August 18, 2010

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Devotions: Ps 119:145-76; 128-30; Jdg 18:16-31; Acts 8:14-25; Jn 6:1-15

YHWH., I call on You with my whole heart! Answer, in Your steadfast love, and protect me from lawless people. You are near and Your commands are true! Deliver me, for I cling to Your law. All Your words are true, and Your ordinances endure forever. We have great peace who cleave to Your law and abide in Your grace. Let my plea come before You, as I delight in You and crave Your law. All who walk in God's ways and fear Him are blessed. I will eat the fruit of my labor; I will be content; my wife will thrive and our children will grow like shoots of a green olive tree. May we gaze on our grandchildren, in the light of God's own grace. Turn back all those who oppose You, God. I bless Your name, YHWH, and cry to You from my depths! Hear and answer my supplications. I long for You as night watchmen long for the dawn. We will trust in Your steadfast love and in the forgiveness Jesus has purchased for me with His blood.

As the Danite war party plundered Micah's house, 600 warriors waited at the entrance to his gate. The five who had spied out the land entered Micah's house and took his household gods and the silver image Micah's mother had commissioned. The priest questioned them, but the Danites told him to accompany them, to be their priest, and the priest was happy to do so. He took Micah's ephod, the teraphim, and the graven image, and proceeded in the midst of the Danite war party. Micah was alerted and chased after the Danites, but they outnumbered him, and he turned back rather than be slaughtered by a superior force. The Danites continued on to Laish, attacked the city and burned it to the ground, and killed the peaceable inhabitants of the place. They they rebuilt the city, renamed it Dan after their ancestor, set up the graven image as their own ido, and Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses, and Jonathan's sons became the priests to the Danites until the northern kingdom went into exile.

When the Jerusalem apostles heard what God was doing in Samria, they sent Peter and John, who came to the city and prayed that the new converts might receive theHoly Spirit. They had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Peter and John laid hands on them, and the new disciples received the Holy Spirit. Seeing all this, Simon Magus offered them money for the power to dispense the Holy Spirit by laying his hands. But Peter confronted him: 'May your silver perish with you, because you think you can buy the gift of God with money! You have no part in this matter, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven. I can see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity.' Simon answered, 'Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have described may befall me!' When the apostles had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many Samaritan villages along the way.

Jesus sailed to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, and multitudes followed Him, because they had seen His signs healing the diseased. Jesus went up on a mountain and sat down with His disciples. The Jewish Passover was near. When He lifted his eyes, Jesus saw a multitude coming to Him; Jesus said to Philip, 'How are we to buy bread, that these people may eat?' Jesus was testing Philip, for He knew exactly what He would do. Philip answered, 'Two hundred denarii would not buy enough for each one to get a tinuy taste.' Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Jesus, 'There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what is that among so many?' Jesus directed His disciples to have the crowd sit down in the plentiful grass of the place. There were about five thousand men, plus women and children. Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distrubuted the bread to those who were seated; He did the same with the fish. Everyone ate all that they wanted. And when the crowd was satisfied, the disciples gathered up twelve baskets full of the leftovers. And the people, seeing all this, declared, 'This is indeed the Prophet whom Moses predicted, who is to come into the world.' Jesus perceived that the multitude intended to make Him their king by force, so He withdrew alone to the mountain.