GPS for the week of July 21st, 2024

“The Lord Is Our Righteousness”

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“We long for God because he first longed for us. We reach for

God because he first reached for us. Nothing in the spiritual life

originates with us. It all originates with God. So it is that the

spiritual life begins in this most unlikely place. It begins with the

longing that stirs way down deep, underneath the noise, the

activity, the drivenness of our life (Ruth Haley Barton).”

 

Dear Lord, thank you for the deep longing for you that lasts

through our sadness and happiness and frantic striving in

life. Thank you for your steadfast love. Amen.

 

Monday 7.22 “And he had compassion for them.”

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

“The disciples gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had

done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place

all by yourselves and rest a while.’ And they went away in the boat to

a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and

recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns

and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great

crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like

sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many

things… When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized

him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick

on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into

villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and

begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all

who touched it were healed.” Jesus cared for the needs of those who

sought to be near him, even as he encouraged his disciples to rest

and pray in the quietness of a deserted place.

 

Tuesday 7.23 “I have been with you.”

2 Samuel 7:1-14a

“The word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David:

Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I

have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of

Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent

and a tabernacle… Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the

pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel;

and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all

your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name,

like the name of the great ones of the earth… Moreover the Lord

declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days

are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your

offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will

establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will

establish the throne of his kingdom forever, I will be a father to him,

and he shall be a son to me.” David enthusiastically wanted to build

a house for the ark of God but was reminded that it is only God who

has the power to build and sustain.

 

Wednesday 7.24 “An enduring witness in the skies.”

Psalm 89:20-37

“‘My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him; and in my

name his horn shall be exalted. I will set his hand on the sea and his

right hand on the rivers. He shall cry to me, “You are my Father, my

God, and the Rock of my salvation!” I will make him the firstborn, the

highest of the kings of the earth. Forever I will keep my steadfast

love for him, and my covenant with him will stand firm. I will establish

his line forever, and his throne as long as the heavens endure. If his

children forsake my law and do not walk according to my ordinances,

if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I

will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with

scourges; but I will not remove from him from my steadfast love, or be

false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant, or alter the

word that went forth from my lips. Once and for all I have sworn by

my holiness; I will not lie to David… It shall be established forever

like the moon, an enduring witness in the skies.’ Selah” The skies

remind us that Jesus is the Rock of our salvation. Praise be to God!

 

Thursday 7.25 “Brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Ephesians 2:11-22

“So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called ‘the

uncircumcision’ by those who are called ‘the circumcision’-a physical

circumcision made in the flesh by human hands-remember that you

were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth

of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope

and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were

once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is

our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has

broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”

Jesus is our peace. We must allow the hostility and division among

us to be destroyed by his gift of life.

 

Friday 7.26 “You are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”

Ephesians 2:11-22

“He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances,

that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two,

thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one

body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace

to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in

one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and

aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the

household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and

prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the

whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the

Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling

place for God.” There are no strangers and aliens in this dwelling

place for God. We fear others who seem to be so different from us,

but Jesus desires to give us the joy of reconciliation.

 

Saturday 7.27 “Then I myself will gather the remnant of my

flock.”

Jeremiah 23:1-6

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my

pasture! says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of

Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you

who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you

have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doing,

says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out

of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back

to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up

shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear

any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for

David a righteous Branch, and he shall execute justice and

righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel

will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called:

‘The Lord is our righteousness.’” God will bring his justice and

righteousness as he gathers his flock.