Friday, July 28, 2006
Friday in the 7th week of Pentecost
Daily readings
Numbers 24:1-13
Romans 8:12-17
Matthew 22:15-22
Numbers 24 continues on with the story of Balaam blessing Israel, much to Balak's chagrin since he had gone to great expense and effort to get this well known local prophet of the LORD to curse them and make them go away.
Romans 8 has this exciting news: you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
We are the adopted children of God! What fantastic news that is! God has come down to earth, in the person of His only begotten Son, and has adopted us as His own. When you are adopted you don't really have anything to do with it, it's an act of the one adopting, it's all up to Him, and He has declared us to be his children and heirs. That just makes me want to grin and rejoice and shout Amen! :-)
Matthew tells the story of the Herodians and the Pharisees, deadly enemies most of the time, uniting in an attempt to trap Jesus. Naturally they failed. Jesus gives us the teaching of the two kingdoms here I think. The kingdom of the natural world, where man rules and the kingdom of God. I'm not up on this much, and that is probably because I have so many questions about it, which rulers do we obey? At what point does a rebel government become the "legitimate" government? Ah well, one day the Lord will make all of that clear to me I trust.
There is a good post about the Theology of Glory vs the Theology of the Cross on Gene Edward Veith's blog called Theology of the Cross for Dummies. It is well worth reading, especially check out the link to the chart that compares the two ideas. ΒΆ 7/28/2006 08:47:00 AM
Numbers 24:1-13
Romans 8:12-17
Matthew 22:15-22
Numbers 24 continues on with the story of Balaam blessing Israel, much to Balak's chagrin since he had gone to great expense and effort to get this well known local prophet of the LORD to curse them and make them go away.
Romans 8 has this exciting news: you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
We are the adopted children of God! What fantastic news that is! God has come down to earth, in the person of His only begotten Son, and has adopted us as His own. When you are adopted you don't really have anything to do with it, it's an act of the one adopting, it's all up to Him, and He has declared us to be his children and heirs. That just makes me want to grin and rejoice and shout Amen! :-)
Matthew tells the story of the Herodians and the Pharisees, deadly enemies most of the time, uniting in an attempt to trap Jesus. Naturally they failed. Jesus gives us the teaching of the two kingdoms here I think. The kingdom of the natural world, where man rules and the kingdom of God. I'm not up on this much, and that is probably because I have so many questions about it, which rulers do we obey? At what point does a rebel government become the "legitimate" government? Ah well, one day the Lord will make all of that clear to me I trust.
There is a good post about the Theology of Glory vs the Theology of the Cross on Gene Edward Veith's blog called Theology of the Cross for Dummies. It is well worth reading, especially check out the link to the chart that compares the two ideas. ΒΆ 7/28/2006 08:47:00 AM
