For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
Another way of expressing the point made by this proverb is, “What goes around, comes around.” Except that this proverb makes it clear that failure to act may be just as bad as acting badly. Yet another way to put this proverb is this, help those in need when you have the opportunity because one day you may be in need and wish for someone to help you.
I love this psalm. I get tired of saying this, but it is true of so many of the psalms. First, it encourages me to praise God all of the time. It does more than that, it challenges me to tell others about what God has done for me, to tell them how He has answered my prayers. This psalm tells us to tell others what God has done for us, inviting them to follow Him.
However, it reminds us that no one will ever come to saving faith based on our testimony. No, verse eight tells us that the most important part of our invitation must be to invite them to experience God for themselves. It is only when we take the risk and experience God for ourselves that we truly come to faith. If you have not yet come to faith in Christ than I invite you to “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” I am sitting here crying as I write this, thinking of my friends who are starving for God, yet refuse to taste the meal He has laid out for them. They are convinced that it will taste terrible. I have told them how fabulous it is, but there is nothing more I can do until they taste it for themselves.
Paul tells us to discipline our bodies. We should train in a manner similar to the way in which professional athletes train. However, we are not seeking to train our bodies to athletic excellence (although we may do that as well), rather we are to train our bodies to the discipline which allows us to better serve God. Let us train our bodies to avoid sin. My recollection is that when I have heard (or read) someone teach on this passage they have emphasized “spiritual” discipline and minimized the idea of physical discipline. I put spiritual in quotes in the last sentence because I am coming to believe that true spiritual discipline cannot be truly separated from physical discipline. If we wish to have spiritual discipline (and I believe that we are called to do so) we must also have physical discipline.
This passage comes at a good time for me. When I started this blog, I intended to complete it every morning. For some time now I have started it in the morning but have been letting it go until later in the day to complete. Over the last few days I have been convicted that I need to start disciplining myself to completing it in the morning before work (or whatever other activities I do for the day). In addition, my blood sugar has been higher than it should be a good bit. I need to discipline my diet so as to bring that back down. Until this morning I did not see those two things as connected. However, I believe that they are. I believe that as I discipline myself to complete my devotions (this blog) first thing in the morning it will help me discipline myself to bring my blood sugar down. And as I discipline my diet to bring my blood sugar down it will help me discipline myself to complete my devotions first thing in the morning. I pray that the Holy Spirit aid me in this twofold endeavor.
The leaders of the Levites led the people in a prayer in which they acknowledged that the hardship they were facing was a result of their sins, and the sins of their ancestors. The Jewish people were subject to the authority of the Persian Empire because when times were good they had repeatedly turned from God to worshiping idols. At the end of this prayer the people vowed to separate themselves from the pagans living around them. They would not marry anyone who did not worship God. They vowed that they would not do business on the Sabbath or other Holy Days. There is an important element in their vow. They did not say that they would strive to prevent those who did not worship God from doing business on those days. They merely vowed that they would not do business with them on those days.