be the Christ child. God will bruise the head of Satan through Jesus. God will provide grace to man through the work of His Son on the Cross. He pronounces to Satan the work that He will do.

Promise: The Lord graciously intervened to give His people the will to resist Satan and God pledged to send the Savior to do all the work needed to save us.

Prayer: Thank you God for the salvation that you have given to me this day. I pray that You would strengthen me against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with April being about salvation by grace alone and how the Lord never fails to save the one whom He has purposed to save.

Genesis 2:15-17- God's First Covenant with Mankind

Genesis 2:15-17
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Message: God's First Covenant with Mankind

Time: Genesis is the first book and Moses is credited as authoring. The book spans 2400 years of time. It was originally written in Hebrew.

What the Lord is Saying:

The grace of God is God's unmerited favor that He shows to His elect and His initiative to save people from His Sin. When sharing with someone about grace, one way to illustrate it is to say that when a homeless man or a beggar comes up to you and asks for money, beggar can do nothing to repay you for any gift you give and when you hand him money you are being gracious. This is the picture of grace - receiving something and not being able to repay it. As Ephesians 2:8 states, "It is by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God."

In the opening book of the bible, Genesis, God records the interaction between himself and his created beings - Adam and Eve. As they are in the garden God gave man a mission: to cultivate it (the garden) and keep it. Man had a responsibility within the garden, a task or work to do. As they lived in the garden, they were to only know what God had commanded them to do and they were only to do that which He commanded. He said to cultivate the garden and keep it. God also mentioned a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the command was simply, do not eat from the tree.

Thus, this first covenant of the Bible between God and man marked the idea that man's obedience or man's works would inherit eternal life. The good deeds of obedience in being fruitful, taking dominion of the earth, and abstaining from the forbidden tree would have merited eternal life for Adam and his descendants. Any departure from this meant death. The first covenant given to man is  man is supposed to do what God commands.

By eating of the tree, the result was man now knows death and now man has not followed the covenant and it is not fulfilled.

Without the tree they were free and could do as they wish -- all was equally the same. But, the tree represented a paradigm shift - a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. Without partaking of the tree, they would have been obedient to the words of God and thus would have been declared righteous. Adam and Eve would have been righteous before the Lord and inherited eternal life.

Promise: Because of Adam's sin, we are corrupt and cannot please God apart from grace.

Prayer: Lord, as I think back to this first covenant you had with mankind, with Adam, I see that your intent was for us to cultivate the creation and keep it. Thus, I have a responsibility to what you have created. At one time, all that was needed to be known was righteous living. Lord, as I study this simple message, I am baffled as to how we make this simple message complicated and how so many are engulfed in the idea that man can ever make up on his own for that which you have commanded. Our own doing resulted in us being lost, but on our own we cannot merit your favor. Thank you for the truth of Your Word.


Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with April being about salvation by grace alone and how the Lord never fails to save the one whom He has purposed to save.

Acts 17:1-9 - The Role of Reason

Acts 17:1-9
Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. 5 But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. 6 When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also; 7 and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things. 9 And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them.

Message: The Role of Reason

Time: Clearly written by Luke, this book follows the lives of Peter and then Paul after Jesus' ascension into heaven. The book was completed about 62 AD as Paul sat in prison. It provides an account of the growth of the Church and spread from Jerusalem, from a small group of frightened believers in Jerusalem transformed into an empire-wide movement of people who had committed their lives to Jesus Christ, and it should help us to be bold and have zeal in our walks with God.

What the Lord is Saying:

Does it make sense that what we see has always been? Thus, the idea from the atheist or naturalist is this world in which we live in has always existed or has come about over time ever so gradually. Thus, the universe is eternal. Or does it make more sense that it has been designed. Therefore, it has a designer. For me, as I examine the intricacy of the human body, it is difficult for me to see that this body has simply evolved. Thus, it seems reasonable to believe this. Once I have believed in a designer, it makes sense that only the designer knows how to save me.

In this passage, Acts 17, Paul has come upon Thessalonica. This was a large city with a large population. As Paul entered the City, he did what he did with entering any city, he went straight to the synagogue -- they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them. I find it interesting that Paul does not wait for people to come to him. Instead he goes right to the middle of the crowd that is opposed to his thinking and speaks to them. What an encouragement this is and a scary approach to things. His mission is to show people that Jesus is the Christ. Paul is an evangelist and his goal is to go to all the world and preach the gospel.

There is no problem in waiting for people to come to the church and then in that service to speak directly to them. Yet, this is not our only mission. We are also to go straight to the city centers and speak to those that are thinking another way. And I wonder, are we supposed to go to the churches that are speaking a different way? Are we go and stir the pot in those settings? Paul went straight to the synagogue, to the place that believed something different. And he experienced opposition. I Thessalonians 2:2 says - but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.

This makes me think of the open air preaching that sometimes goes on or that way of the master and living waters has mentioned. Yet, I am not sure that is the application here. The one thing that I see though is we tend to stay in safe environments for our ideal today or our mission today is safety, not conflict. Why? We want to preserve our life.

Paul did not enter the synagogue one time and then leave, but rather for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures. From the Scriptures was how his reasoning was done. And what is amazing to me is at this time, the Scriptures meant the Old Testament for he did not have a New Testament. Perhaps he had his stories and memories of Jesus and what He said while walking on the earth and following His resurrection. But it seems clear that the reasoning he did could be done with the Old Testament writings.

I have been reading the book Unveiling Grace by Lynn Wilder, a former LDS follower and what made the difference in her life was the reading of the New Testament and the words of Jesus. This is what moved her son. It is God's Word that changes lives. Paul knew this. Yet, preaching the words of Jesus either move people to the Son or further away. Both can be expected outcomes.

The other alarming record is that Paul went to the synagogue for three Sabbaths or three weeks. He camped out in this place and continued to speak to them. He continued to proclaim the message that This Jesus who I am proclaiming to you is the Christ." This Jesus is the Messiah. This was his message over and over to them, using the scriptures. And what the response? Well, some of them were persuaded. But the Jews formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. Here is the hard part, some followed, but most did not.

And this passage then turns to Jason. Jason seems to be a citizen of Thessalonica and his crime was -- and Jason has welcomed them. Jason was where Paul probably camped out and stayed. Jason and the other followers and Paul were brought out of their residence and placed before the mob. This recount of Jason and others being dragged out gets several verses. Let's be clear there is those that believe, but there are many more that oppose. And we live in a time period now that those who stir the pot are lambasted. So we can stay safe on the sidelines but then we should not be surprised that we are not having much of an impact on our culture or we can get in the middle and see fruit, but also opposition.

Promise: The reason we use in talking to people is by bringing them back continually to the Scripture, to the Word of God.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for this passage and helping me wake up more to the idea that I am your ambassador and the best way to preach your gospel is by communicating your Word. I need to accept and realize that while some will accept, many will not. Forgive me for remaining silent all to often because of this. I get too comfortable with this world and living in it and don't want anything to rock the boat or upset my place in this world. Lord, I need to come back to Your word and see that it is true to all of life and this is your message I am to carry.

Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with March being about the sovereign providence of God and looking at how the Bible reveals His control over all things.