Just tell the truth and keep your promises

Thursday, November 18. 2010

Devotions: Ps 105; Mal 2:1-16; Jas 4:13-5:6; Lk 17:20-37

Thank YHWH and call on His name; praise Him before mortals and glory in His holiness. Seek YHWH and His strength; seek Him presence continually. He is mindful of His covenants always, and He keeps His word. He always has made provision for His people, even when they were facing bondage. God sent Joseph to Egypt in advance of His people, and four centuries later, He prepared and sent Moses to lead them out of Egyptian bondage. He provided Aaron as a priest and a mouthpiece for his brother Moses. Through them, God worked mighty acts of power against the Egyptian pharaoh and his gods, and Egypt gladly sent them on their way, with much gold and silver plundered from the Egyptians. God cared for His people in the wilderness, and provided them water, manna and quail for food. He gave them the land He had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so that the people could keep God's statutes and observe His laws. Let us also praise YHWH, now and always.

Malachi spoke as God gave him utterance: Priests, this is God's command to you. Listen and take to heart what I command, or I will curse your blessings, and I will rebuke your offspring. I will smear you with the dung of your detestable offerings and I will put you out of My presence. My covenant with Levi was one of life and peace; Levi stood in awe before Me and kept My words. His instruction was true; He walked with Me in peace and uprightness. He turned many from sin to godliness. But you have turned aside, and you are leading many into error. You have corrupted the Levitical covenant, says YHWH Sabaoth. For this, I make you despised and abased before all people, for you disobey Me and show partiality in your teaching. We all have one Father; one God created all mortals. So why do we profane our ancestral covenant? Abomination is committed in Jerusalem; Judah profanes God's sanctuary, and is unfaithful with foreign gods. May YHWH cut off Jacog's tents and refuse all offerings from these idolaters. You cover God's altar with tears and demand to know why God has turned away from you. But you know the reason: you have been faithless to your spouses and to your God. He desires godly offspring, and your sins preclude that outcome. Let none be faithless to the spouses of your youth. God hates divorce and violence. Take heed; don't be faithless!

James wrote: Think about it: you speak foolishly when you say, 'I am planning thus and so,' and you rattle off the details of your ambitious plans. You have no control, even of tomorrow! You are a mist that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Say this, rather: 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.' Currently, you boast arrogantly, and put yourself in jeopardy before holy God. Boasting is evil. Whoever knows what is right and fails to do it, that omission is sin. So let the rich weep and howl before their coming miseries. Your riches rot; your garments are moth-eaten; your precious metals corrode. All this testifies against you, and you will suffer as if in a fire. You have laid up ill-gotten gain in the last days. The wages of which you defraud workers in your fields and factories cries out to the Lord of hosts. You live on earth in luxury and sensuality; in days of slaughter, you think only of fattening your own hearts. You condemn and murder the righteous, though they do not resist you. So, my brothers and sisters, be patient until YHWH comes. Be patient like a good farmer awaiting the ripening and harvest of his crops. Be steadfast of heart before the Lord, for His coming is at hand. Don't grumble; be like the prophets of God, like Job; for our Godis compassionate and merciful. Do not swear; let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no, that you escape condemnation.

The Pharisees constantly peppered Jesus with questions. They asked Him when God's kingdom would be coming. He said, 'God's kingdom is not coming with signs to be observed; rather, God's kingdom is in your very midst.' He told His disciples, 'In coming days, you will long for one day of the Son of man, but you will not see it. People will say to you, "He's here" or "He's there." Don't fall for that. In His day, the Son of man will appear like lightning that lights up the whole sky—you won't be able to miss it. But first, He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. In His day, it will be as in Noah's day: people were eating, drinking, marrying—right up to the moment they entered the ark and the rains began. Remember Lot's wife, turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Those who seek to preserve their lives will lose them; those who gives their lives away to God will keep them. In that night, two in one bed will be separated: one will be taken to God, the other left. Two workers will be grinding together: one will be taken, the other will be left behind. The disciples asked the Lord for further guidance. He said, 'Where the corpse is found, there the scavenging birds will be gathered.'