Devotions: Ps 146-49; Ezek 37:1-14; Acts 3:11-26; Jn 15:12-27
Praise the Lord, my soul! Trust in Him alone. Happy is the one whose Help is the God of Jacob, YHWH our God! He keeps faith forever. He frees prisoners, gives sight to the blind, lifts up the downtrodden, and loves the righteous. He guards sojourners, cares for widows and orphans, and brings the wicked to ruin. Let us love and praise this, our God. It is good to praise Him, Who builds up Jerusalem and cares for Israel's outcasts. His understanding is beyond measure. Delight in His goodness and His power, for He delights in those who trust and believe in Him and in His steadfast love. He protects our communities; He gives us sons and daughters; He establishes peace for us; He controls our weather and water. Let all heaven and earth praise our God; at His word, all was created that exists. Let the seas and lands, the mountains and hills, the valleys and citadels—let all that is and all that lives praise YHWH alone. Sing a new song to Him; celebrate God in song and dancing. Let the faithful exult in glory. His judgment is the glory of God's people, as we praise the Lord.
God's Spirit placed Ezekiel in the midst of a desolate valley filled with human bones. God asked the prophet, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' Ezekiel answered, 'O Lord God, only You know.' And God told the prophet, 'Prophesy to these bones; tell them to hear God's word: behold I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. I will lay sinews upon you and cause flesh to come upon you; I will cover you with skin and put breath—living spirit—into you, and you shall live. And you shall know that I Am YHWH.' Ezekiel did as God told him, and the bones joined together and became whole bodies, and the breath came into them and they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely large host. Then God told Ezekiel, 'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They see themselves as utterly defeated—dried up and cut off. So I want you to prophesy to them. Tell them, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from them, My people. I will bring you home to Eretz Israel. And you shall know that I Am YHWH, when I do all this. And I will put My Spirit within you, and you shall live; and I will place you in your own land; then you will know that I, YHWH, have spoken, and I have done it, says the Lord.'
A man lame from birth was healed in an encounter with Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate to the temple, and a crowd gathered to see the miracle. Peter spoke to the assembly: 'Men of Israel, why do you stare in wonder at this? It wasn't our power or piety that raised this man up and made him walk. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, glorified His Servant Jesus, Whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and instead killed the Author of life, Whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses to all this. And His Name, by faith in His Name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith which is through Jesus has given this man this perfect health in the presence of you all. Brothers, I know you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that the Messiah should suffer, He fulfilled in this way. Therefore, repent and turn again, so that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah appointed for you, Jesus, Whom heaven must receive until the time has come for the establishing of all that God spoke by the mouths of His holy prophets of old. Moses said, "The Lord God will raise up for you a Prophet from your brethren as He raised me up. You shall listen to Him in whatever He tells you. And it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that Prophet shall be destroyed form the people." And all the prophets, from Samuel onward, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, "And in your posterity shall all the families of the earth be blessed." God, having raised up His Servant, sent Him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you from your wickedness.'
Jesus taught: This is My command: that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends because all that I have heard from My Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose Me; instead, I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you. This I command you: love one another. If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me beforehand. If you were of the world, the world would love you; but because you are not of the world, and because I chose you out of the world, therefor the world hates you. Remember what I told you: a servant is not greater than his Master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. They will do all this on My account, because they do not know Him Who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be in sin; but now they have no excuse for their sins. Whoever hates Me also hates My Father. If I had not done among them works that no one else did, they would not be in sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. It is to fulfll the word that is written in their law: 'They hated me without a cause.' But when the Counselor comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father—even the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father—He will bear witness to Me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
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