For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The rich often think that their wealth indicates that they are wiser than others who are poorer. They are mistaken.

    As we do what we understand about God’s directions for us He will reveal more to us, so that we understand His will better with each passing day. On the other hand, when we know what God wants us to do and fail to do it, we will gradually become less able to discern what He desires of us. There are a series of points in this psalm I want to highlight:

• Make more eager to do God’s will than to acquire money
• My sinful ways are shameful, only with God’s help will I be able to abandon them
• It is only by doing as God instructs that we can be free

Oh Lord, guide me in doing Your will and help me to cease each and every one of the sins which plague me.

    Peter reminds us to live obedient to God and avoid slipping into living our lives for our own pleasure. Living for ourselves is an empty life with no meaning or purpose. Peter tells us how to live a life with meaning and purpose. Love each other with deeply and with sincerity. Rather than living our lives for our own pleasure, let us seek to bring joy and peace to those around us. We were cleansed of our sins, so let us put them behind us and embrace the new life into which we have been born.
    God wishes to use us as living stones to build His Temple of this new covenant He has made with mankind. If we are going to be part of this Temple, we need to allow God’s Spirit to chisel off of us all of our evil behavior: deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and unkind speech (all sins involve one or more of these to varying degrees).

    I continue to struggle with the meaning of this section of Ezekiel. However, there is one point which I take out of this. Those in positions of authority who gather funds from those over whom they have authority have an obligation to use those funds to further God’s purposes on this earth.