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. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
     

     Today’s passage tells us that Noah and his family were in the ark for a little over a year (along with the animals). Once the flood waters had receded and the land dried sufficiently, Noah left the ark and released the animals. He kept a selection of animals that were appropriate for sacrifice and offered them to God as a burnt offering. Upon receiving this offering God vowed to Himself that as long as the earth endures He would never again destroy every living thing on the face of the earth as He had just done. God then blessed Noah and his sons, telling them that everything that lives and breathes is there for them to eat. However, they were not to eat meat that still had its blood in it. I believe that this passage is where the Jerusalem Council in Acts 16 based their instruction to the Gentile believers that they should not consume blood or animals that were strangled (I had always wondered where that dietary prohibition came from).
     Further God tells them that He will require an accounting of any person and any creature for the taking of lifeblood. God decreed that anyone who takes a human life should be killed. Noah and his sons are instructed to be fruitful and multiply. They are to fill the earth with mankind. God made a covenant with Noah and his descendants (which includes us) that He would never again destroy all life on the face of the earth with a flood. God pointed to rainbows as a sign of His covenant that never again would flood waters destroy all living creatures.

     After the forty days in the wilderness fasting, Jesus remained in Judea until He heard that John the Baptist had been arrested. We do not know why He stayed, or what He did during this time. However, when He left Judea He returned to Galilee. Once there, He went down by the Sea of Galilee and saw Andrew and Peter fishing from their boat. Jesus called out to them for them to follow Him. They immediately left their nets and did so. A little further on He saw James and John repairing their nets with their father. Jesus called out to them as well. They, also, immediately left their boat and their father and followed Him. This was an amazing act of faith. They just up and left their families and their livelihood to follow Jesus. Now we know from the Gospel of John that Andrew and Peter had previously encountered Jesus when He was in Judea while John the Baptist was preaching and it is likely that He met James and John around the same time (some readings of the Gospel of John understand John to have met Jesus at the same time as Andrew). Even with that previous exposure, they had returned to their lives and were settling back in when Jesus called them. They did this before He started teaching and healing people. Do we have the faith to step out when God calls, even before anybody else sees where it is leading?
     As Jesus began His ministry word spread. People began bringing the sick and injured to Him for healing. Not just those with physical sicknesses, but also those with other afflictions and Jesus healed them all. They brought those who were demon possessed, had epilepsy, were paralyzed. It did not matter, Jesus healed them all. Why does the Church today fail to offer such healing? I believe that those we call mentally ill are the same as those the Scripture calls demon-possessed. I am not saying that the mentally ill are demon-possessed (although some may well be), but they often behave in a way that certainly looks from the outside like something has taken control of them. In Jesus’ day, contemporary society could offer little hope for the demon-possessed. In the modern age, our society offers little more hope for the mentally ill. Jesus offered healing to all. He still does. We as the Church need to be offering Jesus’ healing to those suffering around us. We need to believe. I need to believe. When Jesus calls to me today, am I willing to leave my “nets” and my life to follow Him?

     The psalmist calls on us to not let anger lead us to sin. Do not act in anger, but take time to think about what has angered you and only act after you have had time to meditate on what is right. Trust the Lord and make sure that your actions will bring glory to His name before you act. Everyone is looking for who will bring them benefit, but let I will look to God and take joy in doing what He says is right. I can sleep peacefully because I can know that He will keep me safe. I pray that God will help me follow the first part of this when something angers me because that is something that I struggle with. I pray that He help me to bring glory to His name with all of my actions.

     Today’s proverb tells us that wisdom is calling to us. Wisdom is available to anyone who seeks it. No one needs to remain a simpleton and a fool. If you desire wisdom, seek it. People lack wisdom because they choose to continue in their foolishness. We remain fools only so long as we insist on doing so. We have no excuse for being foolish, wisdom is there for the taking for anyone who is willing to leave foolishness behind.