For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    I don’t think there is any way to say it any clearer than the proverb writer. Righteous living is rewarded with life. Wicked actions are rewarded with more sin and ultimately with death.

    Those who are kind to the poor will be rewarded. God will rescue them when they are in trouble. If we use what God has blessed us with to aid those who are struggling in life we will live safe and secure. Let us turn to God and confess our sins when troubles strike. Even if everyone else betrays our trust, God will judge us fairly.

    Once more Jesus asked His disciples to feed a large crowd and once more they asked how they can feed this many people. It had not been that long since they witnessed Jesus feed the five thousand. In the meantime they had witnessed Jesus perform many other miracles. If the disciples, who were with Jesus every day, struggled to understand the power He commanded (and which He had delegated to them), is it any wonder that we have trouble believing that He can work such miracles through us?
    On the other hand, we do have the writings telling us of these things. There is something to be said for being able to read about what Jesus did. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to do any better. We can read about all of the miraculous things which Jesus did, and we can read about how He promised that His followers would be able to do even more. Yet we still find it difficult to believe that God will perform such miracles through us.

    The beginning of this passage says that “On the tenth day of the appointed month in early autumn, you must deny yourselves.” The translation notes say that could be translated as “you must fast.” This is a reminder to me that I do not fast enough, nor do I deny myself in other ways enough. There is spiritual and physical benefits from fasting and other forms of self-denial. From time to time I have attempted to learn the spiritual discipline of fasting. It is one of two ways in which I am still struggling with my spiritual life. I do not pray as much as I should, and I do not fast (occasionally I will fast for half a day, but that is not really fasting). I will continue to strive to learn to do this, but I have never been very good at self-denial of any sort.

     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, or more. in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     This passage is a reminder that while acquiring wealth offers a bulwark against life’s storms, living a righteous life is more important than any amount of money.

     This psalm follows on the proverbs passage so well. Its beginning so perfectly captures the message of the proverbs I just read. While wealth provides a bulwark against life’s storms, the key to making the most of it is to use that wealth to help the poor face those same storms. If we serve the Lord by using whatever wealth comes our way to assist those less fortunate than ourselves, God will bless us in ways beyond imagining (those blessings may include wealth, but are not primarily wealth).

     This passage concludes with Jesus feeding another large crowd starting with a small amount of food. Once again when Jesus asks His disciples to feed the crowd, they object that they cannot find enough food in the remote region they are in. And once again, Jesus asks them to share what little food they have. Jesus had the crowd sit on the ground, then He took the loaves of bread they had, blessed them, and gave them to distribute among the people. When He did this someone brought forth a few small fish, which Jesus blessed and gave to the disciples to distribute as well. When all had eaten their fill, they collected more leftovers than the amount of food they had started with.
     The disciples had seen Jesus feed a large crowd with a small amount of food once before and they had seen His many miracles. They had even been empowered by Him to go out and perform similar miracles. Yet, when He asked them to feed the crowd, their initial reaction was, “How can we do that?” How often are we the same way? We have seen how God has provided for our needs and how He has accomplished wonders, yet when He calls on us to serve others, all too often, our response is, “I do not have enough money, enough skill, enough…?” Isn’t it time we learned that when God calls on us to act, not only will He give us enough to do what He asks, but we will usually end up with a surplus?

     This passage contains a prohibition against anyone among the people of Israel offering sacrifices anywhere but at the Tabernacle (whether to God or otherwise). This prohibition served two purposes. First it was to ensure that no one offered sacrifices to other gods while pretending that they were sacrifices to God. The second purpose was to ensure the unity of the people. Overall this part of this passage is a reminder of the importance of worshiping within the larger body of those who serve God. It is important to gather together with our fellow believers on a regular basis to worship God. It is too easy to drift into self-serving understandings of God if we do not test our beliefs with others who are also striving to serve God.
     The passage then tells the people of Israel not to fall into any of the many negative sexual practices of the people of the land of Canaan. It is in this passage which God told the Israelites that homosexual sex was wrong, but homosexual sex was fairly far down the list. In a way if we look at this, we see that by the time we get to God forbidding homosexual behavior we have already broken many of his prohibitions about improper sexual behavior. All too often, we as Christians look the other way at what we consider “lesser” sexual sins, but draw the line at homosexual behavior. If we wish to be a prophetic witness to society about sexual behavior we need to be faithful on all aspects of sexual behavior, not just homosexual acts.