Reading through Hosea has given me a truly reverent and healthy fear of the Lord. Hosea 9 says a lot. It starts off by defining where God’s anger is justified because of who the Israelites gave their glory to. They have turned to Baal instead of God. Because of this God lets them know that they will be driven out of the promised land. Showing us how persistent sin leads to separation from God. It also shows that we can enter phases in our lives where God’s presence and blessings are no longer with us because we constantly refuse to give God the glory and honor for what he has given and done for us. It also says that the Israelites sin had gotten so deep that they started referring to God’s Prophets as fools. This lets us know that rejecting God’s truth doesn’t stop judgement, it ensures it. God then reflects on how he saw the Israelites in the beginning. God says he saw them as precious and rare as grapes in a desert. Now that they have become corrupt, God says they will no longer have long lasting families and stability. Today we can equate this to how our Grandparents lived. In most cases (not all cases), we can look back and see how our Grandparents held our families together. I know in my family all of our family get togethers only happened because we knew our grandparents wanted them to happen. They knew how important it was for our family to stick together spiritually and relationally. As they are dying off we often times see families separate. Without God, we oftentimes don’t see the importance of family or we don’t see the value in family. Because Israel has become so corrupt, God says he will depart from them and that the Israelites will become barren. This shows us that sin has generational consequences. Persistent rebellion and ignoring God leads to separation from God and instability. We should always remember (especially in America) that God has mightily blessed us. We were founded under Christian principles and values. God has had his hand on us as a nation. As men we individually need to stay humble and stay in a repentful state of mind. It is easy to look at what we have and keep all of the glory for ourselves or think “look at me” or “look what I did.” This is a dangerous mindset to have. Make sure to stay humble and know where your blessings come from. God will not share his glory. He doesn’t demand perfection but he does demand that he be first in our lives and he demands our worship. What we live for is what we worship. We must always make sure we are living for God. Love y’all! Have a great day!
Author: Gary
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Exodus 37:1-29
It is easy to read chapter 37 of Exodus and think why do all of these details in the building of the Ark Of The Covenant matter to me? The truth is that now that Jesus has come the details really don’t matter when it comes to us receiving salvation, but they do matter when it comes to just how impactful sin was to our relationship with God. It also shows just how important Jesus was and is in our lives. Before Jesus came and died for our sins there had to be temporary atonement for our sins. Every piece of the Ark reflects what Jesus is for us.
Ark = God’s presence among people
Mercy Seat = Atonement (fulfilled in Jesus)
Lamp stand = Jesus as the light of the world (John 8:12)
Incense = Prayers reaching God through HimEven before Jesus came to this earth, God always made a way for communication and relationship with his people. We are so fortunate to live in the days that we live in because all of the work has been done for us. All we have to do now is believe and confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and give our lives to him and we are forgiven and made righteous through his blood that was spilled for us. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Hebrews 2:1-18
Jesus in John 14:6 says this:
Jesus Christ told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
He tells this to Thomas at the last supper right before Jesus gets arrested. Everyone calls Thomas “doubting Thomas” but I connect with him so much. Here is a disciple that has walked with Jesus, seen all of the miracles Jesus did, and heard all of Jesus’s sermons and yet he doesn’t understand fully who Jesus is. Thomas in verse 5 says this:
“Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”
I feel this so deeply because I’m just like Thomas. I need you to explain exactly to me step by step what you mean when you tell me something. I want to fully understand why, where, and how about everything. What Jesus is telling Thomas is you can’t know the way to heaven without the way, and that way is Jesus. We are incapable of escaping this world without Jesus and understanding what he did for us and who he is. Hebrews 2 extensively describes exactly who Jesus is and what that means for us. Jesus was fully man and fully God. He was made lower than the angels for a short time and he embraced the life of humanity temporarily so that he could help those who were tempted. He came down to this earth and made our relationship with himself personal. He humbled himself as a human and perfectly lived the life that we are incapable of living. He chose to get his hands dirty and took all of the responsibility of creation because everything was created through himself for himself. You may be like me and wonder why would God allow us to be taken from him in the first place? Or if God is so good and great why did he allow us to be taken from him? The answer has been free will from the beginning of our creation. You can’t have true love without it. He didn’t create us to force us to love him. We were created with the free will to see how good he is and choose to love him. He created us in his own image and when we belong to him he sees us as his sons and daughters. Now that Jesus has died for us he no longer sees us in the sin that consumed us he sees us as righteous and cleansed. He sees us the way we were meant to be seen since the beginning. Perfect and without sin. This is who the Jesus we serve is. He is our Lord and Savior. He is to be viewed this way and we must remind ourselves daily of who he is because it is what saves us. He is the way, the truth, and the life. The only way. Jesus is the gift from God that keeps on giving. To receive Jesus is to let go of the sin that covers us and allow his righteousness to cover us through the blood that was spilled on the cross. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Exodus 36:1-38
Exodus 36 starts off with Bezalel and Oholiab leading the construction process of building the Tabernacle. The first seven verses stick out to me the most. In the first seven verses we see that God did not force anyone to give to the building of the Tabernacle. All of the giving was a free will offering. I also notice the honesty of the people working on the construction of the Tabernacle. When they noticed that the Israelites were giving more than enough to build the Tabernacle they all came together and told Moses that they were receiving more than enough. They could have taken the overflow of offerings and used them for themselves, but they honored God in what they were doing and took only what was required. This shows that the church is not a bank. Everything taken in by a church should be used for building God’s kingdom and for doing God’s will. Also, the abundance of giving by the people shows their change of heart from the golden calf incident. In the golden calf incident they used their resources to build an idol for themselves and now they are using their resources for the building of God’s kingdom. This shows the heart change of the Israelites. Today we have the same choice. All of us have resources. Some more than others but that it is irrelevant. What matters is that everything we have comes from God and the question to ourselves is do we use what he has blessed us with for building his kingdom or do we use our resources for building our own kingdom? There is nothing wrong with having nice things, but when our nice things get in the way of us being in God’s will those nice things become an idol that we are building for ourselves. It is very easy to fall in this trap in life. If we want to look honestly at ourselves we can look at our bank account and our possessions most of the time and see what our hearts belong too. This is one of the biggest challenges for me in my life. I have to constantly be patient and fight impulsive tendencies when it comes to spending money. It is very hard for me to be patient when I see something I want, but when I slow down and pray about things before I buy them I usually end up not buying whatever it is I’m praying about. I want to challenge y’all today to take an honest look at yourselves today and ask yourself, are your possessions more important than what God wants for your life? If they are, repent and ask God to forgive you and to help you see clearly what he wants for your life and ask him to help you see clearly how he wants to use you. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Exodus 35:1-35
Exodus 35 is a beautiful picture of how God uses normal everyday spiritual gifts for his glory. In this chapter we see that a community centered on God and his glory is a beautiful thing. We see 3 main points here. We see that Israel has truly repented on moved on from the golden calf incident, we see that all of the Israelites have a spiritual gift that they have the choice to use for God, and we also see that God appoints leaders. As linemen we may fall into thinking that the gifts that God has blessed us with isn’t a holy job or that it isn’t a spiritual gift but that is a lie. This is what God’s Lineman is all about. We have all been blessed by God with the ability to do what we do and we have the choice to use it for our benefit or we can use it for God’s glory and for the building of his kingdom. This morning devotional group has grown to over 110 people and that is by no accident. Exodus 35 is a picture of what a community centered on God’s will can accomplish. In this community that we call God’s Lineman we have all been given spiritual gifts to be able to use for God’s kingdom. This devotional group is only the start. The next phase is to start as many different weekly small group Bible studies among crews all over the United States. If anyone would be interested in starting a weekly small group Bible study at their company that they work at, please shoot me a text or contact me personally and I would love to help get this going for anyone who feels led to do this at the company they work at. As a part of God’s Lineman, God can use any of us to help build his kingdom and make disciples and it all starts with centering our attention on God and his word daily and using our God given spiritual gifts for him. Love Y’all! Have a great day!
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Exodus 34:1-35
In Exodus 34 we see how God renews his covenant with the Israelites after they had built a golden calf to worship and Moses broke the first set of tablets with the 10 commandments. God instructs Moses to put together a new set of tablets and to come back up the mountain alone to speak with him. Moses stays up there 40 days and 40 nights. One of the things that happen on the mountain is God reveals his character to Moses. God says he is slow to anger, he is compassionate, he is abounding in faithful love and truth, he is forgiving of sin, yet he doesn’t leave the guilty unpunished. Sin always has to be judged or rectified. No sin goes unpunished. We were bought with a price. God loves us so much that he knew the only way every sin could be paid for was through his blood. He sacrificed himself through his son for me and for you. We should thank God everyday that we live in a world after Jesus has come and we now live under a new covenant. There is no need for us to make all of these annual temporary sacrifices for our sins. No more blood needs to be spilled. Jesus was the one perfect spotless lamb that was good enough to pay for all the sins of the world and we are made righteous through his sacrifice. The only reason we can speak directly to the father is because of this. It is the reason that when God looks at us, he no longer sees our sin. He sees Jesus. We are covered in his righteousness. The only thing special about us is what we receive in Jesus Christ. It becomes our very identity and who we are. Peace and joy comes from knowing and believing this. Knowing and believing this takes all of the weight of sin and shame that we were never meant to carry off of our shoulders. The work is done. Sin has been defeated. When Jesus said it is finished he knew the battle had been won. Rest today in the fact that it is not by our works but by the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ that we are made righteous. Love y’all. Have a great day!
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Hosea 8:1-14
In chapter 8 the Lord is speaking through Hosea to the Northern Kingdom (Ephraim) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) about how they have drifted too far away from God. They have drifted to the point of no return and judgement has become inevitable. God tells them to put the ram’s horn to their mouth which symbolizes a signal for war. He says one like an eagle is coming for the house of the Lord which is the nation of Assyria. God says that Israel cries out to him, but they do not know who they are crying out too. They are unable to recognize what is good anymore. They had put their faith into other nations and idols that they had made for themselves out of silver and gold. It also says that one of these idols is a calf that is in Samaria and it will be destroyed. Remember that this isn’t the first time the Israelites had formed a calf-idol. They also did this when Moses was with the Lord on Mt. Sinai receiving the 10 commandments. The Lord says that their little sins have become big sins and they have turned to other nations like Assyria to bail them out. Now instead of being set apart they have now blended in with the pagan nations that they ran too instead of running to God like they should have. They have created a man-made religion instead of adhering to the statutes and laws that God had given them to set them apart from all of the other pagan nations. This should be a lesson to all of us. We should always have a healthy fear for the Lord in anything we do. Little sins can turn into big sins very quickly. For example having a drink after work can turn into getting drunk every night before bed. Scrolling through Facebook and liking a pretty girl’s picture can turn into watching porn every time you are by yourself on your phone. Turning to food when you are having a bad day can turn into gorging yourself with food every time you get a free moment. I could go on and on about how something so small can turn into something real big real quick. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to stay disciplined to what is good. Also, it is so important to turn to God, repent, and ask for his help and guidance when we stray. We must always turn to God and not the things of this world because when we do this we are telling God with our actions that we don’t need him and we can figure our problems out on our own. When we do this it becomes a pattern and a pattern becomes an idol quicker than you realize. Sometimes it is wiser to stay away from the little things all together because of what that little thing can turn into. Love y’all. Have a great day!
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Matthew 20:1-16
The parable of the vineyard workers is something I struggle with everyday in my real life job day to day. I recently one year ago quit contracting, which I had been doing for 12 years, to work at Mississippi Power. I feel whole heartedly that God has led me there at this stage in my life and has blessed me mightily in my walk with God since I have been there. What I struggle with everyday is knowing that the contractors that come in to do the same work as us are making double the money. I know this because I used to be that contractor. I don’t always handle this with the maturity that I should. I often complain to the guys I work with and point out how the ones doing the same job as us are getting paid a better wage and getting more hours than us. It doesn’t ever make sense to me. This parable is kind of the same. Their of three stages of hiring in this parable. Some got hired at the first of the day, some got hired at around lunch time, and some got hired at the end of the day to do the same job. As the workers got paid their wage at the end of the day that they had agreed too, the workers that worked the longest and hardest complained because it made no sense to them that they would work harder for the same pay. The land owner that is paying the workers in this story represents salvation from God in our lives today. In our flesh it is natural to think that our good works and how much time we give to the Lord should somehow be the thing that gets us to heaven but it doesn’t. God’s grace and mercy makes no sense to us. The 10 year old that gives his life to Jesus and lives his whole life for God is going to go to heaven just the same as the rapist who gets saved on their death bed right before he dies. In our eyes this makes no sense. The thief on the cross beside Jesus that cried out for Jesus right before he died is in heaven just the same as Jesus’s disciples. This picture shows us how prideful and self righteous we become in this world. There is nothing you or I can do without the power of God’s mercy and grace to save anyone. God doesn’t need us but he uses us. Through faith and faith alone, God gives us the power of his Holy Spirit and gives us a new heart to want his will over ours in this world. We must always be careful not to characterize ourselves as somehow better than other people because of our works. Jesus died on that cross for every single person just the same. When you look around this week try to look at everyone you meet as a child of God that Jesus died for instead of what your mind tries to categorize people as. In this world we are going to fight against our flesh until we draw our last breath. The only way we battle it is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we gain through confessing Jesus as Lord. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Exodus 33:1-23
Exodus 33 comes right after the golden calf incident. Moses goes into the tent of meeting outside the camp to speak with God. As they are communicating, God tells Moses to head towards the promised land, but an angel will guide Moses. It will not be God. Moses goes on to ask God, “how will anyone know that we(the Israelites) belong to you unless you are with us?” God responds to this by telling Moses that he will do as Moses asks and go with Moses and the Israelites to the promised land. It also says that as Moses was in the tent of meeting the people would worship at a distance and they also took off all of their jewelry symbolizing their repentance for creating the golden calf. This is a direct revelation of what Jesus does for us today. DO NOT MISS THIS! As sin has entered the world, God has had to communicate to us through a mediator that has been cleansed by a proper sacrifice. At this time in Exodus, Moses was that temporary mediator that pleaded and communicated with God for the sins of his people. Jesus is now our permanent mediator for the sins of God’s people, which are the Christians today. Jesus is right now sitting at the right hand of the father pleading our case for us through his perfect sacrifice just as Moses is temporarily doing for the Israelites. We are the Israelites in this chapter sitting outside the Tent of Meeting repenting and worshipping God from a distance while Jesus intercedes for us. Moses only desires to go to the promised land if God goes with them. This shows God that Moses understands and desires a relationship with him over the gift of the Promised Land. It shows that Moses understands the Promised Land is worthless unless the Israelites have a relationship with God. This is a perfect picture of salvation through Jesus today. God came to this earth through his son Jesus Christ to give us the promise that if we accept and believe that when Jesus died on the cross that it was for the payment of our sins. When we repent and cast our sins to the foot of the cross we are forgiven, we are made righteous in the eyes of the father, and will be able to enter heaven(the Promised Land) because our sins have been paid for by the blood of Jesus. We have to realize, just like Moses, that heaven is worthless if God isn’t there. Heaven without God isn’t heaven at all. The relationship that we have with God is what makes heaven what it is. It’s not where we are going, it’s the relationship we receive with God as we are making our way to the destination. When we receive salvation with God he promises to walk with us all the way to heaven. On this earth we are like the Israelites in the wilderness. We are headed to the promised land which is heaven and God has given us the gift of his Holy Spirit to guide us until we get there. He is molding us and guiding us all the way to the end of this life. This road isn’t easy, but it is worth it. A relationship with God is worth anything we have to go through in this life. Without that relationship the destination is worthless. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Exodus 32:1-35
Exodus 32 is a clear picture of the character of God and the nature of man. As Moses went to be with God on Mt. Sinai for 40 days Aaron his brother was left behind with the people. Notice how the nature of man is when God is not with them. Man is made to worship. We have the free will to worship whatever we want but everyone worships something. When the Israelites realized that Moses still had not come down from the mountain they started making their own assumptions about what had happened to Moses so they built their own idol out of their most prized possessions. They took their gold, put it together and made a golden calf. Then Aaron (who was supposed to be the one to hold the people accountable to the Lord while Moses was gone) gave in to peer pressure and built an altar to worship calf that the people had made out of Gold. Now before you read this and think this is absolutely crazy we must took a good look in the mirror. Is there anything in our lives that we put before God? It could be money, possessions, or an addiction. It could also be things we deem good like our wives, our kids, or our jobs. Whatever we choose to put before God is what the Golden Calf is for the Israelites. Moses shows us what a true leader is supposed to do in this situation. He repents for his people and God relents his judgement on the ones that notice they had done wrong and turned back to him. None of us are perfect and are going to mess up one way or another. When you mess up or sin against God do you do like Moses and repent or do you try to hide in your shame and guilt as though God doesn’t see what you are doing? A non repentful heart is a dangerous thing. Choosing to do what your flesh wants and ignoring Gods commands by not seeking him in our lives is a physical and emotional way of separating ourselves from God. God honors and blesses those who have a heart that takes responsibility for their sins and actions and ask for God’s help and forgiveness. He will not tolerate a heart that doesn’t call out to him. I don’t say this to try to scare anyone but it is the truth. Everyone should took a good hard look in the mirror today and ask themselves if they have put anything in their lives before God and repent. This is essential to obtaining and keeping a heart that is humble towards the Lord. God shows here in this chapter that he has mercy and grace for those that seek his forgiveness with a truly genuine humble heart. Make it a habit to start and end your day in prayer and never forget to repent to the Lord. Do this and you will find that you will start to naturally have a humble heart towards God. Repentance is essential in receiving God’s mercy and grace. Laying our sins at the foot of the cross is why Jesus laid his life down for me and for you. He carried the weight of sin that you and I could not carry when he sacrificed himself for us. Love y’all! Have a great day!