After nearly ten years of being its own nation, the Republic of Texas became the 28th State of the Union this day, December 29, 1845. It later joined the Confederacy, but was readmitted after the Civil War. The Preamble stated: “We, the people of the Republic of Texas, acknowledging, with gratitude the grace and beneficence of God, in permitting us to make a choice of our form of government, do… establish this Constitution.” It later added: “Nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.”

William J. Federer. American Minute

We are not here to prove God answers prayer;
we are here to be living monuments of God’s grace.
--- Oswald Chambers


The world is growing old in sin.
--- C.H. Spurgeon


I am not such an egotist as to believe that God has spared me because I am I. I believe there is work for me to do and that I am spared to do it, just as you are.
--- Eddie Rickenbacker (WWI Congressional Medal Of Honor)

... from here, there and everywhere

ע     25 Clothed with strength and dignity,
she can laugh at the days to come.
פ     26 When she opens her mouth, she speaks wisely;
on her tongue is loving instruction.
ץ     27 She watches how things go in her house,
not eating the bread of idleness.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                Deserter or disciple?

     From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.
--- John 6:66.

     When God gives a vision by His Spirit through His word of what He wants, and your mind and soul thrill to it, if you do not walk in the light of that vision, you will sink into servitude to a point of view which Our Lord never had. Disobedience in mind to the heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Jesus Christ. Do not look at someone else and say—‘Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why cannot I?’ You have to walk in the light of the vision that has been given to you and not compare yourself with others or judge them, that is between them and God. When you find that a point of view in which you have been delighting clashes with the heavenly vision and you debate, certain things will begin to develop in you—a sense of property and a sense of personal right, things of which Jesus Christ made nothing. He was always against these things as being the root of everything alien to Himself. “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth.” If we do not recognize this, it is because we are ignoring the undercurrent of Our Lord’s teaching.

     We are apt to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we have had. If there is one standard in the New Testament revealed by the light of God and you do not come up to it, and do not feel inclined to come up to it, that is the beginning of backsliding, because it means your conscience does not answer to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you for going on as a more true disciple of Jesus Christ, or for going back as a deserter.

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

He grew up into an emptiness
he was on terms with.
     The duplicity
of language, that could name
what was not there, was accepted
by him. He was content, remembering
the unseen writing of Christ
on the ground, to interpret
it in his own way. Adultery

of the flesh has the divine
pardon. It is the mind,
catching itself in the act
of unfaithfulness,
     that must cast no stone

The Poems of R.S. Thomas , (Fayettesville: University of Arkansas Press), 1985

     The narrative content of this chapter is sparse, but interesting. In the same spirit as that of the previous chapter, the people respond to the need to repopulate the fortified city of Jerusalem. Since this was primarily for defensive purposes, the list of their leaders was drawn up with an eye on the forms of the musters of the conscript army of pre-exilic times. To this list, other material was added later, especially an idealized description of the province, based on the territorial pattern of the pre-exilic kingdom.

     Attention may be briefly drawn to two points emerging from this. First, as in the case of Nehemiah (cf. chap. 7), so the people too recognized that buildings in themselves are lifeless. Once divorced from their purpose of providing a framework within which a community (be it town, Church, or family) may develop, they become nothing more than a liability. There can be little doubt that had the people not acted as they did they would soon have discovered, as the Church has subsequently, all too frequently to its cost, that the refortified city would have become a drain on their energy and resources, putting additional strains on the community’s cohesion. It was with a sure instinct that “the people blessed all those who volunteered to settle in Jerusalem” (v 2), and recorded their names with gratitude.

     Second, it would be a mistake to dismiss the list of settlements in vv 25–36 just because it is a later addition and historically inaccurate. Its backward glance to former glories, and its conscious imposition upon them of the pattern of life in the wilderness is adequate testimony to the writer’s faith that the restrictions which he currently faced could not be God’s last word. The writer to the Hebrews, 11:13–16, speaks of earlier heroes of the faith who similarly looked for promises whose physical realization lay still in the future. To all who are thus conscious of a discrepancy between a vision of God’s future vouchsafed by revelation and a present frustration at the shortfall in realization, there comes the writer’s assurance that “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Word Biblical Commentary Vol. 16, Ezra-nehemiah (williamson), 470pp

     Philip Paul Bliss was born to singing parents in a log cabin in the northern Pennsylvania woods. He left home to work at age 11 and made a public confession of Christ at age 12. He spent his teen years in lumber camps and sawmills. But he loved to sing, and he did his best to get an education in music. His voice was remarkably full, resonant and elastic, with a range from low D-flat to high A.

     With an old horse named Fanny and a twenty-dollar melodeon, Philip started traveling around as a professional music teacher. In 1858 he married Lucy Young, a musician and poet who encouraged him to develop his gifts. As a result he wrote and sold his first composition in 1864. It was well received, and he moved to Chicago the next year as an associate of music publishers Root & Cady. Presently he found himself in demand, conducting musical institutes, giving concerts, and composing Sunday school melodies. Moody championed his work, and Bliss wrote many of the gospel songs we love today: Let the Lower Lights Be Burning; Man of Sorrows—What a Name!; Jesus Loves Even Me; The Light of the World Is Jesus!; Almost Persuaded; Wonderful Words of Life. He also wrote the music to such hymns as It Is Well with My Soul.

     During the Christmas holidays of 1876 the Bliss family visited his mother in Pennsylvania. On December 29, 1876 they boarded the Pacific Express in Buffalo to return to Chicago. About eight o’clock that evening in a blinding snowstorm as the train crossed a ravine, the wooden trestle collapsed. The cars, packed with holiday passengers, plunged 75 feet into the icy river and caught fire. Over a hundred people perished in the wreck, among them—Philip Bliss and his family. He was 38.

     By coincidence, Philip’s trunk had been placed on another train and it arrived safely in Chicago. Inside, his friends found a last hymn:

   I will sing of my Redeemer
   And his wondrous love to me.
   On the cruel cross he suffered
   From the curse to set me free.

     Tell everyone on this earth to sing happy songs in praise of the LORD. Make music for him on harps. Play beautiful melodies! Sound the trumpets and horns and celebrate with joyful songs for our LORD and King!
--- Psalm 98:4-6.

Morgan, R. J. On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

     So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
--- 1 Corinthians 10:31.

     To glorify is to make glorious or to declare to be glorious. (Thomas Boston, “Of Man’s Chief End and Happiness,” downloaded from The Boston Homepage, at www.geocities.com/~thomasboston, accessed Aug. 21, 2001.) God glorifies, that is, makes angels or people glorious, but we cannot make God glorious, for he is not capable of additional glory, being infinitely glorious. So God gets no advantage to himself by our best works. God is glorified, then, when his glory is declared. This is done by the inanimate creation—the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 19:1). Humanity declares his glory actively.

     And this we ought to do by our hearts: “Glorify God… in your spirit” (1 Cor. 6:20 KJV). Honoring God with the lips and not with the heart is lame and unacceptable. He ought to be glorified by our understanding, esteemed in the glory that the Scripture reveals him in. So, they that know him not can never glorify him, and they that esteem any person or thing more than or as much as him dishonor him. We glorify him by our wills, choosing him as our portion and our chief good; by our affections, loving him and rejoicing and delighting in him above every other.

     By our lips: “He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me” (Ps. 50:23). The human tongue is our glory not only because it serves us for speech, which exalts us above the brutes, but because it is a proper instrument for speaking forth the glory of God. So it is a strange perverting of the tongue to let it loose to the dishonor of God and fetter it as to his glory.

     By our lives: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). A holy life is a shining light to let a blind world see the glory of God. Sin darkens the glory of God, draws a veil over it. The holy life says, “God is holy,” just as a well-ordered family tells what the head of it is like.

     O how much God is dishonored by our hearts, lips, and lives! O what self-seeking mixes itself with our best actions! How eagerly do we pursue created things and how faintly the enjoyment of God! How dishonorable to a holy God! It is saying that God is not the chief good, that he is not a suitable portion for the soul, and that the creature is better than God. How we should be ashamed of ourselves on this account and labor earnestly to make God the chief and ultimate end of all our actions and the enjoyment of him our chief happiness!
--- Thomas Boston

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

DECEMBER 29
YEAR 2

Psalms (Morning) Psalm 18:1–19
Psalms (Evening) Psalm 18:20–50 (If today is Saturday, use Psalms 23 and 27 at Evening Prayer)
Old Testament 2 Samuel 23:13–17b
New Testament Revelation 1:1–8
Gospel John 7:37–52

Index of Readings

PSALMS (MORNING)
Psalm 18:1–19

1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
so I shall be saved from my enemies.

4 The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of perdition assailed me;
5 the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called upon the LORD;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.

7 Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
9 He bowed the heavens, and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub, and flew;
he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering around him,
his canopy thick clouds dark with water.
12 Out of the brightness before him
there broke through his clouds
hailstones and coals of fire.
13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice.
14 And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.
15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

16 He reached down from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of mighty waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me;
for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity;
but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

PSALMS (EVENING)
(If today is Saturday, use Psalms 23 and 27 at Evening Prayer)
Psalm 18:20–50

20 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his ordinances were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
24 Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

25 With the loyal you show yourself loyal;
with the blameless you show yourself blameless;
26 with the pure you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
27 For you deliver a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 It is you who light my lamp;
the LORD, my God, lights up my darkness.
29 By you I can crush a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 This God—his way is perfect;
the promise of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

31 For who is God except the LORD?
And who is a rock besides our God?—
32 the God who girded me with strength,
and made my way safe.
33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer,
and set me secure on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand has supported me;
your help has made me great.
36 You gave me a wide place for my steps under me,
and my feet did not slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
and did not turn back until they were consumed.
38 I struck them down, so that they were not able to rise;
they fell under my feet.
39 For you girded me with strength for the battle;
you made my assailants sink under me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
and those who hated me I destroyed.
41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them;
they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them.
42 I beat them fine, like dust before the wind;
I cast them out like the mire of the streets.

43 You delivered me from strife with the peoples;
you made me head of the nations;
people whom I had not known served me.
44 As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me;
foreigners came cringing to me.
45 Foreigners lost heart,
and came trembling out of their strongholds.

46 The LORD lives! Blessed be my rock,
and exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 the God who gave me vengeance
and subdued peoples under me;
48 who delivered me from my enemies;
indeed, you exalted me above my adversaries;
you delivered me from the violent.

49 For this I will extol you, O LORD, among the nations,
and sing praises to your name.
50 Great triumphs he gives to his king,
and shows steadfast love to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.

OLD TESTAMENT
2 Samuel 23:13–17b

13 Towards the beginning of harvest three of the thirty chiefs went down to join David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. 14 David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. 15 David said longingly, “O that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” 16 Then the three warriors broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it; he poured it out to the LORD, 17 for he said, “The LORD forbid that I should do this. Can I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. The three warriors did these things.

NEW TESTAMENT
Revelation 1:1–8

1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7 Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

GOSPEL
John 7:37–52

37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38 and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified. 40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, “This is really the prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some asked, “Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not arrest him?” 46 The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” 47 Then the Pharisees replied, “Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48 Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 51 “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” 52 They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.”

The Episcopal Church. Book of Common Prayer Lectionary