Orderly and Mature

New Guest: Like this one, most entries are devotional. Those related to Car Biz can be located by searching the blog archives for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first entry, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog. I hope you'll record your responses as you read, since these entries serve best as the first remarks in a coversation.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Devotions: Ps 55, 138, 139:1-17; Exod 40:18-38; 1 Thess 4:1-12; Mt 5:38-48

Lord, hear and answer my supplication; I am overcome by trouble and distracted by the dissonance of the adversary. My heart is in anguish; fear and trembling threaten to seize me. If I could, I’d run away; but I’ll stay and face this, with Your help. Destroy the plans of all my enemies, Lord; confuse their communication. Bring Babel upon them! Bring them down! I will trust in God, and YHWH will save me; God hears, God sees, God helps! I cast my burden on the Lord, and He will sustain me. I trust You, God! And I thank You with my whole heart, YHWH, and sing Your praise. You exalt above all else Your name and Your word. Great is YHWH’s glory, and all the kings of earth bow in praise! Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life, Lord. YHWH will fulfill His purpose for me; His steadfast love endures forever. Lord, do not forsake the work of Your hands! You know me in and out, all my choices, all my thoughts, all my actions. You know what I will say before I even think it. Your understanding is beyond my ken, great Lord. I cannot escape Your Spirit. You formed me in my mother’s womb; I praise You, Fearful and Wonderful Lord. How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God; how vast their scope and sum! I abide in You.

Moses erected the Tabernacle just as YHWH had instructed him, with all its furnishings precisely in place; Moses finished the work. Then God’s cloud covered the tent of meeting, and YHWH’s Shekinah filled the tabernacle. From that day, whenever the cloud arose from the tabernacle, the people would break camp and follow onward; if the cloud remained, the people stayed where they were. Throughout all their journeys, YHWH’s cloud was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the people of Israel .

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: I plead and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that you live as we taught you, to please God more and more. Your sanctification through the Lord Jesus is what God wills. Abstain from unchastity; take wives and husbands in holiness and honor, and shun the passion and lust of the ungodly. YHWH is an Avenger in these matters. He has called us for holiness, not for uncleanness. When I disregard these matters, I disobey God Who gives His Holy Spirit to me! And God has taught you to love one another—do so more and more! Aspire to live quietly, mind your own affairs, work with your hands, so as to command the respect of outsiders. Depend on no one but God alone.

Jesus taught: You have been taught to repay evil in kind: eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evil one. If someone strikes your right cheek, offer him your left as well. If anyone sues you for your coat, give him your cloak, too. If anyone forces you to go one mile with him, go with him two miles! Give to anyone who begs from you; do not refuse one who asks to borrow from you. You were taught to love your neighbors and hate your enemies; but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In this, you act as children of your Father in heaven: He brings sunrise on evil and good alike; He sends rain to the just and the unjust. If you love only those who love you, what reward can you expect? Even the tax collectors do that. If you salute only your brothers and sisters, you do only what everyone does. Even the Gentiles do these things. No, you must be more: perfect, mature, as your heavenly Father Is perfect and complete.