Agape Devotions

Read: Joshua 1 / Psalm 120 No Devotional today (Sunday)

Read: Psalm 119 / Catch up day Verses chosen for meditation: Psalm 119:1-8 Blessed are those whose way is blameless,     who walk in the law of the Lord! 2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,     who seek him with their whole heart, 3 who also do no wrong,     but walk in his ways! 4 You have commanded your precepts     to be kept diligently. 5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast     in keeping your statutes! 6 Then I shall not be put to shame,     having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. 7 I will praise you with an upright heart,     when I learn your righteous rules.[b] 8 I will keep your statutes;     do not utterly forsake me! Reflect According to bible scholars, Psalm 119 is likely to be a compilation of writings. This is because from the beginning to end, there is no definitive flow of thought; although there are similar emphasis on God and His word.  Rather, each section seems to be p...

READ : Psalm 118 Verse for meditation:  “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!” - Psalm 118:1 “GOD is good!”- a call to praise the Living One, to give thanks to Him, to remember His goodness in our lives- this is what this Psalm stirs in us! Though it may have been used for corporate worship, let us see how it can personally minister to us. REFLECT & RELATE : A few gleanings from the Psalm itself why give thanks to the LORD: HIS Mercy endures forever   (Ps.118:1,29 )- It's His great mercy and love that sought us and bought us with His blood to be His very own treasured possession! Remember it's because of His great mercy we are not consumed (Lam.3:22 ). His love covers over a multitude of our sins! Shouldn’t our hearts be filled with praise for such love and mercy towards us? HE has answered my prayers   (Ps.118:5,21 )-The Psalmist tells of God’s help in his day of distress. How about you? If we were to recount the instances of   answered prayers when we c...

READ : Deuteronomy 34 / Psalm 117 Verse chosen for meditation: Deuteronomy 34:9-12 9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. 10 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, 11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. REFLECT The verses above constitute Moses’ epitaph (phrases written in memory of a person), forming a fitting conclusion to the Pentateuch, where the last four books talk about Moses’ ministry. The epitaph encourages us to reflect on Moses’ greatness. He was a spiritual pioneer, proclaiming the traits of God and preaching love as the impetus for obedience. H...

  READ : Deuteronomy 31:30-33:29; Psalm 116 Verse chosen for meditation: Deuteronomy 33:1 1   This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death.   REFLECT Deuteronomy 33 recorded   the blessings with which Moses, the man of God has blessed the children of Israel before his death. These blessings are somewhat similar to the one recorded to Israel in Gen 49. Overall, t hey were prayers and promises of strength, abundances (v.13-17, 27), assurances (v.13) and victories (v.11, 29) over this second-generation  Israelites as they prepared to enter the Promised Land.   For me, verse 1 firstly speaks strongly that Moses had a shepherd heart. He could not leave the Israelites without blessing this group of people who he had served in the Lord for the last 40 years. Moses blessed the tribes at tend of his life. He missed out entering into the Promised Land yet remembered to bless them. He remained cari...

Read: Deuteronomy 31:1-29; Psalm 115 Verse chosen for meditation: Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV 6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Reflect Who was the instruction and promise given to? And why? Is there a contradiction in verse 17? If so, did God not keep his end of the bargain? Which one of the laws or commandments did Israel fail most in? Why so? Relate It took me three rounds of reading just to get a better understanding of the passage as well as a clearer picture. I had to do a double-check on who said what and to whom. For example, was it God or Moses who spoke verse 6? And was it only to Joshua or the whole Israelite community? This minor confusion came about as a result of verse 17, which seems to be at variance with verse 6. All the instructions in the passage were from God mostly. They were not from Moses, as is sometimes thought, who was merely discharging his bounden...

  READ: DEUTERONOMY 29 - 30; PSALM 114 PASSAGE TO REFLECT: DEUTERONOMY 30:6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. REFLECT: God through Moses had outlined the wonderful blessings that the Israelites would enjoy if they walked in God's ways, and the curses that would follow if they departed. But God already knew the terrible quandary the Israelites would encounter - good intentions but poor follow-through. What Jesus said of His disciples on the night of His arrest rings true for all humanity - the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. God knew that nearly every Israelite would want to walk in God's ways of blessings but all would fail to do so. And they would all face the terrible consequences that come with disobedience. So God took the initiative to ensure that His people had a fighting chance to walk in His ways. He would circum...

No devotional for today (Sunday) Sermon is based on Deuteronomy 27:1-8

Read: Deuteronomy 26; Psalm 112 Verse chosen for meditation: 26:1-2 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. Reflect In Deuteronomy 26:1-2, God reminded the second generation that they must make an offering of first fruits when they come into the Promised Land. Such an offering bring to remembrance that it was only by the grace and power of God, that Israel was finally able to enter into such a land flowing with milk and honey.  Notice that God did not want any leftover fruits, but only the first fruit. This was meant to teach the people that God is their Provider. Bring in the first fruits and God will fulfil His promise of...

READ : Deuteronomy 24-25/Psalm 111 REFLECT :  These sections of the law focus on relationships, expanding on the eighth and ninth commandments.  Deut. 24   begins with laws about divorce and marriage, protecting women from exploitation.  Moses then continues with laws relating to sojourners, children without fathers, and widows. Sojourners are people who are living somewhere or are not native to an area. These laws served in part to protect people who may be taken advantage of.  The Lord instructs His people to provide for the needs of one another. These chapters end with a reminder of how Amalek attacked the people of God at their weak points. Moses reminds the people that the Lord their God will take care of them. RELATE : When God had initially led His people out of Egypt He had set up a special covenant with them. There were vows taken by both God and His people that must be kept by both sides.  The LORD promised that if He was their God and they walked...

READ : Deuteronomy 23 / Psalm 110 Verse chosen for meditation: Deuteronomy 23:3-4 3 “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, 4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. REFLECT This part of the passage talks about who makes up the covenant community at worship. Certain groups were not permitted to enter the assembly of the Lord, and for this devotion, we focus specifically on the Ammonites and Moabites. The former was denied entry because of what they did not do, and the latter, because of what they did do. The Ammonites did not show compassion to the Israelites during their wilderness journey. Theirs was a sin of omission, whereas the Moabites’ sin was one of commission, plotting to use Balaam to curse and pull Isra...

READ : Deuteronomy 21-22; Psalm 109 Verses chosen for meditation: Deuteronomy 21:9, 21 – Justice. 9  So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the  Lord . 21 … . So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.   REFLECT The Book of Deuteronomy has been recognised as a series of speeches from Moses where he is calling the second generation of Israel to be faithful to the covenant with their God. Israelites were reminded that Yahweh is the only One God that they should worship. Overall, the book does contain some new laws/ legislation, in addition to most of the repeated ones given at Mount Sinai. They include civil laws (marriage, family & business) and social justice (protection of widow, orphan & immigrant), all aiming to uphold justice for mankind. In Deuteronomy 21, it specifically spells legislation that outlines several laws regarding justi...

Read Deuteronomy 19,20; Psalm 108 Verse chosen for meditation: 108:2 "Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!" Reflect This is a Psalm of David, but not an original one. For it combines two of his earlier Psalms, 57: 7-11 and 60: 5-12. However, the arrangement is completely different, therefore, it stands valid as a new song. It shows that songs, or even praises and prayers, for that matter can be reused. It can also be a compilation of different parts from the same source. In this case, though the writer and composer could have been David, the real source is actually the Holy Spirit, which gave the utterance and inspiration. All in all, this is a beautiful Psalm, which opens with praise and closes with prayer. However, what really drew me to the Psalm was not any of these. Instead, it was the simple line announced by the Psalmist in verse 2: 'I will awake the dawn.' Relate I am not a morning person. I much prefer the quietness of night. For that's when my ...

 READ: DEUTERONOMY 16:18 - 18:22; PSALM 107 TITLE: OUR NEED TO CONTROL TEXT TO MEDITATE: DEUTERONOMY 18:10-12 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer   or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,   for whoever does these things is an abomination to the  Lord . REFLECT : Virtually every civilization has a belief in an existence that is far superior to the one we see. A simple observation of all the happenings in the world will cause us to realise that many circumstances are beyond our control - a sudden occurrence of disease, the unpredictability of weather, the existence and power of our enemies, the loyalty of our friends and loved ones, even our moods and state of mind. Our inability to control our circumstances leads to uncertainty. There is no certainty that we wi...