Living Truth

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.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Devotions: Ps 26, 28, 36, 39; Amos 7:10-17; Rev 1:9-16; Mt 22:34-46

Lord, I pray You will go on vindicating me, and helping me to walk in integrity. Keep Your steadfast love before me, and I will walk in faithfulness to You. I avoid the company of the ungodly; I will stay near God, and bask in the eternal presence of my Lord. I am redeemed, and I will have His joy and peace as I conform to Christ, not the world. Those who disregard YHWH’s works will be broken down; but God shields those who abide in Him; so I am helped and I thank God today. YHWH is the Strength of His people, the Refuge of His anointed ones. Hosanna, God! Save now! The wicked are lured by the world; sin beckons; their eyes are blinded to God; they become deluded and drunk with iniquity. They cannot stop plotting mischief; they cannot turn from evil to the good. But God’s steadfast love and faithfulness suffuse all creation; He surrounds His own with protection and with joy. O God, how precious is Your steadfast love to me! If I try simply to be still, I get burned from the inside; I am mortal; I need to live with God; I need to communicate with Him. Lord, I need Your deliverance every day; hear my prayers and abide with me, so that I will not languish in life and perish from eternity. Keep me from the scorn of fools; chasten me to separate me from sin, and support me, lest I slide into depression. I am a pilgrim here, Lord; guide me home to You.

Amaziah, priest of Bethel, complained to Jeroboam that Amos. God's prophet from Tekoa in Judah, was conspiring against the king. Amaziah demanded that Amos depart from Israel; but Amos responded, ‘I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; I was a shepherd and tender of sycamore fig trees. But YHWH sent me to prophesy to His people in Israel; the words and the judgment are God’s. So now hear what else YHWH says: “Your own wife will become a harlot in the city; your sons and daughters will fall to the sword; your land will be parceled out to others, and you will die in an unclean land—and Israel will go into exile far from its land.”’

John the Revelator wrote: “I am John, your brother; I share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom, and I join you in patient endurance. I was on Patmos on account of God’s word and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s day, I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet. The voice said, ‘Write what you see; make a book, and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.’ I turned toward the voice and saw this: seven gold lampstands, and in their midst a figure like a son of man, clothed in a long robe with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white as wool or snow; His eyes were like flames of fire; His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace; and His voice was like the roar of many waters. In His right hand, He held seven stars; from His mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining full strength.

When Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came in a group to confront Jesus. A lawyer in the group sought to trap Jesus with a leading question: ‘Teacher, what is the great commandment in God’s law?’ Jesus answered, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commands depend all the law and the prophets.’ Then, Jesus asked the gathered Pharisees a question of His own: ‘What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is He?’ They said, ‘He is the son of David.’ Jesus replied, ‘How then is it that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, when David says, “YHWH said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I put Your enemies under Your feet.’”? If David calls the Messiah Lord, how could he be David’s son?’ No one could answer Jesus on this matter, and from that day no one dared ask Him any more questions.