Nashville, Tennessee, United States - Upper Room Daily Reflections - daily words of wisdom and faith “God's Use of Your Gifts” for Friday, 27 June 2014
Today’s Reflection:
GOD CALLS US according to our unique aptitudes. But we often overlook our more “everyday” human attributes like having a strong back or being able to repair machines or grow flowers. Some of us can organize; some can do accounting; some can greet people warmly and make them feel welcome; some can make plants grow. Think about such natural abilities and how God might use them.(Understanding Spiritual Gifts Participant’s Book)
“From page 41 of Understanding Spiritual Gifts Participant’s Workbook. Copyright © 2010 by Upper Room Books. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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Today’s Question:
What natural abilities do you have that God can use?
Today’s Scripture:
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.(Romans 6:23, NRSV)

This Week: pray for someone whose spouse has died.
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In need of prayer? The Upper Room Living Prayer Center is a 7-day-a-week intercessory prayer ministry staffed by trained volunteers, call 1-800-251-2468.
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Saints, Inc.: 
This week we remember:  
Mary of Oignies (June 23).
"The Lily of the Mohawks," Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) was born to a Christian Algonquin mother and a non-Christian Mohawk father. When she was four, her parents and brothers died of smallpox and she was left partially blind, physically weak, with a badly-scarred face.
In 1676, after being converted by Jesuit missionaries, Kateri was baptized. Ostracized by her tribe, she escaped from her home in New York 200 miles north to a Christian community near Montreal. She practiced penitence and prayer in an austere lifestyle, and in 1679 took a vow of chastity.
Because of her bout with smallpox, Kateri was never in full health. She died on April 17, 1680 at the age of twenty-four. Her last words were, "Jesus, I love you." Several witnesses to her death testified that as soon as she died, her scarred face was miraculously healed.
Kateri Tekakwitha is the first Native American recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
If Kateri Tekakwitha had taken the Spiritual Types Test she probably would have been a Lover. Kateri Tekakwitha is remembered on April 17.
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Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Genesis 22:1-14
Psalm 13
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42
Genesis 22:1 After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”
He said, “Here I am.”
2 He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”
3 Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off. 5 Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go yonder. We will worship, and come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together. 7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, “My father?”
He said, “Here I am, my son.”
He said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
8 Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they both went together. 9 They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood. 10 Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son.
11 Yahweh’s angel called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
He said, “Here I am.”
12 He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
13 Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Will Provide.[a] As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain, it will be provided.”
Footnotes:
a. Genesis 22:14 or, Yahweh-Jireh, or, Yahweh-Seeing
Psalm 13: For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
1 How long, Yahweh?
    Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
    having sorrow in my heart every day?
    How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3 Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God.
    Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
4     Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”;
    Lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your loving kindness.
    My heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to Yahweh,
    because he has been good to me.
Romans 6:12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be! 16 Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. 18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. 20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Matthew 10:40 He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. 41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. He who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, most certainly I tell you he will in no way lose his reward.”
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John Wesley’s Notes-commentary for:
Genesis 22:1-14
Verse 1
[1] And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
Here is the trial of Abraham's faith, whether it continued so strong, so vigorous, so victorious, after a long settlement in communion with God, as it was at first, when by it he left his country: then it appeared that he loved God better than his father; now, that he loved him better than his son.
After these things — After all the other exercises he had had, all the difficulties he had gone through: now perhaps he was beginning to think the storms were blown over but after all, this encounter comes, which is stranger than any yet.
God did tempt Abraham — Not to draw him to sin, so Satan tempts; but to discover his graces, how strong they were, that they might be found to praise and honour and glory. The trial itself: God appeared to him as he had formerly done, called him by name Abraham, that name which had been given him in ratification of the promise: Abraham, like a good servant, readily answered, Here am I; what saith my Lord unto his servant? Probably he expected some renewed promise, like those, Genesis 15:1; 17:1, but to his great amazement that which God hath to say to him is in short, Abraham, go kill thy son: and this command is given him in such aggravating language as makes the temptation abundantly more grievous. When God speaks, Abraham, no doubt, takes notice of every word, and listens attentively to it: and every word here is a sword in his bones; the trial is steel'd with trying phrases. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that he should afflict? No, it is not; yet when Abraham's faith is to be tried, God seems to take pleasure in the aggravation of the trial.
Verse 2
[2] And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
And he said, take thy son — Not thy bullocks and thy lambs; how willingly would Abraham have parted with them by thousands to redeem Isaac! Not thy servant, no, not the steward of thine house.
Thine only son — Thine only son by Sarah. Ishmael was lately cast out, to the grief of Abraham, and now Isaac only was left and must he go too? Yes: take Isaac, him by name, thy laughter, that son indeed. Yea, that son whom thou lovest - The trial was of Abraham's love to God, and therefore it must be in a beloved son: in the Hebrew 'tis expressed more emphatically, and I think might very well be read thus, Take now that son of thine, that only son of thine, whom thou lovest, that Isaac.
And get thee into the land of Moriah — Three days journey off: so that he might have time to consider it, and if he do it, must do it deliberately.
And offer him for a burnt offering — He must not only kill his son, but kill him as a sacrifice, with all that sedateness and composedness of mind, with which he used to offer his burnt-offering.
Verse 3
[3] And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
The several steps of this obedience, all help to magnify it, and to shew that he was guided by prudence, and governed by faith, in the whole transaction. (1.) He rises early - Probably the command was given in the visions of the night, and early the next morning he sets himself about it, did not delay, did not demur. Those that do the will of God heartily will do it speedily. (2.) He gets things ready for a sacrifice, and it should seem, with his own hands, cleaves the wood for the burnt-offering. (3.) He left his servants at some distance off, left they should have created him some disturbance in his strange oblation. Thus when Christ was entering upon his agony in the garden, he took only three of his disciples with him.
Verse 6
[6] And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
Isaac's carrying the wood was a type of Christ, who carried his own cross, while Abraham, with a steady and undaunted resolution, carried the fatal knife and fire.
Verse 7
[7] And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb? — This is, 1. A trying question to Abraham; how could he endure to think that Isaac is himself the lamb? 2. 'Tis a teaching question to us all, that when we are going to worship God, we should seriously consider whether we have everything ready, especially the lamb for a burnt-offering. Behold, the fire is ready; that is, the Spirit's assistance, and God's acceptance: the wood is ready, the instituted ordinances designed to kindle our affections, which indeed, without the Spirit, are but like wood without fire, but the Spirit works by them. All things are now ready, but where is the lamb? Where is the heart? Is that ready to be offered up to God, to ascend to him as a burnt-offering?
Verse 8
[8] And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
My son, God will provide himself a lamb — This was the language either, 1. Of his obedience; we must offer the lamb which God has appointed now to be offered; thus giving him this general rule of submission to the divine will to prepare him for the application of it to himself. Or, 2. Of his faith; whether he meant it so or no, this proved to be the meaning of it; a sacrifice was provided instead of Isaac. Thus, 1. Christ the great sacrifice of atonement was of God's providing: when none in heaven or earth could have found a lamb for that burnt-offering, God himself found the ransom. 2. All our sacrifices of acknowledgement are of God's providing too; 'tis he that prepares the heart. The broken and contrite spirit is a sacrifice of God, of his providing.
Verse 9
[9] And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
With the same resolution and composedness of mind, he applies himself to the compleating of this sacrifice. After many a weary step, and with a heavy heart, he arrives at length at the fatal place; builds the altar, an altar of earth, we may suppose, the saddest that ever be built; lays the wood in order for Isaac's funeral pile; and now tells him the amazing news. Isaac, for ought appears, is as willing as Abraham; we do not find that he made any objection against it. God commands it to be done, and Isaac has learned to submit. Yet it is necessary that a sacrifice be bound; the great Sacrifice, which, in the fulness of time, was to be offered up, must be bound, and therefore so must Isaac. Having bound him he lays him upon the altar, and his hand upon the head of the sacrifice. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and wonder, O earth! here is an act of faith and obedience which deserves to be a spectacle to God, angels and men; Abraham's darling, the church's hope, the heir of promise, lies ready to bleed and die by his own father's hands! Now this obedience of Abraham in offering up Isaac is a lively representation, 1. Of the love of God to us, in delivering up his only begotten Son to suffer and die for us, as a sacrifice. Abraham was obliged both in duty and gratitude to part with Isaac and parted with him to a friend, but God was under no obligations to us, for we were enemies. 2. Of our duty to God in return of that love we must tread in the steps of this faith of Abraham. God, by his word, calls us to part with all for Christ, all our sins, tho' they have been as a right hand, or a right eye, or an Isaac; all those things that are rivals with Christ for the sovereignity of our heart; and we must chearfully let them all go. God, by his providence, which is truly the voice of God, calls us to part with an Isaac sometimes, and we must do it by a chearful resignation and submission to his holy will.
Verse 11
[11] And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
The Angel of the Lord — That is, God himself, the eternal Word, the Angel of the covenant, who was to be the great Redeemer and Comforter.
Verse 12
[12] And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
Lay not thine hand upon the lad — God's time to help his people is, when they are brought to the greatest extremity: the more eminent the danger is, and the nearer to be put in execution, the more wonderful and the more welcome is the deliverance.
Now know I that thou fearest God — God knew it before, but now Abraham had given a memorable evidence of it. He need do no more, what he had done was sufficient to prove the religious regard he had to God and his authority. The best evidence of our fearing God is our being willing to honour him with that which is dearest to us, and to part with all to him, or for him.
Verse 13
[13] And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Behold a ram — Tho' that blessed Seed was now typified by Isaac, yet the offering of him up was suspended 'till the latter end of the world, and in the meantime the sacrifice of beasts was accepted, as a pledge of that expiation which should be made by that great sacrifice. And it is observable, that the temple, the place of sacrifice, was afterward built upon this mount Moriah, 2 Chronicles 3:1, and mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified, was not far off.
Verse 14
[14] And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
And Abraham called the place Jehovah-jireh — The Lord will provide. Probably alluding to what he had said, Genesis 22:8.
God will provide himself a lamb — This was purely the Lord's doing: let it be recorded for the generations to come; that the Lord will see; he will always have his eyes upon his people in their straits, that he may come in with seasonable succour in the critical juncture. And that he will be seen, be seen in the mount, in the greatest perplexities of his people; he will not only manifest but magnify his wisdom, power and goodness in their deliverance. Where God sees and provides, he should be seen and praised. And perhaps it may refer to God manifest in the flesh.
Psalm 13
Verse 2
[2] How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
How long — Shall I be in such perplexities, not knowing what course to take?
Verse 3
[3] Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Lighten — Revive and comfort, and deliver me from the darkness of death, which is ready to come upon me.
Verse 6
[6] I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
I will sing — It is a common thing for David and other prophets to speak of future deliverances as if they were already come, that so they may signify both the infallible certainty of the thing, and their firm assurance thereof.
Romans 6:12-23
Verse 12
[12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Let not sin reign even in your mortal body — It must be subject to death, but it need not be subject to sin.
Verse 13
[13] Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Neither present your members to sin — To corrupt nature, a mere tyrant.
But to God — Your lawful King.
Verse 14
[14] For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Sin shall not have dominion over you — It has neither right nor power.
For ye are not under the law — A dispensation of terror and bondage, which only shows sin, without enabling you to conquer it.
But under grace — Under the merciful dispensation of the gospel, which brings complete victory over it to every one who is under the powerful influences of the Spirit of Christ.
Verse 17
[17] But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
The form of doctrine into which ye have been delivered — Literally it is, The mould into which ye have been delivered; which, as it contains a beautiful allusion, conveys also a very instructive admonition; intimating that our minds, all pliant and ductile, should be conformed to the gospel precepts, as liquid metal, take the figure of the mould into which they are cast.
Verse 18
[18] Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Being then set free from sin — We may see the apostles method thus far at one view: - Chap. Ver. 1. Bondage to sin Romans 3:9 2. The knowledge of sin by the law; a sense of God's wrath; inward death Romans 3:20 3. The revelation of the righteousness of God in Christ through the gospel Romans 3:21 4. The centre of all, faith, embracing that righteousness Romans 3:22 5. Justification, whereby God forgives all past sin, and freely accepts the sinner Romans 3:24 6. The gift of the Holy Ghost; a sense of Romans 5:5, God's love new inward life Romans 6:4 7. The free service of righteousness Romans 6:12
Verse 19
[19] I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
I speak after the manner of men — Thus it is necessary that the scripture should let itself down to the language of men.
Because of the weakness of your flesh — Slowness of understanding flows from the weakness of the flesh, that is, of human nature.
As ye have presented your members servants to uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members servants of righteousness unto holiness — Iniquity (whereof uncleanness is an eminent part) is here opposed to righteousness; and unto iniquity is the opposite of unto holiness. Righteousness here is a conformity to the divine will; holiness, to the whole divine nature. Observe, they who are servants of righteousness go on to holiness; but they who are servants to iniquity get no farther. Righteousness is service, because we live according to the will of another; but liberty, because of our inclination to it, and delight in it.
Verse 20
[20] For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness — In all reason, therefore, ye ought now to be free from unrighteousness; to be as uniform and zealous in serving God as ye were in serving the devil.
Verse 21
[21] What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Those things — He speaks of them as afar off.
Verse 23
[23] For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Death — Temporal, spiritual, and eternal.
Is the due wages of sin; but eternal life is the gift of God — The difference is remarkable. Evil works merit the reward they receive: good works do not. The former demand wages: the latter accept a free gift.
Matthew 10:40-42
Verse 40
[40] He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
Matthew 18:5; Luke 10:16; John 13:20.
Verse 41
[41] He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
He that entertaineth a prophet — That is, a preacher of the Gospel: In the name of a prophet - That is, because he is such, shall share in his reward.
Verse 42
[42] And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
One of these little ones — The very least Christian. Mark 9:41.
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