Jan 2
“The desire of your souls for His name and fame will not be disappointed. There’s no maybe about it.”
Our Savior desires that our hearts would desire Him. However, desire can be a dangerous alley in worship. Our desires are not what we worship; they are our worship. Christian life entails costly love. Only in our sacrifice of the world can we discover the complete satisfaction of a life lived for Christ.
Scripture References
8.Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,26:8 Or judgments
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
Moses and the Burning Bush
1.Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2.There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3.So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4.When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5.“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6.Then he said, “I am the God of your father,3:6 Masoretic Text; Samaritan Pentateuch (see Acts 7:32) fathers the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7.The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8.So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9.And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10.So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11.But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12.And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you3:12 The Hebrew is plural. will worship God on this mountain.”
13.Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14.God said to Moses, “I am who I am.3:14 Or I will be what I will be This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
15.God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,3:15 The Hebrew for Lord sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I am in verse 14. the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16.“Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17.And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18.“The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ 19.But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20.So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21.“And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22.Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
27.All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,28.for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
9.And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
15.The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
“The kingdom of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
and he will reign for ever and ever.”
17.The arrogance of man will be brought low
and human pride humbled;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,
3.And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4.‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’21:4 Isaiah 25:8 or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
34.Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35.For whoever wants to save their life8:35 The Greek word means either life or soul; also in verses 36 and 37. will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
11.You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
1.Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2.fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
John Piper
John Piper is the founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church. He is the author of more than fifty books, and more than thirty years of his preaching and writing are available free of charge at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noël, have five children and 12 grandchildren.