Common Sense Reborn

February 12

¹⁸(God) defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.  ¹⁹And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.  (Deuteronomy 10:18, 19)

As we enter this weekend of “love,” here is a good reminder of God’s love for all people:  His chosen and all those who seek refuge within their lands.  The Old Testament, to this point, has not shown a very loving God.  Yahweh slaughtered thousands in Egypt to prove His presence and power and to set the Israelites apart from the rest of the world.  Yahweh went before them many times and destroyed their enemies by plague.  He struck down those who worshiped the golden calf.  But now, in the final book of the Torah, Moses is finally writing about the love of God.  The world would not properly understand the love of God until Jesus came and demonstrated His love for mankind, which we continue to see in our second book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark.

Keep reading friends!  This year has been a blessing to set aside time everyday to open the Bible and reexamine this epic piece of mankind’s history.

I’m sharing a unique sound from the front man of Switchfoot, Jon Foreman, who released his first solo album today.  And at the end of this devotion, if you have time today, give Pastor Steven Furtick’s sermon from two weeks ago a listen.  He continues to raise the bar in delivering anointed messages in 2021!

Reading plan:  Mark 8:1-21

Deeper reading plan:  Deuteronomy 7-9

Prayer and meditation:  continue to pray for your request from day 1 and ask God to help you reach just two people to bring them to Christ in 2021.

Fitness challenge:  Week seven of our 7×14 challenge.  2 sets of 14, nice slow movements and keep that 1-2 second pause at the apex of each rep.

1.  Standard push-up 2.  Sit-up or crunches

3.  Air squats 4.  Hand-release push-up

5.  Leg lifts 6.  Lunges (7-each leg)

7.  4-count flutter kick