Praise, obey, submit, overcome

Monday, June 30, 2014

Devotions: Ps 106; Num 22:1-21; Ro 6:12-23; Mt 21:12-22

Give thanks and praise to God, for He Is good; His steadfast love endures forever; His faithfulness stretches to the ends of the universe. Lord, remember me also when You show favor to Your people. We are sinners and the offspring of sinners, but You Are altogether righteous and ever-faithful. The people of Israel were heirs to God's covenants, but again and again they fell away, sinned against God in their actions and in what they failed to perform; yet, God confronted and restored them again and again, and fulfilled His promises, even when His people were unfaithful. His anger is awful, but brief; His mercy and love are amazing and everlasting. Blessed be YHWH, God of Israel, Lord of the His church, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all God's people say 'Amen,' and let us praise the Lord.

Israel set out, and encamped in the plains of Jordan east of Jericho. Balak, king of Moab, knew of all that God had done in aiding His people against the Amorites. So he sent for the seer Balaam from the land of Amaw, and called Balaam to come and curse the Israelites; the elders of Midian and Moab took money to persuade the sooth-sayer. Balaam told them emissaries to stay the night while Balaam consulted with God about their request. God told Balaam not to agree or to go or to do what they Moabites and Midianites were requesting: 'You shall not go with them, nor curse the Israelites, for they are blessed.' Balaam dismissed the emissaries and they returned and reported to Balak. But Balak persisted; he sent a more distinguished group of representatives, with more money. But the seer responded in the same way: he told the emissaries to stay the night while he consulted with God. This time, God's counsel was different: 'Rise, go with them; but do only that which I bid you to do.' So the next morning, Balaam rose, saddled his donkey, and returned with the princes of Moab.

Paul wrote: Don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies; don't yield your members as instruments of wickedness; rather, yield yourselves to God as people brought from death to life; give your members to God and instruments of righteousness. Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. Should we continue in sin because we are under grace? By no means! You are slaves to whatever or whomever you give yourselves—either sin that leads to death or obedience to God, that leads to righteousness. Let us thank God, that you who once were slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which God has committed you. Freed from sin, you now are slaves to righteousness. I speak in human terms here, of course, because of your natural limitations. Once, you yielded yourselves to impurity, and reaped greater and greater iniquity; now, yield your members to righteousness, and reap sanctification. When you were enslaved to sin, righteousness had no power over you. But what return did you reap from freedom to sin? Death is the result of such things. But now you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God; the return from this transaction is sanctification, and its outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in the Messiah Jesus our Lord. 

In Jerusalem, Jesus entered God's temple and drove out all who were selling and buying there; He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons and doves. He told them: 'It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of brigands.' The blind and lame came to Jesus in the temple, and He healed them [whom the Torah banned from that holy precinct because of their disabilities]. When the chief priests and scribes saw the mighty acts Jesus was doing, and heard the children crying out His praises in the temple--'Hosanna to the Son of David!'--they became indignant. They challenged Jesus: 'Do you hear what these are saying?' And Jesus said to them, 'Yes. Have you never read, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings You have brought perfect praise”?' Leaving them, Jesus went out to Bethany, where he was lodging. The next day, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, He was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the wayside, He went to it; but He found only leaves, no fruit. And Jesus said to the tree, 'May no fruit ever come from you again!' And immediately the fig tree withered. Seeing this, His disciples marveled, saying, 'How did the fig tree wither at once?' Jesus answered, 'Truly I tell you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will do more than I did to this fig tree; even if you tell this mountain to be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be accomplished. Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.'