I’ll say it once again, God is in control. That is a great source of comfort for us in times of trouble. But, it also causes me to be concerned from time to time. He is in control, but He will also be our judge. We will stand before Him and He will hold us accountable for all our sin. Now, we know we are going to heaven, but that accountability thing does make me worry from time to time.
Still, I can relate to this Psalm. I see myself in the weak and the fatherless, the weak and needy. I know, my dad is still around (I just saw him over the weekend), but compared to the greatness of God, I feel weak and helpless and it’s His job to rescue and protect. And that gives me much to be thankful for.
Our reading of 1 Samuel is bittersweet. On the one hand we have Samuel growing up in the service of the Lord and his mother, Hannah, having five more children. Samuel is growing more and more in the Lord. But, on the other side, we have Eli and his son’s. The two boys are not behaving like priests should. They are sleeping with women they are not married too and they are not serving the Lord as she should. After a warning, the Lord has no choice but to cut the family off, “there will not be an old man in the house.” On the other hand, we will see Samuel do some great work for the Lord.
Acts is bittersweet too. One the one hand we have the church in Jerusalem making amends with the Gentile church and taking the burden of circumcision off them. The Gentiles rejoice at this and are happy with the terms. But then we see a dispute between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark. I think we see the legalistic side of Paul coming out here. Barnabas is always the encourager and always sees the bright side. But the rift is big enough that they go separate ways. Paul, Silas and Luke (the author of the book) go one way and Barnabas and John Mark go another way. Remember, where two or three are gathered together, there will be controversy.
Eli failed to discipline his own sons or correct them when they sinned, and yet raised and trained Samuel to be God-fearing. This shows us how God is really in control of every situation.
“The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words.” So with these words, we remember our Baptism and we remember the promise we make at our Confirmation. We promise to keep and follow God’s word.
But we are human and we can’t do it, we don’t do it all the time. “When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies.” What do we do when we realize our sin? We turn to God’s word. We return to His promises. We turn to His testimony that He will forgive, that our sin has been removed from us as far as the East is from the West. We may be ensnared by sin and surrounded by sin, but God’s Holy Spirit is with us and will keep us in His Word.
In the Word, we will go to extremes, “At midnight I rise to praise you … I am a companion of all who fear you.” I’m sleeping at midnight and when I do rise, it’s usually not to praise God. But I understand what the Psalmist is saying. If we were to praise anything at midnight, it would be the Lord. Plus, we are companions, one and all. We are in this struggle together. We all are experiencing trying times, but we will get through with the help of the Lord.
Can you imagine being a young man, serving in the church and God comes to you and tells you that He is going to punish the family that you have lived with most of your life? He is going to punish them and cut them off for all the evil they have done. And then after getting that message, you are supposed to go back to sleep and then, tell the family about what the Lord has told you. That is a lot of pressure for a young boy. But Samuel is up to the pressure. He tells Eli the news and Samuel continues to grow in the Lord and “all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord.” He is a faithful prophet.
Again, we see victory and lose in the Acts text. First, Timothy joins Paul, Silas and Luke. They are becoming quite the crew. And we see the Lord directing them to Macedonia. The Holy Spirit won’t let them go here and here, but they are called to Macedonia. The Lord still does this from time to time. I know I’ve had times when I’ve been detained for a few minutes here and there and suddenly show up at the hospital at just the right moment. It know it’s the Lord. It’s happened too many times.
Lydia becomes a big supporter of the church. The Lord chooses influential women to follow the Lord and lend credibility to the new Christian church. It’s part of the way the Lord works.
But after all this success, we see Paul getting annoyed at a girl who is possessed by a demon. They cast it out and the people who were making money off her get angry. No one seems to really care about the girl. Paul is just annoyed. Her keepers just want money. But Paul and crew end up getting beat with rods.
Anyway, we know that Paul and company experience trial after trial. It’s not easy, but it’s their passion to serve the Lord. We could use many more servants like this in the church today … and the Lord will provide them.
What a wonderful morning! I took a nice walk, working on my sermon for Sunday as I walk, talking to the Lord as I walk. Then I had a nice shower, and now it’s on to a few relaxing moments with the Word. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Yes, we have many reasons to praise the Lord. Have you been watching the news? This week marks the 40th Anniversary of the first two men to walk on the moon. I remember watching the space walk even as an 8 year old. Remember the bad black and white picture? Today, we’d have crystal clear HD if they did it again. The Lord has indeed given us much to praise Him for. As great as the moon walk was, our Lord does much, much more. He created us. He created the moon and He has won salvation for us. “Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people.”
The Ark of the Covenant was the symbol of God’s presence among the people of Israel. God was present in the Ark. And the Ark meant that God was with Israel. For the Ark to be captured, means that God was no longer with Israel. Obviously, the Philistines have no idea who the true God is, so while they have the Ark, God is not really on their side. They worship other gods. Basically, God’s anger against Hophni and Phinehas and Eli has come true. They all die the same day and the Ark is stolen. It was not a good day.
Hey, what do you know, Paul is in prison again. This is a favorite story of mine. Paul and the crew are in jail and they are praying and singing. They are probably singing Psalms (I would really bet). The other prisoners are listening. I would bet that the jailer heard what was going on too.
Anyway, the building quakes and the jailer fears they have escaped. If one prisoner escaped, he would have to exchange his life for theirs. Jailers were paid well, but there was always the chance that they would have to exchange their life. He draws his sword, but Paul calls out and in relief, this man gets very interested in the Gospel. Paul teaches him about Jesus, baptizes him and his whole family and everyone has a great day.
They are released publically. They visit Lydia and encourage the brothers and take off to another city.
The Lord works differently in every city. The Lord brings people to faith in different ways, but always using people to bring people to faith. He works in our lives differently as well. No matter what your trouble, no matter what’s going on in your life, the Lord will be with you and see you through.
PSALM 137:1-7
1 SAMUEL 5:1-6:3, 10-16
Acts 18:1-11, 23-28
Obviously, this is not a Psalm of David. This is a Psalm writing by someone who recently was in Babylon after the captivity and spent many bitter years in a foreign land truly missing Jerusalem. Forced to sing songs of joy about Jerusalem, he wishes he could not play or sing.
What do you miss? Your home town? The place where you grew up? The college where you met your spouse? What do you long for? Maybe you long for heaven! Maybe you long to be with our Lord. Well, our Lord is with us always and He will be with us until He takes us home (a long, long time from now).
Well, if only Indiana Jones had known that tumors break out on people unauthorized to be in possession of the Ark of the Covenant, he would have found the ark a lot easier. Seriously, the Ark represents God’s presence and God is not going to be compared to another false god, Dagon or any other. So, Dagon is found on the ground two days in a row. After that, it is very surprising that it took seven months for them to return the Ark. It took seven months of tumors before they caught on. I think the key to all this is that the Ark was returned with no help from the Israelites. They still weren’t in a good place yet and God got the Ark back on His own.
Paul finally has some success in Corinth. In fact, he stays there a year and six months. Good for him. But notice the same pattern. He goes to the Jews first, “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath.” He gives them every opportunity to hear the Word and believe in Jesus as the Christ. It is only after they reject the Word, that he goes to the Gentiles. But still, many come to faith: Priscilla and Aquila, Titius Justus, Crispus, Apollos. We read of many good Christians and faithful people.
This was an exciting time in the church. But it was a dangerous time. Claudius ordered all the Christians out of Rome. Hey, that helped get the message spread to other areas. Fine, the church may have been under persecution, but the Lord was with them and helped them spread the message.
It seems that persecution may be up and coming again. At least, the world persecutes our faith and beliefs. We are called hypocrites and are condemned for our intolerance. The world has rejected the idea that there is one moral absolute in favor of acceptance of almost every kind of sin. But the Lord will be with us and protect us and see us through.
What do you think of when you think of double-minded? I think of the old cartoons when the character would have an angel sitting on one shoulder telling him/her what to do and there would be a devil sitting on the other shoulder telling him/her to do the opposite. That’s what I think of when I think of double-minded. Martin Luther said that we are, “Simul iustus et Peccator” (don’t worry, that’s almost all the Latin I know). We are simultaneously sinner and saint. (At http://www.oldlutheran.com you can get a t-shirt that says sinner on one side and saint on the other). But it does describe who we are with our Old and New Adam. By nature we are sinful and unclean, but through Jesus death and resurrection, we are a new creation.
If there is one phrase we need to add to our vocabulary more it is verse 115 of our Psalm, “Depart from me, you evil-doers.” It may not be good to say it out loud to an enemy; we are supposed to love them. But when we are tempted to sin, when we are confronted by sin, it would be good to remember these words and send that devil sitting on our shoulder packing. The difficult part is remembering.
So the Ark of the Covenant returns to Israel. That’s a good thing. Unfortunately, twenty men died because they “looked upon the Ark of the Lord.” The NIV says, “looked into.” But I don’t trust the NIV much these days. And unfortunately, I don’t know Hebrew. But my guess is that they did look into the Ark and they did not respect the Ark. It’s almost like they were treating it like a lucky rabbits’ foot taking it into battle with them like a magic charm rather than trusting that it represented God’s presence among them.
But things are starting to turn around for the Israelites. Samuel is starting to judge them and he is advising them to get rid of their idols and to follow the Lord. And they do just that. They begin to follow the Lord and the Lord gives them peace. That’s all God wants is our devotion and our trust. He may not show us the way out right away, but if we just put our trust in Him He will see us through.
In Acts, we continue to see the power of God manifested through His servants. Yes, it is a time of change and some people have only heard part of the story. They have heard of John’s Baptism of repentance but they have not heard of Jesus’ Baptism in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Paul tells them the rest of the story and baptizes them and lays hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit and show that in speaking in tongues. Paul is in Ephesus three months speaking in the synagogue and another two years in the hall of Tyrannus. He was doing marvelous miracles so much so that the spirits say, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” I love that. That will teach them to trick the demons or misuse the name of the Lord.
God is not a rabbit foot. His power is to be respected. We can thank God that He is on our side.
Happy Advent! I say that because the Psalm is definitely an Advent Psalm. I’m sure they picked it because of the Old Testament Lesson where the people of Israel demand a king. The Psalm is intended to put forth the idea that God is their King. He is the King of glory. And yes, we wait for our King of glory, Jesus Christ, to return. As they waited for His first coming, we wait for His second coming. He is our King and He rules at the right hand of God forever. So, “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors.”
Oh, how stubborn we can be. It’s not just the people of Israel, but we all want to be like the people around us. The other nations had kings and Israel wanted a king. God almost sounds sad, “According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.” The Israelites had been a burden the whole time, and you know what? God knew they would be and He brought them out of Egypt anyway. God knew they would be a burden even before He made the promise to Abraham to make him a great nation, and He made the promise anyway. That’s because God loves us and wants us to have eternal life. He knew how terrible the world would get, and yet He created it anyway. He knew He would have to sacrifice His Son, and yet He created the world anyway. That just goes to show how much He does love us.
Notice, as the Acts text begins, that Luke starts using words like “us” and “we.” He is a witness to what is happening now. As the events are happening to Paul, he can’t write and this is Luke’s book anyway, even while Paul is the central character after Christ. But this is a good account because Luke is a witness of the events. This is important as the trouble starts for Paul. This is the beginning of the end. Here he is trying to do what he can to compromise and keep the “conservatives” happy and there is a misunderstanding. He is taken and beaten and ends up getting arrested.
We will read the details in the coming days. He gets to share the Gospel with heads of state and more, but it is the beginning of the end for Paul.
This is some Psalm. What amazes me is that very few people today earnestly seek the Lord. “My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you.” It is so true. We were made to have a relationship with God and if we don’t have one, there is a void in the pit of our being. People try to fill that void with other things, but it doesn’t work adequately. And we wonder why people are depressed and anxious. We need the Lord in our life, end of story.
“Your steadfast love is better than life.” That is an amazing statement. It’s true, but it is a bold statement to make. His love gives us life. The Lord is the one who satisfies us and nourishes us. So we meditate on Him and cling to Him and make Him the center of our lives.
How do you choose a king from all the people of a nation that hasn’t had a king before? Do you give them a test? Look for the tallest, strongest, smartest person in the land? Do you draw straws? Our Lord looks into the heart of a person. He looks among the least of the people and then He has their donkey get lost and sends the future king to find them. It is an interesting story, but the Lord doesn’t work in the regular ways we’d expect. But when He works, He does a good job.
Paul gives an impromptu sermon in our lesson. It is clear that the tribune has no idea who Paul is. It may be that many of the people have no clear idea of who he is either. So in his sermon, he identifies exactly who he is and what he is about. He speaks in Hebrew to make an immediate connection with the people. He’s not some foreigner causing trouble. He is one of them. He lived here in Jerusalem most of his life. He studied under the best teachers. He was a Jew of Jews until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus when everything changed. We see what happens next in our reading for tomorrow.
I got good news! No jury duty on Monday and I am finished with my duty!!!
SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2009
PSALM 82
1 SAMUEL 2:18-36
ACTS 15:22-41
I’ll say it once again, God is in control. That is a great source of comfort for us in times of trouble. But, it also causes me to be concerned from time to time. He is in control, but He will also be our judge. We will stand before Him and He will hold us accountable for all our sin. Now, we know we are going to heaven, but that accountability thing does make me worry from time to time.
Still, I can relate to this Psalm. I see myself in the weak and the fatherless, the weak and needy. I know, my dad is still around (I just saw him over the weekend), but compared to the greatness of God, I feel weak and helpless and it’s His job to rescue and protect. And that gives me much to be thankful for.
Our reading of 1 Samuel is bittersweet. On the one hand we have Samuel growing up in the service of the Lord and his mother, Hannah, having five more children. Samuel is growing more and more in the Lord. But, on the other side, we have Eli and his son’s. The two boys are not behaving like priests should. They are sleeping with women they are not married too and they are not serving the Lord as she should. After a warning, the Lord has no choice but to cut the family off, “there will not be an old man in the house.” On the other hand, we will see Samuel do some great work for the Lord.
Acts is bittersweet too. One the one hand we have the church in Jerusalem making amends with the Gentile church and taking the burden of circumcision off them. The Gentiles rejoice at this and are happy with the terms. But then we see a dispute between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark. I think we see the legalistic side of Paul coming out here. Barnabas is always the encourager and always sees the bright side. But the rift is big enough that they go separate ways. Paul, Silas and Luke (the author of the book) go one way and Barnabas and John Mark go another way. Remember, where two or three are gathered together, there will be controversy.
Have a blessed day.
Eli failed to discipline his own sons or correct them when they sinned, and yet raised and trained Samuel to be God-fearing. This shows us how God is really in control of every situation.
Yes it does. God is very much in control. God often uses what is imperfect, to do His good and gracious will.
MONDAY, JULY 20, 2009
PSALM 119:57-64
1 SAMUEL 3:1-21
ACTS 16:1-22
“The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words.” So with these words, we remember our Baptism and we remember the promise we make at our Confirmation. We promise to keep and follow God’s word.
But we are human and we can’t do it, we don’t do it all the time. “When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies.” What do we do when we realize our sin? We turn to God’s word. We return to His promises. We turn to His testimony that He will forgive, that our sin has been removed from us as far as the East is from the West. We may be ensnared by sin and surrounded by sin, but God’s Holy Spirit is with us and will keep us in His Word.
In the Word, we will go to extremes, “At midnight I rise to praise you … I am a companion of all who fear you.” I’m sleeping at midnight and when I do rise, it’s usually not to praise God. But I understand what the Psalmist is saying. If we were to praise anything at midnight, it would be the Lord. Plus, we are companions, one and all. We are in this struggle together. We all are experiencing trying times, but we will get through with the help of the Lord.
Can you imagine being a young man, serving in the church and God comes to you and tells you that He is going to punish the family that you have lived with most of your life? He is going to punish them and cut them off for all the evil they have done. And then after getting that message, you are supposed to go back to sleep and then, tell the family about what the Lord has told you. That is a lot of pressure for a young boy. But Samuel is up to the pressure. He tells Eli the news and Samuel continues to grow in the Lord and “all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord.” He is a faithful prophet.
Again, we see victory and lose in the Acts text. First, Timothy joins Paul, Silas and Luke. They are becoming quite the crew. And we see the Lord directing them to Macedonia. The Holy Spirit won’t let them go here and here, but they are called to Macedonia. The Lord still does this from time to time. I know I’ve had times when I’ve been detained for a few minutes here and there and suddenly show up at the hospital at just the right moment. It know it’s the Lord. It’s happened too many times.
Lydia becomes a big supporter of the church. The Lord chooses influential women to follow the Lord and lend credibility to the new Christian church. It’s part of the way the Lord works.
But after all this success, we see Paul getting annoyed at a girl who is possessed by a demon. They cast it out and the people who were making money off her get angry. No one seems to really care about the girl. Paul is just annoyed. Her keepers just want money. But Paul and crew end up getting beat with rods.
Anyway, we know that Paul and company experience trial after trial. It’s not easy, but it’s their passion to serve the Lord. We could use many more servants like this in the church today … and the Lord will provide them.
TUESAY, JULY 21, 2009
PSALM 106:1-5
1 SAMUEL 4:1-22
ACTS 16:23-40
What a wonderful morning! I took a nice walk, working on my sermon for Sunday as I walk, talking to the Lord as I walk. Then I had a nice shower, and now it’s on to a few relaxing moments with the Word. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Yes, we have many reasons to praise the Lord. Have you been watching the news? This week marks the 40th Anniversary of the first two men to walk on the moon. I remember watching the space walk even as an 8 year old. Remember the bad black and white picture? Today, we’d have crystal clear HD if they did it again. The Lord has indeed given us much to praise Him for. As great as the moon walk was, our Lord does much, much more. He created us. He created the moon and He has won salvation for us. “Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people.”
The Ark of the Covenant was the symbol of God’s presence among the people of Israel. God was present in the Ark. And the Ark meant that God was with Israel. For the Ark to be captured, means that God was no longer with Israel. Obviously, the Philistines have no idea who the true God is, so while they have the Ark, God is not really on their side. They worship other gods. Basically, God’s anger against Hophni and Phinehas and Eli has come true. They all die the same day and the Ark is stolen. It was not a good day.
Hey, what do you know, Paul is in prison again. This is a favorite story of mine. Paul and the crew are in jail and they are praying and singing. They are probably singing Psalms (I would really bet). The other prisoners are listening. I would bet that the jailer heard what was going on too.
Anyway, the building quakes and the jailer fears they have escaped. If one prisoner escaped, he would have to exchange his life for theirs. Jailers were paid well, but there was always the chance that they would have to exchange their life. He draws his sword, but Paul calls out and in relief, this man gets very interested in the Gospel. Paul teaches him about Jesus, baptizes him and his whole family and everyone has a great day.
They are released publically. They visit Lydia and encourage the brothers and take off to another city.
The Lord works differently in every city. The Lord brings people to faith in different ways, but always using people to bring people to faith. He works in our lives differently as well. No matter what your trouble, no matter what’s going on in your life, the Lord will be with you and see you through.
Enjoy the blessings of the Lord today…
WEDNESDAY, July 22, 2009
PSALM 137:1-7
1 SAMUEL 5:1-6:3, 10-16
Acts 18:1-11, 23-28
Obviously, this is not a Psalm of David. This is a Psalm writing by someone who recently was in Babylon after the captivity and spent many bitter years in a foreign land truly missing Jerusalem. Forced to sing songs of joy about Jerusalem, he wishes he could not play or sing.
What do you miss? Your home town? The place where you grew up? The college where you met your spouse? What do you long for? Maybe you long for heaven! Maybe you long to be with our Lord. Well, our Lord is with us always and He will be with us until He takes us home (a long, long time from now).
Well, if only Indiana Jones had known that tumors break out on people unauthorized to be in possession of the Ark of the Covenant, he would have found the ark a lot easier. Seriously, the Ark represents God’s presence and God is not going to be compared to another false god, Dagon or any other. So, Dagon is found on the ground two days in a row. After that, it is very surprising that it took seven months for them to return the Ark. It took seven months of tumors before they caught on. I think the key to all this is that the Ark was returned with no help from the Israelites. They still weren’t in a good place yet and God got the Ark back on His own.
Paul finally has some success in Corinth. In fact, he stays there a year and six months. Good for him. But notice the same pattern. He goes to the Jews first, “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath.” He gives them every opportunity to hear the Word and believe in Jesus as the Christ. It is only after they reject the Word, that he goes to the Gentiles. But still, many come to faith: Priscilla and Aquila, Titius Justus, Crispus, Apollos. We read of many good Christians and faithful people.
This was an exciting time in the church. But it was a dangerous time. Claudius ordered all the Christians out of Rome. Hey, that helped get the message spread to other areas. Fine, the church may have been under persecution, but the Lord was with them and helped them spread the message.
It seems that persecution may be up and coming again. At least, the world persecutes our faith and beliefs. We are called hypocrites and are condemned for our intolerance. The world has rejected the idea that there is one moral absolute in favor of acceptance of almost every kind of sin. But the Lord will be with us and protect us and see us through.
Again, what do you look forward to? Heaven.
THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2009
PSALM 119:113-120
1 SAMUEL 6:19-7:17
Acts 19:1-22
What do you think of when you think of double-minded? I think of the old cartoons when the character would have an angel sitting on one shoulder telling him/her what to do and there would be a devil sitting on the other shoulder telling him/her to do the opposite. That’s what I think of when I think of double-minded. Martin Luther said that we are, “Simul iustus et Peccator” (don’t worry, that’s almost all the Latin I know). We are simultaneously sinner and saint. (At http://www.oldlutheran.com you can get a t-shirt that says sinner on one side and saint on the other). But it does describe who we are with our Old and New Adam. By nature we are sinful and unclean, but through Jesus death and resurrection, we are a new creation.
If there is one phrase we need to add to our vocabulary more it is verse 115 of our Psalm, “Depart from me, you evil-doers.” It may not be good to say it out loud to an enemy; we are supposed to love them. But when we are tempted to sin, when we are confronted by sin, it would be good to remember these words and send that devil sitting on our shoulder packing. The difficult part is remembering.
So the Ark of the Covenant returns to Israel. That’s a good thing. Unfortunately, twenty men died because they “looked upon the Ark of the Lord.” The NIV says, “looked into.” But I don’t trust the NIV much these days. And unfortunately, I don’t know Hebrew. But my guess is that they did look into the Ark and they did not respect the Ark. It’s almost like they were treating it like a lucky rabbits’ foot taking it into battle with them like a magic charm rather than trusting that it represented God’s presence among them.
But things are starting to turn around for the Israelites. Samuel is starting to judge them and he is advising them to get rid of their idols and to follow the Lord. And they do just that. They begin to follow the Lord and the Lord gives them peace. That’s all God wants is our devotion and our trust. He may not show us the way out right away, but if we just put our trust in Him He will see us through.
In Acts, we continue to see the power of God manifested through His servants. Yes, it is a time of change and some people have only heard part of the story. They have heard of John’s Baptism of repentance but they have not heard of Jesus’ Baptism in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Paul tells them the rest of the story and baptizes them and lays hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit and show that in speaking in tongues. Paul is in Ephesus three months speaking in the synagogue and another two years in the hall of Tyrannus. He was doing marvelous miracles so much so that the spirits say, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” I love that. That will teach them to trick the demons or misuse the name of the Lord.
God is not a rabbit foot. His power is to be respected. We can thank God that He is on our side.
FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009
PSALM 24:7-10
1 SAMUEL 8:1-22
Acts 21:15-36
Happy Advent! I say that because the Psalm is definitely an Advent Psalm. I’m sure they picked it because of the Old Testament Lesson where the people of Israel demand a king. The Psalm is intended to put forth the idea that God is their King. He is the King of glory. And yes, we wait for our King of glory, Jesus Christ, to return. As they waited for His first coming, we wait for His second coming. He is our King and He rules at the right hand of God forever. So, “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors.”
Oh, how stubborn we can be. It’s not just the people of Israel, but we all want to be like the people around us. The other nations had kings and Israel wanted a king. God almost sounds sad, “According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.” The Israelites had been a burden the whole time, and you know what? God knew they would be and He brought them out of Egypt anyway. God knew they would be a burden even before He made the promise to Abraham to make him a great nation, and He made the promise anyway. That’s because God loves us and wants us to have eternal life. He knew how terrible the world would get, and yet He created it anyway. He knew He would have to sacrifice His Son, and yet He created the world anyway. That just goes to show how much He does love us.
Notice, as the Acts text begins, that Luke starts using words like “us” and “we.” He is a witness to what is happening now. As the events are happening to Paul, he can’t write and this is Luke’s book anyway, even while Paul is the central character after Christ. But this is a good account because Luke is a witness of the events. This is important as the trouble starts for Paul. This is the beginning of the end. Here he is trying to do what he can to compromise and keep the “conservatives” happy and there is a misunderstanding. He is taken and beaten and ends up getting arrested.
We will read the details in the coming days. He gets to share the Gospel with heads of state and more, but it is the beginning of the end for Paul.
Have a wonderful Friday and a happy weekend.
SATURDAY, JULY 25, 2009
PSALM 63:1-8
1 SAMUEL 9:1-27
Acts 21:37-22:16
This is some Psalm. What amazes me is that very few people today earnestly seek the Lord. “My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you.” It is so true. We were made to have a relationship with God and if we don’t have one, there is a void in the pit of our being. People try to fill that void with other things, but it doesn’t work adequately. And we wonder why people are depressed and anxious. We need the Lord in our life, end of story.
“Your steadfast love is better than life.” That is an amazing statement. It’s true, but it is a bold statement to make. His love gives us life. The Lord is the one who satisfies us and nourishes us. So we meditate on Him and cling to Him and make Him the center of our lives.
How do you choose a king from all the people of a nation that hasn’t had a king before? Do you give them a test? Look for the tallest, strongest, smartest person in the land? Do you draw straws? Our Lord looks into the heart of a person. He looks among the least of the people and then He has their donkey get lost and sends the future king to find them. It is an interesting story, but the Lord doesn’t work in the regular ways we’d expect. But when He works, He does a good job.
Paul gives an impromptu sermon in our lesson. It is clear that the tribune has no idea who Paul is. It may be that many of the people have no clear idea of who he is either. So in his sermon, he identifies exactly who he is and what he is about. He speaks in Hebrew to make an immediate connection with the people. He’s not some foreigner causing trouble. He is one of them. He lived here in Jerusalem most of his life. He studied under the best teachers. He was a Jew of Jews until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus when everything changed. We see what happens next in our reading for tomorrow.
I got good news! No jury duty on Monday and I am finished with my duty!!!
Have a blessed day ….