August 21, 2010

Saturday, August 21

Devotions: Ps 104; 137:1-6; 144; Job 3:1-26; Acts 9:10-19a; Jn 6:41-51

Let my soul bless YHWH—Lord, You are so great, clothed in light, Master of the cosmos, Founder of creation. All that is springs from Your love; nature's cycles flow from You; all life reflects Your vitalilty. And how You care for all of it! YHWH, how manifold and diverse, how complex and marvelous are Your works. All creation looks to You. May Your glory endure forever, and may Your creatures bring You joy and pleasure. Let my soul bless God, and let all that lives praise the Lord! God's people have wept in exile, when their sins caused holy God to turn from them. They wept in Babylon, tormented by captors. But God's people have learned endurance, and we hold fast to memories of God's past blessings when we are in times of leanness and trouble. Let me hold God's kingdom as my highest joy and aspiration, and let me leave my enemies and torturers in God's hands for judgment.

After seven days in silence with his friends, Job spoke, cursing the day of his birth: 'Let that day perish in which I was born, and the night when I was conceived. Let darkness swallow the day and its memory! Why didn't I die at birth? Why was I nurtured and suckled; why was I not exposed and left to die? Why are life and light given to one who is in misery; why give life to those who only suffer? Why shed light on one whose way is hidden, one who is hedged in by suffering on every side? Everything I fear has happened; my worst nightmares were mere shadows of the reality I'm suffering now. I have no rest, and trouble pours over me.'

In Damascus as Saul was fasting, blind, there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord came to him in a vision, and told him to get up and go to Straight Street; there, he was to inquire in the house of one Judas for Saul of Tarsus, 'for behold, he is praying and he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.' Ananias objected: 'Lord, I have heard from many about this man—how much evil he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem; he's here with authority from the chief priests to take prisoner everyone who calls upon Your name.' But the Lord told Ananias, 'Go, for he is a My chosen instrument, to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name.' So Ananias obeyed; he found and entered the house and laid hands on Saul, saying 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus Who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he regained his sight. Then Saul got up, received baptism, and took food and was strengthened.

After Jesus described Himself as the Bread of life from heaven, the Jews murmured against Him: 'Isn't this Jesus, Joseph's son, whose parents we know well? How can He say, "I have come down from heaven."? Jesus said to them, 'Don't murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him. And I will raise such people up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, "They shall all be taught by God." Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. No one has seen the Father except Myself, Who comes from Him; I have seen the Father! Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I Am the Bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, but they all died. What you see here is the Bread which comes down form heaven; a mortal may eat of this Bread and not die. I Am the living Bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever. The Bread which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.'