For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Goodness shines brightly out of the godly while the wicked snuff out whatever goodness is within themselves. At least one condition necessary for conflict to occur is pride, without pride, conflict will not come about. True wisdom lies in being humble enough to take advice.

    I love this psalm and will do as the psalmist recommends. I will call upon God when I am in trouble, for I know that He will answer my cry. There is no other god like Him. One of the things I ask of God is that He teach me His ways, so that I can live according to His truth. I, also, ask that He purify my heart, so that my life will honour Him. I know that I am not able, by my own strength of will, to live a life according to His ways, nor am I able to purify my heart. But I know that God has the power to cause these things to happen and I pray that He send His Spirit upon me to accomplish these ends.

    In the story of the rich man there is one element I do not remember ever being expounded upon, and another that I have rarely heard discussed. I will address the latter first. The rich man came to Jesus and asked Him what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. When Jesus told him to follow the commandments, he replied that he was already doing that. The rich man clearly felt that he needed to do more, that following the commandments was not enough. He recognized that not committing any sins of commission was not enough. He sought to find out what positive action he should take (or, possibly, he was seeking Jesus’ affirmation that he had indeed done enough). The point is that this rich man recognized that not doing wrong is not enough. In addition to not doing what is wrong, we need to do what is right.
    This brings us to the element of this story I do not remember hearing anyone expound upon. Jesus told the rich man to “Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The key part of what Jesus was telling the man was that he should come and follow Jesus. Selling his possessions and giving the money to the poor was merely there so that the man would not have it as a fallback. It was a sign of commitment. Are we willing to follow where God leads, even when it means not leaving open an option to turn back? The key thing which Jesus was telling this man to do was make a complete commitment, all-in. Are we “All-in”?

    When Caleb went to take the land that had been given to him as his inheritance, he conquered much of the land that was given to him. However, when he went up against one of the cities, he declared that he would give his daughter’s hand in marriage to whomever conquered it. After its defeat, he kept his word. As part of the marriage settlement, Caleb gave some land to her and her new husband. However, the land apparently did not have any springs on it, so she asked her father for springs to go with it. He granted them to her. I recounted all that to note that when we give to others, we should be sure that we do not make them dependent upon us to gain any benefit from the gift. In this case, the land Caleb gave his son-in-law was only usable as long as he had access to the springs which Caleb initially kept for himself. When we “help” those in need, let us make sure that we are not making them dependent upon ourselves, or upon someone else, not even upon the government. We should strive to help those in need to be able to stand on their own (with God’s help and none other).