For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    No one considers someone who always pursues selfish goals friendly. If you start quarrels for no good reason, no one will like you. If you want people to like you, seek to do things which help them, which make their life better. From there, seek to avoid quarrels as much as it is within your control.

    He is my God and my King. I will praise His name every day. Let each generation tell the next about the wonderful things God has done. I will meditate on the wonderful things which God has done. God is compassionate, rich in love and slow to anger. I need to meditate more on His word and spend more time in prayer. What a great psalm for meditating on God!

    There are two things that stood out to me about Paul’s stay in Corinth. The first was God’s command to him in a vision, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent!” I think this is a message which is meant for all of us. Right now God is telling us not to be afraid, to speak out. Now is not the time to be silent.
    The other thing which stands out to me is what happened after the proconsul threw out the case against Paul. The crowd, which had been stirred up against Paul, grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him. The passage does not tell us anything else about Sosthenes. We do not know if he was sympathetic to Paul, or opposed to Paul. Considering that Paul remained in Corinth for some time after this without another incident, it strikes me as likely that Sosthenes had been among the leaders of those who brought Paul before the proconsul.

    Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab who became queen of Judah. When her son was killed by Jehu, who overthrew her brother as King of Israel, she seized the throne of Judah, killing all of the remaining royal house she could lay her hands on. However, her daughter (or perhaps her husband’s daughter by another woman, the phrasing in the passage makes this less than clear), took her grandson from the nursery to the Temple and put him under the protection of the Temple priests. This grandson was Joash. He was raised by the high priest, who arranged to put him on the throne as soon as practicable. The life of Joash reminds us of the importance of good mentors. As a result of the influence of the high priest who raised him, Joash led the people of Judah back to worshiping God and repaired the Temple.