DAILY, WEEKEND, AND HOLIDAY INTERNET EVANGELIZE TO THE WORLD MINISTRY

Wednesday, October 31, 2018 | Ordinary Time Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time Year 2 | Roman Missal | Lectionary First Reading Ephesians 6:1–9 Response Psalm 145:13 c Psalm Psalm 145:10–14 Gospel Acclamation 2 Thessalonians 2:14 Gospel Luke 13:22–30   Catholic Daily Readings . Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2009. Print. Wednesday, October 31, 2018 | Feast Reformation Day Years ABC First Reading Revelation 14:6–7 Psalm Psalm 46 Epistle Romans 3:19–28 Gospel John 8:31–36 or Matthew 11:12–19 Index of Readings   Lutheran Service Book Three Year Lectionary . Bellingham, WA: Concordia Publishing House, 2009. Print. Wednesday, October 31, 2018 | After Pentecost Wednesday after Proper 25 Year B Psalm, First Reading & Second Reading, Option I Psalm Psalm 119:17–24 First Reading Jeremiah 33:1–11 (Complementa...

October 31: Speaking the Truth Daniel 11:1–12:12 ; 2 Thessalonians 3:1–18 ; Job 42:10–17 “And now I will reveal the truth to you” ( Dan 11:2 ). How much better would our world be if more of us were willing to take this kind of stand—to make these kinds of statements? The truth Daniel refers to are the prophecies foretelling what will happen in the Persian Empire. Great power and wealth are coming, and with them comes the fear of how that power and wealth may be used. If we read between the lines of the prophet’s statements in Dan 11 , we can feel the trepidation. He is concerned that wickedness will once again sweep over the land. Such was the case for Paul: “Pray for us, that the word of the Lord may progress and be honored … and that we may be delivered from evil and wicked people, for not all have the faith” ( 2 Thess 3:1–2 ). Paul was aware that unbelievers would seek his life. He wasn’t sure what the future would look like. We can imagine the fear that he must have fel...

Morning , October 31 Go To Evening Reading “Renew a right spirit within me.” — Psalm 51:10 A backslider, if there be a spark of life left in him will groan after restoration. In this renewal the same exercise of grace is required as at our conversion. We needed repentance then; we certainly need it now. We wanted faith that we might come to Christ at first; only the like grace can bring us to Jesus now. We wanted a word from the Most High, a word from the lip of the loving One, to end our fears then; we shall soon discover, when under a sense of present sin, that we need it now. No man can be renewed without as real and true a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s energy as he felt at first, because the work is as great, and flesh and blood are as much in the way now as ever they were. Let thy personal weakness, O Christian, be an argument to make thee pray earnestly to thy God for help. Remember, David when he felt himself to be powerless, did not fold his arms or close his ...

October 31st Discernment of faith Faith as a grain of mustard seed.… Matthew 17:20 We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, it may be so in the initial stages; but we do not earn anything by faith. Faith brings us into right relationship with God and gives God His opportunity. God has frequently to knock the bottom board out of your experience if you are a saint in order to get you into contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of His blessings. Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sun-spot of experience that had as much of sense as of faith in it, full of light and sweetness; then God withdrew His conscious blessings in order to teach you to walk by faith. You are worth far more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight and thrilling testimony. Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it dif...

October 31 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened Eph. 1:17 , 18 We were coming down a mountain in Switzerland one evening, when a black thunderstorm blotted out the day, and all things were suddenly plunged into darkness. We could only dimly see the narrow, dusty footpaths, and the gloomy sides that were swallowed up in deeper gloom. What, then, of the majesty all about us, heights, and depths, and wonders? All was darkness. Then came the lightning—not flashes, but the blazing of the whole sky, incessant, and on every side. What recesses of glory we gazed into! What marvels of splendor shone out of the darkness! Think how with us, in us, is One who comes to make the common, dusty ways of life resplendent, illuminating our dull thoughts by the light of the glory of God; clearing the vision of the soul, and then revealing the gre...

He Was Unable to Speak to Them Luke 1:22 Excerpt According to  Tamid   7.2  priests coming out of the holy place were expected to pronounce a customary blessing, such as  Num 6:24–26 , upon the people. Whether Luke’s readers would have known this is uncertain.  Luke 1:62  implies that Zechariah also could not hear.  More Stein, Robert H.  Luke . Vol. 24. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992. Print. The New American Commentary.

Imitation of Christ: Food and Light Excerpt I feel there are especially necessary for me in this life two things without which its miseries would be unbearable. Confined here in this prison of the body I confess I need these two, food and light. Therefore, You have given me in my weakness Your sacred Flesh to refresh my soul and body, and You have set Your word as the guiding light for my feet. Without them I could not live aright, for the word of God is the light of my soul and Your Sacrament is the Bread of Life. These also may be called the two tables, one here, one there, in the treasure house of holy Church. One is the table of the holy altar, having the holy Bread that is the precious Body of Christ. The other is the table of divine law, containing holy doctrine that teaches all the true faith and firmly leads them within the veil, the Holy of holies.  More Thomas à Kempis.  The Imitation of Christ . Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1996. Print.

Faithful Excerpt “Faithful” . ( 1 Corinthians   4:17 , cf . v .  2 ) . Here Paul commends Timothy, his young companion in ministry, as “faithful.” The word,  pistos , means loyal , reliable , and trustworthy . It is frequently used in the N.T. to commend believers for carrying out their assignments ( Matt.  24:45 ;  25:21–23 ), and for steadfast endurance ( Eph.  6:21 ;  Col. 1:7 ;  4:7 ).  More Richards, Lawrence O.  The Bible Reader’s Companion . electronic ed. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1991. Print.

The Work of the Trinity in Salvation Ephesians 3:14–17 Excerpt The Father gives us our identity, the Spirit strengthens and empowers, and Christ “dwells in our hearts through faith” as the wellspring of transforming love.  More Richards, Lawrence O.  The Bible Reader’s Companion . electronic ed. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1991. Print.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018 | ORDINARY TIME TUESDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR 2 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY First Reading Ephesians 5:21–33 Response Psalm 128:1a Psalm Psalm 128:1–5 Gospel Acclamation Matthew 11:25 Gospel Luke 13:18–21 Catholic Daily Readings. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2009. Print. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018 | AFTER PENTECOST TUESDAY AFTER PROPER 25 YEAR B Psalm, First Reading & Second Reading, Option I Psalm Psalm 119:17–24 First Reading 2 Kings 6:8–23 (Complementary) Second Reading Acts 9:32–35 or Psalm, First Reading & Second Reading, Option II Psalm Psalm 28 First Reading Ezekiel 18:1–32 (Semicontinuous) Second Reading Acts 9:32–35 Consultation on Common Texts. Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2011. Print. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018 | AFTER PENTECOST PROPER 25, TUESDAY YEAR 2 Psalms (Morning) Psalm 45 Psalms (Evening) Psalm 47, 48 Old Testament Sirach 24:1–12 New Testament Revelation 11:1...

October 30: An Obstructed View Daniel 9:1–10:21 ; 2 Thessalonians 2:1–17 ; Job 42:1–9 We need to see ourselves as we truly are, but we can’t do that on our own. Our communities can help us glimpse a more accurate reflection, but we truly know ourselves only when we know God. His light brings us understanding. After suffering incredible loss, Job tries to understand his pain. He speaks some truth, but he often misunderstands God’s motives and minimizes His love. As his friends try to help him grapple with his grief, they sometimes point out truth, but more often they cause even more pain and confusion. It’s only when God arrives to enlighten Job’s understanding that everything changes. First God questions Job’s knowledge ( Job 38:19–21 ), power ( Job 38:25–38 ), and ideas about justice ( Job 40:10–12 ). Then He shows Job that He is all of these things. The realization exposes Job’s heart. “Then Job answered Yahweh and said, ‘I know that you can do all things, and any scheme fr...

Morning , October 30 Go To Evening Reading “I will praise thee, O Lord.” — Psalm 9:1 Praise should always follow answered prayer; as the mist of earth’s gratitude rises when the sun of heaven’s love warms the ground. Hath the Lord been gracious to thee, and inclined his ear to the voice of thy supplication? Then praise him as long as thou livest. Let the ripe fruit drop upon the fertile soil from which it drew its life. Deny not a song to him who hath answered thy prayer and given thee the desire of thy heart. To be silent over God’s mercies is to incur the guilt of ingratitude; it is to act as basely as the nine lepers, who after they had been cured of their leprosy, returned not to give thanks unto the healing Lord. To forget to praise God is to refuse to benefit ourselves; for praise, like prayer, is one great means of promoting the growth of the spiritual life. It helps to remove our burdens, to excite our hope, to increase our faith. It is a healthful and invigorating...

October 30th Faith Without faith it is impossible to please Him. Hebrews 11:6 . Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the two into a right relation. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails. Faith must be tried before the reality of faith is actual. “We know that all things work together for good,” then no matter what happens, the alchemy of God’s providence transfigures the ideal faith into actual reality. Faith always works on the personal line, the whole purpose of God being to see that the ideal faith is made real in His children. For every detail of the commonsense life, there is a revelation fact of God whereby we can prove in practical experience what ...

October 29 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded John 13:4 , 5 Acts are common and mean because they are ordinarily expressive of the common and mean thoughts of men. Let us not accuse the acts that make up our daily life of meanness, but our ignoble souls that reveal themselves so unworthily through those acts. The same act may successively mount up through every intermediate stage from the depth of unworthiness to a transcendent height of excellence, according to the soul that is manifested by it. One of the glorious ends of our Lord’s incarnation was that He might propitiate us with the details of life, so that we should not disdain these as insignificant, but rather disdain ourselves for our inability to make these details interpreters of a noble nature. Oh, let us then look with affecti...

Minister to One Another in the Church Romans 12:3 Excerpt When our thinking has truly been transformed and renewed by the Spirit, it is impossible to have an exaggerated view of our own worth. Instead, we will humbly use all our gifts and strengths to minister to each other. This is Paul’s concern here as he calls for  sober judgment  regarding our place in God’s community. So he begins with  the grace given to me,  probably a reference to his Damascus Road experience ( Acts 9 ) where he encountered God’s gracious call to be his apostle to the Gentiles; thus he is appealing to his apostolic authority.  More Osborne, Grant R.  Romans . Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004. Print. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series.

Christ: The Fulfillment of Prophecy Excerpt ‎Of all the attacks that have ever been made upon the Scripture , there has never been one book written by a skeptic to disprove the prophecies of the Scripture . Though the Bible has been attacked at every other place, the one place where God rests His inspiration is that the things He foretells come infallibly to pass. ‎The Bible prophecies are altogether unexpected! I know of no one ever prophesying that any other human being would rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. That is exceedingly improbable. The chance of it happening by coincidence is incalculable. No, the Bible is not merely a book written by men; it is a book written by God through men, and the heart of its prophetic message is Jesus Christ. …  More Kennedy, D. James. “Christ: The Fulfillment of Prophecy.”   The Apologetics Study Bible : Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith . Ed. Ted Cabal et al. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers...

Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven Matthew 5:3 Excerpt The NT reports two different forms of the expression: “the kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of the heavens.” The latter is found only in Matthew , but Matthew also has “the kingdom of God” four times ( Mt 12:28 ;  19:24 ;  21:31 ,  43 ). “The kingdom of heaven” is a Semitic phrase that would have been meaningful to Jews but not to Greeks. The Jews, out of reverence for God, avoided uttering the divine name, and contemporary literature gives examples of substituting the word “heaven” for God ( 1 Macc 3:18 ,  50 ;  4:10 ; see   Lk 15:18 ).  More Elwell, Walter A., and Philip Wesley Comfort.  Tyndale Bible  Dictionary 2001 : 775. Print. Tyndale Reference Library.

Sinai Symbolism: The Background of the Theological Significance of OT Religion in Hebrews Excerpt ‎Although the phrase ‘Mount Sinai’ does not appear in  Hebrews 12:18–21  it is clear that the author describes the event of theophany at Sinai in  Exodus 19:16–19  and the Deuteronomic description of theophany at Horeb.   Although there is a little dispute about the identification of the location of Sinai and Horeb, it is generally viewed that both Sinai and Horeb are called the mountain of Yahweh referring to the same place. Some scholars distinguish between Exodus tradition and Sinai tradition, and the Sinai complex is understood as the result of several different traditions. However, the exact geographical location of the mountain and the historical origin of the Sinai tradition 1 are of no interest here for the purpose of this study is to appreciate the theological symbolism of the Sinai event, and its contribution to understanding the religious signi...

October 29: Apocalyptic at Its Best Daniel 7:1–8:27 ; 2 Thessalonians 1:1–12 ; Job 41:21–34 Daniel is full of spooky scenes. If Daniel doesn’t scare you a bit, you’ve probably watched too many horror movies. Apocalyptic literature in the Bible has a way of playing tricks on us. It’s full of vivid imagery that can be haunting—and that’s intentional. The pictures it paints are meant to stay with us. We’re meant to remember what these passages are teaching. Of course, the same can be said of the entire Bible , but apocalyptic literature is especially vivid because its message requires us to choose: to follow or to turn away from God at the most important time—the end. The dreams Daniel has, including those recorded in Dan 7:3–14 , are images of what is and is to come. The beasts in Daniel were evocative symbols for his audience. When they heard of the lion with eagles, they envisioned Babylon ( Dan 7:4 ). When the bear appeared, they thought of Media ( Dan 7:5 ). Likewise, the ...

Morning , October 29 Go To Evening Reading “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, etc.” — Matthew 6:9 This prayer begins where all true prayer must commence, with the spirit of adoption , “Our Father.” There is no acceptable prayer until we can say, “I will arise, and go unto my Father.” This child-like spirit soon perceives the grandeur of the Father “in heaven,” and ascends to devout adoration , “Hallowed be thy name.” The child lisping, “Abba, Father,” grows into the cherub crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” There is but a step from rapturous worship to the glowing missionary spirit , which is a sure outgrowth of filial love and reverent adoration— “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Next follows the heartfelt expression of dependence upon God— “Give us this day our daily bread.” Being further illuminated by the Spirit, he discovers that he is not only dependent, but sinful, hence he entreats for mercy , “Forg...

October 28th Justification by faith For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:10 . I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me; repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause—It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God, and by the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not k...