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May
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Reading 1 - Deuteronomy 18
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Peter Cresswell
Peter Cresswell
Peter Forbes
18:10
These prohibitions, which were a repeating of things said earlier, were
not heeded and the prophets had to remind Israel of their sins.
Peter
Forbes
Peter Forbes
Des Dodd
About one in twelve Israelites were Levites. Their job in Israel was to serve the LORD by doing the service of the tabernacle and by teaching the people about the LORD. God must have seen this as a very important work to dedicate such a large percentage of the people to this service. Their ministry was a full time paid position. The Levites did not inherit fields or land. Their lot was to be scattered throughout Israel and to be provided for by the people they were serving.
The people were to provide all that the Levites needed. They were given portions of the sacrifices, the tithe from one in three years, and the firstfruits and firstborn of all the crops, produce and livestock of the Israelites.
With this system in place it meant that Israel should have stayed devoted to the LORD all their days. The priests and Levites would have encouraged Israel to stay faithful, and the people in turn would have provided for the priests and Levites.
Today there is a real lack of spirituality in the world around us, and part of the reason is that there are not enough people devoted, like the Levites, to keeping others dedicated to God. Let's make sure that those who are devoted to God do not have to give up because they are not provided for. The labourer is worthy of his hire.
Robert Prins
Reading 2 - Ecclesiastes 10
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Peter Cresswell
Peter Cresswell
10 & 11 These chapters differs in structure from the rest of the book of Ecclesiastes in that it reads like a list of Proverbs such as one found in the book of Proverbs.
v.
20 the idea
of a bird telling one's secret words is the basis for the saying 'a little
bird told me.'
Peter
Forbes
Peter Forbes
Peter Forbes
Stephen Covey, in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, speaks about the emotional bank account. He says that for every relationship we have we have an emotional bank account. As we speak to people, listen to them, serve them and are positive towards them, we are putting deposits into the account. Over time those deposits build up to a degree of trust, respect and love. Deposits are nearly always made in small, but consistent amounts.
Withdrawals, on the other hand are made by gossip, unfaithfulness, backstabbing, and other negative actions and words. Withdrawals are usually large and it often only takes a few to completely empty the emotional bank account in a relationship.
Solomon likens it to dead flies in perfume. There may be a lot of perfume, but a small creature like a dead fly can ruin the whole lot by making a beautiful thing smell bad. He continues, "So a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour."
Here is the point. Even for someone with a beautiful character, one or two acts of folly or mistrust can spoil the whole summary of their character. Withdrawals are expensive. Weigh it up and do the right thing.
Robert Prins
"No one knows what is coming - who can tell what will happen after him?" (Ecclesiasties 10 v 14).
There is only one thing we can be totally certain of in this life. Many people think that it is death, but in actual fact the Lord Jesus could return before we die. Really, the only thing we can be certain of is judgement. If that is the case, then it must affect the way we live and the way we plan for things in our lives. If a judgement is the only thing we can count on in this life, then all our planning for the future must be done with this in mind. We have no guarantee that any of our plans will either succeed or fail tomorrow, or even more, next week, next year, or after we are dead. So it is up to us to make the most of our time, preparing ourselves to be acceptable to our Lord.
It makes a big impact to our decision making to ask ourselves, "If this were the last decision I were to make, would it be to do what I am about to do now?" If we knew the day of our death (or the day of judgement), how would that affect the life we live now? Because we don't know the day of our death, or the day of judgement, or even what tomorrow will bring, we must do our best with what we have so that we will be ready at any time, to meet our God.
Robert Prins
Reading 3 - Acts 9
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Peter Cresswell
Peter Forbes
Peter Forbes
Peter Forbes
Saul, a persecutor of Christians, authorizing Christians to be killed for their beliefs, chasing followers of Christ out of their homes and out of their cities, arresting them and putting them into prison, and, in his quieter moments, he just breathed murderous threats against the Lords disciples.
We all know someone like Saul. We have acquaintances who are anti-Christian, who, with every breath they breathe, curse the disciples of Christ, discredit them, blaspheme and teach others to do the same. But which of us would ever have thought that Saul would become a follower of Christ? If we had known him would we have preached to him? From that life of self righteous persecution of Christians, Saul became one of the most powerful disciples of Christ, choosing to suffer persecution himself rather than to stop preaching the good news.
The same may happen to the people we know. We may be very surprised at the people God calls and the way that he calls them. We need to remember that God calls people as they are, to become like him. They may not seem much like Christians now - but then neither did Saul. Our job is to pass out the invitation and watch Gods word make some amazing conversions.
Robert Prins