high price for me ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Mark 2

Paul adds some clarification in v12-15.

Christianity doesn't just offer you warm fuzzies, it promises you confident knowledge of your salvation and a Father that hears you. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 117 Q. How does God want us to pray so that he will listen to us? A. First, we must pray from the heart to no other than the one true God, who has revealed himself in his Word, asking for everything he has commanded us to ask for. Second, we must acknowledge our need and misery, hiding nothing, and humble ourselves in his majestic presence. Third, we must rest on this unshakable foundation: even though we do not deserve it, God will surely listen to our prayer because of Christ our Lord. That is what he promised us in his Word. Summary As John begins to close his letter, he makes clear his intention in writing it: so that those who read it might know that through faith in Christ, they have eternal life. Not only is this the theme of John's first letter, it's the theme of the entire Bible: that you might know and have certainty. God performed miracle after miracle so that the world might know that He is God; right before He went to His death on the cross, Jesus prayed that His people would know His Father, and thus know eternal life. Contrast the confidence Christians have compared to those lost in the dark world. Society cannot tell you how life began or what happens after it ends. Nobody, this world tells us, can confidently delineate between right and wrong for anybody but themselves, or even know the difference between something as basic as male and female. And you certainly can't bow your head and talk to a God you can't see and truly know He hears you. This is the wonderful Good News the Bible proclaims: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God [whom we know with certainty!]: if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." Ah, but there was a caveat there! God only hears and grants those things which are according to His will. This is why most of the prayers we read in the Bible focus on the first two A's: Acknowledging who God is, which reminds you of God's awesome power, grace, mercy, and peace, and that He receives our prayers because of His Son, and Aligning our lives with His will. When you follow this pattern and make acknowledging and aligning the bulk of your prayers, you can be confident that God hears that which you Ask for. Dig Deeper Certainly it can often seem like the prayers you pray simply float up into the ether and never reach listening ears. Maybe you've been praying for something good and godly for years on end, but haven't experienced any sort of result or even an indication that God even hears or cares about what you've prayed so earnestly about. Let passages like this one here in 1 John build your confidence that "God will surely listen to your prayer because of Christ your Lord." AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, whom we can confidently approach in Christ; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the confidence to know God is listening to your prayer, and that you will ask Him for things according to His will; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - John 19

Both death & life come through a man. Which one of these men represents you? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 16 Q. Why must he [our Savior] be truly human and truly righteous? A. God’s justice demands that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others. Summary The Apostle Paul describes Jesus’ resurrection as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. This imagery aligns with the requirement from Leviticus 23:10 for the Israelites to bring the firstfruits, or first part of their crop, as an offering. The offering of the firstfruits of the harvest symbolized how the entirety of the harvest belonged to God. Likewise, Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection, signifying that although he is the first to be raised, he will not be the last. Through the initial act of disobedience in the Garden, sin entered the world, and through that one action, all of creation suffers. This is what we call original sin, meaning that even as infants we inherit the sinful nature brought forth through the first human Adam. Since death, which is the end result of sin, entered the world via the actions of Adam, it makes sense that the resurrection of the dead comes in a similar way; although this new life comes through the second Adam, that is, Jesus Christ. Dig Deeper In Q&A 16 the catechism raises an important question… why? Why was Jesus born into the world? Why did Jesus through the incarnation take on a human nature? Why is Jesus the only one who can pay the penalty of our sin? It all comes back to the origination of our sin. It is our human nature that stands at odds with God because of our sin, so that means that the one to be the recipient of God’s justice must also be fully human. Furthermore, a sinful person can't pay the sin of another. One cannot take on the penalty for another that they already owe themselves. This is why we need grace. As humans, we find ourselves in a place of sinfulness and deserving of God’s wrath against unrighteousness. Since the penalty must be paid by a human - one without sin at that - there is no worldly means to escape God’s wrath. So thank God for the grace given through Jesus: that although God would have been perfectly justified to let humanity face the consequences of our sin, instead Jesus came as the only one who could redeem a fallen humanity. For the only one who could be our mediator and deliverer is He who is both human and, as we will cover tomorrow, divine. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who has the power to give everlasting life and also to take it away; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: May my thoughts, words and deeds reflect my position in Jesus Christ, who has brought me from death to life ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Acts 10

God grants us grace; we need to extend it to others as well. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 13 Q. Can we pay this debt ourselves? A. Certainly not. Actually, we increase our guilt every day. Summary When I was a kid, many stores offered a service known as layaway. A customer would bring an item to the layaway department, and make a small payment on that item. The store associate would mark down the customer's information and how much was owed and hold on to the item. Over a period of time, the customer could continue to make payments on the item until they paid for it in full, and then they would take it home. What would it be like to go to the layaway department to make your final payment on the item, only to find that it was now going to cost you more to pay for that item? Each time you would come back expecting to pay off the item, and each time the cost of the item increased. With our sin, not only can we not make the payment to appease God’s wrath, but the debt increases more every day! Dig Deeper When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he included a short prayer of confession in the Lord’s Prayer: And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (v12). We offer prayers of confession because of the constant increase in our sin. No matter how often we try to keep ourselves from sin, we cannot completely live a sin free life. It simply is not possible, no matter how righteous a person may appear. All it takes is an unkind word, a seemingly small lie, or an impure thought. They are all sins. Just because you sin, and your sin increases every day, does not mean that you should stop asking for forgiveness or give up on walking God’s righteous path. In teaching His followers how to pray, Jesus commands you to continue to ask for forgiveness from God. Not only that, but you must grant others forgiveness too. When Jesus is teaching the Lord’s Prayer, He takes the act of forgiveness one step further. Not only must you ask God for forgiveness, you need to pass along what you've been given to others. You cannot live with bitter and angry hearts, holding on to the sin that others have committed against you. You are to live with grace. God grants us his grace, so we need to give it to others as well. Who do you need to forgive? AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who is in heaven, your name is holy. ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Grant me forgiveness for my sin, and help me to forgive others. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Acts 6

It might not seem like it all the time, but the Spirit is with you forever. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 53 Q. What do you believe concerning “the Holy Spirit”? A. First, he, as well as the Father and the Son, is eternal God. Second, he has been given to me personally, so that, by true faith, he makes me share in Christ and all his blessings, comforts me, and remains with me forever. Summary This is the second time we've come to this passage in John 14 this year. The first time came as we noted the tri-une (three in one) nature of God, and that the third member of the Trinity is the Advocate, whom we more commonly refer to as the Holy Spirit. This week we've been diving in a bit deeper into who the Holy Spirit is, what He does and how this brings us comfort. Today we're focusing in on the fact that the Advocate (also known as the Comforter or the Counselor will be with you forever! But the context that this amazing promise comes in is critical to understand. The Holy Spirit has not been given to you forever as if He were some kind of Tinkerbell who sprinkles fairy dust on all your problems so that they go away. No, the Holy Spirit has been given to you so that you can fulfill the condition necessary to demonstrate your love for Christ: keeping His commands (v15). The Holy Spirit helps you do this by guiding you into the truth. This is actually going to make life more difficult for you, because you live in a world of lies that seeks to pull you away from the truth. More and more, people will belittle you and insult you as being closed minded, old fashioned, intolerant, and even unloving as you follow the Spirit of truth. Don't let this bother you; the world will never accept the Spirit because they can't see Him and don't know Him. Dig Deeper What a promise that Jesus makes to you - twice in this short passage - that the Holy Spirit will be not just with you (v16), but in you (v17). Furthermore, this isn't just a temporary condition that you experience every now and then, rather it's a relationship that will endure forever! But this doesn't mean that you will feel His presence every moment. In fact, there will be vast stretches where you don't feel Him at all, and you may even wonder if He's up and moved out. There are times when everybody in our household is so busy going in different directions that we'll go days without really seeing one another. We seem just like ships passing in the night. Yet I don't need to wonder if the other family members are still with me even though I haven't seen them, because I see all sorts of evidence on the counter and lying around the living room that assures me they're still there. The fact that Jesus has commanded you to keep His commands ought to be reason enough for you to do so. But living this counter cultural lifestyle brings with it an extra benefit: it assures you the Holy Spirit is still living in you even during those times you don't really feel Him. There's no way you can follow Christ's commands on your own, so as you see yourself doing so, you're seeing evidence that the Holy Spirit is with you. So keep those Spiritual Disciplines strong. You may not think you need them when you can clearly see the Spirit's leading in your life, but it is through those strong habits you've developed that the Spirit will keep you close to Him during those dark stretches when He seems far away. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father in heaven, who has given you the Spirit of truth; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for the assurance the Spirit will be with you forever, and ask Him for the strength to show your love for Christ by keeping His commands. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Romans 4

In other words, we go 150 miles per hour Monday through Saturday, not only doing all of our labor, but

hovering over the waters of the deep as God the Father begins to speak the world into existence (Gen. 1:2)

Photo: Klemen Vrankar via Unsplash Genesis 15:1–21 (NIV) SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF: Roughly 5-10 years have captivity and rejects earthly reward, showing that his confidence and blessing come from God alone. 15 will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 In Genesis 15, God assures Abram (before he is known as Abraham) that his reward will be greater than Yes, faith includes knowledge, but as we see in Genesis 15, it also takes wholehearted trust that God

Psalm 72 Of Solomon. 1 Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. 2 death. 14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight. 15 It is a picture of the promise to Abraham to be a blessing to all nations in Genesis 12, coming to fulfillment righteous dominion over God’s good earth (Gen. 1:28), to be a great nation that blesses others (Gen. 12:2– 3), and to establish David’s throne forever (2 Sam 7:13).