For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have been doing this blog for over two years now. The discipline it has given me to read through the Bible every year since I began has been a wonderful experience for me. I want to encourage everyone to do so. I have come to understand the Bible so much more thoroughly as a result.

    Make your parents happy by staying away from promiscuous sexual partners. Getting involved with the promiscuous is a trap that it will be hard to escape. They constantly try to lure more people into their lifestyle.

    This psalm sums up what it feels like when God has answered our prayers. We want the entire earth to sing His praises. When we cry out to God in desperation and He delivers us we see how God has performed mighty deeds throughout history. The psalmist reminds us of one important fact, when we cry out to God for help, we need to be honest about our sins, the mistakes we have made. It is only after we confess our sins, admit our mistakes, that God will listen to our cries and come to our aid.

    God planned for us to accept His wonderful grace before He created the world. It was His plan from the beginning that we would be united with Christ and all things work out according to God’s plan. It was only after Jews had heard and trusted in Christ that we Gentiles were able to hear and receive God’s wonderful gift. When we believed in Christ, God identified us as His own by giving us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is God’s guarantee of His promises. He made those promises and gave us the Spirit as guarantee in order that we would praise and glorify Him.
    I am always challenged when I read here that Paul prayed continuously for the members of the Church at Ephesus (and elsewhere where he speaks of praying for other believers). I read this and realize that I do not pray nearly as much as I ought. As I write this, it reminds me that for years I sought the discipline to read the Bible every day (or at least, most days). I finally found that discipline when I began this blog. I am confident that God’s Spirit will show me the way to similar discipline on prayer. Perhaps, I will start a prayer journal.
    Back to the passage: It is worth noting that Paul prayed that God would give the recipients of the letter ever greater wisdom and knowledge, so that they might get to know God better. Do we strive to have our hearts and minds flooded by God’s light so that we can obtain ever greater understanding of the hope He gives us through His power? Let us seek to have ever greater confidence in the overwhelming power which God will work through us to accomplish His purposes on this earth. It is that power which has made everything, in all ways, subservient to Christ, whose body we are.

    “Shout,” the prophet tells us. Do not be quiet. Do not be afraid. Shout and then shout louder. God is coming. The Sovereign Lord is coming in power. Let us not be afraid of offending people by telling them that He is coming. God cannot be compared to anything made by man. People create things which they worship, whether from metal, or wood, or paper. They set things up which they think will stand the test of time. Yet these things are merely part of Creation. God stands above and outside of Creation. The whole of this earth and the sum of its peoples are less than a grain of sand before Him. How can we compare anything we can imagine, much less bring into being, to God, the Creator of all that is?
    Professional athletes in the prime of their careers, soldiers who have conditioned themselves relentless will become tired. They will reach a state of exhaustion where they can do no more. The task is greater than they have the endurance to complete. However, those who trust in the Lord will find their strength refreshed. If you are facing troubles which are wearing you out, wait for the Lord in prayer and He will renew your strength. If you are seeking to do God’s will and find your strength waning, wait for the Lord in prayer and He will give you fresh strength. If you wait for Him, you will run the race He has set for you without growing weary, you will walk the path He has shown you without growing faint.
    Shout it out. Cry out at the top of your lungs. Challenge the people of this world to see what our God has done. Do not be afraid. Trust in God, wait for Him to act, do the things He instructs you to do, and you will never grow too weary to do the next thing He asks.