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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Monday, 25 December 2023:
Zechariah 12:1 – The oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him….
God continually reminds us that He is the Creator and our source of life and spirit.
Zechariah 12:10 — And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
There are some great verses for us to consider during the Christmas season and a new year. This morning, Zechariah is given the prophecy of the First Coming of Jesus, the ‘Only Child’ and His Grace and Mercy for those who ‘plea’ for Grace and Mercy from a truly mournful, repentance spirit. Powerful! And Revelation gives us the prophecy of the Second Coming of Jesus: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” We are in the time between the prophecies with every reason to have joy today in faith (complete trust in God), hope (complete confidence in God’s promised future), and love (oneness with God today). This is “Good News”! This is a time where God’s Spirit brings humility and grace required for repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior. Celebrate it today; proclaim it today; live it today! Prepare for Christ’s return.
- Matthew 25:46 — And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
- Mark 10:28-31 — Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
- John 3:15, 16 — Whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
- John 4:14 — But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
- John 4:36 — Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
- John 6:27 — Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.
- John 6:68 — Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
- John 10:28 — I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
- John 12:25 — Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
- John 12:50 — And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.
- John 17:2, 3 — …since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
- Romans 5:21 — …so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Romans 6:22, 23 — But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Galatians 6:8 — For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
- 1 Timothy 1:16 — But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
- 1 Timothy 6:12 — Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
- Titus 1:2 — in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
- Titus 3:7 — so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
- 1 John 1:2 — the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—
- 1 John 5:13 — I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
- 1 John 5:20 — And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
- Jude 1:21 — keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
- 1 John 1:4 — And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:14)” as opposed to the wicked and worthless shepherds described in Zechariah 11. But in Zechariah, the Good Shepherd is rejected and the people send him off with the payment of “thirty pieces of silver.” God responds: “‘Throw it to the potter’—the handsome price at which they priced me (Zechariah 11:13)!” This foretells what would happen in Matthew 27:8-10 — “That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: ‘They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.’” This is an amazing prophecy of Jesus that is missed by most since few will read the Book of Zechariah. Congratulations to you for your commitment to remain in God’s Word.
Revelation 18:3 – For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.
Sin and ungodliness are particularly associated with sexual immorality – sex outside the union of marriage between one man and one woman. How is the sanctity of marriage treated in America today?
Revelation 18:4 — Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.”
You must choose between the success the world offers or the final victory God promises. The church must decide between syncretism with the world along with the comforts it offers or fidelity before God and eternal life God promises. The world (‘Babylon the Great’ – the ungodly religious-political-social-economic systems created by humans contrary to God’s love; the ‘world’ which exploits and enslaves mankind) entices with offers of power, wealth, and pleasure. Are these your goals in life? God calls his people to purify themselves from the sinful world. How have you established a life-style that shows you are devoted to God and not to the world? The more entangled we become with the ungodly systems of the world, the more likely we are to compromise ourselves and lose our true power and the harder it is to free ourselves.
Revelation 18:5-6 – …for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
God does not forget unconfessed sin.
God will treat you the way you treat others and then some. No Christian has the right to receive the free gift of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus and then withhold forgiveness from anyone else.
Revelation 18:7 – As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, “I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.”
Glory in self is sin. Rebellious people put their trust in self rather than God, and rebellious nations to the same. Both are cursed.
Revelation 18:9 – And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail.
In addition to sexual immorality, the ungodly are also associated with luxurious living. God gives us resources to take care of our basic needs and then to take care of others in need, not to live like kings and queens on earth.
- Isaiah 55:2 — Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
- Matthew 6:25 — “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Revelation 18:11 – And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore.
The world will make money its idol, and God will tear their idols down.
Revelation 18:13 – …cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.
Slave trade is part of the evil business practices of the world. Many Christians are enslaved in debt to bankers.
Revelation 18:14 – The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!
If you focus on material things, life gets quickly out of focus.
Revelation 18:23 – …and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride
will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
Evil lives on deception.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 25 December 2023: Consider what is motivating you to do what you are doing and will do today? Are you motivated mostly by fear, pride, duty, or by the greatest motivation of love? Are you chasing after worldly ambitions or are you truly following Jesus, one step at a time? What are you focused on today? Is it all about Jesus and fulfillment of the Great Commission and Great Commandment? Really? Take time throughout the day today to truly ask yourself, “Why am I really doing what I am doing?”
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 