You're commanded to be anchored to your parents (it's not as bad as it sounds). 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 The fifth commandment contains one short imperative: honor your father and your mother, and then it goes on to provide two huge benefits for keeping this command. As we've seen before, God's commands are not given to us as a 'keep them or else' type of coercion. Through His Law, our Father teaches us how to live well and enjoy life. But it's easy for us to get this imperative wrong, by reducing this command to a simple reminder to love, obey, submit to, and care for our parents. Certainly those are ways to properly keep the fifth commandment, but the word God chose here goes a step farther: the literal translation of 'honor' is to give weight to, or let your parents be heavy in your life. In other words, your life ought to be anchored by your parents. All of us have people that we truly love and care for, and even at times submit to and obey, without having tethered our entire life to their particular worldview. Although you may enjoy a warm relationship with such people, you live in a way contrary to their core beliefs, even if you outwardly conform your behavior when they're around. But you are not commanded to just have a friendly but shallow relationship with your parents. Rather, God has commanded you to honor your parents so as to keep you anchored to His ways. Notice the reward for keeping the fifth commandment is limited: God commands you to honor your parents so that it might go well with you, but God is not promising here that if you honor your parents things will go well for you in whatever you choose to do or however you choose to live. You are to honor your parents so that it might go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you. The Israelites who first heard this would have understood that God was commanding them to anchor themselves to the Promised Land they were heading towards by continuing to let their parents 'weigh them down' in that particular place as they lived godly lives just as previous generations had done. Jesus expanded the Promised Land from a particular geographical area to the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven. Dig Deeper This command to anchor yourself to your parents' core beliefs makes total sense for those of us whose parents had their worldview shaped by God's Word and acted consistently with it. But what if you didn't have these kinds of parents? Must you remain anchored to a sinking rock? Certainly not. The first seven verses of Psalm 95 are some of the most beautiful words in the Bible; you've likely sung and recited them often. But in verse 9, God breaks into this beautiful song of praise to order His people to do the opposite of what He set forth in His fifth commandment. He tells His people to cut themselves free of their fathers who had hardened their hearts generations before and rebelled against God. If your parents have set themselves against God, you still must honor them in the limited sense of loving, caring and even obeying and submitting to them when doing so isn't contrary to God's other commands. But your true Honor, that is, the true weight that anchors your life, must be your Heavenly Father. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who is the ultimate parent we must honor so that it might go well with us in His Kingdom; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God if you can fully honor your parents as commanded, and pray that you will set a good example so that your children can fully keep this command as well; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Titus 1

True Sabbath rest comes by trusting the alive & active Word of God. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 103 Q. What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment? A. First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath. Summary In many ways, one of the greatest tragedies of Adam's fall into sin is that we've lost our ability to enjoy the true Sabbath rest with our Father that we were created for. The Bible, from the end of Genesis 3 onward, is the story of God slowly bringing His people back into this relationship. Nobody came closer to seeing this goal accomplished than did the Israelites who had been freed from their bondage in Egypt. God spoke directly to them from the mountain, but yet they ran away from His voice and sent Moses up to represent them. God came down and tabernacled amongst them, yet they continued to complain and rebel against Him. Their ongoing obstinance caused them to miss what God was bringing them towards: Sabbath rest in the Promised Land. Instead, God left them in perpetual labor: always wandering, yet never arriving anywhere. Although subsequent generations of Israelites ultimately made it to the Promised Land, their ability to enjoy Sabbath rest was thwarted by their inability to fully trust and obey their Father. But there's still hope. We read here that a true "Sabbath-rest for the people of God" remains. This hope becomes reality when you lay down your 'work' - your frenzied efforts to attain everything yourself - and begin to rest in the completed work of Jesus Christ, who like His Father before Him on the seventh day of creation, has rested from His labor. Dig Deeper The final two verses of this passage, which describe Scripture as being a double edged sword, are quite familiar and are often read on their own, somewhat detached from their context (we also read them earlier this year). But notice today that this double edged sword is the means by which you can enter this promised rest. This is why every Lord's Day, when the saints gather together for a small foretaste of the true Sabbath rest that Christ attained for us, we spend so much time reading, singing, praying and studying the living and active Word of God. Even though it's not always soothing as "it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges our thoughts and attitudes of our hearts," the Holy Spirit is using it to give us the immediate rest we need each week, and ultimately to bring us into God's eternal Sabbath rest. So "make every effort to enter that rest." Continue reading scripture every day and gathering with the Saints on the Lord's Day as often as possible. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who is working all things out in order to restore your true Sabbath rest in Him; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that gathering with the saints to experience God's Word will be a top priority in your life; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 2 Timothy 4

You're missing out on blessings because you're too tired to rest. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 103 Q. What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment? A. First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath. Summary As Reformed people, we're used to pointing to a specific chapter and verse in the Bible as the foundation for every belief and practice we have. This is a good thing! We're people who firmly stand on the Word of God so that we don't get "blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming (Ephesians 4:14)." So it may seem odd that we don't have a specific Biblical command one of our bedrock practices - to rest on the first day of the week, rather than the seventh day of the week as God demonstrated after creation, a pattern modeled by His covenant people for thousands of years. But the fourth commandment only stipulates that people follow a pattern of six days of labor followed by a Sabbath day on the seventh; it never specifies whether that day of rest ought to be the first, third or last day of the week according to a calendar. But we do have Biblical grounds to stand on for designating the first day of the week as our day of worship. Granted, these grounds we read here in 1 Corinthians 16 are not as prominent and glorious as our scriptural proof we have for our doctrines of grace, but they're solid none the less. Just as the Israelites followed a pattern set for them, so do we. The point of today's passage is not necessarily to codify Sunday as the day of worship, it's to emphasize the need to take collections for the Church in an orderly and consistent way. Paul tells the Corinthians (and subsequently us) to take that collection each time they come together to meet for worship - on the first day of every week. This isn't the only clue that the New Testament gives us that from the earliest days of the Church, the designated meeting day was Sunday. But why this shift? It's because of what happened on the first day of the week two thousand years ago: the central event in all of history and the source of all of our hope and joy: our Savior stepped out of the grave, having conquered sin and death. From that day forward, Christians have been meeting together on what John designated as the Lord's Day (Rev. 1:10). Dig Deeper The sad reality is that the worship in far too many North American churches has become anemic, tired, and completely lacking in energy. Certainly there's lots of reasons for this, but one reason that's becoming clearer to me is that we've conflated the concepts of Sabbath and the Lord's Day. Now certainly there's rest to be found as God's people gather to unload the burden of their sin and be comforted by the grace found in His Word. Our activities on Sunday afternoon ought to be noticeably slower paced than the other days of the week; many of us look forward to a nap after church. Our catechism is right to refer to the Lord's Day as a day of rest. But it's a festive day of rest. We've seen this past week that we're the ones who are blessed as we gather to worship God. That blessing fully comes by grace alone, but it takes hard work to fully appreciate the benefits of this blessing. The more time and energy (= work) you put into reading, singing, praying and listening to God's Word, the more blessing you will receive. It takes lots of hard work to "maintain the gospel ministry and education for it" as the Catechism reminds us. The fourth commandment requires you to labor for six days and then rest. This does not mean "do your own stuff for six days and then get all of your rest in the pew on the seventh (or skip the pew altogether)." You know this doesn't work, and if you're exhausted all the time, this is probably why. Try following the pattern we looked at earlier this week in which your day of rest begins already on Saturday (remember - it's called Sabado in Spanish) so that you're rested and ready to do the hard but holy work of worshipping God on the Lord's Day (Domingo) and see how much more energy you have after a couple of weeks of this pattern. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who has commanded us to care for and support the Lord's people; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask God for the resolve to change your weekly pattern so you have the energy you need to properly rest on the Lord's Day. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 2 Timothy 3

Will your Lord's Day activities make you even more tired, or will they bring you joy and delight? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 103 Q. What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment? A. First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath. Summary Early in Jesus' ministry with His disciples, the Pharisees think they've trapped Jesus in a 'gotcha' moment because He and the disciples picked a few heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. Jesus rejects their man-made rules, famously telling them that "the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27)." Because the New Testament doesn't give a particular list of do's and don'ts as to how Christians ought to observe the Sabbath, it might be tempting after reading Jesus' reply to conclude that you can do whatever you like on the Sabbath day since it was made for you. But such a conclusion would be a costly mistake. There are multiple, and often conflicting, Christian perspectives on how the Sabbath ought to be kept, even within Reformed circles. But our passage today makes clear that only those who "do not go their own way, and do not do as they please, or speak idle words" will truly benefit from this gift God has given to us. Certainly, the Sabbath was given to us that we might "find our joy," but you won't find that joy "from doing as you please on God's holy day," rather, you'll "find your joy in the Lord." Dig Deeper What's your attitude regarding Sunday? Do you dread going to church, wishing you could spend your time on things that seem more enjoyable to you? Do you go to church simply out of obligation, since that's what you've done every Sunday since the day you were born? Are you looking forward to a day of genuine rest, or do you plan to fill it with so many activities that you'll be left more tired on Monday morning than what you were Friday afternoon? Align your life with what God says here through Isaiah. Call "the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable." What mental, physical and spiritual adjustments must you make in order for you to honestly be able to look forward to the Lord's Day in this way? Whatever changes you need to make will be worth it, for look at what your God promises those who find their joy in Him by keeping the Sabbath: He will "cause you to ride in triumph... and feast on your inheritance." God seeks to give you these gifts as you "attend the assembly of God's people to learn what God's Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publically, and to bring Christian offerings to the poor (HC QA 103)." You're likely reading this at the halfway point of the week. Start praying now that you will eagerly anticipate the coming Lord's Day and pray that God will help you do whatever you must in order to make the Sabbath your joy and delight. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who invites us to find our joy in Him; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you can let go of your desire to "do as you please" on the Lord's Day so that you can begin to "delight" in meeting with the saints and truly find joy as you rest in God's promises; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 2 Timothy 2

You were created to worship. But don't trust your instinct as to how to worship. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 103 Q. What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment? A. First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath. Summary Any astute twelve year old Biblical scholar will quickly point out that nowhere in the ten commandments is weekly church attendance mandated for Christians. And they're right! It's not really 'commanded' anywhere in the Bible! It doesn't need to be. It's been said that man is incurably religious, a phrase I don't like because it makes religion seem like a disease, but which nonetheless accurately describes the innate drive seen in that people in all times and in all places have always worshipped something. So God didn't need to issue a command to attend religious gatherings at specific times in the week, because we do that instinctively (which is why so many people are so miserable in our exceptionally secularized society since they're suppressing a deeply embedded instinct to worship). What God needed to command, and command often, was that His people not worship like their pagan neighbors. Sin has twisted the innate desire to seek and worship God that we were created with and turned it into a driving desire to do as we see fit (v8). The Canaanites were wicked and evil, but they were quite religious. God had created them as well in His image, but that image was barely flickering, and their instinct to worship was no longer seeking God, but had become fixated on deifying nature (that is, making natural elements and processes into gods) and was highly sexualized in its expression. Do not worship the LORD your God in their way (v4). The first step necessary to properly fulfill your instinct to worship is to separate yourself from the world, as God commanded His people Israel. Dig Deeper Quoting a passage from Deuteronomy in order to demonstrate the need for Christians to gather for corporate worship on the Lord's Day may seem a bit anachronistic (out of place). After all, didn't Christ's sacrifice on the cross eliminate the need for all of the animal sacrifices mentioned in this passage? Didn't Jesus set us free from the law? The sacrifices we just read about were not sacrifices of atonement meant to symbolize payment for sin. God's people were to regularly gather to offer all sorts of sacrifices, tithes and offerings meant to show their thankfulness and to acknowledge God's claim upon their lives. This command has not been set aside by Christ's victory; in fact if anything, the need for you to demonstrate your gratitude and commitment to God has intensified! This is one of the primary reasons you are called to gather with the saints each Lord's Day. The Tabernacle worship God commanded for His people broadened out over time into weekly gatherings in local synagogues. The early Christians followed this model and established the weekly Lord's Day services that we continue to this day. While it is admittedly tough to cite a specific Biblical command for you to come to church this coming Lord's Day, it would be even tougher for you to page through the entire Bible and then formulate a good excuse for why you don't need to. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who calls us to gather our families to worship and rejoice with all of God's people on the Lord's Day; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the strength to fight temptation and fulfill your instinct to worship the Lord your God as He has commanded. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 2 Timothy 1

God commanded you to rest, but not necessarily on the Lord's Day. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 103 Q. What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment? A. First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath. Summary As we begin a week of contemplating what God's will for us is on the Sabbath Day, we have to begin with a reminder of exactly what the Sabbath Day is. To begin with, this version of God's Law here in Deuteronomy 5 helps illustrate that the concept that a day of rest is not an idea that originated with the ten commandments. Here God says, "Observe the Sabbath Day... as the LORD your God has [already] commanded you." There's never been a time in our history that we've not been obligated to stop and rest every seventh day, replicating the pattern God set for us in the creation week. Keeping the Sabbath Day means keeping it holy. The word holy at its core means separate; so the Sabbath Day must be markedly different than the other days of the week. Ironically one of the strongest imperatives in this command is to "labor and do all your work" in the six other days of the week, but then keep the seventh day separate by not doing any work, not only yourself, but by providing rest for all those you have authority over. It might seem that God contradicts Himself in stating the purpose of the Sabbath. Here in the Law, He states that the Sabbath is a day "to the LORD your God." But then Jesus says in the Gospels that "The Sabbath was made for man." While there is some tension in these statements, there's certainly no contradiction. In order to truly benefit from the Sabbath Day, which was made for you, you must keep the Sabbath dedicated to the LORD your God. This version of the commandment in Deuteronomy 5 also helps us understand the ultimate goal of the Sabbath: to be reminded that you've been set free by the "mighty hand and outstretched arm of God." Just as the Israelites were to reflect upon God freeing them from bondage in Egypt as they rested on the Sabbath, so you must reflect upon the freedom from sin won for you by Christ. Dig Deeper Make no mistake, going to church each week is hard work - especially for families with small children! Not only is it a battle getting the whole crew dressed and there on time, but then you're expected to sing energetically, pray fervently, and then studiously concentrate on a portion of ancient literature that's being presented. None of this seems conducive with the idea of a day of rest! The reality is many Christians are too wore out on Sunday morning to worship well. Often even the ones who are able to make it there don't have the energy required to fully participate in the 'service' (a word that seems contradictory to rest!). Part of our problem is that we've conflated the idea of Sabbath day of rest with what the catechism calls our festive day of rest. In other words, we go 150 miles per hour Monday through Saturday, not only doing all of our labor, but a thousand other things on the side. Unsurprisingly then on Sunday we have no energy for the festivities of corporate worship. Let's reclaim an idea that's been preserved in the Spanish language. For sure you must keep God's command to labor six days a week and rest the seventh, but let's redesignate Saturday (in Spanish it's Sabado - you can see the allusion to Sabbath) as a day to wind down our work activities and rest up for Domingo - the Lord's Day. This two-day pattern of rest is consistent with the Jewish Sabbath practices, which would begin the evening before. Begin your rest by winding down your activities already on Saturday afternoon so you have a full tank of energy for the Lord's Day, where your 'work' of reading, singing, praying and studying God's Word further energizes you for the week to come. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who brought us out of slavery to sin with an outstretched arm and mighty hand; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for commanding you to rest and pray that you'll prioritize your week in a way that's centered around being prepared to fully worship God on the Lord's Day. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Timothy 6

You probably don't think of yourself in the same glowing terms the Bible does, but you should! 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 Too often we treat the introductions to Paul's letters in the Bible the same way we treat the wrapping paper on a birthday present. As beautiful as it is in and of itself, we're not interested in the wrapping paper, but in the substance of the present it introduces. So we rip through it eager to get a what comes next. But every so often it's good to just stop and admire the beautiful greetings that introduce these tremendous books of the Bible. Often the theology present in these opening paragraphs is every bit as substantial as it is in the body of the letters themselves. One of the reasons it's tempting to quickly move past the introductions is that they seem so repetitive. Nearly all of the epistles (letters) in the Bible open with the phrase "Grace and peace to you..." Because we see it so often, our eye almost automatically skips over it. But let that sink in for a moment. These are the words that God greets you with; the same holy, just and perfectly righteous God that you rebelled against in sin and who has every right to unleash never ending wrath upon you, now offers you grace and peace. This is the same greeting you'll hear from Him when you go to His house this coming Lord's Day. The reason God extends grace and peace to you is because of what He considers you to be: this greeting is extended to the saints. Dig Deeper Your first reaction to being described as a saint is probably that there must be some mistake. After all, the word saint literally means 'holy,' and you're likely quite aware of how unholy you are. It seems like the term saint ought to be used sparingly; certainly Peter and Paul were saints, as were the other apostles, along with significant martyrs and heroes of the faith throughout history. They weren't perfect, but they were pretty close. But God doesn't extend His grace & mercy to sorta-saints. Almost perfect isn't perfect, which is what God requires. Ironically, it's this distinction that qualifies you for the sainthood. Peter and Paul, and St. Joseph, St. Francis and St. Patrick and dozens of other 'saints' all were tremendous people and most certainly heroes of the faith, but that's not why God considers them to be saints. No, God considers these men saints for the same reason He considers you to be one: because of the "hope laid up for you in heaven," which you've heard about and accepted "in the word of the truth, the gospel (v5)." In other words, you're a saint - a holy person - because you are in Christ, and the perfect righteousness He earned has been credited to you. Because you stand firmly in God's grace, mercy and peace, you have no need for any other intermediary between you and God other than our Lord Jesus Christ. You don't need to pray through a certain saint in certain situations or make oaths or vows in the name of Saints who seem holier than you. You are a saint, so you - in Christ - have standing before God. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who extends to you His grace, mercy and peace. ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will live as the saint God has declared you to be; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Timothy 5

This short Psalm answers life's most important question. 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 In this short Psalm, David asks the most important question possible: LORD, who may live with you? This question is so critically important because dwelling with God is the relationship you were created to have with Him, just as God would come to dwell with Adam & Eve in the garden during the cool of the day before their sin resulted in eviction. But the good news is that all of history is rushing to re-establish this relationship between God and man: As the new heaven & earth are revealed in the final chapters of the Bible, a loud voice proclaims "God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them, and God himself will be with them and be their God (Rev. 21:3)." So David's question here in Psalm 15 ought to interest you greatly. Just who exactly will God be dwelling with, and will you be included in that number? David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, names eleven characteristics of those who will dwell with the Lord. Notice that nearly half of these traits that define godliness have to do with the words you speak! As we come to Psalm 15 in the context of understanding the third commandment, our attention is focused on the end of v4, that those who live on God's holy mountain will be ones who "keep an oath even when it hurts." Dig Deeper Oaths are easy to enter into but hard to keep. Divorce is the most apparent example demonstrating that often one or both parties to an oath that was made in God's name would rather go their own way than do the hard work of keeping their promises. When that happens, the resulting pain is usually far reaching. But as bad as the immediate effects of broken oaths are, they pale in comparison to the eternal effect of being shut out from God's dwelling place. Breaking promises - especially promises that invoke God's name - has eternal consequences! As we noted yesterday, most people only make a few formal vows and oaths in life, but all of us invoke God's name each time we pray, which becomes an informal vow. Even people who've faithfully maintained their marital vows for decades fall far short of keeping the informal vows that are prayed to God each day. In fact, all of us are disqualified from dwelling with God by the fact that we're 0 for 11 in meeting God's holy requirements listed here in Psalm 15. The good news is that Psalm 15 is not about you. David is describing his offspring that would come hundreds of years later: Jesus Christ. When you trust in Christ, His characteristics become yours, and through His righteousness you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. But still you're obligated to strive to live a life defined by Psalm 15 out of gratitude for the grace that's welcomed you back into God's holy presence. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who dwells in perfect holiness; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that as you come to reflect Christ more, your daily walk will be increasingly blameless; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Timothy 4

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

You must fulfill your vows, even if you were swindled into making it. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 101 Q. But may we swear an oath in God’s name if we do it reverently? A. Yes, when the government demands it, or when necessity requires it, in order to maintain and promote truth and trustworthiness for God’s glory and our neighbor’s good. Such oaths are approved in God’s Word and were rightly used by Old and New Testament believers. Summary There's a tremendous irony that unfolds in today's passage. The heathen Canaanites, the very people whom God had decreed must be wiped out because of their wickedness, are very much aware of God's mighty power in protecting and providing for His people, which is a concept the Israelites can't seem to remember for long even though they've witnessed this power with their own eyes. Neither group acts admirably in this episode. Imagine how different this story would be if the Gibeonites had submitted themselves in repentance before God. But instead, they attempt to bamboozle Him and His people. They know God's law just as well, and maybe even better than the Israelites. God had forbidden Israel from making treaties with nations within the borders of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 7:2-4), but they could enter into agreements with far off nations (Deuteronomy 20:10-11). So the Gibeonites, who lived only seven miles from the city the Israelites had just destroyed, came up with a ploy to convince Joshua they were from a 'distant country.' The Israelites are so convinced by the ruse that they didn't feel the need to inquire of the Lord for guidance before jumping into a formal peace treaty, ratified in the name of YWHW, the God of Israel. Yet because Israel had bound themselves to that sinful treaty in God's name, they were obligated to abide by it. It mattered not that they'd been lied to and that the premises of the treaty were false. Taking an oath in God's name is a serious commitment. The Israelites found out that day just how serious of a commitment it is. Dig Deeper There's lots of applicable lessons in today's passage. The Gibeonites learned that God's Law is not a tool to manipulate for your own benefit. The Israelites remind us that we should inquire of the Lord even when the path forward seems obvious. But our focus today is to be reminded of the significance of swearing an oath in God's name. This isn't something you face often, but you likely have made such vows at baptisms (either as the parent/recipient, or as a member of the congregation), your profession of faith or even your wedding. There are times, as we noted yesterday, that the government will ask you to invoke God's name to signify your truthfulness. Know that you must do all that you can to fulfill whatever you obligated yourself to in making these oaths, even if you later feel that the other parties misrepresented the premises of the deal. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, whose greatness is seen even by the pagans; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the wisdom to inquire of the Lord no matter how obvious things may seem, and for the strength to fulfill the vows you've made in His name; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Timothy 2