Quotes for Today:
Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them. by Dr. Martin Henry Fischer
I never took hallucinogenic drugs because I never wanted my consciousness expanded one unnecessary iota. by Fran Lebowitz (1950 – )
Reality is a crutch for people who can’t cope with drugs. by Lily Tomlin (1939 – )
I love drugs, but I hate hangovers, and the hatred of the hangover wins by a landslide every time. by Margaret Cho, weblog, 10-30-03
[Addiction's] not about placating the bad dog – it’s about feeding the good dog. You still have to feed the bad dog, but only enough so that the ASPCA doesn’t bring you up on charges. by Robert Downey Jr., Entertainment Weekly, 11-21-08
The last time somebody said, ‘I find I can write much better with a word processor.’, I replied, ‘They used to say the same thing about drugs.’ by Roy Blount Jr.
Junkies might be easy to knock down, but they’re never fragile. They have souls like old leather shoes studded with steel, and they’re about as much good as friends. by Scott Westerfeld, The Last Days, 2006
The truth is, marijuana probably isn’t going to make you kill people. Most likely isn’t going to fund terrorists, but pot makes you feel fine with being bored and it’s when you’re bored that you should be learning a new skill or some new science or being creative. If you smoke pot you may grow up to find out that you’re not good at anything. by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park, My Future Self n’ Me, 2002
Sermon for Today:
Ruth Deciding For God by Charles H. Spurgeon
NO. 2680 INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, JUNE 24TH, 1900, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 21ST, 1881.
“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from
following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where
thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy
God my God.”(Ruth 1:16).
THIS was a very brave, outspoken confession of faith. Please to notice that
it was made by a woman, a young woman, a poor woman, a widow
woman, and a foreigner. Remembering all that, I should think there is no
condition of gentleness, or of obscurity, or of poverty, or of sorrow, which
should prevent anybody from making an open confession of allegiance to
God when faith in the Lord Jesus Christ has been exercised. If that is your
experience, my dear friend, then whoever you may be, you will find an
opportunity, somewhere or other, of declaring that you are on the Lord’s
side. I am glad that all candidates for membership in our church make their
confession of faith at our church-meetings. I have been told that such an
ordeal must keep a great many from joining us; yet I notice that, where
there is no such ordeal, they often have very few members, but here are we
with five thousand six hundred, or thereabouts, in church-fellowship, and
very seldom, if ever, finding anybody kept back by having to make an open
confession of faith in Christ. It does the man, the woman, the boy, or the
girl, whoever it is, so much good for once, at least, to say right out
straight, “I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am not ashamed of
it,” that I do not think we shall ever deviate from our custom. I have also
noticed that, when people have once confessed Christ before men, they are
very apt to do it again somewhere else; and they thus acquire a kind of
boldness and outspokenness upon religious matters, and a holy courage as
followers of Christ, which more than make up for any self-denial and
trembling which the effort may have cost them.
I think Naomi was quite right to drive Ruth, as it were, to take this brave
stand, in which it became an absolute necessity for her to speak right
straight out, and say, in the words of our text, “Intreat me not to leave
thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will
go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God.” What is there for any of us to be ashamed of in
acknowledging that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ? What can there be
that should cause us to be ashamed of Jesus, or make us blush to own his
name
“Ashamed of Jesus! that dear Friend On whom my hopes of heaven
depend! No: when I blush, be this my shame, That I no more revere his
name.”
We ought to be ashamed of being ashamed of Jesus; we ought to be afraid
of being afraid to own him; we ought to tremble at trembling to confess
him, and to resolve that we will take all suitable opportunities that we can
find of saying, first to relatives, and then to all others with whom we come
into contact, “We serve the Lord Christ.”
I should think that Naomi was — certainly she ought to have been —
greatly cheered by hearing this declaration from Ruth, especially the last
part of it: “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Naomi
had suffered great temporal loss; she had lost her husband and her two
sons; but now she had found the soul of her daughter-in-law; and I believe
that, according to the scales of true judgment, there ought to have been
more joy in her heart at the conversion of Ruth’s soul than grief over the
death of her husband and her sons. Our Lord Jesus has told us that “there
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth;”
and I always understand, by that expression, that there is joy in the heart of
God himself over every sinner’s repentance. Well, then, if Naomi’s husband
and sons were true believers, — if they had been walking aright before the
Lord, — as, let us hope, they had done, she need not have felt such sorrow
for them as could at all compare with the joy of her daughter-in-law being
saved.
Perhaps, some of you, dear friends, have had bereavements in your homes;
but if the death — the temporal death — of one should be the means of the
spiritual life of another, there is a clear gain, I am sure there is; and though
you may have gone weeping to the grave, yet, if you have evidence that,
with those tears, there were also tears of repentance on the part of others
of your family, and with that sad glance into the grave there was also a
believing look at the dying, risen, and living Savior, you are decidedly a
gainer, and you need not say, with Naomi, “I went out full, and the Lord
hath brought me home again empty.” Really Naomi, with her converted
daughter-in-law at her side, if she had only been able to look into the
future, might have been a happier woman than when she went away with
her husband and her boys, for now she had with her one who was to be in
the direct line of the progenitors of Christ, — a right royal woman; for I
count that the line of Christ is the true imperial line, and that they were the
most highly honored among men and women who were in any way
associated with the birth of the Savior into this world; and Ruth, though a
Moabitess, was one of those who were elected to share in this high
privilege. So I beg you, if you have been sorrowful because of any deaths
in your family circle, to pray God to outweigh that sorrow with a greater
measure of joy because, by his grace, he has brought other members of
your family to trust in Jesus.
Another thought strikes me here; that is, that it was when Naomi returned
to the land which she ought never to have left, it was when she came out
from the idolatrous Moabites among whom she had, as you see, relatives,
and friends, and acquaintances, — it was when she said, “I will go back to
my own country, and people, and God,” — that then the Lord gave her the
soul of this young woman who was so closely related to her. It may be that
some of you professedly Christian people have been living at a distance
from God. You have not led the separated life; you have tried to be
friendly with the world as well as with Christ, and your children are not
growing up as you wish they would. You say that your sons are not
turning out well, and that your girls are dressy, and flighty, and worldly.
Do you wonder that it is so? “Oh!” you say, “I have gone a good way to
try to please them, thinking that, perhaps, by so doing, I might win them
for Christ.” Ah! you will never win any soul to the right by a compromise
with the wrong. It is decision for Christ and his truth that has the greatest
power in the family, and the greatest power in the world, too. If a soldier in
the barracks is converted, and he says, “I mean to be a Christian; but, at the
same time, I will join with the other men as much as I can; I will sometimes
step into the public-house with them,” and so forth, he will do no good.
But the moment he boldly takes his stand for his new Captain, and is
known to be a Christian, his comrades may begin to scoff at him, but they
will also begin to be impressed; and if he bravely maintains that stand, and
never gives way in the least degree, but is faithful to his Lord and Master,
then he will be likely to see conversions among his fellow-soldiers.
It was while Naomi was on her way back to her own land that she heard
the good news that her dear daughter-in-law had decided to be a follower
of Jehovah, and to say, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my
God.” This gave her great joy; but how must some of you Christian people
feel when you find out that others have been caused to stumble through
your living at a distance from Christ? What pangs of remorse will seize you
when you discover that your arm has been paralyzed for good, that you
have been unable to lead others to the Savior, because you yourself were
living so far off from him that it was a serious question whether you were
not growing to be a worshipper of the Moabitish idols, and giving up
altogether your profession of being a follower of the one true God!
Now, with this as a preface, I come distinctly to the subject of the text.
Here is a young woman who says to a follower of Jehovah, “Thy people
shall be my people, and thy God my God.”
I. My first observation is, that AFFECTION FOR THE GODLY SHOULD
INFLUENCE US TO GODLINESS.
It did so in this case. Affection for their godly mother-in-law influenced
both Orpah and Ruth for a time, “and they said unto her, Surely we will
return with thee unto thy people.” They were both drawn part of the way
towards Canaan; but, alas!natural affection has not sufficient power in itself
to draw anybody to decision for God. It may be helpful to that end; it may
be one of the “cords of a man” and “bands of love” which God, in his
infinite mercy, ellen uses in drawing sinners to himself; but there has to be
something more than that mere human affection. Still, it ought to be of
some service in leading to decision; and it is a very dreadful thing when
those who have godly parents seem to be the worse rather than the better
for that fact, or when men, who have Christian wives, rebel against the
light, and become all the more wicked because God has blessed their
homes with godly women who speak to them, lovingly and tenderly,
concerning the claims of the religion of Jesus. That is a terrible state of
affairs, for it ought always to be the case that our affection for godly
people should help to draw us towards godliness. In Ruth’s case, by the
grace of God, it was the means of leading her to the decision expressed in
our text, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”
Many forces may be combined to bring others to this decision. First, there
is the influence of companionship. Nobody doubts that evil company tends
to make a man bad, and it is equally sure that good companionship has a
tendency to influence men towards that which is good. It is a happy thing
to have side by side with you one whose heart is full of love to God. It is a
great blessing to have as a mother a true saint, or to have as a brother or a
sister one who fears the Lord; and it is a special privilege to be linked for
life, in the closest bonds, with one whose prayers may rise with ours, and
whose praises may also mingle with ours. There is something about
Christian companionship which must tell in the right direction unless the
heart be resolutely bent on mischief.
There is something more than this, however, and that is, the influence of
admiration. There can be no doubt whatever that Ruth looked with loving
reverence and admiration upon Naomi, for she saw in her a character
which won her heart’s esteem and affection. The few glimpses which we
have of that godly woman, in this Book of Ruth, show us that she was a
most disinterested and unselfish person, not one who, because of her own
great sorrow, would burden others with it, and pull them down to her own
level in order that they might in some way assist her. She was one who
considered the interests of others rather than her own; and all such persons
are sure to win admiration and esteem. When a Christian man so lives that
others see something about him which they do not perceive in themselves,
that is one way in which they are often attracted towards the Christian life.
When the sick Christian is patient, when the poor Christian is cheerful,
when the believer in Christ is forgiving, generous, tenderhearted,
sympathetic, honest, upright, then it is that observers say, “Here is
something worth looking at; whence came all this excellence?” And they
take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus, and that they have
learnt these things of him; and in that way they are themselves inclined to
become his followers.
Nor is it only by companionship and admiration that people are won to the
Savior; there is also the influence of instruction. I have no doubt that
Naomi gave her daughter-in-law much helpful teaching. Ruth would want
to know about Naomi’s God, and Naomi would be only too glad to tell her
all she knew. When the Spaniards went over to South America, they
treated the poor natives so badly that the Indians did not wish to know
anything about the Spaniards’ god, for they thought, from the cruelties
they had suffered, that he must be a devil; and there are certain sorts of
professors who are so unkind, they have such an absence of everything
gentle and generous about them, that one does not want to know anything
about their god, for if they are like him, probably he is the devil.
But, dear friends, it ought not to be so with us. We should make people
want to know what our religion really is, and then be ready to tell them. I
have no doubt that, many a time, in the land of Moab, when her daughters-in-law ran in to see her, Naomi would begin telling them about the
deliverance at the Red Sea, and how the Lord brought his people through
the wilderness, and how the goodly land, which flowed with milk and
honey, had been given to them by the hand of Joshua. Then she would tell
them about the tabernacle and its worship, and talk to them about the lamb,
and the red heifer, and the bullock, and the sin-offering, and so on; and it
was thus, probably, that Ruth’s heart had been won to Jehovah the God of
Israel. And, perhaps, for that reason, — because of Naomi’s instruction, —
Ruth said to her, “‘Thy people shall be my people;’ I know so much about
them, that I want to be numbered with them; ‘and thy God shall be my
God.’ Thou hast told me about him, what wonders he has wrought, and I
have resolved to trust myself under the shadow of his wings.” Well,
beloved, it ought to be thus with us also. We should take care that the
influence of our companionship, the influence of our lives, in which there
should be something for observers to admire, and the influence of our
conversation, which should be full of gracious instruction, should lead
those who come under our influence in the right way.
Besides that, I have no doubt that some persons are drawn towards good
things by a desire to cheer the godly persons whom they love; and, though
I do not put this forward as one of the highest and strongest motives, yet I
do fee] at liberty to suggest to some young people here that their sins are a
great grief to their loving fathers and mothers, and that, if their hearts were
given to Christ, it would fill the whole house with holy joy. It was a great
joy to me when my sons were born, but it was an infinitely surpassing joy
as, one after the other, they told me that they had sought and found the
Savior. To pray with them, to point them yet more fully to Christ, to hear
the story of their spiritual troubles, and to help them out of their spiritual
difficulties, was an intense satisfaction to my soul. Ah! my young friends,
you do not know how much those who love you would be cheered if you
were converted, — especially any of you who have not lived as you should
have done, — who have, perhaps, even gone away from home, and acted
in a way that might well bring your father’s grey hairs in sorrow to the
grave. I think that he would almost dance with delight if he could only hear
that you were truly converted to God.
I know a minister, who took out of his pocket an old letter that was nearly worn to pieces; he made a journey from the country to bring it up for me to see. It was not really old, it was worn out because he had so constantly taken it out to read. It was somewhat to this effect. His son had been such a scapegrace, and such a disgrace to his family, that he was helped to go abroad, and he came to London to join the ship. As he had heard his father speak of me, he thought that he would spend his last Thursday night, before starting on the Friday morning, in hearing me in this Tabernacle; and here God met with him, for I was moved by the Holy Spirit to say, “Here you are, Jack; going away from home, from your father’s house. Oh, that the great Father in heaven would take you to himself!” It happened that his name was Jack, so it was the very word for him, and the Lord blessed it to him there and then. He went to America. He did not write to his father to tell him about his conversion till he had had time to prove the reality of it; but when he had
been baptized, and had joined the church, and walked consistently for six
months, he sent the good news home. The old man said, “I thought he
might have been lost at sea, but the Lord had saved him through your
preaching. God bless you, sir!” I had a thousand blessings heaped upon my
head by that grateful father. It was only a simple sermon that I had
preached on a Thursday night, but it was the means of that son’s
conversion, and it was the source of great joy to that father, he did not
mind about his son being in America, or what he was doing, so long as he
had become a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a mercy it would
be if this sermon should be blessed as that one was!
I think, too, that there was another thing which had great influence over
Ruth, as it has had over a great many other people. That is, the fear of
separation. “Ah!” said one to me, only last week, “it used to trouble me
greatly when my wife went downstairs to the communion, and I had to go
home, or to remain with the spectators in the gallery. I did not like to be
separated from her even here; and then, sir, the thought stole over me, ‘
What if I have to be divided from her for ever and ever?’“ I think that a?382
similar reflection ought, with the blessing of God, to impress a good many.
Young man, if you live and die impenitent, you will see your mother no
more, except it be from an awful distance, with a great gulf fixed between
her and you, so that she cannot cross over to you, or you go over to her.
There will come a day when one shall be taken and another left; and before
the great separation takes place, at the judgment-seat of Christ, when there
shall be a sundering made between the goats and the sheep, and between
the tares and the wheat, I do implore you to let the influence of the godly
whom you love help to draw you towards decision for God and his Christ.
II. My time would fail me if I dwelt longer on this point, though it is a
very interesting one, so I must pass on to my second observation, which is,
that RESOLVES TO GODLINESS WILL BE TESTED. Ruth speaks very positively:
“Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” This was her
resolve, but it was a resolve which had already been put to the test, and
had in great measure satisfactorily passed through it.
First, it had been tested by the poverty and the sorrow of her mother-in-law.
Naomi said, “The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me;” yet Ruth
says, “Thy God shall be my God.” I like that brave resolution of the young
Moabitess. Some people say, “We should like to be converted, for we want
to be happy.” Yes, but suppose you knew that you would not be happy
after conversion, you ought still to wish to have this God to be your God.
Naomi has lost her husband, she has lost her sons, she has lost everything;
she is going back penniless to Bethlehem, and yet her daughter-in-law says
to her, “Thy God shall be my God.” Oh, dear friends, if you can share the
lot of Christians when they are in trouble, if you can take God and
affliction, if you can accept Christ and a cross, then your decision to be his
follower is true and real. It has been tested by the afflictions and the trials
which you know belong to the people of God, yet you are content to suffer
with them in taking their God to be your God, too.
Next, Ruth’s decision had been tested when she was bidden to count the
cost. Naomi had put the whole case before her. She had told her daughter-in-
law that there was no hope that she should ever bear a son who could
become a husband to Ruth, and that she had better stay and find a husband
in her own land. She set before her the dark side of the case, — possibly
too earnestly. She seemed as if she wanted to persuade her to go back,
though I do not think that, in her heart, she could really have wished her to
do so. But, my young friend, before you say to any Christian, “Thy people
shall be my people, and thy God my God,” count the cost. Recollect, if you
are following an evil trade, you will have to give it up; if you have formed
bad habits, you will have to forsake them; and if you have had bad
companions, you will have to leave them. There are a great many things,
which have afforded you pleasure, which must become painful to you, and
must be renounced. Are you prepared to follow Christ through the mire
and the slough, as well as along the high road, and down in the valley as
well as up upon the hills? Are you ready to carry his cross as you hope,
afterwards, to share his crown? If you can stand the test in detail, — such a
test as Christ set before those who wanted to be his followers on earth,
then is your decision a right one, but not else.
Ruth had been tried, too, by the apparent coldness of one in whom she
trusted, and whom she had a right to trust, for Naomi did not at all
encourage her; indeed, she seemed to discourage her. I am not sure that
Naomi is to be blamed for that, and I am not certain that she is to be much
praised. You know, it is quite possible for you to encourage people too
much. I have known some encouraged in their doubts and fears till they
never could get out of them. At the same time, you can certainly very
easily chill enquirers and seekers. And though Naomi showed her love to
Ruth, yet she did not seem to have any very great desire to bring her to
follow Jehovah. This is a test that many young people find to be very
trying; but this young woman said to her mother-in-law, “Intreat me not to
leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I
will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God.”
Another trial for Ruth was the drawing back of her sister-in-law. Orpah
kissed Naomi, and left her; and you know the influence of one young
person upon another when they are of the same age, or when they are
related as these two were. You went to the revival meeting with a friend,
and she was as much impressed as you were. She has gone back to the
world, and the temptation is for you to do the same. Can you stand out
against it? You two young men went to hear the same preacher, and you
both felt the force of the Word; but your companion has gone back to
where he used to be. Can you hold out now, and say, “I will follow Christ
alone if I cannot find a companion to go with me?” If so, it is well with
you.
“Can ye cleave to your Lord?
Can ye cleave to your Lord,
When the many turn aside?
Can ye witness he hath the living Word,
And none upon earth beside?
And can ye endure with the virgin band,
The lowly and pure in heart,
Who, whithersoever the Lamb doth lead,
From his footsteps ne’er depart?
“Do ye answer, ‘We can’? Do ye answer, ‘We can,
Through his love’s constraining power’?
But, ah! remember the flesh is weak,
And will shrink in the trial-hour.
Yet yield to his love, who round you now,
The bands of a man would cast;
The cords of his love, who was given for you,
To the altar binding you fast.”
But one of the worst trials that Ruth had was the silence of Naomi. I think
that is what is meant, for after she had solemnly declared that she would
follow the Lord, we read, “When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to
go with her, then she left speaking unto her.” She left off stating the black
side of the case, but she does not appear to have talked to her about the
bright side. “She left speaking unto her.” The good woman was so
sorrowful that she could not talk, her heart-break was so great that she
could not converse, but such silence must have been very trying to Ruth;
and when a young person has just joined the people of God, it is a severe
test to be brought face to face with a very mournful Christian, and not to
get one encouraging word. Sometimes, brethren and sisters, we must
swallow our own bitter pills as fast as ever we can, that we may not
discourage others by making a wry face over them. It is sometimes the very
best thing a sorrowful person can do to say, “I must not be sad; here is
young So-and-so coming in. I must be cheerful now, for here comes one
who might be discouraged by my grief.”
You remember how the psalmist, when he was in a very mournful state of mind, said, “If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.” Let it be too painful for us to give any cause for stumbling or disquietude to those who have just come to the Savior, but let us cheer and encourage them all we can. Still, Naomi’s silence did not discourage Ruth; she was evidently a strong-minded though gentle young woman, and she gave herself up to God and his people without any reserve. Even though she might not be helped much by the older believer, and might even be discouraged by her, and still more by the departure of her sister-in-law Orpah, yet still she pressed on in the course she had chosen. Well, you do the same, Mary; and you, Jane, and John, and Thomas. Will you be like Mr. Pliable, and go back to the City of Destruction? Or will you, like Christian, pursue your way, and steadfastly hold on through the Slough of Despond, or whatever else may be in your pathway to the Celestial City?
III. Now, thirdly, and very briefly, TRUE GODLINESS MUST MAINLY LIE INTHE CHOICE OF GOD. That is the very pith of the text: “Thy God shall be my God.”
First, dear friends, God is the believer’s choicest possession; indeed, it is
the distinguishing mark of a Christian that he owns a God. Naomi had not
much else, — no husband, no son, no lands, no gold, no silver, no pleasure
even; but she had a God. Come, now, my friend, are you determined that,
henceforth, and for ever, the Lord shall be your chief possession? Can you
say, “God shall be mine; my faith shall grasp him now, and hold him fast?”
Next, God was, henceforth, to Ruth, as he had been to Naomi, her Ruler
and Law-giver. When anyone truthfully says, “God shall be my God,” there
is some practical meaning about that declaration; it means, “he shall
influence me; he shall direct me; he shall lead me; he shall govern me; he
shall be my King. I will yield to him and obey him in everything. I will
endeavor to do all things according to his will. God shall be my God.”
You must not want to take God to be your helper, in the sense of making him to be your servant; but to be your Master, and so to help you. Dear friends,
does the Holy Spirit lead you to make this blessed choice, and to declare,
“This God shall be mine, my Law-giver and Ruler from this time forth ?”
Well, then, he must also be your Instructor. At the present day, I am afraid
that nine people out of ten do not believe in the God who is revealed to us
in the Bible. “What?” you say. It is so, I grieve to say. I can point you to
newspapers, to magazines, to periodicals, and also to pulpits by the score,
in which there is a new god set up to be worshipped; — not the God of the
Old Testament, he is said to be too strict, too severe, too stern for our
modern teachers. They do not believe in him. The God of Abraham is
dethroned by many nowadays; and in his place they have a molluscous god,
like those of whom Moses spoke, “new gods that came newly up, whom
your fathers feared not.” They shudder at the very mention of the God of
the Puritans. If Jonathan Edwards were to rise from the dead, they would
not listen to him for a minute, they would say that they had quite a new
god since his day; but, brethren, I believe in the God of Abraham, and of
Isaac, and of Jacob; this God is my God; — ay, the God that drowned
Pharaoh and his host at the Red Sea, and moved his people to sing
“Hallelujah” as he did it; the God that caused the earth to open, and
swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and all their company; — a
terrible God is the God whom I adore; — he is the God and Father of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, full of mercy, compassion, and grace, tender
and gentle, yet just and dreadful in his holiness, and terrible out of his holy
places. This is the God whom we worship, and he who comes to him in
Christ, and trusts in him, will take him to be his Instructor, and so shall he
learn aright all that he needs to know. But woe unto the men of this day,
who have made unto themselves a calf of their own devising, which has no
power to bless or to save them! “Thy God” says Ruth to Naomi, — not
another god, — not Chemosh or Moloch, but Jehovah — “shall be my
God;” and so she took him to be her Instructor, as we also must do.
Then, let us take him to be our entire trust and stay. O my beloved friends,
the happiest thing in life is to trust God, — first to trust him with your soul
through Jesus Christ the Savior, and then to trust him with everything, and
in everything. I am speaking what I do know. The life of sense is death, but
the life of faith is life indeed. Trust God about temporals, — nay, I do not
know any division between temporals and spirituals; — trust God about
everything, about your daily livelihood, about your health, about your wife,
about your children; live a life of faith in God, and you will truly live, and
all things will be right about you. It is because we get partly trusting God
and partly trusting ourselves that we are often so unhappy. But when, by
simple faith, you just cast yourselves on God, then you find the highest joy
and bliss that is possible on earth, and a whole series of wonders is spread
out before you; your life becomes like a miracle, or a succession of
miracles, God hearing your prayers, and answering you out of heaven,
delivering you in the time of trial, supplying your every need, and leading
you ever onward by a matchless way which you know not, which every
moment shall cause you greater astonishment and delight as you see the
unfoldings of the character of God. Oh, that each one of you would say,?387
“This God shall be my God; I will trust him; by his grace, I will trust him
now.”
IV. The last thing is, that THIS DECISION SHOULD LEAD US TO CAST IN OUR LOT WITH GOD’S PEOPLE AS WELL AS WITH HIMSELF, for Ruth said, “Thy people shall be my people.”
She might have said, “You are not well spoken of, you Jews, you Israelites;
the Moabites, among whom I have lived, hate you.” But, in effect, she said,
“I am no Moabitess now. I am going to belong to Israel, and to be spoken
against, too. They have all manner of bad things to say in Moab about
Bethlehem-Judah; but I do not mind that, for I am going to be henceforth
an inhabitant of Bethlehem, and to be reckoned in the number of the
Bethlehemites, for no longer am I of Moab and the Moabites.”
Now, dear friend, will you thus cast in your lot with God’s people; and
though they are spoken against, will you be willing to be spoken against,
too? I daresay that the Bethlehemites were not all that Ruth could have
wished them to be. Even Naomi was not; she was too sad and sorrowful;
but, still, I expect that Ruth thought that her mother-in-law was a better
woman than she was herself. I have heard people find fault with the
members of our churches, and say that they cannot join with them, for they
are such inferior sort of people. Well, I know a great many different sorts
of people; and, after all, I shall be quite content to be numbered with God’s
people, as I see them even in his visible church, rather than to be numbered
with any other persons in the whole world. I count the despised people of
God the best company I have ever met with; and I often say of this
Tabernacle, as I hope members of other churches can say of their own
places of worship, —
“Here my best friends, my kindred dwell,
Here God my Savior reigns.”
“Oh!”says one, “I will join the church when I can find a perfect one.” Then
you will never join any. “Ah!” you say, “but perhaps I may.” Well, but it
will not be a perfect church the moment after you have joined it, for it will
cease to be perfect as soon as it receives you into its membership. I think
that, if a church is such as Christ can love, it is such as I can love; and if it
is such that Christ counts it as his Church, I may well be thankful to be a
member of it. Christ “loved the Church, and gave himself for it; “then may
I not think it an honor to be allowed to give myself to it??
Ruth was not joining a people out of whom she expected to get much.
Shame on those who think to join the church for what they can get! Yet
the loaves and fishes are always a bait for some people. But there was
Ruth, going with Naomi to Bethlehem, and all that the townsfolk would do
would be to turn out and stare at them, and say, “Is this Naomi? And pray
who is this young woman that has come with her? This Naomi, — dear
me! How altered she is! How worn she looks! Quite the old woman to
what she was when she left us.” Not much sympathy was given to them, as
far as I gather from that remark; yet Ruth seemed to say, “I do not care
how they treat me; they are God’s people, even if they have a great many
faults and imperfections, and I am going to join them.” And I invite all of
you who can say to us, “Your God is our God,” to join with the people of
God, openly, visibly, manifestly, decidedly, without any hesitancy, even
though you may gain nothing by it. Perhaps you will not; but, on the other
hand, you will bring a good deal to it, for that is the true spirit of Christ. “It
is more blessed to give than to receive.” Yet, in any case, cast in your lot
with the people of God, and share and share alike with them.
I conclude by saying that, whatever the other Bethlehemites might be, there
was among them one notable being, and it was worth while to join the
nation for the sake of union with him. Ruth found it all out by degrees.
There was a near kinsman among those people, and his name was Boaz.
She went to glean in his field; and, by-and-by, she was married to him. Ah!
that was the reason why I cast in my lot with the people of God, for I said
to myself, “There is One among them who, whatever faults they may have,
is so fair and lovely that he more than makes up for all their imperfections.
My Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of his people, makes them all fair in his
fairness; and makes me feel that, to be poor with the poorest and most
illiterate of the Church of Christ, meeting in a village barn, is an
unspeakable honor, since he is among them.” Our Lord Jesus Christ
himself is always present wherever two or three are gathered together in
his name. If his name is in the list, there may be a number of odds and ends
put down with him, — members of different denominations, some queer
persons, some very old people; but as long as his name is in the list, I do
not mind about what others are there, put my name down. Oh, that I might
have the eternal honor of having it written even at the bottom of the page
beneath the name of Jesus, my Lord, the Lamb! As Boaz was there, it was
enough for Ruth; and as Christ is here, that is quite enough for me. So I
hope I have said sufficient to persuade you, who say that our God is yours
God, to come and join with us, or with some other part of Christ’s Church,
and so to make his people to be your people. And mind you do it at once,
and in the Scriptural fashion, and God bless you in the doing of it, for
Christ’s sake! Amen.
Hymn for Today:
“In Thee Is Gladness” by Johann Lindemann; trans. by Catherine Winkworth
1. In thee is gladness, amid all sadness,
Jesus, sunshine of my heart.
By thee are given the gifts of heaven,
thou the true Redeemer art.
Our souls thou makest, our bonds thou breakest;
who trusts thee surely hath built securely,
and stands forever. Alleluia!
Our hearts are pining to see thy shining;
dying or living, to thee are cleaving;
naught can us sever. Alleluia!
2. If God be ours, we fear no powers,
not of earth or sin or death.
God sees and blesses in worst distresses,
and can change them in a breath.
Wherefore the story tell of God’s glory
with heart and voices; all heaven rejoices,
singing forever; Alleluia!
We shout for gladness, triumph o’er sadness,
loving and praising, voices still raising
glad hymns forever: Alleluia!
Through the Bible in One Year:
Judges 11 to 20
1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior. He was a prostitute’s son. Gilead was Jephthah’s father,
2 but Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and the sons of this wife, when they grew up, drove Jephthah away, saying, ‘No share of the paternal heritage for you, since you are a son of another woman.’
3 Jephthah fled far from his brothers and settled in the territory of Tob. Jephthah enlisted a group of adventurers who used to go raiding with him.
4 It was some time after this that the Ammonites made war on Israel.
5 And when the Ammonites had attacked Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah from the territory of Tob.
6 ‘Come’, they said, ‘and be our commander, so that we can fight the Ammonites.’
7 Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, ‘Didn’t you hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why come to me now, when you are in trouble?’
8 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, ‘That is why we are turning to you now. Come with us; fight the Ammonites and be our chief, chief of all the people living in Gilead.’
9 Jephthah then said to the elders of Gilead, ‘If you bring me home to fight the Ammonites and Yahweh defeats them for me, I am to be your chief?’
10 And the elders of Gilead then said to Jephthah, ‘Yahweh be witness between us, if we do not do as you have said!’
11 So Jephthah set off with the elders of Gilead. The people put him at their head as chief and commander; and Jephthah repeated all his conditions at Mizpah in Yahweh’s presence.
12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to say to him, ‘What do you have against us, for you to come and make war on my country?’
13 The king of the Ammonites replied to Jephthah’s messengers, ‘The reason is that when Israel came up from Egypt, they seized my country from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; so now restore it to me peacefully.’
14 Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of the Ammonites
15 with this answer, ‘Jephthah says this, “Israel seized neither the country of Moab nor the country of the Ammonites.
16 When Israel came out of Egypt, they marched through the desert as far as the Sea of Reeds and, having reached Kadesh,
17 Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom to say: Please let me pass through your country, but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent similarly to the king of Moab, but he refused, and Israel remained at Kadesh;
18 later, moving on through the desert and skirting the countries of Edom and Moab until arriving to the east of Moabite territory, the people camped on the other side of the Arnon but did not enter Moabite territory, the Arnon being the Moabite frontier.
19 Israel then sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, ruling in Heshbon. Israel’s message was: Please let me pass through your country to my destination.
20 But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory; he mustered his whole army; they encamped at Jahaz, and he then joined battle with Israel.
21 Yahweh, God of Israel, delivered Sihon and his whole army into the power of Israel, who defeated them; as the result of which, Israel took possession of the entire territory of the Amorites living in that region.
22 Israel took possession of all the Amorite territory from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.
23 And now that Yahweh, God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites before his people Israel, do you think you can dispossess us?
24 Will you not keep as your possession whatever Chemosh, your god, has given you? And, just the same, we shall keep as ours whatever Yahweh our God has given us, to inherit from those who were before us!
25 Are you a better man than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he pick a quarrel with Israel? Did he make war on them?
26 When Israel settled in Heshbon and its dependencies, and in Aroer and its dependencies, or in any of the towns on the banks of the Arnon (three hundred years ago), why did you not recover them then?
27 I for my part have done you no harm, but you are wronging me by making war on me. Let Yahweh the Judge give judgement today between the Israelites and the king of the Ammonites.” ‘
28 But the king of the Ammonites took no notice of the message that Jephthah sent him.
29 The spirit of Yahweh was on Jephthah, who crossed Gilead and Manasseh, crossed by way of Mizpah in Gilead, and from Mizpah in Gilead crossed into Ammonite territory.
30 And Jephthah made a vow to Yahweh, ‘If you deliver the Ammonites into my grasp,
31 the first thing to come out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from fighting the Ammonites shall belong to Yahweh, and I shall sacrifice it as a burnt offering.’
32 Jephthah crossed into Ammonite territory to attack them, and Yahweh delivered them into his grasp.
33 He beat them from Aroer to the border of Minnith (twenty towns) and to Abel-Keramim. It was a very severe defeat, and the Ammonites were humbled by the Israelites.
34 As Jephthah returned to his house at Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him, dancing to the sound of tambourines. She was his only child; apart from her, he had neither son nor daughter.
35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and exclaimed, ‘Oh my daughter, what misery you have brought upon me! You have joined those who bring misery into my life! I have made a promise before Yahweh which I cannot retract.’
36 She replied, ‘Father, you have made a promise to Yahweh; treat me as the promise that you have made requires, since Yahweh has granted you vengeance on your enemies the Ammonites.’
37 She then said to her father, ‘Grant me this! Let me be free for two months. I shall go and wander in the mountains, and with my companions bewail my virginity.’
38 He replied, ‘Go,’ and let her go away for two months. So she went away with her companions and bewailed her virginity in the mountains.
39 When the two months were over she went back to her father, and he treated her as the vow that he had uttered bound him. She had remained a virgin. And hence, the custom in Israel
40 for the daughters of Israel to leave home year by year and lament over the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days every year.
1 The men of Ephraim mobilised; they crossed the Jordan near Zaphon and said to Jephthah, ‘Why did you go and make war on the Ammonites without asking us to go with you? We shall burn down your house over your head!’
2 Jephthah replied, ‘My people and I were in serious conflict with the Ammonites. I summoned you, but you did not come to rescue me from them.
3 When I saw that no one was coming to rescue me, I took my life in my hands and marched against the Ammonites, and Yahweh handed them over to me. So why advance on me today to make war on me?’
4 Jephthah then mustered all the men of Gilead and made war on Ephraim, and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim — since the latter used to say, ‘You are only fugitives from Ephraim, you Gileadites in the heart of Ephraim and Manasseh.’
5 Gilead then cut Ephraim off from the fords of the Jordan, and whenever Ephraimite fugitives said, ‘Let me cross,’ the men of Gilead would ask, ‘Are you an Ephraimite?’ If he said, ‘No,’
6 they then said, ‘Very well, say Shibboleth.’ If anyone said, “Sibboleth”, because he could not pronounce it, then they would seize him and kill him by the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell on this occasion.
7 Jephthah judged Israel for six years. Jephthah the Gileadite then died and was buried in his town, in Gilead.
8 After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem was judge in Israel.
9 He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters in marriage outside his clan and brought in thirty brides from outside for his sons. He was judge in Israel for seven years.
10 Ibzan then died and was buried in Bethlehem.
11 After him, Elon of Zebulun was judge in Israel. He was judge in Israel for ten years.
12 Elon of Zebulun then died and was buried at Aijalon in the territory of Zebulun.
13 After him, Abdon son of Hillel of Pirathon was judge in Israel.
14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode seventy young donkeys. He was judge in Israel for eight years.
15 Abdon son of Hillel of Pirathon then died and was buried at Pirathon in the territory of Ephraim, in the Amalekite highlands.
1 Again the Israelites began doing what is evil in Yahweh’s eyes, and Yahweh delivered them into the power of the Philistines for forty years.
2 There was a man of Zorah of the tribe of Dan, called Manoah. His wife was barren; she had borne no children.
3 The Angel of Yahweh appeared to this woman and said to her, ‘You are barren and have had no child, but you are going to conceive and give birth to a son.
4 From now on, take great care. Drink no wine or fermented liquor, and eat nothing unclean.
5 For you are going to conceive and give birth to a son. No razor is to touch his head, for the boy is to be God’s nazirite from his mother’s womb; and he will start rescuing Israel from the power of the Philistines.’
6 The woman then went and told her husband, ‘A man of God has just come to me, who looked like the Angel of God, so majestic was he. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.
7 But he said to me, “You are going to conceive and will give birth to a son. From now on, drink no wine or fermented liquor, and eat nothing unclean. For the boy is to be God’s nazirite from his mother’s womb to his dying day.” ‘
8 Manoah then pleaded with Yahweh and said, ‘I beg you, Lord, let the man of God that you sent come to us again and instruct us what to do about the child when he is born.’
9 Yahweh heard Manoah’s prayer, and the Angel of Yahweh visited the woman again while she was sitting in a field and when her husband Manoah was not with her.
10 The woman quickly ran and told her husband, ‘Look,’ she said, ‘the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again.’
11 Manoah got up, followed his wife, came to the man and said to him, ‘Are you the man who spoke to this woman?’ He replied, ‘I am.’
12 Manoah then said, ‘When your words come true, what will be the boy’s way of life?’
13 The Angel of Yahweh replied to Manoah, ‘From everything that I forbade this woman, let her abstain.
14 Let her swallow nothing that comes from the vine, let her drink no wine or fermented liquor, let her eat nothing unclean and let her obey all the orders that I have given her.’
15 Manoah then said to the Angel of Yahweh, ‘Allow us to detain you while we prepare a kid for you’ — for Manoah did not know that this was the Angel of Yahweh.
16 The Angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, ‘Even if you did detain me, I should not eat your food; but if you wish to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to Yahweh.’
17 Manoah then said to the Angel of Yahweh, ‘What is your name, so that we may honour you when your words come true?’
18 The Angel of Yahweh replied, ‘Why ask my name? It is a name of wonder.’
19 Manoah then took the kid and the oblation and offered it on the rock as a burnt offering to Yahweh the Wonderworker. Manoah and his wife looked on.
20 Now, as the flame rose heavenwards from the altar, the Angel of Yahweh ascended in this flame before the eyes of Manoah and his wife, and they fell face downwards on the ground.
21 After this, the Angel of Yahweh did not appear any more to Manoah and his wife, but Manoah understood that this had been the Angel of Yahweh.
22 And Manoah said to his wife, ‘We are certain to die, because we have seen God.’
23 His wife replied, ‘If Yahweh had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and oblation from us, he would not have let us see all this and, at the same time, have told us such things.’
24 The woman gave birth to a son and called him Samson. The child grew, and Yahweh blessed him;
25 and the spirit of Yahweh began to stir him in the Camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
1 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he noticed a woman, a Philistine girl.
2 He went home again and told his father and mother this. ‘At Timnah’, he said, ‘I noticed a woman, a Philistine girl. So now get her for me, to be my wife.’
3 His father and mother said to him, ‘Is there no woman among your brothers’ daughters or in our entire nation, for you to go and take a wife among these uncircumcised Philistines?’ But Samson said to his father, ‘Get that one for me; she is the one I am for me; she is the one I am fond of.’
4 His father and mother did not know that all this came from Yahweh, who was seeking grounds for a quarrel with the Philistines, since at this time the Philistines dominated Israel.
5 Samson went down to Timnah and, as he reached the vineyards of Timnah, he saw a young lion coming roaring towards him.
6 The spirit of Yahweh seized on him and he tore the lion to pieces with his bare hands as though it were a kid; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
7 He went down and talked to the woman, and he became fond of her.
8 Not long after this, Samson went back to marry her. He went out of his way to look at the carcase of the lion, and there was a swarm of bees in the lion’s body, and honey.
9 He took up some honey in his hand and ate it as he went along. On returning to his father and mother, he gave some to them, which they ate too, but he did not tell them that he had taken it from the lion’s carcase.
10 His father then went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, as is the custom for young men.
11 And when the Philistines saw him, they chose thirty companions to stay with him.
12 Samson then said to them, ‘Let me ask you a riddle. If you can give me the answer during the seven days of feasting, I shall give you thirty pieces of fine linen and thirty festal robes.
13 But if you cannot tell me the answer, then you in your turn must give me thirty pieces of fine linen and thirty festal robes.’ ‘Ask your riddle,’ they replied, ‘we are listening.’
14 So he said to them: Out of the eater came what is eaten, and out of the strong came what is sweet. But three days went by and they could not solve the riddle.
15 On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, ‘Cajole your husband into explaining the riddle to us, or we shall burn you and your father’s family to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?’
16 Samson’s wife then went to him in tears and said, ‘You only hate me, you do not love me. You have asked my fellow countrymen a riddle and told not even me the answer.’ He said to her, ‘I have not told even my father or mother; why should I tell you?’
17 She wept on his neck for the seven days that their feasting lasted. She was so persistent that on the seventh day he told her the answer, and she told her fellow-countrymen.
18 So on the seventh day, before he went into the bedroom, the men of the town said to him: What is sweeter than honey, and what stronger than a lion? He retorted: If you had not ploughed with my heifer, you would never have solved my riddle.
19 Then the spirit of Yahweh seized on him. He went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty men there, took what they wore and gave the festal robes to those who had answered the riddle, then burning with rage returned to his father’s house.
20 Samson’s wife was then given to the companion who had acted as his best man.
1 Not long after this, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, with a kid; he said, ‘I wish to go to my wife in her room.’ But her father would not let him enter.
2 ‘I felt sure’, he said, ‘that you had taken a real dislike to her, so I gave her to your companion. But would not her younger sister suit you better? Have her instead.’
3 But Samson answered them, ‘I can get my revenge on the Philistines now only by doing them some damage.’
4 So Samson went off and caught three hundred foxes, then took torches and, turning the foxes tail to tail, put a torch between each pair of tails.
5 He lit the torches and set the foxes free in the Philistines’ cornfields. In this way he burned both sheaves and standing corn, and the vines and olive trees as well.
6 The Philistines asked, ‘Who has done this?’ and received the answer, ‘Samson, who married the Timnite’s daughter; his father-in-law took the wife back again and gave her to his companion instead.’ The Philistines then went and burned the woman and her father’s family to death.
7 Samson said to them, ‘If that is how you behave, I swear I will not rest till I have had my revenge on you.’
8 And he fell on them systematically and caused great havoc. Then he went down to the cave in the Rock of Etham and lived there.
9 The Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a foray against Lehi.
10 The men of Judah said to them, ‘Why are you attacking us?’ They replied, ‘We have come to seize Samson and to treat him as he has treated us.’
11 Three thousand men of Judah then went down to the cave of the Rock of Etham and said to him, ‘Don’t you know that the Philistines have us in their power? Now what have you done to us?’ He replied, ‘I have treated them only as they treated me.’
12 They then said, ‘We have come down to take you, to hand you over to the Philistines.’ He said, ‘Swear to me not to kill me yourselves.’
13 They replied, ‘No; we only want to bind you and hand you over to them; we certainly do not want to kill you.’ They then bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the Rock.
14 As he was approaching Lehi, and the Philistines came running towards him with triumphant shouts, the spirit of Yahweh was on him; the ropes on his arms became like burnt strands of flax and the cords round his hands came untied.
15 Coming across the fresh jawbone of a donkey, he reached out and snatched it up; and with it he slaughtered a thousand men.
16 And Samson said: With the jawbone of a donkey I have laid them in heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have felled a thousand men.
17 And with that he hurled the jawbone away; and that is why the place was called Ramath-Lehi.
18 And as he was very thirsty, he called on Yahweh and said, ‘You yourself have worked this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now must I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?’
19 Then God opened a hollow in the ground, the hollow there is at Lehi, and water gushed out of it. Samson drank; his vigour returned and he revived. And therefore this spring was called En-ha-Kore; it is still at Lehi today.
20 Samson was judge in Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.
1 Samson then went to Gaza and, seeing a prostitute there, went in to her.
2 The men of Gaza being told, ‘Samson has arrived,’ surrounded the place and kept watch for him the whole night at the town gate. All that night they were going to make no move, thinking, ‘Let us wait until daybreak, and then kill him.’
3 Till midnight, however, Samson stayed in bed, and then at midnight he got up, seized the doors of the town gate and the two posts as well; he tore them up, bar and all, hoisted them on to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill overlooking Hebron.
4 After this, he fell in love with a woman in the Vale of Sorek; she was called Delilah.
5 The Philistine chiefs visited her and said, ‘Cajole him and find out where his great strength comes from, and how we can master him, so that we can bind him and subdue him. In return we shall each give you eleven hundred silver shekels.’
6 Delilah said to Samson, ‘Please tell me where your great strength comes from, and what would be needed to bind and subdue you.’
7 Samson replied, ‘If I were bound with seven new bowstrings which had not yet been dried, I should lose my strength and become like any other man.’
8 The Philistine chiefs brought Delilah seven new bowstrings which had not yet been dried and she took them and bound him with them.
9 She had men concealed in her room, and she shouted, ‘The Philistines are on you, Samson!’ Then he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of tow snaps at a touch of the fire. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.
10 Delilah then said to Samson, ‘You have been laughing at me and telling me lies. But now please tell me what would be needed to bind you.’
11 He replied, ‘If I were bound tightly with new ropes which have never been used, I should lose my strength and become like any other man.’
12 Delilah then took new ropes and bound him with them, and she shouted, ‘The Philistines are on you, Samson!’ She had men concealed in her room, but he snapped the ropes round his arms like thread.
13 Delilah then said to Samson, ‘Up to now you have been laughing at me and telling me lies. Tell me what would be needed to bind you.’ He replied, ‘If you wove the seven locks of my hair into the warp of a cloth and beat them together tight with the reed, I should lose my strength and become like any other man.’
14 She lulled him to sleep, then wove the seven locks of his hair into the warp, beat them together tight with the reed and shouted, ‘The Philistines are on you, Samson!’ He woke from his sleep and pulled out both reed and warp. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.
15 Delilah said to him, ‘How can you say that you love me, when your heart is not with me? Three times now you have laughed at me and have not told me where your great strength comes from.’
16 And day after day she pestered him with her talk, nagging him till he grew sick to death of it.
17 At last he confided everything to her; he said to her, ‘A razor has never touched my head, because I have been God’s nazirite from my mother’s womb. If my head were shorn, then my power would leave me and I should lose my strength and become like any other man.’
18 Delilah then realized that he had really confided in her; she sent for the Philistine princes with the message, ‘Come just once more: he has confided everything to me.’ And the Philistine chiefs came to her with the money in their hands.
19 She lulled Samson to sleep in her lap, summoned a man and had him shear off the seven locks from his head. Thus for the first time she got control over him, and his strength left him.
20 She cried, ‘The Philistines are on you, Samson!’ He awoke from sleep, thinking, ‘I shall break free as I have done time after time and shake myself clear.’ But he did not know that Yahweh had left him.
21 The Philistines seized him, put out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. They fettered him with a double chain of bronze and he spent his time turning the mill in the prison.
22 But his hair began to grow again when it had been cut off.
23 The Philistine chiefs assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god. And amid their festivities they said: Into our hands our god has delivered Samson our enemy.
24 And as soon as the people saw their god, they acclaimed him, shouting his praises: Into our hands our god has delivered Samson our enemy, the man who laid our country waste and killed so many of us.
25 And as their hearts were full of joy, they shouted, ‘Summon Samson out to amuse us.’ So Samson was summoned from prison, and he performed feats in front of them; then he was put to stand between the pillars.
26 Samson then said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, ‘Lead me where I can touch the pillars supporting the building, so that I can lean against them.’
27 Now the building was crowded with men and women. All the Philistine chiefs were there, while about three thousand men and women were watching Samson’s feats from the terrace.
28 Samson called on Yahweh and cried out, ‘Lord Yahweh, I beg you, remember me; give me strength again this once, O God, and let me be revenged on the Philistines at one blow for my two eyes.’
29 And Samson took hold of the two central pillars supporting the building, and braced himself with his right arm round one and his left round the other;
30 and he shouted, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ He then heaved with all his might, and the building fell on the chiefs and on all the people there. Those whom he brought to their death by his death outnumbered those whom he had done to death during his life.
31 His brothers and the whole of his father’s family came down and carried him away. They took him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel for twenty years.
1 In the highlands of Ephraim there was a man called Micayehu.
2 He said to his mother, ‘The eleven hundred silver shekels which were taken from you and concerning which you uttered a curse, having said in my hearing . . . Look, I have got that silver. I was the one who took it.’ His mother said, ‘May Yahweh bless my boy!’
3 He gave the eleven hundred shekels back to his mother, who said, ‘I have indeed vowed to give this silver to Yahweh for my son, to have a statue carved and an idol cast in metal, but now I should like to give it back to you.’ He, however, returned the money to his mother.
4 His mother then took two hundred silver shekels and gave them to the metalworker. With them, he carved a statue (and cast an idol in metal) which was put in Micayehu’s house.
5 This man Micah owned a shrine; he made an ephod and some domestic images, and installed one of his sons to be his priest.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did as he saw fit.
7 There was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah, who was a Levite and resided there as a stranger.
8 This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to settle wherever he could find a home. On his travels he came to the highlands of Ephraim and to Micah’s house.
9 Micah asked him, ‘Where do you come from?’ The other replied, ‘I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am travelling, and am going to settle wherever I can find a home.’
10 Micah said to him, ‘Stay here with me; be my father and priest and I shall give you ten silver shekels a year, and clothing and food.’
11 The Levite agreed to remain in the man’s house, and the young man became like one of his sons to him.
12 Micah installed the Levite; the young man became Micah’s priest and stayed in his house.
13 And Micah said, ‘Now I know that Yahweh will treat me well, since I have this Levite as priest.’
1 In those days there was no king in Israel. Now in those days the tribe of Dan was in search of a territory to live in, for until then no territory had fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.
2 From their clan the Danites sent five brave men from Zorah and Eshtaol to reconnoitre the country and explore it. They said to them, ‘Go and explore the country.’ The five men came to the highlands of Ephraim, as far as Micah’s house, and spent the night there.
3 When they were near Micah’s house, they recognised the voice of the young Levite and, going nearer, said to him, ‘Who brought you here? What are you doing here? What is keeping you here?’
4 He replied, ‘Micah has made certain arrangements with me. He pays me a wage and I act as his priest.’
5 They replied, ‘Then consult God, so that we may know whether the journey we are on will lead to success.’
6 The priest replied, ‘Go in peace; Yahweh is watching over your journey.’
7 The five men then left and, arriving at Laish, saw that the people living there had an untroubled existence, according to the customs of the Sidonians, peaceful and trusting, that there was no lack or shortage of any sort in the territory, that they were a long way away from the Sidonians and that they had no contact with the Aramaeans.
8 They then went back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol and, when the latter asked them, ‘What have you to report?’
9 they said, ‘Up! we must go against them, since we have looked at the country and it is excellent, though you take no action! Waste no time in setting out and taking possession of the country.
10 When you get there, you will find a trusting people. The country is wide, and God has put it at your mercy. It is a place where there is no lack of anything on earth.’
11 From these places, consequently, from the clan of Danites at Zorah and Eshtaol, six hundred men set out equipped for war.
12 They went up and camped at Kiriath-Jearim in Judah; and for this reason the place is still called the Camp of Dan today. It lies to the west of Kiriath-Jearim.
13 From there they entered the highlands of Ephraim and came to Micah’s house.
14 The five men who had been to reconnoitre the country then spoke to their brothers. ‘Do you know’, they said, ‘that in these houses there is an ephod, some domestic images, a carved statue and an idol cast in metal? So now work out what you have got to do!
15 So, turning off the road, they went to the young Levite’s dwelling, to Micah’s house, and greeted him peacefully.
16 While the six hundred men of the Danites, equipped for war, stood at the threshold of the gate,
17 the five who had been to reconnoitre the country went on into the house and took the carved statue, the ephod, the domestic images and the idol cast in metal; meanwhile the priest remained at the threshold of the gate with the six hundred men equipped for war.
18 These men, having entered Micah’s house, took the carved statue, the ephod, the domestic images and the idol cast in metal. The priest, however, said, ‘What are you doing?’
19 ‘Be quiet,’ they replied. ‘Put your hand over your mouth and come with us, and become our father and priest. Are you better off as domestic priest to one man, or as priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?’
20 The priest was delighted; he took the ephod, the domestic images and the carved statue, and went off among the people.
21 Resuming their original line of march, they set off, having put the women, children, livestock and baggage out in front.
22 They had gone some distance from Micah’s house, when the people living in the houses near Micah’s house raised the alarm and set off in pursuit of the Danites.
23 As they shouted after the Danites, the latter, turning about, said to Micah, ‘What is the matter with you, that you are shouting like this?’
24 He replied, ‘You have taken away my god, which I have had made, and the priest as well. You are going away, and what have I got left? And now you ask me, “What is the matter?” ‘
25 The Danites said, ‘Let us hear no more from you, or quick-tempered men may set about you, and this might cost you your life and the lives of your family!’
26 So the Danites went on their way; and Micah, seeing that they were the stronger, turned and went home.
27 So, having taken the god made by Micah, and the priest who had been his, the Danites marched on Laish, on a peaceful and trusting people. They put it to the sword and they burned down the town.
28 There was no one to come to the rescue, since it was a long way from Sidon and had no contact with the Aramaeans. It lay in the valley running towards Beth-Rehob. They rebuilt the town and settled in it
29 and called it Dan, from the name of Dan their ancestor who had been born to Israel; originally, however, the town had been called Laish.
30 The Danites erected the carved statue for themselves. Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons after him were priests for the tribe of Dan till the day when the inhabitants of the country were carried away into exile.
31 The carved statue made by Micah they installed for their own use, and there it stayed as long as the house of God remained at Shiloh.
1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a man, a Levite, whose home was deep in the highlands of Ephraim. He took as concubine a woman from Bethlehem in Judah.
2 In a fit of anger his concubine left him and went back to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah, and she stayed there for some time — four months.
3 Her husband then set out after her, to appeal to her affections and fetch her back; he had his servant and two donkeys with him. As he was arriving at the house of the girl’s father, the father saw him and came happily to meet him.
4 His father-in-law, the girl’s father, kept him there; and he stayed with him for three days; they ate and drank and spent the nights there.
5 On the fourth day they got up early, and the Levite was preparing to leave when the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, ‘Have something to eat to gather strength; you can leave later.’
6 So they sat down and began eating and drinking, the two of them together; then the girl’s father said to the young man, ‘Please agree to spend tonight here too and enjoy yourself.’
7 And when the man got up to leave, the father-in-law pressed him again, and he spent another night there.
8 On the fifth day, the Levite got up early to leave, but the girl’s father said to him, ‘Please gather strength first!’ So they stayed on until the sun began to go down, and the two men had a meal together.
9 The husband was getting up to leave with his concubine and his servant when his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said, ‘Look, day is fading into evening. Please spend the night here. Look, the day is nearly over. Spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Then, early tomorrow, you can leave on your journey and go back home.’
10 But the man, refusing to stay the night, got up and went on his way, until he arrived within sight of Jebus — that is, Jerusalem. He had with him two donkeys saddled, his concubine and his servant.
11 By the time they were near Jebus, the light was going fast. The servant said to his master, ‘Come on, please, let us turn off into this Jebusite town and spend the night there.’
12 His master replied, ‘We shall not turn off into a town of foreigners, of people who are not Israelites; we shall go on to Gibeah.’
13 He then said to his servant, ‘Come on, we shall try to reach one or other of those places, either Gibeah or Ramah, and spend the night there.’
14 So they kept going and went on with their journey. As they approached Gibeah in Benjamin, the sun was setting.
15 So they turned that way to spend the night in Gibeah. Once inside, the Levite sat down in the town square, but no one offered to take them in for the night.
16 Eventually, an old man came along at nightfall from his work in the fields. He too was from the highlands of Ephraim, although he was living in Gibeah; the people of the place, however, were Benjaminites.
17 Looking up, he saw the traveller in the town square. ‘Where are you going?’ said the old man, ‘And where have you come from?’
18 ‘We are on our way’, the other replied, ‘from Bethlehem in Judah to a place deep in the highlands of Ephraim. That is where I come from. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah and now I am going home, but no one has offered to take me into his house,
19 although we have straw and provender for our donkeys, and I also have bread and wine for myself, and this maidservant and the young man who is travelling with your servant; we are short of nothing.’
20 ‘Welcome,’ said the old man. ‘I shall see that you have all you want. You cannot spend the night in the square.’
21 So he took him into his house and gave the donkeys provender. The travellers washed their feet, then ate and drank.
22 While they were enjoying themselves, some townsmen, scoundrels, came crowding round the house; they battered on the door and said to the old man, master of the house, ‘Send out the man who went into your house, we should like to have intercourse with him!’
23 The master of the house went out to them and said, ‘No, brothers, please, do not be so wicked. Since this man is now under my roof, do not commit such an infamy.
24 Here is my daughter; she is a virgin; I shall bring her out to you. Ill-treat her, do what you please with her, but do not commit such an infamy against this man.’
25 But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them. They had intercourse with her and ill-treated her all night till morning; when dawn was breaking they let her go.
26 At daybreak the girl came and fell on the threshold of her husband’s host, and she stayed there until it was light.
27 In the morning her husband got up and, opening the door of the house, was going out to continue his journey when he saw the woman, his concubine, lying at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.
28 ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘we must leave!’ There was no answer. He then loaded her on his donkey and began the journey home.
29 Having reached his house, he took his knife, took hold of his concubine and cut her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces; he then sent her throughout the territory of Israel.
30 He gave instructions to his messengers, ‘This is what you are to say to all the Israelites, “Has anything like this been done since the day when the Israelites came out of Egypt until today? Take this to heart, discuss it; then give your verdict.” ‘ And all who saw it declared, ‘Never has such a thing been done or been seen since the Israelites came out of Egypt until today.’
1 The Israelites then all turned out and, as one man, the entire community from Dan to Beersheba, including Gilead, assembled in Yahweh’s presence at Mizpah.
2 The leaders of the entire people, of all the tribes of Israel, were present at this assembly of God’s people, four hundred thousand trained infantry.
3 The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. The Israelites then said, ‘Tell us how this crime was committed.’
4 The Levite, husband of the murdered woman, spoke in reply and said,
5 ‘The men of Gibeah ganged up against me and, during the night, surrounded the house where I was lodging. They intended to murder me. They raped my concubine to death.
6 I then took my concubine, cut her up and sent her throughout the entire territory of the heritage of Israel, since these men had committed a shameful act, an infamy, in Israel.
7 Now, all you Israelites, discuss the matter and give your decision here and now.’
8 The whole people stood up as one man and said, ‘None of us will go home, none of us will go back to his house!
9 And this is what we are now going to do to Gibeah. We shall draw lots
10 and, throughout the tribes of Israel, select ten men out of a hundred, a hundred out of a thousand and a thousand out of ten thousand to collect food for the people, so that, on their arrival, the latter may treat Gibeah in Benjamin as this infamy perpetrated in Israel deserves.’
11 Thus, as one man, all the men of Israel mustered against the town.
12 The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin to say, ‘What is this crime which has been committed in your territory?
13 Now, give up these men, these scoundrels, living in Gibeah, so that we can put them to death and wipe out this evil from Israel.’ The Benjaminites, however, would not listen to their brother Israelites.
14 The Benjaminites left their towns and mustered at Gibeah to fight the Israelites.
15 At the time, a count was made of the Benjaminites from the various towns: there were twenty-six thousand swordsmen; and the count excluded the inhabitants of Gibeah.
16 In this great army there were seven hundred first-rate left-handers, every man of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss it.
17 A count was also held of the men of Israel, excluding Benjamin: there were four hundred thousand men, all experienced swordsmen.
18 They moved off, up to Bethel, to consult God. The Israelites put the question, ‘Which of us is to go first into battle against the Benjaminites?’ And Yahweh replied, ‘Judah is to go first.’
19 In the morning, the Israelites moved off and pitched their camp over against Gibeah.
20 The men of Israel advanced to do battle with Benjamin; they drew up their battle line in front of Gibeah.
21 But the Benjaminites sallied out from Gibeah and that day massacred twenty-two thousand Israelites.
22 The army of the men of Israel then took fresh heart and again drew up their battle line in the same place as the day before.
23 The Israelites went and wept before Yahweh until evening; they then consulted Yahweh; they asked, ‘Shall we join battle again with the sons of our brother Benjamin?’ Yahweh replied, ‘March against him!’
24 This second day, the Israelites advanced against the Benjaminites,
25 and, this second day, Benjamin sallied out from Gibeah to meet them and massacred another eighteen thousand Israelites, all experienced swordsmen.
26 Then all the Israelites and the whole people went off to Bethel; they wept and sat in Yahweh’s presence; they fasted all day till the evening and presented burnt offerings and communion sacrifices before Yahweh.
27 The Israelites then consulted Yahweh. In those days, the ark of the covenant of God was there,
28 and Phinehas son of Eleazer, son of Aaron was its minister at the time. They said, ‘Ought I to go into battle against the sons of my brother Benjamin again, or should I stop?’ Yahweh replied, ‘March! For tomorrow I shall deliver him into your hands.’
29 Israel then positioned troops in ambush all round Gibeah.
30 On the third day the Israelites marched against the Benjaminites and, as before, drew up their line in front of Gibeah.
31 The Benjaminites sallied out to engage the people and let themselves be drawn away from the town. As before, they began by killing those of the people who were on the roads, one of which runs up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah through open country: some thirty men of Israel.
32 The Benjaminites thought, ‘We have beaten them, as we did the first time,’ but the Israelites had decided, ‘We shall run away and draw them away from the town along the roads.’
33 All the Israelites then retreated and reformed at Baal-Tamar, while the Israelite troops in ambush surged from their positions to the west of Gibeah.
34 Ten thousand picked men, chosen from the whole of Israel, launched their attack on Gibeah. The battle was fierce; and the others knew nothing of the disaster impending.
35 Yahweh defeated Benjamin before Israel and that day the Israelites killed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them trained swordsmen.
36 The Benjaminites saw that they were beaten. The Israelites had given ground to Benjamin, since they were relying on the ambush which they had positioned close to Gibeah.
37 The troops in ambush threw themselves against Gibeah at top speed; fanning out, they put the whole town to the sword.
38 Now it had been agreed between the Israelites and those of the ambush that the latter should raise a smoke signal from the town,
39 whereupon the Israelites in the thick of the battle would turn about. Benjamin began by killing some of the Israelites, about thirty men, and thought, ‘We have certainly beaten them, as we did in the first battle.’
40 But the signal, a column of smoke, began to rise from the town, and the Benjaminites looking back saw the whole town going up in flames to the sky.
41 The Israelites then turned about, and the Benjaminites were seized with terror, for they saw that disaster had struck them.
42 They broke before the Israelite onslaught and made for the desert, but the fighters pressed them hard, while the others coming out of the town took and slaughtered them from the rear.
43 They hemmed in the Benjaminites, pursued them relentlessly, crushing them opposite Gibeah on the east.
44 Of Benjamin, eighteen thousand men fell, all of them brave men.
45 They then turned tail and fled into the desert, towards the Rock of Rimmon. Five thousand of them were picked off on the roads, and the rest were relentlessly pursued as far as Gideon, two thousand of them being killed.
46 The total number of Benjaminites who fell that day was twenty-five thousand swordsmen, all of them brave men.
47 Six hundred men, however, turned tail and escaped into the desert, to the Rock of Rimmon, and there they stayed for four months.
48 The men of Israel then went back to the Benjaminites, and put them to the sword-people, livestock and everything else that came their way in the town. And they fired all the towns involved.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Daily Office for Wednesday, January 25, 2012:
Psalm 119:49-72
49 Keep in mind your promise to your servant on which I have built my hope.
50 It is my comfort in distress, that your promise gives me life.
51 Endlessly the arrogant have jeered at me, but I have not swerved from your Law.
52 I have kept your age — old judgements in mind, Yahweh, and I am comforted.
53 Fury grips me when I see the wicked who abandon your Law.
54 Your judgements are my song where I live in exile.
55 All night, Yahweh, I hold your name in mind, I keep your Law.
56 This is what it means to me, observing your precepts.
57 My task, I have said, Yahweh, is to keep your word.
58 Wholeheartedly I entreat your favour; true to your promise, take pity on me!
59 I have reflected on my ways, and I turn my steps to your instructions.
60 I hurry without delay to keep your commandments.
61 Though caught in the snares of the wicked, I do not forget your Law.
62 At midnight I rise to praise you for your upright judgements.
63 I am a friend to all who fear you and keep your precepts.
64 Your faithful love fills the earth, Yahweh, teach me your judgements.
65 You have been generous to your servant, Yahweh, true to your promise.
66 Teach me judgement and knowledge, for I rely on your commandments.
67 Before I was punished I used to go astray, but now I keep to your promise.
68 You are generous and act generously, teach me your will.
69 The arrogant blacken me with lies though I wholeheartedly observe your precepts.
70 Their hearts are gross like rich fat, but my delight is in your Law.
71 It was good for me that I had to suffer, the better to learn your judgements.
72 The Law you have uttered is more precious to me than all the wealth in the world.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 49
1 [For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Psalm] Hear this, all nations, listen, all who dwell on earth,
2 people high and low, rich and poor alike!
3 My lips have wisdom to utter, my heart good sense to whisper.
4 I listen carefully to a proverb, I set my riddle to the music of the harp.
5 Why should I be afraid in times of trouble? Malice dogs me and hems me in.
6 They trust in their wealth, and boast of the profusion of their riches.
7 But no one can ever redeem himself or pay his own ransom to God,
8 the price for himself is too high; it can never be
9 that he will live on for ever and avoid the sight of the abyss.
10 For he will see the wise also die no less than the fool and the brute, and leave their wealth behind for others.
11 For ever no home but their tombs, their dwelling-place age after age, though they gave their name to whole territories.
12 In prosperity people lose their good sense, they become no better than dumb animals.
13 So they go on in their self-assurance, right up to the end they are content with their lot.Pause
14 They are penned in Sheol like sheep, Death will lead them to pasture, and those who are honest will rule over them. In the morning all trace of them will be gone, Sheol will be their home.
15 But my soul God will ransom from the clutches of Sheol, and will snatch me up.Pause
16 Do not be overawed when someone gets rich, and lives in ever greater splendour;
17 when he dies he will take nothing with him, his wealth will not go down with him.
18 Though he pampered himself while he lived — and people praise you for looking after yourself-
19 he will go to join the ranks of his ancestors, who will never again see the light.
20 In prosperity people lose their good sense, they become no better than dumb animals.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 53
1 [For the choirmaster In sickness Poem Of David] The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God!’ They are corrupt, vile and unjust, not one of them does right.
2 God looks down from heaven at the children of Adam, to see if a single one is wise, a single one seeks God.
3 All have proved faithless, all alike turned sour, not one of them does right, not a single one.
4 Are they not aware, these evil-doers? They are devouring my people; this is the bread they eat, and they never call upon God.
5 They will be gripped with fear, just where there is no need for fear, for God scatters the bones of him who besieges you; they are mocked because God rejects them.
6 Who will bring from Zion salvation for Israel? When God brings his people home, what joy for Jacob, what happiness for Israel!(New Jerusalem Bible)
Genesis 16:1-14
1 Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no child, but she had an Egyptian slave-girl called Hagar.
2 So Sarai said to Abram, ‘Listen, now! Since Yahweh has kept me from having children, go to my slave-girl. Perhaps I shall get children through her.’ And Abram took Sarai’s advice.
3 Thus, after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years, Sarai took Hagar her Egyptian slave-girl and gave her to Abram as his wife.
4 He went to Hagar and she conceived. And once she knew she had conceived, her mistress counted for nothing in her eyes.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘This outrage done to me is your fault! It was I who put my slave-girl into your arms but, now she knows that she has conceived, I count for nothing in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you!’
6 ‘Very well,’ Abram said to Sarai, ‘your slave-girl is at your disposal. Treat her as you think fit.’ Sarai accordingly treated her so badly that she ran away from her.
7 The angel of Yahweh found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the road to Shur.
8 He said, ‘Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?’ ‘I am running away from my mistress Sarai,’ she replied.
9 The angel of Yahweh said to her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’
10 The angel of Yahweh further said to her, ‘I shall make your descendants too numerous to be counted.’
11 Then the angel of Yahweh said to her: Now, you have conceived and will bear a son, and you shall name him Ishmael, for Yahweh has heard your cries of distress.
12 A wild donkey of a man he will be, his hand against every man, and every man’s hand against him, living his life in defiance of all his kinsmen.
13 Hagar gave a name to Yahweh who had spoken to her, ‘You are El Roi,’ by which she meant, ‘Did I not go on seeing here, after him who sees me?’
14 This is why the well is called the well of Lahai Roi; it is between Kadesh and Bered.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Hebrews 9:15-28
15 This makes him the mediator of a new covenant, so that, now that a death has occurred to redeem the sins committed under an earlier covenant, those who have been called to an eternal inheritance may receive the promise.
16 Now wherever a will is in question, the death of the testator must be established;
17 a testament comes into effect only after a death, since it has no force while the testator is still alive.
18 That is why even the earlier covenant was inaugurated with blood,
19 and why, after Moses had promulgated all the commandments of the Law to the people, he took the calves’ blood, the goats’ blood and some water, and with these he sprinkled the book itself and all the people, using scarlet wool and hyssop;
20 saying as he did so: This is the blood of the covenant that God has made with you.
21 And he sprinkled both the tent and all the liturgical vessels with blood in the same way.
22 In fact, according to the Law, practically every purification takes place by means of blood; and if there is no shedding of blood, there is no remission.
23 Only the copies of heavenly things are purified in this way; the heavenly things themselves have to be purified by a higher sort of sacrifice than this.
24 It is not as though Christ had entered a man-made sanctuary which was merely a model of the real one; he entered heaven itself, so that he now appears in the presence of God on our behalf.
25 And he does not have to offer himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own,
26 or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. As it is, he has made his appearance once and for all, at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself.
27 Since human beings die only once, after which comes judgement,
28 so Christ too, having offered himself only once to bear the sin of many, will manifest himself a second time, sin being no more, to those who are waiting for him, to bring them salvation.(New Jerusalem Bible)
John 5:19-29
19 To this Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, by himself the Son can do nothing; he can do only what he sees the Father doing: and whatever the Father does the Son does too.
20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he himself does, and he will show him even greater things than these, works that will astonish you.
21 Thus, as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to anyone he chooses;
22 for the Father judges no one; he has entrusted all judgement to the Son,
23 so that all may honour the Son as they honour the Father. Whoever refuses honour to the Son refuses honour to the Father who sent him.
24 In all truth I tell you, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life; without being brought to judgement such a person has passed from death to life.
25 In all truth I tell you, the hour is coming — indeed it is already here — when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and all who hear it will live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself;
27 and, because he is the Son of man, has granted him power to give judgement.
28 Do not be surprised at this, for the hour is coming when the dead will leave their graves at the sound of his voice:
29 those who did good will come forth to life; and those who did evil will come forth to judgement.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Conversion of St. Paul:
Psalm 19
1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] The heavens declare the glory of God, the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork,
2 day discourses of it to day, night to night hands on the knowledge.
3 No utterance at all, no speech, not a sound to be heard,
4 but from the entire earth the design stands out, this message reaches the whole world. High above, he pitched a tent for the sun,
5 who comes forth from his pavilion like a bridegroom, delights like a champion in the course to be run.
6 Rising on the one horizon he runs his circuit to the other, and nothing can escape his heat.
7 The Law of Yahweh is perfect, refreshment to the soul; the decree of Yahweh is trustworthy, wisdom for the simple.
8 The precepts of Yahweh are honest, joy for the heart; the commandment of Yahweh is pure, light for the eyes.
9 The fear of Yahweh is pure, lasting for ever; the judgements of Yahweh are true, upright, every one,
10 more desirable than gold, even than the finest gold; his words are sweeter than honey, that drips from the comb.
11 Thus your servant is formed by them; observing them brings great reward.
12 But who can detect his own failings? Wash away my hidden faults.
13 And from pride preserve your servant, never let it be my master. So shall I be above reproach, free from grave sin.
14 May the words of my mouth always find favour, and the whispering of my heart, in your presence, Yahweh, my rock, my redeemer.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Isaiah 45:18-25
18 For thus says Yahweh, the Creator of the heavens — he is God, who shaped the earth and made it, who set it firm; he did not create it to be chaos, he formed it to be lived in: I am Yahweh, and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in some dark corner of the underworld. I did not say, ‘Offspring of Jacob, search for me in chaos!’ I am Yahweh: I proclaim saving justice, I say what is true.
20 Assemble, come, all of you gather round, survivors of the nations. They have no knowledge, those who parade their wooden idols and pray to a god that cannot save.
21 Speak up, present your case, let them put their heads together! Who foretold this in the past, who revealed it long ago? Was it not I, Yahweh? There is no other god except me, no saving God, no Saviour except me!
22 Turn to me and you will be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other.
23 By my own self I swear it; what comes from my mouth is saving justice, it is an irrevocable word: All shall bend the knee to me, by me every tongue shall swear,
24 saying, ‘In Yahweh alone are saving justice and strength,’ until all those who used to rage at him come to him in shame.
25 In Yahweh the whole race of Israel finds justice and glory.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Philppians 3:4b-11
4 although, I myself could rely on these too. If anyone does claim to rely on them, my claim is better.
5 Circumcised on the eighth day of my life, I was born of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrew parents. In the matter of the Law, I was a Pharisee;
6 as for religious fervour, I was a persecutor of the Church; as for the uprightness embodied in the Law, I was faultless.
7 But what were once my assets I now through Christ Jesus count as losses.
8 Yes, I will go further: because of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, I count everything else as loss. For him I have accepted the loss of all other things, and look on them all as filth if only I can gain Christ
9 and be given a place in him, with the uprightness I have gained not from the Law, but through faith in Christ, an uprightness from God, based on faith,
10 that I may come to know him and the power of his resurrection, and partake of his sufferings by being moulded to the pattern of his death,
11 striving towards the goal of resurrection from the dead.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 119:89-112
89 For ever, Yahweh, your word is planted firm in heaven.
90 Your constancy endures from age to age; you established the earth and it stands firm.
91 Through your judgements all stands firm to this day, for all creation is your servant.
92 Had your Law not been my delight, I would have perished in my misery.
93 I shall never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.
94 I am yours, save me, for I seek your precepts.
95 The wicked may hope to destroy me, but all my thought is of your instructions.
96 I have seen that all perfection is finite, but your commandment has no limit.
97 How I love your Law! I ponder it all day long.
98 You make me wiser than my enemies by your commandment which is mine for ever.
99 I am wiser than all my teachers because I ponder your instructions.
100 I have more understanding than the aged because I keep your precepts.
101 I restrain my foot from evil paths to keep your word.
102 I do not turn aside from your judgements, because you yourself have instructed me.
103 How pleasant your promise to my palate, sweeter than honey in my mouth!
104 From your precepts I learn wisdom, so I hate all deceptive ways.
105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
106 I have sworn — and shall maintain it — to keep your upright judgements.
107 I am utterly wretched, Yahweh; true to your promise, give me life.
108 Accept, Yahweh, the tribute from my mouth, and teach me your judgements.
109 My life is in your hands perpetually, I do not forget your Law.
110 The wicked have laid out a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts.
111 Your instructions are my eternal heritage, they are the joy of my heart.
112 I devote myself to obeying your statutes, their recompense is eternal.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Ecclesiasticus 39:1-10
1 Not so with one who concentrates his mind and his meditation on the Law of the Most High. He researches into the wisdom of all the Ancients, he occupies his time with the prophecies.
2 He preserves the discourses of famous men, he is at home with the niceties of parables.
3 He researches into the hidden sense of proverbs, he ponders the obscurities of parables.
4 He enters the service of princes, he is seen in the presence of rulers. He travels in foreign countries, he has experienced human good and human evil.
5 At dawn and with all his heart he turns to the Lord his Creator; he pleads in the presence of the Most High, he opens his mouth in prayer and makes entreaty for his sins.
6 If such be the will of the great Lord, he will be filled with the spirit of intelligence, he will shower forth words of wisdom, and in prayer give thanks to the Lord.
7 He will grow upright in purpose and learning, he will ponder the Lord’s hidden mysteries.
8 He will display the instruction he has received, taking his pride in the Law of the Lord’s covenant.
9 Many will praise his intelligence and it will never be forgotten. His memory will not disappear, generation after generation his name will live.
10 Nations will proclaim his wisdom, the assembly will celebrate his praises.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Acts 9:1-22
1 Meanwhile Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest
2 and asked for letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to arrest and take to Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he might find.
3 It happened that while he was travelling to Damascus and approaching the city, suddenly a light from heaven shone all round him.
4 He fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
5 ‘Who are you, Lord?’ he asked, and the answer came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
6 Get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’
7 The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless, for though they heard the voice they could see no one.
8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing at all, and they had to lead him into Damascus by the hand.
9 For three days he was without his sight and took neither food nor drink.
10 There was a disciple in Damascus called Ananias, and he had a vision in which the Lord said to him, ‘Ananias!’ When he replied, ‘Here I am, Lord,’
11 the Lord said, ‘Get up and go to Straight Street and ask at the house of Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is praying,
12 and has seen a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on him to give him back his sight.’
13 But in response, Ananias said, ‘Lord, I have heard from many people about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your holy people in Jerusalem.
14 He has come here with a warrant from the chief priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.’
15 The Lord replied, ‘Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel;
16 I myself will show him how much he must suffer for my name.’
17 Then Ananias went. He entered the house, and laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’
18 It was as though scales fell away from his eyes and immediately he was able to see again. So he got up and was baptised,
19 and after taking some food he regained his strength. After he had spent only a few days with the disciples in Damascus,
20 he began preaching in the synagogues, ‘Jesus is the Son of God.’
21 All his hearers were amazed, and said, ‘Surely, this is the man who did such damage in Jerusalem to the people who invoke this name, and who came here for the sole purpose of arresting them to have them tried by the chief priests?’
22 Saul’s power increased steadily, and he was able to throw the Jewish colony at Damascus into complete confusion by the way he demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ.(New Jerusalem Bible)
2 Samuel 7:4-17
4 But that very night, the word of Yahweh came to Nathan:
5 ‘Go and tell my servant David, “Yahweh says this: Are you to build me a temple for me to live in?
6 I have never lived in a house from the day when I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today, but have kept travelling with a tent for shelter.
7 In all my travels with all the Israelites, did I say to any of the judges of Israel, whom I had commanded to shepherd my people Israel: Why do you not build me a cedar-wood temple?”
8 This is what you must say to my servant David, “Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people Israel;
9 I have been with you wherever you went; I have got rid of all your enemies for you. I am going to make your fame as great as the fame of the greatest on earth.
10 I am going to provide a place for my people Israel; I shall plant them there, and there they will live and never be disturbed again; nor will they be oppressed by the wicked any more, as they were in former times
11 ever since the time when I instituted judges to govern my people Israel; and I shall grant you rest from all your enemies. Yahweh furthermore tells you that he will make you a dynasty.
12 And when your days are over and you fall asleep with your ancestors, I shall appoint your heir, your own son to succeed you (and I shall make his sovereignty secure.
13 He will build a temple for my name) and I shall make his royal throne secure for ever.
14 I shall be a father to him and he a son to me; if he does wrong, I shall punish him with a rod such as men use, with blows such as mankind gives.
15 But my faithful love will never be withdrawn from him as I withdrew it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
16 Your dynasty and your sovereignty will ever stand firm before me and your throne be for ever secure.” ‘
17 Nathan related all these words and this whole revelation to David.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 89:1-4
1 [Poem For Ethan the native-born] I shall sing the faithful love of Yahweh for ever, from age to age my lips shall declare your constancy,
2 for you have said: love is built to last for ever, you have fixed your constancy firm in the heavens.
3 ‘I have made a covenant with my Chosen One, sworn an oath to my servant David:
4 I have made your dynasty firm for ever, built your throne stable age after age.’Pause(New Jerusalem Bible)
Mark 4:1-20
1 Again he began to teach them by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the water and sat there. The whole crowd were at the lakeside on land.
2 He taught them many things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them,
3 ‘Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow.
4 Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
5 Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and at once sprang up, because there was no depth of earth;
6 and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away.
7 Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop.
8 And some seeds fell into rich soil, grew tall and strong, and produced a good crop; the yield was thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.’
9 And he said, ‘Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!’
10 When he was alone, the Twelve, together with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant.
11 He told them, ‘To you is granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables,
12 so that they may look and look, but never perceive; listen and listen, but never understand; to avoid changing their ways and being healed.’
13 He said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?
14 What the sower is sowing is the word.
15 Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan at once comes and carries away the word that was sown in them.
16 Similarly, those who are sown on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy.
17 But they have no root deep down and do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, at once they fall away.
18 Then there are others who are sown in thorns. These have heard the word,
19 but the worries of the world, the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the word, and so it produces nothing.
20 And there are those who have been sown in rich soil; they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’(New Jerusalem Bible)
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
The Conversion of Saint Paul, apostle – Feast
Feast of the Church:The Conversion of St Paul, apostle – Feast
Acts 22:3-16
3 ‘I am a Jew’, Paul said, ‘and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. It was under Gamaliel that I studied and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you all are today.
4 I even persecuted this Way to the death and sent women as well as men to prison in chains
5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify. I even received letters from them to the brothers in Damascus, which I took with me when I set off to bring prisoners back from there to Jerusalem for punishment.
6 ‘It happened that I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when in the middle of the day a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me.
7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
8 I answered, “Who are you, Lord?” and he said to me, “I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.”
9 The people with me saw the light but did not hear the voice which spoke to me.
10 I said, “What am I to do, Lord?” The Lord answered, “Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been appointed to do.”
11 Since the light had been so dazzling that I was blind, I got to Damascus only because my companions led me by the hand.
12 ‘Someone called Ananias, a devout follower of the Law and highly thought of by all the Jews living there,
13 came to see me; he stood beside me and said, “Brother Saul, receive your sight.” Instantly my sight came back and I was able to see him.
14 Then he said, “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Upright One and hear his own voice speaking,
15 because you are to be his witness before all humanity, testifying to what you have seen and heard.
16 And now why delay? Hurry and be baptised and wash away your sins, calling on his name.”(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 117
1 Alleluia! Praise Yahweh, all nations, extol him, all peoples,
2 for his faithful love is strong and his constancy never-ending.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Mark 16:15-18
15 And he said to them, ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation.
16 Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
17 These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues;
18 they will pick up snakes in their hands and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.’(New Jerusalem Bible)
Commentary of the day:
Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (467-532), Bishop in North Africa
A sermon attributed to, no. 59 Appendix ; PL 65, 929
«On his journey, as Paul was nearing Damascus, alight from the sky suddenly flashed around him» (Acts 9,3)
Saul was sent on the road to Damascus to become blind since, if he was blinded, it was to see the real Way (Jn 14,6)… He lost his bodily sight but his heart was enlightened so that the true light might shine in the eyes of both his heart and his body… He was sent into his own interior to seek himself… He was straying in his own company, an unthinking traveller, and he did not find himself because, interiorly, he had lost his way.
Therefore he heard a voice saying to him…: «Turn aside from the way of Saul to find the faith of Paul. Take off the tunic of your blindness and clothe yourself with the Savior (cf. Gal 3,27)… In your flesh I have wanted to manifest the blindness of your heart that you might see what you did not see and might not be like those who «have eyes but see not and ears and hear not» (Ps 115[113],5-6). Let Saul return with his futile letters (Acts 22,5) that Paul might write his most necessary letters. Let the blind Saul vanish… that Paul might become the light of believers»…
Paul, who has transformed you in this way? «Would you like to know who has done this? The man people call Christ… He anointed my eyes and said to me: ‘Go to the pool of Siloam, wash and you will see.’ I went; I washed, and now I see (Jn 9,11). Why this surprise? Behold, he who created me has re-created me and with the same power with which he created me he has now healed me. I had sinned but he has cleansed me.»
Come along, then, Paul; leave old Saul behind; soon you will see Peter, too… Ananias, touch Saul and give us Paul; dismiss the persecutor far away from us, send out the preacher on his mission. The lambs will no longer be afraid, Christ’s sheep will be full of joy. O touch the wolf who used to pursue Christ so that now, with Peter, he may lead the sheep to pasture.
1st Thought for Today:
My Utmost for His Highest
Reading for Wednesday 25th January 2012
LEAVE ROOM FOR GOD by Oswald Chambers
But when it pleased God. . .(Galatians 1:15)
As workers for God we have to learn to make room for God – to give God “elbow room.” We calculate and estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never looked for Him to come? Do not look for God to come in any particular way, but look for Him. That is the way to make room for Him. Expect Him to come, but do not expect Him only in a certain way. However much we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that at any minute He may break in. We are apt to over look this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. All of a sudden God meets the life – “When it was the good pleasure of God. . .”
Keep your life so constant in its contact with God that His surprising power may break out on the right hand and on the left. Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes.
Reflecting God-A God Who Listens
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Scripture-Psalm 55:1-11
1 [For the choirmaster For strings Poem Of David] God, hear my prayer, do not hide away from my plea,
2 give me a hearing, answer me, my troubles give me no peace. I shudder
3 at the enemy’s shouts, at the outcry of the wicked; they heap up charges against me, in their anger bring hostile accusations against me.
4 My heart writhes within me, the terrors of death come upon me,
5 fear and trembling overwhelm me, and shuddering grips me.
6 And I say, ‘Who will give me wings like a dove, to fly away and find rest?’
7 How far I would escape, and make a nest in the desert!Pause
8 I would soon find a refuge from the storm of abuse, from the
9 destructive tempest, Lord, from the flood of their tongues. For I see violence and strife in the city,
10 day and night they make their rounds along the city walls, Inside live malice and mischief,
11 inside lives destruction, tyranny and treachery never absent from its central square.(New Jerusalem Bible)
A God Who Listens by Gerald Crispin
Betrayals, disloyalty, acts of violence and injustice have been faced by many people. King David faced these things. Much of this mistreatment came from David’s own family and his circle of former allies and supporters. This left him with a heart that was fearful, overwhelmed, and heavy. You can hear David’s agony throughout the psalm. David pleads, “Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me”(verses 1-2). Can you hear David’s deep groaning and loudly uttered cries echoing throughout the palace?
Maybe your own voice has uttered similar groans and cries when you have been mistreated, especially by someone close to you. David’s regard for God did not leave him faithless. He knew who to call upon. God was his constant companion and friend. In the “Amplified Bible,” David asks God to deal with his enemies, to “destroy [their schemes] . . .confuse their tongues”(verse 9).
If we regard God in our daily routines, stay close to him, and hide ourselves to his presence, the Lord will not ignore our pleas. He will hear and answer us when we call upon him in faith.
Hymn for Today:
“Pass Me Not” by Fanny J. Crosby
1. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
hear my humble cry;
while on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by.
Refrain:
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry;
while on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by.
2. Let me at thy throne of mercy
find a sweet relief,
kneeling there in deep contrition;
help my unbelief.
Refrain:
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry;
while on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by.
3. Trusting only in thy merit,
would I seek thy face;
heal my wounded, broken spirit,
save me by thy grace.
Refrain:
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry;
while on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by.
4. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me,
whom have I on earth beside thee?
Whom in heaven but thee?
Refrain:
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry;
while on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by.
2nd Thought for Today:
“[T}he broken and contrite heart captures the immediate attention of God. It always has; it always will”(Neil B. Wiseman).
Prayer Needs:
Faculty and students as they prepare for full-time Christian ministry in Switzerland.
The Upper Room Daily Devotional
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
God’s Plans
Suggested Bible Reading:
Read Jeremiah 29:10-14
10 For Yahweh says this: When the seventy years granted to Babylon are over, I shall intervene on your behalf and fulfil my favourable promise to you by bringing you back to this place.
11 Yes, I know what plans I have in mind for you, Yahweh declares, plans for peace, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
12 When you call to me and come and pray to me, I shall listen to you.
13 When you search for me, you will find me; when you search wholeheartedly for me,
14 I shall let you find me (Yahweh declares. I shall restore your fortunes and gather you in from all the nations and wherever I have driven you, Yahweh declares. I shall bring you back to the place from which I exiled you).(New Jerusalem Bible)
Today’s Scripture:
“ I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”(Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV))
Today’s Devotional
When I divorced, I wondered if I had wrecked my life. Not only had I disappointed my family, but I am a pastor. I am supposed to set an example for Christian living. How could people take me seriously as a spiritual leader? How could I preach about marriage or covenant when my marriage had failed?
But Jeremiah 29:11 promises that God has good plans for us. A curious detail in that verse has caught my attention. The scripture doesn’t say “plan”; it says “plans.” The word is plural. God has more than one plan. Perhaps God has a Plan A for us; but if we mess that up, God also has a Plan B. And if Plan B doesn’t work out, God has a Plan C. And so on.
I doubt that many of us are living Plan A. And people like me may be rapidly approaching the end of the alphabet. Many people feel they have made so many mistakes that if God ever had a plan for them, it must be spoiled. But God does not give up on us. God has more than one way to give us hope and a future. Not only does God have more than one plan; God is at work to fulfill those plans. by Michael Raypholtz (Ohio, USA)
3rd Thought for the Day: Our mistakes and sin cannot overrule God’s desire for our good.
Prayer: Dear God, we give thanks that you do not give up on us. Show us the path you put before us daily, and give us the strength to walk it. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Those experiencing divorce
The scripture quotation, unless otherwise indicated, is from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2012 by The Upper Room, a ministry of GBOD. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce or redistribute without written permission from the publisher.
Daily Meditation: Wisdom — Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul — January 25, 2012
Center for Action and Contemplation
WISDOM
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
“We have a wisdom to offer to those who have reached maturity . . . a hidden wisdom that the masters of this age did not know, or they would never have crucified!” from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2:6-8
In classical spiritual biographies and autobiographies, the seeker usually moves through several stages, today referred to as levels of consciousness. The seeker travels from simple consciousness (“the child”), to complex consciousness (most of the middle of life), and, hopefully, to enlightened consciousness, which looks surprisingly simple again! Is that the real meaning of “second childhood”? Such enlightenment is, of course, the goal.
The first simplicity and the second simplicity are, however, completely different. The first simplicity is naïve, dualistic, and far too sure of itself. This is what Paul regrets about his early zeal and righteousness, which led him to kill Christians. In our early years, we largely “split” for the sake of quick and false success—we split the natural from the spiritual, the light from the shadow, the weeds from the wheat, the friend from the enemy. But when we come to enlightened consciousness, which is the second simplicity, we have learned to include, accept, and forgive the negatives, the problems, and the contradictions that were revealed in the middle of life to be much more complex than we first imagined.
As Paul says above, we learn to stop “crucifying”—ourselves and others, which is precisely “resurrection”! Adapted from On the Threshold of Transformation:
Daily Meditations for Men, p. 32
Starter Prayer:
Grant me wisdom. by Father Richard Rohr
4th Thought for Today:
Wednesday January 25, 2012
Receiving Forgiveness
There are two sides to forgiveness: giving and receiving. Although at first sight giving seems to be harder, it often appears that we are not able to offer forgiveness to others because we have not been able fully to receive it. Only as people who have accepted forgiveness can we find the inner freedom to give it. Why is receiving forgiveness so difficult? It is very hard to say, “Without your forgiveness I am still bound to what happened between us. Only you can set me free.” That requires not only a confession that we have hurt somebody but also the humility to acknowledge our dependency on others. Only when we can receive forgiveness can we give it. by Father Henri J. M. Nouwen
1.25.12 – No longer in the dark from The Church of the Resurrection-United Methodist in Leawood, Kansas, United States
Daily Scripture: Ephesians 4:17 “So this I say to you and attest to you in the Lord, do not go on living the empty-headed life that the gentiles live.
18 Intellectually they are in the dark, and they are estranged from the life of God, because of the ignorance which is the consequence of closed minds.
19 Their sense of right and wrong once dulled, they have abandoned all self-control and pursue to excess every kind of uncleanness.
20 Now that is hardly the way you have learnt Christ,
21 unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus.
22 You were to put aside your old self, which belongs to your old way of life and is corrupted by following illusory desires.
23 Your mind was to be renewed in spirit
24 so that you could put on the New Man that has been created on God’s principles, in the uprightness and holiness of the truth.”(New Jerusalem Bible)
Reflection Questions:
Much of the time, our culture’s films, novels or music videos see sex with no constraints as a source and result of a higher, free awareness. Ephesians looked at things quite differently. Unrestrained sensuality, it said, darkens human understanding and destroys sensitivity. The new mind-set God offers us is not meant to squelch joy in life, but to make it truly possible.
Last week we read Galatians 5:22: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience….” When you read about God creating “true holiness” in your life, do you picture that “holiness” bringing you more of traits like love and joy? Do you see “holiness” more as 1) telling you not to enjoy life too much, or 2) the truest source of love and joy?
To these Gentile converts to Christianity, Ephesians strongly stressed the contrast between the “old” and the “new.” What meaning, if any, can this passage have for people who have been Christians all their life? In what ways did you have an “old” way of life to leave in order to find the “new” in Christ?
Weekly Prayer:
Lord God, “a man embraces his wife, and they become one flesh”? Wow—Genesis said the first human couple were really strongly attracted to each other! Sometimes I have that sense, too, but so many things (grief, illness, betrayal, unresolved childhood hurts, even just human brokenness in one or both partners) can go wrong. This week, teach me about the joy, bonding and sharing of life that “good sex,” sex as you intend it to be, can bring to our lives. Amen.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society®. Used by permission of International Bible Society®. All rights reserved worldwide.
4th Thought for Today:
Wednesday 25 January 2012
What Do We Want?
The important thing is to keep the eyes on what we want to grow into. Do we want to grow toward greater community, greater openness, greater compassion, greater listening? Or do we want to just be a tree that’s more powerful so that I’m the biggest tree and all the other little trees are stupid? It’s all about this question of growth. by Jean Vanier
Belonging: The Search for Acceptance
Windborne Production Video
5th Thought for Today:
Pat
I enlisted Patrick as my partner in crime. Ethel told me that I could not try out her new electric lazy boy chair because I was too fat; she said that I would break it. With Ethel being out for supper, Pat was to warn me if she came home so I could get out of her chair without causing a third world war. I wasn’t even in the room when Ethel came home. When she did, Pat was quick to tell her, “Murray–ch–ch–ch–chair!” Pat is a rat; he can’t keep a secret.
Pat also can’t keep a secret about how he cares about me. At times he will engage me in conversation and at certain moments he will reach out his left hand to shake mine in a gesture of friendship and solidarity. He will ask me about work and he will ask about my car. Pat calls me to own, name and claim all the stuff that makes up my life. He calls me to reach out to Jesus for redemption and liberation as I continue to find in my L’Arche home a place for my heart. by Father Murray McDermott C.R., L’Arche Stratford
