Leave the arrangements to God

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

Wednesday and Thursday, August 11 and 12

Devotions: Ps 101, 105, 109, 119:121-44; Jdg 13:15-14:19; Acts 6:1-7:16; Jn 4:1-42

I will sing of God's loyalty and justice, and I will walk with integrity in my house. I will not set anything base before my eyes. With God's help, I will shun the work of those who fall away from God and every perversity of the human heart. I will stand apart from slanderers, deceivers and all liars. For God's love is greater than every lie! Let us glory in God and in His holy name. Seek YHWH and His strength; recall His mighty works, His miracles and judgments. YHWH is my God, Judge over all the earth. He makes and keeps covenant with His people in order to bless all creation. The history of humankind, and particularly of the Israelites and Christians, proclaims God's provision for His own. He leads His people with joy, so that we may obey and enjoy Him forever. Let God confound my enemies; let His holy truth drown out their words of hatred and slander. Though I seek to love, I am despised, and rewarded with treachery for my attempts to do good and to share godly love. God, thank You for coaching me in the practice of forgiveness. Let God judge, while I relinquish my perceived claims to revenge or repearation. Let me trust in God, mortal that I am. Help me, YHWH; save me according to Your steadfast love. I thank the Lord and praise Him who upholds the needy; He saves His own from those who condemn us to death.

Manoah offered hospitality to the angel of the Lord, unknowing. He asked the messenger's name, and the angel replied, 'Why do you ask My name, seeing that it is Wonderful [Beyond Comprehension]?' Manoah placed his offering on a rock before YHWH. Flame consumed the offering and the angel ascended in the flame. Manoah and his wife fell facedown. The angel came no more, but they conceived and bore the son the angel had promised. They named the baby Samson. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him as he grew and flourished. Samson went down to Timnah, where he saw a Philistine girl who caught his fancy. Samson told his parents that he wanted them to get her for him as a wife. They protested, questioning whether their son could not find a wife among his own people. But Samson stubbornly insisted: 'Get her for me, for she pleases me well.' The parents didn't realize all this was from YHWH, Who was arranging judgment against the Philistines. As Samson and his parents traveled afoot to Timnah, a young lion attacked Samson, but the Spirit of YHWH fell upon him in great power, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as a lesser man might tear a young goat. He said nothing about this to his parents. Samson spoke with the Philistine maiden, who pleased him well. Some time later, he returned to marry the girl; on the way, he turned aside to revisit the carcass of the lion he had killed, and found that a swarm of bees had created a hive and honey in the lion's body. He took some, eating it as he went along, and gave some also to his parents, still not telling them about the lion or the honey's source. His father went down to the Philistine woman, and Samson made a feast there, as the custom was. The Philstines brought 30 young men to be his guests, and Samson challenged them with a riddle and a wager: 'I'll tell you a riddle and give you the seven days of this wedding feast to guess the answer; if you do, I'll give you thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments; if you fail, you will give me the same.' They accepted, and Samson posed his riddle. For three days, the thirty Philistine men failed to guess his riddle. On the fourth day, they threatened Samson's Philistine bride: 'Get us the answer, or we'll burn you and your father's household with fire—we didn't come here to be impoverished!' Samson's wife took the threat seriously, and began tearfully to beg Samson to tell her the secret. This went on and on, so that on the seventh and last day of the wedding celebrations, Samson told her the secret. And she passed along the answer to those who had threatened her. On the last day, just as the sun was setting, the Philistines solved the riddle. Samson was furious, and knew he had been betrayed: 'If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.' The Spirit of the Lord fell upon Samson with great power; he hastened to Ashkelon and killed thirty men of that town, took their possessions, and gave the wagered garments to the men who had answered his riddle. In hot anger, Samson returned to his father's house; consequently, Samson's wife was given to his best man.

As the Christian community grew, a division developed between the Gentile and Jewish Christians; the former felt that their widows were being slighted in the daily distribution of goods among the believers. The twelve apostles called an assembly of the whole community. They said, 'It is not right that we should forsake proclaiming the word of God in order to see to table service. Therefore, brothers and sisters, pick from among you seven men of good reputation, Spirit-filled and wise, to be appointed to this duty. And we will continue in prayer and ministry of the word.' The congregation approved of this, and chose seven men: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolaus. These seven were put before the apostles, who prayed over them and laid hands on them. And God's word increased, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly—including a large number of priests who became obedient to the faith. Stephen, first among the deacons, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, did great wonders and signs among the people. But some among the 'synagogue of the Freedmen' and the Cyrenians and Alexandrians and Cilcians and Asians arose and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and Spirit with which Stephen spoke. So in secret, they conspired to have men falsely accuse Stephen: 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.' Their lies stirred up the people and the elders and scribes, who came upon Stephen and brought him before the council. There, they set up false witnesses to said, 'This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the Torah. We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.' Everyone who looked at Stephen could see that his face was like that of an angel. The high priest demanded of Stephen: 'Is this so?' And Stephen replied fully: 'Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. God told Abram, 'Depart from your land and your kindred, and go to a land I will show you.' So Abram departed Chaldea and lived for a time in Haran. When Abram's father had died there, God brought Abram to this land; He still gave the man no inheritance, but promised to give the land to him and to his posterity—even though the man and his wife had no children. God said that Abraham's descendants would be aliens in a land possessed by others, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. God promised that He would judge the nation where they were in bondage and would deliver them, bringing them back to worship Him in the promised land and on Mount Zion. And God instituted among them the covenant of circumcision. Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac in turn fathered Jacob, and he fathered the twelve tribal patriarchs of the Hebrew people. Jealous of their brother Joseph, the other patriarchs sold him into slavery in Egypt, but God gave Joseph favor and eventually Pharaoh made Joseph governor of all Egypt and of Pharaoh's own household. A great famine afflicted the whole region, and Jacob sent ten of his remaining sons to get food in Egypt. At their second visit, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers and introduced his family to Pharaoh; and the king invited Jacob and all his household to live in Egypt—seventy-five souls went down to Egypt, where Jacob died, and later all his sons. They were carried back the Shechem and laid in a tomb Abraham had purchased from the Hittites there.


When Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that He was now leading more to baptism of repentance than John, Jesus left Judea and went to Galilee. The journey took Him through Samaria. So He came to Sychar, near a field that Jacob had giaven to his son Joseph. In that city was Jacob's well, and Jesus, tired from His travels, sat down beside the well at mid-day. A woman of Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to here, 'Give me a drink.' He was alone, because His disciples had gone into the city to get food. Startled, the woman replied, 'How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?' Normally, Jews would have nothing to do with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.' She said, 'Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it—himself, his sons and his flocks?' Jesus said, 'Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst. The water I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.' The woman was moved: 'Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw again.' Jesus continued: 'God, call your husband, and come back here together.' The woman answered, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said, 'You are right to say you have no husband; you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. So you have told the truth.' She said, 'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that people ought to worship in Jerusalem.' Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe Me: the hour is coming and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirite and truth—these are the ones the Father seeks to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.' The woman said, 'I know that Messiah is coming; when He comes, He will show us all things.' Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you Am He.' The disciples returned at this point, and marveled that their Master was talking with a woman. The woman abandoned her water jar and hurried into the city and told everyone, 'Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?' So many of them went with her to see for themselves. Meanwhile, the disciples urged Jesus to eat, but He said, 'I have food that you don't know about.' They wondered if someone else had brought Him food. But He explained: 'My food is to do the will of Him Who sent me and to finish His work. Don't you say among yourselves, "There are yet four months, then comes the harvest"? I tell you: look around! See how the fields are already ripe for harvest. Whoever reaps is paid, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together: one sows, another reaps, as the true saying has it. I sent you to reap what you did not work to plant or raise; others have labored, and you have begun to take part in their labor.' Many Samaritans from Sychar believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony. When the residents came to Jesus, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And many more came to faith in hearing His message.