Agape Devotions

You can use today to catch up on your readings.

READ : Ezekiel 11:1 - 12:20. Verses chosen for meditation: Ezekiel 11:17-20. 17  Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord  God : I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’   18  And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.   19  And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,   20  that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. REFLECT I n the Bible, the heart is mentioned almost 1,000 times and it can refer to the mind, will and emotions. In fact, the words, “heart, “soul”, and “mind” can be used interchangeably in the Bible . Does this then imply that “heart “...

Read Ezekiel 9-10 Verse chosen for meditation: Ezekiel 10: 18 ESV: Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. Reflect Do we only start to miss someone when they're gone?  Is leaving someone an easy thing to do? Do we even know when someone is no longer around?  Relate More than any of the biblical prophets, Ezekiel was most acquainted with symbolism and vision. Here is one such occasion. The vision came to him when he was living in exile in Babylon. It could be any time after five years of being in exile. Before God would speak restoration to his people and judgement on their neighbours, he would have to deal with his people first. And deal with them he did. He chose a rather dramatic way of dealing with his people, that of destroying everyone whose heart was not committed or devoted to him (contrast this with 2 Chronicles 16: 9a), defiling the temple that was most dear to him, and finally, leaving the temple altogether. B...

TEXT TO REFLECT ON  And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? EZEKIEL 8:16, 17 REFLECT In Ezekiel 8, God through a vision, takes Ezekiel on a behind the scenes tour of what was going on in the Temple. The Temple represented the heart of the nation. These were scenes that were hidden from human eye, but were actually happening behind closed doors. At each gate, Ezekiel saw greater and greater abominable forms of idol worship. This culminated in the inner court of the Temple, the holiest place. There, Eze...

Read: Ezekiel 6-7 No devotional (Sunday)

Read: Ezekiel 4-5 Verse chosen for reflection: 15 Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” Reflect The dung business came about when God commanded the prophet Ezekiel to do a mega object lesson to illustrate Israel's sin and unfaithfulness. The prophet was to create a mini simulation of Babylonian siege over Israel and lie on his sides for 430 days. Through the 430 days, the prophet Ezekiel was to make food for himself by cooking barley cake over human dung. The human dung was to act as cooking fuel.  The prophet Ezekiel obeyed God for most part of His command, but raised objection to using human dung as fuel. To the prophet, this was ritually, a very unclean act which he was not prepared to do. God then allowed Ezekiel to use cow dung instead for the fuel. The prophet's objection was out of reverence for God; and not because the prophet had specific personal distaste for human dung over cow dung.  I...

READ : Ezekiel 2-3 REFLECT : The prophecy of Ezekiel opens with a priest named Ezekiel living near the Chebar River in Babylon. He is there because God has used the Babylonian Empire to invade Judah twice up this point. The Babylonians have captured the nobles and the workers of the land in these two invasions. Even though Ezekiel and the exiles live in Babylon because of their sins, God is not done with His people and has important messages for them. These messages are going to show how God is going to transform His people and give them new hearts so that they can belong to Him again. The first chapter of Ezekiel opens with Ezekiel seeing an amazing vision of God. The appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord in this vision has brought Ezekiel to his knees. The glory of the Lord is to lead people to worship, to submission, and to humility. In short, beholding the glory of the Lord is to lead to the radical transformation God desires (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:18). In Ezekiel 2-3 G...

READ : Ezekiel 1   Verses chosen for meditation: Ezekiel 1:28  28  Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking. REFLECT Ezekiel’s call to be a prophet came with a remarkable vision of God when he was in exile in Babylon. Such an experience was important as it was a point of strengthening, leading to much needed conviction for the prophet’s task ahead. Ezekiel came to an awareness of such a call, to bear the burden of saying the necessary that would arouse opposition. The prophets (as with Isaiah and Jeremiah) had to speak against the tide of popular opinion and would face abuse, betrayal, ridicule and constant rejection. They spoke against government policies, and against the widespread feel that God would alway...

Catch up day Introduction to Book of Ezekiel (2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-CIPu1nko8

Catch up on your readings day Introduction to Book of Ezekiel https://insight.org/resources/bible/the-major-prophets/ezekiel

  TEXT FOR REFLECTION Our ancestors sinned and are no more,     and we bear their punishment. Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return;     renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us     and are angry with us beyond measure. LAMENTATIONS 5:7. 21-22 REFLECT Lamentations 5 gives us a front row view of the torment of exile. The Jews' inheritance had been given over to strangers. Nothing was theirs anymore. They even had to pay for water and firewood. Their parents had been killed, and they had to witness their women violated. In short, there was no more joy and celebration. This chapter gives us an idea of how brutal their captivity was. In the midst of the lament, we catch a hint of the lamenters' sense of injustice - this was the consequence of the sins of their ancestors who were no longer even with them anymore. "Our ancestors sinned and are no more,  and we bear their punishment." An anguished cry. "We bear the sins of ...

Read: Lamentations 4 No devotional today (Sunday)

Read: Lamentations 3 Verses chosen for reflection Lamentations 3:21-26  21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;  23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  24 "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."  25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.  26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Reflect Lamentations captured the years when Judah fell to Babylon and how the once mighty nation of God lost everything. Not only did Judah lost everything to her sins, she had to endure once again, the yoke of slavery. In that period of slavery under Babylon, Judah did not have it easy going. It was cruel. They went through relentless persecution and pain. To the extent where God even lamented that the people suffered more than what was intended. At Jerusalem, the deso...

READ : Lamentations 2 REFLECT :  At the beginning of this chapter you have a description of how the armies of Nebuchadnezzar utterly devastated the city. Jeremiah, however, does not attribute this destruction to the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, but to the Lord. He looks behind the immediate circumstance to what God is doing. As you read through the chapter you can see how he points out that everything has been destroyed, nothing is left. There is nothing he can put his hand on that has been preserved because of the thorough judgment of God. This is such a sobering chapter. I t is filled with sorrow and suffering with the effects of sin on all kinds of people, including infants and babies crying out in misery and at the centre of the chapter, we read  v.14 . The prophets - God's spokesmen, who are supposed to be proclaiming God’s word to the people, have seen for them false and deceptive visions. They have not exposed their iniquity to restore their fortunes, but have given them o...

READ : Lamentations 1   Verses chosen for meditation: Lamentations 1:1-2   1  How lonely sits the city     that was full of people! How like a widow has she become,     she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces     has become a slave. 2  She weeps bitterly in the night,     with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers     she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;     they have become her enemies. REFLECT Lamentations compiles intense poems about events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, due to God’s judgement after generations of unfaithfulness and repeated breaking of the covenant despite many warnings from God. In Chapter 1, the anguished woman (referring to Zion) personifies Jerusalem. We can read this...

Catch up on your readings day OR; Introduction to the Book of Lamentations by Bible Project https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-lamentations/

Catch up on your readings day OR; Introduction to the Book of Lamentations by Chuck Swindoll: https://insight.org/resources/bible/the-major-prophets/lamentations

  TEXT FOR REFLECTION [King Zedekiah] did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. It was because of the Lord’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence. JEREMIAH 52:2-3 REFLECT As I read today's assigned reading, the stark reality of this injustice struck me: that the fate of a nation depended on the quality of their king. Because King Zedekiah did evil, the nation of Judah was destroyed. The city gates, the Temple, the palace, and all the houses were torn down; men, women, and children were killed or taken into exile, and the land laid waste except for the poorest, who were left to work the vineyards and the fields. It was not mentioned whether the people individually or as a whole did right or evil. But it was mentioned that the some of the poorest of the land were taken into exile while the rest of the poorest were left behind to tend the fields and vineyards (v 15, 16). None of them had a say in what ...

Read: Jeremiah 51 No devotional (Sunday)

Read: Jeremiah 50 Verses chosen for reflection: 50:33 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah with them. All who took them captive have held them fast; they refuse to let them go. 34 Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon. Reflect While Babylon had been given the mandate to conquer Judah and held captive the people of Judah; this did not absolve Babylon of her sins. Babylon could have treated God's people better when they were held captive. They could have let them go during the appointed time.  Instead, the people of God were being oppressed as the prophet Jeremiah foretold. When it was time to let go, Babylon held them fast in their hands. Therefore, God gave the word that eventually, Babylon would also be destroyed. This was also due to the promise that God would bring His people back to the land o...

READ : Jeremiah 49   REFLECT :   “Why do you boast of your valleys, Oh faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come against me?” Jeremiah 49:4 This verse is a powerful picture of pride in the heart, boasting about valleys, trusting in treasures of this world, thinking, “Who could come against me?” Thinking that having possessions in this world, having position in this world, makes one invincible in this world. See the foolishness of trusting in possessions and position, even power in this world. See the foolishness of trusting in any of these things! Your possessions could be gone in an instant. Your position in an instant, your power in an instant, gone. Don’t boast in any of these things.  Trusting in possessions or position in this world is a recipe for disaster. God help us not to boast in anything other than Christ. RELATE :  Don’t think, “All right, I’m set because I have these things, because I’m in this role, because I’m in th...