FreshBread

Today’s Reading is Genesis 32, Esther 8, Mark 3, and Romans 3

Today’s Key Verse is: Genesis 32:24-30

This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn. When the man saw that he couldn’t win the match, he struck Jacob’s hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is dawn.”

But Jacob panted, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

“What is your name?” the man asked.

“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “It is now Israel,[a] because you have struggled with both God and men and have won.”

“What is your name?” Jacob asked him.

Jacob named the place Peniel–”face of God”–for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”

As you read this story this morning it can raise so many questions. I am not going to try and answer them all but I would like to raise one up a little higher for you to think about. It is very clear as we read the scripture that you and I were made to be dependent on God like we are on oxygen. However, from the very beginning of this book, people have tried to place God on a shelf and do life with their own strength and call on God only when “in a big jam”.

In this story, Jacob is wrestling with God and the passage says that God could not overcome him. Now God can heal the blind and divided a sea I would think he could crush Jacob if He wanted to…. Could it be that God does not overpower us when we choose our own way? (Remember the reading in Romans 1:24 the other day – 24So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.) Instead God touch Jacob’s hip, the most powerful muscle in his body so that he would be reminded everyday of his dependence of God. Ponder that thought for the day!

I wonder if God touches our lives in ways that make us dependent on Him when we try to do life our own way? Remember this would be a great act of love for God desires that you live life to the fullest and that would be depending/pursuing Him daily…. so He seeks to guide us in that path. Is your life lived each day pursuing God with all of your heart? Stop and ponder that for a while!

Scott

Today’s Reading is Genesis 31, Esther 7, Mark 2, Romans 2

Today’s Key Verse: Mark 2:27

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath.

Do you know the benefits of taking a Sabbath each week? God’s command that we take a Sabbath is found in Exodus 20. It is part of the 10 Commandments along side to “you should not murder.” Stop and think about that for a minute. God felt it necessary to put the command about taking a Sabbath day of rest each week along side of the command to not murder anyone.

Many people today (Christ Followers) do not take the day of rest, for some reason we think this was a suggestion. The Sabbath was a day that God commanded that ALL work be stopped and shut down. In our culture it is impossible for that to happen for everyone on the same day, but is there a day when you shut down, spend time relaxing, restoring yourself? God has created you in such a way that your body and mind will work so much better when you work (and I am not talking go to work, this might be your job, around the house, in the neighborhood) only six days and rest on the 7th. This was so important to the way that God made you that it is included in the 10 Commandments. Jesus reminds us in our reading today that this was not a law made up to give us something else to obey, but it was given to us because in obeying it we function best.

When is your Sabbath? I am sure glad we do not take the “Shall not kill command” as a suggestion! Ponder these thoughts today and plan out your Sabbath this week!

Scott

Today’s Reading is Genesis 30, Esther 6, Mark 1, Romans 1

Today’s Key Verse: Romans 1:19-20

“For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”

When people claim there is NO GOD, they have to turn away from a natural instinct that they have been created with. God has given each of us the ability to know Him. When someone does not believe their is a God trying to prove it might not be the fastest way to see a change in a person…. but leading them into the presence of God and His creation might stir their hearts. Lead people into experiences and let their natural God given instincts work! It is so fun to watch and be a part of…Ask God to use you in this way today!

Scott