GPS for the week of April 28th, 2024
“Abide In Me As I Abide In You”
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“The basis of the love of God for humankind lies not in human
beings but solely in God himself. The basis on which we as real
human beings can live and can love the real human beings
around us lies again solely in the incarnation of God, in the
unfathomable love of God for humankind (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).”
Dear Lord, thank you for giving us life each day. Help us to
live and love as you have loved us. Amen.
Monday 4.29 “He had come to Jerusalem to worship.”
Acts 8:26-40
“Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go toward
the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’
(This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there
was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of
the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to
Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his
chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to
Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ So Philip ran up to it
and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you
understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless
someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit
beside him. Now the passage of scripture that he was reading
was this: ‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a
lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In
his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his
generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.’ The
eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the
prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’” This
court official faithfully served God in worship and in study but was
puzzled by the prophecy of Isaiah. God blessed him with Philip in
the wilderness.
Tuesday 4.30 “He proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.”
Acts 8:26-40
“Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he
proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were
going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch
said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being
baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them,
Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip
baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of
the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and
went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and
as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good
news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.” God blessed
the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip as they journeyed on, rejoicing in
the good news of life in Jesus.
Wednesday 5.1 “Dominion belongs to the Lord.”
Psalm 22:25-31
“From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I
will pay before those who fear him. The poor shall eat and be
satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your
hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth shall remember and
turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship
before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over
the nations. To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow
down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I
shall live for him. Posterity will serve him; future generations will
be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people
yet unborn, saying that he has done it.” God powerfully overcame
death and called us to the freedom of life everlasting!
Thursday 5.2 “God loved us so much.”
1 John 4:7-21
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever
does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love
was revealed among us in this way; God sent his only Son into the
world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we
loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning
sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we
also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we
love one another God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
We need not be afraid to love one another freely as God has
loved us.
Friday 5.3 “The commandment we have from him is this…”
1 John 4:7-21
“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God
abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that
we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is,
so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love
casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever
fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first
loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers and
sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister
whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not
seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who
love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” Only as we
abide in the love of our living God can we be free to love all those
around us.
Saturday 5.4 “You have already been cleansed by the
word that I have spoken to you.”
John 15:1-8
“‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He
removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that
bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already
been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in
me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in
me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me
and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do
nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a
branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the
fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,
ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father
is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my
disciples’.” We may trust our Lord Jesus to bring us alive as we
draw our life from him. He will make us bear good fruit as we
surrender our lives to him.