YEAR 2, WEEK 6, Day 2, Tuesday, 4 February 2025

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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Tuesday, 4 February 2025:

Exodus 33:1, 2 – The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”

Here we see a pattern repeated throughout the Bible – God’s commands us to step out in faith, and He does, through His power, what we could never do without Him. God made a promise to Moses and the Israelites, and God commanded them to act according to that promise, with boldness, complete confidence, and full commitment. When God makes a promise, it is a sure thing – but we must act on that sure thing, and how we act determines not only how much we will actually benefit from that sure thing but also reveals to others what we really think about our God. When we totally commit to God’s promises, we receive the fullness of blessing, and we glorify God to others.

Think about what Jesus said in Matthew about the Kingdom of Heaven – “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44, 45) When you truly believe in the unseen reality of God’s promises and His Sovereignty, you will invest in it fully; in other words, you will commit to it wholeheartedly. If you aren’t willing to ‘sell all that you have,’ to commit wholeheartedly, you won’t be able to buy the field with the hidden treasure or the pearl of great value.

• Luke 16:13 — No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
• 1 Corinthians 10:21 — You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
• 2 Corinthians 6:14 — Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
• James 4:4 — You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God
• Luke 11:23 — Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
• Revelations 3:15, 16 — I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
• Joshua 24:15 — And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Jesus’ parables about the Kingdom of Heaven address faith, wholehearted commitment, and trust; they aren’t suggesting we earn or buy our way into heaven or that we earn God’s love. Our salvation and our sanctification are both a gift from God. When God offers a gift, it is free, but you must take it in order to possess it. God offers the free gift of salvation through faith in Christ, but a person must take it, must act on faith. Likewise, God offers you sanctification and blessings through obedience to Him, but you must have faith to cross through your metaphorical ‘Red Sea’ or ‘Jordon River,’ day by day, in loving, confidence and fully committed obedience to experience the fullness of His promises – “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:10, 11) Through it all, God does not remove the challenges, He uses them for your development into Christ-like character, your ultimate benefit, and for His glory. “Go up from here… to the [place] of which I swore… [and] I will send an angel before you….” Pray to God He will give you the faith to trust and obey today and every day, and step out in the faith you know you have – “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)

• Hebrews 11:6 – “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Exodus 33:3, 4, 13-17 – “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments…. Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”

After telling the Israelites He would give them victory of their enemies in the Promised Land, He told them He would not abide with them there because of their sinfulness, and they rightfully mourned greatly. What good are God’s blessings without God Himself? We were made for relationship with Him, in unity with each other in Him. Our lives are meaningless without Him. In fact, so much of sanctification is growing in the recognition that nothing matters apart from Him, and all that we are and do must be dedicated to He who is the source of our joy and fulfillment. The goal of life and Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17 (further described in John 15) is that we “abide” in Him in perfect unity, to merely to accomplish something. The goal isn’t actually good deeds. Good deeds are the product (or fruit) of the goal. Christians often ask, “What does God want me to do?” and the answer is found in John 15 and 17, Romans 8:29, Matthew 28:18-20: Live in Christ; become one with Him; become just like Him; reveal Him to others, and teach others how to know Him and grow in Him.

“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.” Above all else, Moses sought God’s presence, not just His blessings. Therefore, Moses’ primary request from God wasn’t, “Change my circumstances,” but rather, “Show me now your ways, that I may know you.” He didn’t just want relief, he wanted relationship, and strong relationships of forged in adversity, two are closest who have struggled together and prevailed. When you truly desire to know Him and become one with Him, you will be less concerned about what is happening to you and more excited about why it is happening to you – God is using your experiences to draw you closer to Him, to conform you to His character, and to serve as His instrument of grace into the lives of others. (Romans 8:28-29) Are you ready to accept your assignment and face the giants in the promised land with confidence and fidelity, or are you merely going to grumble and pray that God will take you out of His refiner’s fire? Do you want God to give you what you want and leave you alone, or do you want Him at the expense of everything else?

• John 15:4-7, 9-10, 16 — Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
• 1 John 2:6, 10, 17, 24, 27-28; 1 John 3:6, 9, 14-15, 17, 24; 1 John 4:12-13, 15-16 — …whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked…. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling…. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever…. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming…. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him…. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God…. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death…. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? … Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us…. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit…. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
• Galatians 2:20 — I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• Romans 12:1 — I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 4 February 2025: Today, focus on the presence of God through your experiences. See to and respond to everything based on the reality of your Almighty Father’s sovereignty, perfect providence and guaranteed promises. Trust Him and obey Him, not just to get some sort of tangible result, but to be in fellowship with Him, to glorify Him, and to show others how to live in Christ.