Separated

Monday, May 2, 2011: Ezra 6:19 – 21 (NKJV)

And the descendants of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves; all of them were ritually clean. And they slaughtered the Passover lambs for all the descendants of the captivity, for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. Then the children of Israel who had returned from the captivity ate together with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations of the land in order to seek the Lord God of Israel.

What had seventy years of exile taught the repatriates? They separated themselves to God and away from the filth of the world.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011: Nehemiah 10:28 – 29 (NKJV)

Now the rest of the people—the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethinim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and understanding—these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes:

Can a curse and an oath be taken together? Yes it can, and the returning exiles took both willingly to keep the commandments of God and separate themselves.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011: Romans 1:1 – 4 (NKJV)

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

What was unusual about Paul’s separation? Paul, the expert in Jewish law was separated by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles!

Thursday, May 5, 2011: Luke 6:22 – 23 (NKJV)

      Blessed are you when men hate you,

      And when they exclude you,

      And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,

      For the Son of Man’s sake.

      Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!

      For indeed your reward is great in heaven,

      For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

What is your reward when you are excluded from the world’s company because of Christ? In Christ’s words, you are blessed by God and should rejoice!

Friday, May 6, 2011: Acts 19:9 – 10 (NKJV)

But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

Whom do we separate ourselves from? We separate from hardened unbelievers who speak evil of Christ.