My Stedfast Love for you

Numbers 20:7–13

Numbers 20:7–13 (M:BCL): 7–8  God spoke to Moses: “Take the staff. Assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron. Speak to that rock that’s right in front of them and it will give water. You will bring water out of the rock for them; congregation and cattle will both drink.”

9–10  Moses took the staff away from God’s presence, as commanded. He and Aaron rounded up the whole congregation in front of the rock. Moses spoke: “Listen, rebels! Do we have to bring water out of this rock for you?”

11  With that Moses raised his arm and slammed his staff against the rock—once, twice. Water poured out. Congregation and cattle drank.

12  God said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t trust me, didn’t treat me with holy reverence in front of the People of Israel, you two aren’t going to lead this company into the land that I am giving them.”

13  These were the Waters of Meribah (Bickering) where the People of Israel bickered with God, and he revealed himself as holy.

REBEL: Any person overly impressed with their own importance or unwilling to listen to others.

Deuteronomy 33:12

The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language Chapter 33

12  Ben-jamin:

“GOD’s beloved;

GOD’s permanent residence.

Encircled by GOD all day long,

within whom GOD is at home.”

Jeremiah 3:22-25

The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language Chapter 3

22–25  “We’re here! We’ve come back to you.

You’re our own true GOD!

All that popular religion was a cheap lie,

duped crowds buying up the latest in gods.

We’re back! Back to our true GOD,

the salvation of Israel.

The Fraud picked us clean, swindled us

of what our ancestors bequeathed us,

Gypped us out of our inheritance—

God-blessed flocks and God-given children.

We made our bed and now lie in it,

all tangled up in the dirty sheets of dishonor.

All because we sinned against our GOD,

we and our fathers and mothers.

From the time we took our first steps, said our first words,

we’ve been rebels, disobeying the voice of our GOD.”

Bequeathed(bih-kweetht) :personal property or money disposed person final will

Ephesians 2:1-13

The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language Chapter 2

1–6  2 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

7–10  Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

11–13  But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

Hebrews 3:12-14

The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language Chapter 3

12–14  So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as it’s still God’s Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.

These words keep ringing in our ears:

Today, please listen;

don’t turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.