Refuge, Food, Repentance and Faith

Tuesday, March 18, 2014 Devotions: Ps 61, 62, 68; Gen 42:1-17; 1 Cor 5:1-8; Mk 3:19b-35 Lord, here and answer my cries to You. Lead me to the Rock; put me in a strong tower of refuge. I wait for God alone, my savior. Let the evil company do their worst; I will trust in God, and He will sustain and protect me. God is my only Rock, my Salvation, my Fortress. I shall not be shaken. Trust Him, everyone. Put no trust in wealth or worldly power; set no hope on graft or deception. If fortune comes, accept it, but remain its master, not its slave. God is in charge. Keep that foremost in your thoughts and plans! Let God arise and scatter His enemies! Let the wicked perish before Him, and the righteous exult with great joy. God is Father to the orphans, Protector of widows, Liberator to the oppressed and imprisoned. He is Master of heaven and earth, of land and sky, of nature and civilization. Blessed by YHWH, Who daily lifts us up, our Salvation. Ascribe to God alone power and majesty. Blessed be God! Jacob detailed his ten eldest sons to go to Egypt and buy food, to prevent his clan from starving. Jacob witheld Benjamin, fearing that harm would befall this, Rachel's last son. Unknowing, Joseph's brothers came before him and bowed to the ground. He recognized them, but they did not know him. They were acting out the dreams he had reported, and they had scorned, when Joseph was only a youth. Joseph accused them of being spies; they denied it; he demanded that they bring their youngest brother before him, while Joseph held one of the older brothers as hostage. And he put all ten in prison for three days. Paul was appalled at the effrontery of the Corinthian Christians: a man among you is cohabiting with his father's wife! And you are arrogant. You should be in mourning; and you must cast this offender from your fellowship! I have pronounced judgment against him in the Name of our Lord Jesus. Assemble, and deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus. Don't you understand that a little leaven leavens all the dough? Cleanse out the old sin, and be new. For Christ, our paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Having selected the Twelve as His closest disciples, Jesus returned to His home base along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The crowds thronged them so that Jesus and the apostles could not even eat their meals. When Jesus' family heard of all this, they went to fetch Him, because people were saying Jesus was beside Himself. Likewise, scribes came down from Jerusalem, and said, 'He is possessed by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, and by that power Jesus casts out demons.' Jesus assembled his scribal critics and confronted them: 'How can Satan cast Satan out? A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand; a divided house cannot stand. If Satan rises up against himself, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. However, no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his possessions unless that one first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder the strong man's house. Now I tell you truly: all sins will be forgiven mortals, along with the sundry blasphemies they may utter. But anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never if forgiven; they have committed an everlasting sin.' Jesus said this because His accusers had said, 'Jesus has an unclean spirit'--thus offending the Holy Spirit, by Whom Jesus lived and acted. Then Jesus' mother and brothers came; standing outside, they sent to Jesus and called Him. The crowd surround Jesus said to Him, 'Your mother and Your brothers are outside, and they are asking for You.' But Jesus replied, 'Who are My mother and brothers?' Gesturing to those surrounding Him, Jesus said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is My brother, and sister, and mother.'