Passage of the week: Matthew 25:14-30

Hey Everyone,
This week’s passage was a bit of a difficult one for me to interpret.  When I first read it I couldn’t help but feel for the servant that had only 1 talent.  He seemed to just be a risk averse type of person that was afraid to lose the talent that was given to him.  As I started to read the passage more though, what I realized is that he wasted the gift that was given to him because of fear.  God has blessed each and every one of us with our own gifts and talents and we have a responsibility to do our best with what we’re given to bring glory to God.  In the years that I have been serving as a praise leader, there have been some turbulent times where I’ve been criticized for focusing on the musicality of praise.  For years I felt guilty and held back in an effort to make praise as simple as possible so that I wasn’t perceived as someone that was doing it for their own pride or glory.  It wasn’t until another praise leader shared a similar experience he was going through and what he said has always stuck with me.  He came to the realization that if we have been given these talents by God, then why wouldn’t we strive to bring God the best possible praise that we can.  It wasn’t about the level of musical talent or how great we thought we sounded for our own pride, but more about what we were using our talents for.  If I hold back, ultimately I am short changing God because he has a desire to work through me and the talents he’s given me.  This week’s songs are focused around the theme of laying down our own pride and submitting to the will of God in our lives.  Hope you enjoy!
Josh

This Week’s Playlist

Passage of the week: 

Moses and the Burning Bush

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”  4When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  And Moses said, “Here I am.”  5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” 13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,  the name you shall call me  from generation to generation.

 – Exodus 3:1-15

Hey Everyone,

The passage this week is a famous one that speaks to many different themes.  While we don’t see slavery in our modern world in the same way as it was back in ancient Egypt, we do still see significant oppression in our world.  The world has been shaken with all the injustice we’re seeing towards the black community and part of me wishes that God would show himself explicitly in the way he did in the days of Moses.  While he may not speak to us anymore through physical burning bushes, he does still work within us and through us to alleviate the bondage our brothers and sisters are facing.  We can see it in the faces of all those standing up to fight against injustice and I believe it all starts with us accepting God’s calling.  

When we hear God’s calling, I think we all have the natural reaction Moses did in asking, “Who am I to be used for your will God?  What and who could I possibly influence as an individual?”.  Imagine a world where people like Martin Luther King Jr. had not marched or stood up because of the fear of their own limitations and inadequacies? As God speaks to in this passage, He will give us the strength, the voice, the stage, and will turn the ears of the oppressors. We simply need to trust in who God is and have faith that He will finish the good work He has started in all of us.

-Josh

This Week’s Playlist

Passage of the week:

The Israelites Are Oppressed
8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

Birth and Youth of Moses
Ch 2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

– Exodus 1:8-2:10

Hi everyone,

The message I find in this week’s passage looks at how God’s promise is faithful, but sometimes mysterious in how it is revealed to us. We see a story about the persecution of the Hebrew people by the Egyptians. When I think about what I might think in that scenario, I would have some major doubt in God and question His promise to protect and deliver us. However, we see that God’s promise comes to light in Moses – who also faces many challenges before God’s promise to him is revealed – who delivers the Hebrew people out of slavery and into freedom.

God has an uncanny way of revealing things to us. Many times, things get worse before they get better. I’m constantly humbled by the things God reveals to me, but before that, I’m often angry and lack the faith I should have.

At the end, God always remains faithful and when we look back at the struggle we overcome, God always has the right reason for it.

This week’s songs focus on the theme of God’s faithfulness in His promise, even during the hard times, and praises Him in knowing that he is always there, watching our backs.

Hope you have a great week and that you are blessed by this devotion.

– Jon

This Week’s Playlist

Passage of the week: 

“45 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.  3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.  4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’  12 “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”  14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.” – Genesis 45:1-15

Hi everyone,

Whenever I think about forgiveness, this story is what comes to mind.  I can’t imagine how Joseph would have felt in the moment he first saw his brothers after having been sold by them.  How easy it would have been for him to feel gratified with his own success and throw it back in his brother’s faces.  But Joseph didn’t think in this way nor did he approach his situation with any hostility or vengefulness.  In fact, he attributed all of his success to God, embraced his brothers, and offered to look after them even though they completely disowned him.  There is a refreshing feeling of relief to see Joseph’s unwavering trust in God and his rock-solid confidence in God’s plan.  I believe if the world could embrace just a fraction of the faith & confidence Joseph had, it would look like a very different place.

This Week’s Playlist:

Passage of the week: 

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land,[a] for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

28 Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

– Matthew 14:22-33

Hi everyone,

Everyone experiences fear. It’s an emotion that can take the bravest, strongest, biggest and most faithful and turn them upside down. In our world today, the fear of uncertainty and instability is one that affects all of us. Like Peter, even though Jesus calls us to have faith, to listen to His words, and act on His commands, the fear of whether His words are true and whether He’ll protect us cripples us from doing what our hearts are telling us to do. Because we know that every time we’d do this without Jesus, we will fail – because water is water, and not solid ground. However, when we look at it differently and consider that it is because of Jesus that we can walk on water, even though it shouldn’t be possible, that crippling fear goes away and we begin to experience the freedom that He offers, and begin to do the things He commands us to do. Our Psalms of Devotion for this week reflect on the freedom we receive when we believe and act on faith to follow his direction and commands.

Hope you have a great week and that you are blessed by this devotion.

– Jon

This Week’s Playlist: