Our hope and truth are in 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. As you read, I encourage you to record any reflections or comments you may have. The devotions written here are just the first utterance of a conversation.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will

Monday and Tuesday, March 29 and 30, 2010
Devotions: Ps 6, 13, 51, 69, 94; Lam 1:1-22; 2 Cor 1:1-2:2; Mk 11:12-33

Lord, don’t be mad at me; I am sorely troubled. Save me, Father; deliver me for the sake of Your steadfast love. Yes! YHWH has heard my supplication and accepts my prayer. My enemies are done for! I longed for God to answer and to act, and He has done it. I will sing to YHWH, because He has dealt bountifully with me. Lord, in Your holiness, wash me of all iniquity, and cleanse me from my sins. I know You want truth and wisdom in my heart; so empty me of falsehood and fill me with joy and gladness. Let the bones You have broken be knit together; create in me a clean heart, O God, and an upright spirit. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with willingness. Then I will teach transgressors and sinners Your ways, and proclaim Your salvation abroad. Lord, open my lips and my voice will praise You; I know You prefer an upright spirit and a contrite heart: so here are mine, Lord! You are reviving me like a green olive tree in Your private arbor; how thankful to You I am! I had come to the end of myself, Lord, consumed by zeal but buried in failure. My only prayer, my only hope, are in You. And at an acceptable time, You answer me, O God, in the abundance of Your mercy and faithful love! You know all my reproach and shame, the bruises and wounds in my heart, the holes in my history. Blot out my painful past and my enemies, Lord, and show me Your victory! I will praise God with every breath of my body, and I will see God gracious blessings visited on my grandchildren. Thank You, Lord! Shine, Lord, in Your power! Crush the arrogant. Show Your wisdom and Your strength. I am blessed that You have chastened me, and have delivered me from my own sins and folly and the enmity of my enemies. When I thought I was slipping, Your steadfast love held me up. When my heart is careworn, You cheer my soul. YHWH is my Stronghold and my Rock of refuge! Glory to You, Lord God!

Jeremiah weeps over fallen Jerusalem: ‘How lonely lies the city that was filled with people; she is like a widow; a princess, she has become a slave. There is no one to comfort her. Judah is in exile; even the roads to Zion mourn, for they are deserted; no one comes to celebrate the festivals of God. Her gates are desolate; the priests groan; she suffers bitterly. Her enemies prosper, and she has no supporters left alive. Jerusalem broods on her affliction and exile. Her sins made her filthy, and doomed her to desolation. She has been raped by enemies, despoiled by thieves. She laments that her desolation is from her Master, YHWH. “The Lord has given me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand.” She admits that God is right and she is wrong; yet still she mourns her suffering. She begs God for mercy and forgiveness, and asks God to punish her assailants: “Let all their evil-doing come before You, and dealt with them as You have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many and my heart is faint.”'

Paul writes to the Corinthians: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Just as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in Christ’s comfort too. And if we are afflicted or comfort, it is always for your comfort and your salvation, which you experience when you patiently endure what we are suffering. Our hope for you is unshaken, because we know you will end in sharing our comfort. We were terribly afflicted in Asia, crushed to the point of despairing of life itself. We thought we had received a death sentence; but this simply weaned us from trusting in ourselves; instead, we came to depend on God, Who raises the dead. He delivered us from deadly peril, and always will; so we trust in Him to deliver us. And you must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings they see we receive as a result of the prayers of many. This is our boast, proof that we have behaved in the world and even more toward you with holiness and godly sincerity, not through earthly wisdom, but by God’s grace. I know you can understand everything we are writing to you, so understand fully now, as you have already understood in part, so that we can be proud of one another on the day of our Lord Jesus. Because I was certain of all this, I wanted to come toyou first, to get a double blessing—on my way out and on my way back from Macedonia. This is not worldly vacillation; we behave in accord with our Lord and God’s faithfulness. The Son of God, Jesus Whom we preached to you, is always Yes. All God’s promises are affirmed in Jesus. For that reason, we say the Amen through Him to the glory of God. God establishes us with you in Christ and has commissioned us, sealing us with His Holy Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But as God is my witness, I didn’t come to you first to spare you. I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you, for if I cause you pain, there is no one left to make me glad!

As Jesus was coming into Jerusalem from Bethany, He was hungry; and seeing a fig tree, He walked up to it to see if it had any fruit. It was not the season for figs, so He found nothing on the tree. And He spoke to the tree: ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ His disciples heard this distinctly. They came to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and bought in the temple. He overturned the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold pigeons, and Jesus would not let anyone carry merchandise through the temple. He taught: ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” But You have made it a den of brigands.’ The chief priests and scribes heard it and sought a way to destroy Jesus, for they feared Him, because all the multitude were astonished at His teaching. Evening came, and they passed out of the city. As they passed again in the morning, they came to the fig tree, now withered to its roots. Peter remembered, and called the Jesus, ‘Master, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered.’ Jesus answered, ‘Have faith in God. I tell you truly, whoever tells this mountain to be taken up and cast into the sea, and does so without doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. So I tell you: whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Whenever you pray, forgive, if you have anything against anyone. Then your Father who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.’ They came again to Jerusalem, and as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and scribes and elders came to Jesus, saying, ‘By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?’ Jesus answered, ‘I will ask you a question, too. Answer me, and I will tell you the source of My authority. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men?’ The Jews discussed this—they could see that any answer would cause them trouble. So they told Jesus, ‘We don’t know.’ So Jesus concluded, ‘Neither will I tell you by what Authority I do these things.’