Infinite Love

Today is Thursday, the fourteenth of October, 2021

May the peace of God reign in your lives

Day 23,226

Twenty-four days until Daylight Saving Time ends

Today is the annual Showcase at the Hurst Public Library. The actual event goes from 6-8 PM tonight. I’m working from 12-9, the last hour being for clean-up.

So there aren’t really any other plans or agenda for today. Mostly, I need to focus on not wasting too much time, this morning and getting this blog thing done in plenty of time. I’ve already folded laundry, and we have an Albertson’s delivery on the way. S and C will have to figure out dinner tonight, I guess.

Today is Sight Day, so ordained in order to heighten awareness of those who suffer from blindness and visual impairment.

The word for today is chaebol, “a South Korean conglomerate, usually owned by a single family, based on authoritarian management and centralized decision-making.”

Today’s quote is from James Joyce, Irish novelist. “The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.”

Significant birthdays on October 14:

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U.S. President (president when I was born), born in Denison, Texas, 1890-1969
Lillian Gish, American silent film actress, 1893-1993
E.E. Cummings, American poet, 1894-1962
C. Everett Koop, U.S. Surgeon General, 1916-2013
Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer, 1939 (82)
Cliff Richard, English rock vocalist (We Don't Talk Anymore), 1940 (81)
Justin Hayward, English vocalist (Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin), 1946 (75)
Al Oliver, American baseball player, 1946 (75)
Harry Anderson, American comic, magician, and actor (Night Court), 1952-2018
Thomas Dolby, British rock musician (Blinded Me With Science), 1958 (63)

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS

Have nothing to do
Irreverent, silly myths;
Train for godliness
(1 Timothy 4)

Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.
(Psalms 30:4 ESV)

Today I am grateful:

1. for Your saints, who encourage me and lift me up
2. that You, by various ways, make Your ways known to us
3. that You are merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
4. that You do not deal with us according to our sins; You do not give us what we deserve
5. for the Cross, that instrument of execution which You turned into an instrument of redemption

Scriptures and Prayers from Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year

ORDINARY TIME – WEEK TWENTY-ONE – DAY FIVE

INVITATION

I waited patiently for the LORD’s help;
then he listened to me and heard my cry.
He pulled me out of a dangerous pit,
out of the deadly quicksand.
He set me safely on a rock and made me secure.
(Psalms 40:1-2 GNB)

As I pause during this quiet moment, rather than reflect on the day ahead, I stop and reflect on You; for You have truly heard my cry and delivered me from the “dangerous pit” and the “deadly quicksand,” many, many times. May I be more faithful to “train for godliness.”

BIBLE SONG

The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
(Psalms 103:6-13 NIV)

BIBLE READING

The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
(2 Kings 4:1-7 NIV)

DWELLING: SILENCE AND MEDITATION

In quiet contemplation, I read these passages again, focusing on the presence of the Lord that surrounds me. My spirit and soul are quieted as I meditate and pray.

Moses, like Elisha, was just a man, like me. The Lord made His ways known to Moses, just as He has made His ways known to other people, throughout Scripture. If I am paying attention (which I frequently am not), He also makes His ways known to me.

One of the purposes of Scripture is to do exactly that. May “life verse,” Psalm 86:11 is a prayer for that.

Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.
(Psalms 86:11 ESV)

The verse after is worthy of notice, as well.

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.
(Psalms 86:12 ESV)

Psalm 86:11 is a prayer that I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God wants to answer. He wants to teach me His way; He wants me to walk in His truth; He wants to “unity my heart,” so that I fear His Name.

And how great is His steadfast love? “As high as the heavens are above the earth.” So far, mankind has not been able to find an end to that distance. It appears to be infinite. God’s love for us is infinite. It has no limits.

Remember yesterday’s opening poem? “A thousand sweethearts could not love me more.”

Today’s reading from 2 Kings features, Elisha, a great man of God. Great as he was, though, he was not the one with the power. The power was all God’s. Elisha was merely a channel. And, once again, I remind myself that Elisha was only human, just like me.

Father, I thank You for the examples of Moses and Elisha. I thank You that You freely and willingly make Your ways known to us. If we do not know Your ways, it is nobody’s fault but our own. I give You praise for Your amazing, steadfast love. It is baffling, to say the least. Only You would be able to continue to love us the way You do, in spite of our continued sinfulness. Help me to focus on that love today. I also pray that You help me to pass that love on to everyone who crosses my path.

Lord, please give me an increased yearning to know You, as well as diligence to seek You. Help me to experience the joy of my salvation today.

"Creator God,
I'm thankful for Your hands that uphold,
rule,
and even miraculously intervene in the created order of things.
May Your fatherly hands still provide for the starving poor,
the girl sold as a sex slave,
the heartbroken child shuffled from one foster home to the next.
Use me today to be Your hands,
still providing for those in need.
Amen."

BLESSING

“Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them!”
(Matthew 5:7 GNB)

I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
(Psalms 121:1-2 NIV)

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
(Psalms 46:1 NIV)

For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help.
(Psalms 72:12 NIV)

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
(Isaiah 52:13-15 ESV)

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
(John 3:14-15 ESV)

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
(1 Corinthians 1:18-28 ESV)

"At the Cross,
At the Cross,
Where I first saw the Light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away;
It was there by faith
I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day."
(Chorus by Ralph E. Hudson)

I pray for peace in our nation, peace in our world. I pray for racial injustice to end, and I pray for the pandemic to be over. Above all else, though, I pray for Your will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven. For Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Sprinkling of nations;
Cross; folly to perishing;
Salvation power.
(1 Corinthians 1)

Grace and peace, friends.