Devotional Guide For the week of March 9, 2008
STARVED FOR HOPE
About good for evil
To read the Bible in one year, today read Nehemiah 7-9
To Know:
³He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like
a
lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its
shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouthAnd they made his grave with the
wicked
and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and
there was no deceit in his mouth.² (Is.53: 7,9)
Modeling the opening of his speech on Abraham Lincolnıs Gettysburg
Address,
Martin Luther King began, ³Five score years ago² King was delivering his
I
Have a Dream speech under the shadow of the Lincoln memorial. Five score
years placed Kingıs 1963 oration one hundred years after Lincolnıs signing
of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. King grew up in
church.
The Word of God formed his mind. His discourse was seventeen minutes that
changed the nation. As the speech neared its end, King warned against the
temptation to be bitter and violent. ³Unearned suffering,² he preached,
³is
redemptive.²
To Do:
Returning good for evil is our Christian calling. It is the business of
those who have been granted to have faith in Christ. Wars may be necessary
to protect the nation, but in the end they change nothing. Someone
observed
that war employs evil in hopes that some good will come. Our present
president professes personal faith in Christ. As our leader, the president
is charged with our defense. God gives to governments a sword with which
to
defend the life of the people. Leaders need our prayers in times of crisis
in order to be both strong and wise.
To Ask:
Father, give our president wise counselors and a compassion for us and for
those who count us as their enemy.
03118$-03118
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