In God's care

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 31, 2009
Devotions: Ps 55, 138, 139:1-17; Neh 4:1-23; Rev 7:4-17; Mt 13:31-35

Hear my prayers, Lord, and show Yourself to me. I am distracted and troubled; destroy the plans of my enemies; confuse their communications. Forgive the Christian friends who are too busy to care, or too critical to love, and don’t let me be among them! I will trust in God alone, not in human flesh. I thank God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. God listens and God answers. Great is the glory of YHWH! Though I walk amid strife, God preserves my life. Lord, don’t forsake me; I am Your handiwork, Your poem. God, You know me through and through; I cannot move away from Your Spirit. You put me together, and I am well-made. How precious are Your thoughts; how immeasurable Your span! I am with I AM, all day, all night.

Sanballat, Samaria’s governor under Artaxerxes, was enraged by the rebuilding of Jerusalem. He scorned them in the presence of his associates and his army; so also spoke Tobiah the Ammonite. So Nehemiah brought their jibes before YHWH, and prayed, ‘Turn back their taunt upon them; let them be plundered in exile. Keep their sin before You; they have taunted You, God, in the presence of those building Your temple and Your city. So the building went forth; the people had a mind to work! The enemies plotted; the believers prayed and worked. The workers feared they would be attacked, so Nehemiah stationed the people by families, armed against incursions. And he urged community leaders not to be afraid: ‘Remember the Lord, Who is great and terrible; fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your homes!’ This halted the planned incursion; and from that day on, the workers split shifts—half working, half standing armed guard. They devised a signal scheme to call help to any place on the far-flung project that was in jeopardy. ‘So we built the wall…for the people had a mind to work.’ Amen.

God sealed 12,000 members of each of the twelve Israelite tribes; and John also saw an uncountable multitude from every nation, tribe, tongue and people. They stood, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, before the throne of God and the Lamb, and cried out: ‘Salvation belongs to our God on His throne and to the Lamb!’ And the angels and elders and living creatures fell facedown and worshiped and worshiped, saying ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’ One of the elders addressed me: ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb—so now they stand before God’s throne and serve Him, in His sheltering presence. They will never hunger or thirst again; they’ll never get sunburned. The Lamb is their Shepherd and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’

Jesus continued His parabolic teaching: ‘God’s kingdom is like a grain of mustard seed: the tiniest of seeds, yet it grows into the largest shrub of all, so that birds of the air can make nests in its branches. And it is like leaven that a woman works into three measures of flour, till the whole batch is leavened.’ He did this to fulfill the prophecy: ‘I will open my mouth in parables, speaking what has been hidden from the foundation of of the world.’