For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The righteous will pick themselves up from set back after set back, but when the wicked fall they will fail to rise again.

    When it seems like God no longer performs miraculous signs nor speaks through prophets, remember what He has done in times past. He will perform such wonders once more when the time is right. Fools will dishonour God’s name because they think He will not intervene in history. However, He will defend His honour and those fools who insult Him will learn their error.

    This is another passage which I had committed to memory that perhaps I should re-memorize. Paul tells us that if anyone could have confidence in their own effort to be righteous it would be himself. He had everything going for him, born in a good family of great pedigree, taught from an earliest age to follow the rules, zealous in obeying the law. He had once valued all of these things, but no longer. All of those things, and anything else that could be considered to his credit, he considered a loss because they distracted from becoming one with Christ. No matter who we are or what we have done, none of it has any value compared with knowing Christ. Anything that makes us think we have righteousness in our own right is a flaw that distracts us from focusing on the righteousness which comes from Christ. If we think that in some way, in some part of our life, we have value independent of our faith in Christ it will prevent us from accepting what the Spirit wants to do in that part of our life.
    Rather than seeking some righteousness we can call our own, we should strive to know Christ in all aspects of our lives and experience the power of God that raised Him from the dead. Let us covet sharing the type of suffering which Christ suffered (I cannot begin to tell you how much just writing that frightens me) so that we might share in His death, which is the only way to experience His resurrection.
    As long as we are on this earth, let us not think that we have accomplished the goal and reached perfection. However, let us forget our past mistakes and look toward what we can do in the future in order to serve God. We cannot change our past, so let us focus on what the Spirit can do to transform us in the future. Let us seek out examples like Paul to model ourselves after. Look around for those who are striving to serve God the way in which Paul did. Then, let us follow their example so that we can become ever more like Christ.

    We have a choice to make, will we be humble and contrite before God? Or will we seek our own way to righteousness? Those who strive to be righteous on their own may as well be mass murderers for all the good their righteousness will do them. Those who seek to consecrate and purify themselves are doing so before an idol while feasting on disgusting things. It is only when God consecrates us and purifies us that we become purified and consecrated.

     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.

     Heaven is God’s throne, where He sits in comfort, and the earth is His footstool, where he rests His feet. Compared to that, what is anything we can build as a place for Him to live. For that matter, do we really think God needs our material possessions to accomplish His will? We cannot buy God off. Our only hope is to listen to Him and answer His call. God knows those people who ‘consecrate’ and ‘purify’ themselves to a path of self-indulgence. God knows the hearts of those who proclaim that evil is good. He will bring judgment down upon them.
     While many who think that they are God’s special evil conspire to do evil in His name, He will send out those who are truly faithful to carry His message to the entire earth. Those who truly serve the Lord will declare His glory in all of the earth. People from every nation will see God’s glory and come to serve Him. Oh Lord, make me your messenger, send me where You will, put Your words in my mouth.

     Whatever claims we might have to being good people, it is not enough. In some ways, those things are a hindrance to truly following Christ. Nothing we have or do has any ability to make us righteous. The only thing which can truly bring us righteousness is faith in Christ. It is only by knowing Christ, and being known by Him, that we can be made right with God. Do I truly have the same desire Paul had to know Christ–to know the power of His resurrection by sharing in His suffering?
     When I read this passage it often makes me feel inadequate because I am not sure that I can embrace sharing in Christ’s suffering as enthusiastically as Paul did. Then I come to the part where Paul admits that he is not really there either. He has not achieved the relationship with Christ that he feels he should have. Nevertheless, he presses on. He is striving to grasp Christ with the same energy and enthusiasm with which Christ has grasped him. He forgets his past failures, only looking toward the goal, striving every day to more enthusiastically, and faithfully, serve Christ. I will follow Paul’s example and let go of my past failures. I will focus on how I can serve Christ more faithfully each day.

     The psalmist wrote that they were not seeing any miraculous signs from God and there were no prophets to tell them God’s word. Nevertheless, he counted God as his king and was confident that God would bring salvation to the earth. He calls for God to act once more and to strike down those who mock Him. Are we echoing the psalmist and crying out to the Lord for Him to come to the aid of the poor and downtrodden? Let us make that the focus of our prayers.

     The proverb writer warns against plotting to steal from the righteous. The righteous may fall, but they will get up again. When the wicked fall, it will be their end.