531 people in our community are currently praying with you.

Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

“St. Patrick's Breastplate”

I  rise today with the power of God to pilot me,
God's strength to sustain me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look ahead for me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to protect me,
God's way before me,
God's shield to defend me,
God's host to deliver me,
from snares of devils,
from evil temptations,
from nature's failings,
from all who wish to harm me,
far or near,
alone and in a crowd.

~ 8th century Irish prayer

Prayer to Resist Carnal Temptation

O  ever watchful Shepherd, lead, guide, and tend me this day; without Your restraining rod I err and stray. Hedge up my path lest I wander into unwholesome pleasure, and drink its poisonous streams; direct my feet that I be not entangled in Satan's secret snares, nor fall into his hidden traps. Defend me from assailing foes, from evil circumstances, from myself.

My adversaries are part and parcel of my own nature; they cling to me as my very skin; I cannot escape their contact. In my rising up and sitting down they cause me pain; they entice with constant baits; my enemy is within the citadel. Come with almighty power and cast him out, pierce him to death, and abolish in me every particle of carnal life this day.

~ a Puritan prayer, from Valley of Vision.

Praise

Oh Lord God, you are what thought cannot better; you are who thought cannot reach; you are who no thinking can even conceive. Without you, man can have no being, no reason, no knowledge, no good desire, nothing. You, Oh Lord, are what you are, transcending all.

adapted from Eric Milner-White 8/11/2014

Irish Blessing

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving

#20 Who in my life am I thankful for?

Baptism of Christ by El Greco, ca. 1595. El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) painted this subject dozens of times, but this is the wildest and, many think, the best of them. It is hard to see in the limited space we have here, but a much larger copy of a similar (but tamer) rendition is available here.

Psalm 110:1-4 (NKJV)

A Psalm of David

Matthew 22:41-45 (NASB)

The Son of David

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying,

If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.

Notes on the Scripture

Remember, the Pharisees are now feeling (temporarily) less hostile to Jesus due to the verbal drubbing he gave their enemies, the Sadducees, in verses 23-33. In fact, Jesus had admirers among the religious leaders of Jerusalem. Many among them were sincere lovers of God:

The Pharisees' official attitude toward Jesus was still antagonistic, but some were generally sympathetic towards Him. At any rate, His encounter with the Sadducees temporarily quieted their institutional wrath towards Him. And they now fear His tongue, if not His divinity.

The party line for the Pharisees was a belief in the prophets, that a messiah would come to Israel. He would be like David and one of his bloodline, anointed by God, a great warrior, to rally the Hebrews under the banner of God's appointed king and, with the power of Yahweh Himself, drive out the Romans (and all other heathen Gentiles) from Palestine. He would establish the true Israel by bloody war.

King David

“Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “messiah”; both of them mean “the anointed one”. So, in the absence of Jesus, the Pharisees expectation was not unreasonable. They failed to account for much of the prophecy, however, especially about the next messiah being peaceful and ruling over the world. But David had been anointed by God, as Israel's king, so they equated the “anointed one” with a new David.

But Jesus pokes an unmendable hole in yet another of their beliefs, by quoting David's own prophecy in Psalm 110. This is a psalm of David; thus it is David himself calling the Messiah “my Lord”. David teaches that the Messiah will be his Lord; and David, the great king, called nobody “Lord” except God.

It has begun to dawn on the Pharisees, at this point, that they might be wrong about Jesus. But as a group, they will choose pride over honesty, position over holiness. They would rather hold onto their power than change their theology. They will, therefore, kill the very Messiah they await, the Son of God.

(Note: The reference in Psalm 110 to Melchizedek — well, who is in the world is Melchizedek? The name sounds obscure and difficult, even weird. Maybe we can take up the Epistle to the Hebrews after Matthew, where his importance is explained. He is actually rather fun to learn about.

In a nutshell, Hebrew priests were required to be descendants of Aaron, by God's own command (Leviticus 6:12-15), with one exception: a rather mysterious man named Melchizedek. Hebrews shows that Jesus Christ is our high priest, and the “order of Melchizedek” shows how Jesus qualifies to be a priest under the law of Moses, even though he was not a Levite, i.e. a descendant of Aaron.)

Daily Inspiration

“Do Not Be Normal”

Current Memory Verse     Remember the Bible

Print Today’s Devotion