For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I want to apologize to my readers. I felt completely unmoved by the passages today and feel that what I wrote shows this lack of inspiration.

    If you know any grandparents, you know the first part of this is true. Which is at it should be. The second part should be true. Children should be proud of their parents.

    God promised that David’s line would continue forever and that promise was fulfilled in Jesus. God also promised that He would live in Jerusalem and bless that city. While bad things have happened to Jerusalem, that city is once more prospering.

    When Saul returned to Jerusalem the believers there would not be near him, despite his claims to be a believer as well. That is, except for Barnabas, who took him to the apostles and told them the story of his conversion. This is the second time Barnabas is mentioned in Acts. Barnabas is another one of those characters who act mostly in the background. We often look to model ourselves on Peter, or Paul, or other such bigger-than-life characters from the Bible. But the world only needs a few of those people at any one time. The world needs a lot of Barnabases and Ananiases (the one from Damascus, not the one who lied about his money). Let us strive to be one of the latter two rather than the former two. If God needs us to be a Peter, or a Paul, the Spirit will move us to be so.

    Jeroboam sought to consolidate his political power by setting up idols for the people of Israel to worship. He made two gold calves and claimed that these were the gods which had brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. God sent a prophet to warn Jeroboam away from his idolatry, but despite the signs which God sent him Jeroboam did not listen. In addition to setting up the idols, Jeroboam appointed those of his favorites who wished as priests. Jeroboam’s mistake is one that we must always guard against. The mistake of twisting and distorting God’s commands so as to serve our own purposes rather than God’s.