Day 10

Genesis 23:1-24:51, Matthew 8:1-17, Psalm 9:13-20, Proverbs 3:1-6

Snow is on the ground, it's day ten of our journey through the bible and day one of a 21 day fast at FWO. God isn't just good...He's awesome.  Let's go!!

Matthew 8:1 - To me this speaks of what faith should look like in all of us. The leper comes to Jesus and says, "Lord if you are willing, you can make me clean." The wording of this statement is so important.  He didn't just come to Jesus and say, "you can make me clean." See many of us come to Jesus with an expectation of great things and then lose our faith if it doesn't work out the way we had planned or hoped. The fact that he preceded this statement with, "Lord if you are willing" implies that even if Jesus didn't heal him he was still going to believe in Him as Lord.  We all need to get to that place in our lives where we can say "Lord this is what I am believing for, but in your greater wisdom, discernment and timing I yield myself to your will and no matter what happens You are still my Lord."

Vs 12 - "the sons of the kingdom" refers to those Jewish people who would not believe that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah.  In the preceding verse Jesus is amazed by the faith of this centurion. A man born outside of the Jewish race. A Gentile. In essence a heathen, and yet he has this great faith in Jesus.  The point that Jesus is making is that the Jewish people looked down on this man and thought of him as lost because he was born a Gentile. But in reality, those that were born Jews, God's chosen people, would also be destined for an eternity in hell if they did not put their faith in Jesus Christ.  Even as "sons of the kingdom" they needed to have a personal relationship with Jesus. It's the same today, your mom or dad being a Christian is not a get into heaven free card. We all need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 3:1-6
What jumped out to me today was how everything we are instructed to do, we are told to do it with our hearts not our heads.
vs 1 - "let your heart keep my commands"
vs 3 - "tablet of your heart"
vs 5 - "Trust...with all your heart"
We have to get out of our minds for God. Notice in verse 1 it says "do not forget my law."  Where do we forget things? In our minds.  It's so easy for us to be shallow with God and think everything is okay. We can get into the routine of keeping a surface relationship with Him where we just simply go to church, read occasionally, etc. but nothing ever moves past our minds and penetrates our hearts.  How do we combat this? Verse one continues "let your heart" not your minds "keep my commands."  Same in verse 5. We are to trust God with our heart, and not lean on our own understanding when we look at the situations around us. It doesn't matter what we see with our eyes and process with our minds, we must allow the truth of God in our hearts to steer us through everything in life.

Psalm 9:20 - loved verse 20 and how the cry goes out that "the nations would know themselves to be but men."  When we realize that we are "but men" we will realize our need for God.

Genesis - This is the end of Abraham's life and the beginning of the story of Isaac finding a wife. It also marks one of the craziest oaths I've ever seen in the bible.  There are a lot of odd things done to make an oath in the bible but this one takes the cake. I don't know why I've never seen it before but Abraham calls in his servant and says; "Please, put your hand under my thigh..."  Now that's an oath!!
Thought it was kind of interesting so I looked into it a little more and thought I'd share my findings with you. Basically, it goes back to the covenant made with God through circumcision. They would place their hand on the mark of circumcision and the basic meaning of the oath was like saying: "As the Lord God is unchangeable in all His ways and in His promises, so also will I be in the task which I have sworn to you."  Thankfully, in the NT we have "let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no."