Intentional Faith

Today’s Prayer

Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, Who delights greatly in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches will be in his house, And his righteousness endures forever. Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness; He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man deals graciously and lends; He will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he will never be shaken; The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established; He will not be afraid,
He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted with honor. The wicked will see it and be grieved; He will gnash his teeth and melt away; The desire of the wicked shall perish. Praise God! Thank You Jesus!

Today’s Scripture

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

26
When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” 4When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.” You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 11Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

Today’s Devotional

Proverbs 28

“The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions.”

Lillian Daniel

When I was little, and I got exasperated with my parents, they would say, “Well, don’t get so mad at us that you run away and join the circus.”

That expression didn’t make any sense to me. For one thing, I had never been to a circus. For another, if I were to run away, it was more likely to be to the corner store a block away, because at least they sold candy. So when I grew older, I asked them about the expression and what it meant to them.

They said it was the kind of thing that little kids said back when they were little kids. When those travelling circus buses, trailers and caravans pulled into your small town, you knew something exciting was in store.

As children, they believed the life of a circus performer was one of adventure. Why, if you ran away to this circus, and snuck into one of those buses just as it was leaving, you would have a ride out of town, a job, and a new life on the road where your parents could never find you!

“You must have been awfully mad at your parents to want to do that,” I said.

“Our parents drove us crazy,” they said. “They could be exasperating.”

And that was when it hit me. These exasperating parents of mine, who often drove me crazy, had once been children themselves. And what are the odds, they too had exasperating parents?

It would never happen to me, I promised my young self. I would never become an exasperating parent.

Well, as of this date, neither one of my children has actually run away to join the circus.

Although there are times when, as a mom, I have considered it.

Prayer

God of eternity, give to each generation a balance of boldness and humility. Amen.

Baptism is bowing before the Father and letting him do his work.

Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father give me clear conscious so that I give no offense and I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. In Jesus glorious and precious name, Amen

Thoughts on Today’s Text

That scene ends with Jesus’ teaching on the coming glory of God’s kingdom to be experienced by the disciples (9:26-27). The transfiguration scene provides a dramatic confirmation of Peter’s confession and a foretaste of the glory to be experienced when God’s kingdom is fully present.

The emphasis throughout the episode is on the dazzling attestation of Jesus’ identity. We are first given the description of his transformed appearance (verse 29). The change in the appearance of his face is reminiscent of Moses’ face becoming radiant upon experiencing the presence of God in Exodus 34:29-35. But the description of the change in Jesus’ clothes distinguishes him from Moses significantly: Jesus’ clothes become “dazzling white,” words Luke uses to describe the appearance of angelic figures in Luke 24:4 and Acts 1:10. Jesus’ transformed appearance is thus not merely because he is experiencing God’s glory (like Moses) but rather because he is the very source of divine glory. The point is made explicit when the three disciples are said to see Jesus’ glory in verse 32.

Today’s Text

Luke 9:28-36 (NIV)
28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.
29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
30 Two men, Moses and Elijah,
31 appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters–one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)
34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.
35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.

Today’s Devotional

Wiping the Dust Off Our Feet

February 14, 2013

Luke 10:11

“Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.”

Donna Schaper

What is the difference between a resort and a retreat? Obviously resorts and retreats have refreshment in common. One may be less spiritual than the other (possibly) but both offer the gift of time and space other than the quotidian, the regular.

Many people love resorts and retreats, but find that they get home all too quickly. “What vacation?” people will say when they return. The pull of the ordinary and the daily is strong. Our habits often preclude the holy.

What might be different for those who have “gone away” and come back only to find themselves unchanged? We might learn better the art of leaving and the habit of returning. I love the Jewish practice of a mezuzah, an ornament placed on a door. As you go out in the morning, you are to touch it and give thanks for your threshold. As you return in the evening, you are to touch it and give thanks for your threshold. You leave and return as the same person but in the touching of a simple object, you pause for a moment of appreciation.

Resorts and retreats work when they produce refreshment, even if only for a few brief days. They work longer if they carry the promise of broken habits. What is our worst habit? It is the habit that prohibits pause. It is the habit that is all action without reflection. It is the skating the surface when the power of depth and appreciation are right there at our doorstep.

When the scripture says “Dust off your feet” when you leave a place, it is giving a lesson in living, so simple that even the most ordinary person can do it. When you leave in the morning, dust off your feet. When you return in the evening, dust off your feet. Don’t keep the non-essentials with you. Observe them. Pause to observe them. And give thanks for the day and its constant permanent habitual sense of a threshold.

Prayer

God who shows up everywhere, keep reminding us that we are a people in motion, ever dusty, and ever daily, ever going out and ever coming in to ourselves and to you. Refresh us, as though that was what you had in mind all along. Amen.

Today’s Prayer

O Lord let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to You O Lord! Let whatever we do in word or deed, we will do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. In Your precious name, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Thoughts on Today’s Text

Given what is revealed about the Corinthians in this letter, this is a preposterous claim. Has the Corinthian church really been transformed by God’s glory? These believers have caused great heartache to the apostle and to one another. Paul admits to a previous painful visit and a tearful letter. Yet, the apostle is certain that the church’s continued existence, in spite of itself, is a sign that God is at work within it.

As preposterous as it may seem, God has called the Corinthians to be God’s church, and God is actively at work transforming the believers from one degree of glory to another (3:18). Paul has faith — not in the church’s abilities to change itself — but in the Spirit’s work within it.

The text is saturated with hope that is firmly planted in God. At the beginning of 2 Corinthians 3, Paul refers to the church as his letter of recommendation (3:2). The believers themselves are the evidence that the Spirit of the living God is active in Corinth (3:3). All that they have and all that they are comes from God (3:4-5). It is Paul’s confidence in God’s work through Christ that undergirds verse 12: “since we have such a hope, we are very bold.”