Living in the Light

Saturday, January 4, 2014 Devotions: Ps 85, 87, 89:1-29; Josh 3:14-4:7; Eph 5:1-20; Jn 9:1-12, 35-38. YHWH, You have favored Your people and Your land; restore us again, great Lord! Show us Your steadfast love and grant us Your salvation. Let me hear whatever God has to say; His words bring peace and healing to those who fear and honor Him. Let our faith rise up to meet His faithfulness; let us walk in His righteousness. God has special affection for Jerusalem, His holy city. It is great honor to be born there, to live there, to die and be buried there. Jerusalem is the wellspring for all song and dancing. Lord, I will sing of Your steadfast love forever, proclaiming Your faithfulness while my breat remains. You keep Your promises, and establish Your covenants. There is none like You, Lord God! Your throne rests upon righteousness and justice. Blessed are all who walk in the festal celebration of Your rule. The line of David rules forever, in the Person of Jesus the King. Joshua prepared the people to cross Jordan and besiege Jericho. When the ark-bearers' feet touched the waters of flood-stage Jordan, the waters stopped and piled up at Adam upstream, and the people passed over on dry ground. Then YHWH directed Joshua to have a man from each of the 12 tribes to take a stone from the riverbed, at the place the priests bearing the Ark had stood while the people crossed, at to place them together as a memorial at the place they would encamp that evening, as a sign for future generations, a perpetual memorial of God's intervention in stopping the river's flow for the people to cross. Paul wrote: Imitate God as His beloved children. Walk in love, as the Messiah loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Don't even speak together of fornication, impurity or covetousness; abstain from filthiness, silliness, or levity; expend your energy in thanksgiving. No fornicator, impure person or idolater will have any part in the kingdom of the Messiah and our God that is to come. Don't even associate with such people; you were like that yourselves—people of the darkness. But now you are people of the Light in the Lord; walk as His children; the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. Concentrate on learning to do what pleases our Lord. Shun the unfruitful works of darkness; instead, expose them to the light. It is a shame even to speak of what sinners do in the dark; but when anything is exposed to light, it becomes visible—as is written: 'Wake up, sleeper! Rise from death and the Messiah will give you light.' So take heed how you conduct yourselves, like wise people. Make the best use possible of your time, because the days are evil. Don't be foolish; understand the Lord's will and do it. Don't get drunk on alcohol—that is debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit; address one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody before the Lord with all your heart—just as David did, dancing before the Ark as it entered Jerusalem! Always and for everything, give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah to God the Father. As Jesus and His disciples were walking along one day, they passed a man who had been blind from birth. The disciples asked Jesus, 'Was this man's blindness the result of his own sins, or those of his parents?' Jesus answered, 'Neither; his blindness provides an opportunity for God's might to be manifest this man. While we have the light, we must do the works of Him Who sent Me; for night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I Am in the world, I Am the Light of the world.' As He said this, Jesus spat on the ground and made with the spittle and dirt; with this, He anointed the man's eyes, and Jesus said to him, 'Go now; wash in the pool of Siloam.' [John points out that the pool's name means 'Sent.'] So the man did as Jesus bade him: he went, washed, and came back seeing! All those nearby who had seen him before as a beggar said, 'Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg? That blind guy?' Some said, 'Yes, that's him,' but others said,'No—not the same man, though they look alike.' The man himself spoke up: 'Yes, I am that man.'' So they asked him how his eyes were opened, and the man recounted his exchange with Jesus. They asked, 'Where is the Man Who did this for you?' And the formerly blind man said, 'I don't know.' After all this, the man and even his parents were thoroughly questioned by the Jewish authorities who strongly opposed Jesus. Eventually, the Jewish leaders threw the man out of their synagogue. Then, hearing of this, Jesus found the man and said to him, 'Do you believe in the Son of man?' He replied, 'Who is He, Sir, that I may believe in Him?' Jesus said, 'You have seen Him; in fact, I Am He Who speaks to you.' The man said, 'Master, I believe!', and he worshiped Jesus. Then Jesus said, 'I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and that those who claim to be sighted may become blind.' Some Pharisees nearby heard this and said to Jesus, 'Are we blind then?' And Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But since you claim that you see, your guilt remains.'