For today, One Year Bible Online links here. This coming weekend I am going to be away Friday night through Sunday (October 16-18). I am going to try very hard to have my studies for the weekend done in advance. My plan is to publish Saturday’s and Sunday’s studies Friday evening before I depart. I hope this does not cause anyone a problem/
Don’t betray another person’s secrets in order to win an argument. If you do, you will earn a reputation as a gossip and it will be difficult, if not impossible to get anyone to trust you again.
God declares to the rulers of this earth, who think that they are mini-gods, that they need to stop handing down unjust decisions which favor the wicked. He tells them that they will die like every other mortal. If they do not want to be subject to God’s judgment they must give justice to the weak and the fatherless, and uphold the rights of the poor and oppressed. This is what God demands of those whom He has given power on this earth.
Paul tells us to be clear-headed and alert since we live in the light of God where we can see His truth. He then goes on to tell us what that means: don’t be lazy, encourage the timid, take care of the weak, be patient with others. Most importantly, never repay evil with evil, instead we should do good to our fellow believers and to everyone else, even those who do evil to us. This is perhaps one of the hardest things for us to get our heads around. We are never justified in doing something to harm others, no matter what they have done to us. If we are truly followers of Christ, we do not claim to have a right to revenge.
This passage begins with Jeremiah’s prophecy that the people of Jerusalem and Judah would be shattered like the jar of clay he had just smashed in front of witnesses. And why was this going to happen? Because the people of Jerusalem and Judah were slaughtering their children as sacrifices to their idols. Our nation is doing the same thing. As a nation, we are sacrificing our unborn children through abortions to the god of convenience. If we, as a people, do not turn from our sins, especially this one, God will do to our nation (and not our nation alone, there are many nations on this earth which are following the same behavior) what He did to Judah and Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day, and worse. Pray for our nation, pray for our neighbors, that they will repent of their sins and turn to God.