Await His coming, receive His grace, and follow Him

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching the blog archives for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first post, 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, for the entries here serve best as the first remarks in a conversation.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will

Friday, June 25, 2010
Devotions: Ps 27; 102; 107:1-32; Num 20:1-13; Rom 5:12-21; Mt 20:29-34

YHWH is my Light and my Salvation, the Stronghold of my life; I will fear no one and nothing else. When enemies seek to attack and destroy me, it is they who stumble and fall. I won’t fear open assault or combat; I will be confident in every circumstance. I ask only to live in God’s own household forever, to contemplate His majestic beauty and to meditate in His house of worship. YHWH will hide me in the day of trouble; He will keep me in His own tabernacle, and lift me to a high rock of refuge. God will exalt me over my enemies, and I will celebrate in His presence with shouts and songs of joy and gratitude. My heart responds to Your invitation, and I seek Your face, my Lord. Forsake me not, God of my salvation. No one is as faithful as my God! Teach me Your way, great Lord, and lead me on a level path. Do not abandon me to my enemies or to false witnesses as they seek to destroy me. I believe I will look on YHWH’s goodness in the land of the living. So I will wait for YHWH, be strong, take courage, and wait for YHWH! Answer speedily when I cry out to You, Lord. My days flash by, and I am consumed; I wither in the heat and pressure. I’m like an owl in the wilderness, a lonely sparrow on a housetop—exposed, vulnerable, alone. My enemies taunt me at every turn; my every breath is challenged. My food is ashes and tears. But You, YHWH, are enthroned forever; I know You will act in Your own time and manner. YHWH builds up His kingdom and His city, where His glory dwells. God regards the prayers of the destitute; He does not despise me. Let all people praise our God, knowing that He cares for the needy and troubled. God has broken my own strength and shortened my vitality; but I flourish in His grace. Lord, You laid the earth’s foundations; You made the heavens. And when they wear out, You will abide unchanged. Your children and their offspring will remain secure, my God. So let those God has redeemed proclaim it! His steadfast love endures forever, and He gathers His own from all corners of the creation. He brings some in from the deserted wastes, to His bounteous city. He set free prisoners bound in darkness, bowed with hard labor; he severed their shackles, burst bronze doors, and brought them forth into His light and liberty. He searched out lost fools, bent on self-destruction, and turned them around. Let them offer thanks and praise and extol His deeds in songs. He sought out those obsessed with commerce; He brought storms that threatened their enterprise and their very survival. When they came to their wits’ end, and cried out to God, He delivered them from their distress. He stilled the storms and hushed the waves, and He brought them to a safe harbor. Let all thank YHWH for His steadfast love, His wondrous works for all humankind. Let us extol Him in the congregation, and praise Him when our elders assemble!

God led the congregation of Israel to the wilderness of Zin, to Kadesh, where Miriam died and was buried. There was no water in this place, and the people quarreled with Moses. They said they wished they had perished in God’s plague, where many of their brothers died as rebels. They demanded to know why Moses had led them ‘to this evil place’ where there was no grain or fruit, and no water to drink. Moses and Aaron went to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown before the Lord there; YHWH’s glory appeared to them. He directed Moses to take God’s staff and assemble the congregation, and then to command the rock, which would yield water for the people and their herds and flocks. Moses took the staff and gathered the assembly. But instead of speaking to the rock, as God directed, Moses twice struck the rock with the staff; and water came abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank. But YHWH said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe Me, to uphold Me as holy before the people of Israel, therefore you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’ These are the waters of Meribah, ‘Quarreling,’ where the people of Israel quarreled with YHWH and through them, He showed Himself holy.

Paul contrasted death in Adam with life in Christ: Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death spread to all humans because all sinned—for sin in truth was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not reckoned where there is no law. Yet, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was unlike the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the One Who was to come. But God’s free gift is not like the trespass. On one hand, many died through one man’s sin, but on the other, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one Man, Jesus the Messiah, abounded for many. The free gift is different from the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation; but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if death reigned through the one man because of his trespass, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Man, Jesus the Messiah. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all humans, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all humans. For as by Adam’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the singular obedience of Jesus the many will be made righteous. The law came in to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus the Messiah our Lord.

As Jesus and His party left Jericho bound for Jerusalem, a great crowd followed Him. Note this: there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’ The crowd rebuked them, and told them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’ Jesus stopped and called them and said, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ The said, ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened!’ And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed Him.