For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have been convicted to seek to develop a disciplined prayer life. It is still a work in progress. Please pray for me, that the Holy Spirit may show me how to pray in a disciplined manner.

Proverbs 27:11

    If you act with wisdom you will bring joy to your parent’s hearts, and those who criticize them will be in the wrong. The signs that someone was a good parent is that their children act wisely.

Psalm 107:1-43

    This psalm makes a good point; let those whom the Lord has saved tell others their story. Perhaps by telling your story you will give someone the hope to turn to God for redemption. This psalm does a great job of listing the various ways in which people find God’s redemption.
    Some are wanderers, seeking for something, they know not what. They are lost and alone, hungry, thirsty, and homeless. For some this was physical, for others this was spiritual. In either case, if they cry out to God, He will offer them a home, a family, food, and drink. There is nothing like coming home to the family of God.
    Others were imprisoned by misery (or miserable because they were imprisoned). Their imprisonment (whether literal or figurative) was the result of their refusal to listen to God. However, when they were willing to call on Him, He was ready, and able, to free them from their misery. No matter how imprisoned they were, God was able to give them freedom.
    Still others were fools and rebelled against God, reaching the point where nothing brought them satisfaction or pleasure. They were ready to die. Yet when they called out to God, He answered them and redeemed them. He showed them how to find joy once more.
    And still others went about their lives believing that they did not need God. When the troubles of life overwhelmed them, they too cried out to God and He saved them. No matter what our story is, whatever circumstance God saved us out of, let us praise His name. Let us tell our story so that others will see that God can save them from the trouble they face. I will not keep silent about what God has done for me!

Hebrews 9:11-28

    Under the old covenant, sacrifices had to be made again and again for sins. However, Jesus offered Himself up on the cross once and for all. I have often struggled with what this passage means for us. I get the fact that Jesus died for our sins once and that is all that is needed. However, the writer hear spends a lot of time talking about that. So, it seems like there must be more to it than that. And I think that the “more” struck me today.
    I am aware of a lot of people who spend time feeling guilty for what they have done, struggling with seeking forgiveness for their past mistakes. I think the point the writer is making here is that we need to admit our mistakes and move on. When we commit a sin we need to recognize that we have done wrong. Then we need to put it behind us and strive to do what God wishes us to do. When we spend time worrying about, and feeling guilty for, the sins we have committed we do not have time to seek and do what God wants us to do now. Instead of spending time seeking to “make right” and gain forgiveness for the sins we have committed, let us accept the forgiveness God offers us through Christ and move on to the next thing He wants us to do. The only reason we should spend any time thinking about the sins we have committed in the past is to seek to avoid them in the future. Let us ask God’s Spirit to show us the sins we are unaware of which have led us to commit the sins we are aware of.

Ezekiel 20:1-49

    The leaders of the people of Israel came to Ezekiel requesting a message for God. God answered them through Ezekiel, telling them that He would not give them the answer they were looking for. God told them how their ancestors time and again rebelled against Him, choosing to worship idols rather than dedicating themselves to God alone. They wished to be like the people around them so they worshiped idols and sacrificed their children. I was going somewhere else with this, but as I wrote that last sentence I realized that is the message for us today. Do we wish to be like the people around us?
    Well, God has an answer for that. The people of God will never be like the people around them. They may try, they may even go so far as to worship idols like those around them, perhaps they will even offer their children as sacrifices to those idols. However, God will purge His people of those who do such things. He will use His strong arm to cause us to abandon such idolatry. Those who seek to be like the people around us will be purged from God’s people. We are God’s people and He calls us to be different from those around us. Let us live lives so that those who do not follow God will see that we are different. That God has transformed us. If we are not different than the people around us, why should they wish to join with us?

     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.

Ezekiel 20:1-49

     Some of the elders of the people of Israel came to Ezekiel to ask him to inquire of God on their behalf. Ezekiel condemned them for following in the sinful footsteps of their ancestors. He gave a list of the sins of their ancestors and suggested that the people of the current generation intended to practice those same sins. Then he tells them the root of all of their sins, they want to be like the peoples around them, the peoples of the world. All too often that is the sin that we fall into. We do not want to be different. We want to be just like everybody else. So, instead of doing the things which God tells us to do, we commit the same sins that those around us commit.

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     I will strive to live my life by the philosophy that if following God’s will makes me stand out from the crowd, so be it. The only way to be a Christian and not stand out from the crowd is to convince others to follow God’s will too.

Hebrews 9:11-28

     The law of the first covenant required that nearly all of the parts of the Tabernacle be cleansed with the blood of animals. However, the Tabernacle and everything in it were mere copies of things in heaven. Christ did not enter a holy place made with human hands that was a copy of the one in heaven, rather He entered into heaven itself. As a result He needed a sacrifice that was better than the blood of animals and thus offered up His own blood in sacrifice. He did not need to do this time and again as the high priests of the first covenant did. Instead He offered Himself up once and for all to take away our sins. This happened but once so that when He returns it will not be to offer Himself up again, but will be to welcome into heaven itself those who have accepted His cleansing.

Psalm 107:1-43

     The psalmist challenges us to tell others of how the Lord has redeemed us. We all have different stories to tell. Some of us were lost and homeless, some were near onto death. Some of us were in darkness and gloom, some were imprisoned in misery. Some of us were fools and rebelled against God and suffered for our rebellion. Some faced dangers in far away lands. Some were like this young man, at their wits end. But just like this man, when we cried out to God, He heard our cries and He answered us.

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     I hope you followed that link and watched the video (if you have not already seen it). I was going to summarize the story, but it is better if you watch the video for yourself. However, I will say this, the young man cried out to God for help, not truly believing there was a God, and God answered him in a way that makes it impossible for him to ever doubt that God is real.

Proverbs 27:11

     If you want to make your parents happy, and leave their critics with egg on their faces, exercise wisdom in all that you do.

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