ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Hebrews 9

Which would you rather have: the anxiety of this world or the peace of God? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 51 Q. How does this glory of Christ our head benefit us? A. First, through his Holy Spirit he pours out his gifts from heaven upon us his members. Second, by his power he defends us and keeps us safe from all enemies. Summary This is a wonderful and familiar passage, and one that we're likely to come back to before the year is out. But for today, let's concentrate on v7: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The first thing that jumps out is that peace is not just a fringe benefit of Christianity, rather it's the active agent by which Jesus preserves you in your faith. What a comforting thought, knowing that our risen Savior has control over all things, and that He's continually "defending us and keeping us safe from all enemies," as our catechism stated. This guarding that Christ does on your behalf has two aspects. First, it's defensive; just as the guards at Buckingham palace keep the riffraff out, so to Jesus keeps the wolves in this world from harming you. As you increase your knowledge, understanding and trust in Jesus, he tunes your mind to recognize truth and reject falsehood. Secondly, Christ guards you in such a way that keeps you from escaping. This sounds dark and ominous, but it's really quite the opposite. Our old sinful nature wants nothing more than to get as far away from God as possible (an impossible quest, since God is everywhere as we were recently reminded), but Christ helps you overcome that nagging temptation by "guarding your heart." He does this in conjunction with the Holy Spirit by causing your regenerated heart to long to be closer to Him. As Jesus said in John 10:28, no one - not even Sarx, your nagging sinful nature, can snatch you out of His hand! Dig Deeper This means, as we see so often in God's Word, that you must make every effort to follow the instructions that come in v6 - instead of stewing in anxiety, in every situation you face present your needs to God in prayer with thanksgiving. What a thought that even though the glorified Christ guards you omnipotently from heaven He does so in such a way that utilizes your action. Certainly Christ will guard you despite your own passivity, but if you truly want to trade your anxiety for the peace of God, the only way to do it is to continually live in God's presence, bringing your needs to Him while you simultaneously thank God for all that He's given you. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, the great and holy God, is near. ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Do not be anxious about anything; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Matthew 25

Learn how to deal with the toxic people in your life. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 104 Q. What is God’s will for you in the fifth commandment? A. That I honor, love, and be loyal to my father and mother and all those in authority over me; that I obey and submit to them, as is proper, when they correct and punish me; and also that I be patient with their failings— for through them God chooses to rule us. Summary In general, we're accustomed to the New Testament reducing the burden of the law upon those of us who are in Christ. After all, Jesus met "the righteous requirement of the law" on our behalf and so "set us free from the law (Romans 8:2-4)." In looking through all of the strange requirements in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), it's relieving to know that most of the instructions we read were meant to make Israel look separate and distinct from the people around her (the definition of holiness), and are not ongoing expectations for people made holy in Christ. But here, near the end of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Paul does the opposite of what we've come to expect. Just like Jesus before him did in the Sermon on the Mount, Paul expands the implications of Old Testament law rather than restrict it. Not only must you honor (give weight to) your parents, you must honor all those in authority over you! Even slaves must respect their masters (most people were slaves of some sort in the first century, so the relationship is akin to our modern relationship between employee and employer). And the respect you show to those you work for must be sincere, not just the plastic smile you put on when you're being watched! This new understanding of the fifth commandment doesn't just have implications for children and employees! Those who have been given authority - fathers and masters (bosses/supervisors) - have even greater responsibility: Fathers must nourish their children in such a way they come to know the Lord and employers must honor God, who is Master over all. Dig Deeper Let's face it. Some people are way easier to honor than others. Some people treat you so well that honoring them is just a natural reaction. Wouldn't it be awesome if all your relationships were modeled after the fifth commandment and Ephesians 6? But they're not. It's so easy to let toxic people make you miserable. Sure, it's best to avoid toxic relationships whenever you can, but ultimately you're going to have to deal with people who drag you down, whether you work for them or they work for you (or whether you call them mom or dad, or they call you that). So hold tightly to the Holy Spirit's instruction in v7 and "serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people." It isn't easy to look past the miserable immediate situation and instead see the Lord, who seems all the more invisible in times like this, but it's worth it, because "the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do," no matter what role you play in the relationship! AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who defines goodness in His law and then rewards us for doing good; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the strength and patience to submit to those in authority over you, even when it seems impossible, and to nurture those you're responsible for; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Titus 2

Romans 9:10-24 (NIV) CONTEXT: We began this passage yesterday. are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9 

God knows what you know whether you know it or not. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 102 Q. May we swear by saints or other creatures? A. No. A legitimate oath means calling upon God as the one who knows my heart to witness to my truthfulness and to punish me if I swear falsely. No creature is worthy of such honor Summary One of the key characteristics that you have as an image bearer of God is your ability to make plans for the future. Certainly animals have an instinct - especially around this time of the year - to begin squirreling away resources for the coming winter, but as a human being you can do much more by developing hopes and dreams for things that will make your life better. But like everything else related to your human nature, this God given ability to desire improvement has been wrecked by sin. Maybe you started off asking God to help you accomplish something, but after days, weeks, years or even decades of waiting, you've given up on Him and have set out on your own. Maybe what you want is incompatible with what God has ordained, but it doesn't matter, since "all of the ways of man are pure in his own eyes." This passage makes it clear that no matter how hard you attempt to camouflage and hide your ideas from God, He knows your true desires: your "motives are weighed by God." These verses here in Proverbs are a textbook example of the need to align your life plans with God's will: Commit your work to the LORD and your plans will be established (v3); The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps (v9); Dig Deeper When you take an oath, you are calling God as a witness to testify that what you've just reported is the full truth, or that it is your sincere desire to do all that you can to fulfill a promise you've just made. There's no higher authority you can call in to validate your claims than God Almighty. But take caution in doing this! The testimony you are swearing to may seem "pure in your own eyes" and convincing to everyone else, but God knows the truth. To use God as a character witness to make a lie seem more believable is the height of arrogance, and as v5 says, "everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished." You make more oaths than you think. Certainly the times you'll testify under oath or make vows to your spouse are limited, but how many dozens or even hundreds of times have you stood up and promised in God's name to help raise a newly baptized child to know Christ? And how many thousands of times have you ended a prayer with the oath in Jesus' name, amen ('amen' literally means let what has just been said be true or be done)? As a Christian, you are always under oath; even more so, you are in Christ. So keep all of your ways - your work, your plans, your dreams - committed to the Lord and aligned with His Word. In doing so God will bring the proper answer from your tongue (v1) whether you're formally under oath or not. When your ways are consistent with His ways, all of God's answers to you will be 'amen' in Christ! AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who weighs our motives and and detests arrogance; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Timothy 3

Everyone wants to enjoy long life, but few people truly know how. Listen to passage & devotional: Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 1 We all believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that there is a single and simple spiritual being, whom we call God— eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, unchangeable, infinite, almighty; completely wise, just, and good, and the overflowing source of all good. Summary What a perfect passage to begin a another year of reading through the Bible with! Moses spoke these words to Israel just as they were about to cross the Jordan river to posess the Promised Land. In these words, God speaking through Moses gives His people (both Israel and us) the key to enjoying long life: that you, your children, and their children "may fear the LORD your God... by keeping all of His decrees and commands (v2)." These promises of enjoying a long life in which things "go well" and in which "you may increase greatly" clearly are made in general terms. Normally, blessings will follow obedience, but not in every specific situation. Sometimes faithful saints will experience long periods of frustration or even early death, while other times those who have no fear for God will seem to prosper. What's really interesting about these words is that the key to enjoying the good life doesn't just involve blindly following commands, but rather the good life is rooted in theology. Truly successful people must fear God; that is, they must know both who and what God is, as well as how we as people relate to Him. Today we begin our year long study of theology with this basic truth that God's people have been reciting since they stood on the banks of the Jordan: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Dig Deeper You may not be on the cusp of settling into a new land, but we are beginning a new year, so it's a good time to take stock and reset your course where needed. Notice here that as Moses prepares Israel to move in that he mentions nothing about the hard work or logistics that will be needed to feed and house all of the people. Certainly these things are important and necessary - in fact, if you keep reading this passage, God promises to provide these things (v10-12) - but housing and food production are not the top priorities. The priority God gives us, His people, is to first of all know Him (which is a lifelong endeavor). This priority is the one which must "be on your hearts." The second priority then is to teach this theology to the subsequent generations. How will your new year reflect these top priorities? This first, foundational theological lesson - that God is one - doesn't seem complicated or even profound, but understanding this is critical. Sin seeks a multiplicity of gods, all of which have the intent to derail you from these top priorities of knowing the true God and helping the coming generations to know Him. Sin wants to dominate all of your heart, soul and strength. The best way to stay focused is to do what you're doing right now - learning theology directly from God's Word as you study it throughout the week and hear it preached on the Lord's Day. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that as you end 2023 and begin 2024, that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

You are not your own. Do you find this comforting, or constricting? Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1 Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death? A. That I am not my own, but belong— body and soul, in life and in death— to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Summary Most people would classify life and death as mutually exclusive opposites. You can't be both: you're either dead or alive. Christianity breaks down this division. Certainly there's still a big distinction between being dead and alive, but what the Catechism and the Bible want you to know is that while there's much that will change after you take your last breath, there are some significant things that won't change. First of all, your core identity won't change: So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (v8b) Just as you belong in body and soul to your faithful Savior Jesus Christ while living, you will belong to Him in death just as you do in life. Second, your primary purpose remains the same as well: if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord (v8a). In other words, you were created and given life so that you could live to/for the Lord by using the gifts and talents you've been given to glorify Him. Although sin has marred God's image and purpose in your life, the gospel proclaims that death - the ultimate result of sin - no longer can keep you from fulfilling your primary purpose. In fact, it's through death that Christians are finally set free from sin and can begin truly living for Jesus. Dig Deeper Human beings are weird. We're full of paradoxes. On one hand, our sinful natures crave independence - especially from God. But on the other, we hate to be alone. Even the most introverted of us needs other people in our lives. That's why the opening words to the Catechism are so comforting: That you are not your own, but you belong. Certainly these words bring comfort to the part of you that needs community, but they also stand as a solemn reminder to your sinful nature that yearns for independence from God's ways, reminding you that you belong to the Lord. As you begin a new year, remember to not just live to yourself (v7), but to live for Christ. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Father in heaven, you are the Lord of life and you have conquered death ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: I pray that in all things, I would live to the Lord (v8) ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Mark 1

Verse 9 makes marriage seem like it's merely an institution for those who lack sexual self control, as

You'll never understand how clean you've been made till you understand how filthy you were! Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 73 Q. Why then does the Holy Spirit call baptism the washing of rebirth and the washing away of sins? A. God has good reason for these words. He wants to teach us that the blood and Spirit of Christ wash away our sins just as water washes away dirt from our bodies. But more important, he wants to assure us, by this divine pledge and sign, that the washing away of our sins spiritually is as real as physical washing with water Summary Once again we're reminded as we read God's Word that sin is a serious problem. Far from being little indiscretions that the kindly 'Old Man in the sky' sort of snickers at, and much more impactful than just keeping us from living our best life now, we read that those who are unrighteous (wrongdoers) will not inherit the kingdom of God (v9)! Paul defines what it means to be unrighteous using what's often been called a 'vice list' - that is, a list of significant sins that often show up in Paul's letters. Understand that this isn't a comprehensive list, meaning that these nine sins are not the only nine sins possible. They're just a representation of the whole. Paul uses these vice lists to shine the light on the filth of humanity. But the primary purpose of this passage isn't to warn you of the massive danger of unrepentant sin (although it does), rather Paul's point here is no matter how filthy these sins have made you in the past, you've now been washed, sanctified and made righteous. (v11). Dig Deeper Most of us experience baptism in the context of a newborn baby being brought forward by her parents. The baby is soft & cuddly, beautifully dressed and in the arms of her proud parents. Often the grandparents look on with big smiles on their faces. It truly is a time of celebration as a new covenant child is welcomed into the congregation. We'll dig deeper into why it is that we baptize the children of believers in our Reformed churches later this week, but one of the big difficulties that we must work past in bringing babies to be baptized is that they don't look anything at all like the type of sinners Paul described at the beginning to today's passage. But even though they've not yet committed the gross sins in Paul's vice lists, they are completely covered in the filth of sin. When you fail to realize just how sinfully filthy you are from the moment of your conception, you fail to realize how dire your circumstances are apart from Christ, and how disgusting it is for your Father when you take what the Holy Spirit has washed clean and make yourself filthy all over again. If you've been baptized, thank God that He, through Christ, has washed you clean in the same way water removes filth. If you've not been baptized, what are you waiting for? Reach out to your elders or pastor so you can experience first hand the tangible reminder of how you've been washed in the blood of Christ (plus, God's commanded you to do so!). AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our holy and righteous Father, who will not bestow His Kingdom on those who remain in the filth of their sins; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God that you've been washed clean by Christ, and pray that temptations are kept far from you so that you don't fall into the filth again. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 5

Sometimes the truth hurts, but God's truth hurts in order to heal. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 3 Q. How do you come to know your misery? A. The law of God tells me. Summary One of our human tendencies is to lay blame on others while claiming yourself as blameless. These actions are common in children, yet adults are not immune to this either. It is this type of situation to which Paul steps in to give clarification. In these passages Paul argues that the Jewish believers were not in a superior position to the non-Jewish followers of Christ. The crux of his argument is the fact that both are under sin. Paul quotes a series of Old Testament passages from the Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah which together show the sinfulness of all mankind. Following this reminder of the sinfulness of all people, Paul points out in v19 that the law, in what we today call the Old Testament, was written to the Jewish people. The words so that every mouth may be stopped come as a reference to court customs of the Jewish people. When someone was done with their defense, they would put their hand over their mouth to signify they were finished speaking in their own defense. Since the law was given to the Jewish people, their mouths are silenced, for there is nothing else they can say in their defense. They were given the law, and Paul was certain to point out that they did not keep the law. In v20, Paul gives the clarification the Jewish people needed to hear: no one can be justified by upkeeping the law. Yes, they had the law, but they were unable to keep it. Instead, the function of the law is the agent through which we come to know our sin. Dig Deeper Learning is a life-long process. Regardless of what kind of diploma one might go on to earn, there is always more to know. Some of this is based upon our own limitations to learn, our inclination to forget, or more information being discovered. There are different ways that we learn, through life experience, a class, or reading a book. When it comes to our sin, which is the source of our misery, the Bible is where we learn the depth of our sinfulness. While it is unpleasant to be confronted with your own sinfulness, this serves an important role in your life. It is through this confrontation with our sin that we come to know the depth of our misery and our need for a savior. Truly, if you had no awareness of your debt of sin, how then could you come to know your need for the grace of Jesus? Praise God for all that He does on our behalf, including giving us the Word of God which makes us aware of our sinful state and need for redemption. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Father in heaven, your name is holy, and your law demands perfect righteousness. ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Keep me close to your law, so that I continually recognize my own sinfulness and cling even tighter to the cross of Christ. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Mark 6