Getting and giving

Friday, May 8

Devotions: Ps 106; Lev 23:1-22; 2 Th 2:1-17; Mt 7:1-12

Thanks to YHWH: Your steadfast love is good, and You Are faithful. Lord, remember me also when You show favor to Your people. I am a sinner, from a line of sinners; my people have accepted Your bounty but ignored Your commandments. We have not honored or worshiped You as we ought. Yet You have always cared for us; our attention wavers, but Your loving kindness endures. Your chosen people were the same – rebellion and idolatry, despair, repentance, and times of refreshing. I would hope we'd learn from this recurring cycle; but only You remain constant and good. We offer occasional lip service; we glance at Your word and stare into the darkness of the world, the flesh, and the evil one Lord, forgive! Save us, YHWH our God; gather us to Yourself. Blessed Is YHWH, God of Israel and of me, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen.

YHWH told Moses: Command the people to observe My festivals. The first is the Sabbath: work hard six days; rest, reflect, heal and worship on the seventh day. The (first four) annual festivals are these: 

• The evening of 14^th day of the first month is My Passover
• The 15^th of that month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread
  Cease working on the first of these holy days, and have a holy convocation. Eat unleavened bread for seven days, and each day present an offering to Me by fire.
• When you come into the Land I have promised you and reap its harvest, bring the sheaf of your firstfruits to My priest; he shall wave it before Me as an offer—on the day after the Sabbath. On that same day, offer a spotless year-old male lamb, two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine. Eat neither bread nor grain, whether parched or fresh, until this same day and the fulfillment of this offering.
• Seven weeks from that Firstfruits day—on the 50^th day—present a cereal offering of new grain to Me; make two loaves of bread, each from two-tenths of an ephah of flour, and bake them with leaven. With the bread, sacrifice seven spotless year-old lambs, a young bull and two rams—a burnt offering to Me, along with their cereal and drink offerings. Offer one male goat as a sin offering and two male yearling lambs as peace offerings. The priest will wave these before Me at My altar, and they are hallowed and given to My priest. That day, do no work, and hold a sacred convocation.

Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica: Don't become alarmed or confused about our Lord's second coming, or our assembly to meet Him. That Day will not come until the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition, has been revealed and a great rebellion has come and gone. He will set himself up as a god, seated in YHWH's temple. This struggle continues, but the Holy Spirit continues to restrain the evil one; at some point, by God's will, the Spirit will be taken away, and the restraints lifted. Then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him by the breath of His mouth, destroying the lawless one by His own appearance and coming forth. The lawless one's rebellion will be empowered by Satan, demonstrating wicked power and deceptive signs and wonders. Only the damned will be taken in by all this, for they have refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends a strong delusion upon them, and they believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth and who took pleasure in unrighteousness. However, brothers and sisters, I continue to thank God for you; you are loved by the Lord; God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To all this, God called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm; hold to the godly traditions you have received by word or by letter. Now may our Lord Jesus the Messiah Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

On the mount, Jesus taught: Judge not, that you do not fall under judgment—if you judge others, the same measure will be applied in judging you. How is it that you notice the speck in a brother's eye, but ignore the log in your own? How can you offer to heal his infirmity when you are much more infirm than he? Hypocrite! Take the log from your own eye first; then you may see clearly enough to help remove the speck from the eye of your brother. Don't give what is holy to dogs, or cast your pearls before swine; they may trample your treasures under foot, then turn and attack you. Ask, and what you ask will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door ill be opened to you. Everyone who asks, receives; all who seek, find; and to those who keep knocking, the door will be opened. Which if you will give a stone if your son asks you for bread? Which will give a serpent when your child asks for an egg? Now, if you who are evil nevertheless know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your perfect Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Whatever you want mortals to do to you, do so to them: this encompasses the law and the prophets.