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Daily devotional

April 2 – Betrayal

“Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them.” – Luke 22:3–4 Scripture reading: John 6:60-71 As it was chosen beforehand by God that Christ would come to suffer and die to be the Passover Lamb Who purchases salvation for His people, so it was already ordained that one disciple, Judas, would betray Jesus. We wonder why Jesus would choose Judas to be one of the twelve. Why not choose someone more loyal? But Jesus did not come to find an easy life and the people Jesus came to are not so different than Judas. We see ourselves in Judas: we love ourselves, we love money and our allegiance is easily swayed. Maybe we wonder why Jesus never held Judas at an arms’ length. Judas was treated just like the rest of the disciples, sent to preach and do miracles and entrusted with the money bag. But this Judas would betray the Lord. This betrayal is sad and discouraging, but we do not need to wonder Who is in control. Judas is responsible for his actions, and yet God knew this would happen and will use it to bring the promised Lamb to the altar and to bring salvation to sinners. This is humbling for us, but also encouraging. It is humbling to see that even someone who was so close to Jesus would rather betray Him than believe in Him. We need to pray that God will give us eyes of faith. But this is also encouraging because no foe or betrayal puts a roadblock in front of the work of God. God will bring salvation, and though people turn away, Jesus’ mission will be accomplished and He will be exalted. Suggestions for prayer We will always be surrounded by sin while on this earth. Pray that God will not let us be led away from Him, but that we would grow in faith, believing that nothing can hinder the Lord from working salvation and that sinners like us are saved by God’s grace.   Rev. Simon Lievaart is a pastor for Bethel United Reformed Church of Smithers BC. He and his wife Jodi have four children. ...

Daily devotional

April 1 – Introduction to the month of April

Our calendars tell us that Easter is this month. There is much debate on the accuracy of the date and if Christians should participate in Lent and how to celebrate Easter, but we should never take lightly nor forget what occurred and what it means that Jesus let Himself be betrayed, arrested, placed on trial and crucified. And then we need to think about what it means that Jesus rose from the grave and ascended to heaven. The identity of the Christian is found in the death and resurrection of Christ. This month we will spend time looking at and learning from the events leading up to the death of Christ and then we will look at how the ministry of Christ is carried out after His resurrection. We will pay close attention to Peter, who is famous for denying Christ and then later leading the church. As we look at Peter, the point is not to learn from and be like Peter, but to see ourselves in Peter as an example of one who is nothing without the Lord, but who in the Lord is able to live a life to the glory of God and service of His kingdom. I pray that this month you grow in your awareness of your sin and weakness and as you do so, grow in your amazement at the great love of God shown to us in Jesus Christ. As you grow in your grasp of who Christ is and are filled with Christ, I pray that your life will show a more humble faith and more eagerness to live a life to the glory of God. A national holiday “Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people.” – Luke 22:1-2 Scripture reading: Luke 22:1-6 On April 1st, many families like to play jokes on each other. One April fools morning I hid all of our bowls and then asked the kids to set the table. They were baffled to discover the bowls were nowhere to be found. We might laugh at a joke about breakfast, but one thing that no Israelite would find funny would be a joke about the Passover feast. This was their national holiday and it celebrated the victory and identity God gave them when they were rescued from Egypt so many years ago. In the days of Jesus, the Israelites were once again under foreign oppression. The glory and the freedom of the former kingdom had long since faded. They only held onto hope. But this Passover would be different. On this night, Jesus is the Passover Lamb Who will soon be slain to deliver His people from bondage, to free them from their sin and from the oppression of Satan. At Passover, the Jews celebrated the angel of death passing over them because the blood of the lamb was on their doorposts. They were celebrating salvation. But now Jesus will show them how He has come that whoever believes in Him may have life and salvation. This is still a matter of life and death - not something to joke about, but instead, something we need to ponder and learn about. See what Jesus would do and endure in order to be our Passover Lamb. Suggestions for prayer We are so easily distracted. Pray that God will help you to ponder what Christ has done. Ask God to help you grasp the love of Christ in coming to set His people free. Rev. Simon Lievaart is a pastor for Bethel United Reformed Church of Smithers BC. He and his wife Jodi have four children. ...

Daily devotional

March 31 – The Lord Jesus Christ and God’s goal of creation

“So Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The Lord will provide;’ as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’” – Genesis 22:14 Scripture reading: 2 Chronicles 3:1 God guarantees Abraham that He will bless the nations through the church when it lives in His presence in the Spirit through faith by being receptive to His voice, open to His provision and available to the leading of the Spirit. This guarantee was not fulfilled in the Old Testament because Abraham’s descendants wanted to be like the nations. Israel failed to be a blessing for the world, but God sent His Son to do what Israel failed to do. With the sacrifice of His life and the sacrifice of His death, the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly reflected the glorious presence of His heavenly Father and lived for the other by being a person where heaven and earth meet. In Him, all the families of the earth are blessed when they are joined to Him by faith because the Holy Spirit enables them to live for the other by becoming people where heaven and earth meet and God’s mission for His glory is worked out in and through them. II Chronicles 3 links the place where Abraham sacrificed a ram instead of Isaac to Mount Zion where later the temple was built. This links the ram that was sacrificed as a substitute for Isaac to the Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute. This gives a deep meaning to the name Abraham gave to this place: the LORD will provide. The ram pointed to Him because in Him God provided the church with the One Who would enable it to succeed in reaching the goal of His creation. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to enable you to daily live in His presence by living in Christ through the Holy Spirit by faith. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 30 – God’s guarantees to bless the nations through Abraham and his descendants

“And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.” – Genesis 22:13b Scripture reading: Genesis 22:15-19 Because Abraham lived in the Spirit through faith God intervened and called off the sacrifice of Isaac. Because God providentially led a ram that had its horns caught in a thicket to where Abraham was, Abraham sacrifices the ram instead of Isaac. Moreover, God rewards Abraham’s living in the Spirit through faith with the promise He would bless him so that he could be a blessing to the nations around Canaan. He does so by using language He had already used in Genesis 12, 15, and 17 to indicate this. God would bless him, multiply his offspring like the stars of heaven and the sand of the seashore, his offspring would possess the gate of their enemies and in him would all the nations of the earth be blessed. God guarantees His promise with an oath (v. 15). Now oaths always contain not only a blessing, but also a curse. The oath swearer calls a curse down upon himself if he does not fulfill the blessing. The curse can be either verbal or ritual, such as cutting animals in half as had occurred in Genesis 15. Because God’s oath does not contain a verbal curse, there must be a ritual curse. I believe we find this ritual curse in the sacrifice of the ram as a burnt offering. God is saying: “May I be sacrificed like that ram if I do not fulfill my oath of blessing the nations through Abraham’s descendants when they wholeheartedly live in the Spirit through faith and obey my voice.” Suggestions for prayer Thank your heavenly Father that He has guaranteed to bless the world through the church, Abraham’s offspring, when it lives in the Spirit through faith and is obedient to His voice. Ask Him to enable you to live in the Spirit through faith. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 29 – Wholeheartedly living in the Spirit through faith and the goal of God’s creation

“He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’” – Genesis 22:2 Scripture reading: Genesis 22:1-14 God wants to use Abraham and Sarah as a second Adam and Eve and deal with the problem that their fall into sin caused and have them live for the other by being people and places where heaven and earth meet that reflect the glorious life-giving, light-giving, and loving presence of God. In order for Abraham and Sarah to be able to do this, they have to live in the Spirit through faith and not in the flesh of the world and the flesh of their sinful hearts. Circumcision as a sign and seal of their membership of God’s covenant community served as a reminder of their identity as well as their calling. In our Scripture reading, God tests Abraham’s wholehearted commitment to be His redemptive representative in this world for the sake of the world by commanding him to take the son he had waited for 25 years to be born and sacrifice him as a burnt offering, much like Canaanites sacrificed their children. Because Abraham did indeed live in the Spirit through faith by being receptive to the voice of his God, open to His provision and available to the Spirit’s leading, he passed God’s test. You see this in his immediate departure from his home, his telling the servants that he and Isaac would return, his belief that God would provide a sacrifice, his raising of the knife to sacrifice his son and in his belief that God would raise Isaac from the dead if he sacrificed him (Hebrews 11:19). Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to show you where you may need to make changes in your life to be more wholehearted in fulfilling your calling to be God’s redemptive representative in this world by being a person where heaven and earth meet. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 28 – Baptism as a sign of the goal of God’s creation

“In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism.” – Colossians 2:11-12a    Scripture reading: Exodus 28:6-21 In the Old Testament, the high priest was the substitute and representative of Israel, symbolized by the stones on his shoulder and the stones in the breast piece of judgment. Wherever he went, Israel went with him and whatever he did, Israel did with him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament high priest. In whatever He did, He functioned as the substitute and representative of New Testament Israel, the church, His body. Thus, when He died, the members of His body died with Him. Baptism is a sign and seal of our having died and been buried with Christ. Because circumcision in the Old Testament, made with hands, was an identity marker that members of the church had been cut off from the life of the flesh in the world and the flesh in their hearts – the old order of life – and had been placed in the church – the new order of life – Paul calls our having been buried with Christ in baptism the circumcision of Christ, one made without hands. It is a sign and seal that in Christ we have died to the life of the flesh in the world and the flesh that lives in our hearts. Thus, as circumcision was a reminder of what being a member of God’s covenant community entailed, so baptism reminds us of the same. If we are to be a blessing for the world, we need to daily die to the ways of the flesh of the world and the flesh of our hearts. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to show you where you need to die to the flesh so that you can be a blessing to those around you. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 27 – Circumcision as a sign of the goal of God’s creation

“You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.” – Genesis 17:11 Scripture reading: Genesis 17:9-14 I have a NEXUS card, which serves as one of my identity markers. It identifies me as a low-risk traveler who can cross the Canadian-American border quickly. It also gives me privileges at certain airports. Circumcision, as a sign of God’s covenant community, is also an identity marker. It identifies males as members of this community and reminds them (and the females) of what being a member of this covenant community entails. As the flesh of the male’s foreskin was cut off, so members of God’s covenant community are cut off from the ways of the flesh of the world. Being circumcised symbolizes that they have been separated from the ways of the world and consecrated to the ways of God. They are to walk before God, in His loving, holy presence in the Holy Spirit, and be blameless, wholeheartedly devoted to God. In addition, circumcision symbolizes that members of God’s covenant community are cut off from the ways of the flesh in their hearts. Outward circumcision is not enough, their hearts need to be circumcised as well (cf. Rom. 2:25-29). Only in this way can God use His covenant community, His church, to be a blessing for the world and to live for the other by being people and places where heaven and earth meet. The hearts of the members of the church need to be circumcised and the ways of the flesh need to be cut out of their hearts. Otherwise, they will be cut off from God’s covenant community. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to daily remind you what it entails to be a member of His covenant community with regard to the ways of the flesh that still live in our hearts. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 26 – God’s second covenant with Abraham and the goal of creation (2)

“And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” – Genesis 17:7 Scripture Genesis 17:1-8 When God made His two covenants with Noah, He continually spoke about making "My covenant." In doing so, God was drawing attention to the fact that He would take care that His commitment to Noah, his family, and creation and His commitment to His mission for His glory would be fulfilled. Nothing would shake this commitment. With this second covenant with Abram, God does the same. He continually speaks about “My covenant,” essentially drawing attention to the fact that because He is God Almighty, He will take care of fulfilling the promises He made to Abram so that he and his descendants can be a blessing for the world. Because God’s covenant with Abram is “His covenant” with him, God repeats His promises to Abram in a more lavish and generous manner than before. Abram would become exceedingly fruitful and be the father of a multitude of nations. Consequently, God changes Abram’s name to bring it in line with this fruitful destiny. No longer would he be called Abram, but Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude.” Moreover, kings would come forth from this multitude of nations of which Abraham would be the father. Furthermore, God’s covenant with Abraham would be an everlasting covenant. The heart of this everlasting covenant is that God would be God to them. In other words, there will always be descendants of Abraham who will live in God’s loving presence in the Spirit and be a blessing for the world by being people and places where heaven and earth meet. Suggestions for prayer Thank your heavenly Father that He will fulfill His purpose for you and His church in a new heaven and a new earth. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 25 – God’s second covenant with Abraham and the goal of creation (1)

“I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly…” – Genesis 17:1b-2 Scripture reading: Genesis 17:1-8 After making a covenant with Abram in Genesis 15, God makes a new covenant with him in Genesis 17. Yesterday, we read why this was necessary. By being people and places where heaven and earth would meet, Abram and Sarai had to realize the fulfillment of God’s promise of a great nation through which God wanted to deal with the chaos and disorder caused by Adam. They tried to do this through the flesh of the world and the flesh in their own hearts, leading to uncertainty whether God can still use Abram and Sarai for this purpose. Thus, it should not surprise us that when God addresses Abram, He does so as "God Almighty." He says to Abram that He can deal with the problem of their childlessness, making the barren fertile so that he can be a blessing for the world. Moreover, it should not surprise us that God commands Abram to walk before Him. You need to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. You need to live in My holy presence and reflect My holy glory. You need to be blameless. You need to be wholehearted in your service of Me. You need to surrender everything to Me and be completely devoted to Me. Only in this way can I use you in My mission for My glory and make all things new in a world where My people and My world will once again dwell in My loving presence and be people and places where heaven and earth meet. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to show you what changes you may need to make in your life so that you are living in His holy presence and reflecting His holy glory. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 24 – The flesh of the world and the flesh of our own hearts

“And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived.” – Genesis 16:4a Scripture reading: Genesis 16:1-16 Last week Wednesday, I wrote that if we want to succeed in being a blessing for the world by being people and places where heaven and earth meet, we need to entrust ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, opening ourselves to His entrance into our souls with His Holy Spirit so that He becomes flesh and blood in our lives. For Abram and Sarai to succeed in being a second Adam and Eve who would bless the world and deal with the problem caused by Adam’s sin by being people where heaven and earth meet, they too would have to live in the Spirit and not in the flesh. However, our Scripture reading shows us that both of them intentionally choose to live in the flesh when it concerns the fulfillment of God’s promise to make them into a great nation. Instead of waiting on God to fulfill His promise in His time, they take matters into their own hands and try to fulfill God’s promise their way, by having Abram go into Hagar and father a child with her according to the cultural custom of those days. But this is not how we succeed in being a blessing for the world. If we want to bless the world by being people and places where heaven and earth meet, we need to live in the Spirit and not the flesh of the world or the flesh of our own hearts. All the misery that the birth of Ishmael brought about is clearly proof of this truth. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to show you where the flesh of the world or the flesh of your own heart is hindering you in succeeding to become a blessing for the world by being a person where heaven and earth meet. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 23 – The blood of the Covenant

“For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins…” – Matthew 26:28 Scripture reading: Matthew 26:26-29 On Saturday, we saw that God makes a covenant with Abram according to the custom of those days where covenant partners cut animals in half and then walked between these animals, thus guaranteeing their commitment to the covenant they just made or cut. When the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper, He picked up on the image of the blood of the animals that were used to cut a covenant (cf. also Exodus 24:8). He told his disciples that when they drink from the cup during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Him, this cup with wine symbolizes His blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. This shows us that when God swore an oath that if He did not fulfill His promise of giving Abram and his descendants the land of Canaan which foreshadowed the new heaven and new earth, He would cut Himself in half, He meant what He said. For while God did not need to cut Himself in half in order to fulfill his promise of the possession of the land of Canaan, because of our sin, He did need to cut Himself in half in order to fulfill the promise of what this land foreshadowed: the fullness of the eternal kingdom of God. In the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, God cut Himself in half in order to remove the obstacle of sin that hindered us from inheriting the new heaven and new earth. Suggestions for prayer Thank your heavenly Father for the blood of the covenant that removed the obstacle of your sin so you can receive your reward of faith and enter the coming kingdom of heaven. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 22 – The land of Canaan and the New Heaven and the New Earth

“For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” – Hebrews 11:10 Scripture reading: Hebrews 11:8-16 God is on a mission for His glory to make all things new in a world where His people and His world will once again dwell in His loving presence and be people and places where heaven and earth meet. This means that the Christian life is a journey to this glorious life-giving, light-giving, and loving presence of God, also known as the fullness of God’s eternal Sabbath rest. From our Scripture reading, it would seem that Abraham understood this. We are told that he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Moreover, it tells us that he acknowledged that he was a stranger and exile on earth who desired a far better country than the one he had just left, namely, a heavenly country, a city prepared for him by God. This means that the land of Canaan, in addition to being a real land, also functions as a type or foreshadowing of the new heaven and the new earth. And just as God dealt with the problem of uncertainty in Abraham’s life with regard to the possession of the land of Canaan by making a covenant with him that guaranteed His commitment to this promise, so God also deals with any uncertainty we may have that His commitment to His mission for His glory, resulting in a new heaven and a new earth, will be fulfilled with this same covenant. May He be cut in half if He does not fulfill this promise for us. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to enable you to hang on loosely to this world and the things of this world as you travel the journey to the new heaven and new earth as a stranger and sojourner on this earth. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 21 – God’s first covenant with Abram and the goal of creation

“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram...” – Genesis 15:18 Scripture reading: Genesis 15:7-21 I trust you have not forgotten what I wrote about biblical covenants between God and His people. Covenants regulate an existing relationship, often dealing with a problem in this relationship that causes uncertainty. Against this background of the function of covenants in God’s relationship with His people, it should not surprise us that we once again read about a covenant, for there is a problem in Abram’s relationship with his God that causes uncertainty. God has just promised to give Abram and his descendants the gift of the land of Canaan, but Abram is not sure whether this will indeed happen, for he says to God, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” Abram wants God to guarantee His commitment of giving him and his descendants the land of Canaan, possibly still in the light of the fact that he does not have a biological heir and that his wife is barren, even though he had believed that God would give him descendants as countless as the stars in the heavens. So, God makes a covenant with Abram according to the custom of those days where covenant partners cut animals in half and then walk between these animals, thus guaranteeing their commitment to the covenant they just made or cut. Except, in this covenant, only God walks between the bloody carcasses of the animals. In doing so, He is swearing an oath: “May I be cut in half if I do not fulfill my promise of giving you the land of Canaan”. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to open your eyes to the deep significance of His covenant commitment to you (and your children). Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 20 – Faith and its reward

“And he said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.’” – Genesis 15:7 Scripture reading: Genesis 15:7-21 Yesterday, we saw that Abram believed God and God counted this posture of faith to him as righteousness. If we want to do justice to our relationship with God, we need to consider His promises to be trustworthy and entrust ourselves to this promising God. That is the way to live in a right relationship with God. Today, we see that God rewards this posture of faith with the gift of land. In Genesis 15:1, God had said to Abram that his reward would be very great. Today, we read that this reward is the gift of the land of Canaan. The land was a sort of second Garden of Eden where the nations would be drawn into the glorious presence of God and begin to reflect this life-giving, light-giving, and loving presence to one another as well by being people and places where heaven and earth meet. God had promised the land when Abram first arrived in Canaan. He had repeated the promise when Abram and Lot had separated. Now God makes the promise again as a reward for his posture of faith. New this time is that the geographical markers of the land are included as well as the fact that Abram’s descendants would first be sojourners in the land of Egypt before they would possess the land because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. This latter fact shows us God’s patience towards sinners. Not all sin warrants immediate destruction; only the full measure of sin. Suggestions for prayer Since faith in God’s promises and entrusting ourselves to this promising God is the means God uses to receive us into His eternal kingdom, ask your heavenly Father daily to strengthen your faith. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 19 – Doubting the fulfillment of God’s mission for His glory

“And Abram said, ‘Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.’” – Genesis 15:6 Scripture reading: Genesis 15:1-6 Do you ever doubt that God will succeed in His mission for His glory, making all things new in a world where His people and His world will again dwell in His loving presence and be people and places where heaven and earth meet? Living in God’s life-giving, light-giving, and loving presence and reflecting this glorious presence to all those around you, it's all yours as a reward, when you consider the promises of God to be trustworthy and entrust yourself to the God of this promise. Abram also has his doubts about a promise of God: that he would become a great nation. How can he become a great nation if he does not even have one child and his wife is barren? Abram is asked to believe this promise, but this promise, humanly speaking, cannot be fulfilled. So God comes to Abram’s help, appearing to him in a vision, telling him not to be afraid, for He is his shield. Moreover, his reward shall be very great. His promise that he will become a great nation is trustworthy. God then takes Abram outside, tells him to look at the sky and try to count the stars. God assures Abram that his descendants would be as countless as the stars of heaven. Abram believed God and God counted this to him as righteousness, i.e. believing God’s promises and entrusting yourself to the God of these promises is an attitude that does justice to your relationship with God. Suggestions for prayer If you have any doubts about the fulfillment of God’s mission for His glory, ask your heavenly Father to remove them. If you have no doubts, ask Him to continue to spare you these doubts. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 18 – Succeeding in being a blessing for the world

“So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” – Galatians 3:9 Scripture reading: Galatians 3:1-14   Israel failed to be a blessing for the world and to live for the other by being a people and a place where heaven and earth meet, but God sent His own Son into the world to do what Israel failed to do. The Lord Jesus Christ perfectly reflected the glorious presence of His heavenly Father by being a person where heaven and earth beautifully met. He perfectly lived for the other with the sacrifices of His life and His death. In Him, all the families of the earth are blessed when they identify with Him and are joined to Him through faith. When they do, they receive the promised Holy Spirit, Who enables them to live for the other by becoming people where heaven and earth meet, because the Holy Spirit reproduces the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in them like a vine reproduces its life in the branches so that God’s mission for His glory is worked out in and through them. What the Lord Jesus Christ did with the sacrifices of His life and His death, He did for you as your substitute and representative. What He has done for you, He now wants to do in you as you entrust yourself to Him, opening yourself to Him entering into your soul with His Holy Spirit so that He becomes flesh and blood in your life. And you can say with the apostle Paul that it is no longer you who live, but Christ Jesus who lives in you (Galatians 2:20). Suggestions for prayer Thank your heavenly Father for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to enable you to live in the Spirit, through faith, so that it is no longer you who live, but Christ Jesus who lives in you. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 17 – Failure to be a blessing for the world

“They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.” – 2 Kings 17:15b Scripture reading: 2 Kings 17:6-23 God encouraged Abram to make a complete break with his past, go to the land of Canaan and be a blessing by living for the other, the nations, by promising him that He would make him into a great nation and that the nations around him would identify with him and his God. In fact, in him, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Were these two promises fulfilled in the Old Testament? Well, the promise of becoming a great nation was fulfilled, even though Sarai was barren and Abraham himself was already 75 years old, and it took another 25 years before Isaac was born. However, Jacob had twelve sons and traveled to Egypt with a family of 70. In due time Israel entered Canaan with a few million people under the leadership of Joshua and reached its high point as a great nation during the time of David and Solomon. But what about the promise of an international community? Did the nations bless Israel? Were they on good terms with Israel and did they identify with this nation and their God? Was this promise fulfilled in the Old Testament? No, it was not, because Israel wanted to be just like the nations. They were idolatrous, worshipping and serving the things of this world instead of worshipping and serving God and their neighbor and living for the other by being people and places where heaven and earth meet, reflecting the glorious presence of their God and drawing others into this glorious presence. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to show you whether there is any idolatry in your life that hinders you in living for the other. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 16 – Blessed to be a blessing

“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – Genesis 12:2-3  Scripture reading: Genesis 12:1-9 God makes a new beginning and calls Abram and Sarai. He is going to use them as a new Adam and Eve and deal with the problem caused by their sin. He is going to use them to subdue the chaos and disorder caused by sin and to invite humanity and creation into His Sabbath rest by reflecting God’s glory through being people and places where heaven and earth meet. In order to do so, He calls Abram to make a complete break with his past, to leave behind everything that is dear to him and to go to the land that He would show him. However, the whole father’s house leaves the city of Ur and travels to the land of Canaan. They settle down in Haran. That’s why Genesis 12:1 can be translated, “God had said to Abram....” It would seem that God renewed the call that He had made in Ur. He encouraged Abram with the same promises He had made in Ur: the promise of a great nation and of an international community. But the latter promise would depend on a nation’s attitude to Abram. Those who would be on good terms with him and identify with him and his God, God would bless. However, those who would be hostile to him and treat him lightly, God would curse. But God’s overriding concern was that in Abram all the families of the earth would be blessed. God blessed Abram to be a blessing by living for the other, the nations. Suggestions for prayer Ask God to show you how He has blessed you. Then ask Him to use these blessings for the sake of the other. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 15 – Called to be a blessing for the world

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.’" – Genesis 12:1 Scripture reading: Genesis 11:27-32 How are you a blessing to those outside the church as an individual and as a Christian congregation, living for the other by being a person and a place where heaven and earth meet? God had also called Noah and his family to be a blessing for the world by living for the other and by subduing the chaos and disorder in the world by increasingly entering into the fullness of God’s Sabbath rest and urging others to do the same. But the chaos and disorder were not subdued because the intention of the human heart was still evil. And so the chaos and disorder only got worse. However, because God had promised not to destroy humanity and creation with a flood, He confused their language and dispersed them over the face of the earth. So, what does God do? Does He give up? No, He does not! He cannot give up because He is on a mission for His glory to make all things new in a world where His people and His world will once again dwell in His loving presence and be people and places where heaven and earth meet. And He had demonstrated His commitment to advance this goal of His creation with a covenant with Noah and a second covenant with him and all of creation. And so, God makes a new beginning. He calls Abram to be a blessing for the world and to live for the other by becoming a people and place where heaven and earth meet. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to enable you to be a blessing for the world and to live for the other by being a person where heaven and earth meet. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 14 – The rainbow as a sign of the goal of God’s Creation

“I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” – Genesis 9:13 Scripture reading: Genesis 9:12-17  We have seen that in the Old Testament the Sabbath was a sign of the goal of God’s creation. For Israel, the Sabbath was the weekly reminder to enter into the fullness of God’s Sabbath rest by being people where heaven and earth meet. It is as well a promise that one day this fullness, where God will be all in all, would descend from heaven on a new earth. For New Testament believers, Sunday is a weekly reminder that they are a new creation in Christ, called to bear witness to this new creation by being people where heaven and earth meet. It is as well, a promise that they will bear witness to the fullness of this new creation when Christ returns. Today, we see that God gives another sign of the goal of His new creation: the rainbow. But signs only function in our life of faith to the extent that we remember them. We need to remember them and allow them to become constructive forces in our consciousness that shape the way we think and behave. However, the interesting thing in our Scripture reading is that God says that when the rainbow is seen in the clouds, He will remember His covenant with Noah and creation. This means that He will act upon His covenant commitment and bring the goal of His creation to fruition in a glorious new heaven and earth where a new humanity and creation will live in His loving presence and participate in His life in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Suggestions for prayer Ask your heavenly Father to help you cultivate the spiritual discipline of remembering the signs of the goal of His creation. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

Daily devotional

March 13 – God’s covenant with Noah and Creation

“Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you....” – Genesis 9:9-10a Scripture reading: Genesis 8:20-22; 9:9-11 Covenants between God and His people regulate the relationship He has with them and are often meant to deal with a problem that causes uncertainty in the relationship. We read how God did that with Noah before He came with the waters of the flood. After the flood, God makes a new covenant with Noah and his family as well as with all of creation. This shows us another aspect of biblical covenants between God and His people. A new covenant often updates an earlier covenant to the new situation that it is dealing with. You can see this, for instance, with an engagement covenant and a marriage covenant. The marriage covenant simply regulates and updates the engagement covenant to the new situation of the marriage. The new situation of God’s second covenant with Noah, now also including creation, is the new situation of continuing to live in a world that has once been destroyed by a flood. The problem that causes uncertainty in this new situation is the fact that the human heart was not cleansed with the water of the flood. The intention of man's heart is still evil from his youth (Genesis 8:21). But whereas before the flood, humanity’s depravity was the ground for God’s judgment, now this depravity becomes the ground for God’s mercy. God promises to never destroy the earth with a flood again. In doing so, He guarantees His commitment to the goal of His creation. He seals this commitment and guarantees it by establishing His covenant with Noah and creation. Suggestions for prayer Thank your heavenly Father that His commitment to a glorious new heaven and new earth is firm and sure. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC. He and his wife Elsina have five children and 14 grandchildren....

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