Lent Devotional 2021 - Pittsburg - Flipbook - Page 13
love. We pray that our souls will always be on fire as we run
after your heart. In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021
Chap. Nicholas Stavlund ’17
SCRIPTURE
Romans 2:12-24
12 All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish
apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law
will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the
law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the
law who will be justified. 14 When Gentiles, who do not
possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these,
though not having the law, are a law to themselves. 15 They
show that what the law requires is written on their hearts,
to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their
conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them
16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through
Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all. 17 But if
you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your
relation to God 18 and know his will and determine what is
best because you are instructed in the law, 19 and if you are
sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who
are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of
children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge
and truth, 21 you, then, that teach others, will you not teach
yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?
22 You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You
that abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You that boast in
the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 For,
as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the
Gentiles because of you.”
DEVOTIONAL
Paul wrote in Romans 2 that there were some Gentiles who
instinctively did what the Law required (v. 14). Apparently,
these outsiders had the Law of the insiders, the chosen
people, bubbling up in their gut, overflowing in their
behavior. The requirements of the Mosaic law were, in Paul’s
words, written on their hearts. Presumably they were never
taught this stuff in a classroom. Yet, despite their disposition
as outsiders and their dispossession of the law, their
conscience bore witness to the light of God.
In the spring of 2017, while the battle for western Mosul
continued to grow increasingly violent, I saw an ISIS fighter
surrender to an Iraqi military officer. Months earlier, members
of this Iraqi officer’s family were murdered as they tried
to flea invading ISIS fighters. Surprisingly, the Iraqi officer
grabbed the dejected ISIS fighter by his shoulders, looked
him the eyes, and prayed that God’s peace would reign in the
man’s heart. He didn’t punch him. He didn’t shoot him. He
prayed for him.
I think I saw the light of God that day, not in an Anglican or
Presbyterian, but in an Iraqi Army officer who’s heart was
broken from the violence of war. Perhaps this is what Paul
was pointing to: Doers of the law of God are everywhere,
even in the most surprising of places.
PRAYER
O God, with you is the well of life, and in your light we see
light. Quench our thirst with living water, and flood our
darkened minds with heavenly light. Through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever, we pray. Amen.
FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2021
Lynn Cox ’14
SCRIPTURE
John 5:30-47
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my
judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but
the will of him who sent me. 31 If I testify about myself, my
testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies on my
behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. 33 You
sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. 34 Not
that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things
so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining
lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36 But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that
the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I
am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.
37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my
behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form,
38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, because
you do not believe him whom he has sent. 39 You search the
scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal
life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. 40 Yet you refuse
to come to me to have life. 41 I do not accept glory from
human beings. 42 But I know that you do not have the love
of God in you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you
do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will
accept him. 44 How can you believe when you accept glory
from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from
the one who alone is God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse
you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you
have set your hope. 46 If you believed Moses, you would
believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But if you do not
believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
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