I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day, or more. in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Only fools take pleasure in doing wrong. The wise realize that the fleeting pleasure one might gain from such actions is not worth the greater pain which it causes (whether that pain is to others or oneself).
What a wonderful psalm! God is my refuge, I need fear nothing.
So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.
Let the oceans roar and foam.
Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!
People may bluster and threaten, yet I know that God is sovereign and His will cannot be thwarted. I will trust in Him and He will protect me. The psalmist then gives us a command from God:
Be still, and know that I am God!
It is when we are still in both our minds and in our bodies that we hear God speaking to us.
I have a perspective today on the story of the donkey which Jesus rode in the Triumphal Entry that I have never heard mentioned before. The attitude of the owner of said donkey. When the disciples went to untie the colt they told those standing nearby (who I am assuming were the owners), “The Lord needs it and will return it soon.” At which point they were sent on their way with the colt. Do we have a similar attitude with our possessions when someone tells us that God has need of them? Are we willing to put our possessions at the disposal of those doing God’s work? How do we know when God is calling for us to offer our possessions for use in a particular ministry?
This passage makes this the perfect place to discuss something that has been concerning me lately. Often times at our congregation someone will hold a sale as a fundraiser for some event in the lobby of our building after our worship service. Jesus condemned the religious leaders of His day for commercializing the Temple. I am quite sure that the presence of merchants in the Temple courtyards began from good motives, just as these fundraisers are held from entirely good motives. However, the question is, how do we know when we have crossed the line? I want to be clear that I do not think any of the fundraisers that have been held at my congregation have crossed the line. They have just become a frequent enough occurrence that I believe some attention should be given to the impression they may give outsiders who attend our services. I, also, want to say that I do not have the answer here.
This passage is among the reasons I started doing this blog. I believe it is important to read all of the Bible regularly, but before I started this blog I found myself skipping over passages like this one. Today I realized that this passage tells us the importance of determining what resources we have available to accomplish the mission which God has given us. Moses could not effectively plan how to invade the land of Canaan until he knew not just how many men he had, but how many were in each unit (tribe). In the same way we need to muster our resources and figure out who God has sent to aid us when we start a new mission for Him.
This passage describes a way to determine the value of possessions which have been donated to the service of God.