An Appointment with God
The Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"--Genesis 3:9In addition to walking in harmony with God, Amos 3:3 provides another nuance of meaning. It also gives the idea of keeping an appointment. Did you know that you have an appointment with God? You do. It is there, written in eternity. In fact, God wants to meet with you on a regular basis.
I wonder just how many times each day that God wants to speak to us, but He can't get a word in edgewise. The Lord might say, "I have wanted to talk to you for a long time, but you are too busy. This morning I wanted to talk to you, but you didn't have any time for Me. You read the newspapers and watched TV and talked on the phone. You never opened the Word. You never prayed. At lunch I tried to say something, but your prayer was so fast. Later I tried to talk with you. You have been so busy. You have an appointment with Me. Why don't you keep it?"
Remember how Adam had an appointment with God every day in the Garden of Eden? He would hear the voice of the Lord in the Garden in the cool of the evening. One day Adam missed that appointment because of sin. God said to Adam, "Where are you?"
I wonder if the Lord would say that to some of us each day: "Where are you? Where were you? I have been looking for you. I wanted to speak to you. I want you to walk with Me, and I want to walk with you."
Just imagine, the Creator of the universe wants to spend time with you! Is there any appointment that is worth keeping more than this one?
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Today's Bible Reading:
Numbers 17:1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and take rods from them, one for each fathers’ house, of all their princes according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods. Write each man’s name on his rod. 3 You shall write Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi; for there shall be one rod for each head of their fathers’ houses. 4 You shall lay them up in the Tent of Meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you. 5 It shall happen, that the rod of the man whom I shall choose shall bud. I will make the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against you, cease from me.”
6 Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and all their princes gave him rods, for each prince one, according to their fathers’ houses, even twelve rods. Aaron’s rod was among their rods. 7 Moses laid up the rods before Yahweh in the tent of the testimony.
8 On the next day, Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, Aaron’s rod for the house of Levi had sprouted, budded, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. 9 Moses brought out all the rods from before Yahweh to all the children of Israel. They looked, and each man took his rod.
10 Yahweh said to Moses, “Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the children of rebellion; that you may make an end of their murmurings against me, that they not die.” 11 Moses did so. As Yahweh commanded him, so he did.
12 The children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we perish! We are undone! We are all undone! 13 Everyone who keeps approaching Yahweh’s tabernacle, dies! Will we all perish?”
18:1 Yahweh said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your fathers’ house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. 2 Bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, near with you, that they may be joined to you, and minister to you; but you and your sons with you shall be before the tent of the testimony. 3 They shall keep your commands, and the duty of the whole Tent; only they shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary and to the altar, that they not die, neither they, nor you. 4 They shall be joined to you, and keep the responsibility of the Tent of Meeting, for all the service of the Tent. A stranger shall not come near to you.
5 “You shall perform the duty of the sanctuary and the duty of the altar, that there be no more wrath on the children of Israel. 6 Behold, I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel. They are a gift to you, dedicated to Yahweh, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting. 7 You and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood for everything of the altar, and for that within the veil. You shall serve. I give you the service of the priesthood as a gift. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.”
8 Yahweh spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I myself have given you the command of my wave offerings, even all the holy things of the children of Israel. I have given them to you by reason of the anointing, and to your sons, as a portion forever. 9 This shall be yours of the most holy things from the fire: every offering of theirs, even every meal offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render to me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons. 10 You shall eat of it like the most holy things. Every male shall eat of it. It shall be holy to you.
11 “This is yours, too: the wave offering of their gift, even all the wave offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, as a portion forever. Everyone who is clean in your house shall eat of it.
12 “I have given to you all the best of the oil, and all the best of the vintage, and of the grain, the first fruits of them which they give to Yahweh. 13 The first-ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to Yahweh, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house shall eat of it.
14 “Everything devoted in Israel shall be yours. 15 Everything that opens the womb, of all flesh which they offer to Yahweh, both of man and animal shall be yours. Nevertheless, you shall surely redeem the firstborn of man, and you shall redeem the firstborn of unclean animals. 16 You shall redeem those who are to be redeemed of them from a month old, according to your estimation, for five shekels of money, after the shekel[a] of the sanctuary, which weighs twenty gerahs.[b]
17 “But you shall not redeem the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat. They are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and shall burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. 18 Their flesh shall be yours, as the wave offering breast and as the right thigh, it shall be yours. 19 All the wave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to Yahweh, have I given you, and your sons and your daughters with you, as a portion forever. It is a covenant of salt forever before Yahweh to you and to your offspring[c] with you.”
20 Yahweh said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
21 “To the children of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they serve, even the service of the Tent of Meeting. 22 Henceforth the children of Israel shall not come near the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear sin, and die. 23 But the Levites shall do the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. Among the children of Israel, they shall have no inheritance. 24 For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a wave offering to Yahweh, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’”
25 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “Moreover you shall speak to the Levites, and tell them, ‘When you take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a wave offering of it for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe. 27 Your wave offering shall be credited to you, as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the wine press. 28 Thus you also shall offer a wave offering to Yahweh of all your tithes, which you receive of the children of Israel; and of it you shall give Yahweh’s wave offering to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all your gifts, you shall offer every wave offering of Yahweh, of all its best, even the holy part of it out of it.’
30 “Therefore you shall tell them, ‘When you heave its best from it, then it shall be credited to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the wine press. 31 You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the Tent of Meeting. 32 You shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have heaved from it its best. You shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, that you not die.’”
Footnotes:
a. Numbers 18:16 a shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces
b. Numbers 18:16 a gerah is about 0.5 grams or about 7.7 grains
c. Numbers 18:19 or, seed
Psalm 29:1 Ascribe to Yahweh, you sons of the mighty,
ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name.
Worship Yahweh in holy array.
3 Yahweh’s voice is on the waters.
The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.
4 Yahweh’s voice is powerful.
Yahweh’s voice is full of majesty.
5 Yahweh’s voice breaks the cedars.
Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes them also to skip like a calf;
Lebanon and Sirion like a young, wild ox.
7 Yahweh’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning.
8 Yahweh’s voice shakes the wilderness.
Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 Yahweh’s voice makes the deer calve,
and strips the forests bare.
In his temple everything says, “Glory!”
10 Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood.
Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.
11 Yahweh will give strength to his people.
Yahweh will bless his people with peace.
Mark 4:1 Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea, and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea. 2 He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching, 3 “Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow, 4 and as he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds[a] came and devoured it. 5 Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil. 6 When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 8 Others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some produced thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much.” 9 He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10 When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables, 12 that ‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’”[b]
13 He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes, and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16 These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble. 18 Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word, 19 and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times.”
21 He said to them, “Is the lamp brought to be put under a basket[c] or under a bed? Isn’t it put on a stand? 22 For there is nothing hidden, except that it should be made known; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light. 23 If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”
24 He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you who hear. 25 For whoever has, to him will more be given, and he who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.”
26 He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, 27 and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he doesn’t know how. 28 For the earth bears fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
30 He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it? 31 It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, 32 yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.”
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him. 37 A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled. 38 He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”
39 He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”
41 They were greatly afraid, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Footnotes:
a. Mark 4:4 TR adds “of the air”
b. Mark 4:12 Isaiah 6:9-10
c. Mark 4:21 literally, a modion, a dry measuring basket containing about a peck (about 9 liters)
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Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie
P.O. Box 4000
Riverside, CA 92514-4000 United States
Phone: 1(800)821-3300
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