Daily Devotion for May 19, 2020
Revival, by Vaughn Tucker, contemporary.
Prayers
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.Amen.
A Child’s Prayer
For Morn, my dome of blue,
For Meadows, green and gay,
And Birds who love the twilight of the leaves,
Let Jesus keep me joyful when I pray.
For the big Bees that hum
And hide in bells of flowers;
For the winding roads that come
To Evening’s holy door,
May Jesus bring me grateful to his arms,
And guard my innocence for evermore. Amen.
Prayer to Witness Boldly
O Holy One, I call to you and name you as eternal, ever-present, almighty, and boundless in love. Yet there are times, O God, when I fail to recognize you in the everyday routine of my life. There are times timidity clenches my heart and I hide my faith from the world and even from myself. Sometimes fear makes me so small that I miss a chance to express my belief. Doubts and insecurity suppress the wonderful wisdom I have learned, from your holy word, from listening to your teachers, and from the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit.
Heavenly Father, in the daily round from sunrise to sunset and to sunrise again, remind me again and again of your holy presence hovering near me and in me. Free me from shame and self-doubt in expressing my faith. Help me to see you in the fleeting moments of possibility and be filled with your courage and your word. In Christ’s name I pray,Amen.
Affirmation
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant equip us with every good thing that we may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.Amen.
Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.
Today’s “Remember the Bible” Question
What verse begins the long “lilies of the field” passage that ends, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God . . . .”?
“Heal the wound but leave the scar.”https://www.youtube.com/embed/8rAzOvUzc2c
Lyrics
Scripture
Psalm 55:22 (NKJV)
Cast your burden on the Lord,
And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
1 Thessalonians 1:1 (DP)
Greeting (1)
To the Church of Thessalonica:
Grace to you, and peace, in the name God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, from Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.
Literal Translation
1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in god father and lord Jesus Christ; grace to you and peace.
Notes on the Scripture
irst, a note about the versions of Scripture we will be using in our study of 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Each day, we will quote two very different versions of the same passage. The first, “DP” (Daily Prayer Bible), is a “paraphrase” translation intended to be both enjoyable to read and to convey the message in understandable English. A paraphrase translation is especially good for Paul, whose primary message is sometimes difficult to glean. Like any paraphrase translation, it will take liberties with the actual language of the Greek text in the interest of conveying the meaning.
The second version is the exact opposite: it is as close to a literal, word-for-word translation as possible. Greek syntax and word order is retained (except in the most extreme circumstances). There is no Bible like it in print. This version will allow the reader to see the actual Word of God. It will allow you to gauge for yourself whether you agree or disagree with other translations (including the DP Bible). It is “what the Bible actually says.” It is not intended for quick reading, but as a safeguard against the editorial or theological bias that colors every translation.
Salutations in Paul’s Epistles
The salutation of 1 Thess. is typical of the Pauline Epistles. The format is almost standardized: The names of the author(s), the name or names of the intended recipient(s), and the blessing “grace to you and peace.” Usually both the author and recipient are modified by a parenthetical clause, identifying their status: the recipients as faithful Christians, the writer as a person with authority to teach. As Paul grows older these become increasingly elaborate; by the time he wrote Romans, he followed the word “Paul” with a seventy-word parenthetical description of himself! (Romans 1:1-6)
Here, however, he is restrained; there is only the expression “in god father and lord Jesus Christ.” Whether this describes the Thessalonians, or Paul and his two disciples, or characterizes the spirit of the letter itself, is ambiguous.
As we will see time and again in Paul, such ambiguities are often best resolved by considering the ambiguity intentional; which is to say, Paul intended that the reader understand all three meanings. It is not really ambiguous, but states a unity of multiple meanings. Paul, the Thessalonian church, and the letter between them are unified by their new existence in God the Father and Jesus Christ.
Earliest known fragment
of Romans, ca. 200 AD.
So, you can see the purpose of the “literal” translation immediately. The modern translation sounds quite specific: “I wish you grace and peace in the name of God . . . .” But the translator has chosen one of several possible translations and omitted the others. He is not (necessarily) trying to fool anybody; it is an unavoidable burden of translating ancient Greek. (Unfortunately, in some cases, a translator will actually change the meaning of a passage that does not agree with his theology! The 1984 NIV is particularly guilty of this.)
The inclusion of Silvanus and Timothy in the “from” clause might look innocent enough, but it is Exhibit #1 in one of the great debates about the Bible: Who wrote Paul’s epistles, and which of them are authentic to Paul? It is natural for Paul to include Timothy and Silvanus, whether or not they had any part in writing the letter, since they were co-founders of the church in Thessalonica, and Timothy (as we will see) had returned there after they had been driven out.
We do know that Paul’s eyesight became poor quite early, requiring that he dictate his letters to a scribe (See Galatians 6:11), but we don’t know when this began, nor the degree of editorial freedom that the scribe might have had. On the other hand, Paul may be the only apostleLuke wrote the most educated and elegant Greek of any New Testament author, but he is not considered an apostle; he was a Gentile convert after Jesus’ ascension.whom we are certain could read and write Greek. But we do not know anything about the educational level of Timothy and Silvanus. Timothy certainly spoke Greek fluently, because he was Greek by birth; it was his native language.
The problem is compounded by Paul’s frequent use of “we”, raising the question: Does this mean more than one person is participating in writing the letter? This is not a great issue in 1 Thess., where he has included Timothy and Silvanus as senders of the letter — we could decide that Paul is simply writing the letter on behalf of himself and the other two. It will become a more difficult issue in later epistles, where only Paul himself is named.
The phrase “grace to you and peace” is practically boilerplate for Paul. “Grace” is actually an Hellenistic concept; the term was widely used in Classical Greece over a wide range of meanings, including the favor of a god. Paul might have actually picked the term up as a greeting from pagan Greeks. But certainly, he includes it for its specific appeal to Greek converts. “Peace”, on the other hand, is typically Hebrew; even today, Israelis greet one another with “ShalomSimilarly, the typical greeting in Arabic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew, is salaam, “peace”.”.
Daily Inspiration
“A Royal Delegation”
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Early 14th century Russian icon of the Epiphany, showing the baptism of Jesus.
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Today in Daily Prayer
Memory Verse
Mark 9:40: He who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.
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Daily Quiz
Top score(s) on the Daily Quiz for May 18, 2020 were:
Norman Daniels (11)
randall martin (11)
Keith Langley (11)
Theo Jackson (11)
Margaret Entwistle (11)
Pam Carpenter (10)
Tom Kraft (10)
HM Latchmenarine (10)
Top score(s) on Match-a-Verse:
Pam Carpenter (9 out of 9)
Kathryn Halfman (9 out of 9)
Greg Flippin (9 out of 9)
Norman Daniels (9 out of 9)
randall martin (9 out of 9)
