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
Thursday, August 5, 2010 Devotions: Ps 85, 86, 145; Jdg 8:22-35; Acts 4:1-12; Jn 1:43-51
Lord, You have favored my land and preserved our people. Restore us again, God of our salvation; show us Your steadfast love. Let me hear what God will speak—peace to His people, glory over His creation. Let God's steadfast love be met with our faithfulness; let His righteous issue in peace for all the world. Teach me Your way, that I may walk according to Your truth; unite my heart to fear and honor God, and I will glorify Your name forever. Show me Your favor, Lord, to silence and shame my enemies. I will praise You, my God and King, and bless Your name forever. How great is our God! I will meditate, Lord, on Your glory, splendor and majesty, and on Your wondrous works. YHWH is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steafast love and faithfulness. His compassion blesses all that He has made. God upholds us when we stumble, uplifts us when we are bowed down with care or sorrow. YHWH is near to all who call on Him in truth, and preserves those who truly love Him. Let all the living praise His holy name forever!
After Gideon's striking victories, the men of Israel asked him to become their king. But he declined: 'YHWH will rule over you.' But then, Gideon requested donations of gold jewelry; he got 1700 shekels of gold, and cast an ephod; he set this up as an idol in his city, Ophrah, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family. Still, God had subdued Midian, and Israel had forty years of peace. Gideon had many wives, seventy sons, and his concubine in Shechem bore him a son also, named Abimelech. Gideon lived out a good, long life, then was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah, in the territory of the Abiezrites.
While Peter and John were teaching the people at the temple, after God healed the beggar at the Beautiful Gate, they were approached by the priests, the Sadducees and the captain of the temple guard. These were irritated that the apostles were teaching about Jesus and His resurrection from death. They arrested Peter and John and put them in custody overnight. But many of those who heard the gospel from the apostles believed, and the church grew to about five thousand. The next day, the Jewish authorities gathered, headed by Annas the high priest, and others of the high-priestly family, including Caiaphas and John and Alexander. They questioned the apostles: 'By what power or by what name did you do this?' Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, responded: 'Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, concerning how he was healed, let all of you and all of Israel know that by the name of Jesus the Messiah of Nazareth, Whom you crucified,but Whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the Stone that you, the builders, rejected; and He has become the Cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.'
As Jesus prepared to go to Galilee, He began to call men to follow Him, beginning with Philip, from Bethsaida, the village of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, 'We have found Him of Whom Moses in the law and the prophets all wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph.' Nathanael replied, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' And Philip answered, 'Come and see!' Jesus saw Natanael as they approached and said about him, 'Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.' Nathanel answered, 'How do you know me?' Jesus replied, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.' Nathanael answered, 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!' Jesus said, 'Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see much greater things than these. I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'
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