For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    We should willingly accept it when God disciplines us. His correction and discipline is evidence of His love. If He did not love us He would allow us to continue in our sins until we destroyed ourselves with them. Instead, God disciplines us in an attempt to turn us from the path of destruction.

    The psalmist makes a point that is easy to overlook because of his poetic language (well, at least, I overlooked it for years). If we truly mean it when we tell people to trust in the Lord, why would we warn them to flee to safety to avoid the actions of the wicked? Yes, the foundations of law and order in our society may have collapsed, but God still rules from His Temple. He still controls all that happens. Our society may have abandoned law and order, but God never will. If we put our trust in Him, He will provide for our safety.

    Today’s passage contains three more stories about Jesus healing people. We have the synagogue leader’s daughter, the woman who has suffered for twelve years, and the two blind men. In each case the people approached Jesus because they believed that He could heal them. We have the synagogue leader, desperate for healing for his daughter, the woman, who merely wanted to touch His cloak, and the blind men, who wanted His mercy. In each case it was their faith that resulted in their healing. Yet we also have the story of the man who could not speak. He was brought to Jesus and we are told nothing about those who brought him.
    The synagogue leader was willing to face ridicule: the people laughed at Jesus when He arrived at the house. The woman was desperate for Jesus: she just wanted to touch His cloak. The two blind men wanted mercy: they had faith that Jesus’ mercy was all they needed. Let us follow their examples.
    As Jesus continued to travel, preaching and healing as He went, He saw how there were so many people with great needs. The needs were too great for one person to address, even if that person was Jesus Christ. He then tells His disciples, and through them, us, that the harvest, the work to be done, is great, but there are few workers. They, and we, are to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more workers. Every time I read this passage I am challenged. Yes, we are to pray for God to send more workers. However, we are also the workers whom God has sent in response to the prayers of those who went before. Are we doing the work for which we have been sent? What more should I, can I, be doing in order to bring in the harvest?

    When Esau heard that his father had sent Jacob, his brother, away to their mother’s people to find a wife, he finally understood how much his father did not like his wives. So, he went and took one of his half-uncle Ishmael’s daughter as a third wife.
    As Jacob began his travels we can only imagine what he must have felt. He was leaving his father’s protection, traveling to live with relatives he had never met. In part he was making this trip because his twin brother wanted to kill him (with some justification). I doubt his emotions were positive. He was probably feeling a little lonely and fearful (perhaps even a lot). Then he had a dream where God promised to protect him and make him prosper. Reading this it seems like for the first time Jacob really thinks about God. How often are we surprised into the realization which Jacob came to when he awoke? “God is in this place and I wasn’t even aware of it.” Are we aware that God is living in our midst? How often do we think about where we live and work and think, “God is in this place”?