For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The path to leadership is hard work. If you want to be a leader, work hard. Those who are lazy end up being forced to do work that few would choose for themselves.

    God is forgiving and will give us many opportunities to turn from our selfishness and rebellion. However, if we continue to rebel against Him our sins will eventually bring His judgment down upon us. This is true of us as individuals and as a people.

    When Christ returns will He find us doing the work to which He called us? We do not know when Christ will return, therefore we must be prepared all of the time. I find it interesting that Jesus contrasts the faithful servant who feeds the other servants with the wicked servant who beats the other servants, feeds himself, and gets drunk. The lesson here is that we are either faithful servants who are providing for the needs of our fellow servants, or, we are evil servants who are abusing our fellow servants while satisfying our own wants.
    Jesus goes on from that to tell us that He did not come to bring peace on earth. Rather, He came to bring division. He tells us that families will be split apart over what they think of Him. He goes on to tell us that the source of this division is our unwillingness and/or inability to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. I have read this passage many times and I do not think I ever noticed before that Jesus said that one of the reasons for our divisions was our failure to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. This is an important point. We are not to rely on what a priest, or a pastor, or a reporter/commentator, or a politician (I could go on, but I think you get the point) tells us is the right thing or the wrong thing. We are supposed to listen to the Holy Spirit and figure it out for ourselves. He is not telling us that we should not listen to those people, but we should make up our own minds as to what is right and what is wrong.
    This can be easily interpreted as moral relativism, but Jesus is not saying that right and wrong are subjective. He is telling us that we cannot excuse our failure to do what is right by appealing to authority.

    Moses promises that God will give justice to those who are His people, those who serve Him. He will extract vengeance against those who oppress His servants. We do not need to seek revenge for the harms we have suffered. God will pay back those who deserve it.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The route to becoming a leader in any endeavor is to work hard at it. Those who work hard rise to positions of leadership, those who are lazy end up serving others.

    If we rebel against God time and again and worship things other than Him, His patience with us will run out and He will leave us to suffer the consequences of our actions.

    Jesus warns us to be prepared for His return. We do not know when that day will be, but let us carry out His will every day until He arrives. I want Him to find me doing His work when He comes on that day. We must not allow the apparent delay in His return to make us complacent and lazy in doing the work which He has set for us.
    Jesus goes on to tell us that He did not come to bring unity, rather He came to divide people. Families will divide over His teachings. Each one of us must decide for himself what is right. We cannot just yield that judgment to some authority figure. We cannot go along with what others say is right just to avoid strife and division. Jesus has called us each to make our own judgment as to what is right. If we wish to be faithful servants of Christ, we cannot accept as right the beliefs of those who oppose Christ.

    Moses’ song continues telling us that we are foolish and senseless. All too often we fail to heed God’s commands and despite our desire to serve Him we allow ourselves to fall into the hands of His enemies. Let us not seek to exact revenge from our enemies because God has reserved that right to Himself. When our strength is gone and we can no longer stand on our own, God will come and lift us up. He will support us. God will avenge those who have been oppressed. He will repay the oppressors for their actions. He will repay those who strike down His servants out of hate for Him. Let us rejoice because God will take vengeance against those who do evil. He will cleanse the land of evil and populate it with those who honour and serve Him.