Holy, New Covenant Living

Friday, June 6, 2014 Devotions: Ps 102, 107:1-32; Jer 31:27-34; Eph 5:1-20; Mt 9:9-17 YHWH, hear and answer my urgent cry to You. My days pass like smoke, and my body is suffering. I'm like a lonely bird, an owl in the wilderness; I eat ashes and drink tears because of Your righteous indignation against my offenses. I wither like dry grass; but You Are eternal, almighty, everlasting, holy and loving. Let all people see and consider, and turn from wickedness to the holy ways of God. My strength is gone, drained away by my unholiness; let me turn to God and serve Him the rest of my meager life. Lord, the children of Your servants will dwell secure and their offspring will be established before You. Let us give thanks to the Lord, for He Is good. He delivers those who wander in hunger and thirst; He brings forth those imprisoned in darkness, in irons for offenses against His holy law. Finally, they cried out to YHWH in their distress, and He had pity and delivered them. He shatters doors of bronze and severs bars of iron. Some roamed the seas and far lands in commerce, and their courage failed as storms and bandits assailed them. God stilled the storms and delivered them from brigands, and they were glad for the quiet and the safe haven. Let us all praise the Lord amid the great cloud of His witnesses. Jeremiah prophesied: Look! The days are coming, YHWH says, when I will sow the houses of Israel and Judah with the seed of humans and of animals. And it will come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring evil, just so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says YHWH. Then they'll no longer say that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and their descendants' teeth are set on edge. Then, each will die for their own sins; and the teeth of those who eat sour grapes will be set on edge. Listen! The days are coming, says YHWH, when I will make a new covenant with the houses of Israel and Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took their hand and led them out of Egypt—My covenant which they broke, even though I was their Husband, says the Lord. But this is the new covenant I now will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YHWH: I will put My law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God and they will be My people. No longer will each person teach his neighbor and his siblings, saying, 'Know the Lord, ' for they will all know Me, says YHWH, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.' Paul wrote: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put aside from you, along with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore and thus, be imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Don't think, don't speak, don't act concerning fornication, impurity, covetousness, filthiness, silly talk, or levity; instead, give thanks; praise the Lord with the energy you've been wasting on sin and folly. Know this for sure: no fornicators, no impure people, no one who covets, no idolater has any part in the kingdom of God, no share in His new covenant. Let no one deceive you with empty words—it is these things that bring God's wrath down upon the children of disobedience. Just stay away from them! Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord—so walk as children of the Light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. Work to learn what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness; instead, expose them. It is a shame even to speak of such things—a waste of Spirit, a waste of breath, a waste of life! But when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible; and anything that becomes visible is light. For that reason, people say 'Awake, o sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.' So take care how you conduct yourselves, not as unwise people, but as the wise, making the most of the time, because the days we live in are evil. Don't be fools; understand the Lord's will—and then hasten to do it! Don't bother getting drunk on wine—that's debauchery; rather, be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and everywhere giving thanks in the Name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah to God the Father. As He went His way, Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at a tax office; and Jesus said to him,' Follow Me.' And Matthew just got up and followed Him. Presently, as Jesus sat at table in His local house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and His disciples. Seeing this, the Pharisees said to Jesus' disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' But when Jesus heard this, He said, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." For I came not to call the righteous, but to call sinners.' Then, some disciples of John the Baptizer came to Jesus. They had a critical question, too: 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to them, 'Can wedding guests mourn while the Bridegroom is with them? Of course not. But the days will come when the Bridegroom is taken from them; and then, they will fast. And nobody puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch, when it shrinks, tears away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. In the same way, new wine is not put into old wineskins; if it were, the new wine would swell and burst the skins—wine is spilled and skins are destroyed. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.'