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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Devotions: Ps 72; 119:73-96; Jer 3:6-18; Ro 1:28-2:11; Jn 5:1-18

May God bless and prosper our King, and may God’s people have peace and prosperity. May the Gentiles honor God’s people and His Anointed One. May His name endure forever; blessed be the glorious name of our God, forever. God my Maker, give me understanding to learn and obey Your commands. Send me Your love and mercy; let the godless be put to shame. Help me to be blameless in Your statutes, and help me endure the trials of these days. Spare my life to serve You, my God. Your word and Your faithfulness endure for ever; I survive because of Your holy love. Your commands are universal and limitless!

YHWH charged both Israel and Judah with adultery. He commanded Jeremiah to prophesy and command both kingdoms to return to their God—then, God would provide them with godly shepherds after His heart, to lead and care for them. God would dwell amid His people in prosperity and security.

When His human creatures chose not to acknowledge God, He gave them over to base mentality and immoral conduct—despite their knowledge that this behavior alienates them from God and leads to death. God is a righteous Judge, but we mortals have no standing to judge others. God’s kindness is meant to bring us to repentance, not to make us comfortable in our sins! Unrepentance will earn the wrath of God at the time of His judgment. God will render to each mortal the fruits of our works: those who persevere in patient well-doing will receive eternal life; and those who follow wickedness will receive wrath and fury, tribulation and distress. God shows no partiality!

Jesus was in Jerusalem for a Jewish feast, and visited the sick gathered in the porticoes near the Sheep Gate pool. He approached a man who had been paralyzed 38 years, and asked: ‘Do you want to be healed?’ The man responded, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the water when it is troubled; someone else always gets there ahead of me.’ Jesus said, ‘Get up, take up your pallet, and walk.’ Immediately the man was healed and walked along his way. The observant Jews objected, since this occurred on a Sabbath; they demanded to know who had healed the man, but he could not say Later, Jesus found him at the temple, and told him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, lest something befall you that is worse than your former illness.’ The man then told the Jewish authorities that Jesus had healed him. So they assailed Jesus, but He answered, ‘My Father is working still, and I Am working.’ Thereafter, they redoubled their efforts to destroy Jesus, Whom they perceived as breaking Sabbath and blaspheming by counting Himself equal with God.