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.

    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?

    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.

    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.

    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.