Faithfully obey God

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

Monday, June 28, 2010
Devotions: Ps 106; Num 22:1-21; Rom 6:12-23; Mt 21:12-22

Praise YHWH! Thank Him for His steadfast love. Lord, include me when You show favor to Your people, that I may glory in Your heritage. I am a sinner, descended from sinners, yet You have saved me for Your name’s sake. You made a path through the sea for Your people; You delivered them from bondage in Egypt, and guided them through the wilderness, providing food and water for the multitude and their herds and flocks. When they rebelled, again and again You punished them, but relented from destroying them altogether. The people spent forty years in the wilderness because they refused to believe that God could do what He had promised in delivering Canaan into their hands. When they moved into the land, they failed to clear away the peoples as God commanded, so they mingled with pagans and adopted many of their practices—sacrificing their children, intermarrying, worshiping idols. YHWH’s anger was kindled against His people many times; many times He punished them; many times He relented and restored them, according to His abundant, steadfast love. Lord, save us, that we may glorify You. Blessed is YHWH for ever!

Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, feared the tribes of Israel. So he sent messengers, elders of Moab and Midian, to summon Balaam from Pelor in Mesopotamia, asking the seer to come and curse the people of Israel. Balaam first consulted the Lord, Who directed Balaam to refuse the summons, the fees and the mission. And the emissaries returned with this message to Balak. The king tried again: a second mission, with more and more distinguished emissaries. This time, God directed Balaam to go with the messengers, but to do only what God directed him when Balaam arrived in Moab. So Balaam agreed, saddled his donkey, and set forth with the princes of Moab.

Paul counseled the Christians at Rome: Don’t let sin rule your mortal bodies, so that you obey fleshly passions. Instead, yield yourselves to God, as mortals brought from death to life, and your members not to sin as instruments of wickedness, but to God as instruments of righteousness. Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace! Should we proceed to sin, since we are under grace? Absolutely not! If you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, that one is your master—whether sin, leading to death, or godly obedience, which leads to righteousness. Thanks to God that you, former slaves of sin, now have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. You have been freed from sin, and have become slaves of righteousness. I’m using human figures of speech: you once yielded your members to impurity and ever-increasing sin; now, yield your members to righteousness, that you might continue to increase in sanctification. When you belonged to sin, righteousness had no power over you. The false liberty you had then first made you ashamed, and would eventually lead to death. Now that you have been set free from sin and are God’s slaves, the return you get is sanctification, and its telos, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in the Messiah Jesus our Lord.

After His triumphal entry in Jerusalem, Jesus went directly into the temple of God and drove out all who sold and bought there; He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house will be called a house of prayer,” but you are making it a den of brigands.’ The blind and lame came to Jesus in the temple, and He healed them. When the chief priests and scribes saw all that Jesus did, and heard the children crying out ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ they were indignant and challenged Jesus to silence the praise. But Jesus replied, ‘I hear! Have you never read, “Out of the mouths of babes and suclings, Thou has brought perfect praise”?’ Leaving them, Jesus left Jerusalem and lodged the night in Bethany. In the morning, as Jesus returned to the city, He was hungry. Seeing a fig tree along the way, Jesus went to it, but found nothing on it but leaves. He said, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once. Seeing this, the disciples marveled. Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you truly, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what was done to this tree, but if you were to tell this mountain to be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be done! Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.’