August 31 – Ezekiel 5-8

Bible Reading Commitment, Encouragement, and Challenge

August 31 – Ezekiel 5-8

Observe with some (Interpretation in Parentheses)

• God is clear that Jerusalem will be destroyed because of their sin
• God will pour out his anger on Jerusalem, and in 5:13, God is clear that He will judge so that people will know that He is the Lord
• The Lord is holy and perfect and jealous for His glory
• Therefore, when people profane His glory and continue in unrepentant sin, God must punish to display His holy and just character
• (It is a very scary time when God says that His eye will not spare and He will have no pity)
• (Yet, God’s holy justice demands punishment)

How Points to Christ

• God’s holy justice demands punishment, and it will either fall on sinners for the rest of eternity in hell, where there will be no more mercy and no more pity
• Or, for all sinners who repent and believe, the holy justice of God would fall on Christ
• In the midst of lots of judgment, there is still a remnant who receives a word of hope
• And hope can only be offered because of Christ

Apply

• Please pray that my heart would be broken and mourn over the reality of sin and judgment
• And please pray that I would be steadfast in proclaiming Christ to a dying world so that people can turn to Christ for salvation and hope
• And please pray that sinners would be saved for God’s glory as they turn from their sin to delight in and worship the One True God

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August 31 – Prayer for the Unreached

May God increase our desire for His glory to spread to all nations and peoples – Joshua Project!

Unreached of the Day

Please pray for the …

Laowu of China

Population: 7,100

Language: Nisu, Eastern

Religion: Ethnic Religions

Evangelical: 0.00%

For more details…

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August 30 – Ezekiel 1-4

Bible Reading Commitment, Encouragement, and Challenge

August 30 – Ezekiel 1-4

Observe with some (Interpretation in Parentheses)

• Ezekiel was a prophet who was exiled to Babylon
• Ezekiel received visions from God and saw the glory of the Lord
• When that happened, he fell on his face
• (God is all-glorious and completely greater than all mankind)
• (The proper response to the presence of God is reverence)
• Ezekiel is also called by God to SPEAK and be a watchman
• And the refrain that repeats is “You shall speak my (God’s) words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear.”
• (Regardless of the response, Ezekiel is to Speak God’s Word)
• And, God tells Ezekiel, that he will be accountable for people’s death and blood if he failed to open his mouth to speak!

How Points to Christ

• The message for sinners all of God’s people are called to speak is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• In the NT, we are told that when we preach Christ, Christ will be the aroma of death for some and the aroma of life for others
• But, it is the same Christ and Gospel we are to preach

Apply

• Please pray that I would be faithful to open my mouth to preach Christ with boldness, regardless of how others respond.
• And please pray that churches would be faithful to preach Christ regardless of rejection or persecution in society
• And please pray that God would use the Gospel of Jesus Christ to save MANY sinners, that they would have ears to hear.

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August 30 – Prayer for the Unreached

May God increase our desire for His glory to spread to all nations and peoples – Joshua Project!

Unreached of the Day

Please pray for the …

Jotoni, Jowulu of Mali

Population: 14,000

Language: Jowulu

Religion: Ethnic Religions

Evangelical: 1.60%

For more details…

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August 29 – Lamentations 3:37-5

Bible Reading Commitment, Encouragement, and Challenge

August 29 – Lamentations 3:37-5

Observe with some (Interpretation in Parentheses)

• The author of Lamentations describes what happens in Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem in graphic imagery and detail
• We are invited into the eyewitness account of the disaster, death, and suffering
• Knowing that the only way out of disaster is to repent, the author regularly seeks to lead the people back to faith in God
• Yet, the author knows that the one who must first act is God according to His promises to the undeserving people of Israel
• And so the author is often praying to God for God to see, listen, and act for His glory
• The book on the whole highlights the seriousness of sin, and the truth that no sinner can presume upon God’s mercy
• God is the only one who can restore sinners to a right relationship with Himself

How Points to Christ

• The tension between God’s holiness and justice and God’s steadfast love and unending mercies is held in tension in the OT, with no clear explanation of HOW God can be both
• Only the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ satisfies this tension
• Jesus, the one who deserved only love, received God’s holy and just punishment for sin, so that repentant sinners who believe in Jesus Christ alone can receive (UNDESERVINGLY) God’s love that only Jesus deserved
• Yet, it must be repeated that NO ONE DESERVES Christ!
• God owes Jesus Christ to no one!
• Only by grace and because of grace is Jesus Christ offered to any and all sinners as the only way to restoration with God

Apply

• Please pray that I and churches would take sin seriously
• Please pray that as Christians, we would never presume upon God’s mercy and justify sin in our lives and churches
• Israel was God’s “elect” people, yet they were not spared from discipline and judgment for their unrepentant sin

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August 29 – Prayer for the Unreached

May God increase our desire for His glory to spread to all nations and peoples – Joshua Project!

Unreached of the Day

Please pray for the …

Temne-Banta of Sierra Leone

Population: 54,000

Language: Themne

Religion: Islam

Evangelical: 0.00%

For more details…

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August 28 – Lamentations 1-3:36

Bible Reading Commitment, Encouragement, and Challenge

August 28 – Lamentations 1-3:36

Observe with some (Interpretation in Parentheses)

• The author of Lamentations describes what happens in Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem in graphic imagery and detail
• We are invited into the eyewitness account of the disaster, death, and suffering
• Yet, in the midst of severe suffering at the hands of Babylon (because of their SIN, not as a result of random chance), the author puts his hope in God
• While Babylon is the human instrument of destruction, God is the one who is ultimately destroying Jerusalem because of the people’s sin against Him
• (Sin is serious before the Holy God of the Universe)
• Yet, because God is the ultimate destroyer, the author has hope because God is also a God of incredible mercy
• So in the middle of the book, the author puts his hope in God and the steadfast love of the Lord
• 3:22-23 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.  They are new every morning.  Great is your faithfulness.”

How Points to Christ

• The tension between God’s holiness and justice and God’s steadfast love and unending mercies is held in tension in the OT, with no clear explanation of HOW God can be both
• Only the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ satisfies this tension
• Jesus, the one who deserved only love, received God’s holy and just punishment for sin, so that repentant sinners who believe in Jesus Christ alone can receive (UNDESERVINGLY) God’s love that only Jesus deserved

Apply

• Suffering is real in this world, and God’s people ought to be emotionally moved by it
• Please pray that my heart would not be callous and hardened because of the “constancy” of suffering, but that I would always be moved recognizing that suffering is not the way things are supposed to be
• But as I seek to relieve human suffering, please pray that I (and churches) would remember that the suffering to be relieved of highest importance is eternal suffering (only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ)
• The only hope we have for suffering people is God’s love and mercy in the Gospel!

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August 28 – Prayer for the Unreached

May God increase our desire for His glory to spread to all nations and peoples – Joshua Project!

Unreached of the Day

Please pray for the …

Mahratta of India

Population: 27,274,000

Language: Marathi

Religion: Hinduism

Evangelical: 0.00%

For more details…

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August 27 – Jeremiah 51-52

Bible Reading Commitment, Encouragement, and Challenge

August 27 – Jeremiah 51-52

Observe with some (Interpretation in Parentheses)

• Chapter 52 is one of the saddest chapters in the OT
• Jerusalem is destroyed, along with the Temple of God in Jerusalem
• This would have been one of the most devastating events in the OT
• In the OT, all the promises of God seemed to be tied directly to Jerusalem, and to the Temple, where the presence of God dwelt
• So with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the people of God would have been devastated
• (God is teaching that He takes sin seriously)
• (God’s people must never presume upon His grace and assume that His grace justifies unrepentant sin)
• (The people simply presumed that they were safe in Jerusalem, believing that they can live however they want because of God supposed promises to them)

How Points to Christ

• When the NT comes, we see more clearly the fuller picture and meaning and fulfillment of God’s promises
• They are all tied to Jesus Christ, and the Kingdom of God is spiritual now and only partly physical in the church, but it will consummated in both spiritual and physical when Jesus Christ returns
• The true City of God, Jerusalem is not the physical city, but the New Jerusalem
• And the true Temple of God is not the physical one that was in Jerusalem, but Jesus Christ
• That is why in Revelation, there is no physical temple, because the True Temple, Jesus Christ is there, and God dwells with His people

Apply

• Please pray that I would never justify sinning against God because of His grace
• And please pray that God’s people would take sin seriously in the church
• Church membership and church discipline must be meaningful in our churches!

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August 27 – Prayer for the Unreached

May God increase our desire for His glory to spread to all nations and peoples – Joshua Project!

Unreached of the Day

Please pray for the …

Koli of India

Population: 12,299,000

Language: Gujarati

Religion: Hinduism

Evangelical: 0.00%

For more details…

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