Daily Reading: 2 Chronicles 11
The Levites left their common lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 11.14)
Devotional Thought: My friends Joe and Cheryl are missionaries in Timor-Leste (East Timor), off the coast of Australia. Their teen-aged children - Jonathan, Hannah, and Becky - are with them. I admire all of them for the courage they have displayed and the cost they have paid to serve God so far from home. I never cease to marvel at their joyful sacrifice. As a matter of fact, they don't even think of it as a sacrifice. It is pure joy to them to have left behind their American home and family to serve God in a far-away place. There are people in darkness who need to see the light of Jesus. The Youngs are determined to shine that light.
In 2 Chronicles 11, we come across other servants of the Lord who left "their common lands and their holdings" to serve the Lord. After the civil war that split the nation of Israel asunder, the Levites discovered that they were unable to serve the Lord in the way that they wanted - in the way that God called them - if they stayed in their homeland. So they left it all behind. The Bible says, "those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them." The Levites - by their great sacrifice and obedience - encouraged others to seek the Lord.
It isn't a surprise that this happened, is it? Abraham left his Father's land, and God built of him a great nation. Jesus left his father's house, and God reconciled the world to himself. Jesus calls us to leave everything and to follow him.
What have you left to serve the Lord?
Prayer: Jesus, though I am moved by stories and lives that leave everything behind and follow you, I realize that the call to me is the same. Grant, O Lord, that I may be a God-seeker and that others may follow me along that path of obedience. Amen.
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 64:1-10
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers,
3 who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,
4 shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear.
5 They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, "Who can see them?"
6 They search out injustice, saying, "We have accomplished a diligent search." For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep!
7 But God shoots his arrow at them; they are wounded suddenly.
8 They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them; all who see them will wag their heads.
9 Then all mankind fears; they tell what God has brought about and ponder what he has done.
10 Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!
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