Praise, prophesy, persevere

Thursday, April 20, 2017 - Devotions: Ps 146-49; Ezek 37:1-14; Acts 3:11-26; Jn 15:12-27

Praise the Lord, my soul; I will praise YHWH as long as I live.  No reason to trust eminent mortals; there is no help there.  Happy are they, rather, whose Help is from the God of Jacob, YHWH our God, Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.  He keeps faith for ever; He executes justice for the oppressed and feeds the hungry.  YHWH sets prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up those who are downcast.  He watches over sojourners, sustains widows and orphans.  And He brings to ruin the ways of the wicked.  YHWH will reign to all generations.  Praise the Lord!
     It is good to praise our God; He Is gracious, and songs praising Him are in order.  YHWH builds up Jerusalem.  He heals the brokenhearted; He binds up their wounds.  He numbers the stars and names them all.  Great is our Lord, abundant in power; His understanding is beyond reckoning.  He lifts up the downtrodden, and casts to earth the wicked.  Sing to YHWH with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on stringed instruments!  He covers the heavens with clouds; He prepares rain for the earth and makes grass grow on the hillsides.  He feeds the wild things--the beasts and birds receive from His bounty.  Our God does not delight in animal strength; He is pleased by those who fear Him, and who hope in His steadfast love.  Let Jerusalem praise YHWH; praise your God, Zion!  He sustains your gates and boundaries; He blesses your children among you.  He brings peace to your borders; He fills you with the finest wheat.  He oversees everything that happens on the earth; His word runs swiftly!  He ordains snow showers and ice storms. and He thaws and melts the snow and ice.  He causes winds to blow and waters to flow.  He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and ordinances to Israel.  He does this with no other nation or people.  Let us praise YHWH!
     Praise Him, then, in heaven and on earth's prominences.  Let all angels and all His host praise God.  Praise Him, sun and moon, all you shining stars!  Let all creation praise the name of the Lord.
For by His command they all were created; He has established His creation for ever.  Sea monsters, ocean deeps, fire and hail, snow and sleet, frost and winds of storm--praise and obey our God!  Kings of the earth, and all peoples, princes, and every magistrate and ruler on earth; youth and aged, maids and men--let all praise our God.  His name alone is exalted; His glory is over all the worlds.  He has raised up a horn for His people, praise for all His saints, the people nearest to God.
     Praise the Lord; sing to Him a new song.  Praise Him in the assembly of the faithful.  Let all He favors rejoice in our King, praising His name with dancing, making melody to Him with every instrument. For YHWH takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with victory.  Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy from their couches and beds.  Let God's high praises fill our throats; let us lift up the sword of the Spirit to bring God's will to pass among the nations.  Christ's victory has put the idols and ungodly rulers in eternal bondage; He has executed judgment to free His people to do His service.  This is glory for all His faithful ones!  Praise the Lord!

God brought the prophet Ezekiel out from Jerusalem; by the Spirit, God put the prophet in the center of a valley filled with human bones, very dry.  God asked Ezekiel, 'Son of man, can these bones live?'  Ezekiel replied that only God knew that answer.  So God said to him, 'Prophesy to these bones: "Dry bones, hear God's word: See, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.  I will lay sinews on you, and cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with new skin, and put ruach within you, and you shall live; and you shall now that I Am YHWH.'  Ezekiel did as he was told, and the bones were enfleshed and inspired, 'and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedinglyly great host.'  God told the prophet: these are the whole house of Israel.  You will know that I Am YHWH when I open your graves and raise you, my people, in resurrection life.  Then I will place you in your own land, and you will know Me and know that I have done what I have promised.  This is the Lord's word.

Peter and John had encountered a paralyzed beggar, lame from birth, and in Jesus' name, he had been healed.  The man leaped up, walked, and entered the Temple with the apostles--he who had previously been both unable to enter and barred from admittance.  Everyone nearby witnessed all this, and they were filled with wonder and amazement.  Peter addressed the crowd drawn by this spectacle: 'Men of Israel, why stare in wonder or think that we made this man walk by our own power or piety?  No: this is the doing of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, Who glorified His Servant Jesus, Whom you delivered up and denied to Pilate, even when the procurator had decided to release Him.  You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked instead for a murderer to be released as a boon to you.  You killed the Author of life, but God raised Him from the dead.  And we are witnesses to all this. But the name of Jesus, by faith in His name, this man was made whole and strong, whom you all see and know.  The faith that is through Jesus has given this man perfect health in the very presence of you all.  I know that you and your rulers acted in ignorance.  But God fulfilled what He foretold by all His prophets: that His Messiah should suffer.  Now therefore, repent; turn in a new way, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah appointed for you, namely Jesus, Whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouths of His holy prophets.  Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren, as He raised me up.  Listen to him; do what He tells you.  Know that every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed from among the people.'  All God's prophets, from Samuel on, said the same things.  You are the descendants of the prophets, members of the covenant that God gave to your forbears, as He said to Abraham, 'And in your posterity shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.'  When God raised up His Servant, He sent Him first to you, to bless you in turning every one of you from your wickedness.'

On His last night with the apostles prior to His crucifixion, Jesus gave them these words:  'This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.  You are My friends, if you do what I command you.  I no longer call you servants, for I have made known to you everything I heard from My Father.  You did not choose Me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear good fruit, that will abide.  Therefore, whatever you ask in My name, He may give it to you.  Again: love one another.  Know this: if the world hates you, it hated Me first.  The world would love you if you belonged to the world; but I chose you out of the world--and therefore, the world hates you.  A servant is not greater than his master; if some persecuted Me, they will persecute you; and if some kept My word, they will keep yours also.  All this is done to My account, because they don't know the One Who sent Me.  They would have no sin if I had not come and spoken to them; but now, they have no excuse for their sin.  If I had not done in their midst the works no one else did or could do, they would not have sin; but now, they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.  This actually fulfills what is written in their law:  'They hated me without cause.'  But with the Paraclete comes, Whom I shall send you from the Father, namely the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness to Me, and you also are witnesses, because you have been with Me from the beginning.'