Moravian Daily Texts for The Day 1/24/12
www.moravian.org/daily_texts/
Readings for Today:
Psalm 16:7-11
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm16&version=NIV
Genesis 25
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis25&version=NIV
Matthew 9:14-26
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew9&version=NIV
Psalm 16
A miktam of David.
7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
In David, we see a man who walked with God. We see his focus in two very important matters. One, he is a man of constant praise. His life is one of adoring God and lifting up all the benefits of who God is. Second, he keeps his eyes on the Lord. His focus in on God and who He and not his inherent limitations. Then we see the result of his walk with God. He is secure and knows that his life both now and forever is accounted for. He also trusts the God will direct him in the paths of life. As he walks with God we see that he is full of joy and pleasure. David inspires us to a closer walk with God and knowing him personally and realizing that following God is a whole life proposition with all that we are body, mind and soul.
21 Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 The LORD said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”
24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
In Genesis 25, we see the death of the patriarch Abraham, the man of faith who first received God’s covenant. Abraham was faithful to keep God’s covenant and God was faithful to bless his descendants even Ishmael and his twelve sons who were all tribal rulers. We also see true the prophecy made about them, that they lived in hostility with all their neighbors.
And then we see the covenant fulfilled through Issac and Rebekah, who we learned about yesterday, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean. Issac was in similar situation as his father, Abraham, as he and Rebekah were childless. But as he prayed to the Lord she became pregnant. Then as she became pregnant twins “she inquired of the Lord, why is this happening.” God spoke to her (how we don’t know) that older (Esau) would serve the younger (Jacob) – even if there age was only seconds apart.
Why was this so? We don’t know. God chooses Jacob, but not Esau. Is that fair? I guess it depends on whose vantage point you are looking at. Does God as Creator have the right to fashion and use His Creation for His purposes? Should we accept God’s purposes or question them? Seems arbitrary but then again God had to pick one of them to accomplish His purposes.
Jesus Questioned About Fasting
14 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Is Jesus against fasting? No. But as we see in other situations he re-defines the spiritual disciplines as activities so that the accomplish what they were intended for. They meant to bring us into a deeper fellowship with the Father and the Son in the power of the Spirit. We fast to get off the treadmill of life and commune with our Father. We abstain from earthly pleasures not because they are bad, but to become more spiritually in tune with what the Father is saying to us and also to enjoy fellowship with Him. Jesus is the New Wine and so a new wineskin is needed to contain all that He is and contains.
The church is in a sense a wineskin. We hold Jesus and offer Him to the world. When the church gets away from this primary purpose it can become old and cracked and the very thing it is for “holding the wine” can be lost if it forgets this.
Prayer: God of fellowship in Christ, bless us in our congregations, in oursharing, in our unity in the Spirit. Call us together as the body of Christ. Save us from walking our journeys isolated from each other.
Amen.
Readings for Today:
Psalm 16:7-11
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm16&version=NIV
Genesis 25
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis25&version=NIV
Matthew 9:14-26
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew9&version=NIV
Psalm 16
A miktam of David.
7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
In David, we see a man who walked with God. We see his focus in two very important matters. One, he is a man of constant praise. His life is one of adoring God and lifting up all the benefits of who God is. Second, he keeps his eyes on the Lord. His focus in on God and who He and not his inherent limitations. Then we see the result of his walk with God. He is secure and knows that his life both now and forever is accounted for. He also trusts the God will direct him in the paths of life. As he walks with God we see that he is full of joy and pleasure. David inspires us to a closer walk with God and knowing him personally and realizing that following God is a whole life proposition with all that we are body, mind and soul.
21 Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 The LORD said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”
24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
In Genesis 25, we see the death of the patriarch Abraham, the man of faith who first received God’s covenant. Abraham was faithful to keep God’s covenant and God was faithful to bless his descendants even Ishmael and his twelve sons who were all tribal rulers. We also see true the prophecy made about them, that they lived in hostility with all their neighbors.
And then we see the covenant fulfilled through Issac and Rebekah, who we learned about yesterday, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean. Issac was in similar situation as his father, Abraham, as he and Rebekah were childless. But as he prayed to the Lord she became pregnant. Then as she became pregnant twins “she inquired of the Lord, why is this happening.” God spoke to her (how we don’t know) that older (Esau) would serve the younger (Jacob) – even if there age was only seconds apart.
Why was this so? We don’t know. God chooses Jacob, but not Esau. Is that fair? I guess it depends on whose vantage point you are looking at. Does God as Creator have the right to fashion and use His Creation for His purposes? Should we accept God’s purposes or question them? Seems arbitrary but then again God had to pick one of them to accomplish His purposes.
Jesus Questioned About Fasting
14 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Is Jesus against fasting? No. But as we see in other situations he re-defines the spiritual disciplines as activities so that the accomplish what they were intended for. They meant to bring us into a deeper fellowship with the Father and the Son in the power of the Spirit. We fast to get off the treadmill of life and commune with our Father. We abstain from earthly pleasures not because they are bad, but to become more spiritually in tune with what the Father is saying to us and also to enjoy fellowship with Him. Jesus is the New Wine and so a new wineskin is needed to contain all that He is and contains.
The church is in a sense a wineskin. We hold Jesus and offer Him to the world. When the church gets away from this primary purpose it can become old and cracked and the very thing it is for “holding the wine” can be lost if it forgets this.
Prayer: God of fellowship in Christ, bless us in our congregations, in oursharing, in our unity in the Spirit. Call us together as the body of Christ. Save us from walking our journeys isolated from each other.
Amen.
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