Devotions: Ps 56, 57, 61, 62, 64, 65, 68; Jer 1:11-19; 2:1-13; Rom 1:1-25; Jn 4:27-54
Lord, be gracious to me; I am trampled all day long by hostile mortals. But I place my trust in You; You keep my tears in a bottle; You know all my stresses and strains. And I know that God is with me, because I am still standing. He will put to shame those who trample me, and my heart stands steadfast in trusting my God. Lord, I sing Your praises; be exalted, great Lord! Place me on a high rock, far above the strivings of the godless. Shelter me under Your wings, Lord God,and I will wait upon You. My soul is steadfast; I wait only for God, my Rock and my Salvation. Trust in Him at all times, everyone. He alone is worthy of trust. So let God arise and scatter His enemies! Let the wicked perish before Him, the Father of orphans, the Protector of widows. He gives homes to the desolate, rain in season food and shelter and all that we need. Blessed be YHWH, Who daily bears us up, our Savior. Let us sing to God a solemn song of praise and honor; ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel. Terrible is God in His sanctuary, awesome in His majesty!
God's word came to Jeremiah: 'What do you see, Jeremiah?' 'Lord, I see a rod of almond.' 'You see well; I Am watching over My word, to perform it.' 'Now what do you see?' 'Lord, I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.' 'From the north, evil will break forth upon the inhabitants of the land. I Am calling all the tribes of the northern kingdoms, and they shall come against Jerusaelm and the cities of Judah. And I will declare My judgments agains those who have forsaken Me and have worshiped idols, the handiwork of their own hands! But you, My prophet, gird your loins and get up; tell the people all that I command you, and I will sustain you like a fortified city, an iron pillar, a wall of bronze—against the whole land and all its kings, princes, priests, and peoples. They will fight against you, but they cannot prevail, for I Am with you to deliver you.' And God told Jeremiah, 'Go and proclaim to Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: I remember your former devotion, your love as a new bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in the wild lands. Israel was holy to YHWH, the firstfruits of His harvest.' Now hear what YHWH will say to you: 'What wrong did your ancestors find in Me, that they went far from Me, pursuing worthlessness and becoming worthless? They did not inquire after Me, though I brought them into a fruitful land to enjoy its bounty. When you came in, you defiled My land and made My heritage an abomination. The priest and the rulers sinned against Me; the prophets followed Baal. And so I will contend with you, says YHWH, and with your children's children. No other nation has been so unfaithful, so as to change their gods. Let heaven and earth stand appalled, for My people have forsaken Me, the Fount of living waters, and they have made cisterns for themselves—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, as an apostle set apart for God's gospel, as promised in the scriptures and by God's prophets, concerning God's Son, descended from David on His human side, and attested as God's Son by His resurrection form the dead: Jesus the Messiah our Lord. Through Him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among the nations, including yourselves, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ: to all God's beloved in Rome, called to be saints. Grace to you and peace form God our Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah. First, I thank my God through Jesus the Messiah for all of your, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. As God is my witness, Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, I pray for you constantly, and ask that somehow God will enable me to come now and visit you. I long to see you and impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, so that we may be mutually encouraged by one another's faith. I have often intended to come to you, but have been prevented until now; my goal is to reap some harvest among you as among the other Gentiles. I am oblilgated to both Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish: so I am eager to preach the gospel to you in Rome. I am not ashamed the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes—firsst for the Jew, then for the Gentile. The gospel reveals God's righteousness through faith and for faith. As the scriptures say, 'He who through faith is righteous shall live.' God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and human wickedness of those who suppress the truth. What can be discovered about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world, God's invisible nature—His eternal power and deity—has been clearly perceived through the creation. So all are without excuse; though they knew about God, they did not honor Him or thank Him, but became futile in their minds and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal humans or birds or animals or reptiles. Because of this, God gave them up to impurity in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonoring their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and serve the creature rather than the Creator, Who Is blessed forever! Amen.
Jesus' disciples returned from buying food, and were surprised to find Jesus in dialog with a Samaritan woman beside the Sychar town well. She left with her water jar, and went into the city to summon others: 'Come and see a Man Who told me everything I ever did. Can this be the Messiah?' And the people flocked to see Jesus. Meanwhile, the disciples invited Jesus to eat something, but He said, "I have food to eat that you don't know about.' So they wondered among themselves, 'Has someone else brought Him food?' But Jesus explained: 'My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me, and to accomplish His work. You have the saying, "Four months more, then the harvest." But I tell you, look around: see how the fields are already white for harvest. The one who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. As the saying is, "One sows and another reaps." I sent you to reap what you have not planted; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.' Many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony. And the townsfolk asked Jesus to stay with them, and He did stay two more days. Many more came to believe through His word, as they testified: 'We have now heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world!' After two days, Jesus set forth for Galilee. There, He was welcomed because of what the local people had seen Him do in Jerusalem. He came again to Cana, where He had made water into wine. An official from Capernaum heard that Jesus was there, and came to find Jesus, because the man's son was seriously ill. He begged Jesus to return to Capernaum with him, and Jesus remonstrated with the man: 'Unless you see signs and wonders you won't believe.' Finally, Jesus told the man, 'Go; your son will live.' And the man believed Jesus and started home. On the way, he met servants from his household, coming to tell him that the son's fever had broken and he was doing well. He asked them when the boy began to mend, and they said, 'Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.' The man realized that was the hour Jesus had said, 'Your son will live.' This was the second mighty sign that Jesus did when He had come from Judea to Galilee.
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