For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    We are warned against partying with those who drink and/or eat to excess. If we spend too much time with such people, we will do the same. The result of partying to excess is to end up much poorer than you started.

    The psalmist calls on us to wait quietly before God. It is easy to read that as “wait quietly FOR God,” but that is not what he is saying. The psalmist is telling us to go “before God” and wait quietly, my interpretation is that this is a form of prayer and meditation. At another point in the psalm, he tells us to pour our hearts out to God and trust Him. So, at all times we are to pour our hearts out to God, tell Him our deepest desires and fears, than to quietly wait in meditation for His answer or action. I really need to work on the meditation portion, on waiting quietly for God to speak to me.

    This passage has a lot of lessons for us, but I struggled to find the context which would allow me to tie them all together. Then it struck me that most of this letter to the Galatians is Paul’s response to some teachers whom the Galatian believers were starting to follow. These teachers were teaching them that some people were better than others because they followed certain rules (from the context I would guess that these rules were derived from Jewish law). Paul points out that while the law served its purpose, that purpose is now passed.
    These teachers whom Paul was responding were determined to win the Galatian believers away from Paul’s teaching, away from the Gospel. When Paul was in Galatia, these teachers were zealous to do good things for the Galatian believers, but once he left, their zealotry was for commanding the Galatian believers. They presented the idea to the Galatian believers that the other believers should follow their instructions because they were better than those others. Paul responded to this by pointing out to the Galatians that we are all one in Christ. The Jew is not better than the Gentile, men are not better than women, slaves are not less than those who are free. Christ died for each and every one of us. All who were baptized in Christ have been clothed with Christ. If we belong to Christ we are heirs to Abraham, and the promises he received.

    The rulers, the elite, those who are in positions of power are all convinced that they have struck a bargain with death. They believe that they will be able to dodge the troubles and hardships which their actions have set in motion. With lies and deception they have fortified their positions, they are convinced that those fortifications can never be swept away. However, God has placed a foundation stone from which He will test all fortifications against the measuring line of justice and all walls against the plum-line of righteousness. Those whose fortification is made from lies will be swept away. They will discover that the bargain they struck with death is null and void. However, those who build on God’s foundation will have a fortress which will never be shaken. Those who establish their position on justice and righteousness will be secure. Look at our current crop of politicians, they are all convinced that the only way to rise to power is lies and deception, and the voters believe they are right. This path leads to destruction.