6/29 Acts 7:30-45
“Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush. 31 Moses saw it and wondered what it was. As he went to see, the voice of the Lord called out to him, 32 ‘I am the God of your ancestors — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses shook with terror and dared not look. 33 “And the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. 34 You can be sure that I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries. So I have come to rescue them. Now go, for I will send you to Egypt.’ 35 And so God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected by demanding, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, Moses was sent to be their ruler and savior. 36 And by means of many miraculous signs and wonders, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and back and forth through the wilderness for forty years. 37 “Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up a Prophet like me from among your own people.’ 38 Moses was with the assembly of God’s people in the wilderness. He was the mediator between the people of Israel and the angel who gave him life-giving words on Mount Sinai to pass on to us. 39 “But our ancestors rejected Moses and wanted to return to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don’t know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’ 41 So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and rejoiced in this thing they had made. 42 Then God turned away from them and gave them up to serve the sun, moon, and stars as their gods! In the book of the prophets it is written, ‘Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel? 43 No, your real interest was in your pagan gods — the shrine of Molech, the star god Rephan, and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into captivity far away in Babylon.’ 44 “Our ancestors carried the Tabernacle with them through the wilderness. It was constructed in exact accordance with the plan shown to Moses by God. 45 Years later, when Joshua led the battles against the Gentile nations that God drove out of this land, the Tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory. And it was used there until the time of King David.
IDOLS
Every age of mankind has its own unique idols and its own style of idol worship. For example in the USA we worship personal success almost to the exclusion of everything else. We strive to be number one. The lonely and downtrodden are overlooked unless it benefits us to remember them. We seek personal beauty and self-fulfillment. The Lord is God and we are to worship Him alone. We have one Lord and one God and He has manifested himself to us in a form we can understand. His name is Jesus and He is God’s everything.
Author - Clay Corvin
6/28 Acts 7:20-29
“At that time Moses was born — a beautiful child in God’s eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months. 21 When at last they had to abandon him, Pharaoh’s daughter found him and raised him as her own son. 22 Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he became mighty in both speech and action. 23 “One day when he was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. 24 During this visit, he saw an Egyptian mistreating a man of Israel. So Moses came to his defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses assumed his brothers would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t. 26 “The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. ‘Men,’ he said, ‘you are brothers. Why are you hurting each other?’ 27 “But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside and told him to mind his own business. ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ he asked. 28 ‘Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian, where his two sons were born.
DO IT YOURSELF?
Taking God’s will into our own hands always results in failure. We are to do God’s will but in so doing we have to be under the constant leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Christ in us is the key to fulfilling God’s will.
6/27 Acts 7:11-19
“But a famine came upon Egypt and Canaan. There was great misery for our ancestors, as they ran out of food. 12 Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons to buy some. 13 The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and they were introduced to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent for his father, Jacob, and all his relatives to come to Egypt, seventy-five persons in all. 15 So Jacob went to Egypt. He died there, as did all his sons. 16 All of them were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. 17 “As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. 18 But then a new king came to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. 19 This king plotted against our people and forced parents to abandon their newborn babies so they would die.
VICTORY
Victory is accomplished in the face of the most cruel attacks from our enemy, the evil one, Satan, who cannot change the fact that we belong to the Lord. His program is to strike out as viciously as possible to deter us from the Lord’s way and work. Serve the Lord. Let the Lord fight the battle with the evil one for you. Stand in the day of testing and the Lord will see you through.
6/26 Acts 7:8-10
God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision at that time. And so Isaac, Abraham’s son, was circumcised when he was eight days old. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Jewish nation. 9 “These sons of Jacob were very jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him 10 and delivered him from his anguish. And God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of all the affairs of the palace.
FAVOR
The Lord will show you favor. He will heal your heart and equip you to face the challenges of life right now this moment. Trust the Lord. Serve the Lord in obedience and live by faith and He will favor for you.
6/25 Acts 7:5-7
But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole country would belong to Abraham and his descendants — though he had no children yet. 6 But God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign country where they would be mistreated as slaves for four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God told him, ‘and in the end they will come out and worship me in this place.’
PROMISE
The Father has made you a promise in Jesus Christ-nothing can separate us from Him. We will not be alone and we will know which way to go. He will heal us. The Lord will forgive us. His love will carry us. Follow Jesus and you will worship and honor the Father.
6/24 Acts 7:1-4
1 Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these accusations true?” 2 This was Stephen’s reply: “Brothers and honorable fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he moved to Haran. 3 God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.’ 4 So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.
FOLLOW
Jesus wants us to follow Him. Where He leads us we should go. There is no fear in Jesus for He will not leave us, He is never caught off guard and He knows what is going to happen. He will lead us in the way we should go and we can totally trust Him.
6/23 Ezekiel 34:24-31
And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among my people. I, the LORD, have spoken! 25 “I will make a covenant of peace with them and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then my people will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear. 26 I will cause my people and their homes around my holy hill to be a blessing. And I will send showers, showers of blessings, which will come just when they are needed. 27 The orchards and fields of my people will yield bumper crops, and everyone will live in safety. When I have broken their chains of slavery and rescued them from those who enslaved them, then they will know that I am the LORD. 28 They will no longer be prey for other nations, and wild animals will no longer attack them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. 29 “And I will give them a land famous for its crops, so my people will never again go hungry or be shamed by the scorn of foreign nations. 30 In this way, they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them. And they will know that they, the people of Israel, are my people, says the Sovereign LORD. 31 You are my flock, the sheep of my pasture. You are my people, and I am your God, says the Sovereign LORD.”
YES
Yes, the Lord is for us. Yes, Jesus loves you and me and He is seeking our best good. Take your troubles to the Lord and ask Him for guidance. He will speak to you and tell you which way to go for the Lord is good and He is seeking our good. Bend your knee in obedience to the Lord and you will never walk alone.
6/22 Ezekiel 34:16-23
I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. But I will destroy those who are fat and powerful. I will feed them, yes — feed them justice! 17 “And as for you, my flock, my people, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, separating the sheep from the goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to keep the best of the pastures for yourselves? Must you also trample down the rest? Is it not enough for you to take the best water for yourselves? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 All that is left for my flock to eat is what you have trampled down. All they have to drink is water that you have fouled. 20 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will surely judge between the fat sheep and the scrawny sheep. 21 For you fat sheep push and butt and crowd my sick and hungry flock until they are scattered to distant lands. 22 So I will rescue my flock, and they will no longer be abused and destroyed. And I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 And I will set one shepherd over them, even my servant David. He will feed them and be a shepherd to them.
CHRIST
The Christ has come and He came for you. He is concerned about your life. He knows the trouble you face and He will face it with you. Jesus knows what you need and He will provide it for you. Jesus loves you.
6/21 Ezekiel 34:11-15
“For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search and find my sheep. 12 I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. 13 I will bring them back home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers in all the places where people live. 14 Yes, I will give them good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in pleasant places and feed in lush mountain pastures. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign LORD.
SEARCHING
The Lord is searching for you. You will not get lost. You will not be alone. He is aggressive in keeping up with you. Spend time with the Lord. Jesus loves you.
6/20 Ezekiel 34:5-10
So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd. They are easy prey for any wild animal. 6 They have wandered through the mountains and hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them. 7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, you abandoned my flock and left them to be attacked by every wild animal. Though you were my shepherds, you didn’t search for my sheep when they were lost. You took care of yourselves and left the sheep to starve. 9 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD. 10 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I now consider these shepherds my enemies, and I will hold them responsible for what has happened to my flock. I will take away their right to feed the flock, along with their right to feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths; the sheep will no longer be their prey.
LORD
The Lord is involved in His creation. He knows what is going on. He has a word for those that abuse His children. Do not fear for the Lord is near.