Today’s Scripture: Psalms 97 & Exodus 17:1-7 and Hebrews 3:7-11

Good morning, Beloved,

Before we begin our study on Psalm 97, I wanted to share a little treasure I found,


Psalms 96-98 are similar in that each celebrate God’s coming as the world’s King, but Psalm 96 and Psalm 98 focus on what is in store for this world when God returns, while Psalm 97 emphasizes The Lord's attributes.



I loved how these 3 psalms we'll be studying together this week are actually connected. This psalm easily boasts of Jehovah's greatness, but it was verse 7 in this Psalm that grabbed my attention, but let us first start at the beginning for I’d like you to notice how the writer has ‘sandwiched’ verse 7 into this psalm. 

"The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!

Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around.

His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.








Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O Lord.

For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.

O you who love the Lord, hate evil.He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,and give thanks to his holy name!" (Ps. 97:1-12)




I found it odd that being sandwiched in this amazing psalm was verse 7, "All who worship idols are put to shame, those who boast in idols - worship Him..."

Psalm 97 sets up a great argument as to why we should be put to shame for trusting in any idols, but do we? I clearly believe the writer was attempting to address those who worshiped carved wooden images, but I believe there are unseen idols that vie for our attention everyday!

Idol is defined as a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered.

Tim Keller states in his book Counterfeit Gods, an idol is “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.”

Bottom line, an idol can be anything that takes the place of God as the most important focus and priority in our life.

Below is a list of a few "idols" that instantly came to mind, (probably because I find myself having to deal with them at times), but this is definitely not an exhausted list. Feel free to share other idols that come to your mind with us.

1.) Self - Those struggling with this idol filter everything through the lens of how it affects them rather than if it's God will or not. We can become embarrassed, angry when our so called rights are impacted, etc. We can look at our schedule first rather than seek God’s will when asked to do something. 

2.) Others Approval - God created as social beings, to live in an interdependent community with one another. Therefore, it’s normal to want to belong. The problem arises, however, when we place our desire to be liked above our relationship with God, and we are held back from doing or saying something we clearly know God has called us to because we fear how others will react.

3.) Relationships - Spouses, Parents, Children, Friends, etc. Trouble arises when we look to others to meet the void in our heart that is only meant to be filled by God, Himself. God is infinite and we are finite. God cannot fail, but people often will. God's love is unconditional, where we often place conditions on our love for others. I could go on, but the bottom line is, when we look to others to fill our needs, we are setting ourselves up for disappointments, but The Lord has promised us that He will never fail us. If we look to Him to fill us up then we can go meet the needs of others together.

4.) Success - We often, when meeting someone for the first time, seek to find out what they do, but truly our worth should be in Christ alone. Our worth is not found in what we do, but in who we are - a daughter of the King.

5.) Wealth - What we own; money, home(s), possessions. Yet, all could be wiped out tomorrow. I'm not saying we should not save for the future, but that it should not be where we place our trust.

6.) Health - down through the centuries it has been believed that we are blessed if we have great health, and it's good to do what we can to improve our health. Increased strength and energy often leads to enhanced productivity. The problem arises when wellness shifts from a tool to an object of our worship.

7.) Comfort - This one can take on a large realm of possibilities, from talking to friends rather than crossing the isle to welcome a stranger, to vacationing at the beach rather than going to help with disaster relief efforts... you get the picture. We like comfort, but it can become a problem when it prevents us from stepping out to do what God has called us to do.

I've given you seven, but there are many more idols that don't take on any tangible form, but are just as dangerous. I believe Jesus is the anecdote for every idol that seeks to control our heart and affections. The more we lean into Him, prioritize our time with Him, and surrender to Him, the more He fills our hearts with good things so that there is no room for anything else.

So, let me ask you...

_ From the list above which one or ones do you most struggle with?

_ What consumes your time each day?

_ What can you begin to do to tear down the idols in your life?

Let's Pray:

O Father, first of all forgive me for the idols that have taken up space in my heart where only You should be! Forgive me for the times, I've failed to do the things You clearly called me to do because of the idols I've given precedence to. O Father, You are mighty, God Most High and above all the earth. May you reign in my heart as You reign over all creation. May You fill my heart with all of Your being so that there cannot be any room for anything else and together, may we go bless this world. Amen.

Blessings,

Sue

After the Sadducees try and fail to trip Jesus up, the Pharisees decide to step up and have a go at it by asking Jesus a question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:36-40).

Jesus hadn’t even hesitated a moment to answer.  And of course the Pharisees had to have known this verse, for they prided themselves on observing the Law. Jesus was quoting from the Shema; a prayer that was prayed each day in the morning and evening by all, and by doing so, Jesus now left them exposed and vulnerable!

The Pharisees over the centuries had lost sight of the very "heart of the matter"! They had become so in love with following the exact letter of the Law, they forgot the Lawgiver! They actually forgot what loving God looked like! And without love for God, the external observance of the Law became an empty form of religion.

Jesus goes on to warn them specifically of this danger in the following chapter: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:25-26). It's a matter of the heart!!

What did Jesus say exactly?  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).  Heart and soul and mind are not three distinct pieces of us, but together they make up our entire being, for they all point to who we really are.  So let me ask you the same questions the iWorship Bible asked us this morning,

• The heart is our emotions, our feelings of joy and gladness, and also despair and sadness: Is your affection for the Lord genuine? Wholehearted? Halfhearted? Or an even smaller fraction of what they once were?
• The soul is our activities- eating, sleeping, working and family life: Is your soul sold out for God throughout your day? Do you truly trust Him for eternal life?
• The mind is quite simply our intellectual activities- thinking and learning (centering our thoughts around Him): Are your thoughts subject to the omniscient One? Do you thirst for His truth and for Him who is our source of knowledge?

Jesus tells us that “[to love God] is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:38).  It is first and greatest in that it represents the heart-beat of all the commandments. Everything we do should derive from a heart of love. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15).  He doesn’t want our obedience coming from a sense of obligation or anything else, but purely from a heart that is wholly in love with Him!

Really loving God means honoring Him, revering Him, and paying close attention to all He desires in His Word out of a desire to please Him.

BUT He didn’t stop there!

He went on to add something more to the greatest Commandment: “The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself'” (Matthew 22:39).  John in the book of First John explained it this way: “We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19-21).

Therefore, loving God empowers us to love others. They go hand and hand! 

When you read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) last week, did you feel as though you were falling short? Did you wonder how you could fulfill all Christ Jesus was commanding us to do in those chapters? You and I can’t ever measure up. There is no way we could possibly fulfill all of that consistently on our own! But there is One who can!

Jesus confided in His disciples just before He was arrested that He was going to send us a Helper:

“If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” – John 14:15-21

Jesus loved us perfectly and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20).  He came and saved us when we were helpless to save ourselves (Romans 5:6-10).  And now, when we set our hearts to love and follow Him, we are not only united to Him, but transformed so that we can imitate His love towards others, and “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Through Jesus we not only receive the understanding of God’s will, but the power and desire to follow Him and love our neighbors. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**What exactly does it look like to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind"? This past week I asked the Lord for a verse, or passage of Scripture that best demonstrated to us exactly what it means, and how it's suppose to look to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind! I was surprised by His answer, for it was a passage I was familiar with, but had never connected the two before!! It's too much to adequately describe it for you here, so I'm sharing it through a video on Women in the Word Facebook page. I hope you'll join me there today to learn exactly what it means to love Him in such a way!**

Blessings!

Sue

One of the greatest benefits of reading through the New Testament as we’re doing this fall is getting a clearer picture of the timeline of WHEN Jesus spoke, and not just what He said. This way we can get a better understanding of what He wanted to convey at the time.

That said, I found it really odd that Jesus is already speaking of persecution and divisions immediately after He calls His disciples and sends them out into the world.

I think if it were me, I may have waited until the men had a better footing and more experience, but I suppose Jesus wanted His men to know exactly what they’d be up against from the start and us as well.
 

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. (10:16) Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.  You will be hated by everyone because of me (10:21-22a) Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.  But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn, “‘a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
     a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. (Mt 10:34-39)

I wonder if some of His disciples were having second thoughts at that moment.

We’re going to see that some of what Jesus came to teach us is tough, like much of what we read in chapter 10. Why would the Prince of Peace say that He did not come to bring peace? Doesn’t Jesus say in other verses that he came to bring peace?
Actually yes, but He also wants His followers to understand that conflicts, even with family members, could happen because we’ve chosen to follow Him, and we know from history that the 1^st Century Christians faced fierce persecution, and many still do today!

Following Jesus can cause divisions in families and friendships, and I believe He wanted to make it clear that He expects our full allegiance to Him over ­others or other earthly pursuit right at the onset of our newly found faith. Our loyalty to and love for Christ must take precedence over everything else. Following Jesus requires all of you—all that you have and are, and all that you will become. (Deut. 6:4-7)

 Are you currently living in a divided home?  Have you lost friends over the years because of your faith? Peter offers us advise in 1 Peter 3:1-6 in which he basically tells us the very best way to win them to Christ is by living totally for Jesus before them.
Living for Jesus and keeping our focus wholly on Him will give us the peace in the midst of our circumstances and a joy that no one could explain apart from Him.