Tag Archives: Psalm 68

Daily Bible Study

September 25, 2015 Bible Study — Seek Unity In Truth

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

DSCN9478

Proverbs 24:3-4

    When the proverb writer refers to “house” here, I do not believe he is referring to a building. Rather he is referring to a group of people who work together for the common good. In a way he is referring to a family business, except unlike what we normally think of, decisions are not made which are the “best for the business”, rather decisions are made about what is best for the “house” (that is, the people who make up the group). Such a group only comes into existence when wisdom is applied to its formation. It requires understanding and common sense for it to become established, and knowledge is necessary for it to thrive.

DSCN9479

Psalm 68:19-35

    Let us praise God. His enemies may seem powerful, but He will bring them down. The rulers and nations of this earth may have declared war against God, but they will be bringing gifts and tribute to Him before the war is done. Let us praise God for His power. He will not win His victory with a mighty army. No, He will win with a crucified Son.

DSCN9485

Ephesians 4:1-16

    We have been called to humbly work together to be unified by the Spirit into the Body of Christ. As I wrote that I realized that it seems to say more than it does. Paul instructs us to be humble and gentle, to be patient with our fellow believers, making allowance for their flaws as we work together in love. I think the first place to start in understanding what Paul is telling us is with the word “love”. If we love someone we want what is best for them and act to bring the results which lead to their greatest happiness into being. Of course, this is where being humble and gentle come into play. We need to recognize that we may be mistaken about what is best for those we love.
    In order to bring about the unity which Paul tells us we should strive for God has given the Church many gifts. In particular, He has given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Actually, it is interesting that Paul divides these five into two groups. He puts apostles, prophets, and evangelists in one group and he puts pastors and teachers in another. From various things I have read, the first group represents those whose primary mission is to reach out to unbelievers, the second group has the primary mission of ministering to those who are already believers. This only represents their primary mission, not their entire purpose. All of us are called to one degree, or another, to minister both to believers and unbelievers.
    Regardless of their primary mission, all of those with these gifts have the responsibility to equip God’s people to do God’s work and to build up the Church, the Body of Christ (and when Paul says this he is not referring to the organization, he is referring to the people who make up the Body of Christ). How do we know that they have been successful? When the Church, and its members, are not blown about by every new teaching which comes down the road. Paul warns us against lies which are so cleverly told that they sound like the truth. When confronted by such teachings let us speak truth in love. Again remembering to humbly acknowledge that we may not fully comprehend the truth. It is important to remember that while I may not be correct in my understanding about what is true, those who claim that there is, therefore, no truth are certainly incorrect. Let us remember that there is such a thing as absolute truth while humbly seeking to learn what that truth is. We will never fully comprehend God’s truth while we are in this world, but if we continue to seek God and allow Him to correct our mistakes, He will gradually reveal ever more of that truth to us.

DSCN9486

Isaiah 45:11-48

    I was struck by this statement which God declared through Isaiah: “I am the Lord, and there is NO other.” There is someone I speak with from time to time who was raised a Christian, and who still considers themselves a Christian. However, they worship as part of an inter-faith congregation (not an inter-denominational congregation, but an inter-faith one). They worship together with Wiccans, Buddhists, Hindus, and others who consider themselves Christians. Wiccans and Hindus worship beings other than God (whether the beings they worship are real or imaginary is a discussion for another place). Those who worship with them are not Christians. Those who believe that Paul’s call for unity means that we should be unified with those who worship gods other than God have misread Paul.
    There is a couple of other statements made by God in this passage which I think we need to remember. “I publicly proclaim bold promises. I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner.” God does not make quiet little claims that can be easily overlooked and He does not call us to do so either. Let us publicly, boldly proclaim God’s promises, not whisper them obscurely in some dark corner. There may be those who will belittle us for doing so, but better that than for them to cry, “Why didn’t you tell me?” when God’s judgment is made. This passage also tells us that God would not have told people to seek Him if He could not be found. Let us seek the Lord and encourage others to do so as well. Those who genuinely seek God WILL find Him.

Daily Bible Study

September 24, 2015 Bible Study — The Mystery of Christ

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

DSCN9569

Proverbs 24:1-2

    The wicked may seem like they have everything they want, but they are constantly stirring up trouble and plotting violence. It is sometimes hard to remember that the “nice” things such people have do not offset the sense of self=loathing we would have if we acted like they do.

DSCN9570

Psalm 68:1-18

    The wicked fear God and His presence drives them away, but the godly rejoice in His presence. God is father to the fatherless and a defender to widows. The powerless turn to Him for justice, and He grants it to them. God will turn aside a mighty army with a horde of those with no military skills. They will flee leaving behind their wealth for those they thought to oppress. Let us praise God for His mighty acts.

DSCN9574

Ephesians 3

    We, as people, constantly want to separate ourselves into groups. Those who are “inside”, or us, separated from those who are on the “outside”, or them. Paul points out the great mystery of the Gospel. God has declared that these two designation no longer have any meaning. He sent Christ for the purpose of uniting all people into one body (and by body Paul does not mean group, he genuinely means a body composed of many people, just as our bodies are composed of many cells). God intends for the Church, the Assembly of believers, to demonstrate this new way of being. God has called us to demonstrate that the Gospel message is for all people, not matter what their heritage. In God’s plan as revealed through Christ, there are no Jews and Gentiles, there are no Brahmans and Untouchables, there are no Blacks, Whites, Asians. In God’s plan there are only people, who need to accept God’s love and grace.

DSCN9497

Isaiah 43:14-45:10

    Here Isaiah prophesied what Paul said in the Ephesians passage. God declared through Isaiah that He was going to do a new thing. God has chosen a people for Himself, that people is composed of those who proudly declare that they are His and follow His commands. God will pour out His Spirit on those people who will proudly proclaim themselves as belonging to Him, those who take the name of Israel as their own.
    I was going to stop there, but I really have to comment on the end of this passage. What a sad day we have come to when people believe that they have the understanding to tell their Creator, “Stop, you are doing it wrong!” We live in a society where children have sued their parents for giving them birth…and there are those who think they are right to have done so. God is our Creator and He has made us the way we are for a purpose. Let us recognize that our physical flaws are not a mistake, they are there to serve God’s purpose.

Daily Bible Study

March 26, 2015 Bible Study — Should We Be Looking For Someone Else?

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

DSCN7746

Proverbs 11:29-31

    The middle proverb is the one which speaks to me today. I especially like the translators notes that come with the New Living Translation. There they tell us that an alternate translation for the phrase, ” a wise person wins friends” is “those who win souls are wise.” When I put that together with the first phrase of the verse, “The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life,” it really says a lot about how God wishes us to live. One could read this as “The seeds of good deeds bring life to those who practice them.” That would not be wrong. But in the context I think the seeds become a tree of life which wins souls. It is nice for my good deeds to become a tree of life for me, but God is calling us to use our good deeds to plant a tree of life for others, and thereby to win souls for Him.

DSCN7747

Psalm 68:19-35

    I am not quite sure what to say about this psalm. Certainly I will praise God as it instructs and tell everyone about His power. Those who choose to be God’s enemies will face destruction. Those who serve Him and praise Him will rejoice.

DSCN7749

Luke 7:11-35

    When John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, or if they should be looking for someone else, Jesus told them to tell John what they had seen and heard. And what did they see? The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. This is the model of what the Church should look like. If we are not seeing the same things in the Church today, we need to ask God why. Perhaps the reason we do not see these things is because we are looking for someone else. Perhaps we are not truly worshiping the Jesus described in the Gospels.
    The example of Jesus and John show us that there is not one right way to serve God. John was an ascetic, Jesus was most definitely not (as a matter of fact, here He tells us that He was accused of being a hedonist). While this was not the point Jesus was making here, it shows that God calls different people to different lifestyles (although not in the way in which this world uses that term to describe sexual behavior).

DSCN7750

Deuteronomy 5-6:25

    One of the things I have heard taught many different times about making sermons, speeches, and writing is that you should have three points. As a result, I am bothered by the fact that so often when I am working on these Bible studies that I find myself wanting to make two points. Nevertheless, there were two points which struck me about this passage.
    In this passage Moses said that God did not make a covenant with their ancestors, rather He made it with those who were alive and listening to him. That is how the covenant which God sealed by Jesus’ death on the cross is. It is not a covenant made with our ancestors. It is a covenant which God has made with each and every one of us. God will speak with each and every one of us face to face. The key here is that God has made a personal commitment to each and every one of us. This is not a covenant made with a “people”. It is a covenant made with individuals, a covenant which turns those individuals into a people.
    The second point is that it is not enough to obey God’s commands grudgingly…it is not even worthwhile to obey His commands if we do so grudgingly. No we are called to obey His commands with enthusiasm. We are called to commit ourselves with all of our being to obeying and worshiping God. I will love God with all of my heart, all of my soul, and all of my strength. Anything less is a waste of time.

Daily Bible Study

March 25, 2015 Bible Study — The Worst Sins Are the Ones I Commit

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

DSCN7754

Proverbs 11:28

    Those who trust their wealth to get them through all of their troubles will fall like leaves from a tree in autumn. The righteous, on the other hand will thrive like new growth in spring time.

DSCN7755

Psalm 68:1-18

    Earlier psalms told us that everyone will stand before God, sooner or later. This psalm tells us that there are two things we may experience when we come into God’s presence. Those who are God’s enemies will melt like wax. They will be blown away like smoke. But the godly will rejoice when they come into God’s presence. They will sing songs of praise to His name. I know which I would choose to be.

DSCN7756

Luke 6:39-7:10

    A few verse earlier Jesus said, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you.” In today’s passage He gives a more detailed take on what He means. When Jesus told us not to judge others, He was not telling us that we cannot tell right behavior from wrong. He was telling us that our job was to identify the wrong behavior in our own life…and change it.
    When Jesus tells me “Do not judge others,” He is not telling me that I should their behaviors are right. He is telling me that I should worry more about the sins I commit than the sins someone else commits. As we read on in this passage Jesus tells us how to judge our behavior. We are to judge our behavior by the results, not by our intentions (or more likely, what we tell ourselves our intentions are). The thing to remember is that when Jesus addressed the woman caught in adultery, He did not say, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and do as you like.” He said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
    We are not called to confront others about their sin. We are called to bring God’s healing to sinners, starting with ourselves. An important part of bringing that healing to others is acknowledging that we need it just as much as they do.

DSCN7758

Deuteronomy 4:1-49

    As Moses gets to the end of his summary of the Israelites travel through the wilderness, he tells them to obey the laws and commands which God is giving them. The command was not, “Make sure the other guy obeys these commands.” The command was “You obey these commands.”

Daily Bible Study

September 25, 2014 Bible Study — The Lord Is God, There Is No Other

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

DSCN6455

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.

DSCN6456

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.

DSCN6457

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.

DSCN6458

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?

Daily Bible Study

September 24, 2014 Bible Study — To Him Who Is Able To Do Immeasurably More Than All We Ask Or Imagine

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

DSCN6452

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.

DSCN6453

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.

DSCN6454

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.

DSCN6553

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.

Daily Bible Study

March 26, 2014 Bible Study — Do Good And Proclaim the Gospel

    I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I write this daily blog because it helps me pay closer attention to the Scripture as I read it. Before I started writing this blog I had trouble disciplining myself to read the Bible regularly, let alone every day. I hope that by posting my thoughts I can encourage others to regularly read the Bible (and perhaps my thoughts will give someone encouragement in their walk with Christ). In order to make it possible for others to use my blog as part of their daily Bible Study (the hubris of that idea never ceases to amaze me), 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.

DSCN5335

Proverbs 11:29-31

    Righteous behavior provides life enhancing benefits, not just to those who perform it but also to those around them. If those who do good receive what is due them for what they have done, how much more will those who do wicked and evil things?

DSCN5339

Psalm 68:19-35

    I love reading from the psalms each day. The first two verses today (verse 19 and 20) are a wonderful reminder of how God cares for us:

Praise the Lord; praise God our savior!
For each day he carries us in his arms.
Our God is a God who saves!
The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death.


But He will destroy those who choose to be His enemies. I will tell everyone about God’s power before it comes to overwhelm them. All the earth will bow in submission to God. I choose to do so, those who refuse will find themselves crushed by their rebellion until they have no longer have a choice.

DSCN5341

Luke 7:11-35

    Luke tells us here about Jesus raising the widow’s son. This story is different from most of the miracles which the Gospels give us about Jesus’ miracles. No one approached Jesus and asked Him to help the woman or her son. Rather Jesus saw the funeral procession and felt compassion for the woman. We are called to the same sort of action. When we see those in need and we have the ability to help, let us have compassion on them and offer them what help we can.
    Shortly after this, John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah. Rather than answering their question directly, Jesus tells them to report to John what they had seen of Jesus’ ministry and let John judge for himself. We should judge the ministries we see by the same standard which Jesus used. First He told them, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life. So, the first thing we should expect to see in a ministry which is serving God, which is a Christian ministry, is that people’s needs are being met, especially those needs which seem the most insurmountable. Are miracles happening around us? If not, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to move in us (I do not necessarily mean things which unbelievers would view as supernatural, although we should be open to that as well). However, helping others is not enough, Jesus finished His list of things for John’s disciples to report with one more thing. He finished up the list to be reported to John with this, the most telling, “…and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” It is not enough to do good things for those who are suffering, we need to proclaim the Good News of God’s Kingdom as well. We need to meet people’s needs AND we need to proclaim the Gospel. It is not enough to just meet people’s needs. It is not enough to proclaim the Gospel. We are called to do both.

DSCN5292

Deuteronomy 5-6:25

    This passage contains the Ten Commandments, which represent the core of Jewish and Christian understanding of our responsibility to God. Moses emphasized the importance of committing ourselves to God and doing His will. There is a great summary of what we are called to in verses 4-6 of chapter 6. I strive daily to fulfill this command, to love God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all of my strength. When I succeed in doing this everything else in this life comes easily. It is so easy to be distracted by the potential pleasures and joys of this life that I forget to concentrate on God and His will for me.

Daily Bible Study

March 25, 2014 Bible Study — A Tree Is Identified By Its Fruit

    I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I write this daily blog because it helps me pay closer attention to the Scripture as I read it. Before I started writing this blog I had trouble disciplining myself to read the Bible regularly, let alone every day. I hope that by posting my thoughts I can encourage others to regularly read the Bible (and perhaps my thoughts will give someone encouragement in their walk with Christ). In order to make it possible for others to use my blog as part of their daily Bible Study (the hubris of that idea never ceases to amaze me), 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.

DSCN5281

Proverbs 11:28

    If we trust in our wealth and material possessions we will fall. Wealth is only of use as long as others value it. Those who are righteous will always thrive because its value does not depend on others.

DSCN5286

Psalm 68:1-18

    The day is coming when God will rise up and scatter His enemies. In that day the godly will rejoice. God’s presence will make them glad and fill them with joy. God is father to the fatherless and the defender of widows. He gives the lonely families who will love and care for them. When God gives the word against His enemies He does not need to send an army to retrieve the plunder. Kings and armies will flee God’s wrath and noncombatants will gather the plunder.

DSCN5321

Luke 6:39-7:10

    Luke continues on the theme about judging others. Rather than focus on what others are doing wrong, we should look to correct our own failings. If we want to think of ourselves as good people, we need to say and do good things. If we are prickly and people who get close to us tend to get hurt by what we do and/or say, then we are thorn-bushes or brambles, not fig trees or grape vines. We should judge ourselves by the fruit we produce. Elsewhere this passage is presented in a way that I heard summarized as telling us that we are not to judge others, but we are supposed to be fruit inspectors. I think that such is an accurate way to summarize the similar passage in Matthew. However, Luke is telling us that we should be concerned with the results of our own actions, not those of others.

DSCN5356

Deuteronomy 4:1-49

    Moses continued his recap of the Israelites travel through the wilderness. He reminded them several times not to forget what they have seen God do. That reminder stands for us as well. Let us not forget to tell the generations which come after us the things which we have seen God do. As I read this passage today, I am reminded of a book that my parents encouraged me to read when I was young. The book was called the “Martyrs Mirror”. This is a book is an account of the stories and testimonies of many who died as martyrs in service of God. There was a time when almost all Mennonite homes had a copy of this book. The importance of the Martyrs Mirror is that it is a reminder of what God has done down through the ages. We need to recount to the next generation the stories of what we have seen God do, and the stories which those who went before us told us.

Daily Bible Study

September 25, 2013 Bible Study — Speak the Truth In Love

     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.

DSCN3948

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.

***

     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.

DSCN3928

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.

***

     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.

DSCN3945

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.

DSCN3951

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.

Daily Bible Study

September 24, 2013 Bible Study — He Is Able To Do More Than We Can Ask Or Imagine

     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.

DSCN3936

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.

***

     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.

DSCN3950

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.

DSCN3953

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.

DSCN3957

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.