Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 11 Q.

[and] death reigned through that one man (v16-17)." ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Mark 15

In fact, Jesus' words in Matthew 22:39 appear to come as a direct quote of Leviticus 19:18. When considering what it means to love your neighbor, much of what is described in Leviticus 19 falls When you have time, read Leviticus 19:9-19 again, it essentially contains a list of what NOT to do if

A Psalm of David. 1      I waited patiently for the L ORD ; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. 14       Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who seek to destroy my life; Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor Who wish me evil. 15       Let them be confounded because of 17       But I am  poor and needy; Yet  the L ORD thinks upon me. But all people are obliged to join and unite with it, keeping the unity of the church by submitting to

A song. 1  God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2  Therefore He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. 10  He says, But it is spread and dispersed throughout the entire world, though still joined and united in heart (v7 & 11). :18).

Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 127 Q. What does the sixth request of the Lord's prayer mean? A. In John 3, Jesus told him, 14  Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15  that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

Having your sins washed away is not just a figure of speech! 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 The Apostle Paul is speaking these words to a large crowd in Jerusalem after having been placed under arrest for his own protection from this same crowd who wanted to kill him. He tells his amazing Damascus Road experience, where he was instantly converted to Christ while traveling to persecute Christians. The bright light Paul encountered had blinded him, and after Jesus finished speaking to him from the light, Paul was brought to the house of a man named Ananias. He restored Paul's sight, and commissioned him to be Christ's witness to all people. Ananias' words to Paul were straightforward and to the point, giving Paul four instructions: Get up: Paul has just gone through a massive experience that knocked him down physically, emotionally and especially spiritually. But Ananias has no time to sit around contemplating what just happened when there's so much work for Paul to get done. Be baptized: We've been seeing these last few days that baptism is a sign and seal of the promises Christians have in Christ, so it makes sense that all new Christians be initiated with this sacrament. Wash your sins away: I wonder what Paul, a brand new Christian at this point, thought of this instruction. As a devout Jew, he would have been very familiar with the concept of the forgiveness of sins, but for him such an action was always connected to sacrifices made in the temple, although the process there did involve ceremonial washings. I wonder if he instantly remembered David's confession and plea to God in Psalm 51:2 to wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin? I wonder if he connected the concept of baptism and washing away sin? [Continue] calling on His name: It's not the hard work Paul would put in nor the baptism he received that would enable his sins to be washed away and his mission to be completed. Paul would need to fully depend on Christ, not just at the beginning of his career, but every moment along the way. Dig Deeper We often use the phrase 'wash your sins away' in a strictly metaphorical sense. Obviously we don't take a scrub brush and power washer to a person. We've also been reminded now that the physical experience of baptism is just a sign - a reminder of the washing away of sins that we've experienced. But be sure to hold these metaphors in tension. The reason we baptize a person with real water, rather than just talking about it, is because we want to demonstrate that the person has undergone a real washing. Part of our problem is that we tend to view our physical selves as being 'real,' while we consider our spiritual selves as something less than that. We know our spiritual self certainly isn't imaginary, but we often consider it as something different, or even less, than being 'real.' But that's not the case. Your spiritual self is just as real as your hand is in front of your face, and baptism - real, flowing water - is there to remind you that having been initiated into Christ, your whole self - body and soul - has been washed clean and made acceptable to God. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: The God of our fathers, who has revealed His will and has sent His Righteous One; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you, having been baptized in Christ, will continue calling on His name; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 6

BibleHub.com Jonah 4 (NASB95) 1 But it (Nineveh's repentance) greatly displeased Jonah and he became And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” 10 Then the LORD said, “You had compassion you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons God then forgave and withheld destruction from the more than 120,000 people of Nineveh.

Baptism doesn't make you a Christian, it's always been a core part of Christianity. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 71 Q. Where does Christ promise that we are washed with his blood and Spirit as surely as we are washed with the water of baptism? A. In the institution of baptism where he says: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” This promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism the washing of rebirth and the washing away of sins. Summary Matthew’s Gospel closes with Jesus giving the Great Commission to the Disciples. This passage has been quoted as the rallying cry behind countless outreach and discipleship efforts. While commanding the eleven remaining disciples to go and make more disciples, Jesus teaches them how to do this: by baptizing and teaching. Dig Deeper Jesus’ command to baptize new disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit was taken seriously by the first disciples. In the history of the Christian Church, there is no time that we are aware of where the people of God were without baptism. On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit poured out on the Disciples, Peter preached what is considered the first Christian sermon. This is the response of the crowd and Peter’s reply from Acts 2:37-38: When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thousands came to faith in Christ that day and what was it they were commanded to do? Repent and be baptized. From the beginning, the Church has taken Jesus’ command to baptize seriously. It would be hard to deny that there has been a cultural shift in the United States in the last few decades. With the rise of the “nones” (those without a declared faith), there is an increasing number of people in the United States who are not baptized. As the Church reaches out to these people groups, the discussion around baptism will grow ever more important. Are we, the Body of Christ, ready for those discussions? If you have never been baptized yourself, what is holding you back from taking this step of faith? If you have been baptized, do you feel prepared to share the significance of baptism with someone who asks? AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who has equipped us His children and commissions us to gather those He's called into His Kingdom; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for your baptism, or if you haven't been baptized, pray that you will step forward and request it; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 2

Jesus looks at two extremes when it comes to keeping God's law and says 'Nope.' Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 62 Q. Why can’t the good we do make us right with God, or at least help make us right with him? A. Because the righteousness which can pass God’s scrutiny must be entirely perfect and must in every way measure up to the divine law. Even the very best we do in this life is imperfect and stained with sin. Summary The Sermon on the Mount comes near the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry, and right out of the gate He seeks to squelch the two biggest misunderstandings that people would have about Him. He begins by stating that He in no way, shape or form will be an excuse for sinners who seek to abolish God's Law. The latest incarnation of this in our own society comes from those who seek to pit Jesus' love against God's law by claiming that it's unloving, and therefore un-Christlike, to uphold Biblical standards that come into conflict with people's personal choices. Jesus lays out a stern warning to those who set aside even the least of God's commands, stating that they will be "called least in the Kingdom of Heaven." Next Jesus calls out those on the opposite end of the spectrum: those who think they're so high and mighty and righteous that they can ride their own awesome law keeping efforts right into the Kingdom of Heaven. Not so fast, warns Jesus. If this is your plan, your righteousness better far exceed the pseudo-righteousness of the Pharisees. But these super-duper rule followers were so hung up in dotting the i's and crossing the t's that Jesus mentioned in v18 that they missed the righteousness of God standing right in front of them. Trying to make yourself right with God on your own is hopeless. If this were the extent of Jesus' ministry, the gospel would be hopeless! Thank God it's not! Dig Deeper Last week we focused on one of the pillars of Reformed theology known as Sola Fide, a Latin phrase that simply means Faith Alone. By this we mean that you are made right with God solely because your faith in Christ and not because of works or rule keeping. But this understanding, while good, needs to be nuanced a bit. You actually are saved by works. God will not set aside His holy, righteous and perfect standards. The nuance comes in that you are not saved by your own works, rather you are saved by Christ's perfect obedience which has been credited to you. God's law must be kept - down to the smallest letter and the least stroke of a pen. Nobody born in Adam had the ability to keep this law since we were all conceived and born in sin, but Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, could and did. We'll spend most of the second half of 2023 looking at how you, as one who "can pass God's scrutiny" because you've been included in Christ, now relate to God's law. But suffice it to say for now, that although you are certainly saved by faith alone, you are not saved by a faith that is alone. As we'll see on Friday, true faith and trust in Christ produces a strong desire to live according to all of God's good and perfect law. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who defines goodness, holiness and righteousness and communicates them in His law; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that as your faith in Christ alone increases, that so will your desire to live according to God's law; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Ephesians 4