The One Year New Testament for May 23

Subscribe to the One Year New Testament RSS Feed with your RSS reader.

The Apostles Accept Paul's Gospel

Galatians 2:6-10

6 As for those who seemed to be important---whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance---those men added nothing to my message.

7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.

8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.

9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.

10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

A Thought - Here the apostles were expressing the concern for the poor of Jerusalem. While many Gentile converts were financially comfortable, the Jerusalem church was suffering from a severe famine. Much of Paul's time was spent gathering funds for the Jewish Christians. The need for believers to care for the poor is a constant theme of Scripture, but often we do nothing about it. We get caught up in meeting our own needs and desires, or we just don't see enough poor people to remember their needs. Both in your own city and across the oceans there are people who need help. What can you do to show them tangible evidence of God's love?

Jesus Came to Save Sinners

Luke 5:27-39

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him,

28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

31 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

33 They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking."

34 Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?

35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast."

36 He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.

37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.

38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' "

A Thought - The Pharisees wrapped their sin in respectability. They made themselves appear good by publicly doing good deeds and pointing out the sins of others. Jesus chose to spend time, not with these self-righteous leaders, but with people who sensed their own sin and knew they were not good enough for God. In order to come to God, you must repent; in order to repent, you must recognize your sin. As sinners, we can have hope because Jesus came to save sinners, not those who considered themselves righteous.

Proverbs for Today

Proverbs 15:29-30

29 The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

30 A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones.

Missions Prayer Requests

May 23, 2013

Supported Workers: Jeffrey & Katherine Robinson

Country: Germany

They are praising God for the encouraging send-off and good closure with their family and friends in the USA, and for the warm welcome in Leipzig by their friends and ministry partners. Pray for them as they adjust to their “adopted” home, as they rediscover their “German tongues” and as they attend to a myriad of details after their lengthy absence from Germany. Please pray for family and friends they have left behind and for them as they adjust to living far away from them.

| NORWAY | Church planting is a real need in a society where church membership is high but actual belief and attendance are low. Even missions traditionally focused on foreign fields see the need on the home front. Between 1996 and 2005, more than 250 new congregations were planted. The challenge is two-fold: to disciple the many nominal Christians and to reach the increasing numbers of non-Christians in Norway. Pray for many new groups of committed believers to be formed.

The One Year New Testament Copyright Tyndale House Publishers, used by Permission. NIV Bible copyright International Bible Society.