Friday,
June 20, 2014
Devotions:
Ps 88, 91, 92; Num 13:1-3, 21-30; Ro 2:25-3:10; Mt 18:21-35
O Lord, I call for Your help every day; my soul is full of troubles and my life teeters over the pit. I am weak, neglected and ignored. My colleagues shun me and I feel confined and trapped. So I spread out my hands to You and beg for Your help. Don't cast me off, Lord; bring me out into Your light, I pray. Those who live in Your shelter, Your shadow are blessed. God will deliver me and protect me. He gives His angels charge concerning me; they protect me in every circumstance. God will rescue and honor me in His time; I live by His fiat, and at His pleasure. It is good to thank the Lord and praise His holy name. Lord, You make me glad by Your works, and I sing for joy. How great are Your works, YHWH! How deep are Your thoughts! Make me flourish like a palm tree; help me grow like a cedar of Lebanon. Help me bear fruit in my old age, Father; keep me pliant and juicy; help me testify that God is upright, my Rock, altogether righteous! Amen.
God
told Moses to send spies into Canaan to get the lay of the land
before Israel invaded. Moses sent forth twelve, one from each tribe,
into the wilderness of Paran. They spied out the land for forty
days, then returned, carrying an immense cluster of grapes from the
Valley of Eshcol. The spies reported to Moses and Aaron and to the
people. All reported the quality of the land and its produce; ten
judged that the powerful current residents would successfully repel
their incursion. Caleb quieted the people and said, 'Let us go up at
once and occupy the land, for we are well able to overcome it.'
Paul wrote: It is useful to be circumcised, if you keep the entire Law; but if you break the Law, your circumcision becomes a sign of separation from God. Likewise, an uncircumcised man who nevertheless keeps God's precepts is accounted as if he were circumcised. And such people condemn the circumcised who violate God's law. A real Jew is one whose heart is true and whose conduct pleases God; true circumcision is spiritual, not literal; and his praise is from God, not from mortals. So, are there any advantages to being a circumcised Jew? Yes, there are many: the Jews are entrusted with the very oracles of God. So what does it matter if some are unfaithful? Their faithlessness cannot nullify God's faithfulness. Let God be true, even if every mortal is false. If our wickedness helps to highlight God's justice, we have no defense. God is sovereign, and human conduct does not condition God's righteousness. All mortals, Jews and Gentiles alike, are in thrall to sin. None is righteous—no, not one!
Peter asked Jesus, 'Lord, how often shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? As many as seven times?' Jesus replied, 'Not seven, but seventy times seven. The kingdom of heaven can be likened to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. He had one brought before him who owed his master ten thousand talents, and could not repay his master. So the master ordered that the man and his family be sold into bondage, and all his possessions sold, to pay a portion of his immense debt. The servant fell to his knees and begged the master: 'Be patient, Lord, and I ill pay you everything.' Out of pity, the master released the man and forgave his debt altogether. But that same servant was owed 100 denarii by a fellow servant, and he shamelessly had that man thrown into debtors' prison because of the unpaid debt. Their fellow servants, seeing this injustice, reported the matter to their master, and he summoned the offender and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me to; shouldn't you have shown similar mercy to the man who owed you a pittance by comparison?' And in anger, the master delivered his wayward servant to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.' And Jesus concluded: 'So also My heavenly Father will do to each of you, if you do not forgive your brother and sister from your heart.'
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