Whoever has the Son has life

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching for that title. You might read 'Welcome,' the first post, dated November 12, 2008, in the archives.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Devotions: Ps 38, 119:25-48; Dan 5:1-12; 1 Jn 5:1-13; Lk 4:38-44

Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger. Your indignation crushes me; my sin destroys my health; my folly befouls me. My loins burn and my flesh is unsound; I groan in my heart’s tumult. YHWH, You know all my longing. I am the target of plots and snares, but I have no capacity to respond. I wait for You, Lord; I live with pain, I confess my guilt, I regret my sins, and I rue the hatred of many against me. Please, YHWH: don’t forsake me; keep me close to You and hasten to my aid, O God my Savior! Revive me, O God. Help me understand Your precepts and meditate on Your works. Put false ways aside from me, and teach me to walk in Your law. I cling to You, and to Your testimony, my God. Help me observe and keep Your law; incline my heart to holiness, not greed; turn me from gazing on vanities, and turn my reproach from me, my God. Cleanse me in Your steadfast love; I revere Your commands and worship You, my God.

King Belshazzar of Babylon made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles. He had the vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Jerusalem temple brought forth, and the entire party drank from these vessels, praising gods of metal and wood. Immediately, a disembodied hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the palace wall. The king went pale and shook with fear; he sent for all his enchanters, Chaldeans and astrologers to interpret what the hand had written, but none could do so. The queen mother suggested that her son Belshazzar send for Daniel, whom her husband Nebuchadnezzar had renamed Belteshazzar.

John the Elder wrote: Every person who believes that Jesus is the Messiah is God’s child; everyone who loves the parent loves the child. We love God’s children when we love God and His commands; His love is expressed in our capacity and will to obey Him. His commands are not a burden, but a release! Those born of God overcome the world, through the victory of faith: whoever believes that Jesus is God’s Son overcomes the world. Jesus the Messiah came to us by water and blood; and the Holy Spirit witnesses to these truths, Who Is Himself the Truth. We have three witnesses, then: water, Spirit and blood, all which testify to the Son. Anyone who fails to believe in the Son is calling God the Father a liar! This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son, has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life!

After Jesus had spoken and exorcised in the Capernaum synagogue, He returned to Simon Peter’s house, where He found Peter’s mother-in-law sick with a fever. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her; immediately she got up and began to serve everyone who was there. At sunset, a crowd of sick people surrounded the house; Jesus laid hands on every one, and each was healed. He drove demons from many, and the unclean spirits would shriek, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But Jesus rebuked them and would not allow them to speak further—because they knew He is the Messiah. At daybreak, Jesus left the house and went to a lonely place to pray. The people sought Him out, and tried to persuade Him to stay with them; but Jesus said, ‘I must preach the good news of God’s kingdom to the other cities, too—God sent Me here for that purpose.’ And He preached in the synagogues of Judea.