For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
The love of quarrels is a love of sin. Some people love getting into quarrels because they believe their defenses will protect them from any attack. However, those who think their defenses will protect them from whatever trouble they can start are courting disaster. If you allow your heart to become corrupted so that all you desire is perversion you will not prosper. If you think that you can make your way through life by telling lies, those lies will lead you into trouble.
What a wonderful psalm! It is worth memorizing and meditating on.
and know everything about me.
How very true this is. It is both comforting and frightening at the same time. It is frightening because there is no place I can go to hide from God. Every sin I commit is plainly in His sight. On the other hand, it is comforting because no matter where I am, God can reach out to save me and enfold me in His arms. Further the psalmist tells us that God knew all of our actions before we were born:
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
Finally the psalmist concludes by asking God to test him and correct him so that he could faithfully serve Him. I make this my prayer:
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Test me, oh God, and cleanse me of that which offends You.
Paul’s sermon at the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia was initially well received by the Jews of that town. As a result, Paul and Barnabas were invited to speak again the following week at the synagogue. However, when a very large crowd turned out to hear Paul and Barnabas speak, some of them became jealous. Rather than rejoice in God using Paul and Barnabas to reach outsiders, they began to work to stir up sentiment against them. Those who were jealous of Paul and Barnabas were willing, and even eager, to receive their message when they thought that it was just for them as members of an exclusive group. However, when Paul and Barnabas made it clear that their message was for all who would hear it, they became hostile.
The Gospel message is not a message for an exclusive group of people. It is a message for all who will listen. In addition,we should preach the Gospel to those who are willing to hear it. If the group we first approached rejects our message, we are not only free to move on to those who are receptive, but called to do so.
When the king sent troops to arrest Elijah, the first two sets of troops were destroyed by fire. Yet the third was not. The difference between these three groups was the way they viewed the relationship between the Church and the state. The commanders of the first two stated that Elijah was a man of God, yet believed that because they were acting on the king’s orders that they had the authority to command Elijah’s actions. The third commander recognized that the king was unable to give him authority over a man of God, that the final authority was God. Notice that when the third commander begged Elijah to spare his life, God directed Elijah to accompany him. If we are truly men and women of God, the government will not be able to use force of arms (or any other means) to stop us from following God’s will.