Upper Room Daily Reflections: daily words of wisdom and faith “Surprise Me Today” SUNDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2014

Upper Room Daily Reflections: daily words of wisdom and faith “Surprise Me Today” SUNDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2014

Today’s Reflection:

I like surprises that make me smile inside –
out-of-the-blue moments that give a boost to dry routine.
Like a sudden burst of warm sunshine on a blustery afternoon,
an unexpected hug from a giggling toddler,
or an old friend standing at my door with a loaf of warm bread and two plates.
Simple blessings that lift me up.
Things that remind me it’s good to be alive.
You have scattered surprises throughout my days, God.
I need only to open my eyes and ears.
. . . Help me to discover more surprises today,
And teach me to accept them with a grateful heart.-~Missy Buchanan~Talking with God in Old Age

From pages 46-47 of Talking with God in Old Age: Meditations and Psalmsby Missy Buchanan. Copyright ©2010 by Missy Buchanan. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question:

What surprises has God scattered throughout your days recently?

Today’s Scripture:

But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.~~Matthew 5:34-37, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who are hungry. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

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Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember:   Valentine (February 14).

There are at least fifty Christian martyrs named Valentinus (Valentine). The most likely candidate for the original saint was a priest named Valentine who helped other Christians who were being persecuted by Claudius II in third century Rome. Some say this Valentine was arrested because he refused to follow a royal decree not to perform weddings for soldiers. Whatever the actual reason Valentine was arrested, while he was imprisoned, he performed a miracle to restore sight to the jailer's daughter. The jailer converted to Christianity. Nevertheless, Valentine was beaten, and beheaded on February 14, 269 A.D. Legend has it that before his execution, Valentine wrote a note for the jailer's daughter signed, "from your Valentine." This note may have contributed to our current Valentine's Day customs. 

Around 270, Pope Julius I built a Roman church in this Valentine's memory. 

Valentine is the patron saint of lovers. 

If Valentine had taken the Spiritual Types Test, he probably would have been a Lover. Valentine is remembered on February 14.

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Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

5th  Sunday after the Epiphany - Green

Isaiah 58: False and True Worship

1 “Cry aloud, spare not,
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to my people their transgression,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 Yet they seek me daily,
    and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
    and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments,
    they delight to draw near to God.

3 ‘Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not?
    Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,[a]
    and oppress all your workers.

4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
    and to hit with wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
    will not make your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is such the fast that I choose,
    a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a rush,
    and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
    and a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of wickedness,
    to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
    and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you,
    the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
    you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.

“If you take away from the midst of you the yoke,
    the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

Footnotes:

a. Isaiah 58:3 Or pursue your own business

Psalm 112: Blessings of the Righteous

Praise the Lord!
1 Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
    who greatly delights in his commandments!

2 His descendants will be mighty in the land;
    the generation of the upright will be blessed.

3 Wealth and riches are in his house;
    and his righteousness endures for ever.

4 Light rises in the darkness for the upright;
    the Lord[a] is gracious, merciful, and righteous.

5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends,
    who conducts his affairs with justice.

6 For the righteous will never be moved;
    he will be remembered for ever.

7 He is not afraid of evil tidings;
    his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.

8 His heart is steady, he will not be afraid,
    until he sees his desire on his adversaries.

9 He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
    his righteousness endures for ever;
    his horn is exalted in honor.

10 The wicked man sees it and is angry;
    he gnashes his teeth and melts away;
    the desire of the wicked man comes to nought.

Footnotes:

a. Psalm 112:4 Gk: Heb lacks the Lord

1 Corinthians 2: Proclaiming Christ Crucified

1 When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony[a] of God in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.[b] 3 And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, 5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

The True Wisdom of God

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him,”

10 God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For what person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

Footnotes:

a. 1 Corinthians 2:1 Other ancient authorities read mystery (or secret)

b. 2.1-2 Paul’s failure at Athens convinced him that lofty words and worldly wisdom were less effective than Jesus crucified.

Matthew 5: Salt and Light

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. 15 Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

The Law and the Prophets

17 “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.[a] 18 For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.19 Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Footnotes:

a. 5.17 Jesus came to bring the old law to its natural fulfilment in the new, while discarding what had become obsolete; cf. Jn 4.21.

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JOHN WESLEY’S NOTES/COMMENTARY

Isaiah 58:1-12

LVIII The hypocrisy of the Jews, in their fasts, ver. 1-5. A true fast described, ver. 6, 7. Promises to Godliness, ver. 8-12. To the keeping of the sabbath, ver. 13, 14.

Verse 2. Yet - They cover all their wickedness with a profession of religion. Delight - There are many men who take some pleasure in knowing God's will and word, and yet do not conform their lives to it. As - As if they were a righteous people. Forsook - As if they were not guilty of any apostacy from God, or disobedience to God's precepts. Ask - As if they resolved to observe them. In approaching - In coming to my temple to hear my word, and to offer sacrifices.

Verse 3. Afflicted - Defrauded our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Levit xvi, 29. Ye find - Either you indulge yourselves in sensuality, as they did, chap. xxii, 13. But this does not agree with that afflicting of their souls which they now professed, and which God acknowledges; or you pursue and satisfy your own desires: though you abstain from bodily food, you do not mortify your sinful inclinations. Exact - Your money, got by your labour, and lent to others, either for their need or your own advantage, which you require either with usury, or at least with rigor, when either the general law of charity, or God's particular law, commanded the release, or at least the forbearance of them.

Verse 4. Behold - Your fasting days, wherein you ought in a special manner to implore the mercy of God, and to shew compassion tomen, you employ in injuring or quarrelling with your brethren, your servants or debtors, or in contriving mischief against them. Heard - In strife and debate. By way of ostentation.

Verse 5. Chosen - Approve of, accept, or delight in, by a metonymy, because we delight in what we freely chuse. For a day - This may be understood, either for a man to take a certain time to afflict his soul in, and that either from even to even, Lev. xxiii, 32, or from morning to evening, or for a little time. Wilt thou call - Canst thou suppose it to be so? A fast - It being such an one as has nothing in it, but the dumb signs of a fast, nothing of deep humiliation appearing in it, or, real reformation proceeding from it. Acceptable day - A day that Godwill approve of.

Verse 6. The bands - The cruel obligations of usury and oppression.

Verse 7. Cast out - And thereby become wanderers, having no abiding place. To thy house - That thou be hospitable, and make thy house a shelter to them that have none of their own left. Hide not - That seek no occasion to excuse thyself. Thy own flesh - Some confine this to our own kindred; but we can look on no man, but there we contemplate our own flesh, and therefore it is barbarous, not only to tear, but not to love and succor him. Therefore feed him as thou wouldest feed thyself, or be fed; shelter him as thou wouldest shelter thyself, or be sheltered; clothe him as thou wouldest clothe thyself, or be clothed; if in any of these respects thou wert in his circumstances.

Verse 8. Thy light - Happiness and prosperity. Break forth - It shall not only appear, but break forth, dart itself forth, notwithstanding all difficulties, as the sun breaks, and pierces through a cloud. Thy health - Another metaphor to express the same thing. Righteousness - The reward of thy righteousness. Before thee - As the morning-star goes before the sun. The glory - His glorious power and providence. Thy rereward - Thus the angel of his presence secured the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.

Verse 9. Answer - He will give an effectual demonstration, that he hears thee. Here l am - A phrase that notes a person to be ready athand to help. Take away - From among you. The yoke - All those pressures and grievances before mentioned. Putting forth - Done by way of scoff, or disdainful insulting. Vanity - Any kind of evil words.

Verse 10. Draw out - Or, open, as when we open a store, to satisfy the wants of the needy. Thy soul - Thy affection, thy pity and compassion. Thy darkness - In the very darkness of the affliction itself thou shalt have comfort.

Verse 11. Guide thee - Like a shepherd. And he adds continually to shew that his conduct and blessing shall not be momentary, or of a short continuance, but all along as it was to Israel in the wilderness. Satisfy - Thou shalt have plenty, when others are in scarcity. Make fat - This may be spoken in opposition to the sad effects of famine, whereby the flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen, and the bones that were not seen, stick out. A garden - If thou relieve the poor, thou shalt never be poor, but as a well-watered garden, always flourishing. Fail not - Hebrew. deceive not, a metaphor which farther notes also the continuance of this flourishing state, which will not be like a land-flood, or brooks, that will soon be dried up with drought. Thou shalt be fed with a spring of blessing, that will never fail.

Verse 12. They shall be of thee - Thy posterity. Waste places - Cities which have lain long waste; that shall continue for many generations to come. The breach - Breach is put for breaches, which was made by God's judgment breaking in upon them in suffering the walls of their towns and cities to be demolished. Paths - Those paths that led from city to city, which being now laid desolate, and uninhabited, were grown over with grass, and weeds. To dwell in - These accommodations being recovered, their ancient cities might be fit to be re-inhabited.

Psalm 112:1-10

PS 112 This also is an alphabetical psalm. We have here the character and blessedness of the righteous, ver. 1-9. The iniquity of the wicked, ver. 10.

Verse 2. Generation - The posterity.

Verse 3. Righteousness - The fruit or reward of his righteousness, which is God's blessing upon his estate.

  Verse 4. Darkness - In the troubles and calamities of life. He - The upright man.

Verse 5. Lendeth - Gives freely to some, and lends to others according to the variety of their conditions. Affairs - His domestick affairs. Discretion - Not getting his estate unjustly, nor casting it away prodigally, nor yet withholding it from such as need it.

Verse 6. Moved - Though he may for a season be afflicted, yet he shall not be eternally destroyed.

Verse 7. Evil tidings - At the report of approaching calamities.

Verse 9. Dispersed - His goods, freely and liberally. Righteousness - His liberality, or the reward of it. Ever - What he gives is not lost, but indeed is the only part of his estate, which will abide with him to all eternity.

Verse 10. The desire - Either of the misery of good men; or of his own constant prosperity.

1 Corinthians 1:1-16

Verse 1. Paul, called to be an apostle - There is great propriety in every clause of the salutation, particularly in this, as there were some in the church of Corinth who called the authority of his mission in question. Through the will of God - Called "the commandment ofGod," 1 Tim. i, 1 This was to the churches the ground of his authority; to Paul himself, of an humble and ready mind. By the mention ofGod, the authority of man is excluded, Gal. i, 1; by the mention of the will of God, the merit of Paul, chap. xv, 8, &c. And Sosthenes - A Corinthian, St. Paul's companion in travel. It was both humility and prudence in the apostle, thus to join his name with his own, in an epistle wherein he was to reprove so many irregularities. Sosthenes the brother - Probably this word is emphatical; as if he had said, Who, from a Jewish opposer of the gospel, became a faithful brother.

Verse 2. To the church of God which is in Corinth - St. Paul, writing in a familiar manner to the Corinthians, as also to the Thessalonians and Galatians, uses this plain appellation. To the other churches he uses a more solemn address. Sanctified through Jesus Christ - And so undoubtedly they were in general, notwithstanding some exceptions. Called - Of Jesus Christ, Rom. i, 6 And - As the fruit of that calling made holy. With all that in every place - Nothing could better suit that catholic love which St. Paul labours to promote in this epistle, than such a declaration of his good wishes for every true Christian upon earth. Call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ - This plainly implies that all Christians pray to Christ, as well as to the Father through him.

Verse 4. Always - Whenever I mention you to God in prayer.

Verse 5. In all utterance and knowledge - Of divine things. These gifts the Corinthians particularly admired. Therefore this congratulation naturally tended to soften their spirits, and I make way for the reproofs which follow.

Verse 6. The testimony of Christ - The gospel. Was confirmed among you - By these gifts attending it. They knew they had received these by the hand of Paul: and this consideration was highly proper, to revive in them their former reverence and affection for their spiritual father.

Verse 7. Waiting - With earnest desire. For the glorious Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ - A sure mark of a true or false Christian, to long for, or dread, this Revelation.

Verse 8. Who will also - if you faithfully apply to him. Confirm you to the end. In the day of Christ - Now it is our day, wherein we are towork out our salvation; then it will be eminently the day of Christ, and of his glory in the saints.

Verse 9. God is faithful - To all his promises; and therefore "to him that hath shall be given." By whom ye are called - A pledge of his willingness to save you unto the uttermost.

Verse 10. Now I exhort you - Ye have faith and hope; secure love also. By the endearing name of our Lord Jesus Christ - lnfinitely preferable to all the human names in which ye glory. That ye all speak the same thing - They now spoke different things, ver. 12 And that there be no schisms among you - No alienation of affection from each other. Is this word ever taken in any other sense in scripture? But that ye be joined in the same mind - Affections, desires. And judgment - Touching all the grand truths of the gospel.

Verse 11. It hath been declared to me by them of the family of Chloe - Whom some suppose to have been the wife of Stephanas, and the mother of Fortunatus and Achaicus. By these three the Corinthians had sent their letter to St. Paul, chap. xvi, 17. That there are contentions - A word equivalent with schisms in the preceding verse.

Verse 12. Now this I say - That is, what I mean is this: there are various parties among you, who set themselves, one against an other, in behalf of the several teachers they admire. And I of Christ - They spoke well, if they had not on this pretense despised their teachers, chap. iv, 8 Perhaps they valued themselves on having heard Christ preach in his own person.

Verse 13. Is Christ divided - Are not all the members still under one head? Was not he alone crucified for you all; and were ye not allbaptized in his name? The glory of Christ then is not to be divided between him and his servants; neither is the unity of the body to be torn asunder, seeing Christ is one still.

Verse 14. I thank God - (A pious phrase for the common one, "I rejoice,") that, in the course of his providence, I baptized none of you, but Crispus, once the ruler of the synagogue, and Caius.

Verse 15. Lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name - In order to attach them to myself.

Verse 16. I know not - That is, it does not at present occur to my memory, that I baptized any other.

Matthew 5:13-20

Verse 13. Ye - Not the apostles, not ministers only; but all ye who are thus holy, are the salt of the earth - Are to season others. Mark ix, 50; Luke xiv, 34.

Verse 14. Ye are the light of the world - If ye are thus holy, you can no more be hid than the sun in the firmament: no more than a city on a mountain - Probably pointing to that on the brow of the opposite hill.

Verse 15. Nay, the very design of God in giving you this light was, that it might shine. Mark iv, 21; Luke viii, 16; xi, 33.

Verse 16. That they may see - and glorify - That is, that seeing your good works, they may be moved to love and serve God likewise.

Verse 17. Think not - Do not imagine, fear, hope, that I am come - Like your teachers, to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy - The moral law, but to fulfil - To establish, illustrate, and explain its highest meaning, both by my life and doctrine.

Verse 18. Till all things shall be effected - Which it either requires or foretells. For the law has its effect, when the rewards are given, and the punishments annexed to it inflicted, as well as when its precepts are obeyed. Luke xvi, 17; xxi, 33.

Verse 19. One of the least - So accounted by men; and shall teach - Either by word or example; shall be the least - That is, shall have no part therein.

Verse 20. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees - Described in the sequel of this discourse.

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