For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Do not offer to be security for someone else’s debt unless you can afford to pay it off yourself. Then plan on doing so.

    Do you want to know how to treat people? Treat them as if they are God’s people, because they are! Do you want to know how to treat the plants and animals around you? treat them as if they are God’s property, because they are! There is more to be gotten from this psalm and I hope you read it and see, but that’s all I am going to write about it today.

    Today’s passage contains the story of the rich young man. He has obeyed the commandments, but feels called to do more. Jesus tells him to sell all that he has and come follow Him. The young man is unwilling to do that and turns away. Jesus then tells His disciples that it is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.
    I have repeatedly heard people try to explain that “camel through the eye of a needle” is a figure of speech for something else, something which is very difficult, but possible. When I first heard such explanations, I thought they were insightful, which shows the importance of reading the Bible for yourself. The focus of such teaching is that, while getting into heaven is very difficult for the wealthy, it is possible. However, that does not seem to be Jesus’ message here. When the disciples heard what Jesus said, their response was, “If that’s the case, who can get into heaven?” Clearly, they heard Jesus say that it is impossible for the rich to get into heaven. Jesus tells them that they had heard Him correctly. It is impossible for a human to get into heaven on the basis of his own actions. However, with God all things are possible.

    This passage falls into a pattern. Repeatedly Moses relays God’s message about coming plagues to Pharaoh. The plagues arrive, each one more severe than the last. Pharaoh promises to let the Israelites go to worship God. Moses prays to God for the plague to life. Pharaoh hardens his heart and refuses to let the Israelites go. How often do we follow a pattern similar to Pharaoh in our lives. Something bad happens to us, we turn to God and promise to reform our bad habits, God relieves us from our difficulty, we return to our bad habits. Rinse, lather, repeat. The escalation of difficulties in this passage are a warning to us to stop this behavior, before we end up paying a price for our sins that we will regret for the rest of our lives.