God's covenant faithfully embodied in Jesus the Messiah

Thursday, March 2, 2017 - Devotions: Ps 37; Deut 7:6-11; Tit 1:1-16; Jn 1:29-34

Don't fret or envy wicked evildoers: soon they will fade and wither.  Trust in YHWH and do good; that is the path to security.  Delight in God and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the Lord, and He will vindicate you like the rising of the dawn light; your righteousness will shine like the noonday sun.  Be still before the Lord; wait upon Him with patience--again, don't fret or worry over the wicked.  Refrain from anger; forsake wrath; fretfulness leads only to evil.  God will cut off the wicked, while those who wait upon Him, God will put over His creation.  In a short time, the wicked will be no more and the meek will possess the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity.  While the wicked are plotting against the righteous, God is holding the wicked in derision--God knows, and now you do too, that a day of judgment is coming for the wicked.  Their plots and weapons will be turned upon them.  So: better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked!  God upholds the righteous; He breaks the arms of the wicked.  They will vanish away like smoke.  The wicked borrows and cannot repay; the righteous gives generously, and is generously supplied and protected.  Mortals' steps are from the Lord; He establishes them in whose way God delights.  I was young, and now I'm old; yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.  Righteous people give liberally, and God provides for them and their children.  Depart from evil, then; do good, and abide forever, by God's grace and favor.  Seek God; immerse yourself in His word; then you will not slip or depart from His level way.  Wait upon the Lord; He will exalt you.  Mark not the wicked; they will disappear; rather, mark the blameless ones and behold the upright.  There is a future for people of peace!  God is our refuge in trouble and He Is our salvation, because we take refuge in Him.

Moses told the people of Israel:  You are a people holy to YHWH your God.  He chose you from among all the peoples of the earth to be His own--not because of your numbers or virtues--rather, because of His great and sovereign love.  He has redeemed you; and your God keeps His covenant; His love is steadfast and immovable.  He destroys His enemies.  So keep His commands, statutes and ordinances!

Paul wrote to Titus: as God's servant and apostle of Jesus the Messiah, I seek to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of truth, which accords with godliness.  God never lies, and so we have firm hope of eternal life--already manifested in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Messiah Jesus--and this saving gospel we now share as God our Savior commands: Grace and peace from God the Father and from the Messiah Jesus our savior.  Titus, I left you in Crete to appoint elders in every town: men of one woman, whose children are believers, never profligate or insubordinate, not arrogant or quick tempered, not drunken, violent or greedy.  God's bishops, God's stewards and vicars, must be hospitable, lovers of goodness, self-controlled, holding firm the sure word as taught, and so capable of instruction in sound doctrine and in confuting unsound teaching.  May are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers: these upset whole families, and must be silenced.  They have no right to teach in God's name.  Rebuke them sharply, that they may become sound in the faith.  Their very mnis and consciences are corrupted.  They profess to know God, but deny Him by their deeds--detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed.

John the Baptizer had testified that God's Messiah, 'whose sandal I am not worthy to untie,' already stood amid the crowds around him.  The very next day, John saw Jesus approaching and spoke: 'Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world!  This Is He of Whom I said, "After me comes a Man Who ranks before me, for He Was before me."  I myself did not know Him; but for this reason I came baptizing with water: that He might be revealed to Israel.  I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and the Spirit remained on Him.  I myself did not know Him, but the One Who sent me to baptize with wather said to me, "He on Whom you see the Spirit descend and remain--this Is He Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."  And I have seen and have borne witness that this Is the Son of God.'