Daily Devotion for July 9, 2011
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.
Prayer for the Morning
Oh Lord, most heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who has safely brought me to the beginning of this day; I give you thanks for my creation, preservation, and all the blessings of my life. Grant that this day I fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all my doings, being governed by your will, may be righteous in your sight. Through Christ our Lord, I pray.
Prayer for Grace and Strength
Lord God, I pray that you will fill my heart with the blessing of your Holy Spirit. Grant me this day the strength to be temperate in all things, diligent in my duties, and patient under my afflictions. Direct me in all my ways. Give me grace to be just and upright in all my dealings; quiet and peaceable; full of compassion; and ready to do good to all people, according to my abilities and opportunities. For the sake of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
Community of Prayer
Heavenly Lord, I know I am not alone saying these prayers or reading your Word this morning, but many people unknown to me, from all stations of life, have joined together in this brief moment of devotion. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be among the community of all who pray in the name of Christ this morning, and remain among us always.
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.
Proverbs 11:5
but the wicked falls by his own wickedness.
Paul's Second Journey
Acts 16:11-15 (NKJV)
Lydia Baptized at Philippi
Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.
And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.
Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay." So she persuaded us.
Notes on the Scripture
The first thing one notices in this passage is that the writer has changed from third person to first person. In the passage in yesterday's Daily Devotional, the author wrote "they approached the province of Mysia"; but in this passage, he writes "we ran a straight course to Samothrace." In both cases, the pronoun refers to Peter and his companions.
The apparent meaning of this difference is that one of the actual party wrote the passage, rather than a person who was not there and heard the events secondhand. Because the change from "they" to "we" occurs immediate after Timothy joined the group, it is logical to conclude that Timothy began to write down the account. We know that Timothy was a literate man, so it is certainly possible that he wrote this.
The authorship of the Acts of the Apostles has never been definitively established, although a man named Luke, who might well be Luke the Evangelist, is the most popular choice. But this switch from third to first person would indicate that Luke assembled rather than wrote this and some other passages. So in this passage, we are probably reading the travel diary of Timothy himself!
The names of the places visited on Paul's second journey are becoming downright confusing by now. In broad terms, today's passage recounts that Paul and his troupe sailed from Turkey to northern Greece. It was a trip of 150 miles in a rickety wooden ship. (See Daily Devotional Map of Paul's Second Journey.)
Note the city of Philippi. It is the church founded here to which Paul will later write the long that became part of the New Testament, the Epistle to the Philippians.
There is not room in this short daily devotional to write about Lydia. If you want to read more about her, there is a comment in the Daily Devotion Blog devoted to this wonderful woman of the Bible.
Harbor of Neapolis today
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