Fitting conclusions...

Saturday, March 5, 2011
Devotions: Ps 20, 21:1-7, 110:1-5; 116, 117; Deut 5:5b-33; 2 Cor 13:1-14; Mt 7:22-29

May YHWH answer you in days of trouble! Let His name protect you. He will help you and accept your offerings. May God grant your heart's desire and fulfill His plans for you. Let us shout for joy and set up banners to our God. I know God will help His anointed ones; we boast only of YHWH our God, and He will keep us upright when all others fall. Lord, I rejoice in Your strength; You have given me my heart's desire, not witholding your hand from answering my petitions. You have blessed me for ever, and I trust in You, my Lord. I will not be moved. YHWH says to my Lord, 'Sit at My feet until I make your enemies Your footstool.' And God establishes sovereignty in the world. He has sworn with an everlasting promise, 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.' God will execute judgment on the nations and all who fail to put faith in His Messiah. I love God, Who answers my prayers; God is gracious and righteous, merciful. He preserves the simple and raises up the downtrodden. You have delivered my soul from death, Lord, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I walk before God in the land of the living, and I will put my hope in God alone; there is no trusting mortals. What shall I give God for all His bounty to me? I lift up the cup of salvation and pay my vows to God. Precious is the life and even the death of His saints; YHWH, I am Your servant, and I bow to You in secret and in the great assembly. Praise the Lord! Let all the nations praise YHWH, and all peoples extol our God. His faithfulness endures forever. Hallelujah!

Moses' summative sermon continues: God spoke these Words, Who delivered you and made you His own: I Am YHWH your God, who brought you out of Egypt and the house of bondage.

1. You shall have no other gods except Me
2. You shall not make for yourself a graven image of anything material; you must not serve idols, for I YHWH your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the parents upon their children to the third and fourth generations, but showing steadfast love to thousands of generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3. You shall not take the name of YHWH your God in vain; YHWH does not hold them guiltless who take His name in vain.
4. Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as YHWH your God has commanded. Do all your work in six days, and rest on the seventh day, YHWH's Sabbath: no work for anyone in your family or household, or your domestic animals, or pilgrims in your midst. Remember that you were servants in Egypt and I brought you out with a mighty hand and outstretched arm: so keep the Sabbath!
5. Honor your father an dmohther, as YHWH your God commanded you—so that your days may be lengthened and it may go well with you in the land which YHWH your God provides to you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's spouse, or his house, or his male or female servants, or his domestic animals, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

God spoke these words to all the assembly at the mountain, from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness, with a loud voice. And He wrote them on two stone tablets. When you witnessed these things, your leaders came to me and responded: God has shown us his glory and greatness; we have heard His voice out of the fire; we have seen God speak today to a mortal, who survived! So why should we perish now? This great fire would consume us; if we listen more to God's voice, we will perish! No other mortals have had this theophany and survived. So you go to Him and hear all that YHWH will say, and you tell us His words, and we will do what God has told us to do through you. God told me He had heard your words and approved them. He wishes that you might always do these things, so that all might go well with you and your descendants forever. He had me return you to your tents, and I stayed with Him and recorded all His directions and commands for us. So, now you omust be careful to do as YHWH your God has commmanded you; don't turn away to the right or left. Just go in the way He has directed, so that you may live and it may go well with you and you may live long and prosper in the land which you will possess.

Paul concludes his second Corinthian letter. I am coming to see you for the third time. Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses [--or by two or three observations by one reliable judge]. I warned each offender when I visited, and I warn them again now: if I come again I will not spare them, since your demand proof that the Messiah is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you; He is mighty among you! He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. We are weak in Him, but in dealing with you, we shall live with Him by the power of God. Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Notice that Jesus the Messiah is in you, unless in fact you fail to meet the test. I hope you will discover that we have not failed. But we pray to God that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. We cannot do anything contrary to the truth; we can act only on behalf of the truth. We are glad when we are weak and you are strong. We pray always for your improvement. I write this while I am abset from you, so that when I come I will not need to be servere in using the authority which the Lord has given me for building up, and not for tearing down. Finally, my brothers and sisters, farewell. Amend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saits greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus the Messiah and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Jesus concluded His sermon on the mount: 'On the day of judgment, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and case out demons in Your name, and do many acts of power in Your name?' And I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you evildoers.' So everyone who hears My words and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on bedrock: the rains fell and floods rose and the wind beat against that house, but it did not fall, because it was founded on the rock. And everyone who hears My words and does not obey them will be like a fool who build his house on sand: when the rains and floods and winds came against that house, it fell, and great was its downfall.' When Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He taught among them as One Who had authority, not like one of their scribes.