Devotion
Seeing the Glory of the Lord
Frances Taylor
Don't you just love Paul's way of making everything sound incomprehensible! Today I feel like that and have been working hard to see what he might mean. I wish I was in a group working together to see what we could come up with. I get the first part in that the early books of the Old Testament – those once thought to be written by Moses – are still being read today by all Jewish people as this is the Torah, the most sacred of their Scriptures, but without understanding that these were written to lead them to see Jesus as the Messiah. Christians reading them today see this promise fulfilled in Jesus the Christ. When we live in Christ we are living by the Spirit and living in this way brings freedom because we are living by the law of love which contains all of the commandments given to Moses. I believe that Paul is trying to tell us that we can see the glory of God reflected in our faces and in the faces of other Christians who are doing their best to follow the way of Christ in love. There are people who I have known over the years whose faces literally shine when they speak of their love of Jesus. When I am with them, I truly feel that I am looking at the living face of God. I can only hope that my life is also a witness to my love of God so that others can see God in me.
Prayer
Lord, let our love of you and our desire to live our lives following Jesus' law of love shine forth from our hearts and be visible to other so that we may draw them also to you. Amen.
Devotion
His Loving Kindness Endures Forever
Frances Taylor
Psalm 136 is a list of all the wonders that God had done for the Israelites from creation through the deliverance from Egypt and into the land promised to them, providing them with all that they need. I challenge you to write a psalm listing all the things that God has done for you using the same format. Several years ago, I did this myself and it was a wonderful reminder of all that God had done for me. "I give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his mercy endures forever; he has provided me with a family that loved me, his mercy endures forever; he hears me when I call to him, his mercy endures forever; when I was in trouble he rescued me, his mercy endures forever." I listed all the gifts he has given me and continues to give me and I thanked him for all the times that I was in pain and he healed me, and the times when I needed to be rescued. I'm sure if you take up my challenge and compose your own psalm, you will discover ...
Morning Prayer
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Inspiration
To reject the truths taught in God's Word, spoken by his prophets and apostles and by Jesus Christ his Son, is a grave offense. In the days when Hebrews was written, there were still true prophets in the Church, speaking from God. Today, we have his written Word as our "prophet. " If a preacher preaches truly according to the Book, we are in a grave sin if we reject it.
Prayer
Help me, O Lord, to discern when your Word is being taught correctly and when it is not. Teach me to embrace your truths and love them. Help me to walk in them and meditate on them. Let me not sin in rejecting the plain teachings of the Bible. Amen.
