Daily Devotion for January 15, 2017
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.
The Fron Choir leads us in our “Virtual Sunday Church” hymn today. For those who sing along, the lyrics are in the video.
Prayer of Ambrose of Milan
O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of your Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore you, a heart to delight in you, to follow and to enjoy you, for Christ's sake.
Lord, Bless My Enemies
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Enemies have driven me into Thy embrace more than friends have.
Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.
Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world.
Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Thy tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.
They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself.
They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments.
They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself.
They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish.
Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.
Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.
Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.
Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.
Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.
Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of Thy garment.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:
so that my fleeing to Thee may have no return;
so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;
so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul;
so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger;
so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven;
ah, so that I may for once be freed from self deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.
Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.
One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.
It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies.
Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and my enemies.
A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand.
But a son blesses them, for he understands. For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Blessing
The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace, this day and evermore.
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 83:16-18
That they may seek Your name, O Lord.
Let them be confounded and dismayed forever;
Yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord,
Are the Most High over all the earth.
Genesis 1:20-25
The Creation of the World [3] - Animals
And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds — livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Notes on the Scripture
ever let an evolutionist tell you that God does not exist, that He did not plan for earth's creatures to be made and then execute His plan. Scientists don't know everything, and more to the point, science does not have anything intelligent to say about God.
But we must always keep in mind that the Bible does not tell us things that we can find out by ourselves. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that 1 + 1 = 2. But we understand it is true. It simply is not important to our understanding of God and our relationship to Him.
There is no reason for any tension or disagreement between science and religion. And once you have accepted, by faith, that God gave us His holy word for us to learn and follow, so that we might be saved from sin, there is no reason to be defensive, simply because science teaches us things that the Bible does not.
Any time there seems to be a disagreement between the Bible and science, there is a reason for it. Our meager minds may struggle to find it, but we must always remember: the Bible is not a scientific treatise; and a physics textbook is not a religious treatise. Christians who try to take their science from the Bible, and scientists who try to take their knowledge of God from equations, will be equally disappointed at the result.
Genesis tells us that on the first day, God separated the light from the darkness. By "day", does it mean a 24-hour period of the earth's revolution? It can't; the earth didn't exist. (And see 2 Peter 3:8: “A day is like a thousand years to the Lord.”
The Bible tells us that God made man by breathing on the dust. This drives an evolutionist nuts, because he can “prove” that human beings are descendants of lower primates. But so what? An architect will show you a model and tell you that he built a great building in its image. But in fact, construction took a long time, and involved pouring concrete into wooden forms that were then removed. Will the concrete subcontractor accuse the architect of lying?
No, because they are talking about different things. God made man by putting spirit into matter, that is, by “breathing on the dust.” Genesis tells us who and why. The reason the Bible omits intermediate details is because they are unimportant in a book about God and the human soul.
