For the Obama family to be blessed with meaningful times together regularly
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates...
�Deuteronomy 6:6-9(NIV)
Loving Lord, You call us into families and You often use our families to accomplish Your will in our lives�to instruct and nurture children, to care for our elderly and to give us glorious glimpses of Your great love for us. We praise and bless You for this marvelous plan, and for the joy and pleasure our families give us.
We pray today for the Obama family�for President and Mrs. Obama, their daughters Malia and Sasha and Mrs. Obama�s mother, Mrs. Marian Robinson. They are a strong and sound family, and we thank You for their dedication to one another, praying that You will protect their times together. Please keep the demands of the presidency from burdening them or keeping them from loving one another as You have called them to love. Give them great joy and blessing as they adjust to life in the White House, and preserve their strong family identity, I ask in Jesus� name, amen.
As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.
"The only way of serving God aright is to endeavor to do good to his holy servants. And the truth is, that God, as our good deeds cannot extend to him, substitutes the saints in his place, towards whom we are to exercise our charity. When men, therefore, mutually exert themselves in doing good to one another, this is to yield to God right and acceptable service.
"This passage, therefore, teaches us that there is no sacrifice more acceptable to God than when we sincerely and heartily connect ourselves with the society of the righteous, and being knit together by the sacred bond of godliness, cultivate and maintain with them brotherly goodwill."
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin On the Psalms)
Jesus echoed this thought when he said, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40)
Philemon 8-20
This is one of the shorter (one chapter) of Paul's letters, and is often neglected. It seems to be a letter to a brother concerning a runaway slave.
Paul is sending the slave (Onesimus) back to Philemon with the letter. Apparently, the slave not only ran away, but stole something of Philemon's as well. But now, Onesimus has been converted to Christ. This puts Philemon in a rather awkward situation. Onesimus is now his brother in Christ. He must accept Onesimus as his brother in Christ. I believe he can still hold him accountable for what he stole, however, he must forgive and treat him as a brother.
Can you think of people that you have trouble accepting as "true Christian brothers" or sisters? I know I do. I see some every Sunday. How many people would be able to readily accept Ted Bundy as a "true Christian brother?" Well, according to James Dobson, Bundy was saved before he was executed. I've read the interview. It seems authentic. Who among us would be able to accept a convicted serial killer as a "true Christian brother."
But that's the whole point of Christianity. Jesus takes people who are undeserving of mercy and extends mercy to them. That's what grace is. We are all saved by grace, not by anything that we have done. Therefore, we must all accept one another as "saints." It's actually kind of neat how this ties in with the Psalms passage above. Onesimus is now Philemon's brother. Philemon, then must treat him as such, and, in doing good to him, has done good to Christ. This is how we show our love for God. We can't really do anything "good" for God. Not directly. Because he doesn't need anything. But his saints need plenty, and we can do good to them. This is what makes us all "true Christian brothers."
Grace and peace, friends!