Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Exodus 4:10-17 NIV
10 Moses said to the LORD, "Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." 11 The LORD said to him, "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." 13 But Moses said, "Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else." 14 Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it."
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) After the Lord God had called Moses to deliver His people from oppression (bondage), what excuses did Moses make for why he could not serve the Lord? (v.10)
2) What were the Lord's responses to Moses? (v.11-12)
3) What did Moses tell the Lord to do and how did the Lord respond? (v.13-17)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Has the Lord called you to do a seemingly impossible task? If so, briefly explain the Lord's call on your life and your reason(s) for not doing what He asks of you.
LIFE LESSONS
5) When the Lord God calls an individual believer to serve His people, the call is not based upon our qualifications for the ministry, but upon His power to enable us to lead His people.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Deuteronomy 10:12-22 NIV
12 And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? 14 To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations--as it is today. 16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. 20 Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. 21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What five (5) things does the Lord ask of His people? (v.12-13)
2) What belongs to the Lord and who did He choose to be His people above all nations? (v.14-15)
3) What does the Lord ask His people to do? (v.16)
4) What does the Lord say about Himself? (v.17-18)
5) Who are His people to love? (v.19)
6) How are His people to respond to the Lord and why? (v.20-22)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
7) How do you worship (revere) the Lord?
LIFE LESSONS
8) After all that the Lord has done for His people, He deserves our adoration, worship and praise.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Micah 3:5-12 NIV
5 This is what the LORD says: "As for the prophets who lead my people astray, they proclaim 'peace' if they have something to eat, but prepare to wage war against anyone who refuses to feed them. 6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them. 7 The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God." 8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin. 9 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; 10 who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. 11 Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the LORD's support and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us." 12 Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What did the Lord have to say about the false prophets? (v.5)
2) What did the Lord say would befall the false prophets, seers, and diviners? (v.6-7)
3) What did the Prophet Micah proclaim about himself (his character)? (v.8)
4) What did Micah proclaim about the wicked leaders (including prophets) of the people of God? (v.9-11)
5) What would happen to the people of God because of their wicked leaders? (v.12)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
6) Have you ever encountered, or heard of, a leaders in your church who was more concerned about him/herself than the people of God?
LIFE LESSONS
7) There are leaders among the flock of God who are false because they are more concerned about personal gain than they are about the people of God.
8)Those who listen to (follow) leaders, motived by self serving gain, may be as deceived as they are unless their trust is in God and in His word alone.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Isaiah 45:5-13 NIV
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, 6 so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. 7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things. 8 "You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the LORD, have created it. 9 "Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'The potter has no hands'? 10 Woe to the one who says to a father, 'What have you begotten?' or to a mother, 'What have you brought to birth?' 11 "This is what the LORD says-- the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands? 12 It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. 13 I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty."
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What does the Lord declare about Himself? (v.5a)
2) What does the Lord declare that He will do for people despite their failure to acknowledge Him? Why? (v.5b-6)
3) What else does the Lord declare about Himself and His mighty acts? (v.7-8)
4) Who does the Lord declare woe over and why? (v.9-10)
5) What does the Lord ask His people about Himself? (v.11)
6) What else does the Lord declare about Himself and what He will do concerning His people? (v.12-13)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
7) Have you ever questionned, or balked at, the Lord's work in your life? If so, please describe one such time and its outcome.
LIFE LESSONS
8) God can do whatever He pleases in the lives of His people.
9) The Lord expects His people to trust in Him even during the difficult seasons in their lives.
10) God wants His children to trust Him and to obey Him, even when we do not understand what He is doing in our lives.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Matthew 7:15-20 KJV
[Mat 7:15-20 KJV] 15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What does our Lord Jesus tell His followers to beware of, how does He describe them, and how will we know them? (v.15-16a)
2) How does the Lord explain (compare and contrast) the good tree and the corrupt tree?
3) Why does Jesus compare the fruit of the good tree and of the corrupt tree?
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Have you ever encountered a false leader in your local church? If so, how did you know that they were not true servants of God?
LIFE LESSONS
5) The Lord places leaders in His church with a heart for Himself as well as for His people.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Psalm 15:1-5 NIV
1 A psalm of David. LORD, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? 2 The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; 3 whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; 4 who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the LORD; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; 5 who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What two questions does David ask the Lord? (v.1)
2) What twelve (12) responses does the psalmist write concerning his question? (v.2-5b)
3) Who will never be shaken? (v.5c)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Are you able to continually abide in the presence of the Lord? If not, ask the Lord what hinders you from doing so.
LIFE LESSONS
5) God is holy and His desire is to abide in those who are holy.
6) To be holy is to be "set apart" from the people of this world.
7) The Lord makes His presence known and felt, through His Holy Spirit, as we consecrate (dedicate or commit) our lives wholly to God's will and to His way.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
2 Chronicles 19:4-10 NIV
4 Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem, and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim and turned them back to the LORD, the God of their ancestors. 5 He appointed judges in the land, in each of the fortified cities of Judah. 6 He told them, "Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for mere mortals but for the LORD, who is with you whenever you give a verdict. 7 Now let the fear of the LORD be on you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery." 8 In Jerusalem also, Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites, priests and heads of Israelite families to administer the law of the LORD and to settle disputes. And they lived in Jerusalem. 9 He gave them these orders: "You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the LORD. 10 In every case that comes before you from your people who live in the cities--whether bloodshed or other concerns of the law, commands, decrees or regulations--you are to warn them not to sin against the LORD; otherwise his wrath will come on you and your people. Do this, and you will not sin.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) Where did King Jehoshaphat live and what did he do for the people of Beersheba? (v.4-5)
2) What did the king tell the judges to do and why? (v.6-7)
3) What did the king do for the people of Jerusalem? (v.8)
4) What orders did the king give to those he appointed to judge the people of Israel and why? (v.9-10)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
5) Have you ever had to enforce God's commands in your own home or local church? If so, briefly describe one such occasion.
6) Have the commands of the Lord ever been enforced in your own life, by the Holy Spirit, or those in spiritual authority over you? If so, briefly describe one such instance.
LIFE LESSONS
7) The Lord has not only given us His written rules (the Bible), but His Spirit, to convict us of our sins.
8) When we confess and repent of our sins, the Lord forgives and restores us to right relationship with Himself.
