February Day 8

Exodus 21-23 - God gave Israel instructions on how to deal with certain sins.  He wanted them to deal severely with those sins because he knew how severe the consequences would be if they did not deal with these in a serious way.  His consequences were meant to rid the nation of Israel from sins that would ultimately destroy them from the inside.  His consequences were not out of anger, but out of love for the people as a whole.  He also told them to stay away from sorcery and false gods.  These are ways that people dabble in the darkness of the spiritual world and it is inviting the enemy into the camp.  Again, God's rules were for protection.

Psalm 31 - God is the ultimate provider and protector.  Sin in our lives will ultimately drain us of our inner strength and ruin our lives.  Still though, God can deliver us.  We simply need to repent and turn back to God. No one is beyond the rescue of God.  Verse 15 reminds us that God holds our future.  
- God protects those who faithfully follow him, but he punishes the arrogant.  Lean into God's strength that he gives you and courageously continue to trust him with your life. 

Matthew 13:24-43 - This has several Parables - the parables of the weeds and wheat that shows that there will always be those among us that do not truly believe and God will sift them on the day of judgment.  To remove the weeds while the wheat is growing could damage the good wheat.  I think about the fact that the way you tell the difference between a weed and wheat is in what it produces.  The same is true for those in the church.  What are you producing in your life?  Is there proof in your life that your faith is in Jesus and he is changing you.   
Parable of the yeast - a little yeast impacts the whole batch.  This happens with sin, but I think this also happens with faith.  Great faith has a way of impacting everyone. 
Parable of the mustard seed - even small faith that is planted in good soil can grow into a tree and serve a great purpose.  
Parable of the treasure in a field and a pearl of great worth - when we discover the greatness of Jesus, we should be willing to give up all that we have in order to fully follow Jesus.  Full surrender.

Acts 19:1-22 - Paul asked them if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed.  It seems by the passage that they had only believed in the message of John the Baptist and been baptized with water.  Paul tells them that they now need to believe in Jesus.  Jesus was the one who John came to point people to.  When they believed in Jesus, they received the Holy Spirit. Paul laid his hands on them to pray for them and they were immersed with the power of the Holy Spirit.  I believe this is an example of the Holy Spirit making himself known to people who were not aware of His power.  
We also see people attempt to cast out demons who were not followers of Jesus.  They attempted to use the formula they had seen the Christ followers use, but were not Christ followers.  We are powerless against the spiritual enemy on our own, but in Christ the enemy is a defeated foe.  We should not fear the enemy, but recognize that it is through our faith in Jesus that we find victory.  
Sorcery is evil and should not be something we entertain.  In our culture, I don't feel like we treat it with the severity that we should.  When my sister was little, she had a princess power doll that someone had given her.  She had a series of nights when she had several night terrors and one morning my mom was asking God to show her if there was something evil that was causing it.  God brought to mind the doll.  She went into the room and asked God to show her where it was and she felt God almost instantly draw her eyes to the doll.  She got rid of it and she and my dad prayed over the room.  Later that day, my sister asked where the doll was, which was strange because she didn't play with it much, so my mom told her that we needed to get rid of it.  That night, my sister slept peacefully through the night and the next morning she told my parents that she had seen an angel last night.  She proceeded to describe it and talked about what it said to her.  She never had another night terror.  Here is the point of the story.  Too often, we don't believe that there is a spiritual attachment to physical objects, but I think in that way we are deceived. Many times in scripture, sorcery is something that God tells us to avoid.  We should never call something harmless that God has called harmful.