Print this pageCrossing The Jordan | Making Decisions, | July 24-25, 2010 |
Food for Thought
For the week of July 25, 2010
(Questions and Scriptures for further personal study)
1. This weekend we explored some important life principles that can help us when we have a big decision to make. Below are some verses that shed additional light on using the resources God has given us in times of decision making. Read each one and then jot down your insights below.
Scripture:
Psalm 119:9-11
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
[10] I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
[11] I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you. [NIV]
Psalm 119:59-61
I have considered my ways
and have turned my steps to your statutes.
[60] I will hasten and not delay
to obey your commands.
[61] Though the wicked bind me with ropes,
I will not forget your law. [NIV]
Psalm 119:97-105
Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
[98] Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
[99] I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
[100] I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
[101] I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.
[102] I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.
[103] How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
[104] I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong path.
[105] Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path. [NIV]
Proverbs 2:1-22
My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
[2] turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding,
[3] and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
[4] and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
[5] then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
[6] For the Lord gives wisdom,
and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
[7] He holds victory in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
[8] for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.
[9] Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair--every good path.
[10] For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
[11] Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.
[12] Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse,
[13] who leave the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,
[14] who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
[15] whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.
[16] It will save you also from the adulteress,
from the wayward wife with her seductive words,
[17] who has left the partner of her youth
and ignored the covenant she made before God.
[18] For her house leads down to death
and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
[19] None who go to her return
or attain the paths of life.
[20] Thus you will walk in the ways of good men
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
[21] For the upright will live in the land,
and the blameless will remain in it;
[22] but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the unfaithful will be torn from it. [NIV]
Wise Counsel:
Proverbs 15:22
Plans fail for lack of counsel,
but with many advisers they succeed. [NIV]
2 Chronicles 10:1-11
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. [2] When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. [3] So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: [4] "Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."
[5] Rehoboam answered, "Come back to me in three days." So the people went away.
[6] Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. "How would you advise me to answer these people?" he asked.
[7] They replied, "If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants."
[8] But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. [9] He asked them, "What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?"
[10] The young men who had grown up with him replied, "Tell the people who have said to you, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter'--tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. [11] My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.' " [NIV]
The Inner Promptings of the Holy Spirit:
Acts 16:6-10
Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. [7] When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. [8] So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. [9] During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." [10] After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. [NIV]
Acts 20:22-23
"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. [23] I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. [NIV]
John 16:12-14
"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. [13] But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. [14] He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. [NIV]
2. Solomon was the wisest man of his day, yet even he made some really bad decisions. One example of this can be found in 1 Kings 11:1-13. Read this passage and then spend a little time troubleshooting where this king went wrong. What principles from this week’s message or Food for Thought did Solomon ignore?
1 Kings 11:1-13
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter--Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. [2] They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. [3] He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. [4] As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. [5] He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. [6] So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
[7] On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. [8] He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
[9] The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. [10] Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord's command. [11] So the Lord said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. [12] Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. [13] Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." [NIV]
3. Throughout history, God has made His expectations clear for His followers. Moses wraps up a great sermon in Deuteronomy 30 by outlining specific commitments God was asking His children to make. Read Deuteronomy 30:11-20 and catalog a list of God’s expectations for the Israelites as they entered the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 3:11-20
(Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
[12] Of the land that we took over at that time, I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory north of Aroer by the Arnon Gorge, including half the hill country of Gilead, together with its towns. [13] The rest of Gilead and also all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half tribe of Manasseh. (The whole region of Argob in Bashan used to be known as a land of the Rephaites. [14] Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites; it was named after him, so that to this day Bashan is called Havvoth Jair.) [15] And I gave Gilead to Makir. [16] But to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory extending from Gilead down to the Arnon Gorge (the middle of the gorge being the border) and out to the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites. [17] Its western border was the Jordan in the Arabah, from Kinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.
[18] I commanded you at that time: "The Lord your God has given you this land to take possession of it. But all your able-bodied men, armed for battle, must cross over ahead of your brother Israelites. [19] However, your wives, your children and your livestock (I know you have much livestock) may stay in the towns I have given you, [20] until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they too have taken over the land that the Lord your God is giving them, across the Jordan. After that, each of you may go back to the possession I have given you." [NIV]
If you were an Israelite listening to this message, what would compel you to keep your commitments and follow God’s instruction?
What compels you to keep commitments in your life today? Does anything make it difficult?