For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Greed leads one into conflict with others over money, but trusting and obeying the Lord leads to having all that one needs to get by and more.

    Take your troubles to the Lord. When times are hard and troubles are all around, cry out to the Lord and He will answer your prayer. I can sympathize with the psalmist’s complaint about living among those who do not live peaceful and godly lives. His answer is the only one there is, call out to God for rescue. God will answer and give us peace.

    The author tells us that he wrote this letter so that we will not sin. However, if we do sin, he tells us that we have an advocate before God. If we are truly remorseful for our failures and strive to not sin again, Jesus will plead our case before the Father and the Father will have mercy on us.
    If we truly know God we will obey His commands. All of God’s commands are expansions on the command to love one another. If we are living in the light of God’s goodness it is not possible to hate another person. Therefore, if we hate another person we are in darkness. The writer goes beyond that, he tells us that if we are living in the light we will love our fellow believers. It is not enough not to hate anyone. We must also love our fellow believers.
    The writer than seems to change focus by warning us against loving this world and the things of this world. This is not entirely a change of focus because it is love of this world and the things of this world that interferes with our love of one another. If we love this world we will be more concerned with obtaining physical pleasures, material goods, and our own success than in the well-being of the family of God (when we are called to care for the family of God, we are called to care for the individual members of the family of God).

    Many people believe that the vision in today’s passage could only have been written by someone who actually lived in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes because it does such a good job of describing his rise to power. For me this is the least convincing of the arguments for the book of Daniel being written relatively late. I am unconvinced by such arguments because I believe that the Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of giving someone a vision of what the future holds. There are other arguments for the book of Daniel being composed in 164 B.C. which carry more weight for me. The fact that the book is composed of portions written in Aramaic and portions written in Hebrew suggest that it is a compilation of stories which had been passed down for several generations.

     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.

     Today’s passage clearly applies to the rise of Alexander the Great and the division of his empire into four kingdoms. It tells of the rise of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his fall. He gave himself the name Epiphanes, which means “God manifest”. Despite his successes in battle, he died of disease and with his death the Seleucid Empire entered into decline. This passage reminds us that no matter how powerful a human ruler may appear, God is in control of history and has determined the time of their power, from beginning to end.

     John wrote in order that we might not sin, but he told us that if we do sin, we have one who will intercede on our behalf with God. Those who truly know God will obey His commandments. We can show our love for God by obeying His word and living as Jesus did. The message of Christ is not exactly a new one, yet it is new. We cannot live in the light (see yesterday’s blog for the importance of living in the light) if we hate any of our fellow believers. If we are truly living in the light we will love all of our fellow believers and not do anything that will cause them to stumble.
     Just as important as loving our fellow believers is having God’s love within us. We cannot love this world and have God’s love within us. This world offers only physical pleasure and pride in our accomplishments. The things of this world will fade away and are fading away. Instead of loving this world let us love God and do what is pleasing to Him.

     I will take my troubles to the Lord. He alone will answer my prayers. I will not rely on liars and deceitful people in order to find peace. I know that only God can be trusted, only those who rely fully on God truly desire peace. I will spend my time with those who love God because that is the path to knowing and following His will for me.

     Ultimately the cause of all fighting is greed (James made the same point in his letter as well). The only path to true prosperity (which may have nothing to do with material wealth) is trusting in God. If we trust God and follow His will we will have riches beyond measure (most of which money cannot buy). It is foolish to trust solely our own understanding of a situation. If we wish to find the wise path, we will seek counsel from others.