For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I will be out of town on business for most of this week. It is my plan to complete this blog every day, but I may run late some days.

Proverbs 15:27-28

    The proverb tells us there are two kinds of people, those who think before they speak, and those who just say what comes to mind. Further, it tells us that the godly are the first sort and the wicked are the latter. So, the question is, which am I?

Psalm 118:19-29

    As I watched the sun rise from my hotel window this morning, I read this psalm. It is indeed the day which the Lord has made, and I will rejoice in it. I will be glad today and enjoy the positive things God brings my way.

John 12:20-50

    Jesus begins today’s passage by telling us that a kernel of wheat must fall to the ground and die before it can be transformed into a wheat plant and bring forth many new kernels. While it is true that Jesus was referring to His own death here, it is clear from the context that He intended this message for us as well. It is only by being willing to give up our lives in this world that we can be transformed into the likeness of Christ and thus have eternal life. More than that, it is only by being willing to give up our lives that we can truly lead others to know Christ.

    Jesus told us that God would honour anyone who serves Him. He said this right after saying that anyone who wanted to serve Him needed to follow Him. This was in the context of Jesus talking about the fact that He would soon be crucified. He followed this up by saying that He would not ask God to save Him from the suffering He was about to face. Rather, Jesus asked that God bring honour to God’s name. I hope that if I ever face such suffering, I will have the faith to feel and say the same thing.
    Later in today’s passage Jesus said that He does not speak on His own authority. Instead He spoke as God commanded Him to speak. The same is true for us today. I struggle with the knowledge that God has commanded me what to say, and how to say it. This is a difficult thing for me. I know that God has commanded my as to what to say, but I am not always sure which things God has commanded me to say and which things are me speaking for myself. However, I will seek each day to make the words I speak the words God wishes me to speak.

2 Samuel 1-2:11

    When the Amalekite came to tell David that Saul and Jonathan were dead, he expected to be rewarded for bringing the news. The man clearly thought that by bringing news to David that David’s path to the throne was clear would make David happy. He sought to curry favor by bringing the news. From the perspective of this world, the news the Amalekite brought should have delighted David. However, up until this point, David had not sought to be king. That was not what he was striving for. In the same way, we should not strive for worldly power, whether in the government or in the work place. If God intends for us to have power, He will bring us to that place.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I will be out of town on business for most of this week. It is my plan to complete this blog every day, but I may run late some days.

Proverbs 15:24-26

    The proverb writer tells us that gracious words are pure in God’s sight. This results from the fact that in order to speak graciously we must select pure words.

Psalm 118:1-18

    The psalmist tells us to give thanks to the Lord. I will do so, for much the same reason that the psalmist did. When I look at my life, I completely agree with what the psalmist says in verses 5-7. When I was in distress I cried to the Lord and He delivered me. Most important, since I know that God is with me, I will not fear anything that may come. God will see me through to the other side. I do not fear pain, or suffering, or death because God is with me. Remember, if God is with us, why should we fear what mere mortals can do? They have no power to do anything which is not according to His will.

John 11:55-12:19

    I have long struggled with how Jesus’ reply to Judas Iscariot applies to us today. Jesus is no longer physically among us for us to do something similar to what Mary did here. There are two aspects of the lesson for us. The first part is that giving to the poor is not the only way to give assets to God’s service. The second part is that we should, from time to time, do things which tell others how much we appreciate what they have done in their life. There are times when we are called to show someone who has been doing the Lord’s work that they are appreciated and loved.

1 Samuel 29-31:13

    In yesterday’s passage, David had marched to war against Saul with the Philistine king who had sheltered him from Saul. There is no evidence that David was reluctant to do so, even though up until now he had avoided attacking his fellow Israelites (and had rejected the idea of killing Saul on those several occasions when he had the opportunity). Today we discover the hand of God at work. The other Philistine commanders were afraid to have David and his men in their order of battle. They were afraid that in the midst of the battle David would switch sides back to Saul. As a result they demanded that the king of Gath send David away from the coming battle. As a result, David did not take part in the battle which led to Saul’s death. No one could accuse David of contributing to the death of King Saul.
    There was a second way in which this worked to David’s benefit. When he and his men returned to the town where they had settled, they discovered that it had been raided and their families taken captive. If they had stayed with the Philistine army, their families would have been long gone by the time they returned. As a result of their early return they were able to pursue the raiders and rescue their families. It is good to see how the hand of God so often protects us in more ways than one.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I will be out of town on business for most of this week. It is my plan to complete this blog every day, but I may run late some days.

Proverbs 15:22-23

    When making plans seek all the advice you can find, the more important the plans the more advice you should seek.

Psalm 117:1-2

    This is too short to try to say anything other than what the passage says:

Praise the Lord, all you nations.
Praise him, all you people of the earth.

For his unfailing love for us is powerful;
the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever.

Praise the Lord!

John 11:1-54

    We read today the story of Jesus raising Lazarus back to life. This is an example of Jesus’ power over even death. There are other lessons contained within the verses of this passage, but today I was struck by a question which is not really answered. Why did Lazarus have to die?
    Martha and Mary, and probably many others, suffered intense grief at Lazarus’ death. Yes, that grief turned to joy, but for four days they mourned. Why did they have to go through that suffering? Even if Jesus could not have arrived before Lazarus died (He waited two days after hearing the news, yet by the time He got there Lazarus had been dead for four days), He could have healed Lazarus from afar. He had healed others that way. I do not have a satisfactory answer to the question I asked. I do not know why Lazarus had to die. I do not know why Martha and Mary had to go through that period of mourning. The passage tells us in part that this happened to bring glory to God, and it certainly did that. My main point is that sometimes we suffer grief and heartache for reasons we do not understand. Sometimes, like in this passage, that grief is relieved and we gain some measure of understanding. But sometimes we will never learn in this life why something happened. We do not always have the ability to understand God’s plan. Just because we do not understand why we suffer does not mean that our grief and suffering are meaningless.

1 Samuel 26-28:25

    Once again Saul goes hunting for David, and once again David passes on an opportunity to kill Saul. David realized that if he stayed in territory nominally controlled by Saul, sooner or later, he would have to fight Saul. Desiring to avoid this, David went to the Philistine king of Gath. From there, David raided the enemies of the Israelites who were not Philistines, but he told the king of Gath that he had raided Israelite settlements. This convinced the king of Gath that the Israelites would now hate David. So, he invited/ordered David to join him as he mustered with the other Philistine kings for battle against Saul.
    When Saul observed the mustering of the Philistine army he was frightened. When he could not get an answer from God concerning what he should do, Saul sought out a woman who spoke with the dead, he did this despite having banned the practice. The woman called up the spirit of Samuel for Saul. Saul asked the spirit what he should do and was told that it did not matter what he did, God was going to hand him over the Philistines the following day. When you have turned your back on God, and God has turned His back on you, all of you choices are bad.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I will be out of town on business for most of this week. It is my plan to complete this blog every day, but I may run late some days.

Proverbs 15:20-21

    Some people take pleasure in behaving foolishly…they have no sense. This is not just about behavior which is foolishly dangerous, it includes behavior which is just silly when there is serious tasks at hand. The person with sense takes a straight course to getting their work done.

Psalm 116:1-19

    I love reading this psalm in both the NLT and the NIV translations because today they give it much more meaning. The NLT presents the first two verses in the present tense: “He hears my voice and my prayer.”…”He bends down to listen.” While the NIV presents them in the past tense: “He heard my voice and my cry…” “He turned His ear to me.” I love this vision of the fact that our love for God is a response to what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do.

John 10:22-42

    The people asked Jesus to tell them if He was the Messiah. The way they worded their question implied that he had avoided answering that very question in the past. Jesus replied that He had already told them, but they did not believe Him. The proof of who He was rested on the work He had done in His Father’s name. Now, we can easily take this to refer just to Jesus. However, it applies to everyone. If you claim to be a follower of Christ, does your work prove it to be true?
    Jesus goes on to say something that was initially going to be my focus today. He says that those who do not believe Him do not do so because they are not His sheep. His sheep listen to His voice and follow Him. They shall never perish and no one can snatch them out of His hand. This is for me a very heartening thought. If we believe Jesus and follow Him, no one, and nothing, can separate us from Him.

1 Samuel 24-25:44

    This passage begins with an account which shows us that Saul’s attempts to kill David grew out of his own insecurity and were not based on any legitimate gripe with David. When presented with the opportunity to kill Saul, while Saul was seeking to kill him, David chose not to do so. I think that this passage presents us with part of the basis for how we should interact with government authorities who are acting inappropriately.
    There is also the story of Nabal and Abigail. This story gives us an idea about how David increased both his wealth and his power. David supported himself and his men while he was fleeing from Saul by protecting the property of wealthy men and merchants from bandits. We, also, get a hint about the way economic life was organized at the time. When Nabal’s servants observed how he had insulted David they went to Nabal’s wife Abigail to request that she intervene.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I will be out of town on business for most of this week. It is my plan to complete this blog every day, but I may run late some days.

Proverbs 15:18-19

    When we read these proverbs we should use them to look at ourselves. Do we find ourselves in fights and conflicts? Perhaps the problem is that we too easily lose our temper. If we control our anger we will find that we will not end up in as many fights, and we will be able to defuse the conflicts around us.
    Do we find every task we begin obstructed by obstacles? Perhaps the problem is that we are too lazy and do not approach our life with enough industry. When we honour God with all of our being and look at all of the tasks before us as service to God, there do not seem to be any obstacles of consequence to accomplishing those tasks.

Psalm 115:1-18

    There are other messages in this psalm, but it starts with the one I want to focus on:

Not to us, Lord, not to us
but to your name be the glory…
This should be the focus of all of our actions. I struggle with making that my focus as I write this blog. From time to time I need to remind myself that I am not writing this blog to attract attention. I am writing this blog so that I will study God’s word each day. Yes, I hope there are other people reading it (and I know that there are). And I hope that those who read this get some blessing from God by doing so. However, if that is the case, it is not because I am such a masterful writer. No, it is because the Holy Spirit has used the words I have written. That does not mean that I think I am not a masterful writer. It just means that I know that no matter how cleverly I write this the only way it will bring about positive change is if the Holy Spirit moves in the heart of the one who reads it.
    So, the point I want to make is the title of today’s blog: Not to me, but to God be the glory!

John 10:1-21

    As I read Jesus’ teaching about the Good Shepherd and the sheep fold I see Jesus communicating two messages at the same time. One message is that we must go through Jesus to get to the sheepfold where we will be safe. Jesus expands on a message He has taught elsewhere. Those who are called by God, who are truly seeking God, will recognize the “sound” of Jesus’ message and will listen to Him. The other message is that all spiritual teachers who do not lead people to and through Jesus are thieves and robbers. They seek to advance their own interests through their teaching and do not truly care for their followers.
    Jesus goes on to compare the good shepherd to the hired hand. While in part Jesus is comparing Himself to religious teachers who do not direct people to Him, there is more to this. I see a couple of things I will draw out of this. The first is to be skeptical of pastors, preachers, or other religious teachers who live a lavish lifestyle. I question the faithfulness of any of the above who lives a millionaire lifestyle. I will not categorically state that no faithful teacher of the Gospel lives a millionaire lifestyle. I can imagine justifications for such, but I will remain skeptical until I personally see evidence of their faithfulness (I have known individuals living a millionaire lifestyle who were at least as faithful — and probably more so — in following Christ as myself). The key element to test religious teachers is their willingness to sacrifice their lives for the benefit of those they are leading.
    Writing this it fully struck home for the first time that, because I write this blog, I need to start holding myself to the standard I believe the Bible presents for those who teach the Gospel. I have always felt that all Christians should strive to hold themselves to that standard, but that God does not necessarily hold us all to that standard. I do not believe that I can soothe myself for my failures by thinking God does not hold me to that higher standard.

1 Samuel 22-23:29

    We have in this story a contrast between the way David and Saul managed their affairs. Saul had the priests of Nob killed because Ahimelech gave aid to David. This despite the fact that when Ahimelech aided David, no one knew that Saul no longer considered David his chief subordinate. David, on the other hand, risked himself and his men to protect the town of Keilah. Further, David sought God’s guidance for all of his actions.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 15:15-17

    Pessimism and depression are a vicious cycle. When you are depressed, or expect the worst outcome in every situation, you notice the things which go wrong, and indeed, things are more likely to go wrong for you. On the other hand when you are happy and optimistic, you focus on the good things going on around you and dismiss the things which go wrong, and things are less likely to go wrong for you. This cycle means that when you become depressed it is very hard to break out of that depression.
    The second two verses are closely related. You will be happier serving the Lord in poverty than living for yourself with great wealth. I would rather have a simple salad with people I love than a great feast with people I cannot stand.

Psalm 113-114:8

    Lately I have been struggling with finding the right words for what the psalms make me think and feel. Part of that is because the psalmist does such a good job of expressing their thoughts, part of that is just the difficulty of turning the poetic into prose. I will praise God, now and forever, because He is great enough to create and guide the entire universe, yet caring enough to reach out and help the poor and needy. His very presence causes obstacles to move out of the way of those who serve Him.

John 9:1-41

    I think this is perhaps my favorite story of Jesus’ miracles. My father first pointed out what is the key point in this story for me (I’m sure others did it before him, but he was the one who first brought it up in my presence). Jesus healed a man born blind. The religious teachers and leaders of the day brought the man before them and questioned him. They were looking for something to hold against Jesus, or some evidence that He was a fraud. They confronted the man born blind with their conviction that Jesus was a sinner. The man born blind knew he could not argue theology or doctrine with these men, and did not try to do so. In the face of all of their learning and arguments against Jesus he replied with one of the great statements of faith, “I don’t know about any of that. What I do know is that I was blind and now I see.”(I am paraphrasing here).
    This is the important thing for us to remember. We must never allow arguments and debates about theology or doctrine distract us from the central Gospel message. I was blind, but now I see. In my case it was not physical blindness. Nevertheless, I was blind and it was not until I allowed faith in Christ to take root in my heart that I gained the ability to see God’s will for my life. I was proud of my intellect and ability to reason things out. It was only when I accepted that there were things which I am unable to understand, that my reasoning and logic will never fully explain how the world works, that I was able to truly see God. It is only by the working of the Holy Spirit that someone will come to God. I will never be able to give someone faith. I can only give them God’s love.
    I pray for everyone I meet that they experience Jesus’ miraculous healing so that they too will receive sight from God.

1 Samuel 20-21:15

    Reading this story always makes me feel sorry for Jonathan. Jonathan was a good man who was loyal to David and probably would have made a good king. It also shows us how irrational Saul’s hatred of David was. Saul wanted to kill David because he considered him a threat to Jonathan taking the throne. Yet, he was willing to kill Jonathan when Jonathan refused to aid him in killing David. Yet, in all of this, David did not act against Saul’s interest.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here. Why, yes, I do like cats. Why do you ask?

Proverbs 15:12-14

    Those who mock others resent it when you point out that their mockery is unjustified, especially when you show them how they are the ones being stupid or foolish. You will notice that those who most enjoy mocking others avoid those who could/would teach them to understand those with a different view of the world from themselves.
    When I read the third of today’s proverbs it reminded me of the entertainment choices people make. Some people choose to spend their leisure time learning and gathering knowledge, others spend their leisure with things that distract them from thinking about anything. There is nothing wrong with limited amounts of the latter, but the wise are hungry for knowledge and will fill up their leisure time acquiring it. The fool has no interest in knowledge and will avoid like the plague any leisure activity which requires thought, let alone the acquisition of knowledge. If they spend their leisure time involved in anything which involves the acquisition of knowledge, it will be knowledge which is of no lasting value.

Psalm 112:1-10

    Those who fear the Lord and take delight in in following His commands will be filled with joy. They are willing to lend money generously and are fair in all of their business dealings. As a result good comes their way and evil will fail its attempts to overcome them. Overall I love the message of this psalm, but struggle with writing a meditation on what it means to me.

John 8:31-59

    This passage starts with one of Jesus’ most famous statements, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” That is a very true and important statement. However, the exchange which follows probably gives us more insight into living our lives. There is one thing which I have never heard anyone preach about when they talk about this exchange. Jesus was talking to those who believed in Him. Yet, despite this, their first reaction was to take offense at Jesus telling them that they would be set free.
    Jesus points out that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. He then points out that there are some in the crowd who want to kill Him. Rather than accept that those who were trying to kill Jesus were in the wrong, they took offense. I always find this passage difficult to digest, but not because the message is so hard. I get caught up in the dynamics of the conversation between Jesus and the people so that it distracts me from the message Jesus is preaching here. I actually run into that a lot when I read the Gospel of John.
    Those who love God and are born of God will hear and love the truth. Those who are born of Satan lie, murder and steal. Or, to put it another way, truth and love are characteristics which come from God. Lies and deception come from the devil. The more we are truthful in what we say, and treat those we meet with love, the closer we are to God. The closer we are to God, the more we will be truthful and treat those we meet with love. On the other hand, the more we use lies and deception the closer we are to the devil and the farther we are from God. The farther we are from God the more we use lies and deception.

1 Samuel 18:5-19:24

    After his battle with Goliath David became one of Saul’s chief subordinates. Everything Saul asked him to do David did, and he did it well. David was so successful that the people began singing his praises. They began praising David as greater than Saul. Saul, rather than taking this as a compliment for his good judgment in selecting David, became jealous of David. David continued to be a faithful servant to Saul and to put all of his efforts into serving Saul’s interests. Saul felt threatened by David’s success and his reactions to that perceived threat made it more real. Despite Saul’s actions, David did nothing against Saul’s interests, except act to preserve his own life. One of the reasons Saul lost his throne was because he acted to diminish the power of any subordinate who was too successful.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 15:8-10

    It does not matter how big of a donation you make to good causes if your gained your wealth through evil acts. The prayers of a righteous person will make a bigger difference in the world than the billions of dollars spent on “good works” by the wicked.

Psalm 110:1-7

    While I am certain that the composer of this psalm was referring to King David, I am also certain that the New Testament references to this as a prophecy about Jesus are completely appropriate. This psalm is clearly a prophecy about the Messiah, God’s Anointed One.

John 8:1-20

    In the story of the woman caught in adultery there is an interesting discrepancy. If she was caught in adultery, they must have caught the man as well, but he was not brought to be stoned. The Old Testament law calls for a man caught in adultery to be stoned as well as any woman so caught. This tendency to view a sin committed by one person differently than the same sin committed by a different person is something we need to examine in ourselves.
    However Jesus does not address that issue. Instead, when the men asked His position on the Mosaic command was, He stooped down and wrote in the dust. He did not answer their question. They kept badgering Him, insisting He answer the question of whether or not she should be stoned. Finally He stood up and told them that they were right to stone her, but the first stone had to be throne by someone who was without sin. Then He returned to writing in the dust. I wish we knew what He was writing in the dust, but it probably does not matter. Perhaps He was writing out the Ten Commandments. Or perhaps He was playing tic-tac-toe with Himself. As I write this I realize that at least part of why Jesus wrote in the dust was to get the temper of the crowd to cool off. The reason the older men drifted off first was because they were the first to realize that no one was going to throw the first stone. The younger men were hoping that someone else would throw the first stone, then they could join in.
    There is a final point to be made here. When the entire crowd had dispersed, Jesus asked the woman where her accusers were, if none of them had condemned her. When she replied that no one had, Jesus told her that He did not either. However, what He said next was at least as important as His lack of condemnation. He did not say, “Well, then, I guess you can go back to what you were doing.” No, He said, “Go, and sin no more.” When we come to Jesus, He does not condemn us. But He does tell us to go and sin no more. When sinners come to us, let us do likewise, both by refusing to condemn them and by calling on them to sin no more.

1 Samuel 15-16:23

    Samuel told Saul that God had instructed him to destroy the Amalekites and all of their livestock. So, Saul mobilized his army and attacked the Amalekites, wiping them out. However, he took their king captive and allowed his men to keep the best of the livestock. In doing this, Saul did what was politically expedient. Saul believed that if he allowed them to keep the livestock they found appealing they would be more loyal to him in the future. Saul chose political expedience over principle. Those who choose expedience over principle will always fail to build something which lasts.
    Later, when God had sent Samuel to Jesse to anoint one of his sons as the next king of Israel, Samuel immediately thought that it would be Jesse’s eldest son, Eliab. However, God told him not to judge by appearance or height, Eliab was not God’s chosen. This contains an important lesson for us, we tend to judge others by their outward appearance. God judges people by their hearts. We would do well to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance to do the same, not just in those we choose to follow, but in all of our interactions with others.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 15:5-7

    It is foolish to ignore a parent’s discipline, no matter what your age. The wise learn from correction regardless of the source. Take advice where you can find it. Anyone who offers you advice has some wisdom you can learn from, only a fool has no advice to give.

Psalm 109:1-31

    We will, and do, face the sorts of accusations which the psalmist recounts. However, let us never stoop to the level of our accusers. Let us love them, even though they accuse us. Let us pray for them, even as they seek to destroy us. They will accuse us of persecuting the needy. They will claim that we curse others. Let us call out to God to protect us from such accusations and do the opposite even while they are saying these things about us.

John 7:31-53

    Before Jesus began teaching at the Festival, no one was willing to publicly say anything good about Him. However, once He began teaching and preaching an interesting thing happened. More and more of the people became willing to declare that He must be the Messiah. It got to the point where the religious leaders decided to have Jesus arrested. They sent the Temple guards to arrest Him, but the guards were mesmerized by what He said and returned without doing so.
    The point I am getting at is that when the Festival started people were afraid to talk about Jesus in a positive manner. Yet when He actually stood up and started to speak they became more emboldened. This is a lesson for us. Our society attempts to silence the Gospel message and threatens those who proclaim it. Yet if we stand up and boldly proclaim it other people will be emboldened to embrace that message. We will not avoid persecution by keeping quiet about our faith.

1 Samuel 14:1-52

    When Jonathan went with just his armor bearer to scout the Philistine camp he used an interesting method of deciding whether or not to attack. However, before that, he made his plans with the knowledge that he would only be successful with God’s help, and that with God’s help he could not fail. When he reached the point where he needed to determine if God was going to help him or not, he based his decision on the Philistine reaction to his presence. If the Philistines made it clear that they were going to do the smart thing and use the advantage of their position, he would return to the Israelite camp. If, on the other hand, the Philistines were foolish enough to allow him, and his armor bearer, to close with them, negating the advantage of their location, he would do so and attack. The Philistines chose the arrogant, foolish course of action. As a result, Jonathan and his armor bearer were able to disrupt the Philistine camp making the Philistine army vulnerable to the Israelite army. The key here was that Jonathan acted in faith and allowed God to direct his actions.