Freed for freedom and joy

Thursday, February 3, 2011
Devotions: Ps 71, 74; Isa 55:1-13; Gal 5:1-15; Mk 8:27-9:1

Lord, my refuge is in You; let me not be put to shame. Deliver me, my Rock. Rescue me from the wicked; I have leaned on You from my birth. I am filled with Your praise. Keep me ticking in my old age; don't abandon me when my strength is gone. God, hurry to my aid; put my accusers to shame. I will hope continually and praise You more and more as time goes by. I will tell of Your mighty acts, and praise Your righteousness. You continue to teach me day by day; help me to rightly testify concerning Your power and righteousness. There is none like You, God; You have let me see many sore troubles, but You always revive me again and give me hope and comfort. I will shout Your praises and speak of Your goodness and mercy all the day long. Your enemies show only contempt for Your holy place and Your people. Don't let them ruin Your temple or destroy Your church. Preserve Your covenant and protect the downtrodden. Let the poor and needy praise Your name. Rise up, great Lord, and put an end to the scoffing and clamor of Your foes.

Let all who thirst come to God's waters; let them receive wine and milk without price. Why spend your resources on what cannot satisfy? Listen carefully, and take in what is wholesome! Listen, that your souls may live! You will summon nations you don't even know; they will run to you becuase of YHWH your God, and the Holy One Whom God has glorified. Seek YHWH while He is near and may be found. Turn back to the Holy One, and receive His mercy and abundant pardon. For as God says, 'My thoughts are not like yours, and My ways are not like yours. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways and thoughts far above yours. As the rain and snow come down from heaven to water the earth, making it spring up and bear fruit, providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so is My word that goes forth from My mouth: it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it, and prosper those who receive it.' You will go forth in and in peace; the mountains and hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. The cypress will grow in place of the thorns; myrtles will spring up instead of briars. All this shall be a memorial to the Lord, an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.

Christ has freed us so that we may be truly free. So stand fast; don't submit again to slavery! If you submit to ritual circumcision, the Messiah will be of no advantage to you; if you take on the law's sign, you obligate yourself to keep the whole law—something no one can accomplish. You sever yourself from the Messiah; you abandon grace to embrace the law. Through the Holy Spirit, by faith, we abide in the hope of righteousness. For in the Messiah Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails—only faith, working through love matters. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This influence is not from Him Who calls you. A little leaven affects the whole lump! I have confidence in the Lord that you will join in my perspective. And the one who is troubling you will bear God's judgment, whoever it is. If I were preaching circumcision, I would face no persecution, because that message would negate the stumbling block of the cross in the minds of the Judaizers. How I wish that those who trouble you would mutilate themselves instead! Brothers and sisters, you were called to freedom, not to bondage! Don't misuse your freedom to make opportunity for the flesh. Through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in the one command, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Jesus led His disciples on to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way, He asked, 'Who do men say that I Am?' They answered, 'John the Baptizer, or Elijah, or one of the other prophets.' And He asked them, 'But who do you say that I Am?' And Peter answered, 'You are the Messiah.' And Jesus charged them to tell no one about Him. He began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days, He would rise again. Jesus told them all this in plain language. But Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. When Jesus turned and saw His disciples, He rebuked Peter: 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are not siding with God, but with men.' Jesus called the multitude and His disciples to Him and told them, 'If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loeses his life for My sake and that of the gospel will save it. What does it profit a person to gain the whold world and forfeit his life? Anyone who is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of that person the Son of man will also be ashamed, when He comes in His Father's glory with the holy angels. Truly, I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.'