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Walking by the Sea
If I were Jesus’ therapist, there is one moment in particular that I’d love to process Read More
Brian R. Bodt | Read Acts of the Apostles 9:36-43
With apologies to William Shakespeare, a gazelle by any other name is still a gazelle. Tabitha is Aramaic for a female gazelle. Perhaps, like my almost-six-year-old granddaughter Eva, Tabitha was a jumper, full of energy, quick on her feet. The name Tabitha recalls to me Frances Havergal’s lyric to “take...
Jesus, in the Apostles’ Creed we affirm that you “come to judge the quick and the dead.” Grant that such judgment is tempered with grace, so that we are inspired and invigorated to live lives of righteousness worthy of you. Amen.
The familiarity of these passages should not lull us into complacency about their blessings and expectations. The psalmist’s words about the shepherd who comforts also leads to paths that challenge us to seek moral uprightness and justice. In Acts, Luke presents Tabitha as an example of one such disciple, whose restoration to life is the fulfillment of the psalmist’s promise. Revelation reminds us that the righteous life is not lived without struggle, but that the promise of redemption overcomes the worst that we encounter. John shows that even Jesus, the Lord who is the Shepherd, faced critics of his good works. Yet those who desire righteousness hear Jesus’ voice, he knows them, and “no one can snatch them out of [his] hand.”
• Read Psalm 23. What are the “paths of righteousness” into which you need to be led?
• Read Revelation 7:9-17. Who do you think stands “before the throne of God?” When? Why?
• Read Acts 9:36-43. To what “good works and acts of charity” are you called? How do you guard against righteousness becoming self-righteousness?
• Read John 10:22-30. How do you discern Jesus’ voice from the cacophony of voices that daily surround us? How is it different? To what does it call you?
Respond by posting a prayer.
