Follow God's lead

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 record any reflections or comments you may have. The devotions written here are only the first utterance of a conversation.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will

Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Devotions: Ps 119:145-76; 128-30; Exod 7:25-8:19; 2 Cor 2:14-3:6; Mk 10:1-16

Lord, I cry to You with my whole heart! Answer, and help me to do Your will. Let Your steadfast love minister to me; subdue all my enemies; encourage me in doing Your will, and stay near me, Lord! Great is Your mercy, and wonderful is Your word. I shun the faithless, and love the fellowship of Your saints. All Your words are true and trustworthy. Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing can make them stumble. So I listen and obey. Hear and answer my supplication, and help me to sing of Your goodness; I am a sheep of Your flock, blessed Lord. God prospers my work and blesses my household—my wife, our children, our grandchildren. Let peace be upon my people, as we follow our God. God cuts off the wicked and blesses His own! I cry from the depths of my soul, Lord hear me! I wait and hope in God my Savior, Who redeems His people from all sins.

God guided Moses, who directed Aaron: ‘When Pharaoh demands proof of your commission from God, tell Aaron to cast down the rod before Pharaoh, so that it becomes a serpent.’ So Moses and Aaron did this. Pharaoh summoned his own wizards and they also did the same by their secret arts: each cast down his rod, and they also became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up the others. But still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he refused to listen to the Israelites, just as YHWH had foretold. God briefed Moses: ‘Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. Tomorrow morning, go to him again, and meet him as he goes down to the river. Meet him beside the Nile with My rod in your hand. Tell him: “YHWH, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you saying, ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness; and look: you have not obeyed.’ Now hear what YHWH says to you: “This is how you will know that I Am YHWH: I will strike the Nile’s waters with My rod, and the water will be turned to blood; the fish in the river will die, the Nile will become foul, and the Egyptians will loathe to drink its water.” And YHWH told Moses, ‘Tell Aaron: “Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, canals, ponds and pools, that all may become blood; and there will be blood throughout all Egypt, whether in vessels of wood or vessels of stone.”’

Paul wrote to the Corinthians: Let us thank God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Himself everywhere. We are the aroma of the Messiah to those who are being saved and to those who are perishing: to the latter, the odor from death to death; to the former, a fragrance from life to life. Nobody is sufficient for these holy tasks! Unlike many who seek to make money from preaching the gospel, we speak sincerely, as men commissioned by God, and so we speak in Christ an din the sight of God! We don’t need to commend ourselves; you yourselves are our resume; our recommendation is written on your hearts, and can be seen by all people. You show that you are a letter from the Messiah, delivered by us, written with the Spirit of the living God on the tablets of human hearts! Such is the confidence we have through Christ toward God. We have no native competence of which to boast; no, our competence is from God, Who has made us capable ministers of His new covenant, not in a written code, but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Jesus traveled to Judea, and crossed to the east of the Jordan, and crowds gathered to Him there, and He taught them. Pharisees approached Jesus to test Him: ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ they asked. ‘What did Moses command you?’ Jesus replied. They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to put away his wife.’ But Jesus answered, ‘He wrote this commandment because of the hardness of your hearts. But from the beginning of creation, “God made humans male and female.” And “for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not humans put asunder.’