Celebrate God's sovereignty

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

Saturday, October 10, 2009
Devotions: Ps 104, 137, 144; Jer 35:1-9; 1 Cor 12:27-13:3; Mt 9:35-10:4

I praise the Lord: You are full of honor and majesty; You are Master over all of nature, and our foundations are firm in Your love and power. All creation reflects Your goodness and greatness. How many are Your works; all look to You for life and order. When You send Your Spirit, creation follows and leaps into being. May Your glory endure forever; may You rejoice in Your works. I will sing and praise God all my life. Exiles weep; help us understand we are never separated from You and Your holy love; I forgive my enemies and leave their consequences in Your hands, my Lord. God is my Rock; He trains me for the struggles of my life and times. Come forth, mighty God, and awe the earth. I will sing a new song to YHWH, Judge and King! Bless our children and grandchildren; bless our herds and crops, our factories and places of commerce; happy are the people whose god is YHWH!


In the days of King Jehoiakim, YHWH had Jeremiah prophesy: ‘Go to the Rechabites and bring them to My temple and offer them wine.’ Jeremiah did that, and they absolutely refused—Jonadab their ancestor had set down principles for them, including abstinence from wine, and they obeyed still. They had kept their forefather’s commands to the letter. They had come to Jerusalem only because of foreign occupying armies. God used the Rechabites as an example to confront His people: ‘This clan has kept the commands of their forefather completely; but I have spoken to you and you have not listened or obeyed Me. I have instructed and warned you through My prophets, but you have not listened or obeyed. The Rechabites honor a man, their ancestor; the people of Judah and Jerusalem ignore their God. Therefore, I Am bringing on you all the evils I have foretold.’ But God excepted the Rechabites: ‘Because you have obeyed the injunctions of your forefather Jonadab, your clan will never lack a man standing before Me!’

Paul wrote: ‘You are the body of Christ and individually His members. God has appointed in the church apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle-workers, and speakers in tongues. Different members have different gifts and calls. But all should earnestly aspire to the higher gifts. The highest way is the way of love. For if I speak in the tongues of men or angels, but have no love, I’m like a banging gong or clanging cymbal. If I am a gifted prophet and understand all mysteries and have all knowledge, and if I also had complete faith and could move mountains—but have no love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I have and deliver my body to a fiery martyrdom, yet I have no love, then I gain nothing.’

Jesus crisscrossed the cities and villages; He taught in their synagogues and preached the good news of God’s kingdom and healed every infirmity and disease. He had great compassion on the crowds, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the harvesters are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest that He will send laborers into His harvest. Jesus did this Himself: He called His twelve disciples, gave them authority to cast out unclean spirits and to heal every disease and infirmity. They were Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas Didymus, Matthew the publican, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.