Psalms 63:3 (62:4 LXX)

Because Your mercy is better than life,

Judith 8:11-13

They came to her, and she said to them, “Listen to me now, rulers of the people of Bethulia! Your words spoken today to the people are not right, nor is the oath you have sworn and pronounced between God and yourselves, promising to surrender the city to our adversaries unless the Lord turns and helps you in so many days.

Now who are you to have put God to the test this day, setting yourselves up as God’s equal among the sons of men? You are testing the Lord Almighty, but you will never come to know anything!”

Personal Challenge

Judith is admonishing the rulers of her community for doing something that we all do at one time or another in our lives. Since they are under attack by the massive army of Holofernes they have resorted to bargaining with their God. “If you do this God, then I will do this.” “If I do this, God, then I expect you to do this.” God does not work this way. God does what He does and it is our responsibility to trust and obey Him. We need to act in the situations that we find ourselves in ways that honor Him and demonstrate our trust in Him. He will not be manipulated. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Luke 6:20-23

Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man’s sake.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.”

Encouraging Words

The beatitudes are such a powerful part of Jesus’ sermon on the Mount. So many practical life applications are in here and most, if not all of them, are completely opposite of what our world would like us to do. How can we be blessed if we are poor, or hungry, or weeping, or hated because we love Christ? This is truly a mystery, but if we always remember that as children of the Living God, our home is not of this world, but of the heavenly kingdom of God, then we begin to see that our blessings are being piled up in our the home as we deal with the issues of this temporary dwelling. Glory be to God!

Psalms 62:8 (61:9 LXX)

Hope in Him, all you congregation of people;
Pour out your hearts before Him;
God is our helper.

Encouraging Words

God is our helper. Do we really believe this? Do we really understand the depth of this? God promises us that He has sent us a Helper to guide us through our lives and yet we continually live our lives the way that the world tells us to. God promises us that He will meet our needs and yet we spend so much of our time and resources planning for retirement that we miss the opportunities of everyday life to invest in those around us. When it comes down to the bottom line of our faith, it can all be encapsulated in two things that God wants from us. These are to love Him above all else and to love our neighbor. We cannot do this unless we put our hope in Him. We cannot do this without a community of other believers around us encouraging us in this choice. We can do this through Him because He is our Helper and has led the way by loving us enough to die for us. God is our Helper. God is my Helper.

Judith 5:20-21

“Now my lord and master, if there is any sin of ignorance in this people and they sin against their God, then we will identify their offense and will go up to defeat them. But if there is no lawlessness in their nation, then let my lord leave them alone, lest their Lord shield them, and their God defend them, and we will become a reproach before the whole earth.”

Encouraging Words

Here in Judith, one of the Old Testament apocryphal books, we have Achior, an Ammonite, informing Holofernes, the commander of the Assyrian army, about the nation of Israel. The Ammonites were neighbors to Israel and had seen many of the mighty things that their God had done in their history. The Assyrians were conquering the known world and now had Israel in their sights. In this short passage, Achior is warning Holofernes to be careful with the Israelites. If they have not been sinning against their God then they will be a formidable force because their God will be commanding their puny army and He never loses a battle. Is this not a powerful message for us today? If we are striving to live our lives for our God, submitting our wills to Him, and obeying His precepts, will He not protect us as He did the nation of Israel? He keeps his covenants! Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Luke 5:31-36

Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.”

Encouraging Words

There is so much that could be unpacked from this passage. The one consistent thing across these three scenarios is the reminder that God does not do things the way that we expect Him to. We always forget that He has the whole picture in His view, past, present, and future. He knows the conditions of everyone’s heart as well as the intentions of their wills. That is part of the reason that while He walked here on this earth, so many of the things that He did caught everyone off guard. And many times I believe that is what He expects us to do, especially if we are to walk in His footsteps. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have many! Lord, have mercy!

Psalms 62:6-7 (61:7-8 LXX)

For He is my God and my savior,
My protector; I shall never be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory;
He is the God of my help, and my hope is in God.

Encouraging Words

God is God and I am not. This is an eternal truth that I must always keep repeating to myself to fend off the temptation to be my own god. God has promised to be our God, both to the Church and to each of us as individuals in His Church. As our God, He is our savior and protector. No matter how big the storms of life get or worse yet, the sirens of distraction call out to me in times of peace and calmness, because of His steadfastness we will never be moved if we keep Him as our God. He is my salvation, my glory, my help, and my hope. I choose no other to be my God! Glory be to Him!

Tobit 13:3-4

Give thanks to Him before the nations,
O children of Israel,
For He scattered us among them.
Make known His greatness there;
Exalt Him in the presence of all the living,
For He is our Lord and God;
He is our Father unto all the ages.

Personal Challenge

Just as God had dispersed His chosen people, the nation of Israel, throughout the other nations, so too has He dispersed us, His followers throughout the world. He has done this so that we can be His emissaries, His ambassadors, to the people of this world and point them to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord who loves them dearly. This means living our lives in a way that shines His light as beacons in the darkness. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!