Be filled with God's new wine

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. As you read, I encourage you to add in any reflections or comments you may have.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will

Friday, February 26, 2010
Devotions: Ps 40, 51, 54, 94; Gen 40; 1 Cor 3:16-23; Mk 2:13-22

Wait patiently for YHWH; in His time, He will incline to you, as He has to me. He drew me up from desolation, out of the swamp, and set me on solid rock. He put a new song in my mouth, praising God. Those who understand this will see, and will be in awe, and will put their trust in YHWH, too. Trusting God is the greatest blessing; stay with Him, and scorn the proud and arrogant worshipers of false gods. God, You have multiplied Your acts of power and compassion, and have given me an open ear and a learner’s heart. I delight to do Your will, my God; Your law is in my heart. I will tell the glad news of deliverance and tell of Your faithfulness and steadfast love. Though evils surround me, I am preserved by my God and His love. Hasten to my aid, O Lord, so I can praise you to others who need you! Wash and cleanse me from my sins against You. I was born in sin, and have lived in transgression. I know You desire truth in the inward being; so teach me Your wisdom, Lord. Fill me with You joy, and heal my brokenness and pain. Create in me a clean heart and an upright spirit, O God; don’t take Your Holy Spirit from me! Then, open my lips and my hands, that I may show forth Your praise, with a true heart; I know You won’t refuse a broken and contrite heart, Lord—so here is mine! Vindicate me—God, how I love that word vindicate! God is my Helper; He upholds my life, and I give myself to God. My God is also the Holy Judge! Lord, render their just deserts to the arrogant of earth, evildoers who crush Your people, rape and murder, thinking God either doesn’t exist or has no power over them. Listen, dullards: the One Who created eyes and hears can see and hear everything. He is Wisdom and Power and Discipoline. And blessed are all whom God disciplines, to bring us to maturity. God does not forsake Hisw people. When I have thought I was slipping, God helped me. YHWH is my Stronghold, the Rock of my refuge. He preserves the godly and destroys the wicked.

After Potiphar had put Joseph in prison, the king’s chief butler and chief baker were also imprisoned. Like other prisoners, they were put under Joseph’s supervision by the captain of the guard. One night, each of them had a striking dream. These left each man troubled, and Joseph noticed their distress the next morning. He told them, ‘Interpretations belong to God. Tell me your dreams.’ So they did. The chief butler described a grapevine with three bunches of grapes. In the dream, the butler was holding Pharaoh’s cup, and he pressed the grapes into the cup, and put the filled cup in the king’s hand. Joseph told him, ‘Within three days, Pharaoh will have you released and you will again be his butler and put his cup in the king’s hand.’ Joseph also told him, ‘Remember me when you’re doing well, and mention me to Pharaoh so that I can get out of this prison. For truly, I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and I have done nothing wrong in Egypt, that I should be in a dungeon.’ The chief baker told his dream: ‘There were three cake baskets on my head, with all sorts of baked goods for Pharaoh in the top basket. But birds were eating these goods out of the basket on my head.’ Joseph interpreted this dream, too: ‘Within three days, Pharaoh will hang you on a tree, and the birds will devour your flesh.’ On the third day after this conversation, Pharaoh celebrated his own birthday, and made a feast for all his servants. He restored the chief butler to his officer, and he again was entrusted with giving Pharaoh the king’s cup. But Pharaoh had the chief baker hanged, as Joseph had foretold. However, the chief butler forgot Joseph, and did not mention him to Pharaoh.

Paul wrote: Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him—for God’s temple is holy, and you are that holy temple! Let no one be self-deceived: if anybody thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may gain true wisdom. Worldly wisdom is folly before God: as scripture declares: ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’ and ‘The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.’ So let no one boast of men. All things are yours in Christ: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, world, life, death, present and future! All are yours, and you belong to the Messiah, and the Messiah belongs to God.’

In Capernaum, Jesus went out beside the lake; a crowed gathered to Him and He taught them. As He passed on, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office; Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me,’ and Levi rose and followed Jesus. Later, as Jesus sat at table in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and His disciples. When the scribes and Pharisees saw all this, they said to His disciples, ‘Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus heard, and answered them: ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician; the sick need Him. I came not to call the self-righteous, but to call sinners.’ John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; people came to Jesus and said, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the followers of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?’ Jesus replied, ‘Can wedding guests fast when the bridegroom is with them? No; but the days will come when the bridegroom is taken from them, and they will fast on that day. Nobody sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment; since a new patch would shrink when washed, it would pull away and make the tear worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if they did that, the aging wine would burst the skins, and both wine and skins would be lost. So new wine is for fresh skins.’