We begin our 2nd church wide devotional/Bible Study today! Our reading plans will come from the YouVersion Bible app. If you do not have the app, click HERE.
If you already have the app, and want to follow the reading plan, click HERE. For those who don't have the app or are unable to do so, I will post the devotions and Scripture here within the post so you are able to follow along with us!
Plan Description:
"Over the course of six days, read Scripture and follow along with gospel meditations adapted from My Heart Cries Out: Gospel Meditations for Everyday Life by Paul David Tripp as you see how God's amazing grace intersects with the mundane, unexpected, messy, and beautiful moments of daily life."
DEVOTIONAL
Rest
Rest:
a faint dream for many,
a treasured commodity
in a fallen world,
a thing so needed
yet so easily interrupted.
The garden was a place of rest—
no violence in creation,
no weed or thorn,
no cleft between God and man,
no reason to hide,
no cause for fear,
no need unmet,
no grief to face.
Bright sun,
pure love,
unfettered peace,
unstained beauty,
man and God,
worship and love.
But, a voice
interrupted the rest:
strategies of death,
words of deceit,
actions of rebellion,
fingers of blame,
expulsion from the garden,
judgment and death,
rest interrupted,
rest shattered.
So we wait for the Lord.
His grace strengthens,
his presence comforts,
his promises assure,
his power activates, and
his rule guarantees that someday rest—
real rest,
pure rest,
eternal rest—
will reign once more.
No violence in creation,
no weed or thorn,
no cleft between God and man,
no reason to hide,
no cause for fear,
no need unmet,
no grief to face
between God and man.
Yes, rest, true rest,
will live again
and last forever.
So we wait for the Lord
to restore us to that place.
Bright Son,
pure love,
unfettered peace,
unstained beauty,
God and man,
together forever.
Until that day,
with hearts
that are strong
and hope
that is undimmed,
and joy
that embraces the future,
we wait for the Lord.
To Consider:
• Do you have regular time set aside for rest? If not, consider when you might be able to work times of rest into your schedule.
• Consider the various ways the fall has made true rest difficult, both generally for mankind and personally for yourself
VERSES:
Matthew 11:28 (ESV) - Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Hebrews 4:1-13 (ESV) - 1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
"As I swore in my wrath,
'They shall not enter my rest,'"
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works." 5 And again in this passage he said,
"They shall not enter my rest."
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, "Today," saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts."
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
