Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.[Philippians 2:4-7]
There have been a number of times in my life when I felt uncomfortable with a situation.
During most of those times I couldn't point to, or give the reasons for, my discomfort. Something just didn't feel right. I think most of you would understand. I know Tommi Kelley gets it. A few weeks ago Deputy Kelley was in Houston and was filling up her squad car with gas.
Remembering how, just a few days before, Officer Darren Goforth had been gun downed at a Texas gas pump, gave Kelley a strange, empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. That feeling didn't go away when she realized someone was walking up behind her.
The someone approaching her was 16-year-old McKinley Zoellner.
Although Deputy Kelley didn't know what was going to happen next, she most definitely wasn't prepared for what came out of Zoellner's mouth. He said, "Do you mind if I watch your back?"
Kelley didn't mind. Quietly, the young man stood there and made sure no harm was able to sneak up and blindside the deputy.
When Kelley's car was full, Zoellner simply said, "Have a good day," and then he walked back to his mother's car, so they could continue their route. Kelley didn't let them get away that easily. She stopped Zoellner and heard how he had made his mother turn around, so he could help the deputy feel safe and secure. Then Kelley asked if she could take a selfie with her new friend.
He consented and the photo has gone viral.
Looking back on the incident, Deputy Kelley said, "It meant a lot to me, especially with everything that's been going on lately ... So when you have someone that is so young and mature and thoughtful and came up to help, I was very impressed with him."
Now I'm not going to say Zoellner did everything right, he didn't. He should know it is not wise to come up quietly behind a policeperson. That is especially true when it's night, and they're alone, and it's raining, and strange things have been happening to other policepersons. It's a good way to get hurt.
Even so, I appreciate Zoellner's words: "Can I watch your back?"
We who have been redeemed by God's Son, the world's Savior, have been rescued for a purpose. As part of the family of faith, we should do our best to watch each other's backs. There are a great many hateful individuals out there, and the devil is still walking about as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
As time and situation offer, we need to reach out to others and say, "Can I watch your back?"
Those of us who are in a difficult situation need to swallow our pride and say, "Would you watch my back for me?"
It is, after all, the least God's people can do for those brothers and sisters whose backs need watching.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, make me sensitive to the needs of others. Help me do what I can to be of assistance and provide protection for them. This I ask in the Name of my Savior, Jesus. Amen.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Isaiah 28:1 Woe to the haughty crown of Efrayim’s drunks,
to the fading flower of its proud splendor,
located at the head of the rich valley
belonging to people overcome by wine!
2 Adonai has someone strong and powerful.
He comes like a hailstorm, a destructive tempest,
like a flood of water, rushing, overwhelming;
with his hand he hurls them to the ground.
3 The haughty crown of Efrayim’s drunks
is trampled underfoot;
4 and the fading flower of its proud splendor,
located at the head of the rich valley,
is like the first ripe fig of summer —
whoever sees it picks and eats it.
5 On that day, Adonai-Tzva’ot
will be a glorious crown,
a brilliant diadem
for the remnant of his people.
6 He will also be a spirit of justice
for whoever sits as a judge,
and a source of strength for those
repelling enemy attacks at the gate.
7 But there are others reeling from wine,
staggering about because of strong liquor;
cohen and prophet reel from strong liquor,
they are confused by wine.
Led astray by strong liquor,
they err in their visions and stumble when judging.
8 All tables are covered with vomit and feces,
not a single place is clean.
9 Can no one be taught anything?
Can no one understand the message?
Must one teach barely weaned toddlers,
babies just taken from the breast,
10 so that [one has to use nursery rhymes]? —
Tzav la-tzav, tzav la-tzav,
kav la-kav, kav la-kav
z‘eir sham, z‘eir sham
[Precept by precept, precept by precept,
line by line, line by line,
a little here, a little there].
11 So with stammering lips, in a foreign accent,
[Adonai] will speak to this people.
12 He once told this people, “It’s time to rest,
the exhausted can rest, now you can relax” —
but they wouldn’t listen.
13 So now the word of Adonai for them comes
“precept by precept, precept by precept,
line by line, line by line,
a little here, a little there,”
so that when they walk, they stumble backward,
and are broken, trapped and captured!
14 So listen to the word of Adonai, you scoffers,
composing taunts for this people in Yerushalayim:
15 Because you said, “We made a covenant with death,
we made a contract with Sh’ol.
When the raging flood passes through,
it will not touch us.
For we have made lies our refuge
and hid ourselves in falsehoods” —
16 therefore here is what Adonai Elohim says:
“Look, I am laying in Tziyon
a tested stone, a costly cornerstone,
a firm foundation-stone;
he who trusts will not rush here and there.
17 I will make justice the plumbline
and righteousness the plumb-bob;
hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
water will overflow the hiding place,
18 your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your contract with Sh’ol will not stand.
When the raging flood passes through,
you will be trampled down by it.
19 As often as it passes through, it will take you,
for it will pass through every morning,
day after day, night after night;
understanding the message will be sheer terror.”
20 For, [as the saying goes,]
“The bed is too short for a person to stretch,
and the blanket too narrow [to protect him from cold]
even if he crams himself in.”
21 For Adonai will arise, as at Mount P’ratzim,
and storm with rage, as in the Giv‘on Valley;
so he can do his deed, his strange deed,
and perform his task, his alien task.
22 Therefore, now, stop your scoffing,
or your bonds will be further tightened;
for I have heard from Adonai Elohim-Tzva’ot
that destruction is decreed for the whole land.
23 Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention, and hear what I say:
24 Does a farmer sowing keep plowing forever?
Does he never stop breaking up and harrowing his land?
25 No — when he finishes levelling it,
he scatters his dill-seed, sows his cumin,
puts wheat in rows, barley where it belongs,
and plants buckwheat around the edges;
26 because his God has taught him this,
has given him instruction.
27 Dill must not be threshed with a sledge
or cartwheels driven over cumin;
rather, dill one beats with a stick
and cumin with a flail.
28 When crushing grain for bread,
one doesn’t thresh it forever;
one drives the horse and cart wheels over it
but doesn’t crush it to powder.
29 This too comes from Adonai-Tzva’ot —
his counsel is wonderful, his wisdom great.
29:1 Woe to Ari’el [fireplace on God’s altar, lion of God] —
Ari’el, the city where David encamped!
Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,
2 but then I will bring trouble to Ari’el.
There will be mourning and moaning,
as she becomes truly an ari’el for me.
3 I will encamp all around you, besiege you with towers
and mount siege-works against you.
4 Prostrate, you will speak from the ground;
your words will be stifled by the dust;
your voice will sound like a ghost in the ground,
your words like squeaks in the dust.
5 But your many foes will become like fine powder,
the horde of tyrants like blowing chaff,
and it will happen very suddenly.
6 You will be visited by Adonai-Tzva’ot
with thunder, earthquakes and loud noises,
whirlwinds, tempests, flaming firestorms.
7 Then, all the nations fighting Ari’el,
every one at war with her,
the ramparts around her, the people that trouble her
will fade like a dream, like a vision in the night.
8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming he’s eating;
but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty;
or like a thirsty man dreaming he’s drinking;
but when he wakes up, he is dry and exhausted —
it will be like this for the horde of all nations
fighting against Mount Tziyon.
9 If you make yourselves stupid, you will stay stupid!
If you blind yourselves, you will stay blind!
You are drunk, but not from wine;
you are staggering, but not from strong liquor.
10 For Adonai has poured over you a spirit of lethargy;
he has closed your eyes (that is, the prophets)
and covered your heads (that is, the seers).
11 For you this whole prophetic vision
has become like the message in a sealed-up scroll.
When one gives it to someone who can read and says,
“Please read this,” he answers, “I can’t, because it’s sealed.”
12 If the scroll is given to someone who can’t read
with the request, “Please read this,” he says, “I can’t read.”
13 Then Adonai said:
“Because these people approach me with empty words,
and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service;
while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me,
and their ‘fear of me’ is just a mitzvah of human origin —
14 therefore, I will have to keep shocking these people
with astounding and amazing things,
until the ‘wisdom’ of their ‘wise ones’ vanishes,
and the ‘discernment’ of their ‘discerning ones’ is hidden away.”
15 Woe to those who burrow down deep
to hide their plans from Adonai!
They work in the dark and say to themselves,
“Nobody sees us, nobody knows us.”
16 How you turn things upside down! —
Is the potter not better than the clay,
Does something made say of its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?
Does the product say of its producer,
“He has no discernment”?
17 In but a little while the L’vanon
will be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field regarded as a forest.
18 On that day the deaf
will hear the words of a book,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The humble will again rejoice in Adonai
and the poor exult in the Holy One of Isra’el,
20 for the tyrant is now nothing, the scoffer is finished,
and all alert to do evil are cut off —
21 those whose words make a man out to be a sinner,
those who set traps for the arbitrator at the city gate,
and those who groundlessly deny justice
to the one in the right.
22 Therefore, here are the words of Adonai, who redeemed Avraham, concerning the house of Ya‘akov:
“Ya‘akov will no longer be ashamed,
no longer will his face grow pale.
23 When his descendants see the work of my hands
among them, they will consecrate my name.
Yes, they will consecrate the Holy one of Ya‘akov
and stand in awe of the God of Isra’el.
24 Those whose spirits stray will come to understand,
and those who complain will learn their lesson.
Romans 1:1 From: Sha’ul, a slave of the Messiah Yeshua, an emissary because I was called and set apart for the Good News of God.
2 God promised this Good News in advance through his prophets in the Tanakh. 3 It concerns his Son — he is descended from David physically; 4 he was powerfully demonstrated to be Son of God spiritually, set apart by his having been resurrected from the dead; he is Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and were given the work of being an emissary on his behalf promoting trust-grounded obedience among all the Gentiles, 6 including you, who have been called by Yeshua the Messiah.
7 To: All those in Rome whom God loves, who have been called, who have been set apart for him:
Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
8 First, I thank my God through Yeshua the Messiah for all of you, because the report of your trust is spreading throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit by spreading the Good News about his Son, is my witness that I regularly remember you 10 in my prayers; and I always pray that somehow, now or in the future, I might, by God’s will, succeed in coming to visit you. 11 For I long to see you, so that I might share with you some spiritual gift that can make you stronger — 12 or, to put it another way, so that by my being with you, we might, through the faith we share, encourage one another. 13 Brothers, I want you to know that although I have been prevented from visiting you until now, I have often planned to do so, in order that I might have some fruit among you, just as I have among the other Gentiles. 14 I owe a debt to both civilized Greeks and uncivilized people, to both the educated and the ignorant; 15 therefore I am eager to proclaim the Good News also to you who live in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the Good News, since it is God’s powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile. 17 For in it is revealed how God makes people righteous in his sight; and from beginning to end it is through trust — as the Tanakh puts it, “But the person who is righteous will live his life by trust.”[Romans 1:17 Habakkuk 2:4]
18 What is revealed is God’s anger from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who in their wickedness keep suppressing the truth; 19 because what is known about God is plain to them, since God has made it plain to them. 20 For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities — both his eternal power and his divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse; 21 because, although they know who God is, they do not glorify him as God or thank him. On the contrary, they have become futile in their thinking; and their undiscerning hearts have become darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they have become fools! 23 In fact, they have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for mere images, like a mortal human being, or like birds, animals or reptiles!
24 This is why God has given them up to the vileness of their hearts’ lusts, to the shameful misuse of each other’s bodies. 25 They have exchanged the truth of God for falsehood, by worshipping and serving created things, rather than the Creator — praised be he for ever. Amen. 26 This is why God has given them up to degrading passions; so that their women exchange natural sexual relations for unnatural; 27 and likewise the men, giving up natural relations with the opposite sex, burn with passion for one another, men committing shameful acts with other men and receiving in their own persons the penalty appropriate to their perversion. 28 In other words, since they have not considered God worth knowing, God has given them up to worthless ways of thinking; so that they do improper things. 29 They are filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and vice; stuffed with jealousy, murder, quarrelling, dishonesty and ill-will; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God; they are insolent, arrogant and boastful; they plan evil schemes; they disobey their parents; 31 they are brainless, faithless, heartless and ruthless. 32 They know well enough God’s righteous decree that people who do such things deserve to die; yet not only do they keep doing them, but they applaud others who do the same._____________________________
The Lutheran Hour
660 Mason Ridge Center Drlve
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 United States1-800-876-9880
www.lhm.org
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment