FOC777

Let us be ready for the Day of the LORD!

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

The hymn, “Lift High the Cross,” contains an image that is rooted in the Old Testament and reflected in the book of Revelation:

“All newborn soldiers of the Crucified
Bear on their brows the seal of him who died.”

On their brows, their foreheads, Christians bear the seal of Christ. Where does this image come from?

One place is Ezekiel 9, one of the chapters we read today in Bible in One Year.

Ezekiel sees a man with a writing case who is commanded to go through Jerusalem and “put a mark on the foreheads” of those who grieve over the abominations committed in the city (9:4). Those bearing this mark are spared from the judgment that follows.

The Hebrew word translated “mark” is tav, which is also the name of the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the ancient Hebrew script, the tav could be shaped like an X or a cross.

This idea of being shielded by a mark goes back even further to the Passover. The Israelites marked the doorposts and lintels of their homes with the blood of the Passover lamb. When the LORD saw the blood, he passed over those homes and spared them from the destroyer (Exodus 12:7, 13, 23).

Then, in Revelation, this imagery appears again. God's servants are sealed on their foreheads before judgment falls (Revelation 7:3). Later, John sees the Lamb standing on Mount Zion with his people, who have “his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (14:1). Finally, in the new creation, God's servants “will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (22:4).

From Passover to Ezekiel, to Revelation runs the same beautiful imagery: God marks his people as his own.

We belong to the Lamb. We bear the name of God for we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).

We are, as the hymn puts it, marked with “the seal of him who died" for us, the Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Sin's Wages in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 5-7. Head to https://t.co/yx8iSt6woV for the reading guide and to catch up on previous posts from the Bible in One Year series.
Happy Studying! #BibleinOneYear #Biblestudy

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Claire met Shane in a university class. He was a bit older and rougher around the edges. One day, after many long conversations, they discovered they both knew the same man.

Claire knew him as Granddad. Shane, who had gotten mixed up with a bad crowd years before, knew him as Judge O’Connor.

Both knew the same man, but in very different ways.

This story, fictional though it is, reflects life. There is more than one way we can get to know someone, including the divine Someone.

Around sixty times in Ezekiel, we encounter the phrase, “You shall know that I am the LORD.”

How do they know him? That depends.

In Ezekiel 6 and 7, which we read today in Bible in One Year, the Israelites will get to know the LORD as the almighty Judge who brings down the hammer of covenant curses upon them after centuries of rebellion. This is getting to know the Lord the hard way: according to the law, judgment, and painful discipline.

Elsewhere, they know him as the God who resurrects Israel from the grave of exile, repopulates the land, and shows mercy to his people (Ezekiel 36–37). This is getting to know the same Lord according to grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

We get to know God in much the same twofold, law-and-Gospel sort of way.

In my own life, I have gotten to know God as the Father who disciplines me for my good, who has used pain and shame and the destruction of my life like a trumpet blast to awaken me from stupidity and spiritual stupor, that I might repent and find in him the forgiveness he grants for the sake of Christ.

I know this same God as the kind and merciful Father who welcomes sinners home with open arms, who will never bring up our trespasses again, who has sent his Son to absorb all those evils into his crucified body and leave them buried in his borrowed tomb.

Because he is all-wise, all-good, and all-loving, our heavenly Father reveals himself to us, lets us get to know him, in ways that are sometimes painful, sometimes compassionate, but always to remove from us whatever stands in the way of finding wholeness and peace and maturity in Christ.

[Maddie Evans @EstieMaddie]

✝️ SOMETIMES 1 SINGLE WORD TRANSLATED IN THE BIBLE CAN HAVE INCREDIBLY DEEP MEANING.

🙏🏼 I did some research and the core of this video is absolutely true.. the two words are two DIFFERENT types of worms.. JESUS statement had just ONE WORD that was different and it COMPLETELY changes the meaning!

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

When it comes to news reports, we may choose to believe or disbelieve them, or remain neutral toward them. The same goes for any number of topics, stories, or claims.

But when it comes to God and his word, there are only two options. And we see both in the chapters we read today in Bible in One Year: John 9 and Ezekiel 3.

In John 9, the man who had been blind believes Jesus and becomes his follower. The Pharisees do the opposite. They reject Jesus and refuse to believe what is right before their eyes. The responses could hardly be more different.

We see the same thing in Ezekiel 3.

After Ezekiel eats the scroll of God’s word, inwardly digesting that word, he is told to speak it to Israel. But God warns him that “the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me” (Ezekiel 3:7). They have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.

Nevertheless, Ezekiel is to go and say, “Thus says the Lord GOD,” whether they hear or refuse to hear (3:11). As a watchman for Israel, his calling is to speak God’s word, whether his hearers believe or disbelieve.

It is no different today.

We can believe or disbelieve the word of God. We can embrace it or reject it. The one thing we cannot do is remain neutral toward it. To claim neutrality is itself to reject what God has spoken.

The strange characteristic of fallen humanity is that God has given us every reason to believe his word, yet we come up with every conceivable excuse not to hear it.

Therefore, let us learn to pray with Samuel, “Speak, for your servant hears” (1 Samuel 3:10).

Lord, give us ears to hear, hearts to believe, mouths to confess, and hands and feet to walk in your paths. May your word be upon our lips when we lie down and rise, when we sit at home and walk along the way (Deuteronomy 6:7).

May your word have its way with us, always leading us, in Christ and by the power of the Spirit, to you, our heavenly Father.

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Blind Man, Living Parable, John 9. Dive into the Bible in One year series at https://t.co/yx8iSt5Yzn for the reading guide and to catch up on previous posts. #BibleInOneYear #BibleStudy

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Was blind but now I see, John 8. Head to https://t.co/yx8iSt5Yzn for the reading guide and to catch up on previous posts from the Bible in One Year series.
Happy Studying! #BibleinOneYear #Biblestudy

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

A young girl at church once asked me what advice I would give my younger self. I told her: spend more time in the Word of God. She smiled and said, “That’s what a lot of people say.”

I’m glad they do. It’s good counsel whether you’re young or old. Feast all you can on God’s Word.

Amos 8, which we covered today in Bible in One Year, speaks of “a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” In judgment, God withdraws his prophets so that people search north, south, east, and west for someone to proclaim his Word, and find no one.

Now that is not our problem. We live with an embarrassment of riches: Bibles everywhere, high literacy rate, Scripture on our phones, and audio Bibles for those who prefer to listen to the Word.

Access to God’s Word is not our issue. What is? Appetite.

Our lack is not availability, but desire, a hunger for the Scriptures.

So I say this as much to myself as to anyone else: let us pray that the Spirit would kindle in us a ravenous longing for God’s Word, so that we live by every Word that comes from the mouth of our Father, that we daily feast on the bread of life he gives.

As we take in this life-giving Word, we will be filled with forgiveness, life, peace, and hope in Jesus Christ.
_____
For more information on Bible in One Year and to sign up, visit https://t.co/XxNvEtOeWM

[Adam | Faithful Messenger @Adam_FaithfulM]

"Everyone will be salted with fire."

Jesus said it. Then He said nothing more about it.

One sentence, dropped in the middle of one of the hardest passages in Mark's Gospel, and most people have no idea what it means.

Here's the context nobody reads. Jesus has just finished warning about hell: "where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48). Cut off your hand. Tear out your eye. Whatever drags you toward that fire, get rid of it.

And then, immediately: "For everyone will be salted with fire."

Everyone. Not just the condemned. The disciples too. You too.

So what is salt, and why fire?

In the ancient world, salt did three things, and every Jewish listener knew all three.

Salt preserved. No refrigeration. Meat that wasn't salted rotted. Salt was the difference between food that lasted and food that decayed.

Salt purified. Elisha threw salt into the poisoned spring at Jericho and the water was healed (2 Kings 2:21).

Salt sealed a covenant. God commanded: "With all your offerings you shall offer salt... the salt of the covenant" (Leviticus 2:13). Every sacrifice on the altar was salted before it burned. Some ancient manuscripts of Mark 9:49 even add that line: "and every sacrifice will be salted with salt."

Now put it together.

Fire in Scripture is what tests and refines: "He is like a refiner's fire" (Malachi 3:2). Peter tells Christians not to be surprised "at the fiery trial when it comes upon you" (1 Peter 4:12).

So here's what Jesus is saying: there are two fires, and you will meet one of them.

One fire consumes. The other fire salts it, preserves you, purifies you, and marks you as a sacrifice belonging to God.

You don't get to skip the fire. Nobody does. Everyone will be salted with it. The only question is what the fire does to you.

If you're a disciple, the flames that feel like they're destroying you are doing something else entirely. They're burning off what would rot you. They're keeping you from decay. They're the salt of the covenant on the offering of your life.

That's why Jesus finishes with this: "Have salt in yourselves" (v.50).

Your suffering is not the fire of judgment.

It's the fire that keeps you.

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

God's Plan A for Gentiles, Amos 9. Dive into the Bible in One year series at https://t.co/yx8iSt5Yzn for the reading guide and to catch up on previous posts. #BibleInOneYear #BibleStudy

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

If you want to understand the tough and stern sermons preached by the prophets, then understand this: they are preaching the Scriptures to their people.

Prophets like Amos, whose book we are reading in Bible in One Year, knew the Torah. They knew the covenant God had made with Israel, including the blessings promised for faithfulness and the curses threatened for rebellion.

So when Amos threatens Israel with impending judgment, this is not God flying off the handle and coming up with creative ways to make life miserable for his people. No, Amos is drawing directly from the covenant curses already spelled out in passages like Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.

For instance, in Amos 4:6–11, the calamities God brings upon Israel are sevenfold: famine, drought, blight and mildew, locusts, plagues, the sword, and complete overthrow. Seven calamities for a nation whose rebellion against God and his covenant was complete.

But here is the part that should slap us awake, get our attention. Five times, woven through these disasters, the same refrain resounds: “Yet you did not return to me, declares the LORD.”

I don’t know that I can imagine a sadder or clearer example of just how mulishly stubborn the sinful the human heart can be. Again and again, God disciplined Israel, and again and again, what did they do? They hardened their heart and turned their back on the Lord.

Finally, God says, “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” (Amos 4:12).

These blunt words remind us of two truths. First, God is not joking when he threatens to punish sinners. Second, the Lord does not give up on them.

That’s what the repeated refrain reveals. God wanted Israel to return to him. That’s why he disciplined them. That’s why he sent Amos to preach to them.

He’s not out for blood. He’s out for reconciliation.

Behind the stern preaching of the law is the heart of a Father who sees his children walking a path that ends in misery and death and calls them back. And when the sinner finally returns, we discover the same God that Jesus shows us in the parable of the prodigal son: a father running to meet his lost child, followed by forgiveness, joy, and a feast.

[Janice @Janice_LaRue2]

@McelwaneyW14975

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

*Jesus, friend of sinners, wreck our selfish hearts and rebuild them to reflect the love for sinners that you exemplify.

*Jesus, seeker of the lost, transform us into disciples who rejoice to pursue those in need of mercy.

*Jesus, head of the church, remake us, your body, to embody your love for all, no matter whether they sin in the same way that we do or differently.

*Jesus, have mercy and make us bearers of your mercy to the world.

Amen.

[YoungHoon Kim @yhbryankimiq]

Jesus died for you.

He is alive for you.

100%

[Pastor West @Pastor__West]

If you ever feel like God is not with you, read this verse:

ISAIAH 46:3-4 "I have carried you since you were born; I have taken care of you from your birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair has turned gray, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you. I will carry you and save you"🥺

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

When we are beat up and beat down by the consequences of our sinful actions, when we wonder if God is for us or against us, remember these words from Lamentations 3:

"For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men."

In Christ, God is always for us.

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Amos' Sneak Attack, Amos 1-2. Head to https://t.co/yx8iSt6woV for the reading guide and to catch up on previous posts from the Bible in One Year series.
Happy Studying! #BibleinOneYear #Biblestudy

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Great is They Faithfulness, Lamentations 3. Dive into the Bible in One year series at https://t.co/yx8iSt5Yzn for the reading guide and to catch up on previous posts. #BibleInOneYear #BibleStudy

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

It was like I woke up from a nightmare in a dark jungle. But the nightmare continued. Disoriented. In shock. I looked for something familiar, grasped for something immovable, but found only a lightless labyrinth of perilous paths that led me I knew not where.

Such was my unwelcome introduction to the shadowlands of grief.

We all must sojourn there at some point in our lives. Usually, it is the loss of one we love that relocates us there. But not always. We can mourn many things beloved, precious, meaningful to us. It's not just caskets of human corpses that contain shards of our broken hearts.

In Lamentations, which we are reading in Bible in One Year, our eyes scan verbs splattered with the blood of the slain, nouns dripping tears, adjectives black from the burning of Jerusalem. It is a tough few chapters to read.

But Lamentations is both necessary and instructive, a guide through the jungle of grief.

Lamentations gives us permission to grieve vocally. To open our mouths and uncage all the emotions roaring within us. To pray ferocious and fearful and broken and faithful prayers to the only God with ears to hear.

What is not obvious in English, but evident in Hebrew, is that the first four chapters of Lamentations are acrostic poems, following the steady, predictable structure of the alphabet. The alphabet acts as a guide through the bewilderment of grief, a hand to hold as we slog through the mud and muck of pain. The Hebrew equivalents of A to B to C and finally to Z, then back again.

When you find yourself in that unwelcome place of grief, remember that Jesus is no advocate of Stoic philosophy. He has come to us as our fellow human being, who prayed with loud cries and tears, lamented and bled from the cross, as he absorbed our pain, suffering, and grief into himself.

Then he stepped forth from that vacated tomb to declare that even over the shadowlands of grief and the jungle of pain, he stands as King, shepherding us once more into the land of hope and resurrection.

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Where is the Lord’s Supper in John's Gospel?

Matthew, Mark, and Luke have their institution narratives, where Jesus takes the bread and says, “This is my body.” He takes the cup and says, “This is my blood.”

What about John?

John records Jesus’ teaching about the Lord’s Supper in John 6, which we read today in Bible in One Year.

Having just fed the five thousand, Jesus begins talking about the manna God gave Israel in the wilderness. Then he points to himself as “the living bread that came down from heaven.” He says, “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51).

Then he doubles down: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (6:54). His flesh is “true food,” and his blood is “true drink” (6:55).

Is Jesus talking about believing in him? For sure. Eating the Bread of Life is closely associated with coming to Jesus and believing in him. But that is not opposed to the Lord’s Supper.

Someone might object that Jesus had not yet instituted the Lord’s Supper when he spoke these words. True for the original audience. But Jesus was speaking to all generations, not just to those who were there that day.

John is writing his Gospel for Christians who had been celebrating the Lord’s Supper year after year, who knew by heart the words of institution. So it was just as impossible for them to hear John 6 and not think of the Supper as it is for us to hear Jesus tell Nicodemus about being born from above by water and the Spirit and not think of baptism.

Jesus fulfills the Old Testament pattern where God gave gifts through food: the Tree of Life, manna, the Passover lamb, the Bread of the Presence.

Now Jesus says his flesh is our food, and his blood is our drink.

It is forgiveness food. Everlasting-life food. Resurrection food.

Why? Because this food is Jesus’ body and blood, crucified and resurrected for us, that we might abide in him and he in us.