All posts by AttilaDimedici

Daily Bible Study

December 26, 2024 Bible Study — God Is, and Was, and Is to Come

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 1-3.

Usually when I read this passage I write something about what John writes to each of the seven Churches to which this letter is addressed.  Today I was struck by what John writes about God, and about Jesus.  John refers to God the Father as “Him who is, and who was , and who is to come.”  A few verses later he quotes God as saying that He is “the Alpha and the Omega who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”  Then when Jesus speaks to John in his vision, He says, “I am the First and the Last.  I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!”  The phrase, “who is, and who was, and who is to come,” strikes me so powerfully.

  • God is!  There may be those who say that God is dead, that He does not matter, that mankind no longer needs God, but they are mistaken.  God is, and mankind desperately needs Him now.
  • God was!  There are those who say that  we cannot trust what the Bible says because it happened so long ago, but God was there.
  • God is to come!  There are those who say that we do not know what the future holds, and they are correct.  But we know that God is already there waiting for us.

God was there at the beginning and He is there at the end.  Jesus was dead and now He is alive because death could not hold Him.  And that means that death will be unable to hold those who put their faith in Him.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

December 25, 2023 Bible Study — Those Who Deny That Jesus Came in the Flesh Are the Antichrist

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 John, 3 John, and Jude.

Merry Christmas

In today’s reading we have three separate letters, two by John and one by Jude.  Today I am going to write about their common theme(s).  In John’s second letter (we looked at the first one yesterday), he writes that God’s command is that we love one another.  John tells us that he writes this reminder because so many deceivers, who deny that Jesus came in the flesh, have gone out preaching.  Such deceivers are the antichrist.  Anyone who teaches anything other than that Jesus lived, died for our sins, and was resurrected, and that He taught us to love others, should be rejected, and avoided.  In his third letter, John tells us that we should welcome, and show hospitality, to those who travel around preaching, and demonstrating, God’s love to unbelievers.  In other words, we should show our love for them, and for their target audience, by providing for their needs.  We should avoid imitating those who maliciously refuse to welcome such people to the local gathering of God’s people.  Jude follows up on that theme by warning us that such people are a blemish on us in our fellowship.  Jude tells us that they boast about their own good deeds, while finding fault with others and grumbling about everything.  They will flatter others in order to manipulate them into following their flawed teachings.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

December 24, 2023 Bible Study — If You Walk in the Light, You Will Love Others by Your Actions

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 John 1-5.

The writer tells us that God is light and that there is no darkness within Him.  Therefore, he says, those who walk in darkness do not have fellowship with Him.  Anyone who walks in darkness and claims to have fellowship with God is a liar, separated from the truth.  What does all of that mean?  Those who walk with God, fellowship with their fellow believers in love.  We cannot harbor hate for others while we walk in God’s light.  If we wish to walk with God, we must love others, and not just in words.  Our love must be expressed by our actions.

There is a lot more to this passage, but I cannot write about it without taking away from what I just wrote.  So, I am going to leave you with this.  If you want to walk with God, you need to not hate others, but love them… and if you want to love others, you need to walk with God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

December 23, 2023 Bible Study — Do Not Allow Ourselves to be Exploited by False Teachers

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Peter 1-3.

Usually when I read today’s passage I focus on the “virtue escalator” which Peter describes: virtues which build upon each other.  Those virtues are faith, goodness, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love.  However, today I want to focus on what Peter says about false teachers.  Before getting into talking about false prophets and false teachers, Peter writes that those who wrote Scripture spoke from God, not from human interpretation.  Then he tells us that false teachers will attempt to exploit people with fabricated stories, some of which deny the sovereignty of Christ.  They will try to hide the ways in which their teachings contradict Scripture by various means.  He writes that we can identify them by their depraved conduct and rejection of all other authority.  They will claim to offer freedom, but will actually enslave themselves to depravity.  Which brings me back to that “virtue escalator” which I mentioned at the beginning.  If we build up our faith with goodness, add knowledge to our goodness, exercise self control in our knowledge, persevere with our self control so that it produces godliness, which will lead us to mutual affection and love, we will not be fooled by false teachers.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

December 22, 2023 Bible Study — Living Good Lives

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Peter 1-5.

Twice in this letter Peter tells us to be alert and sober.  I think by this he means “straightforward and serious; not exaggerated, emotional, or silly.”  I do not believe that Peter means by that that we can never exaggerate, or be emotional, or even never be silly.  I believe he means that when we exaggerate, we make sure that people understand that we are exaggerating, when we are emotional it is controlled and appropriate, and when we are silly, we do so consciously and with boundaries.  We should remain alert in order that we may observe the things for which we should pray.   Additionally, Peter tells us that we should remain alert and sober since we were redeemed from an empty way of life by Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.

Therefore, we should allow ourselves to be purified by obeying the Truth which God has given us.  The result of doing so will be love for one another.  In order to be purified we must rid ourselves of all malice and deceit.  Of course that makes sense because we cannot love others if our interactions with them involve malice and/or deceit.  Peter goes on to warn us that evil desires wage war against our souls, we damage ourselves when we give in to evil desires and commit sins.  For this reason, Peter tells us to abstain from evil desires.  We should live such good lives that, even though they will accuse us of wrongdoing for not supporting and behaving according to their depraved ideals, the nonbelievers around us will glorify God.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

December 21, 2023 Bible Study — We Must Accept Responsibility for the Temptations Which We Experience

Today, I am reading and commenting on  James 1-5.

James tells us that God does not tempt us.  In fact, he says that the Devil does not tempt us either.  Rather, temptation is a result of our evil desires.  Our own evil desires entice us to do wrong.  All too often, instead of thrusting these desires away from us, we entertain these desires until we take action on them, which is sin.  James makes the point that we should not attempt to lay blame for being tempted and the subsequent sin outside of ourselves.  We need to take responsibility for our own actions and recognize that our sins result from the choices we make.

James then gives some practical advice on how to live holy lives.  He tells us that we should put extra effort into listening and understanding, while keeping a tight rein on what we say.  Additionally, and just as importantly, we should resist getting angry, because human anger does not produce righteousness.  James tells us to get rid of the moral filth within us, which generates the temptations we face, and the evil that goes along with it.  Instead, we should accept and act upon the word which God has given us.  He repeats the need to control our tongues and take action to care for those in need.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

December 20, 2023 Bible Study — Hardship and Suffering Discipline Us as Children of God

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 12-13.

The writer tells us that hardship and suffering come into our lives as discipline from God.  The way I read this passage the writer is using discipline with both of its two possible understandings.  Under the first understanding, discipline means negative consequences in order to change bad behavior to good behavior.  In the second understanding, discipline means working hard in order to achieve greater things.  So, God disciplines us so as to help us learn to not do things which bring us bad results.  But He also disciplines us to make us stronger and better at doing good things, just as an athlete applies discipline in their training routine in order to get better at their sport.  As we face hardship and suffering let us embrace them as the means by which God both teaches us to avoid sin, which brings us harm, and strengthens us so that we may do good works with ever greater effect.  Such discipline is evidence that we are indeed God’s children.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

December 19, 2023 Bible Study — Meet Together in Order to Spur One Another Towards Love and Good Deeds

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hebrews 10-11.

After writing in yesterday’s passage that he wanted to address more mature matters, the author tells us that we should continue meeting together with our fellow believers.  He suggests that some have given up on meeting with other believers, the phrasing suggests that they found such meetings counterproductive.  Perhaps because the people who were there were argumentative.  The writer tells us that we should be seeking how we can prod each other to be more loving and to do more good deeds.  If we follow the writer’s advice, we should act as a counter to those who choose to be argumentative.  Further, he tells us to encourage one another.  Another activity which is runs counter to being argumentative.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

December 18, 2023 Bible Study — Those Who Reject Their Knowledge of God Will Never Turn to Him

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hebrews 6-9.

With this passage the writer gets into some advanced theology and doctrine, something for which we should all strive to be ready to study.  The first of those advanced topics about which the writer speaks is what happens when one who accepts Christ turns away from Him.  The writer tells us that those who turn away from God after experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit will never turn back to Him.  I have thought about this quite a bit, because I know several people who had an experience with God in their teens, fell away in their 20s, then later returned and became fervent followers once more.  On the other hand, I know a few people who followed a similar path, but never turned back to God (I have also read stories about a few more).  Looking at what I know about these people I think I see the difference.  The latter all seemed to have rejected God because they did not want to be subordinate to anyone, not even God.  While the former more or less lost their faith because of poor support systems when they faced troubles or hardship, coming back to God when the Spirit brought revelation into their lives.  Every time I read this passage I try to think through this difference and figure out how to explain it.  Unfortunately, I always feel like I cannot quite make it clear.  I guess the key difference is that people who lose their faith, who drift away from God because they stop believing that He exists, can turn back to Him, but those who know God exists but reject Him anyway will not.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

December 17, 2023 Bible Study — Jesus Was Tempted as We Are, so We Should Fix Our Minds on Him

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hebrews 1-5.

Because those He wished to aid were flesh and blood, Jesus also became flesh and blood human.  Since He was flesh and blood as we are Jesus was tempted as we are.  And since He suffered temptation as we do, He is able to help us when we are tempted.  Therefore we should fix out thoughts on Him, listening to Him as He builds us into the House in which He will dwell.  Having laid out the reason why we should focus our thoughts on Jesus, the writer goes on to warn us against turning away from God.  Further, he tells us that we should encourage our fellow Believers in their faith so that their hearts, and our hearts, may not be hardened against God by sin.  Which brings me to one final point I want to make about today’s passage.  The writer tells us of the importance of studying the Scripture.  Often times we will struggle with understanding what a particular passage has to tell us (and the Book of Hebrews certainly ranks high among those where we will struggle).  However, just as an athlete needs to train their body by repeated exercise, so we must train our minds and spirits by repeated study of Scripture.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.