5/8/12

What is really important on my birthday?



This year (on the 10th) I turn 63 years young.  More than in past years, I have been thinking a lot about it and have already bought something I wanted.  Birthday presents are wonderful; especially when they are a complete surprise.  So... who knows what will happen.  I thought of all this when I saw this OREO cake in my blog pictures and frankly my mouth watered a little when I saw this one!!!!  I do have mixed emotions about my birthday, though, as it was also my maternal grandmother Gladys's birthday as well. We were born 51 years apart about the same time of day, so its hard NOT to think of her.  I also reflect a bit on my life at this time; as to whether it has been good or bad and what I have and have not accomplished.  Foremost though, I think of the wife and children The God of Heaven has given me and their families as well.  It is not surprising therefore, for my mind to recall the Patriarch Job and how HE celebrated HIS birthday...

Job Chapter 1
  
1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.  2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.  3 His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east. 4 His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.  5 It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.

 Job was very wealthy; he had many possession and a large family.  That he cared for his children is obvious but more importantly, he cared for their spiritual well-being.  Today, pardon me, but I am going to be a bit selfish and hope that I get a cake like the one in the picture, but if I don't, no problem.  What I really want, more than anything else, is for those who are my "family" to love God with all of their heart and follow his wishes in every way!!!  Oh, how full my life would be if this were a reality!!!! On second thought, who needs a cake; I can only imagine how many weight watcher points are in that little baby in the picture!!!!!

May 8 Deuteronomy 31, 32


May 8
Deuteronomy 31, 32

Deu 31:1 Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.
Deu 31:2 He said to them, I am one hundred twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: and Yahweh has said to me, You shall not go over this Jordan.
Deu 31:3 Yahweh your God, he will go over before you; he will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken.
Deu 31:4 Yahweh will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land; whom he destroyed.
Deu 31:5 Yahweh will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.
Deu 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, don't be afraid, nor be scared of them: for Yahweh your God, he it is who does go with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you.
Deu 31:7 Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage: for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it.
Deu 31:8 Yahweh, he it is who does go before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you, neither forsake you: don't be afraid, neither be dismayed.
Deu 31:9 Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and to all the elders of Israel.
Deu 31:10 Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tents,
Deu 31:11 when all Israel is come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he shall choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Deu 31:12 Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;
Deu 31:13 and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.
Deu 31:14 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may commission him. Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.
Deu 31:15 Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud: and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent.
Deu 31:16 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
Deu 31:17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them; so that they will say in that day, Haven't these evils come on us because our God is not among us?
Deu 31:18 I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they shall have worked, in that they are turned to other gods.
Deu 31:19 Now therefore write you this song for you, and teach you it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
Deu 31:20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat; then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.
Deu 31:21 It shall happen, when many evils and troubles are come on them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.
Deu 31:22 So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.
Deu 31:23 He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them: and I will be with you.
Deu 31:24 It happened, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
Deu 31:25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, saying,
Deu 31:26 Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.
Deu 31:27 For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against Yahweh; and how much more after my death?
Deu 31:28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
Deu 31:29 For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days; because you will do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.
Deu 31:30 Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.
Deu 32:1 Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
Deu 32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall condense as the dew, as the small rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
Deu 32:3 For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God!
Deu 32:4 The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.
Deu 32:5 They have dealt corruptly with him, they are not his children, it is their blemish. They are a perverse and crooked generation.
Deu 32:6 Do you thus requite Yahweh, foolish people and unwise? Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you.
Deu 32:7 Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
Deu 32:8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
Deu 32:9 For Yahweh's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
Deu 32:10 He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.
Deu 32:11 As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.
Deu 32:12 Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.
Deu 32:13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;
Deu 32:14 Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.
Deu 32:15 But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
Deu 32:16 They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.
Deu 32:17 They sacrificed to demons, which were no God, to gods that they didn't know, to new gods that came up of late, which your fathers didn't dread.
Deu 32:18 Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
Deu 32:19 Yahweh saw it, and abhorred them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
Deu 32:20 He said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
Deu 32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
Deu 32:22 For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol, Devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
Deu 32:23 I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
Deu 32:24 They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
Deu 32:25 Outside the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers, terror; on both young man and virgin, The suckling with the gray-haired man.
Deu 32:26 I said, I would scatter them afar. I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;
Deu 32:27 were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.
Deu 32:28 For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.
Deu 32:29 Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
Deu 32:30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
Deu 32:31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
Deu 32:32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter.
Deu 32:33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, The cruel venom of asps.
Deu 32:34 Isn't this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
Deu 32:35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things that are to come on them shall make haste.
Deu 32:36 For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, There is none remaining, shut up or left at large.
Deu 32:37 He will say, Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge;
Deu 32:38 Which ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection.
Deu 32:39 See now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
Deu 32:40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever,
Deu 32:41 if I whet my glittering sword, My hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my adversaries, and will recompense those who hate me.
Deu 32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.
Deu 32:43 Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance to his adversaries, And will make expiation for his land, for his people.
Deu 32:44 Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
Deu 32:45 Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel;
Deu 32:46 He said to them, Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, even all the words of this law.
Deu 32:47 For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.
Deu 32:48 Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
Deu 32:49 Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession;
Deu 32:50 and die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people:
Deu 32:51 because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn't sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel.
Deu 32:52 For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.

May 8, 9 Luke 21


May 8, 9
Luke 21

Luk 21:1 He looked up, and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury.
Luk 21:2 He saw a certain poor widow casting in two small brass coins.
Luk 21:3 He said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them,
Luk 21:4 for all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on."
Luk 21:5 As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said,
Luk 21:6 "As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down."
Luk 21:7 They asked him, "Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?"
Luk 21:8 He said, "Watch out that you don't get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is at hand.' Therefore don't follow them.
Luk 21:9 When you hear of wars and disturbances, don't be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won't come immediately."
Luk 21:10 Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Luk 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
Luk 21:12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake.
Luk 21:13 It will turn out as a testimony for you.
Luk 21:14 Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer,
Luk 21:15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.
Luk 21:16 You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death.
Luk 21:17 You will be hated by all men for my name's sake.
Luk 21:18 And not a hair of your head will perish.
Luk 21:19 "By your endurance you will win your lives.
Luk 21:20 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.
Luk 21:21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the midst of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein.
Luk 21:22 For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
Luk 21:23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people.
Luk 21:24 They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Luk 21:25 There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves;
Luk 21:26 men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Luk 21:27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Luk 21:28 But when these things begin to happen, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near."
Luk 21:29 He told them a parable. "See the fig tree, and all the trees.
Luk 21:30 When they are already budding, you see it and know by your own selves that the summer is already near.
Luk 21:31 Even so you also, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near.
Luk 21:32 Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things are accomplished.
Luk 21:33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.
Luk 21:34 "So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
Luk 21:35 For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth.
Luk 21:36 Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man."
Luk 21:37 Every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and every night he would go out and spend the night on the mountain that is called Olivet.
Luk 21:38 All the people came early in the morning to him in the temple to hear him.

"THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW" Chapter Twenty by Mark Copeland

                        "THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW"

                             Chapter Twenty

Continuing His reply to Peter’s question ("what shall we have?"), Jesus
told the parable of the laborers (1-16), then predicted His death and
resurrection a third time as they headed toward Jerusalem (17-19).  When
the mother of James and John requested a special place for her sons in
the kingdom, Jesus said it was not His to give.  He used the occasion to
teach all His apostles the principle of greatness through service
(20-28).  Leaving Jericho, Jesus gave sight to two blind men who would
not let the crowds deter them (29-34).

POINTS TO PONDER

   *  Should one delay in their obedience to the gospel?

   *  The danger of a mercenary spirit

   *  The importance of humble service

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1) What are the main points of this chapter?
   - The parable of the laborers - Mt 20:1-16
   - Jesus predicts His death and resurrection a third time - Mt
     20:17-19
   - Greatness and serving in the kingdom - Mt 20:20-28
   - Jesus heals two blind men - Mt 20:29-34

2) Whose question had prompted the telling of the parable of the
   laborers? (1)
   - Peter’s, cf. Mt 19:27

3) What should not be deduced from this parable?  Why? (1-10)
   - That it is alright to put off obeying the invitation to obeying the
     gospel
   - Those who started later responded as soon as they were given
     opportunity, Mt 20:6-7

4) What is the main point of the parable of the laborers? (11-16)
   - One should not begrudge others for receiving the same reward for
     less service

6) List the three passages in which Jesus foretold His death and
   resurrection
   - Mt 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:19-20

7) Who asked Jesus for a privileged position in His kingdom? (20-21)
   - The mother of Zebedee’s sons (James and John) in their behalf

8) What quality is considered great in the kingdom? (25-28)
   - Serving others, even as Jesus came to this earth to serve

9) What commendable spirit did the two blind men manifest? (30-31)
   - Persistence in their request for mercy