Agape Devotions

Read Leviticus 4-5; Psalm 52 Verses chosen for meditation: Leviticus 4:32,34 32"If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring a female without blemish 34Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put in on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. Reflect The above 2 chapters of Leviticus touch on the offering of animal sacrifices as atonement for one's sin and guilt. Both are requisite offerings, required under specific circumstances and in connection with the transgression of God's laws. For instance, sin offerings are required when an individual commits a sin against God unintentionally. The text has delineated different sin offerings for different people groups within the community, from the priest to the elder, and finally to the individual. Guilt offerings, on the other hand, are meant for specific transgressions such as the violation of ...

  TITLE: God’s pain and pleasure PASSAGE FOR REFLECTION “If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord.  2  And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and Aaron's sons the priests shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar.  3  And from the sacrifice of the peace offering, as a food offering to the Lord, he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails,  4  and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys.  5  Then Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, which is on the wood on the fire; it is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. L eviticus 3:1-5 REFLECT...

Read: Leviticus 1-2 / Psalm 57 No devotional today. Sermon is based on Leviticus 1-2. Help on reading Leviticus:  https://youtu.be/xaekz46jNO4

Read: Psalm 56 Reflect Psalm 56:1 refers to the time when David was captured by the Philistines in 1 Samuel 21:10-15. Prior to being captured by the Philistines, he was on the run from King Saul who wanted him dead. It can be considered as one of the lowest points of David’s life. He begged a priest for bread and a weapon, so that he could survive. When he was captured by the Philistines, he had to pretend to be mad in order to escape possible torture and death. Therefore, Psalm 56 was sung as a cry from David’s heart. A cry to affirm that he trusted God despite all that he had to go through. He asked of God to be gracious to him because men had trampled upon him all day long. He garnered courage from his trust of God even when his enemies plotted his death.  Two times he proclaimed: “what can flesh or men do to him?” For he trusted that God will deliver him; no matter how evil his transgressors could be. At the end of the day, David knew that God is always mightier than the most ...

READ  Psalm 55 Verse chosen of meditation Psalm 55:22  "Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved ." REFLECT David is once again crying out to God in prayer. “Give ear to my prayer, O God” (55:1). This time it is for a particularly pernicious attack on him personally. How do you respond when someone attacks you? Learn from David’s example. He turns to God in prayer. The need is great “because of the oppression of the wicked. For they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me” (55:3). He is internally disturbed, as so often we are when someone attacks us. “Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me” (55:5). He has a simple longing: Escape! “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest…I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest” (55:6, 8). When we are under attack, we naturally want to run away and hide—to find a quiet place to bury our he...

READ : Exodus 40 / Psalm 54 Verse chosen for meditation: Exodus 40:36-38 36 Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. 37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. REFLECT The book of Exodus ends with great hope. Though stranded in the dessert and surrounded by enemies, the Israelites had faith and confidence, as God was with them. Previously, they asked, “Is the Lord with us or not?” Here, there is no doubt, as God’s visible show of glory guided them every step of the way. It is comforting to know that our God is a promise keeper, answering Moses’ requests, to show His glory and be with His people (Exodus 33:14-18), even though they had let Him down. This picture of God fillin...

 Read: Exodus 39; Psalm 53 Verses chosen for meditation: Psalm 53:2-3; 6 2 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand,   who seek after God. 3  They have all fallen away; together they have  become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. 6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.      REFLECT Some studies concluded that this psalm is essentially a repetition of Psalm 14,  with a few small modifications, probably intended to give faith and courage to Israel in the midst of a national challenge such as the threat of invasion or a siege. The passage describes God is the One looking for person who seeks Him, those who are wise and worship Him (v 2). God concluded that there is none of such person, verses 1 and 3. God regarded such people as evildoers who continue with their iniqui...

Read Exodus 37-38; Psalm 52 Verses chosen for meditation: Exodus 37:1-5 ESV: 1 Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood. Two cubits1 and a half was its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 2 And he overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold around it. 3 And he cast for it four rings of gold for its four feet, two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side. 4 And he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold 5 and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark. Reflect The above 5 verses are but a representation of the two chapters of Exodus combined. During my first read, they had appeared only as a detailed account of the construction of items found or placed in the tabernacle, and nothing more. I had wondered what lessons, truths or applications I could get out of them, so much so that the initial thought was to relegate the study to another time. However, upon realising that ...

  TITLE: GIVING TO THE LORD PASSAGE FOR MEDITATION: EXODUS 35:4-9; 36:3-7 Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “This is the thing that the Lord has commanded.  5  Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution. And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning,  4  so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, 5  and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.”  6  So Moses gave command, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing,  7  for the material they had was suffi...

 No devotional for today. Sermon is based on Exodus 34.

Read: Exodus 32-33; Psalm 49 “Crowd Pleaser” Verse chosen for meditation:  Exodus 32:21-24  21 And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?"  22 And Aaron said, "Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.  23 For they said to me, 'Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'  24 So I said to them, 'Let any who have gold take it off.' So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." Reflect While Moses was communicating with God on the mountain, the people were rebelling against God at the foot of it. When Moses came down from the mountain, he was horrified to find that the people had turned their backs on God so quickly. Even after all the miracles and manifestations, the people were quick to demand that Aaron make ...

READ : Exodus 30-31/Psalm 48 Verse chosen for meditation Exodus 31:14, " You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you..." REFLECT These are the two chapters that ended with the delivery of two stone  tablets  to Moses (31:18) before the infamous golden calf (32) episode. God described how the tent of meeting was to be organised and gave instructions for the Day of Atonement (Ex. 30), a day whose fulfilment was found in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins.   There was then Oholiab and Bezalel, gifted with knowledge and all craftsmanship, who were commissioned to make the ark and the furnishings and the mercy seat (31:1-11). Bezalel was “filled with the Spirit of God” (31:3), showing that such indwelling and infusing of God’s Spirit is related not only to more narrowly defined “spiritual” matters but practical matters like building. God gifts carpenters as much as preachers, mechanics as much as lecturers, and both have their role to play in the build...

READ : Exodus 28-29 / Psalm 47 Verse chosen for meditation: Exodus 28:2 2 And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. REFLECT Here, we read of the extensive instructions, from the design of the priests’ garments right down to the offerings for the consecration of the priests to be carried out. Does this matter to us? Is priesthood any of our business? Well, it may concern us a lot more than we think. Old Testament (OT) priests were chosen by God, and they serve God with their lives and offer up sacrifices. It was not a role people appoint themselves to. Under the New Covenant however, every believer in Jesus Christ is a holy priest. We are a “chosen generation, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5-9). Today, we may not offer material sacrifices of sin (Exodus 29:36) like the OT priests, as our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, became the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Instead, we are called to offer up spiritual sacrifices. These can b...

  Read Exodus 26-27 Psalm 46 Verses chosen for meditation 31  “And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it.  32  And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver.  33  And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy. Reflect   Exodus 26 to 27 contains God’s very specific instructions on His plan and design for the Tabernacle. Indeed it is not easy to understand them without some visual guide or artistic and architectural background! This shows that God is indeed an outstanding artist and creator. We may be wondering why He was so specific about every little details of the design and build, and why he was so hands on? He could have just asked Moses and his craftsmen to...

Read Exodus 24:12-25:40 / Psalm 45 Verse chosen for meditation: Exodus 24:12 The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction." Reflect In this 24th chapter of Exodus, Moses is told once again to go up the mountain. The mountain in question is Mt Sinai, referenced every so often in four of the first 5 books of the bible (Pentateuch). It might, therefore, be asked, "What's so special about the mountain?" Here in this chapter, Moses received yet another invitation to meet with God. One might even exclaim, "Oh, what a privilege!" But have we ever wondered what it is like to meet with God?  In any case, where is this 'mountain' today? And in this present time, is personal invitation from God still necessary? Do we really need to be invited to 'come up the mountain'? Relate We speak of a mountaintop exp...