240 people in our community are currently praying with you.

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.

Sunday Prayer of Praise to God’s Glory

Heavenly God, you are the King eternal, immortal and invisible. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God; the same yesterday, today, and forever.

In times long past did you lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands: Yet they will perish, but you will endure; yes, all of them will grow old like a garment, as a coat you will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will have no end.

You alone are God, and do not change; and because of this, we may hope to be preserved. Are you not from eternity, O Lord our God, our Holy One? The everlasting God, even the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who does not faint nor grow weary? There is no searching out your understanding, mighty Lord, but by our praise we may glorify your Holy Name, now and all our lives.

Prayer for Forgiveness

Lord, I have betrayed you by following my own way; I have denied you by fearing to follow yours; and I have mocked you by not taking your death seriously. I sometimes feel like I am lost. Let your forgiveness find me. Hold me in your strong arms and give me your new life. Live in me and with me this day, that I may by your power find forgiveness and be made ever anew, reborn from above, living fully in your Spirit every minute. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray,

Prayer based on Psalm 1

Heavenly Father, who has given us the gift of thy law, so that we might know our sin, and thy Son, that we might be forgiven where we fall short: Grant me, I beseech thee, to remember your holy Word, when my surroundings tempt me to confusion and weakness, that I might more nearly approach true obedience to thy will. Help me to resist the blandishments of the ungodly; let me not be deceived by false beauty; and let me never replace the truth which thou hast put into my heart with the clever words of men.

Your word is my truth, mighty God; let me think upon it, day and night. Through Christ I pray,

Mason Barge /2019

Benediction

The blessing of the Lord rest and remain upon all his people, in every land, of every tongue; the Lord meet in mercy all that seek him; the Lord comfort all who suffer and mourn; the Lord hasten his coming, and give us, his people, the blessing of peace, this day and always.

Bishop Handly Moule ca. 1880

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 123 (NKJV)

John 5:3-15 (ESV)

ow there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”

They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

Notes on the Scripture

Take Up Your Bed and Walk

Mosaic Law had, in Jesus' time, two components. The first was the law itself, revealed by God and set down in Scripture (Exodus through Numbers in our Old Testament). The second was an extensive set of oral interpretations of these laws, created by the Pharisees and their forerunner scribes and rabbis. These were later collected into books called the Midrash and the Mishnah, and it is these interprative traditions that caused much of the friction between Jesus and the Pharisees.

Specifically, the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy,” was amplified into a long list of specific things that the Pharisees said could or could not be done on the Jewish Sabbath, with specific exceptions for specific circumstances.

Carrying a bed is a task that the Pharisees' oral interpretation, but not the Scripture, forbade on the Sabbath. Remember that Christ did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. (Matthew 5:17) Christians can certainly follow Mosaic Law almost entirely. A good Christian could practically live as an Orthodox Jew. But not quite. For example, the law that forbids eating a meal with a non-believer could easily run afoul of a Christian teaching.

It is still God's will that we respect the general meaning of the Ten Commandments and other parts of the Law of Moses, especially the so-called moral laws, but Christianity (with the authority of Christ's teaching) often reinterprets the letter of them. The most common case is respecting the Sabbath. Very few Christians literally observe the Sabbath (which runs from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday) or even know when it occurs. On the other hand, the spirit of the commandment is followed by going to church on Sunday and, often, by refusing to work, shop, etc. In more devout times, Christian communities practically shut down on Sundays.

Most of us would be better off if we paid more attention to keeping Sundays holy. It is God's will that we have a day when we do not work and do not cause others to work.

But, getting back to today’s Scripture, we learn how much authority Christ has asserted; he can act and teach that the very word of God concerning how men conduct their lives, the law given by God himself to Moses, has been changed because of his arrival. His authority to interpret the Law is greater than that of the Jewish leaders.

Daily Inspiration

“Finding God and . . .”

Current Memory Verse     Remember the Bible

Print Today’s Devotion