Growup: day 48

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Feb 172010
 

Deuteronomy 1:1 – 2:37

The Israelites were on the border of the Promised Land. They were almost there… Deuteronomy starts with a history recap of all that happened since they left Egypt. It was a reminder to the people of all that God had done for them but also all that Israel had done in rebellion against God. Moses was speaking to the children of those who rebelled, reminding them not to follow in the footsteps of their fathers.

There were a few key points repeated throughout this recap…

-          “…do not be afraid…” (vs 17, 21, 29): reminding the people that they were following the Almighty God and they did not need to fear those around them or the outcome. Instead they needed to fear God and be obedient to Him, trusting Him.

-          “…I have given…”  (2:5, 9, 19, etc) “…Our God is giving us…” (1:25, 2:29): reminding the people that God is the giver. God is the provider. He is Lord over the entire world. He was the one who gave land to other nations, descended from Lot. God is in control. He is Sovereign…

That’s it for today… Question – how do you think this points to Jesus?

 Posted by Jasmine Simpson at 6:23 am

Growup: day 47

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Feb 162010
 

Numbers 33:1 – 36:13

Good morning! Well, we’ve reached the end of another book of the bible. How have you been going with your daily readings?

In these 4 chapters, there are details on Israel’s journey to the promise land. There are details on the boundaries of what tribes will live where and how much land they will get. There are details on “cities of refuge”. There are details on what to do if there are no male heirs and just daughters. All in all – God provides.

-    God provides the land
-    God provides refuge
-    God provides for the daughters…

God is graciously fulfilling the promise of his people dwelling in a land flowing with milk and honey but also he is dwelling with his people.

“Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites…” Numbers 35:34

This verse caught my eye – God graciously provides refuge for those who killed someone accidently so they get a fair trial but He is instructing them not to commit bloodshed, not to defile the land as the only way the land can be atoned is “…by the blood of the one who shed it…”

I ponder 2 things about this:
- why provide refuge after a murder?
- why is the only way it can be atoned for through blood?

God is a righteous judge. He is able to give a fair trial and carry out the judgment, where as in man’s sin, we may rashly judge and execute a judgment (in the case in Numbers, execute the judgment of killing the person who just killed someone) but what if that wasn’t the right judgment? What if our sin blinds us in making judgments? We would then need to face God for the rash judgments we made.

God graciously provides refuge and ultimately provides the greatest refuge – Jesus. Instead of our blood being spilt in atonement for our sin, Jesus’ blood was spilt as our blood. He was our atoning sacrifice, our provision from God. It is in him we have refuge from the accusations of sin.

 Posted by Jasmine Simpson at 6:23 am

more Jesus in your ears

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Feb 152010
 

one of the exciting things about Dave Kemsley re-vamping the SCPC website is that – for the first time in over a year – the SCPC Music page is back up and running, and has plenty of tunes from the last few years that weren’t available for free listening/downloading until a couple of weeks ago. Have you checked it out yet?

Music is a gift from God. It’s a valuable part of our church services, and can be an enriching part of our Christian lives. At scpc we sing songs that are soaked in God’s word, and songs that help us to reflect on God’s word. Scripture-soaked songs can actually teach us God’s word. They also give us an opportunity for prayer and praise to God, and an opportunity to encourage each other. In a very real way, God can – and does! – use good Christian music to help us grow in our relationship with him.

Make the most of the SCPC music page. We want you to listen to these songs through the week, and keep growing in your relationship with Jesus. You can listen to the songs here on the website, or download them to burn to a CD or listen to on an mp3 player. It’s normally found under Resources –> Music. But if you’re nerdy enough to know what RSS means, you’ll see you can subscribe to the Music Feed too.

 Posted by Peter Yock at 7:40 pm

Growup: day 46

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Feb 152010
 

Num 29:12-32:42

While reading through Numbers there are a number of illusions that are picked up on in John Gospel. Check out this reading and see what you can pick up:

John 7:37-44

37On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

40On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

41Others said, “He is the Christ.”

Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? 42Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family[b] and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

 Posted by Stewart Playsted at 8:34 am

This Week’s Bible Talk

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Feb 152010
 

This week’s Bible Talk took us to 1 Timothy 2:1-7 where we discovered that our King’s desire is to grow his kingdom, redeeming men, from slavery and lies by paying their ransom with his own life.

click on the following link to listen or to download.

Talk 3, The Kings Ransom

If you’d like to join the conversation, just add your comment below.

 Posted by Julie Nicholson at 8:05 am

Growup: day 43

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Feb 122010
 

Num 20:1-22:21

Israel again complains about the Lord and Moses in 21:4. This comes straight after the Lords provision of water at Meribah. They have a very short memory. Notice there complaint in 21:5:

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

After the Lord has just saved them from death in the desert by providing water. They complain why have you brought us to the desert to die where we have NO WATER!!!

The Lord sends judgment on these stiff necked people.

Then comes perhaps the most unusual life saving device in 21:8:

The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”

Those on the verge of death can look up a pole and find life.

Centuries later God would make a new way in which people could look up a pole and find life.Jesus declared he like the snake would be lifted up. This time not on a pole but on a wooden cross and this time not just life but eternal life.

Listen to John 3:14-17

14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.[e] 16″For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Israel given life through a snake on a pole. We receive eternal life through the son of man on a criminals wooden cross.

A most unusual life saving device.

 Posted by Stewart Playsted at 5:55 am

Growup: day 42

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Feb 112010
 

Nunbers 16:36 – 19:22

 I realised I gave away the ending of yesterdays reading… sorry about that! I read too far ahead…

I admit I have been struggling with the readings, not necessarily with motivation but with sincere joy in reading. By the end of today’s reading, all I could think was that God had a thing for cleanliness. He wanted his people to be clean, particularly after touching dead people. I struggled to understand how the passages fit together – it moved from God’s judgment on the Israelites for their rebellion, to the budding of the staff to shown God’s sovereign choosing of His leader, to the instructions for the Levites and for their offerings, to how to purify ones self if they become unclean.

I guess the common theme is God’s holiness and desire for holiness. It was a struggle for the Israelites to be holy because it was their hearts that were corrupt and no sacrifices, no cleanliness rituals, would ever create in them a pure heart… until Jesus’ sacrifice. Reading a bit of Hebrews put it in perspective… Check out Hebrews 10:11 – 14

 “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”

 Signing off for now… If my ramblings don’t make sense, please ask any questions! I would love to hear any your thoughts, or challenges from Numbers.

 Posted by Jasmine Simpson at 6:00 am

enight @ youth

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Feb 102010
 

this week at youth we are having an invite ya mates night. a night were the structure is a little different and our focus is  evangelism (enight).  i guess the main reason we’re having this night so early in term is we want the youth and their mates to come a long to youth con (march 12-14th @ evans head). so this Friday we will be looking at Paul’s conversion, thinking about God’s  amazing mercy shown to us in Jesus and strongly plugging youth con 2010.

please pray that the youth would invite their friends and that their friends would come!

peace out

 Posted by Simon Allery at 4:43 pm

Growup: day 41

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Feb 102010
 

Numbers 14:1 – 16:35

Well, the story continues… The people heard the reports about the promised land and freaked out. They forgot that they were only there because of God’s faithfulness to His promise. They seemed to think that they were in control and they couldn’t see how they would win any battle so they…
What do you think they did?

…rebelled. Instead of trusting God and that he would be faithful in fulfilling his promise, they rejected God’s rule (as well as God’s chosen leaders, Moses and Aaron) and sought to establish their own leadership. What was God’s response? Did they really think that he would just accept their rebellion?

I was really challenged by the reminder of God’s graciousness and mercifulness. Israel’s sin was great and it grieved God. He couldn’t be in relationship with them because of their sin, their rebellion against Him. God needed punishment for sin as his character demands justice. God graciously forgives Israel after Moses’ cry for forgiveness on behalf of the people but “…nevertheless…” he still requires punishment. The punishment – all the rebellious people would wander the desert. Those who rebelled against God would NOT enter into the promised land.

Today’s reading ends with another rebellion against God and his servants. What an ending – 14, 700 people die as a consequence of their rebellion. These people were jealousy and were motivated by pride. They wanted to push themselves forward to be first in God’s household. Instead of being in awe of God’s presence, they arrogantly wanted to climb the “career” ladder. Amazing how easily they forgot the purpose of being God’s people… This reminded me of Pete’s talk on Sunday – that we, who know God’s amazing grace in Jesus, forget the treasure of the gospel, we forget that grace is something to be SO thankful for. We forget the depth of our sin and our unworthiness to be in the presence of God, in a relationship with Him under His Lordship.

My prayer for us is that we would continue to grow in awareness of our sin, of our pride in being good Christians, and that we would overflow with thankfulness for the grace shown to us by God in Jesus dying on the cross…

 Posted by Jasmine Simpson at 5:43 am

Growup: day 40

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Feb 092010
 

Numbers 10:1 – 13:23

There’s been a pause in the story of Israel. After all the instructions and the commands, we rejoin the story where the people were in waiting. They haven’t entered the promise land yet and were getting tired of being God’s people… AGAIN! They were not happy about their hardships, they were not happy about the food (seems like they were sick of being vegos) and some of them were not happy with Moses’ leadership.

For their rebellion and rejection of God as their king, His wrath was poured out but yet He still showed them mercy… God didn’t completely wipe them out. He EVEN continued along with his plan – today’s reading ends with Moses sending out spies into the Promised Land. The promise seems like it has almost reached its fulfilment – God’s people, numerous as the stars in the heavens, living under God’s rule in the Promised Land. So today ends with a “To be continued…” feel…

The question that comes to mind is why does God lead them to the Promised Land after their rebellion, their rejection of living under God’s rule? Why not wait til they’ve learnt their lesson? Thoughts??

 Posted by Jasmine Simpson at 5:45 am
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