NKJV Daily Bible reading in Idaho Falls

1.  The LORD tells Moses,

Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel (Deut. 31:19)

Young Ali and Christina in Idaho Falls are currently singing a new song, “The Same Way,” on youtube to prove a point about bullying at the local high schools.  What new songs in our relationship to God should we be writing and singing in town? 

2.  “So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, ‘Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there as a witness against you; for I know your rebellion and your stiff neck” (Deut. 31:24-27).

Do you believe that Moses wrote the Pentateuch?

3.  How much do you love Jesus?

Therefore I say to you, her sins which are many, are forgiven, for she loves much.  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little (Luke 7:47).

Holy Week in Idaho Falls (1)

Did you see the King on Palm Sunday? (Psalm 72, Zechariah 9, Matthew 21)

Did you see His justice?  He thrashed the greedy in the temple.  The materialism was sickening.  When it came down to it, the temple in town was all about money.  There was no gospel about it.  And literally, the King kicked their butts.

Did you see His deliverance?  The holy, just King has the right to condemn us all.  You and I have gone AWOL.  But rather than let us be destroyed, He threw his perfect body on the grenade.  The King became the sacrificial Lamb.

Did you see His poverty?  The King came poor.  He didn’t come riding in on the Presidential, custom-designed, Cadillac limousine nicknamed “The Beast”.  He actually rode a beast, a colt, the foal of a donkey.  He is far below us and our socio-economic status of middle class and wealthy.  He visited our churches yesterday as a man from the homeless shelter, the local City of Refuge.  He is a Champion of the poor and afflicted.  And on Palm Sunday, He displayed the Kingdom’s health care plan.

Did you see His peace?  The King has authority in his spoken Word.  He just has to speak it, and peace will permeate the globe.

What kind of Jesus do you see in Idaho Falls?

Would you be seeing this?

A nice, middle-class American Jesus.  A Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have.  A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationship so that he receives all our affection.  A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are.  A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger altogether.  A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream.

But do you and I realize what we are doing at this point?  We are molding Jesus into our image.  He is beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with.  And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible.  Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.”

– Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (2010) by David Platt

The book is in the Idaho Falls Library – the number is 261.1097 PLATT.

Easter is comin’ to Idaho Falls (3)

“When Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning, he rose as the beginning of the new world that Israel’s God had always intended to make.  That is the first and perhaps the most important thing to know about the meaning of Easter. . . .

“The power that has tyrannized the old creation has been broken, defeated, overthrown.  God’s kingdom is now launched, and launched in power and glory, on earth as in heaven. . . .

“This is the real beginning of the kingdom.  Jesus’s risen person–body, mind, heart, soul–is the prototype of the new creation.  We have already seen him as the Temple in person, as the jubilee in person.  Now we see him as the new creation in person. . . .

“Here, then, is the message of Easter, or at least the beginning of that message.  The resurrection of Jesus doesn’t mean, ‘It’s all right.  We’re going to heaven now.’  No, the life of heaven has been born on this earth.  It doesn’t mean, “So there is a life after death.”  Well, there is, but Easter says much, much more than that.  It speaks of a life that is neither ghostly or unreal, but solid and definite and practical.  The Easter stories come at the end of the four gospels, but they are not about an ‘end.’  They are about a beginning.  The beginning of God’s new world.  The beginning of the kingdom.  God is now in charge, on earth as in heaven.  And God’s ‘being-in-charge’ is focused on Jesus himself being king and Lord.  The title on the cross was true after all.  The resurrection proves it.” (Simply Jesus, N.T. Wright)