The reading for Tuesday is Matthew Chapter 16.
When it is time to read, please start first by praying and thanking God for His many blessings. Be specific.
Next present your requests to Him. Ask Him for whatever you want and need.
Third, ask Him to guide you in your reading, so that you will hear his message for you today.
After you read, record your SOAP observations and then listen for three minutes. Set a timer and just listen to what he might be sharing. Don’t ask. Don’t thank. Just listen. (You can pray more after you listen, if you like.)
Here is what Mary, our guest SOAP’er for today, heard in the reading:
Beware of bad yeast
Scripture: Matthew 16:6
“Watch out!” Jesus warned them. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Saducees.”
Observation:
Jesus was referring to the way that yeast permeates everything it gets mixed into and affects it. The Pharisees and Saducees were the same way. Their deceptive, sinful teachings were accepted in the Jewish families as being truth. They were important, so people listened to them.
Application:
This verse jumped out at me today mainly because of what I’ve been telling my children lately. “Just because somebody says it doesn’t make it true. We don’t need to believe and buy into everything we hear.”
We may not have actual Pharisees and Saducees today, but the world around us is full of false, deceptive teachings. We need to constantly be on our guard against these teachings. Deception can sneak into our lives so easily and quietly and suddenly, it is a part of our belief system. Without meaning to or knowing it, we can be believing something that goes against what God says. Our lives are full of important people (or people who at least sound important) telling us what they believe and why we should also believe it.
In order to guard against the false teachings, we need to know what God says. The best way to recognize a counterfeit is to thoroughly know the real thing. Time spent reading God’s Word and listening to what He says is the only way to know what He says and be able to stand firm against the false teachings.
Prayer:
There are modern-day Pharisees and Saducees today that are trying to turn our hearts away from You, O God. Guard our hearts and minds. Give us wisdom to discern what is of You and what is is not. Give us the courage we need to stand up against the false teachings that we hear and to guide others away from them and to You. Help us, too, not to be so caught up in our daily “busy-ness” that we don’t have time to spend with You. Thank you, Father, for wanting better for me than what the world teaches.
Mary is happily married to Roland and is a stay-at-home, dairy-farming, home-schooling mother of 3 children, ages 16, 14 and 11. She blogs about her life at Mary’s Mooz
What about you? What did you see and hear in your reading of Matthew 16? Please share with the rest of us, if you are comfortable doing so. Feel free to leave your thoughts, or a link to post with your thoughts, in the comments. If you do link a post, please include a link in your own post back to this post so your readers can see what others had to say, as well, and potentially join us.
Didn’t start reading or Blogging Through the Gospels with us? That’s okay, join in anytime. Each Sunday evening I post the reading schedule for the week ahead and each evening I post the next day’s reading assignment and devotional. Feel free to jump in where we are anytime and blog or journal along using the SOAP format.
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