before Jesus came; this had already been planned by God as He cursed the serpent in the Garden: the woman's And it would come exactly how God said it would: through the offspring of a woman. God sent His Son, born of a woman, not just to take away your sins, but to also still your fears. exactly what He says He'll do; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for sending Jesus, born of a woman Today: Romans 12

Today: Romans 10

God wields His double-edged sword with surgical precision. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 84 Q. How does preaching the gospel open and close the kingdom of heaven? A. According to the command of Christ: The kingdom of heaven is opened by proclaiming and publicly declaring to all believers, each and every one, that, as often as they accept the gospel promise in true faith, God, because of what Christ has done, truly forgives all their sins. The kingdom of heaven is closed, however, by proclaiming and publicly declaring to unbelievers and hypocrites that, as long as they do not repent, the anger of God and eternal condemnation rest on them. God’s judgment, both in this life and in the life to come, is based on this gospel testimony. Summary Words don't get the credit they deserve in our hyper-pragmatic society. Most people prefer hands on instruction rather than a long manual full of words or a movie or video rather than an expansive novel. But our ability to form and utilize words is one of the key features that set us as human beings apart from the rest of God's created order, and it's precisely because we're created in His image that we have this unique ability. God's first recorded action was Him speaking words of creation into the nothingness. The Israelites met God as they cowered under His words of commandment that boomed down from the mountain, and their descendents would go on to harass, persecute, and generally ignore the word God sent via His prophets calling His wayward children back. John introduces our Savior as the Logos, which is often translated as word, but which refers to much more than just basic vocabulary (Logos also forms the basis for logic, and serves as the foundation for knowledge - biology, geology, theology, etc.). God's Word is so much more than ancient stories, prophecies and testimonies printed on dusty old pages. His Word is alive and active, able to penetrate the heart of man like nothing else. Furthermore, Isaiah adds that God's Word never fails; it always achieves the purpose for which He sent it. Dig Deeper But it sorta seems like God's Word has failed. Churches - even (maybe even especially) churches that have faithfully proclaimed God's Word - are emptier now than they've been in decades. Has our society finally achieved Adam's goal of separating ourselves so far from God that we're out of reach of the powerful sword His Word represents? Absolutely not. God's Word always achieves God's purposes. Praise God that through the proclamation of His Word you have come to clearly understand His grace. But it also clearly communicates God's anger and eternal condemnation for those who do not repent of sin. Unbelievers have heard and understood this Word, but they have failed to respond to it. Praise God that His Word goes out from your church, and know that whether your pews are full of those who've gladly accepted the gospel message, or empty because so many heard it and rejected it, that God is achieving His purposes through the preached Word. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father faithfully sends us His Word, just as He sends us rain from heaven; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that God, by means of His double edged sword, will continue to penetrate the sin that always seeks to envelope your heart; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Corinthians 2

Are you going to follow the crowds, or follow Christ? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 76 Q. What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his poured-out blood? A. It means to accept with a believing heart the entire suffering and death of Christ and by believing to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But it means more. Through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us, we are united more and more to Christ’s blessed body. And so, although he is in heaven and we are on earth, we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. And we forever live on and are governed by one Spirit, as members of our body are by one soul. Summary Jesus broke every public relations rule there is. He had massive crowds, literally eating out of the palm of His hand, and ready to overthrow the government and install Him as their king. If you're trying to start a movement, this is as good as it gets. But Jesus wasn't trying to start a movement, or rally people to a better way of life, or even promote Himself. So He doesn't capitalize on His popularity or try to seize the moment. Instead He does quite the opposite. He drops a truth bomb so rich with meaning, yet so strange that it sounds disgustingly weird. You must eat my flesh, says Jesus, and drink my blood. Granted, He starts the conversation with something a bit more palatable, stating, "I am the bread of life (v51)." That's actually a great slogan that works on many levels. But Jesus quickly drills down: "This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." This doesn't sound too shocking to us because we're more or less familiar with the concept of communion, but it sure got the attention of the Jews 2,000 years ago. John records that they began to "argue sharply among themselves" about what Jesus just said. Jesus goes on, stating the basis for salvation: "The one who feeds on me will live because of me." That's just weird, and even kind of gross. The Jews thought so as well, so from that time on "many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him (v66)." The crowds of thousands would soon dwindle down to a handful of close friends and His mother as Jesus literally gave His flesh for your life. Dig Deeper Thankfully we're not called to literally eat flesh and drink blood. We know that the bread and wine we eat are signs and symbols of a spiritual reality. But don't be too quick to 'spiritualize' the communion experience. As you follow Christ's command to consume His body and blood, you are literally being "united more and more to Christ's blessed body (HC 76)." In other words, you are becoming less and less your own and belonging more and more to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. This is much more than a spiritual concept. Your whole whole life - body and soul - must be transformed. Every part of you must look different as a result of participating in the Lord's Supper. That means that the more united to Christ you become, the weirder you will look to the world around you. There's an increasing likelihood that they'll scoff at you as they did to Jesus and ultimately leave you behind as they turn to follow the next big thing that promises them a bit of bread. So always keep Jesus' promise in mind, that "whoever feeds on the living bread will live forever (v58)." Know that you're being strengthened for the task as you sit under the Word and respond to the invitation to the Lord's Table. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who sent Jesus, that we may feed on the Word; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the strength to continue feeding on Christ in an increasingly hostile world; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 11

The word 'hell' gets used flippantly, but be reminded what it means to be forsaken by God. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 44 Q. Why does the creed add, “He descended to hell”? A. To assure me in times of personal crisis and temptation that Christ my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul, especially on the cross but also earlier, has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell. Summary It was around three in the afternoon when the depth of Jesus’ suffering was displayed as he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus’ cry is a fulfillment of Psalm 22, which begins with the very same words written by David hundreds of years earlier, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” By the time of Jesus’ distress-filled cry, he had already suffered greatly. In addition to the physical pain, being crucified was physically exhausting. Hanging from nail pierced wrists severely restricts one’s breathing and circulation. Those hung on a cross would use their feet to push up slightly, allowing them the ability to take a breath. Often the cause of death of one crucified was either from exhaustion itself or suffocating because the condemned no longer held the strength necessary to push himself up to draw the next breath. It was Jesus in this tired and weary state who cried out to God. The words he spoke were misunderstood by some as him calling out to Elijah, since the words sound similar (Eli... Eli...). However, Jesus’ cry was not for Elijah, but for God the Father, to whom Jesus cried out in his distress, only to receive no answer. Dig Deeper It was not until later that the disciples understood that at the point of Jesus’ suffering when he cried out, that Christ was enduring the wrath of God’s judgment on sin. Dying by crucifixion was a painful and humiliating way to die, strung out for all to see in your suffering. However, the true suffering of the cross was not the physical toll on Jesus’ body. Far greater than the agony of the nails was Jesus taking upon himself the full wrath of God towards unrighteousness. In taking upon himself the consequences of sin, Jesus saves you and all who believe from having to face the same type of hellish anguish and torment. Truly there is nothing that we could offer that would come close to repaying Jesus for the cost he paid on our behalf. What we can do is live for Him, taking upon ourselves the same attitude that Paul expressed to the Philippians in our devotion on Wednesday, “for me to live is Christ.” AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Father God, who will never forsake His children who come to Him through Christ; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God that Jesus went through hell for you and pray that you will now live for Him. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Matthew 12

receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way where I am going.” 5 God—he himself ‘narrates’ God (1:18), says and does exclusively what the Father gives him to say and do (5: Jesus is the life (1:4), the one who has ‘life in himself’ (5:26), ‘the resurrection and the life’ (11 :25), ‘the true God and eternal life’ (1 Jn. 5:20).

4   But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. 5  I wait for the LORD Unconditional Election Point 2 - Limited Atonement Point 3 - Total Depravity Point 4 - Irresistible Grace Point 5 Flee for refuge to Christ crucified: 4   But with you there is forgiveness... 5   I wait for the LORD Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 5  I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits and

earth can whiten them. 4 Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. 5 Deuteronomy 18:15; Malachi 4:5). As He states within the sermon of the mount in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish

Corinthians 1:4–9 (NIV) 4   I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5   Unconditional Election Point 2 - Limited Atonement Point 3 - Total Depravity Point 4 - Irresistible Grace Point 5 Today: 1 Peter 5

God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. 5  (Psalm 42:5, 11 / 43:5) There's a tremendous irony expressed in Psalm 42: the reason the psalmist experiences