For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    If you guarantee someone else’s debt, make sure that you are able to pay it off, because you probably will.

    We all know, or know of, someone like the person the psalmist describes. Someone who brags about the evil they do, who tells stories about how they did nasty things to other people. Perhaps we have found ourselves doing it. There are those who destroy others with their words and then brag about it. Such people trust in their own might, wealth, and cleverness rather than trusting in God. God will repay them for their sins. If we trust in God, we will not think of ourselves as better than others and will not attempt to destroy them. If we trust in God we will praise His name and lift others up before Him.

    This passage is so relevant right now with the rise of Islamic extremism and other violent attacks on Christians. Those who follow Christ are waging a war and have been doing so since Jesus was raised from the dead. But we do not fight with the weapons of this world, we do not fight with the sword and the gun. Rather we fight with God’s weapons, which are mightier than any wielded by mere man. These weapons will allow us to show the flaws in human reasoning and to knock down the strongholds of belief built upon purely human thought. Such things are necessarily false arguments and contain the seeds of their own destruction within them. With the help of the Holy Spirit we can destroy every idea, thought, and ideology which sets itself up against the knowledge of God. Let us take captive our every thought and make it obedient to Christ, and then, not only our own thoughts but other thoughts as well. If we allow the Spirit to guide us and direct us, He will show us how every human thought, idea, and ideology can be brought around to reveal the true knowledge of God and Christ.

    Yesterday, the theme from 2 Corinthians was being a cheerful giver. However, no matter how much we give to God’s work, it will not make up for doing evil. God does not want our wealth, He wants our obedience. Isaiah warns that for all too many of us our hands are full of blood. God calls for us to give up our evil ways and learn to do good. Let us seek justice, and not just for ourselves, but for others who have not the ability to get it for themselves. If we turn from our sins and begin to obey God, He will wipe us clean and purify us from our sins.
    If we do not turn to Him and accept His grace, we will face His coming judgement. Those who are proud and think that their appearance of righteousness will suffer God’s judgement. On the day of God’s judgement, those who thought they could get by with their own tarnished righteousness will hide in fear. They will abandon the things in which they put their trust in the attempt to avoid the coming judgement. Those who have put their trust in people, whether it be a preacher, or a political leader, will find that their trust was misplaced. No human will be able to save you on the day of God’s judgement.