Tag Archives: Daily Devotions

His Glory, Glorified!

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Glory

Today’s Devotion: Leviticus 9

Leviticus verse 6: Then Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”

Does the glory of the Lord still appear to us? We see that the glory of the Lord is everything that makes God, God. All His characteristics, authority, power, wisdom—literally the immeasurable weight and magnitude of God—are contained within God’s glory. Nothing is hidden or held back!

So does the glory of the Lord still appear to us? I say, “Yes!”

What do we have to do to see God’s glory? I think Leviticus 9 gives us a map to how we see God’s glory. I believe it is summarized by these 3 offerings: First, repent of your own sin, then forgive others of their sins, and pray for your relationship to grow in God and with others. Aaron took the first offering, the calf, and sacrificed for his own sin, then the goat offering to cover the people’s sin, and finally the ox and ram for the fellowship offering.

I think this is a really simple equation to what God desires for us to live out our time here on earth. He wants us to be connected to Him, point others to Him, and have a relationship with Him and others. His glory is all around us. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

I recommend we pause for a second and think about what that means for us to day. What do we need to take to God in prayer as our sin offering (confession and repentance)? What can we pray about for others and ask God to help them with their burdens and needs, and what can we do – with God’s help – to deepen our relationship with Him and others that would glorify God?

God Gets It Done

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2012-10-09 09.38.00

Today’s Devotion: Exodus 37.

I’m impressed by how much preparation God has put into the tabernacle. We started reading weeks ago about how God instructed Moses about every intricate detail of the tabernacle and today we read about the construction – The incredible construction project.

Last year I had the opportunity to serve the community of Joplin, MO on a ThriventBuilds Worldwide project. ThriventBuilds is a relationship that Thrivent Financial has with Habitat for Humanity. The City of Joplin was struck by an F5 tornado and 8 miles long and a mile wide stretch of their city was destroyed. I got to build a house, I actually helped build someone’s home.

There is a lot of accuracy and precision that goes into building a home. Logically, if the walls aren’t measured, the roof isn’t carefully constructed or the door/window frames aren’t measured… this would be a big problem.

2 things I learned in Exodus chapter 37:

1 – God finishes what He starts. I have been reading about this tabernacle for weeks and would have just assumed that it would happen. But God gives us construction day and confirms everything that he spoke of is happening.

2 – This is not some project that was schlep together. It’s done with pride, discipline, accuracy, detail and a lot of TLC. If it were not, why would God say in verse 17, “They made the lampstand of pure gold. They hammered out its base and shaft, and made its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them.” Blossoms out of gold!?! Am I the only one who is shocked that this is coming together by a bunch of sniff-necked slaves in the desert?

Here’s the deal. We have an awesome God. He told us what he was going to do over the past 2000 years. He has called His own to live out our days constructing our lives to be more like Him, and He doesn’t miss the Chapter that shows that it actually happens. Your life has a purpose bigger than your own and He knows every intimate detail. I don’t think Bezalel was all joyful and happy the entire time he was crafting the tabernacle. I bet he was sweating, stinky, and probably physically exhausted. But his name is in God’s book as a master craftsman and his handy work is described by God.

I hope you’ll take this perspective and really reflect on what it means to you personally. Read between the lines on why God would spend so much time preparing you for today and each remaining day of your life. This is very assuring to know Philippians 1:6 is true, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Amen

Holy Boots?

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LUISA-BOOT

Today’s Devotional: Exodus 35.

Give! That’s what the Lord is telling the Israelites to do, Give! Verse 5 says, “From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord and offering of gold, silver, and bronze.”

God doesn’t need stuff, but God uses our stuff for His kingdom work. According to this chapter, God will use these offerings for the tabernacle. Today He uses our churches, ministries and missionaries. Another cool thing is that He will call and equip a specific few who can use the work of their hands for God’s benefit. (Verse 30 & 31)

The older I get the more I realize how much more God can do with my stuff than my closet can. When I make a gift to our church or a particular ministry that I am passionate about, I may not tangibly see how God uses every dollar, but I have confidence that the work being done IS the Lord’s work. People all over the world are being taught, fed, served, trained, equipped and sent – hearts are being transformed, lives are being changed.

So this chapter is timely in that I am being convicted. Confession: I just bought a couple pair of (expensive) new boots and those boots haven’t left my closet in 3 days. I have contemplated returning them because I have other bills to pay, but this chapter has caused me to ask, “What have they done to advance God’s kingdom?” I know I don’t have to feel guilty for having nice things like new boots and I’m quite sure God could use my new boots in some way, but the truth is that the material collections in my closet aren’t doing God as much good as the offering I put in the collection plate on Sunday.

This chapter is a reminder to me that God asks me to give and not be materialistic. He is capable of so much more than I am and whatever God uses, and the people He uses, can make such a difference in the world. It calls me to action; inspiring me to do more and not let what God has provided to me sit idle and waste.  You never know what God will do with the ‘stuff’ we give in service to Him.

When God Is Mad

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Goal Weight

Today’s Devotional: Exodus Chapter 33.

What are some things that you get excited about? A big game, concert, date night, achieving your goal weight, finishing a project or a shopping spree? As I was reading Exodus chapter 32 I was thinking, “There must be something wrong with me, I’m so excited about this stuff – I love God’s Word!” I just want to cut/paste this whole chapter into this blog page today and say, “There… God has all kinds of lessons for us. Take it all in.”

There are three main things got my heart going today. The first was verse 3 where God speaks to Moses and says, “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” Oh boy… God is still really mad at the Israelite people for their rebellion and idol worship that we read about in chapter 32.

When someone is mad at you they give you the silent treatment, roll their eyes, turn their cheek/look away or speak in short-snappy phrases? (Can you tell that I have been mad at before?) No fun! There is friction, distance, rejection and belittlement. Spoken from experience, this is not a good place to be. I don’t feel sorry for the Israelites because they disobeyed our Holy God, but can you imagine if someone who is mad at you saying, “I can’t be near you right now, I might have to kill you?” As a believer, I cringe at the thought that God would ever be THAT mad at me.

The 2nd thing that amazed me in this chapter is verse 13. “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” Moses is asking God to teach Him. I love Moses willingness to learn and eagerness to have a deeper understanding of who God is. That should be our prayer as it says in Psalm 25:4 “Make me know Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.”

Lastly, verse 15, “Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.'” Moses is demonstrating his need for God to be with Him wherever he goes. We NEED God with us where ever we go, without Him, you know everything is bound to go bad.

Thank you for taking the time to be a Godly Girlfriend and grow in your relationship with God. We need Him wherever we go and today is no exception. My prayer for you is that you will know God’s ways, feel his presence and that we (I’m not excluded in this one) will not be like those “stiff-necked” Israelites who rebelled against Him.

Leadership Into Trouble

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Puss-In-Boots

Today’s Devotion: Exodus 32

Exodus 32:22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.

This verse jumped off the page. Aaron is making excuses to justify the sin of the Israelite people. Are you kidding me? Since they are prone to sin, Abraham, and ultimately God, are supposed to not be angry and forgive them automatically?

They can’t get off that easily. I don’t know if I can say this, but the worst thing is that Aaron (the leader while Abraham was gone) should have been keeping them in line, but instead he jumps right in and recruits them to supply their gold to build and idol, and he goes right along and worships the golden calf right along with them!

Sadly, I can relate. I am the oldest of three, I have two younger brothers. I remember when my parents would tell me to watch my brothers because they had a quick errand to run. It wouldn’t be long before their car pulled out of the driveway that we started down the path of mischief. When my parents got back home they would look at me and with a stern and disappointed tone, “Sarah! What did you do?!” Oh I can still remember how it felt to hear those words. That face on the kitty from Puss-n-Boots at the top of this blog post, Yah… that was me. Guilty! Caught! Busted!

Of course, I didn’t know what came over me. I was given a little piece of responsibility and I blew it! I not only DIDN’T stop my brothers from doing wrong, I participated in it and sometimes even came up with the idea. Yes, my parents punished them, but I carried the guilt afterwords knowing that I undermined their trust.

This seems to parallel what happened when Moses when up on the Mountain to meet with God. “The cats away the mice shall play right?” Well, God was mad first and Moses persuaded Him not to punish them, but when Moses witnessed the mess for himself, even he got angry and acted on his anger.

We have to be aware of when we are given an opportunity to standup against the crowd, the temptation of fun, the festivals of idolatry, and the golden calves of our day. Yes, people are prone to sin, but that doesn’t mean that is our excuse for not living righteously and standing firm to keep people from participating in wrongdoing. God has entrusted us with the opportunity to know better. Not only do we need to take responsibility for ourselves, but we have to be especially careful what we lead others to do.