THINKING GOD’S THOUGHTS

Today’s Reading: Matthew 16-17

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

An hour drive north of the Sea of Galilee is Caesarea Philippi, also known as Banias. Here you can view the remnants of the Temple of Pan. It was here that Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” Peter’s answer to that question is today’s key verse.

Key Verse: Matthew 16:16

Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Six verses later Peter actually rebuked Jesus. Jesus tried again and again to tell His disciples that He would be killed and would rise again. For some reason He could not penetrate their preconceived beliefs in the Christ who would overthrow the Romans and establish Israel as a sovereign state. So Peter moved from thinking the thoughts of the Father to thinking his own thoughts, receiving this response from Jesus, “Get behind Me Satan.” Peter’s mind was the battleground in the war between the Father, God, and the liar, Satan. To which voice will you listen? How do you know which voice is truth? The answer is to know God’s thoughts as revealed in His Word. This is the very reason this two-year journey through God’s written Word is so important!

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Please, Holy Spirit, do for me as Jesus promised. Guide me “into all Truth.” Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

In 1954, I rented a hall in a northern Ontario village and began a Sunday School for my public school students and others. People began to regard me as a minister. For example, a lady named May, about 70, showed up at my door and announced, “Win is dead (her railroad-engineer husband). I want you to take his funeral.” I said, “I’ll find a minister.” “No” she said, “He told me that you were the only one who prayed with him, and if you don’t do it, I’ll just stick him in the ground without a service.” I stood in front of the coffin in May’s little cottage and said something like this, “We don’t know why God would take Win.” Actually, Win was 85 and had a heart condition. After the burial, back in my one-room apartment, I confessed that I didn’t know God’s Word well and I took my Bible, opened it, and placed it on my head, saying to God, “With Your Teacher, the Holy Spirit, I will learn to think Your thoughts, and I will then be able to speak with assurance.” Then I went to Bible College and set out on a lifetime commitment to know God’s thoughts. In the first month at the college I was required to memorize 50 Scripture verses. I walked up and down the corridor outside my room hugging my Bible. It became so precious to me.

Daily learning His thoughts,

David

P.S. Our daughter, Elaine Stacey, has the very Bible that I mentioned above. It was a gift to me for Christmas 1952, less than a month after I had made my lifetime decision to follow Christ. I remember that it was falling apart after constant use for years, and I bought a new one. Some time later Elaine asked for my old Bible.