God summons all sentient beings

Thursday, January 27, 2011
Devotions: Ps 50, 59, 60; Isa 49:13-23; Gal 3:1-14; Mk 6:30-46

God, the Mighty One, summons all sentient beings; He is awesome, surrounded by devouring fire and by a colossal tempest. He gathers His own to Himself. He reproves His faithless people for their careless offerings. He has no need of our food or our money; instead, God requires a sacrifice of thanks and praise, the gift of integrity and honest speech. Then, when we call on Him, YHWH will deliver us! He condemns the wicked who mouth His law with tongues that also lie and deceive. He rebukes the unrepentant, and encourages the downtrodden. Bring Him sacrifices of thanks, obedience and praise, and He will show us His salvation. My God, deliver me from my enemies, and protect me from my assailants. They never quit! But You hold them in derision, and I will trust in Your steadfast love and holy power. Let them be trapped in their pride. I sing Your praises, my Strength! Let us rally to God's banner, and let God deliver His beloved ones. Grant us Your help against the foes, and tread them down.

Let earth and heavens rejoice and sing before YHWH, Who has comforted His people. He loves us as a mother loves her infant. He engraves our names on His palms. He gathers us to Himself and provides for us. We flourish under His care. Our barrenness is past, and our plenty is coming! He raises His banner to the nations, and they bring all their children to our God. Kings will foster us and queens will be our wet-nurses. When we are lifted up, we will know that YHWH is the Lord, and those who wait upon Him are not put to shame.

Paul continues his letter to the Galatian churches: Foolish Galatians! Who bewitched you? You practically saw Christ crucified. You received the Holy Spirit—and was that by works of the law, or by hearing in faith? Having begun with the Spirit, will you now turn to the flesh? Was all your struggle, all your blessing, in vain? Does the One Who works among you, Who supplies the Spirit and works miracles to benefit you, do all this by works of the law, or by the power of faith? Abraham believed God, and that was reckoned to him as righteousness. So it is people of faith who are Abraham's children and heirs. The scripture, foretelling that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, spoke to Abraham, saying 'In you shall all the nations be blessed.' So those who live by faith are blessed with Abraham, who also had faith. All who rely on the law are under a curse; for as is written, 'Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.' No one is justified before God by the law, for 'He who through faith is righteous shall live,' but the law does not rest on faith, for 'He who does them shall live by them.' The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law; He became a curse for us, as is written: 'Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree.' So that in the Messiah Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we may receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

When the apostles returned to Jesus after their first mission trip without Him, Jesus listened to all they had done and taught, and then led them aside, seeking a lonely place to rest a while. They had no peace at all in the villages. So they went away in a boat to an isolated place. But the multitude saw them go and ran ahead so that they were waiting when Jesus and the apostles again came to shore. Jesus came on land among the throng and had pity on them; they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. When it grew late, His disciples said to Jesus, 'This is a lonely place and it's getting late. Send the people away so that they can go into the country and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But Jesus replied, 'You give them something to eat.' They were dumfounded: 'Shall we go a buy eith months' wages worth of bread to feed this multitude?' But Jesus said to them, 'How many loaves have you? Go out and see.' So they checked, and reported, 'We have five loaves, and two fish.' Jesus commanded all to sit down by companies on the green grass, and they did, sitting in clusters of a hundred or fifty. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed the food and broke it and gave the broken food to the disciples to set before the people. All ate and were satisfied, and the disciples took up twelve baskets full of leftover bread and fish—and those who were fed numbered five thousand men, plus women and children! Once the meal was over, Jesus immediately made His disciples get into the boat and set out without Him toward Bethsaida, across the lake, while Jesus dismissed the crowd. And when He had sent them all away, Jesus went up on the mountain to pray.