For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Don’t go to dinner parties hosted by someone who is stingy. They will be more concerned with what it is costing them than with socializing. Any social benefit from being there will be outweighed by their resentment of how much you cost them. And the food is unlikely to be very good.

    People may slander me, they may twist my words in order to put me down, but I will not fear them because I put my trust in God. I will praise God for His promises. What can any mortal do to me when God is defending me? I will seek to serve Him, so that I need not fear anything, or anyone, else.

    Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that he worked hard among them to demonstrate that he was a true apostle of God. He was in no way inferior to those who came after him who were flashier and better orators. He points out that he was never a burden on them and yet, even so, some people are claiming that he tricked the Corinthian believers. Paul indirectly asks the question, if he tricked them, to what end did he do so? Paul did not exploit them. The people he sent to them did not do so either. This is always an important point to remember when looking at what prominent teachers teach, what benefit do they gain from their teaching?

    Isaiah begins this passage with a warning that the wealthy and powerful would do well to listen to in every generation. They may deprive the poor of their rights. They may oppress God’s people for a time. They may by robbing widows and the fatherless. However, where do they think they are going to be able to flee when the day of God’s judgment arrives? When God sends judgment against you, where will you turn?
    Even those used by God to bring His judgment against sinners will not be exempt from His judgment. Isaiah refers to how God used the Assyrians to bring judgment against the people of Israel. When they then arrogantly assumed that they could ignore His laws, He brought them down. God has used various peoples and powers throughout history to discipline His people. Time and again, those He used have come to believe that their rise to power gives them the right to mistreat others. Time and again, God has brought them low in judgment for their arrogance.