For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 24:1-2

    Do not think that the wicked have things better than you, do not wish that you had their life. Do not seek out their company or attempt to become their companions. The wicked are plotting violence against even their companions and they say things for the purpose of causing trouble.

Psalm 68:1-18

    God is a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows. He places the lonely among those who will be family to them. He sets prisoners free and gives them joy. We read this and think how marvelous the things which God does by His miraculous power, and we are not wrong. God does do these things by miraculous power. However, there is a reason that Christ founded the Church. So that we can do these things. We are called to be a father to the fatherless and to defend widows. It is we who God has called to be family to the lonely and to show the prisoners how to be free. Let us praise God for what He has done and serve Him as He calls us to do.

Ephesians 3:1-21

    As I read this passage I am reminded of something that I, and too many others, forget most of the time. I seek to serve God, but that is not really to my credit. I do not deserve to be allowed to serve God. It is to God’s credit that He is not only willing to have me serve Him, but calls me to do so. If I was in God’s position, I find it hard to imagine that I would allow someone like me to work for me, let alone go out of my way to ask them to do so. Yet, that is what God has done. If I were to exhaust myself every day doing God’s will every waking moment, that in itself is more reward than I deserve. When I think of the tasks which God has asked me to do for Him, I fall to my knees and thank Him.
    As I think of this and read the rest of what Paul wrote here, it just amazes me. God’s power is at work in me, undeserving as I am, to accomplish more than I can ask for (and I can ask for a lot). Not only will God’s power do more through me than I can ask for, it will do more than I can imagine (and I have a very vivid imagination). What a great God we serve, who not only allows us to serve Him, but calls us to do so. And beyond even that, He is able to bring glory to His name through us. That in itself exceeds my ability to imagine. How can my actions, as selfish and flawed as I am, bring glory to God? Yet, He promises that they will.

Isaiah 43:14-45:10

    Isaiah tells us that God has chosen to blot out our sins and hold them against us no longer, not because we have done something to deserve such forgiveness, but solely because He chooses to do so. All we have to do to know that such is the case is review our own lives. How can anything we have done offset the evil we have done? Despite our problems and our weaknesses, He has called us to declare before the world that we are His, and glory to God, some are willing to do so.
    Isaiah goes on to talk about the foolishness of idols. How foolish it is for someone to take a tree, burn part of it for fuel, yet carve part of it into something they worship as a god capable of providing for their needs. I have friends who are professing pagans. They know there is nothing to the gods they worship, yet they choose to worship them anyway. They admit that they do so because they cannot live in a world that is nothing but what can be seen, heard, touched, smelled, and/or tasted. Despite this, they refuse to worship the Creator.
    Finally, Isaiah speaks of why God calls up certain world leaders, leaders who do not acknowledge Him. God called Cyrus and raised him to power, easing his path to world domination for the sake of His people. Time and again through history, God has raised up leaders to accomplish His purposes, to bring relief from suffering to those whom He calls His own. Those leaders have not chosen to serve God, yet God has chosen them to serve Him.

     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.

Isaiah 43:14-45:10

     Through the prophet Isaiah God said that he was going to force the Babylonians to flee in much the same manner which he had brought the Israelites out of Egypt on dry land through the sea. The Babylonian forces would be destroyed just as the Egyptian forces were. However, these acts are as nothing compared to what God was going to do for His people. He prophesied that, despite the fact that they refused to call on Him for help, He would blot out their sins and pour out His Spirit on their descendants.

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     There is no other God like our God. He is the first and He will be the last. There were none before Him and there will be none after Him. There is none other like Him. There are people who think that the works of their own hands are worthy of worship and can be relied on to rescue them when things go bad. They can never admit that they are relying on what they have made to rescue them from problems that they cannot overcome. If you dig down deep enough into the thinking of those who refuse to worship God, you will discover that it is because they are worshiping themselves.

Ephesians 3:1-21

     God has a plan for the salvation of all people, bringing all who are willing into unity as one body. By His power and grace we have been given the privilege of explaining His plan to those who have not yet heard it. We are not worthy of this privilege, yet God has chosen us for this mission. We were chosen in order to display God’s wisdom, love, and power. It is because of Christ that we can enter into God’s presence with freedom and confidence. Let us fall before God in prayer, requesting that He give us inner strength through His Spirit. If we root and establish ourselves in the love of God we will have the power to grasp the extent of Christ’s love and thus be able filled with the fullness of God.
     As we grasp the extent of Christ’s love and are filled with the power of God’s Spirit we will extend that love to those around us, forgiving those who we feel have done us wrong. How could we do otherwise when we grasp what God has done for us? Let us remember that God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, and that power resides within us. That is an amazing thought, God has put the power to do more than we can ask or imagine within us. Every now and again someone will make the comment, “I don’t know about that, I can imagine an awful lot.” But I do know about that, we have within us the power of the God who created the entire universe, and yet just imagining the scale of our solar system is beyond the capability of everyone I have ever met.

Psalm 68:1-18

     God will rise up and scatter His enemies. He is the father to the fatherless and the defender of widows. He gives the lonely a family. He causes armies to flee so that non-combatant may gather the plunder. Even the lowliest and weakest gather wealth beyond measure. Those who have rebelled against Him will be forced to sing His praises.

Proverbs 24:1-2

     There is nothing to be gained by envying those who are evil or desiring to be their companion. They are constantly stirring up trouble, they will even bring trouble and violence on those they call friends.