For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I am out of town on business for a few days. I expect to be able to get these completed each day, but may be a little later than usual in getting them published.

    No matter how positive what you have to say, if you say it loudly and forcefully early in the morning to someone who has not had enough sleep.

    I have spent the last several days studying how the writer of Hebrews sees this psalm as applying to Jesus. As a result I find it hard to see it any other way. As I read this, I realized that the world is divided into two camps; those who serve the Lord willingly and those who oppose Him. Christ will be victorious and those who serve Him willingly will join Him in glory. Those who oppose Him will be struck down and destroyed.

    Here the writer makes a stab at defining faith, and does a pretty good job of it. Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Faith is the confidence and assurance that not everything can be explained by what we can experience with our five physical senses, that science does not answer all of the questions about the universe.

    It was because of their faith that the great figures of the Bible were commended. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah were all commended because of their faith. It was because of their faith that they did the things which lead us to hold them up as examples. It is impossible to please God without faith because in order to please God we must seek Him. But we will not seek Him if we do not believe that He exists. These forerunners in faith considered themselves foreigners upon the earth, waiting for their heavenly homeland. We, too, are foreigners in the land in which we live, citizens of God’s kingdom. Let us always remember that this is not our home.

    God sends troubles and trials to us and to our society to cleanse us from our sins, from our impurity. If we refuse to allow these things to cleanse us, God will have no choice but to throw us on to the fire for complete destruction. As a society, and as individuals, our impurity is lewdness and idolatry. Will we allow God to cleanse us of these impurities? Will we allow Him to remove the lewdness and idolatry from our lives?