For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    It is not wise to constantly remind others of how much you know. Even if you are as knowledgeable as you think you are, you will not advance your cause by telling people everything you know.

    This psalm is further reminders of how God continued to forgive the sins of the Israelites despite their faithlessness. Reading this description of how the Israelites did not stay faithful to God despite the great signs and wonders He did on their behalf makes it tempting to feel smug. However, when I look over my life, I see the same thing in my past. God has done wonderful things for me and has demonstrated His power in arranging my life, yet I have time and again fallen short of obeying His will. Perhaps, my readers have done better than I in that respect…it is hard to imagine that they have done worse. This psalm reminds me that God will give me another chance to serve Him. I pray that the Holy Spirit move me to be faithful this time.

    Jesus throws out a challenge to us in this passage. Are we willing to acknowledge Him publicly? If not, He will not be willing to acknowledge us before the Father. One of the reasons we sometimes are afraid to stand up for Jesus is because we do not know what to say when people challenge our faith. Jesus assures us that the Holy Spirit will provide us with the right words at the right time. This does not mean that we do not need to spend time studying so that we know how to answer those who challenge our faith. It just means that we should acknowledge our faith, even if we are unprepared.
    There is a bumper sticker which says, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” It is wrong, very wrong. Jesus tells us that our material wealth will not be of any use to us when we face God. Let us use the wealth that comes our way on this earth to build up a relationship with God. Jesus goes on to remind us of how flowers are beautifully clothed and birds obtain enough to eat. He tells us that we are much more valuable to God than either of those. God knows what we need and will provide for those needs. It is verse 31 that has long been dear to me,

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.

It inspires me and comforts me. As I write this my spirit within me is once more inspired to strive after the Kingdom of God above all else.

    When Moses commissioned Joshua to take his place as the leader of Israel he gave him a message which is for everyone who serves God:

Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; He will neither fail you nor abandon you.

This is yet another admonition against worry. God will lead us and support us, no matter what difficulties we face.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    There are those who think they can change the world for the better with lies. They are badly mistaken. If you find yourself resorting to deceit to accomplish your goals it is a good clue that your goals are evil and not good. Those who wish to make lasting, positive change to this world rely on the truth.

    There are two elements to this psalm (there is that two thing again). Each generation needs to choose to follow God’s commands by their own decision. The parents cannot decide for their children that the children will follow God (although I have known of parents who chose to follow God for their children’s sake). Each person must choose for themselves to give their hearts to God.
    Let us not be like the Israelites in the wilderness. They saw God’s marvelous power displayed for their benefit time and again. Yet, time and again they failed to have faith that God could meet their needs this time. I have seen what God has done in the past, I will have faith in His power and love for the future.

    The important point about this passage is its condemnation of hypocrisy, but we all know that. I was looking for something different to say about this when I realized something I never really thought about before. Jesus is not saying that our outward appearance should not look righteous to those around us. He is saying that we should focus on making our inward being righteous first. When we start to clean up our lives we should start with the parts that others do not see. If we clean up our inward being, our outward appearance will follow. It doesn’t work the other way around.
    When we teach people about God’s commands, we need to do more than teach them the “rules”. We need to work with them to teach them how to keep those “rules”. Jesus condemned the teachers of religious law for teaching the laws, but not offering to help people to keep those laws. Our job is to help people live a righteous life, not to condemn them for failing to do so.

    This passage was addressed primarily to the people of Israel and talked primarily about the land of Israel, but it applies to all of the peoples on this earth. The blessings and curses laid out in these passages apply to all mankind. Those who love and obey God will be blessed. Those who rebel against God and seek after other gods will be cursed.
    Today God is giving you a choice. If in the past you have rebelled against God and are suffering His curse, today you can choose to turn to Him and start walking in His way. If you do so, He will bless you and show you life. I do not know how to write this as I feel it needs to be written. I am convinced that someone will read this today who God is calling right now. All I can think is to quote the final paragraph of today’s passage (and to pray for you, whoever you are):
Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The first two proverbs fit together. Those who will not listen to advice will usually get angry with those who try to warn them about the weakness in their plan. However, the thing to do with these proverbs is to use them as a mirror for ourselves. Do I listen to others when I make plans? Do I incorporate what they say into my plans? Do I get angry when people insult me?
    As I read and thought about this, I realized a place where I struggle dealing with this. When people suggest I attempt to solve a problem using something I already tried, I have a tendency to feel insulted and get angry. The wise person stays calm in such a situation. I am working on recognizing that people often give such advice knowing that I probably know to try it, but may have forgotten. Let us all work on staying calm when we think someone is insulting us.

    I like this psalm, but I struggled with finding something to say about it. Until I looked at verses 9 and 10 again. God has stood up and judged those who do evil. He has and will continue to rescue the oppressed on this earth. Those who defy God enhance His glory and He uses their defiance as a weapon to gain His victory. Those who defy God are serving Him just as much as those who submit to His will (the difference being that those who choose to do His will are rewarded, while those who attempt to resist it suffer).

    Jesus taught us how to pray. That teaching was a two part lesson (there I am with the two parts again). First He gives us a model prayer:

Father, may your name be kept holy.

God has adopted us as His children and we should look to Him as a loving, caring father. In addition, Jesus instructs us to pray that our actions show that God’s name is worthy of complete devotion. And that we pray that everyone learn to be completely devoted to God’s name. It is here that we pray for our wants. We should strive to want those things which will allow us to show that God’s name is worthy of complete devotion.

May your Kingdom come.

Our prayers should include the desire that the entire earth and everyone on it knowingly submit to God’s sovereignty (I need to do a blog entry sometime one my understanding of the Kingdom of God…not because I am so insightful, but because I need to work through comprehensively what I believe about the Kingdom of God). It is here that we pray for others, part of the coming of God’s Kingdom is others coming to Him and having their needs met.

Give us each day the food we need,

Here Jesus explains what sort of things for which it is appropriate for us to ask. We are to ask God to supply our needs, not our wants

and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.

We need to recognize that we are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. And we need to recognize that God has even more right to hold our sins against us as we do to hold others accountable for the harm they have done us. God is only willing to forgive us if we are willing to forgive others. Actually, we are only able to accept God’s forgiveness if we are able to forgive those who have sinned against us (or who we perceive to have sinned against us).

And don’t let us yield to temptation.

And finally we pray that God give us the strength to resist temptation while guiding us to actions which will keep us far from it.
    Having given us an example of what our prayers should look like Jesus explains the importance of patience and persistance. Note that this prayer is short and does not spend any time telling God what He has promised us, nor does it repeat itself(I understand that sometimes when we pray we repeat ourselves in order to put our thoughts in order. That is different from saying the same thing a different way on purpose. We do not need to repeat ourselves for clarity, God understand what we mean). If we remember that part of the point of prayer is to listen to God and to allow Him to show us the changes He is making in us, the emphasis on patience and persistence becomes clear.
    It takes time for us to accept the changes which God is making in us, as well as time for those changes to take hold. We will not be prepared to receive what we are asking God for if we are not patient. Further, we will not undergo the transformation God has in mind for us if we are not persistent. There is one more point about the importance of persistence and patience in praying for things from God. As we persistently and patiently pray for things, God will reveal to us how our true desires will be better fulfilled with something else (maybe different in a large way from what we started out praying for, or perhaps only different in a minor way). Let us learn to pray following the model Jesus gave us, and let us learn to be persistent in our prayers.

    The lesson from the first fruits offering is that we should give of our resources to God’s service before we pay our bills or use them to meet our needs. I will not condemn those who have so little that they have come to the conclusion they have none to spare for God’s ministry. I have been in that situation. I think I was wrong and that God would have provided for my needs, more importantly, I suspect that on at least one occasion I was in that situation because I had chosen to spend money on wants that should have gone to needs. Beyond that, we should put aside some of our resources to meet the needs of those less fortunate than ourselves.
    The Israelites are God’s chosen people and if they follow His commands to them, He will set them above all other nations. However, any people who serve God and strive to follow His commands will find themselves prospering.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    This proverb reminds me of a business man who emphasized to his subordinates the importance of telling the truth. He did not do so on the basis of it “being the right thing to do”, even though that was why he did so. He made the point of telling them that if what they said was the truth, they would not have to worry about what they had told the customers (or others). This proverb reminds us that those who use lies and distortions to stave off trouble will, in due time, find themselves trapped by the lies they have told. The righteous need not fear such a fate because they have been honest in their dealings.

    I thought at first that there was not much to say regarding this psalm when I realized there is an important point here that I can expand on slightly. The psalmist tells us that it is God alone who judges. The follow up being that it is not up to me (or to you) to judge the actions of others. No, our job is to proclaim what God has done. Perhaps if we do our job, rather than trying to do God’s job, the wicked will turn from their ways and and receive God’s forgiveness as we have.

    When the 72 returned to Jesus they were excited because even evil spirits had submitted to them in His name. Jesus told them not to rejoice that evil spirits submitted to them. The important thing to do was to rejoice that our names are registered as citizens of heaven. We are not sent to seek out and confront the demon possessed and the evil in this world. We are sent to heal the sick, restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, most importantly, to preach the Gospel. But the demon possessed and the evil in this world will seek us out and find us, just as they did Jesus. When that happens, He has given us authority to rebuke them in His name. We have no power over demons, spirits, and the powers of evil in this world, but Jesus does. He has given us the authority to speak in His name and, as long as we are serving Him, they have no choice but respond to the power He has delegated to us. However, we must never forget that it is not our power to which they submit.
    I was not planning on writing on the parable of the Good Samaritan, except that I realized that Jesus conclusion to that parable echoes what I wrote (or perhaps the other way around) about yesterday’s passage from Deuteronomy. Having described the actions of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells us to go and do likewise. Once more we receive the lesson that it is not enough to not do wrong, we must actively do right by caring for those in need, even if they might otherwise be our oppressors.

    This is a difficult passage for me to find a lesson in because the commands seem (to me) to go all over the place. There are several here which fit together for a lesson I understand, but others which I do not understand. The lesson I understand: Treat the poor and the weak with justice, make provisions for them to be able to meet their needs. It is worth noting that the instructions for the latter are not pure charity. Rather, the command is to be less than completely efficient in harvesting your crops so as to give the poor and needy the opportunity to acquire what they need to survive by gathering what you missed. Even the command to pay laborers their wages each day was about not maximizing your wealth at the expense of those who had no other choices.