The Lord trumps all
The 16th Sunday after Pentecost
No king succeeds with a big army alone,
no warrior wins by brute strength.
Horsepower is not the answer;
no one gets by on muscle alone. ~ Psalm 33:16-17 (MSG)
After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph while he was still in Egypt. The angel said, "Get up and take the child and his mother back to Israel. The people who wanted to kill him are now dead." ~ Matthew 2:19-20 (CEV)
KEY THOUGHT:
The Lord's power alone will trump any advantage that an adversary appears to have.
PRAYER:
Lord, you are powerful. You have already broken the back of death through the resurrection. Yet, I still struggle to trust you to deal with the problem-people who are in power. They are ruining our world! Help me to trust that you will turn things around and pull the rug out from underneath the powerful. I'm going to live in anticipation of your justice and salvation. Amen.
TRANSLATIONS
ABP = Authorized Boydston Paraphrase — my own freestyle biblical adaptation — somewhere between paraphrase, commentary, and sermon
CEB = Common English Bible (©2011, the Common English Bible)
CEV = Contemporary English Version (©1995, American Bible Society)
MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
NIRV = New International Reader's Version (©1996, 1998, Biblica)
NIV = New International Version (©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, Biblica)
NLT = New Living Translation (©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, Tyndale House Foundation)
