For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Gal. 4
“Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them.” (Gal. 4:17). Wow – what a relevant statement for today! False teachers in and out of the Church are nothing new. And, sadly, they will be around until the end. It is Satan’s mission to draw people away from God and he works that mission with gusto. Paul’s pleas to the churches in his letters give us clues as to how to recognize such false teachers. And I see a couple of those clues in this statement.
The first big red flag here is the alienation. God’s kingdom is not about division, but about unity. Unity in the truth, of course, but division is never the goal. As ambassadors of Christ, our goal is not to divide and conquer. On the contrary, our goal is to point the way for people to obtain unity with God. The false teachers, however, seek to draw people away from whatever does not agree with their message.
That brings us to the second red flag. The false teacher’s desire is that you have zeal for them. They want you to believe and embrace what they want. They want you to accept and support what they declare to be true. The difference here is that their version of ‘truth’ points to them, rather than to God. Any message that does not have God as the sovereign center, the standard for righteousness and justice, is simply the wrong message. That has nothing to do with what any of us desire. It is simply God’s truth.
It is important that we learn to discern these false teachers and their false messages. We must not allow ourselves to be drawn away from God. He is the God who created us, who loves us, and who saves us. He is God and there is no other.
2 Sam. 23-24
David’s mighty men remind us that greatness is a team effort. Who are your “mighty men” (or women) that help and sustain you? Oh, wow – I never noticed before! Uriah the Hittite, the man David had killed over Bathsheba, was one of David’s thirty mighty men!! That pretty much confirms my suspicion that David and Bathsheba knew each other before their indiscretion. And it further illuminates just how far the human heart will go when we take our focus off God and get ourselves into a desperate situation.
And yet David said, “If my house were not right with God, surely He would not have made with me an everlasting covenant”. (2 Sam. 23:5a). David was surely not the one who made his house right with God! It was God’s mercy and forgiveness that did that. However, it was David’s humbled heart and his trust in God’s character that allowed God to pour out His forgiveness and mercy on David. David, like all who belong to God, believed in God’s promise and was saved.
Ps. 62
What does it look like for you to find rest in God? What keeps you from it? David answered the question of what it means to find rest in God. “Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him.” (Ps. 62:1). This is the whole point of the Bible! Salvation comes from God. It is not based on our own efforts. We enter God’s rest when we acknowledge that truth, set our own efforts aside, and put our trust in Him. As David said, “My salvation and my honor depend on God” (Ps. 62:5a). Nothing else, just God. So rest.