For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 24:3-4

    It takes wisdom to build a place to call home. It is by carefully following our knowledge of God’s will that we fill it with the things we will treasure long into the future.

Psalm 68:19-35

    Our God is awesome in His power. He will display His power and cause all nations to bring tributes of praise to Him. People and nations may rebel against God, but He will smash His enemies and force them to submit to His will. God will save those people who submit to His will and make them His own. He give them power and strength to carry out His will.

Ephesians 4:1-16

    Paul calls on us to work towards unity in Christ, being bound together in peace. He does make it clear that this will not always be possible. I have noticed that when controversy stirs and divides the Church it is often those who are causing the division who cry the loudest about maintaining unity. What they forget is that there is only one body and one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father over us all. If we fail to be true to the will of that one God, we cannot have unity.
    Paul goes on to tell us that Christ gave the Church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work in order to build up the body of Christ. Those five categories of people are to continue their work (and God will continue to provide us with more of them) until we all come to unity in faith and knowledge of Christ. And here Paul makes the comment that should be devastating for those who cry unity while causing division. We will achieve such unity when we are no longer tossed and blown by every new teaching that comes along. True unity will arrive when the people of the Church are not fooled by lies cleverly crafted to sound like truth. Instead we will speak the truth in love and thus grow to truly become the adult body of Christ. The truth is that while God will forgive our sins and loves us despite our sins, those sins bring harm to us and our fellow man. It is not love to tell people that sin is not sin and that it is OK to continue to practice such behaviors which bring harm to themselves.

Isaiah 45:11-48:11

    Isaiah predicted that people from all over the world would seek to serve and follow God, recognizing that He, and He alone, is God. Those who make idols and those who encourage others to worship them will be disgraced. God’s instructions to us are not hidden, He does not speak in obscurity. We do not need to listen to some Grand Master to whom God has revealed His secrets. God has made spread knowledge of Him far and wide. He is there to be found by those who seek Him. There is no path to salvation but through Him, for there is no other God.
    The day will come when all of humanity will acknowledge that God is sovereign and Lord. We can wait until we have no choice. I will choose to submit to Him now. There is nothing that compares to Him. I look at the wonders He has done in the past and the things He has promised to do in the future and it leaves me in awe of His greatness. God is prepared to set things right, not in the far future, but now. God is offering us salvation, not because we have done something worthy of salvation, far from it. God will rescue us in order to bring glory to His name, not because we deserve it. Will we be grateful for the grace He has shown us by doing His will? Or will we turn from Him once more?

     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 45:11-48:11

     Isaiah prophesied that God would raise up Cyrus to serve His purposes. He would guide his actions. This is how God works in all of history. He raises up people to serve His purposes and guides their actions, whether they will it or not. The prophet goes on to tell us that God created this world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos. There is no one else like God. He does not whisper secrets to be passed on from teacher to student, God has proclaimed His words for all to hear. In due time, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that God is Lord of all.
     The people of Babylon worshiped the gods they made with their own hands and relied on the powers and wisdom of their magicians and astrologers. They had become arrogant and cocky. They were secure in their wickedness, convinced that they were the center of all existence. But now God was proclaiming that time was running out, they could turn to the answers they had always relied upon, but they would no longer save them from the coming destruction. Because we are stubborn, God has revealed some of His future plans so that when they come to pass we will see that it was God who has done these things.

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     This world was made for people to live in it. We are to care for the environment around us, but first we are to care for the people God has put there. An ongoing temptation for humans is the desire to be on the “inside”, to know special secrets that have not been revealed to others. That is not how God works. He does not have secret knowledge that is only revealed to those who have been initiated into the inner circle. The knowledge of God’s will is there for anyone who seeks Him. When Pope Francis speaks of those who do not believe in God only needing to follow their conscience, I hear him saying that if we sincerely follow our consciences it will lead us to God and we will learn to know God. It is only those who refuse to follow their conscience when it takes them to God who will remain outside.

Ephesians 4:1-16

     Paul wrote that we should strive to live a life worthy of the call which we have received. He calls on us to be humble and gentle, making every effort to remain united in the Spirit. If we allow, the Spirit will bind us together in peace. Through Christ and the Holy Spirit, God has given us gifts of grace. These gifts are divided up among us according to the wisdom of God. Some of us are gifted to be apostles, others prophets, evangelists, teachers, and pastors (or shepherds). It is the responsibility of those with those gifts to equip God’s people to do works of service and to build up the Church. As we become more mature in our faith, we will not be tossed about by the wind of new teaching.

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     Paul here emphasizes the importance of being humble and gentle with one another in the Church in order to maintain the unity of the Church. Yet, he also emphasizes the importance of not following every new teaching that comes along. Part of the way that we can resist the lure of clever lies which sound like the truth is by speaking the truth in love. It is not enough to speak the truth, we must do so in love. This is a difficult task to accomplish. Just as difficult is maintaining the focus on unity while staying faithful to God’s truth.

Psalm 68:19-35

     “Our God is a God who saves.” What a powerful truth that is! God’s power is on display for all to see. In the meantime, let us tell everyone about God’s great power. The time will come when God will crush those who fight against Him by oppressing the people of this earth.

Proverbs 24:3-4

     A united group requires wisdom to come into being. Such a group becomes strong when those who lead it exhibit good sense. Knowledge of human behavior make the group rich in those things that are truly valuable.