Water for everbody

Friday, August 27, 2010

Devotions: Ps 16, 17, 22; Job 9:1-35; Acts 10:34-48; Jn 7:37-52

Preserve me, Lord: I take refuge in You, and have nothing good apart from You. I delight in Your saints, and pity those who choose another god, mutiplying their own sorrows. YHWH is my choice, and I have a goodly heritage. I keep YHWH ever before me, and I will not be moved. I will rejoice and dwell in security, as God cares for me and my household. Lord, You show me the pathway of life. Show me Your vindication, and keep me as the apple of Your eye, against the wicked who seek to discourage and despoil me. I will see Your face and be satisfied! Jesus experienced the desolation I deserved, mocked, despised, crucified. He was poured out like water, surrounded by evildoers who pierced His hands and feet, who gambled over His garments. But He rose from death and lives to praise God and to pray for us. All the ends of the earth will rememeber and turn to YHWH. What wonders God has done!

Job replied to Bildad: 'How can a mortal be justified before God? He is incomparable in wisdom and power; none can contend with Him! All the cosmos trembles before our Creator and Master. I am innocent, but I cannot argue with God. He crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause—there is no contending with God, in power or in justice. He always wins! I am blameless, but I loathe my life. He is Master, and destroys or saves. My days flee past, and I cannot cope. God is not a man like me; there can be no umpire between us, no arbitrator. Let God remove His rod from me, and I would speak without fear of Him, for in myself, I am not a coward—but I cannot contend with God.'

At God's command and Cornelius's invitation, Peter spoke: 'Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality; any one from any nation is acceptable to Him if they fear and and do what He finds acceptable. He sent word to Israel: good words of peace by Jesus the Messiah—He is Lord of all. That word was proclaimed throughout Judea, from Galilee, after the baptism of repentance preached by John the Baptizer: that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power; how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. We are witnesses to all that He did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised Him on the third day and made Him manifest—not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses: we who ate with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.' As Peter was speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word, and the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, that the gift of theHoly Spirit was poured out even upon Gentiles. They heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 'Can anyone forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?' And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to remain with them for some days.

On the final day of the Feast of Booths, Jesus stood and proclaimed, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the scripture has said, "Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."' He spoke this about the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus as not yet glorified. Hearing these words of Jesus, some said, 'This is really the prophet Moses foretold.' Others said, 'This is the Messiah.' And some said, 'Is the Messiah to come from Galilee? Hasn't the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, David's ancestral village?' So the people divided over Jesus. Some wanted to arrest Him, but no one laid hands on Him at this time. The officers sent by the chief priests and Pharisees returned, and were asked, 'Why didn't you bring Jesus?' They answered, 'No one ever spoke like this man!' The Pharisees upbraided them: 'Are you led astray—even you? Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees b elieved in him? This crowd, who don't understand the Torah, are accursed.' Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus and yet was one of them, said to the Pharisees and authorities, 'Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?' They replied, 'Are you from Galilee too? Search the scriptures and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.'