Beware of worship that relies on optics & images. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 98 Q. But may not images be permitted in the churches as teaching aids for the unlearned? A. No, we shouldn’t try to be wiser than God. He wants his people instructed by the living preaching of his Word— not by idols that cannot even talk. Summary The people of Israel really struggled with idolatry. Almost immediately after God had given them the 10 Commandments, they created a golden calf. They went on to worship the bronze snake. They built altars and sacrificed to Baal on them. The list goes on and on. The prophet Habakkuk, along with other prophets, is calling the people out for their false worship. Idolatry is a terrible sin against the Lord, and humanity has been struggling with it since the very beginning. Why did Adam and Eve eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Because they thought they could become like God themselves! There is no value in an idol carved of stone or wood. They are just human made images, that pale in comparison to God Most High. They cannot guide us. They cannot help us. They cannot save us. They are not alive, nor can they give life. Dig Deeper When I was a kid, my Sunday school teachers would use flannelgraphs for Bible lessons. They would pull out the board, and then they would start to read from the Bible. As they read about Moses and the burning bush, they would place a flock of sheep on the board. Then they would place the burning bush. Then they would place Moses on the edge of the board, eventually moving him to the burning bush. It was a fun way to learn Bible stories. Whenever we would study the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) there would not be flannelgraphs for Jesus. My class questioned why. My teacher would refer to question and answers 97 & 98 in the Heidelberg Catechism. God can not and may not being visibly portrayed in any way. What about images to help others learn? No, we should not be wiser than God. Humanity is easily led astray by our desire to be wiser than God. Surely, we think, we can create a picture of Jesus and it will not be an issue. God gave the people a bronze snake to save them from venomous snake bites and they eventually offered incense to that snake. Simple things like a picture of Jesus can lead to idolatry and they are forbidden by the Lord. I’ve been in a church building that had statues of Jesus and the apostles, and sacrifices were being made to those images. God gave his people the second commandment, and it forbids idolatry. While we most often think of idolatry as a golden calf or bronze snake, it can happen with images of Jesus as well. Anything that gets us thinking of God in a way that is contrary to his nature is to be guarded against. Pray that God would reveal the idols that you may be struggling with in your life so that you can worship and serve him alone. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: God Most High, giver of life and eternal life; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask God to reveal the idols that I have in your life so that you can worship and serve God alone. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 2 Corinthians 8

Humanity can't think straight. The first step in salvation is changing that. Listen to passage & devotional: Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 2: The Means by Which We Know God We know him by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20. All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse. Second, he makes himself known to us more openly by his holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for his glory and for the salvation of his own. Summary If you were to survey all of the people you know and ask them what their favorite Bible passage is, it's not likely that any of them would choose this passage. As we've surveyed who and what God is over these last few weeks, we've seen we can take great comfort in our Father, who, as our Confession put it, is the overflowing source of everything good. But although it's probably not anyone's favorite, this warning of God's wrath is one of the Bible's most important and relevant passages. It accurately and succinctly diagnoses mankind's greatest problem. Our problem isn't psychological, sociological, economic or political, it's theological: although God has made Himself plain to us, we suppress that truth by either ignoring it altogether or morphing it into ideas that better fit our sinful agenda. As we've read Psalm 19 and Psalm 8 these last couple of days, we've seen just how clearly God has revealed Himself, in that everything He created has one overarching purpose: to communicate His "invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - [which] have been clearly seen from what has been made, so that all men are without excuse (v20)." In other words, nobody will be able to stand before God in judgment and accuse God of not giving enough evidence of His existence or expectations. Dig Deeper This harsh passage leads to very good news. Nobody ever wants to hear the doctor say the word 'cancer,' but yet knowing exactly where the cancer is enables it to be treated. So it is with being told that "God's wrath is being revealed." It's good news to know that now rather than when you're standing before Him and it's too late to do anything about it. These words help us understand that our problem is not that God hasn't given us sufficient data, but that we have a problem in how we handle and process that data. Since our sinful nature causes us to suppress the truth, our thinking has become futile and our foolish hearts darkened (v21). Left to ourselves, our flawed thinking will always lead us to the wrong conclusions. In theology, we call this the noetic effect of sin. The very first word that Jesus spoke in beginning His earthly ministry reveals the solution to our primary problem. He said, "Repent (Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15)." The word He used is metanoeō, which literally means 'to change your thinking.' Know that the unrepentant world will only keep compounding it's problems as it continues to suppress the truth in unrighteousness, and praise God that His Holy Spirit has regenerated your heart so that you can change your thinking, as you come to truly know Him through His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who has made Himself known to us in His creation; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Repent! Pray that you will change your thinking so that you clearly understand who God is and what His will is; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Mark 13

God uses the Church to enact His sovereign will. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 83 Q. What are the keys of the kingdom? A. The preaching of the holy gospel and Christian discipline toward repentance. Both preaching and discipline open the kingdom of heaven to believers and close it to unbelievers. Summary One of the key moments in the gospels is when Peter realizes that Jesus is no ordinary teacher. Matthew record of Peter's confession comes in chapter 16, and as soon as Peter exclaims that Jesus "is the Christ, the Son of the living God (v16)," Jesus responds by issuing Peter the 'keys of the kingdom.' Be lest we conclude that Jesus was giving this massive power to just one individual, Jesus uses nearly the same phrase over again a couple of chapters later that we read today, this time as a follow up regarding how to handle conflict in the Church, and this time using the word 'you' in plural: 'whatever y'all bind or loose.' When after going through the multiple steps Jesus prescribes, the Church - certainly not the whole church, but even as few as a couple of representatives of it - comes into agreement on a matter of discipline, the matter is as settled (bound) in heaven as it is in the Church. In giving the Church this responsibility, God doesn't provide unlimited power. He preserves His sovereignty over all things, including which individuals will be 'bound' and 'loosed.' R.T. France puts it well, “The fact that God has given his people the role of declaring his will on earth does not mean that he is bound to add his divine sanction to anything they may think up.” Dig Deeper It might seem like we should be taking much more advantage of the promise Jesus makes in v19, that if any two of us agree on anything they jointly ask for in prayer, our Father in heaven will do it for them. We certainly should be taking more advantage of the this promise, but we also better understand the parameters of the promise being made here. First of all, the promise is made in conjunction with the formal administration of the Church, but although this doesn't limit the promise's power just to large group meetings since Jesus applies it to groups as small as two or three, this promise is not meant to guarantee you that when you get together with two or three friends and ask God to grant the Twins or Vikings a championship that God is forced to comply. The key to this promise comes in the phrase "gathered in my name." This means that those who've come together on behalf of the church in prayer are fully aligned with God's will, and therefore will be asking for things that God eagerly desires to provide. What are some of the things that God eagerly desires for your church that you ought to be coming together to ask Him for, especially now that you've been reminded of the promise Jesus made to you? AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who lovingly provides for His Church through His Church; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that as you gather with others from the Church that you will be 'gathering in Jesus' name.' ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 24

(Matt. 5:48, Leviticus 19:2, Deuteronomy 18:13). is that now that "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness" (Rom. 6:18

How do we pay for sin if we can't afford the payment? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 14 Q. Can another creature —any at all— pay this debt for us? A. No. To begin with, God will not punish another creature for what a human is guilty of. Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of God’s eternal anger against sin and release others from it. Summary The book of Leviticus starts off with various offerings the people of Israel must make. There is the burnt offering, grain offering, fellowship offering, sin offering, and guilt offering. These offerings were made by the people of Israel as an act of worship and submission, as an acknowledgment of guilt, and repentance. But none of them could actually atone (make payment) for their sin. While these offerings acknowledged their sin, and may have been an act of repentance, none of them could remove sin from the people. Which makes me wonder how they would have viewed these offerings and sacrifices; These offerings and sacrifices didn't actually remove sin, and they had to be repeated regularly. Did they wonder if there was a way to remove sin? Could the guilt of their sin actually be completely removed? Is grace possible? Or would they still be held accountable to God’s wrath? After all, no mere creature can bear the weight of God’s eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it. Is there a way to remove sin? Is there someone who could possibly bear the weight of God’s eternal wrath against sin? Dig Deeper Today, we do not make burnt offerings, grain offerings, fellowship offerings, sin offerings, nor guilt offerings. There are no stone altars in our sanctuaries. We do not bring bulls, or goats, or doves to worship. There are no priests who stand ready to sacrifice these offerings on the altar for the people of God. Yet, God still requires that his justice be satisfied. If we do not offer sacrifices, how is God’s justice satisfied? Someone must pay the price. The author of Hebrews tells us who that person is: Jesus. Jesus is no mere creature. He is no mere human. Jesus is God made flesh. 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Jesus is the one who paid the price for your sin, so you no longer need to offer sacrifices or make burnt offerings because of Him. Your sin must be accounted for, and Jesus is the one who does that. He did it by taking on flesh and blood, by becoming a human being. No mere creature can bear the weight of your sin; Praise God that Jesus isn't a creature, he is God. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Jesus Christ, you are God. ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank you Jesus for paying the price for my sins. May I live my life as your servant, acknowledging your great sacrifice. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Acts 7

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

John’s prologue (John 1:1-18), builds on the very first statement of Jesus being the Word, speaking of

God's expectations have been clear since day one: Obey Him and live. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 40 Q. Why did Christ have to go all the way to death? A. Because God’s justice and truth demand it: only the death of God’s Son could pay for our sin. Summary When Adam was placed into the Garden of Eden to work the land, God commanded him to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of all the fruit of the trees in the garden, only the fruit of this one tree was forbidden. This was a choice God did not have to give Adam. God could have hidden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil away from Adam, or created Adam without an ability to choose. Yet God did neither of these. Instead, God gave this command and Adam was given a choice between obedience and rebellion. The cost of rebellion was steep, for Adam and all whom he represented, disobedience meant that he would surely die. This consequence would not be an immediate physical death for Adam, but that death would become a certainty. Dig Deeper In Genesis 3 we find the account of the fall, where Adam and Eve as the first humans “fell” from grace through the first act of human disobedience. Despite God’s clear command that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was off-limits and the warning of the consequences of rebellion, they chose to partake of it. With this act of disobedience death began its reign in mankind. The only remedy for the fallen state of mankind is the supervening grace of God. This is why Jesus was born into this world and suffered death, to intervene in the fate of a fallen humanity. With this first act of rebellion came the certainty of death. God’s justice and truth require payment for our debt of sin. And nothing else could pay for our sins except the death of the Son of God. Because of Jesus, the fall is more than the origin story of the misery of mankind and how we came to be in a state of rebellion against God. The fall is part of God’s larger plan of redemption. God certainly didn't want Adam to fail, yet He knew that Adam and Eve would disobey in the garden. This is why a means of grace was already part of God's plan of redemption. Jesus is God’s intervention for a fallen humanity. Only the Son of God could pay our debt of sin. Thank God that Jesus intervenes in humanity’s state of misery, rescuing us from the consequences of our rebellion of sin. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our covenant God, the creator of all that is who has called us to a life of righteousness. ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God that through Christ you've earned everlasting life, and pray for wisdom to fulfill your purpose of ensuring God's creation reflects His holiness. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Matthew 8

Even good & godly things can become idols. What are you tempted to idolize? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 97 Q. May we then not make any image at all? A. God can not and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. Although creatures may be portrayed, yet God forbids making or having such images if one’s intention is to worship them or to serve God through them. Summary After the people of Israel had been wandering in the desert for some time, they became impatient with the Lord. They were sick of eating the same food, and they grew frustrated that God was not immediately taking them to the Promised Land. So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died. The people cried out to God, admitting their sin. God told Moses to create a bronze snake, so that when the people were bitten by a venomous snake, they could look at the bronze snake and be healed (Numbers 21). Seven hundred years later, during the reign of King Hezekiah, the Israelites were burning incense to the bronze snake. You read that correctly, 700 years later the people were burning incense to the same bronze snake that Moses had lifted up in the desert. God had told Moses to make the bronze snake to save the people, and the people ended up burning incense to that snake, turning a symbol of the coming Messiah's salvation into an idol. King Hezekiah came along and destroyed that snake to keep people from falsely worshiping it. Dig Deeper Is there an item in your church building that was donated by someone years ago? Perhaps it has a little plaque by it saying who donated it? Or maybe there is a beautiful tapestry sewn by hand that hangs on a prominent wall. It seems that every church building that is 30+ years old has at least one of those types of items. It was donated at one time, and now it sits there because how do you get rid of something someone donated? We may not worship that item like we worship God, but it may have become sacred. I’ve seen church members leave a church because an item their family donated twenty years ago was being moved to a different place in the building. Something that was meant to honor God has become something that causes division in his church. This is the danger of idolatry and why God has given this commandment. We do not set out to make idols. When Moses made the bronze snake, he did so at God’s command. But over time, these items become sacred, putting them in a place that should only be reserved for God. What item in your church building has become sacred? Is it time to get rid of that item? Would that cause an issue in your congregation? Nothing should be put before the Lord. We are to worship God and serve him alone. The bronze snake - the very symbol of salvation - became an idol to the people of Israel, and it needed to be destroyed. Do not fall into the same trap with an item in your church building. Worship and serve the Lord alone. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Lord of all Creation, nothing is above you; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Lord, what have I placed before you? What it is occupying a place in my heart that should only be reserved for you? ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 2 Corinthians 6

God is invisible, but there is a way you can see Him! 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 The Bible doesn't explain theology in a dull, clinical way detached from the rest of life. Quite the opposite, in fact. If you've read John 1 before, and you likely have, you know that the primary purpose of this passage isn't to catalog just a few more of God's esoteric attributes. Rather, the point of this amazing chapter is to proclaim the good news that God Almighty has become Immanuel and has come to live amongst us! But it's exactly in contexts just like this one that we learn so much about our God and Father! Theology is more than tedious explanations of the divine or a fancy skill that will help you win at Bible trivia; theology is the language and knowledge we use to understand our salvation and then apply it to our daily lives. Near the close of what's come to be known as the prologue to John's gospel, John drops a huge theological nugget, writing that "no one has ever seen God." In other words, God is invisible. 'But wait a second,' you might be thinking, 'what about guys like Abraham and Moses; didn't they encounter God in a way that they could see with their own eyes?' Yes, they did! These encounters are called theophanies, and there's actually lots of examples in the Bible of people seeing a limited aspect of God's presence. But just as Moses couldn't see God's face and live (Exodus 33:20), no one had fully seen God until that first Christmas, when "the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, made Him known. This means that if you truly want to see and know the invisible God, you must know Him through the Word made flesh - Jesus. Dig Deeper Most people have packed up and moved on past Christmas by now. The discarded wrapping paper has been picked up, the gifts already forgotten, and the brief spiritual highs experienced at Christmas church services has faded away. To most, God remains invisible, and will stay so until they stand before Him in judgment. They can't see the beauty of how His law guides our lives, and they certainly don't know how His salvation frees us from our slavery to sin. Maybe they saw a momentary glimpse of the light during Christmas, but their lives are already dark again. Don't be one of these people! Do the hard work of knowing Christ each and every day of the year. Keep reading the Bible; keep making time during the day to disconnect from the noise to pray and think; keep gathering with God's people on the Lord's Day to hear His Word proclaimed. This is theology: living in the light of God's presence made visible through the Word. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, invisible to most, but made known through the grace and truth of His Word; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the strength and energy to do the hard work necessary to see God everyday this year as you read & listen to His Word; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Mark 4