099 Thursday, April 9, 2009

099 1 Samuel 010 – 012; Mark 015

Samuel rebukes the people of God for wanting a king. One thing I hope you have noticed is how much history the prophets and priests go over with the God's people. It is necessary to teach people so they will not make the same mistakes. Samuel reviews what happened in the land once Joshua had passed away. How the people would turn from God and then need God, repent to find God waiting to forgive them and help them. In the next to last paragraph Samuel tells them, "do not chase after ghost-gods." Samuel is reminding that the root problem is that the people would forget Yahweh and go after false gods. Our society is filled with ghost-gods and ghost-god chasers. We must test the spirits and know the truth for many anti-Christ’s are here and are coming. These are the days we live in and it is important to stay close to Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit. It is very, very critical that we support one another because the enemy is so strong! Pray, read the Bible, fellowship, stay on mission, and walk in His Spirit. Have a great Thursday.

In Mark 15 we read what happened to our Lord. It is grotesques in nature what men can do to another human being. It is abhorrent what men did to Jesus Christ and all in the name of God. The religious community is who put Christ on the cross. There were four different styles of crosses that were used to crucify people in that day. In all probability our Savior died on the crux immissa, in which the upright beam is projected above the shorter crosspiece. Many scholars believe that the Romans were not allowed to be executed on the cross. It was for those of other nations that they would hang on the cross. It was a terrible way to die, and yet our Lord went to the cross for us so we could experience salvation! May you on this Thursday be giving thanks for all that the Lord did for you and our world by dying on the cross to take our place so we could know the riches of His grace.