Live by trusting God

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.

Monday, November 2, 2009
Devotions: Ps 56, 57, 64, 65; Neh 6; Rev 10; Mt 13:36-43

Lord, I experience human pressure and opposition all day long. But I put my faith in You, Lord—to protect me and to judge those who try to harm me. I know that God is for me, since I’m still standing. My God is merciful; he puts my persecutors to shame; so God, my heart is steadfast. Be exalted above all creation, my Father; let Your glory be over all the universe! Hide me from the plots of the wicked; let the righteous rejoice in YHWH, and all the upright in heart will sing praises. Lord, I am responsible for my choices and the consequences of them. You protect, defend and prosper Your own. I will trust in You!

When the enemies of the Jews learned that Nehemiah and his workers had completed the walls of Jerusalem, they tried five times to lure him away from the city, in order to harm him. They repeatedly accused him of plotting rebellion. Nehemiah prayed to YHWH to strengthen him to withstand these slurs. Next, they hired a mole within the community to try to lure Nehemiah into shutting down his project and sinning. Nehemiah turned the plotters over to God, and continued on the project God had set before him. So the wall was finished in fifty-two days! The surrounding nations quailed, knowing that God had helped the Jews complete this immense labor. Nehemiah’s enemies had many allies among the nobles of Judah—but the dissonance did not deter him from his God-given task.

John saw a mighty angel descend from heaven, wreathed in cloud with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He carried a little scroll in his hand. He set his right foot on the sea and his left on the land, and shouted, like a lion roaring; and the seven thunders sounded. I was about to write what I had heard, but a voice from heaven directed me ‘Seal up what the seven thunders said; don’t write that down!’ The angel lifted his hand and swore by the Him Who lives forever and ever, Creator of heave and earth and all in them—that there should be no more delay. Rather, in the days of the trumpet sounded by the seventh angel, God’s mystery should be fulfilled, which He had announced to His servants the prophets. The voice from heaven directed me: ‘Go, take the open scroll from the hand of the angel standing on sea and land.’ I did this; he said to me, ‘Take and eat it; it will be sweet as honey to your tongue, but bitter to your stomach.’ I took the little scroll and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but made my stomach bitter. And I was instructed, ‘You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.’

In private, Jesus answered His disciples’ request to explain to them His parable of the weeds of the field. He answered: ‘The Son of man sows good seed—sons of the kingdom—into the field, the world. The weeds are sons of the evil one, sown by the devil. The harvest is the close of the age; the reapers are angels. As weeds are gathered and burned, so at the close of the age, the Son of man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire. There, mortals will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Whoever has ears, let him hear!’