Daily Reading
Daily Thought
In 2005, my son was in 8th grade history at Springview Middle School. His assignment was to write an essay on the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1945, my dad was in the 6th Marine Division on the Island of Guam. His assignment was to invade the mainland of Japan. Until two bombs dropped. Before my son began his assignment, I’m glad he had the chance to talk with my dad. My son did not personally know World War II, but he knows his grandpa, and thus World War II was personal. But what about the next generation, and the next.
Life moves forward, a generation dies and then another. There is a danger that comes when generations pass, “and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). This does not mean Israel had not heard the stories, legends passed down from generations long gone, but they did not know them. To the Hebrew, the word “know” contains a personal intimacy, something not quite captured in legend.
“So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, ‘Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not’” (Judges 2:20-22). When God disciplined the nation of Israel, he provided an opportunity to make it personal again. When I open God’s Word, it introduces me to my God. When I obey his Word, live by faith, trust God through trials, it makes it personal.
Daily Prayer
My God, You enter history and You walk with us. You guide us, You lead us, You go before us. In the work of Your Son, Jesus Christ, through death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, there is victory over death, over sin, and over evil. You are Almighty, the God of righteousness.
God, may we truly know what You have done, passing it along to our sons and daughters by living a life of faith and trust, following You wherever You lead.
Amen
Daily Question
In what ways have you experienced God personally in your life?