Daily Devotion for February 27, 2015
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.
When the moon has gone to bed,
When the sparrows stop their singing
And the sky is clear and red,
When the summer's ceased its gleaming
When the corn is past its prime,
When adventure's lost its meaning -
I'll be homeward bound in time.
Bind me not to the pasture
Chain me not to the plow
Set me free to find my calling
And I'll return to you somehow.
If you find it's me you're missing
If you're hoping I'll return,
To your thoughts I'll soon be listening,
And in the road I'll stop and turn.
Then the wind will set me racing
As my journey nears its end
And the path I'll be retracing
When I'm homeward bound again.
Bind me not to the pasture
Chain me not to the plow
Set me free to find my calling
And I'll return to you somehow.
On a quiet misty morning
When the moon has gone to bed,
When the sparrows stop their singing
I'll be homeward bound again.
From an Irish folk tune
Collected and edited by Martha Keen
Prayer of St. Edmund
O Lord, into your hands and into the hands of your holy angels, this day I entrust my soul, my relatives, my benefactors, my friends and enemies, and all who confess your holy name.
O Lord, by the merits and prayers of your son, Jesus Christ, keep me today from all evil and unruly desires, from all sins and temptations of the devil, from a sudden and unprovided death, and from the pains of hell. Enlighten my heart with the grace of your Holy Spirit. Grant that I may ever be obedient to your commandments. Let me never be separated from you, O God, who lives and reigns forever, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
To Live in Sympathy with Others
Blessed Lord Jesus, who wept with Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus had died, may I ever take your love and sympathy for humanity into my heart. As Paul prayed in Romans, “May I rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” Soften my heart towards all, heavenly Lord, my enemies and my friends, my family and those who offend me. May I see the humanity of all my fellow men, rather than their sinfulness, and replace the fist of criticism with the opens arms of Christian love. By your grace, Lord Christ, I dare to ask your help in overcoming my hard heart,
Meditation
[May I rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.]
Closing Praise
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.
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.
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Favorite Things
I would rather worship God than do any other thing I know of in all this wide world.
~ A. W. Tozer
Galatians 2:15-17 (DP Bible)
Jew and Gentile (Galatians #15)
15-16 “How can you, a Jew by birth, first act like a Gentile, and then turn around and urge the Gentiles to live like Jews?” I asked him. “You and I were not raised like Gentiles, ignorant of right and wrong, yet we know that following the law of Moses, apart from our faith in Christ Jesus, did not and cannot justify us before God. No flesh will be justified by works under the law. So why hold onto it?”
17 “When we, who were born Jews, preach justification through faith in Christ, we are His representatives. We cannot become servants of sin. If we preach the faith of Christ and then sin, do we not imply that Christ Himself is a servant of sin? This cannot be!”
Verbatim Bible
14 But when I saw that not they walk correctly pIdiom, act. As in English (especially among Christians), “walk” is used to describe behavior, especially in regard to a particular standard. before the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before all, if you Jewish inherently being in-Gentile-manner and not in-Jewish-manner live, how the Gentiles urge you to live-in-Jewish-manner?
15 We by nature Jewish and not from sinning Gentiles
16 yet knowing that not is justified man from works of law unless through faith of Jesus Christ qThe meaning of this phrase and its variants is hotly debated by scholars. Here is the problem: The Greek, in effect, has an implied preposition that the reader must fill in: “faith ____ Christ”. And changing the preposition substantially changes the meaning. (It is called the pistis Xristou question.)
At least three meanings are entirely defensible under the rules of Greek syntax: 1) our faith in Christ (the most theologically sensible), 2) faith of Christ, i.e. Christ’s own faith (the most grammatically straightforward), 3) faith like that of Christ. There are even several more less obvious, but grammatically possible, meanings. Some reputable current scholars argue (rather convincingly) that the phrase is intentionally ambiguous, so as to convey multiple meanings. , and we in Christ Jesus have believed, that we might be justified by faith of Christ qSee note q above. and not by works of law, since from works of law not will be justified any flesh.
17 And if seeking to be justified in Christ we are found also ourselves sinners, then Christ of sin is servant? It cannot happen.
Notes on the Scripture
In this passage, we begin to dig into Paul's great theological statement, the difference between the practice of Judaism and Christianity and all that these difference imply. We discussed the setting of this speech on Tuesday: Peter was in Antioch, but when a group comes from Jerusalem, he stops eating meals with the Gentiles in the Antioch church and begins to eat separately with the Jews-only group.
The reason he and the other Jews did so was their ingrained Jewish belief that they might be made impure by eating with Gentiles. They were following the Pharisees' interpretation of the Law of Moses, which to them had always been the law of God. By following God's law to the letter, the Jews had sought, unsuccessfully, to be saved. And this had become a powerful habit, difficult for them to break.
aul calls Peter to task for it; and he uses it as an opportunity to explain the fundamental nature of Christian salvation. This is, remember, his first try at formulating doctrine in writing. It is sometimes a bit difficult to understand what he is getting at, but we will chew his words until they are digestible.
He begins his argument by pointing out an inconsistency in Peter's actions. Peter was a genuine pure-blooded Hebrew, born and raised to follow the law of Moses as one of God's chosen nation. Yet he had previously eaten with Gentiles and, perhaps, committed other breaches of the Pharisaic oral law, because Peter had been instructed by a vision from God to accept the Gentiles into Christ's church. Peter was actually a leader in this regard. God sent him a vision, which he interpreted correctly, and thereafter went to the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and baptized him and his household into the body of saints. Notably, Peter neither treated Cornelius as unclean in any way, nor suggested that he be circumcised or otherwise act like a Jew.
When Peter returned to Jerusalem, unnamed brothers criticized him for “eating with Gentiles”. But when he told them what had happened, “they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.’” (Acts 11:18) Thus Peter was actually the first champion of Gentile conversion, and its first defender.
Why did he participate in a separation of Jewish and Gentile Christians in Antioch? One can only speculate. But everyone has had occasion to look back on some absurdly incorrect choice they made, and wondered, “What was I thinking?”
What Peter clearly had not considered was the final step: that it might be sinful to participate in a division of Jewish Christians, which gave the appearance of valuing the Law above the unity of Christians in faith. He should have known better, as the saying goes. It was a prominent lesson taught by Jesus Himself, in Matthew 15:1-20.
