His power perfected in my weakness

Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - Devotions: Ps 101, 109, 119:121-44; 2 Ki 18:9-25; 1 Cor 8:1-13; Mt 7:13-21

David wrote: I will sing of loyalty and justice to You, O Lord.  I will heed the blameless way.  God, when will You come to me?  In my house, I'll walk with integrity, setting nothing base before my eyes.  I hate the works of those who fall away; let that pattern not cling to me.  Let perversity of heart remain far from me.  May I know nothing of evil.  I will destroy those who slander secretly; I will not endure the haughty and arrogant.  I will favor the faithful, and we will dwell in the land of promise together.  My ministers will be those whose walk is blameless.  No one practicing deceit will abide in my house; no liar may remain in my presence.  Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked--starting with whatever is ungodly in myself, cutting off evildoers from YHWH's holy city.  Let holy God speak, for I am slandered by wicked and deceitful mouths.  They attack me without cause and beset me with words of hate.  They return accusation and hatred, even as I love them.  So I leave these betrayers in God's hands and judgment; let the consequences of their transgressions come upon them by His holy hand.  Let their curses fall back on them; may they be saturated with their own malice.  As for me, Lord God, deliver me, I pray.  I am poor and needy; my heart is stricken; I am shaken off like a locust, weak in the knees, gaunt to extremes.  My accusers scorn me and wag their heads at me.  YHWH my God, help me!  Let Your blessings overrule their curses; make Your servant glad and put my assailants to shame.  And I will praise YHWH alone and amid the multitudes.  For our God stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would put them to death.  I have done right, Lord; don't abandon me to my oppressors.  My eyes grow dim as I watch for Your salvation.  According to Your steadfast love, O Lord, deal with me; give me godly understanding that I may know Your testimonies.  I love You and Your commands above all else, and direct my ways accordingly.  Your testimonies are marvelous, and my soul rejoices to keep them.  Unfolding Your word brings light, and I long for Your commandments.  Be gracious to me, as to all who love Your name.  Steady my steps according to  Your great and precious promises; let no iniquity have dominion over me.  Shine Your face on me, Your servant; I weep as humans ignore Your law.  You Are righteous, O Lord, and your judgments are right, appointed in faithfulness and justice.  Zeal consumes me when Your foes forget Your word.  Your promise is well tried, and I love it; I am small and despised, but Your commandments are my delight.

In the fourth year of Hezekiah's reign, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser besieged Samaria.  Three years later, the city fell to his siege, and Assyria carried the Israelites away to Halah, and along the Habor river, the river Gozan, and other cities of the Medes.  This was the consequence of Israelite disobedience and failure to keep God's covenant--they neither listened nor obeyed.  In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, Sennacharib, now Assyrian ruler, conquered all the fortified cities of Judah.  Hezekiah sued for a settlement; Sennacharib demanded 300 talents of silver and 30 of gold; Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the Lord's house and in the king's house, too.  He stripped the gold from the temple doors and doorposts.  The Assyrian king sent emissaries, the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, leading a great army against Jerusalem.  They called for the king, and Eliakim, the household executive and Shebnah, the royal secretary, and Joah ben Asaph, the royal recorder, came before them.  The Rabshekah addressed them and dictated Sennacharib's terms:  'Egypt cannot help you, nor will YHWH your God.  My master offers 2000 horses, if you can find riders for them--but you have no cavalry and no chariots.  It is YHWH Himself who has directed me to go up against this land and to destroy it.'

Paul addressed questions from the Corinthian Christians:  Concerning food offered to idols, all possess knowledge; however, knowledge puffs up while love builds up!  Those who imagine that they know something do not yet know as they ought.  But God knows those who love God.  An idol, so-called, has no real existence.  There may be so-called gods on earth or in the heavens--and there are many such--yet for us there is one God, the Father, from Whom are all things and for Whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus the Messiah, through Whom are all things and through Who we exist.  Not everyone knows these things.  As a result, some with weak conscience feel guilty when they eat meat that has been offered to an idol; this defiles their conscience.  Neither food nor abstinence will commend us to God.  Just take care than in your liberty you do not cause the weak to stumble.  Your example may cause someone to eat food offered to an idol.  As a result of your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed--a brother or sister for whom the Messiah died!  And if you thus sin against your brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against the Messiah.  If food causes my brother or sister in Christ to fall, I will never eat meat, lest I cause them to fall.

As He approached the end of His sermon on the mount, Jesus said: Enter God's kingdom by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who go that way are many.  The gate is narrow and the way hard that leads to life, and few find and follow that.  Beware of false prophets; they come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are ravening wolves.  Know them by their fruits--no grapes on thorn bushes, no figs from thistles!  Sound trees bear good fruit; evil fruit comes from bad trees.  And every tree that does not bear good fruit is felled and burned.  Thus, you can know a prophet's quality by their fruits.  Not every person who says to me 'Lord, Lord!' will enter the kingdom of heaven--only those who do the will of My Father in heaven.