Double devotions for Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving Day

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Wednesday & Thursday, November 26 & 27, 2008
Devotions: Ps 119:145-76; 128-135; Zech 12:1-13:9; Eph 1:3-23; Lk 19:1-27

Lord, I cry out to you with all my might; answer and guide me in keeping Your testimonies. You are true, and Your word guides and protects me. Great is Your mercy, YHWH. The sum of Your word is Truth. They have great peace who love Your law; I flourish in obedience, and when I am disobedient, I am completely frustrated. I will not forget Your commands.
You make my work productive, and fill my household with life; peace be upon my grandchildren! God protects His people from persecution. God listens; let us hope in the Lord. I calm and quiet my soul like a child at its mother’s breast. He gives me peace! How good it is to live in peace under God’s sovereignty, in community with other believers. Let those who serve YHWH celebrate. He is gracious, and we gain by giving Him praise. He does whatever He pleases, and it has pleased Him to love and protect His people. Those who worship other idols are wasting their energy. Let the wise praise the living God.
Zechariah utters an oracle of God: The sovereign Creator vows that He will make Jerusalem a great burden to all the peoples round about her. YHWH’s strength protects His people, starting with the house of Judah. God pours out a spirit of compassion and supplication upon the house of David; when they look on Him Whom they have pierced, the will mourn and weep—and all the people of the Land will mourn. That day will open a cleansing fountain for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. God will cut off false prophets; the shepherds of the people will be stricken, and the sheep will be scattered—only a third will survive. This remnant will be tested and refined, and they will be the people of God.
Paul writes: Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus the Messiah. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, and He chose us before the foundation of the universe, to be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He destined us to be His sons, to the praise of His grace. We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus—another expression of God’s lavish grace. He has revealed to us all wisdom and insight: the mystery of His will and purpose, the plan fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah through Whom all things earthly and heavenly will be united. In Christ, we have been destined and appointed to live for God’s glory; those brought to God through the apostles’ ministries are saved and sealed with the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our inheritance until we possess it all. By these means, Paul rejoices for the faith and love of the saints. He prays unceasingly for us all: that God, the Father of the Messiah Jesus, may give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation, enlightening our hearts, to know the hope we have, to which God has called us, and His immeasurable power—the same might by which Jesus was raised from death and placed at God’s right hand in the heavenly places. Jesus is thereby above every created being—rulers, authorities, powers and dominions, in all ages. Jesus is also the Head of the church of God, which serves as His body, ‘the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.’
As Jesus passed through Jericho, bound for Jerusalem and Calvary, a short, wealthy chief tax collector names Zacchaeus ran ahead of the Lord’s path and climbed into a sycamore fig tree to see Him as He passed. When Jesus came to the tree, He looked up and called Zacchaeus down: ‘Make haste! For I must stay at your house today.’ So the little man hurried down and hosted Jesus and his party as his guests. At the supper, Zacshaeus announced he was giving half his goods to the poor, and would restore fourfold anything he had taken by fraud. Jesus proclaimed: ‘Today salvation has come to this house; this man also is Abraham’s son; for the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.’
Jesus also told this parable, knowing that many around Him thought He would bring God’s kingdom immediately; He offered these images in correction of that error: ‘Before journeying to a far country, a nobleman called ten of his servants and entrusted each with an equal sum of money—roughly equivalent to 3 months’ wages each. At the same time, some of the noble’s citizens sent an embassy seeking to prevent him from being crowned their king—but he became king despite their opposition, then returned. He called the servants in for an accounting; one turned a ten-fold profit; a second, five-fold; and a third simply returned the money entrusted to him, saying he had feared his Lord’s disfavor. The king placed the first over ten cities, the second over five cities, and directed that the trust money be taken from the third and given to the first servant. Then he had the enemies who had opposed his rule brought before him and executed.'