Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 114
1 When Israel came out of Egypt, Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams, the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, sea, that you fled? Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
6 Why, mountains, did you leap like rams, you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.
God is the hero of all the Old Testament. He is the great promise-keeper. The defender and rescuer of His people. He is compassionate. He provided water in the desert. He is the Lord.
Recall the way He is the hero of your life. He rescued you from sin. He is changing your heart. You could not have life without Him.
SCRIPTURE READING:
1 John 5:1-13 – Christian Standard Bible
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him. 2 This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey his commands. 3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, 4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
5 Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 Jesus Christ—he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three are in agreement. 9 If we accept human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about his Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanksgiving to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Join with others from River and pray for the war in Israel. Ask God to bring an end to that war.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
Today, you are officially in between the holidays. Thanksgiving is behind you; Christmas is in front of you. In just a little over four weeks it will be Christmas, and then a new year. How do you feel about the passing of time? Do you find yourself checking off days, seasons, and years like checking a box? Perhaps you have come to the place where you are truly able to live in the day, to say with the Psalmist, “This is the day the Lord has made, let’s be glad and rejoice in it.” (Ps. 118:23). If you have come to that place with some consistency, thanks be to God. If not, that’s okay; let’s look at the context of that verse in the larger Psalm. The psalmist said he cried to the Lord in anguish. He had been surrounded by enemies on all sides. Now he was rejoicing in the day of the Lord’s rescue. This was a real historical event, but it pointed forward to the coming of Christ; it is a Messianic psalm. Let’s take a look at the two preceding verses:
“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”
In Mark 12, Jesus said this Psalm was about him. Ultimately, the day the Lord has made that we are to be glad and rejoice in, is the day that Christ died for us. Some days now are “better” than others in how we experience them or feel about them. It’s normal for human life to have this ebb and flow. Our task as followers of Christ is to call ourselves to be glad, today, that Christ has come. He is the precious capstone, the finale of God’s work in human history. Regardless of what today holds for us, we have reason to rejoice in the DAY of the Lord past and future. The day of the Lord past is when Christ came. The day of the Lord future is when Christ will return. Now on this day between the DAYS, let us rejoice and be glad.