All posts by AttilaDimedici

Daily Bible Study

August 9, 2023 Bible Study — Going to Church Every Sunday Doesn’t Save You

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 7-9.

In today’s passage Jeremiah addresses “church-goers”, those who regularly take part in official worship of God.  God sent him to stand in front of the temple gate and speak to those who went through the gate to worship God, which was more or less the equivalent of going to church services on Sunday.  Jeremiah told them that the temple would not protect them from God’s judgement and in the same way going to church services every Sunday, or even including weekday services, will not save us from God’s judgement.  In order to be saved from God’s judgement we must allow God’s Spirit to change our actions.  We must deal with others justly, we must not oppress those weaker than ourselves, and we must not follow other gods.  I want to expand on that last one a little bit.  Through Jeremiah, God tells us not to follow other gods, because doing so harms us.  The other things in that list of things bring harm to others, but following other gods brings harm to ourselves.

This passage highlights the danger of thinking that “faith” in Christ is all that you need.  We cannot earn our way into heaven by doing good deeds; none of us are good enough for that to work.  However, if our faith in Christ does not cause us to do good deeds, we do not really believe Him.  If we think we will get into heaven because we were wise enough to avoid the mistakes which others made that are leading them to Hell, we are mistaken.  We must seek to obey God and provide assistance to those in need.  Do not boast about your wisdom, nor about your strength, nor about your wealth.  None of those things will do you any good.  Instead, boast about the fact that God has chosen you to take part in the sufferings of Christ, boast about the fact that you serve a God who will accept any who humbly turn to Him.  I serve a great God, and so can anyone who chooses to do so, no matter how many mistakes they have made, no matter how bad the mistakes they made.

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

Daily Bible Study

August 8, 2023 Bible Study — We Stand at a Crossroads, Choose God’s Path

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 4-6.

When reading today’s passage I think we should take note that the prophecy Jeremiah gives here took place between when King Josiah began his religious reforms and when he began to renovate the temple.  Which means that, at least in part, Jeremiah was addressing those taking part in King Josiah’s religious revival.  So, if we seek revival, and I hope that you join me in doing so, we need to pay close attention to Jeremiah’s message.  We must find the unplowed ground of our hearts, the places where we are resistant to allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us, and break it up.  We must circumcise our hearts to the Lord, accepting the pain of cutting out that which separates us from the Lord.  Otherwise, God’s anger will flare up against us because of the evil we have done.  We stand at a crossroads.  We must ask for  the ancient path, the good way, and follow it.  Just as in Jeremiah’s time, God is looking for people who deal honestly and seeks the truth.   Allow God’s Spirit to transform you into such a person, even if you are the only one.  In Jeremiah’s time, God was looking for just one person in all of Jerusalem.  If He had found that person, He would have forgiven the people of Jerusalem for their sins.  I don’t know how many God is looking for today, but I do not want destruction to come because He found one less than He was looking for, and I could have been that one.

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

Daily Bible Study

August 7, 2023 Bible Study — Before You Were Born I Set You Apart

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

When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, Jeremiah felt that he did not know how to express himself well enough because of his youth.  He was afraid that he would say the wrong thing at the wrong time.  God told him not to be afraid, that He would put His words in his mouth.  You are neither too young, nor too old, to carry out the ministry to which God has called you.  He will give you the strength and knowledge to do as He commands.  Just like He did with Jeremiah, God chose you for His ministry before you were even conceived.

Which brings me to Jeremiah’s message.  Ultimately, all of our sins can be broken down to two sins.  First, we turn from God and refuse to follow commands which He has given us: commands which He gave in order for us to get what was best for us.  Second, we have made up our own rules for living; rules which we think will bring us happiness, but which will only drain happiness from us.  We actively look to anything but God to find inspiration for our rules.

As a note that is not really part of my Bible Study, Jeremiah 3:16 says that people will no longer talk about the ark of the covenant of the Lord.  They will not even think about it most of the time and another one will not be made.  That little note is worth noting because many people who try to track down the ark of the covenant theorize that it was hidden during Jeremiah’s lifetime.  However, this verse suggests that it was already gone at the beginning of his ministry.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

August 6, 2023 Bible Study — We Are but Clay in the Potter’s Hand

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 64-66.

Isaiah tells us that at no point in history has anyone seen or heard of any god other than God who acts on behalf of those who gladly do what is right.  Despite the fact that we have seen and heard what He will do for those who do right, we have sinned against Him.  So, how can we be saved?  By recognizing that we are the work of His hand.  He has revealed Himself to us before we thought to seek Him, or even ask about Him.  He has come to us, those who accept His presence with humility and a contrite spirit will be saved.  However, He has destined for the sword those who believe they will be defiled by associating with others, despite having defiled themselves already by not listening to God’s call for justice and compassion.

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

Daily Bible Study

August 5, 2023 Bible Study — Give God No Rest Until He Establishes Justice on Earth

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 60-63.

At several points in today’s passage, at least as I read it, Isaiah changes “narrative voice” in his writing.  At some points, he is “quoting” God, then he changes to referring to God in the third person.  I interpret all of this passage around the beginning of chapter 61, combined with the fact that Jesus quoted those verses when He read in the synagogue in Nazareth.  Thus, when Isaiah writes at the beginning of chapter 60:

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
…
3 Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

I see that as a prophecy concerning how people will come to the Light of Jesus, brought into this world through the descendants of Israel.  The rest of the chapter refers, more or less, to the year of the Lord’s favor which Jesus declared when He was on Earth.  Christ came to comfort those who mourn, to give them cause for joy.  In particular, He offers joy to those who are grieved by injustice.  They will be a planting of the Lord designed to grow into oaks of righteousness.  Those who call upon the Lord should give themselves no rest, nor stop calling out to God for His intervention, until He establishes justice on earth.

 

 

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

Daily Bible Study

August 4, 2023 Bible Study

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 57-59.

In today’s passage Isaiah addresses a complaint often lodged against God when someone dies young, “But he (or she) was such a good person, why did he (or she) die so young?”  Of course, the answer does not just apply to those who die young, it applies to anyone who dies “before their time.”  God sometimes takes the devout and the righteous sooner than we would wish in order to spare them evil.  Isaiah goes on to show the conceit and arrogance of those who condemn God when someone who was truly good dies young (as opposed to those who merely cry out in grief).  God seeks those who are contrite and humble, not those who arrogantly parrot how righteous they are.

Many put on a false front, Isaiah uses the example of fasting here. but there are many ways that people proclaim how they seek to do what is right while in secret (and sometimes not even all that secret) doing what they please at the expense of those less able.  God desires that we share our food with the hungry, provide shelter to without, clothe the naked, and aid our relatives.

 

 

The Lord looked and was displeased
    that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no one,
    he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm achieved salvation for him,
    and his own righteousness sustained him.
17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
    and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
    and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
18 According to what they have done,
    so will he repay
wrath to his enemies
    and retribution to his foes;
    he will repay the islands their due.
19 From the west, people will fear the name of the Lord,
    and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory.
For he will come like a pent-up flood
    that the breath of the Lord drives along.[d]

20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion,
    to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,”
declares the Lord.

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

Daily Bible Study

August 3, 2023 Bible Study — God Told Us In Advance What He Would Do

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 52-56.

Yesterday’s passage was about God giving new predictions about the future through Isaiah so that people would realize that He was indeed God.  Today, Isaiah continues that theme.  He writes that God’s name is constantly being blasphemed, but that he is about to foretell an event that God’s people will know that only God could have told him.  Then Isaiah writes one of the classic Messianic prophecies about the suffering which Christ would experience.  He describes how much we owe to Jesus for the suffering which He experienced.  For those of us who believe the Gospel accounts, Isaiah’s prophecy clearly describes what happened to Jesus leading up to His crucifixion.

Then in chapters 55 and 56 Isaiah lays out How the thoughts and methods of an infinite God are beyond human comprehension.  God’s thoughts and ways are incomprehensibly above anything we can imagine.  When He speaks to us His word transforms us in ways that we would never have thought possible.  Yet, He told us through His prophets that He would do this.

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

Daily Bible Study

July 31, 2023 Bible Study — Do Not Be Afraid, You Have Been Chosen the One Who Made Everything

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 39-42.

I had planned to skip this entirely after I missed it and failed to discover I had done so until mid-day, but I decided to add this in for future reference.

So, Isaiah tells us that God is the Creator of the Universe and nothing can be compared to Him.  Isaiah points out that everything that is not God has been made, and worshiping it seems silly when you think about it.  If we put our faith in anything, or anyone, other than God, we will become exhausted trying to deal with life, but if we trust in God, He will strengthen us.  God has chosen us, so we should not fear.  He is with us, we need not be dismayed.  Do not be afraid, God will help you.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

August 2, 2023 Bible Study — God’s Commands Reveal What Is Best For Us

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 48-51.

It has taken me a bit to get my thoughts together on today’s passage.  As a main thread, Isaiah writes that God has offered new prophecies about the future such that we cannot say that we already knew what was going to happen before He revealed it.  In particular he addresses this to those who invoke God, who present themselves as worshipers of the Lord, but do not do so honestly.  They have missed one of the most important aspects of why God reveals these things to us.  He does so in order to teach us what is best for us.  God revealed things that had not yet happened through His prophets in order that we might listen to what He tells us about what is best for us.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

August 1, 2023 Bible Study — Do Not Be Afraid, God Has Summoned You By Name

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 43-47.

I want to apologize for missing yesterday’s entry.   I am preparing for a vacation and thus writing these a few days in advance in order to get them written for when I will be away and I did not realize I had not written one for July 31st until the morning of July 31st.

Today’s passage begins with the passage which the show “The Chosen” used to introduce Mary Magdalene in its first episode.

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

There is something very personal about this.  God has called each of us by name: not the way a restaurant calls out your name when your table is ready, but the way a mother calls when she sees her lost child looking the other way in a crowd.  I want to expand on that image a little.  Imagine a child who had wandered away from their parents in a crowd and just realized they do not know where their parents are.  The child begins to panic, and their mother, who has never lost sight of them, calls out their name for the child to come back to them.  That is God calling to us, telling us not to be afraid, to just come back to Him.  Throughout the Bible, again and again, God tells us not to be afraid.  Out of all of the billions of people on earth, He, the Creator of all that is, knows us by name as individuals.  He has summoned me and He has summoned you, not you as in that group over there, but you as an individual whose name and history He knows in detail.

There was a lot more I intended to cover from this passage, but I am going to stop there.
  

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