April 2024 Newsletter

Devotion Thoughts

For the month of March, we studied three biblical locations. Uncle Luke Colby brought out the lessons for us from Samaria. The people of Israel, under King Omri and his son Ahab, worshipped Baal as their god and forgot about the one true God. The Syrians came and camped about the city, making food and necessities hard and expensive to come by. Elisha the prophet told the people that the next day things would be cheaper and easier to acquire, although some still doubted. Even though to the people it seemed impossible, God intervened with sounds of chariots and horses to scare away the Syrians. Worshipping false gods and idols will not save us. We must put our faith and trust in the one true God who can! With Uncle Ian Macfarlane, we learned about the great city Rome. Although it was a powerful and wealthy city from a worldly perspective, it would be brought down. The Romans put Christ to death, and destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Revelation 18:4 says, "come out of her my people." We need to be separate from the practices and beliefs of Rome - it will be destroyed. Busy yourself in the ecclesia, fill your mind with the word of God, and don't get caught up in worldly pleasures. Finally, for the last week of March, Uncle Dan Wilton taught us the importance of Shechem. We learned that Shechem was a valley between two mountains. Ebal (the mountain of cursing) and Gerazim (the mountain of blessing). Shechem was a lush land, a land of firsts, and means 'shoulder'. This location brings us to decisions. The woman of Samaria who was at Jacob's well had to make the decision that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. The two mountains, symbolizing cursing and blessings, present us with the choice - will we choose life or death? The idols in the ground remind us that we must decide to either bury our idols or let them sit in our back pocket. What will you choose?

~ Zoe Abel