Be Steadfast: God Is our Heritage

Friday, May 2, 2014 Devotions: Ps 16, 17, 134-35; Ex 16:22-36; 1 Pet 3:13-4:6; Jn 16:1-15 YHWH, preserve me; I take my refuge in You alone. I take joy from Your saints in the land; those who choose other idols multiply their sorrows. YHWH is my choice, and He has chosen me. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, and I have a good heritage. I bless YHWH Who counsels me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be moved. So my heart is glad; my soul rejoices; my body is secure—for God does not surrender me to death and the pit. God shows me a path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, pleasures for evermore. Let God vindicate me; I am content with Him. Wondrously show Your steadfast love, Savior of the refugees! Keep me as the apple of Your eye, hide me under Your wings, and drive away those who persecute me. When I am transformed, I will be satisfied to behold Your form, my God. Let all who attend the Lord's house raise our hands and bless Him! May YHWH bless us from Zion, Who Is Maker of heaven and earth. Praise YHWH and His holy name, for He Is good and gracious; He Is above all other gods. He does what pleases Him. Lord, Your name endures forever. Human idols are man-made objects, with no intelligence, no power, no life; and people become more and more like whatever or Whomever we worship. So let us revel in the worship of the one, true, living, almighty, all-merciful, all-loving Lord our God! In the wilderness, the people of God gathered a double portion of manna on every 'sixth day'; on those days, the extra portion did not spoil, but remained edible on the Sabbath. And so the people rested on the 'seventh day,' as God commanded. The 'manna' as white like coriander seed and tasted like honey wafers. And at God's command, Moses and Aaron preserved an omer of manna as a perpetual memorial before the Lord. The people of Israel ate manna forty years until they came to a habitable land, the land of Canaan. Peter wrote to the Christian diaspora: If you are zealous for what is right, who is there to harm you? In your hearts, reverence Christ as Lord; always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for an account of the inward hope you cherish; but make your explanations gently and with reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. It is better to suffer for doing right, if that is God's will, than to suffer for doing what is wrong. For Christ died for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God; He was put to death in the body, but made alive by the Spirit, in which He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which eight persons were saved through the flood's waters. Baptism, which corresponds to this, no saves you, not as removal of dirt from your bodies, but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, Who has gone into heaven and Is at God's right hand, with angels, authorities and powers subject to Him. Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, in order to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer by human passions but by God's will. Let past times suffice for doing what the Gentiles prefer—living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same wild profligacy, and for your abstention they abuse you. But they will give account to Him Who Is ready to judge the living and the dead. This is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, so that though judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like God. Just before Jesus was betrayed and crucified, He spoke His heart to His closest disciples: I have told you all this to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of their synagogues; the hour is coming when those who kill you will think they are serving God—because they have known neither the Father nor Me. I have told you these things so that you will remember when their hour comes to pass. I didn't say all this to you from the beginning, because I was with you But now I Am going to Him Who sent Me. Sorrow fills your hearts, but I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away—it's the only way I can send you the Counselor. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: sin, because they do not believe in Me; righteousness, because I go to the Father; and judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I have much more to tell you, but you can't bear that now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth; He will not speak on His own authority, but will declare what He hears, and will tell you about things to come. He will glorify Me, taking what is Mine and declaring it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.