Daily Devotion for October 31, 2014
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.
This rendition of Bach’s famous cantata Wachet auf (Sleepers Awake)(1st movement) is performed by the J..S. Bach Foundation of St Gallen, Rudolf Lutz conducting. The piece is based on the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25: 1-13).
Music by J.S. Bach
Lyrics
Thank You God
Oh dear sweet, loving God: How often I forget that it is because of You that I live. You made all of us from the very dust that You created. Then You did the most wondrous of all things, You made us in Your image and You breathed life into us. I join those praying with me today in thanking you for our lives, and we pray that You continue to sustain us each day. From Your heavenly place accept our prayers and our praise.
Keep Me from Falling
'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;
I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling.
Mine eyes are open but they cannot see for gloom of night:
I can no more than lift my heart to thee for inward light.
The wild and fiery passion of my youth consumes my soul;
In agony I turn to thee for truth and self-control.
For Passion and all the pleasures it can give will die the death;
But this of me eternally must live, thy borrowed breath.
'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;
I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling.
Meditation
[Without God's light, we cannot see Him; our own light is insufficient.]
Benediction
Finally, may I go forth filled with the joy and confidence of your Spirit; and may everything I do this day, in word or deed, be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
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.
Psalm 66:1-4 (NKJV)
Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
Sing out the honor of His name;
Make His praise glorious.
Say to God,
“How awesome are Your works!
Through the greatness of Your power
Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.
All the earth shall worship You
And sing praises to You;
They shall sing praises to Your name.”
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (DP)
The region is filled with people talking about how you took us in and how you turned away from dead idols to serve a real, living God. And now you await the coming of His Son, whom He raised from dead; for He will come from heavens to deliver you from God’s wrath.
Literal
9 [for] themselves about us they report what kind of reception we had with you, and how you turned to god from the idols to serve god living and true,
10 and to await the son of him from the heavens, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus the rescuer of us from the wrath coming.
DP Parallel Bible (3-Column) - 1 Thess. 1
Notes on the Scripture
Paul's Writing Style
Verse 10, gives us an elementary example of an issue that will become difficult later on: Paul's oblique writing style. Let us divide the verse into four parts and number them in order of theological progression: 3) The Thessalonians await the return of Christ; 1) They believe Christ was resurrected; 2) The wrath of God is coming; 4) Jesus will save them from God's wrath.
Paul would have scored poorly on the essay portion of the SATs (although he would have aced the vocabulary section). We rarely see the modern craftsmanship of a topic sentence followed by orderly expository steps. He will pile parenthetical and prepositional phrases, all of them important, into a great hodgepodge, until it is difficult to know which phrase is modifying what.
To get the full brunt of Paul's style, look at Young's Literal Translation of Eph. 1:3-14 or Eph. 3:2-13. If you really want to have some fun, take out a pencil and paper and try to diagram it. Every translation breaks this into several sentences — and almost every one of them is different!
Returning to today's verse 10If you have a different idea about how the verse should be read (and I understand your point if you do), please do not let it deflect you from following the discussion of Paul’s style., we might see how and why these problems occur. Consider the circumstances under which he wrote. Paul, who was often forced to work as a manual laborer to feed himself, did not have the luxury of editing and rewriting. Writing took time and money. So, if he said something that reminded him of something else that needed to be said, he could not just start over. He had to say it as a parenthetical.
The four statements are not in correct order, in the sense of the proper progression of theological thought. Until one understands and believes in Christ's resurrection, the idea that He will return with power to save sinners is not credible.
Why are they out of order? Paul's immediate topic is the activities of the Thessalonians that the pagan Greeks are talking about. Waiting for Christ to return was much more prominent in their lives than in ours. They would wake up in the morning and think, “Is this the day Christ will return?” So Paul puts this first in the verse. This is the what the Thessalonians are doing, and what they are doing is what he is discussing.
But let us imagine, after writing this phrase, he realizes that he has not mentioned the resurrection anywhere in the letter. It must be stated! Even though it is not an “activity” of the Thessalonians, it is the logical underpinning for all he has written. So, he writes it as a subordinate clause modifying “son”.
