Rahab - A Picture of God's Grace

***Attention***  This month's devotional will be the last of the Refreshing Daily in God's Word. Starting in June this blog will have a new exciting format. Stay tuned for the official announcement.

Bible Reading: Joshua 2 and Hebrews 11:31

Key Verse: Verse Hebrews 11:31 - “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.”

Key Words: the harlot Rahab 

The story of Rahab is strange to many.  It presents many moral challenges and difficulties.  It’s really hard to imagine Rahab with her moral life and her life of religious paganism belonging in God’s Hall of Faith.  Commentators have tried to explain away the blot of prostitution from Christ’s lineage insisting that in those days a harlot was actually an innkeeper.  But the truth cannot be ignored, Rahab was a harlot.

Now the Lord’s ways are past finding out.  We are told in Isaiah 55:9, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

In Matthew 1:5 we find that Rahab is right there in the Messianic lineage.

I believe this is a perfect picture of God’s grace, showing us that salvation is not dependent on human goodness but on God’s grace.

A beggar stopped a lawyer on the street in a large southern city and asked him for a quarter.  Taking a long, hard look into the man’s unshaven face, the attorney asked, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”  “You should,” came the reply.  “I’m your former classmate.  Remember, second floor, old Main Hall?”  “Why Sam, of course I know you!”  Without further question the lawyer wrote a check for $100.  “Here, take this and get a new start.  I don’t care what’s happened in the past, it’s the future that counts.”  And with that he hurried on.

Tears welled up in the man’s eyes as he walked to a bank nearby.  Stopping at the door, he saw through the glass well-dressed tellers and the spotlessly clean interior.  Then he looked at his filthy rags.  “They won’t take this from me.  They’ll swear that I forged it,” he muttered as he turned away.

The next day the two men met again.  “Why Sam, what did you do with my check?  Gamble it away?  Drink it up?”  “No,” said the beggar as he pulled it out of his dirty shirt pocket and told why he hadn’t cashed it.  “Listen, friend,” said the lawyer.  “What makes that check good is not your clothes or appearance, but my signature.  Go on, cash it!”

The Bible says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  That promise is a “negotiable note” of infinite value.  And as sinners, all we need to do is “exchange” it by faith for eternal life.  Don’t let the “tattered clothes” of your past keep you from cashing God’s “check” of salvation.

                                                                                      Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

            ✞ Accept Christ as your Savior today! 

Miriam - Part 2

***Attention***  This month's devotional will be the last of the Refreshing Daily in God's Word. Starting in June this blog will have a new exciting format. Stay tuned for the official announcement.

Bible Reading: Numbers 12

Key Verse: Verse  8- “And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman  whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.”

Key Words: And Miriam ... spake against Moses 

As I study the Word of God, I find it’s a dangerous thing to turn on your family.  For example, Cain turned on Abel and was cursed all the days of his life.  Joseph’s brothers turned on Joseph and went through a horrible famine.  Absalom turned on David and died hanging from an oak tree.  In our text Miriam turns on Moses and as a result, she is smitten with leprosy.

The same can be said for those who turn on their spiritual family as well.  Saul turned on David (as a result of sin) and battled with depression.  Demas turned on Paul and went back into the world.  No doubt he received the world’s reward.  Judas turned on Jesus (and no, I don’t believe Judas was saved) and he went out and hung himself.

It just appears as though to me that turning on your family is a dangerous thing.

The evidence is convincing that the better our relationships are at home, the more effective we are in our careers.  If we’re having difficulty with a loved one, that difficulty will be translated into reduced performance on the job.  In studying the millionaires in America (“U.S. News and World Report”), a picture of a “typical” millionaire is an individual who has worked eight to ten hours a day for thirty years and is still married to his or her high school or college sweetheart.  A New York executive search firm, in a study of 1,365 corporate vice-presidents, discovered that 87% were still married to their one and only spouse and that 92% were raised in two-parent families.  The evidence is overwhelming that the family is the strength and foundation of society.  Strengthen your family ties and you’ll enhance your opportunity to succeed. 

                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

            ✞ Be a vessel to strengthen your family.  Turning on your family is not a wise or safe thing to do.

Miriam - Part 1 (The Fugitive)

***Attention***  This month's devotional will be the last of the Refreshing Daily in God's Word. Starting in June this blog will have a new exciting format. Stay tuned for the official announcement.

Bible Reading: Exodus 15:20-27

Key Verse: Verse 17 - “And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.”

Key Words: And Miriam 

The life of Miriam is a life of spiritual ups and downs.  In Exodus 2, as a young lady we find her obeying her mother and watching over her baby brother, Moses, as he is floating in a basket on the Nile River.

Here in Exodus 15 we find her as the sister of Aaron, singing praises to God for leading them over and through the Red Sea.

We then hear of Miriam in Numbers 12, when she is questioning Moses about his authority.  As a result of her actions, she was smitten with leprosy (Numbers 12:10).

We last read of Miriam in Numbers 20:1 where she dies in Kadesh as she wandered in the wilderness, evidently a fugitive from God, for the word Kadesh means a fugitive.

Some years ago there was a television series entitled “The Fugitive.”  The show was about a doctor who was charged with murdering his wife, and as a result he was fleeing from the law: he was a fugitive.  Each episode found the fugitive...

Ø  Constantly on the run,

Ø  Constantly living in fear of being found out,

Ø  Constantly in turmoil and never at peace.

Living the life as a fugitive from God will never lead to peace, only to turmoil.  Let me ask you today, are you a fugitive – are you running from God?  If so, you’ll never have peace until you say “enough!” and stop running from God and run to Him.

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

            ✞ Don’t run from God, but run to Him. 

Jochebed - Applying Faith

***Attention***  This month's devotional will be the last of the Refreshing Daily in God's Word. Starting in June this blog will have a new exciting format. Stay tuned for the official announcement.

Bible Reading: Exodus 2:1-10

Key Verse: Verse   – “And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.”

Key Words: she hid him three months 

We all know the story of Moses and how his mother, Jochebed, protected Moses from death and went so far as to put the young baby in a basket and place the basket in the Nile River.  We also know that Jochebed assigned Moses’ older sister, Miriam, to watch over the basket until Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe, and how Pharaoh’s daughter took Moses back to the Egyptian palace and God allowed Jochebed to raise her son in Pharaoh’s palace.

Through all of Jochebed’s actions she demonstrated her faith in God.  Having faith in God, though, is not easy.  Consider the following.

“A man slipped and fell off a cliff while hiking on a mountaintop.  Luckily he was able to grab a branch on his way down.  Holding on for dear life, he looked down only to see a rock valley some fifteen hundred feet below.  When he looked up it was twenty feet to the cliff where he had fallen.  Panicked, he yelled, ‘Help!  Help!  Is anybody there?  Help!’  A booming voice spoke up, ‘I am here, and I will save you if you believe in me.’  ‘I believe!  I believe!’ yelled back the man.  ‘If you believe me, let go of the branch and then I will save you.’  The young man, hearing what the voice said, looked down again.  Seeing the rock valley below, he quickly looked back up and shouted, ‘Is there anybody else up there?’”

Talking about faith is easy, but unapplied faith is no faith at all.

                                                                                   Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do: 

            ✞ Put your faith in God and put your faith into action.

Dinah - The Defiled One

Bible Reading: Genesis 34

Key Verse: Verse  5- “And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with             his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come.”

Key Words: that he had defiled Dinah his daughter 

As you read the story of Dinah and how she was sexually molested by Shechem, it saddens one’s heart.  Most scholars tell us Dinah would, in all likelihood, have been around the age of fifteen.

As a result of the action, Dinah’s brother slew Hamor and Shechem (verse 26).  This is a story that could be told over and over again in today’s world.

But all of this could have been prevented if dad (Jacob) had stayed out of pagan country.  Jacob had gone to the city of Shechem which is in Canaan (chapter 33, verse 18).  This was land his grandfather, Abraham, had avoided because of their pagan beliefs.  The principle here is clear.  Dad, don’t take your children into Canaan (paganism), keep them from the vultures of the world.  It’s your job as dad to protect your daughter physically, as well as spiritually.

A farmer went each week to the Farmers’ Market to sell, among other things, the cottage cheese and apple butter made on his farm.  He carried these in two large tubs, from which he ladled the cottage cheese or apple butter into smaller containers the customers brought.  One day he got to the market and discovered he’d forgotten one of his ladles.  He had no choice but to use the one he did bring for both products.  Before long, as the two products got mixed in with each other, he couldn’t tell which was which.  That’s the way it is when the child of God loses his or her purity – he or she is no longer different, distinct, from the people of the world. 

                                                                                 Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

            ✞ Young people, stay pure.  Parents, protect your children from impure situations and environments.

Rebekah - The Right Choice

***Attention***  This month's devotional will be the last of the Refreshing Daily in God's Word. Starting in June this blog will have a new exciting format. Stay tuned for the official announcement.

Bible Reading: Genesis 24:1-15

Key Verse: Verse 15 – “And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out,  who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of  Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her  shoulder.”

Key Words: behold, Rebekah came out 

Abraham realized how hard it is for a man to be loyal to God when he does not have the backing of a good wife.  Abraham wanted no pagan wife for Isaac and he did something about it.  He made it a matter of priority that Isaac would marry the right lady.

As parents we need to encourage our children to go where they can meet “their kind.”  As parents you shouldn’t wait until your son or daughter brings home an unbeliever.  At that point all your criticism and pleading will fall on deaf ears.

Be vigilant in training and guiding your children on finding the right mate as their life-long partner.  The result of marrying out of God’s will can be tragic.

Time magazine reported (1/22/95) that the earthquake in Kobe, Japan, occurred when two plates on a fault line fifteen miles offshore suddenly shifted against each other, violently lurching six to ten feet in opposite directions.  The result was the worst Japanese earthquake since 1923.  Thousands died.  More than 46,000 buildings lay in ruins.  One-fifth of the city’s population was left instantly homeless.  The destruction unleashed by those two tectonic plates depicts what happens when a Christian bonds unequally with a non-Christian.  Two people committed to each other but going in different directions can only lead to trouble.

                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do: 

            ✞ Make sure you marry the right choice, God’s choice.

Lot's Wide - A Lesson in Disobedience

***Attention***  This month's devotional will be the last of the Refreshing Daily in God's Word. Starting in June this blog will have a new exciting format. Stay tuned for the official announcement.

Bible Reading: Genesis 19:23-38

Key Verse: Verse 26 - “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”

Key Words: But his wife looked back 

When Lot’s wife was told of the impending doom of Sodom, her heart was divided; she lingered, along with Lot and their two daughters (Genesis 19:16).  The Angel of God had to take her by the hand and urge her out of the city.  But instead of hurrying along and being thankful for being spared from such a horrible fate, she looked back longingly at the city, for her heart was still there.  Through Lot’s wife we see the results of disobedience.  Genesis 19:26, “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”

Some years ago I was out hunting in the woods with my dad.  I found a cluster of oak trees that seemed to me to be the perfect place to kill a few squirrels.  So I sat down and began to wait for my prey to come out and play.  It didn’t take long before I took my first shot at a squirrel running and jumping from oak to oak.  As I went down to find my kill, I suddenly heard my dad say, “Don’t move!!”  His gun was pointed right at my feet.  Now I admit I wasn’t a perfect child, but I didn’t believe I had done any dastardly act worthy of being shot!  My dad took careful aim and then slowly pulled the trigger killing the cottonmouth water moccasin I was about to step on!

If I had failed to obey, I would have certainly been bitten by the venomous serpent.  Now, I admit I didn’t know why dad wanted me to stop, but I did obey, and my obedience led to my understanding.  So it is in life.  Our obedience will always lead to understanding.  So let’s not be like Lot’s wife, but rather let’s obey for our obedience leads to our safety and understanding. 

                                                                                 Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

            ✞ Always obey immediately!