"Strong in Love" for Wednesday, 6 June 2018
Today’s Reflection:
From page18 of Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words by Robert Corin Morris, Copyright © 2006 by Robert Corin Morris. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question: What is Christ doing in your life to make you strong in Love.
Today’s Scripture: If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand. (Psalm 130:3, NRSV)
This Week: pray for patience.
"Extravagant Spending" for Tuesday, 5 June 2018
Today’s Reflection:
I OFTEN SIT in the café of the local mall, drinking coffee and watching people bustling to and from stores with their parcels. Day in and day out, thousands of people are shopping. Sometimes I shop there too, but I’m usually too stingy to shop unless I really need something.
Some of us are stingy and some extravagant. I could argue that when I am extravagant I’m giving work to manufacturers, to drivers bringing in supplies, to store workers, to raw-material suppliers. I could also argue that when I am extravagant, I’m spending money that could be used to serve people who are sick without access to healthcare, disabled, persecute—the list goes on.
I’d rather give than spend money on things I don’t really need. Giving seems more in line with Jesus’ teachings about God’s kingdom: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat” (Matthew 25:35a, NIV). I think it also leads to a more radical, satisfying life than simply going along with the crowd. What do you think? (devozine, March/April 2018)
“Bless the Mall” by Richard Lawton, from devozine, the lifestyle magazine for teens, March/April 2018. Copyright © 2018 by The Upper Room. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question: How does your spending reflect your faith?
Today’s Scripture: Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. (Psalm 130:1, NRSV)
This Week: pray for patience.
"Universal Homesickness" for Tuesday, 5 Jun 2018
Today’s Reflection:
While scripture clearly states that all human beings are created in the image of God, even at best this image is badly tarnished. One thing is clear: Deep within our souls, actually as proof that we have a soul, is a profound something that will not be quieted. Experienced negatively, this something seems to be an emptiness, an ache, an anguish, an incompleteness, accompanied by an innate cry for it to go away. Experienced positively, it is a yearning, a craving, a desire, a hope. Karl Barth speaks of this active longing as our “universal homesickness.” (W. Paul Jones, The Art of Spiritual Direction)
From page 1 of The Art of Spiritual Direction: Giving and Receiving Spiritual Guidance by W. Paul Jones. Copyright © 2002 by W. Paul Jones. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question: In what ways do you experience a yearning for God?
Today’s Scripture: But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the LORD, and the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. (1 Samuel 8:6-7, NRSV)
This Week: pray for patience.
Did You Know?
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 or visit The Living Prayer Center website.
This week we remember: Boniface (June 5).
Although Boniface tried to adapt Christianity to regional traditions and culture, he enthusiastically destroyed pagan temples and idols, then built churches on those sites. When he found a tribe who worshipped the Norse god, Thor, in a tree, he boldly took an axe and chopped down the tree in front of the stunned worshippers.
He was eventually named the archbishop of Mainz. When he was almost eighty, Boniface returned to Frisia, attempting to evangelize even the most hostile tribes. In 1754, his camp was attacked; Boniface and fifty-three others were murdered.
Boniface is one of the patron saints of Germany.
Lectionary Readings for Sunday, 10 June 2018
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15)
Psalm 138
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Mark 3:20-351 Samuel 8:4 All the leaders of Isra’el gathered themselves together, approached Sh’mu’el in Ramah 5 and said to him, “Look, you have grown old, and your sons are not following your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 Sh’mu’el was not pleased to hear them say, “Give us a king to judge us”; so he prayed to Adonai. 7 Adonai said to Sh’mu’el, “Listen to the people, to everything they say to you; for it is not you they are rejecting; they are rejecting me; they don’t want me to be king over them. 8 They are doing to you exactly what they have been doing to me, from the day I brought them out of Egypt until today, by abandoning me and serving other gods. 9 So do what they say, but give them a sober warning, telling them what kinds of rulings their king will make.”
10 Sh’mu’el reported everything Adonai had said to the people asking him for a king. 11 He said, “Here is the kind of rulings your king will make: he will draft your sons and assign them to take care of his chariots, be his horsemen and be bodyguards running ahead of his chariots. 12 He will appoint them to serve him as officers in charge of a thousand or of fifty, plowing his fields, gathering his harvest, and making his weapons and the equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters and have them be perfume-makers, cooks and bakers. 14 He will expropriate your fields, vineyards and olive groves — the very best of them! — and hand them over to his servants. 15 He will take the ten-percent tax of your crops and vineyards and give it to his officers and servants. 16 He will take your male and female servants, your best young men and your donkeys, and make them work for him. 17 He will take the ten-percent tax of your flocks, and you will become his servants. 18 When that happens, you will cry out on account of your king, whom you yourselves chose. But when that happens, Adonai will not answer you!”
19 However, the people refused to listen to what Sh’mu’el told them, and they said, “No! We want a king over us, 20 so that we can be like all the nations, with our king to judge us, lead us and fight our battles.”
11:14 Then Sh’mu’el said to the people, “Come, let’s go to Gilgal and inaugurate the kingship there. 15 So all the people went to Gilgal; and there in Gilgal, before Adonai, they made Sha’ul king. They presented sacrifices as peace offerings before Adonai there, and there Sha’ul and all the people of Isra’el celebrated with great joy.
Psalm 138:1 (0) By David:
(1) I give you thanks with all my heart.
Not to idols, but to you I sing praise.
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your grace and truth;
for you have made your word [even] greater
than the whole of your reputation.
3 When I called, you answered me,
you made me bold and strong.
4 All the kings of the earth will thank you, Adonai,
when they hear the words you have spoken.
5 They will sing about Adonai’s ways,
“Great is the glory of Adonai!”
6 For though Adonai is high, he cares for the lowly;
while the proud he perceives from afar.
7 You keep me alive when surrounded by danger;
you put out your hand when my enemies rage;
with your right hand you save me.
8 Adonai will fulfill his purpose for me.
Your grace, Adonai, continues forever.
Don’t abandon the work of your hands!
2 Corinthians 4:13 The Tanakh says, “I trusted, therefore I spoke.”[2 Corinthians 4:13 Psalm 116:10] Since we have that same Spirit who enables us to trust, we also trust and therefore speak; 14 because we know that he who raised the Lord Yeshua will also raise us with Yeshua and bring us along with you into his presence. 15 All this is for your sakes, so that as grace flows out to more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to overflow and bring glory to God.
16 This is why we do not lose courage. Though our outer self is heading for decay, our inner self is being renewed daily. 17 For our light and transient troubles are achieving for us an everlasting glory whose weight is beyond description. 18 We concentrate not on what is seen but on what is not seen, since things seen are temporary, but things not seen are eternal.
5:1 We know that when the tent which houses us here on earth is torn down, we have a permanent building from God, a building not made by human hands, to house us in heaven.
Mark 3:20 and once more, such a crowd came together that they couldn’t even eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they set out to take charge of him; for they said, “He’s out of his mind!”
22 The Torah-teachers who came down from Yerushalayim said, “He has Ba‘al-Zibbul in him,” and “It is by the ruler of the demons that he expels the demons.” 23 But he called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan expel Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom can’t survive; 25 and if a household is divided against itself, that household can’t survive. 26 So if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he can’t survive either; and that’s the end of him. 27 Furthermore, no one can break into a strong man’s house and make off with his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. After that, he can ransack his house. 28 Yes! I tell you that people will be forgiven all sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 however, someone who blasphemes against the Ruach HaKodesh never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.” 30 For they had been saying, “He has an unclean spirit in him.”
31 Then his mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent a message asking for him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” 33 He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 Looking at those seated in a circle around him, he said, “See! Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does what God wants is my brother, sister and mother!” (Complete Jewish Bible).
1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15)
8: Verse 5
[5] And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
A king — Their desires exceed their reasons, which extended no farther than to the removal of Samuel's sons from their places, and the procuring some other just: and prudent assistance to Samuel's age. Nor was the grant of their desire a remedy for their disease, but rather an aggravation of it. For the sons of their king were likely to he as corrupt as Samuel's sons and, if they were, would not be so easily removed.
Like other nations — That is, as most of the nations about us have. But there was not the like reason; because God had separated them from all other nations, and cautioned them against the imitation of their examples, and had taken them into his own immediate care and government; which privilege other nations had not.
Verse 6
[6] But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
Displeased — Because God was hereby dishonoured by that distrust of him, and that ambition, and itch after changes, which were the manifest causes of this desire; and because of that great misery, which he foresaw the people would hereby bring upon themselves.
Prayed — For the pardon of their sin, and direction and help from God in this great affair.
Verse 7
[7] And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
Hearken — God grants their desire in anger, and for their punishment.
Rejected me — This injury and contumely, reflects chiefly upon me and my government.
Should not reign — By my immediate government, which was the great honour, safety, and happiness of this people, if they had had hearts to prize it.
Verse 8
[8] According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.
So do they — Thou farest no worse than myself. This he speaks for Samuel's comfort and vindication.
Verse 9
[9] Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
Ye protest — That, if it be possible, thou mayst yet prevent their sin and misery.
The manner — That is, of the kings which they desire like the kings of other nations.
Verse 11
[11] And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
Will take — Injuriously and by violence.
Verse 12
[12] And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
Will appoint — Heb. To, or for himself; for his own fancy, or glory, and not only when the necessities of the kingdom require it. And though this might seem to he no incumbrance, but an honour to the persons so advanced, yet even in them that honour was accompanied with great dangers, and pernicious snares of many kinds, which those faint shadows of glory could not recompense; and as to the public, their pomp and power proved very burdensome to the people, whose lands and fruits were taken from them, and bestowed upon these, for the support of their state.
Will set them — At his own pleasure, when possibly their own fields required all their time and pains. He will press them for all sorts of his work, and that upon his own terms.
Verse 13
[13] And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
Daughters — Which would be more grievous to their parents, and more dangerous to themselves, because of the tenderness of that sex, and their liableness to many injuries.
Verse 14
[14] And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
Your fields — By fraud or force, as Ahab did from Naboth.
His servants — He will not only take the fruits of your lands for his own use, but will take away your possessions to give to his servants.
Verse 15
[15] And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
The tenth — Besides the several tenths which God hath reserved for his service, he will, when he pleaseth, impose another tenth upon you.
Officers — Heb. To his eunuchs, which may imply a farther injury, that he should against the command of God, make some of his people eunuchs; and take those into his court and favour, which God would have cast out of the congregation.
Verse 16
[16] And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
Will take — By constraint, and without sufficient recompense.
Verse 17
[17] He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
His servants — That is, he will use you like slaves, and deprive you of that liberty which now you enjoy.
Verse 18
[18] And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.
Cry out — Ye shall bitterly mourn for the sad effects of this inordinate desire of a king.
Will not hear — Because you will not hear, nor obey his counsel in this day.
Verse 20
[20] That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
Be like — What stupidity! It was their happiness that they were unlike all other nations, Numbers 23:9; Deuteronomy 33:28, as in other glorious privileges, so especially in this, that the Lord was their immediate king and lawgiver. But they will have a king to go out before them, and to fight their battles. Could they desire a battle better fought for them than the last was, by Samuel's prayers and God's thunders? Were they fond to try the chance of war, at the same uncertainty that others did? And what was the issue? Their first king was slain in battle: and so was Joshua, one of the last and best.
11: Verse 14
[14] Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
Then — While the people were together by Jabesh-gilead, wherein Samuel's great prudence and fidelity to Saul is evident. He suspended the confirmation of Saul at first, whilst the generality of the people were disaffected, and now when he had given such eminent proof of his princely virtues, and when the peoples hearts were eagerly set upon him, he takes this as the fittest season for that work.
Renew — That is, confirm our former choice.
Verse 15
[15] And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
Made — They owned and accepted him for their king.
Receive This Newsletter Delivered to Your
Psalm 138
Verse 1
[1] I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
The gods — Before kings and princes.
Verse 2
[2] I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
Temple — Where the ark was. He was not permitted to enter into it.
Magnified — For thou hast glorified thy word or promise unto me more than any other of thy glorious perfections.
Verse 4
[4] All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.
The kings — A prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles.
Hear — The gospel preached among then.
Verse 5
[5] Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.
The ways — His wonderful counsel and gracious providences.
Verse 8
[8] The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.
Perfect — Will finish the great work of my deliverance.
Forsake not — Or, do not give over, the work of my salvation, which is thus far advanced, not by any human help, but by thy power and providence.
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
4: Verse 13
[13] We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
Having the same spirit of faith — Which animated the saints of old; David, in particular, when he said, I believed, and therefore have I spoken - That is, I trusted in God, and therefore he hath put this song of praise in my mouth.
We also speak — We preach the gospel, even in the midst of affliction and death, because we believe that God will raise us up from the dead, and will present us, ministers, with you, all his members, "faultless before his presence with exceeding joy." Psalms 116:10.
Verse 15
[15] For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
For all things — Whether adverse or prosperous.
Are for your sakes — For the profit of all that believe, as well as all that preach.
That the overflowing grace — Which continues you alive both in soul and body. Might abound yet more through the thanksgiving of many - For thanksgiving invites more: abundant grace.
Verse 16
[16] For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
Therefore — Because of this grace, we faint not.
The outward man — The body.
The inward man — The soul.
Verse 17
[17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Our light affliction — The beauty and sublimity of St. Paul's expressions here, as descriptive of heavenly glory, opposed to temporal afflictions, surpass all imagination, and cannot be preserved in any translation or paraphrase, which after all must sink infinitely below the astonishing original.
Verse 18
[18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The things that are seen — Men, money, things of earth.
The things that are not seen — God, grace, heaven.
5: Verse 1
[1] For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Our earthly house — Which is only a tabernacle, or tent, not designed for a lasting habitation.
Mark 3:20-35
Verse 20
[20] And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.
To eat bread — That is, to take any subsistence.
Verse 21
[21] And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
His relations — His mother and his brethren, Mark 3:31. But it was some time before they could come near him.
Verse 22
[22] And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
The scribes and Pharisees, Matthew 12:22; who had come down from Jerusalem - Purposely on the devil's errand. And not without success. For the common people now began to drink in the poison, from these learned, good, honourable men! He hath Beelzebub - at command, is in league with him: And by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils - How easily may a man of learning elude the strongest proof of a work of God! How readily can he account for every incident without ever taking God into the question. Matthew 12:24; Luke 11:15.
Verse 28
[28] Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:
Matthew 12:31; Luke 12:10.
Verse 30
[30] Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.
Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit — Is it not astonishing, that men who have ever read these words, should doubt, what is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? Can any words declare more plainly, that it is "the ascribing those miracles to the power of the devil which Christ wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost?"
Verse 31
[31] There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.
Then come his brethren and his mother — Having at length made their way through the crowd, so as to come to the door. His brethren are here named first, as being first and most earnest in the design of taking him: for neither did these of his brethren believe on him. They sent to him, calling him - They sent one into the house, who called him aloud, by name. Matthew 12:46; Luke 8:19.
Verse 34
[34] And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
Looking round on them who sat about him — With the utmost sweetness; He said, Behold my mother and my brethren - In this preference of his true disciples even to the Virgin Mary, considered merely as his mother after the flesh, he not only shows his high and tender affection for them, but seems designedly to guard against those excessive and idolatrous honours, which he foresaw would in after ages be paid to her. (John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes).
***
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 or visit The Living Prayer Center website.
This week we remember: Boniface (June 5).
Boniface
June 05
Boniface (ca. 675-754) was born in England and educated at the Benedictine monastery in Exeter. He was a monk devoted to teaching, yet felt called to take the good news of Jesus to Germany, where earlier missionaries had little success. Boniface first went to Frisia (present day Netherlands) but met resistance. In 719 Boniface received a mission from Pope Gregory II to evangelize Bavaria and Hesse in Germany. He spent most of the rest of his life spreading the faith to the Germans.Although Boniface tried to adapt Christianity to regional traditions and culture, he enthusiastically destroyed pagan temples and idols, then built churches on those sites. When he found a tribe who worshipped the Norse god, Thor, in a tree, he boldly took an axe and chopped down the tree in front of the stunned worshippers.
He was eventually named the archbishop of Mainz. When he was almost eighty, Boniface returned to Frisia, attempting to evangelize even the most hostile tribes. In 1754, his camp was attacked; Boniface and fifty-three others were murdered.
Boniface is one of the patron saints of Germany.
If Boniface had taken the Spiritual Types Test, he probably would have been a Sage. Boniface is remembered on June 5.
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15)
Psalm 138
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Mark 3:20-351 Samuel 8:4 All the leaders of Isra’el gathered themselves together, approached Sh’mu’el in Ramah 5 and said to him, “Look, you have grown old, and your sons are not following your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 Sh’mu’el was not pleased to hear them say, “Give us a king to judge us”; so he prayed to Adonai. 7 Adonai said to Sh’mu’el, “Listen to the people, to everything they say to you; for it is not you they are rejecting; they are rejecting me; they don’t want me to be king over them. 8 They are doing to you exactly what they have been doing to me, from the day I brought them out of Egypt until today, by abandoning me and serving other gods. 9 So do what they say, but give them a sober warning, telling them what kinds of rulings their king will make.”
10 Sh’mu’el reported everything Adonai had said to the people asking him for a king. 11 He said, “Here is the kind of rulings your king will make: he will draft your sons and assign them to take care of his chariots, be his horsemen and be bodyguards running ahead of his chariots. 12 He will appoint them to serve him as officers in charge of a thousand or of fifty, plowing his fields, gathering his harvest, and making his weapons and the equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters and have them be perfume-makers, cooks and bakers. 14 He will expropriate your fields, vineyards and olive groves — the very best of them! — and hand them over to his servants. 15 He will take the ten-percent tax of your crops and vineyards and give it to his officers and servants. 16 He will take your male and female servants, your best young men and your donkeys, and make them work for him. 17 He will take the ten-percent tax of your flocks, and you will become his servants. 18 When that happens, you will cry out on account of your king, whom you yourselves chose. But when that happens, Adonai will not answer you!”
19 However, the people refused to listen to what Sh’mu’el told them, and they said, “No! We want a king over us, 20 so that we can be like all the nations, with our king to judge us, lead us and fight our battles.”
11:14 Then Sh’mu’el said to the people, “Come, let’s go to Gilgal and inaugurate the kingship there. 15 So all the people went to Gilgal; and there in Gilgal, before Adonai, they made Sha’ul king. They presented sacrifices as peace offerings before Adonai there, and there Sha’ul and all the people of Isra’el celebrated with great joy.
Psalm 138:1 (0) By David:
(1) I give you thanks with all my heart.
Not to idols, but to you I sing praise.
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your grace and truth;
for you have made your word [even] greater
than the whole of your reputation.
3 When I called, you answered me,
you made me bold and strong.
4 All the kings of the earth will thank you, Adonai,
when they hear the words you have spoken.
5 They will sing about Adonai’s ways,
“Great is the glory of Adonai!”
6 For though Adonai is high, he cares for the lowly;
while the proud he perceives from afar.
7 You keep me alive when surrounded by danger;
you put out your hand when my enemies rage;
with your right hand you save me.
8 Adonai will fulfill his purpose for me.
Your grace, Adonai, continues forever.
Don’t abandon the work of your hands!
2 Corinthians 4:13 The Tanakh says, “I trusted, therefore I spoke.”[2 Corinthians 4:13 Psalm 116:10] Since we have that same Spirit who enables us to trust, we also trust and therefore speak; 14 because we know that he who raised the Lord Yeshua will also raise us with Yeshua and bring us along with you into his presence. 15 All this is for your sakes, so that as grace flows out to more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to overflow and bring glory to God.
16 This is why we do not lose courage. Though our outer self is heading for decay, our inner self is being renewed daily. 17 For our light and transient troubles are achieving for us an everlasting glory whose weight is beyond description. 18 We concentrate not on what is seen but on what is not seen, since things seen are temporary, but things not seen are eternal.
5:1 We know that when the tent which houses us here on earth is torn down, we have a permanent building from God, a building not made by human hands, to house us in heaven.
Mark 3:20 and once more, such a crowd came together that they couldn’t even eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they set out to take charge of him; for they said, “He’s out of his mind!”
22 The Torah-teachers who came down from Yerushalayim said, “He has Ba‘al-Zibbul in him,” and “It is by the ruler of the demons that he expels the demons.” 23 But he called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan expel Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom can’t survive; 25 and if a household is divided against itself, that household can’t survive. 26 So if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he can’t survive either; and that’s the end of him. 27 Furthermore, no one can break into a strong man’s house and make off with his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. After that, he can ransack his house. 28 Yes! I tell you that people will be forgiven all sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 however, someone who blasphemes against the Ruach HaKodesh never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.” 30 For they had been saying, “He has an unclean spirit in him.”
31 Then his mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent a message asking for him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” 33 He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 Looking at those seated in a circle around him, he said, “See! Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does what God wants is my brother, sister and mother!” (Complete Jewish Bible).
1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15)
8: Verse 5
[5] And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
A king — Their desires exceed their reasons, which extended no farther than to the removal of Samuel's sons from their places, and the procuring some other just: and prudent assistance to Samuel's age. Nor was the grant of their desire a remedy for their disease, but rather an aggravation of it. For the sons of their king were likely to he as corrupt as Samuel's sons and, if they were, would not be so easily removed.
Like other nations — That is, as most of the nations about us have. But there was not the like reason; because God had separated them from all other nations, and cautioned them against the imitation of their examples, and had taken them into his own immediate care and government; which privilege other nations had not.
Verse 6
[6] But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
Displeased — Because God was hereby dishonoured by that distrust of him, and that ambition, and itch after changes, which were the manifest causes of this desire; and because of that great misery, which he foresaw the people would hereby bring upon themselves.
Prayed — For the pardon of their sin, and direction and help from God in this great affair.
Verse 7
[7] And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
Hearken — God grants their desire in anger, and for their punishment.
Rejected me — This injury and contumely, reflects chiefly upon me and my government.
Should not reign — By my immediate government, which was the great honour, safety, and happiness of this people, if they had had hearts to prize it.
Verse 8
[8] According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.
So do they — Thou farest no worse than myself. This he speaks for Samuel's comfort and vindication.
Verse 9
[9] Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
Ye protest — That, if it be possible, thou mayst yet prevent their sin and misery.
The manner — That is, of the kings which they desire like the kings of other nations.
Verse 11
[11] And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
Will take — Injuriously and by violence.
Verse 12
[12] And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
Will appoint — Heb. To, or for himself; for his own fancy, or glory, and not only when the necessities of the kingdom require it. And though this might seem to he no incumbrance, but an honour to the persons so advanced, yet even in them that honour was accompanied with great dangers, and pernicious snares of many kinds, which those faint shadows of glory could not recompense; and as to the public, their pomp and power proved very burdensome to the people, whose lands and fruits were taken from them, and bestowed upon these, for the support of their state.
Will set them — At his own pleasure, when possibly their own fields required all their time and pains. He will press them for all sorts of his work, and that upon his own terms.
Verse 13
[13] And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
Daughters — Which would be more grievous to their parents, and more dangerous to themselves, because of the tenderness of that sex, and their liableness to many injuries.
Verse 14
[14] And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
Your fields — By fraud or force, as Ahab did from Naboth.
His servants — He will not only take the fruits of your lands for his own use, but will take away your possessions to give to his servants.
Verse 15
[15] And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
The tenth — Besides the several tenths which God hath reserved for his service, he will, when he pleaseth, impose another tenth upon you.
Officers — Heb. To his eunuchs, which may imply a farther injury, that he should against the command of God, make some of his people eunuchs; and take those into his court and favour, which God would have cast out of the congregation.
Verse 16
[16] And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
Will take — By constraint, and without sufficient recompense.
Verse 17
[17] He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
His servants — That is, he will use you like slaves, and deprive you of that liberty which now you enjoy.
Verse 18
[18] And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.
Cry out — Ye shall bitterly mourn for the sad effects of this inordinate desire of a king.
Will not hear — Because you will not hear, nor obey his counsel in this day.
Verse 20
[20] That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
Be like — What stupidity! It was their happiness that they were unlike all other nations, Numbers 23:9; Deuteronomy 33:28, as in other glorious privileges, so especially in this, that the Lord was their immediate king and lawgiver. But they will have a king to go out before them, and to fight their battles. Could they desire a battle better fought for them than the last was, by Samuel's prayers and God's thunders? Were they fond to try the chance of war, at the same uncertainty that others did? And what was the issue? Their first king was slain in battle: and so was Joshua, one of the last and best.
11: Verse 14
[14] Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
Then — While the people were together by Jabesh-gilead, wherein Samuel's great prudence and fidelity to Saul is evident. He suspended the confirmation of Saul at first, whilst the generality of the people were disaffected, and now when he had given such eminent proof of his princely virtues, and when the peoples hearts were eagerly set upon him, he takes this as the fittest season for that work.
Renew — That is, confirm our former choice.
Verse 15
[15] And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
Made — They owned and accepted him for their king.
Receive This Newsletter Delivered to Your
Psalm 138
Verse 1
[1] I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
The gods — Before kings and princes.
Verse 2
[2] I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
Temple — Where the ark was. He was not permitted to enter into it.
Magnified — For thou hast glorified thy word or promise unto me more than any other of thy glorious perfections.
Verse 4
[4] All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.
The kings — A prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles.
Hear — The gospel preached among then.
Verse 5
[5] Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.
The ways — His wonderful counsel and gracious providences.
Verse 8
[8] The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.
Perfect — Will finish the great work of my deliverance.
Forsake not — Or, do not give over, the work of my salvation, which is thus far advanced, not by any human help, but by thy power and providence.
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
4: Verse 13
[13] We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
Having the same spirit of faith — Which animated the saints of old; David, in particular, when he said, I believed, and therefore have I spoken - That is, I trusted in God, and therefore he hath put this song of praise in my mouth.
We also speak — We preach the gospel, even in the midst of affliction and death, because we believe that God will raise us up from the dead, and will present us, ministers, with you, all his members, "faultless before his presence with exceeding joy." Psalms 116:10.
Verse 15
[15] For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
For all things — Whether adverse or prosperous.
Are for your sakes — For the profit of all that believe, as well as all that preach.
That the overflowing grace — Which continues you alive both in soul and body. Might abound yet more through the thanksgiving of many - For thanksgiving invites more: abundant grace.
Verse 16
[16] For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
Therefore — Because of this grace, we faint not.
The outward man — The body.
The inward man — The soul.
Verse 17
[17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Our light affliction — The beauty and sublimity of St. Paul's expressions here, as descriptive of heavenly glory, opposed to temporal afflictions, surpass all imagination, and cannot be preserved in any translation or paraphrase, which after all must sink infinitely below the astonishing original.
Verse 18
[18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The things that are seen — Men, money, things of earth.
The things that are not seen — God, grace, heaven.
5: Verse 1
[1] For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Our earthly house — Which is only a tabernacle, or tent, not designed for a lasting habitation.
Mark 3:20-35
Verse 20
[20] And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.
To eat bread — That is, to take any subsistence.
Verse 21
[21] And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
His relations — His mother and his brethren, Mark 3:31. But it was some time before they could come near him.
Verse 22
[22] And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
The scribes and Pharisees, Matthew 12:22; who had come down from Jerusalem - Purposely on the devil's errand. And not without success. For the common people now began to drink in the poison, from these learned, good, honourable men! He hath Beelzebub - at command, is in league with him: And by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils - How easily may a man of learning elude the strongest proof of a work of God! How readily can he account for every incident without ever taking God into the question. Matthew 12:24; Luke 11:15.
Verse 28
[28] Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:
Matthew 12:31; Luke 12:10.
Verse 30
[30] Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.
Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit — Is it not astonishing, that men who have ever read these words, should doubt, what is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? Can any words declare more plainly, that it is "the ascribing those miracles to the power of the devil which Christ wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost?"
Verse 31
[31] There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.
Then come his brethren and his mother — Having at length made their way through the crowd, so as to come to the door. His brethren are here named first, as being first and most earnest in the design of taking him: for neither did these of his brethren believe on him. They sent to him, calling him - They sent one into the house, who called him aloud, by name. Matthew 12:46; Luke 8:19.
Verse 34
[34] And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
Looking round on them who sat about him — With the utmost sweetness; He said, Behold my mother and my brethren - In this preference of his true disciples even to the Virgin Mary, considered merely as his mother after the flesh, he not only shows his high and tender affection for them, but seems designedly to guard against those excessive and idolatrous honours, which he foresaw would in after ages be paid to her. (John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes).
***
The Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2018
PO Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004, United States
***
No comments:
Post a Comment