Daily Devotion for September 28, 2010
Prayers
Scripture
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.
A pretty baptism song for country music fans.
Prayer to Bear Witness Before the World
Let all who take refuge in you rejoice, O Lord. Let us ever sing for joy. Let those who confess your name raise up their voice, filling the air with glorious noise. Spread your protection over us, mighty God, that we who love your name may exalt you before all the people of the earth. Let the quiet and the shy find their courage so that they may sing and shout to the sky, “There is one great God who rules over us all, and Jesus Christ of Nazareth is His only Son”.
May I be blessed to help the blind see your glory and the deaf hear your praise, lest they surely die. For they must be told: Every heart will find righteousness and eternal life in the holy name of Christ, and nowhere else. Make me your trumpet, make me your lighthouse; let me proclaim to the very end of the earth, that Christ is King!
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.
For Faith
Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my mind. Give me a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity, so that I may always and in all things act according to Your Holy Will.
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.
Today’s “Remember the Bible” Question
What verse tells us that Christ, during His life, “did not retain equality with God”?
Psalm 59:16-17 (NKJV)
But I will sing of Your power;
Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning;
For You have been my defense
And refuge in the day of my trouble.
To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises;
For God is my defense,
My God of mercy.
John 13:1-11 (ESV)
Completely Clean
ow before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.
He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
Notes on the Scripture
Yesterday, Christ told his followers that he had not come to judge the world, but to save it. Here, he demonstrates physically that his mission is one of love rather than one of judgment. God has humbled himself to be born into the world; and now Christ humbles himself, out of love, to wash the feet of Peter.
In washing Peter’s feet, Jesus cleans him. Notice how this is both similar to baptism, and the opposite of it. When John the Baptist baptized Christ (and when many denominations baptize members), the symbolic cleansing water was poured onto the top of his head. This was a spiritual cleansing. It was a symbol of the Holy Spirit entering the soul.
But Christ washes the feet, saying “he who has bathed needs only to wash his feet”. Peter has already been baptized. He is completely clean, except for the dust of the road he has picked up by leading his daily life. Just so, we are spiritually “cleaned” when we are baptized. The only need is to remove the soil we have collected during the day. That is, to confess our recent sins.
The head always symbolized the mind or the soul, and the feet always emphasize the most humble nature of our bodies. But no matter how clean we have become, our bodies — our feet — become contaminated by our sin — the “dirt” of daily life. To become fully clean, i.e. sinless, we have only to say our daily prayers and ask for forgiveness. Christ will then “wash our feet” by shriving us of the sins we have committed during the day.
