For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I want to wish everyone reading this today a Happy Thanksgiving.

Proverbs 28:17-18

    Some of those who have committed murder will seek to escape their conscience in death. Those who attempt to convince them that their guilt is not great enough to deserve death are doing neither them or society any favors.
    Those who lead a blameless life will find that others will seek to protect them from harm. On the other hand, people will be hesitant to warn the wicked about a coming trap. The former is because people do not want to see such a person come to harm. The latter is because people are afraid to come to the attention of those who are wicked.

Psalm 119:97-112

    Studying God’s word and following His instructions will make one knowledgeable and wise. Thinking about how we can please God and then following through by doing so will make us wiser than any of our enemies. The reason for this is that if we have enemies, either they or we (or both) are not being faithful to God. If we meditate on God’s word we will not live our life as if we are walking in darkness. Each step of our life will be clearly marked out for us.
    I would like to add here that this year I believe I have found the theme which runs through this psalm. I would like to add that my failure to identify this theme is due to my own obtuseness (and failure to have read through this psalm with any frequency before starting this blog). The theme is the benefits, wonders, and joys of studying and following God’s instructions.

2 Peter 1:1-21

    Peter begins his second letter by telling us that God has given us everything we need to live a godly life. This does not mean that it is easy to do so. And since God has given this to us, He will give it to others. Furthermore since our ability to live a godly life is a gift from God, our doing so does not indicate that we are better than others.
    Peter does more than tell us that God has given us what we need to live a godly life. He tells us the template we need to follow in order to do so. The very first step is faith. We must then add moral excellence, or goodness, to our faith. Once we have started practicing goodness, we need to seek knowledge. As we gain knowledge we must exert self-control. Once we start to have some self-control, we must learn to patiently endure, to persevere. As we learn to persevere we must become godly, because otherwise we will become bitter. As we persevere with godliness we must learn to have mutual affection for our fellow believers. Finally, as our mutual affection for other believers matures, we are to exhibit love for everyone.
    As we develop in this way we will become ever more productive in our service to God. If we fail to develop in this manner, we are shortsighted, or perhaps even blind. There are no shortcuts to being faithful. We can not skip over goodness and knowledge to love of everyone. If we attempt to do so, we will fail to act in ways that are loving because we do not have the knowledge to do otherwise. For that matter, we cannot truly exhibit love for everyone until we have learned self-control. Yet what good is self-control if we do not know in what ways we should control ourselves? For that matter, what good does it do us to know what is right, if we do not actually act in that manner? Applying just a little bit of logic shows us that we must follow the path Peter laid out here.

Daniel 4:1-37

    Nebuchadnezzar experienced something that happens to every person who becomes powerful and believes that their power and wealth are purely a result of their own skills and effort. When someone is filled with such hubris and pride that they fail to recognize the role which God played in their rise (even if they attribute it to chance), they will experience a great fall. If they are lucky, God will give them a second chance to honour Him for their success. However, if they fail even then to acknowledge God they will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

Daniel 4:1-37

     Today’s passage describes Nebuchadnezzar having another dream. The dream foreshadowed Nebuchadnezzar abandoning his throne for a period of time (seven “periods of time”) and then returning to take it up. The account tells us that Nebuchadnezzar became arrogant and took credit for his success. He came to believe that he was a god and could do anything he desired. In response to this, God struck him with some form of madness so that he left human civilization and lived as a wild animal for some period of time. At the end of the time chosen by God, Nebuchadnezzar looked up to the sky and his sanity returned. When his sanity returned he praised God and acknowledged His power.
     This is a lesson for us to remember that everything we have accomplished in this life has happened according to God’s will. When we begin to believe that we are the masters of our own fate and stop humbly honoring God for the gifts He has given us, He will show us the limits to our ability.

2 Peter 1:1-21

     Peter began his second letter by reminding us that God will give us grace and peace in proportion to our knowledge and understanding of God and Jesus Christ. He then wrote about the structure of our lives in Christ. There is an order to how we should build our relationship with God. It starts with faith in Christ and a recognition that without Him we can be nothing but slaves to sin. Once we have come to this faith, the natural reaction is to allow God to replace our sinful desires with the desire to do good (and to actually do good). Once we have received the desire and willingness to do good, we next add knowledge of God’s commands and will. It gives us no benefit to know God’s commands if we have not yet received the desire to follow them. As we are given a knowledge and understanding of God’s will for us, we begin to exercise self-control, which leads to embracing patience. As we patiently endure the trials which God sends our way we acquire godliness. Godliness expresses itself as brotherly affection for our fellow believers and as love for all we meet. As we acquire these characteristics in increasing measure we will become more effective at carrying out God’s will in this world.
     If we discover that the ministry we are involved in is unproductive and/or ineffective, we can look at this list and examine whether we are approaching some aspect in our lives in the wrong order. For example, are we seeking more knowledge before we have applied what knowledge we already have in order to do good? Or, are we attempting to express love and brotherly affection before we have learned to exercise self-control? It is never wrong to express love and brotherly affection. However, if we have not yet learned the appropriate self-control for the situation, our attempts to express those may fail and instead of love and brotherly affection we may exhibit selfish control and interference.

Psalm 119:97-112

     The key to wisdom is studying God’s instructions. If you want to be wiser than others, meditate on God’s word. However, it is not enough to just meditate on it, you must also put it into practice. In this passage is a phrase that we must make a touchstone for our lives:

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet
and a light for my path.

As we study God’s word and apply it to our lives we will discover that it provides guidance for our path helping us to see obstacles before we trip over them and stumble. Of course we can still trip and fall if we refuse to adjust our course according to what the light of God’s word reveals to us. O Lord, give me the humility to accept the need to adjust my course according to Your will to avoid the obstacles that are before me.

Proverbs 28:17-18

     The perverse will find themselves falling into traps of their own making.