A person without self-control is vulnerable to their enemies. They will be unable to defend themselves against attack, whether that attack is physical, emotional, or spiritual. The first step to defending oneself against assault is to develop self-control.
No matter how wealthy and powerful you may be, if God no longer favors you, you will not stand. It is only through God’s grace that we may live lives of comfort and ease.
Paul warns against those who believe and teach that godliness is a path to wealth. Those who follow such teaching put on a show of godliness but do not exhibit the real thing. Those who are truly godly are content with what God has given them. We will leave our material wealth behind when we leave this world. Therefore, if we have what we need to survive, we should be content. Here Paul writes something outright which he has alluded to in many of his other letters. Greed (the love of money) is the root of most other sins. Those who seek after material wealth all too easily fall into the trap of justifying their sins in the pursuit of wealth. I want to point out that Paul makes it clear that it is not a sin to be wealthy. Some people do acquire great wealth while living godly lives. However, those who gain material riches must be careful not to put their faith in their wealth. They must be generous and use their material wealth to do good works. Most important, they must remember, and so must the rest of us, that their wealth does not make them better than others.
We see here that Zedekiah was a weak king. When some of his officials came to him demanding that he condemn Jeremiah, he told them to do as they liked because he could not stop them. Later, when another of his officials came to him and told him that what was being done to Jeremiah was wrong, he lent that official some of his guards to rescue Jeremiah. He consulted with Jeremiah, but was afraid to follow Jeremiah’s advice. It is clear to me from this passage that Zedekiah knew what was right, but was afraid to take a stand. He ultimately paid a price for that timidity.
Who you associate with matters. If you spend all of your time around foolish people, you will do foolish things. When you do foolish things you will end up with trouble and problems. Even if, by a stroke of fortune, you avoid doing foolish things you will experience the trouble created by the foolish actions of those you are spending time with. If you find yourself plagued by trouble, as soon as one problem is resolved another problem crops up, it is time to examine your behavior. That is the type of circumstance fools and sinners find themselves in.
As an alternate, spend your time with the wise and you will find yourself becoming wiser. Your companions will offer you advice on how to avoid trouble and solve problems. The wise choose the righteous path and then, instead of being pursued by trouble, unexpected blessings keep turning up in their lives.
Despite feeling like God has turned His back on him and abandoned him the psalmist praises God and calls on others to do likewise. I praise God not just because He has done great things for me, but because He is deserving of praise.
As I read Jesus’ comments about the widow’s mites I was reminded of an article I read recently. During the last economic downturn extending into the current economic hard times, charities have discovered that donations from big money donors have fallen off, while those from those of lesser means have not only remained steady but increased. This fact serves as a reminder of the lesson Jesus was teaching here. God is not impressed by how much of our surplus we give to His work. He is impressed by how much we are willing to sacrifice in order to help those less fortunate than ourselves. When deciding if we are giving enough to God’s work the question we need to ask ourselves is if our giving means we have to forgo buying something we want?
Joshua presented the Israelites with a decision which each and everyone of us must make. It is a decision which must be made by every generation. Actually, it is a decision which we must make every day. We must choose who it is we are going to serve. Are we going to serve God? Or someone/something else? We have many people and things we can choose to serve. Joshua presented it here as a life decision, and it is. But it is also a decision we must make anew each day.
When Joshua told the people of Israel to choose whom they would serve, it was not a dispassionate question. He did not say, “Well, you need to choose a set of gods to follow. I think you should follow God, but its up to you.” No, he described all the things God had done for the Israelites, both those to whom he was speaking and their ancestors. Then he told them to serve God and God alone. Then he uttered the phrase that must have stirred the blood of the people listening, “Choose today whom you will serve…But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord!” When he uttered that line, I imagine that it was met with a loud shout from the people affirming that they too would serve the Lord. We need to confront the people we meet with their need to make a choice and we need to make sure they understand the seriousness of the choice they are about to make. But that doesn’t mean that we should not make it clear to them which choice we think they should make. We should use every bit of our ability to convince them to make the right choice.
For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have been convicted over the last few weeks to seek to develop a disciplined prayer life. It is still a work in progress. Please pray for me, that the Holy Spirit may show me how to pray in a disciplined manner.
The psalmist appears to be writing at a time when David is facing troubles, perhaps when he fled Jerusalem from his son Absalom. He asks how long God will be angry with David? How long will he allow David to be mocked? Yet despite the troubles which he sees for the king God has promised to love faithfully, the psalmist ends the psalm by praising the Lord. Can I do the same? Can I praise the Lord even when my troubles seem to go on without end?
Paul warns against those who contradict his teachings. He tells us that such people are arrogant and lack understanding. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and arguments about words. Their approach to issues causes strife, malicious talk, slander, and friction among believers. They lead people to question the truth and whether their actually is such a thing as truth. They encourage people to believe that appearing godly is a way to become wealthy.
In various controversies in the Church today, who is causing the controversy? Those who are arguing for the traditional understanding of Biblical teaching, or those who are arguing to change it? Who is arguing for a new way of understanding the words used by the various writers of the Bible? It is my belief that the Bible is written so that it does not require a scholar to understand what is meant. If someone is teaching a doctrine that requires a scholar’s knowledge of the Bible, I question the validity of that doctrine.
Paul goes on to tell us that godliness in and of itself is of great value. Let us seek to be godly for the sake of being godly, not as a means of acquiring wealth. Those who desire wealth easily fall into temptation. The love of money, the desire to acquire ever more money, results in people doing all sorts of evil things. People often justify doing that which they know is wrong in the pursuit of wealth. There is nothing wrong with being wealthy, but making acquiring wealth one of our goals can easily lead us into sin.
I mentioned yesterday the apparent divide among the government of Judah. When Zedekiah became king, he appears to have been sympathetic to Jeremiah. However, he was afraid to stand up to the members of his government who opposed Jeremiah. These were men who did not want to listen to the message God was sending through Jeremiah. When a group of men came to Zedekiah and demanded that Jeremiah be killed, Zedekiah did not tell them to kill him. Rather, Zedekiah told them that he could not stop them. Later, when another man came to Zedekiah to plead for Jeremiah, Zedekiah ordered him to gather some men and rescue Jeremiah. Elsewhere we are told that Zedekiah did what was wrong in the eyes of the Lord. It appears that his sin was that he failed to stand in opposition to evil men.
If you want to become wiser, spend your time with those who are already wise. If you spend your time with those who are foolish, not only will you begin to act foolishly, you will end up in trouble, even if you do not do anything foolish yourself (other than spend your time with fools). The earth produces sufficient food for all people to have enough to eat. It is injustice that leads to the poor going hungry.
The NIV version of verse 48 is appropriate a few days after Easter.
Who can live and not see death,
or who can escape the power of the grave?
The answer to the latter half of that question is Jesus, and those who trust in Him. God’s enemies mocked(still mock) His Anointed One and denied (and many still deny) that He could escape the power of the grave. Yet Easter morning is testimony to the fact that He did escape that power.
Luke’s version of the widow’s offering gives me an insight into what Jesus was teaching here that I have never noticed before. The widow gave only a very small amount of money, but to God it was worth more than the vast amounts given by others. Her offering’s value was because she trusted God enough to give even that which she needed to live on. She trusted God to provide for her needs. While those more wealthy gave large amounts of money out of that which was in excess of their needs, still retaining wealth in excess of what they needed to live. This is an important lesson for us, we should give until we feel it. The proper amount to give is complicated and I think God is leading me to flesh out my thoughts on this subject.
Jesus tells the disciples about the coming destruction of Jerusalem. As we read His account of the events that led up to the destruction of Jerusalem (something which was still in the future as He spoke), we should recognize that He is describing what happens during the lead up to every great calamity. Surely, what He says is very similar to the world leading up to WWI and WWII. Jesus warns us that as the world is turning towards such things those who follow Him will be persecuted. They will be arrested, tortured and put on trial. If we are faithful to Christ, we will be persecuted. It may be in minor ways, or it may be to the point where we give our lives for our faith, but if we are faithful we will be persecuted by those who refuse to believe. Whatever persecution we face, let us face it with joy because it will provide us with an opportunity to present the Good News of Christ to those who have not yet listened (they may have heard, but did they listen?).
In this passage is one of the great calls to dedicate ourselves to God. It contains elements of a sermon that every pastor should preach regularly. I am not sure how often, but over half of the congregation should remember the last time he preached it. This is a message for those who claim to be the servants of God.
First Joshua points out all of the good things which God had done for the people of Israel. Then he declares that they should fear God and serve Him with all of their being. Let us destroy all of those things which we are tempted to worship in place of God, those things which lead us to act in ways other than those which God commands. If we are not willing to make that commitment than we need to decide what gods we are going to worship instead of God. That is the only choice we have. Either we worship God wholeheartedly and single-mindedly, or we acknowledge that we would rather worship something else. Today is the time to decide.
There are times when we need to decide as a group, but even then we can follow Joshua’s lead. He told the people of Israel that they needed to decide. But no matter what they decided, His decision was made. He, and His family, would follow the Lord. I ask that you say his statement with me today:
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.
The king, his attendants, and the majority of the people refused to listen to what God had instructed Jeremiah to say. Yet, when Nebuchadnezzar invaded once more, the king sent to Jeremiah and asked him to pray to the Lord for them. Shortly after this, Nebuchadnezzar turned aside to face the Egyptian army which had marched out to relieve the siege of Jerusalem. Jeremiah told the king that the Egyptian army would turn back and the Babylonian army would return and sack Jerusalem.
While the Babylonian army was off engaging the Egyptians, Jeremiah attempted to leave the city in order to claim some family property elsewhere. However, as he left the city, a relative of one of the king’s courtiers arrested him, accusing him of attempting to defect to the Babylonians. There were two factions in the court. One faction wanted to kill Jeremiah, although they wanted to do so in an indirect manner. The second faction wanted to protect him. The king seemed to favor the latter group, but lacked the power to stand up to the former group.
At one point the king asked Jeremiah for his advice on what he should do. Jeremiah advised the king to surrender, telling him that he and his family would live if he did so and that Jerusalem would be burned, the king would not escape, and his wives turned over to the officers of the Babylonian army if he did not. The king was afraid to take Jeremiah’s advice, even though Jeremiah assured him that God had promised his fears would not be fulfilled.
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How often have I suffered because I was afraid to follow the advice I received from God? I always struggle to know whether what I am hearing is God’s word for me or my own desires. I need to learn to pray more faithfully so that I can learn to distinguish God’s voice when He speaks to me.
I believe that what Paul wrote here concerning slaves and masters applies to employees and employers as well. I need to show respect for my employer so that I do not bring shame on God, and it is even more important to do so if my employer is a fellow believer. The passage goes on to emphasize that we should not quibble over the meaning of words. This is a challenge for me because I have known people who have used words with subtly different meaning in order to lay the groundwork for a false teaching. On the other hand, Paul continues by telling us that those who are doing this are doing so because they are seeking to appear godly in order to acquire wealth. Paul tells us that godliness with contentment is more valuable than material wealth. I will be content with sufficient funds to provide for food, shelter, and clothing. Those who love money, sooner or later, stray from the faith in pursuit of more of it.
Paul concludes by giving Timothy some final instructions which will benefit us all if we follow them. I will seek to live a life filled with righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. It is by these tactics that I can fight the good fight and cling to the eternal life which God has promised me through Christ Jesus. I will not be proud nor trust in money. Rather I will use my money in order to do good. I will strive to avoid foolish discussions and arguments. This is a challenge to me because not all arguments and discussions are foolish, but I struggle with keeping quiet when someone says something I view as foolish.
I feel like I fell short on yesterday’s blog. I had somewhere to be early and was unable to do more than read the passages first thing in the morning. I then had a busy day and when I got back to working on it, I was rather tired. I got less out of yesterday’s passages than I have in a long time and I know that this is a product of not making it a higher priority for my day than I did. I do not know if anyone else noticed this lack, if so, I apologize for letting you down as well.
I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
After speaking with the leaders of Israel, Joshua summoned all of the tribes of Israel to assemble before God. He then recounts what God has done for them as a people in rescuing them from Egypt and bringing them into this land. Joshua tells them that they must decide what god or gods they are going to server. Are they going to serve God, the Lord Almighty? Are they going to serve the gods of the people in whose lands they are living? Or are they going to serve the gods of the people of the lands from which Abraham came? Then Joshua says one of those lines that resonate through time. “But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua here is declaring that even if all of those around him choose to worship some other gods, he, and all of those he is responsible for will worship God. There are two parts worth mentioning. The first is Joshua’s determination that he will serve the Lord, no matter what the rest of the people of Israel decide to do. The other is that he felt confident enough in the training he had imparted to his children to declare that they also would serve the Lord. There is an important point here. Our society, with its emphasis on individualism, stresses to our young people that they must make their own decision about what they believe. While that is indeed true, we must each make our own decision to follow the Lord, there is often an implication that if we adopt the belief system of our parents we have not learned to think on our own. It is most interesting that those in our society who put the most emphasis on children developing their own belief system independent of that of their parents are usually people who dismiss individualism in all other aspects of life. Children should be encouraged as they mature to come to their own understanding of God and of their faith in God. But they should not be encouraged to reject the beliefs of their parents. There is a fine line between encouraging them to develop their own understanding of God and even to encouraging them to come to their own heartfelt belief in God and between encouraging them to question things they believe because they are the same as what their parents believed. Looking back I realize that many of my struggles with my faith resulted from my attempts to do as these people, many of them youth leaders in the church, told me I had to do; reject my parents’ beliefs and build my own from scratch. They told me that it was “OK” if I then came to the same beliefs as my parents (although the implication was that I would arrive at different beliefs in certain areas, such as sexual morals), but only if I first rejected them and came to them entirely on my own. The interesting thing for me is that for the most part, those beliefs of my parents which I most question today are the ones which those who told me to reject my parents’ beliefs never suggested I question.
Luke now tells one of the most powerful stories from the Gospels (also told in the Gospel of Mark), the story of the widow’s offering. It is a short passage, but is often the theme of sermons. Jesus was in the Temple watching people place money in the collection box. He saw many wealthy people place large sums of money in the collection box. Then He saw a poor widow drop two small coins in the box. Jesus turned to His disciples and told them that the widow had put in more than all of the others. The wealthy had given out of their excess, while the widow had given out of what she needed to live. This passage always challenges me to find ways to sacrifice in order to give more to God’s purposes.
As they left the Temple, some of the disciples pointed out how majestic the stonework was. Jesus responded by telling them that the time was coming that the Temple would be completely demolished. The disciples wanted to know when this would happen. Jesus told them that there would be wars and earthquakes and famines, but that they should not panic because the end would not immediately follow those. He told them that His followers would suffer great persecution. They would be dragged into synagogues and prisons and forced to stand trial before kings and governors. This would be their opportunity to testify about Jesus and preach the Gospel. They were not to worry ahead of time about what to say because God would give them the words to say and the arguments to make that their adversaries would not be able to refute. After this armies would surround Jerusalem and it would fall to the Gentiles and be controlled by Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles came to an end. Then, sometime after that, there will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars and the people of earth will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and glory.
While I believe a large portion of Jesus’ prophecy here is regarding the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and the time leading up to it, I, also, believe that some of that prophecy applies to us. We should not worry about what we will say when we are confronted by those who oppose us because we are followers of Jesus. God will give us the words to say and the arguments to make. This does not mean that we should not study God’s word and what people say against it so that we have a thorough understanding of what we believe. Remember, sometimes our answer can be as simple as the blind man Jesus healed, “I don’t know about that. All I know is that I was blind and now I see.” When confronted by those who oppose us because we follow Jesus, we must open our hearts and our minds to the Spirit’s guidance and pray to God that He manage the words that come out of our mouths, not for our glory, but for His.
I am not sure I know what to make of today’s portion of Psalm 89. The psalmist talks of how God had made a covenant with David, but now He has cast him off. It is not clear to me if this psalm is talking about a time of struggle in David’s life (such as when Absalom rebelled against him) or if it is referring to the troubles of one of David’s descendants. However, whichever it is, it talks about how life is short and all will die. There is certainly an element of Messianic foreshadowing throughout this psalm, foreshadowing that was fulfilled in Jesus. At the end, even though the psalmist wraps up with the king being mocked by those who are not only his enemies, but the enemies of God, he tells us to praise the Lord forever. I will praise the Lord, even when it appears that He has abandoned me because I know that He will turn His face to me once more.
Today’s proverb tells us to choose who we associate with carefully. If we spend time with those who are wise, we will learn wisdom and become wise(r). On the other hand if we spend time with fools, we will get caught up in their foolishness and suffer harm. Those who sin steadily will find themselves chased from one problem to another. While those who live righteous lives will see their troubles fade to be replaced by blessings.
Those who live good, wise lives will accumulate goods to pass on to their descendants, while those who are ungodly will see their goods pass to those who follow God’s paths.
God provides food for the poor, but there is still privation and hunger because human injustice takes it away from them.
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. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
After Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah king of Judah, Zedekiah did not listen to Jeremiah’s prophecies any more than his predecessors. However, when Nebuchadnezzar again attacked Jerusalem he asked Jeremiah to pray to God for himself and the people of Jerusalem. At this time, Nebuchadnezzar withdrew his armies to face the Egyptian armies which had come forth to relieve the siege of Jerusalem. Jeremiah sent word to Zedekiah that the Egyptians would return to Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar would return and destroy Jerusalem.
While the siege was lifted Jeremiah attempted to leave Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin and complete the purchase of the land from his relative. One of the gate guards, believing that Jeremiah was defecting to the Babylonians, arrested him. After Jeremiah had been in prison for some time, King Zedekiah sent for him to ask him what message he had from the Lord for the king. Jeremiah told the king that God said that he would be defeated by the Babylonians. One faction of the king’s court wanted Jeremiah killed because of the message he had been giving to the people about the outcome of fighting the Babylonians. They went to the king and requested that he kill Jeremiah. The king told them to do as they pleased because he could not stop them. They took Jeremiah and placed him in a cistern with thick mud at the bottom of it, leaving him there to starve to death. Another faction of the court went to the king and requested the king’s permission to remove Jeremiah from the cistern. The king granted their request and told them to take a small force and do so.
Later, King Zedekiah had Jeremiah brought to him for a private audience. The king promised Jeremiah that he would neither kill him nor allow him to be killed for what Jeremiah told the king. Jeremiah told King Zedekiah that if he surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar all would go well with him and his family and Jerusalem would not be burned down. On the other hand if he refused to surrender, he would not escape and the city would be destroyed.
Paul tells Timothy that some people like to quibble over the meaning of words. Such people cause trouble and see putting on a show of godliness as a way to become wealthy. True godliness with contentment is in itself great wealth. We came into this world with no possessions and we will take none with us when we leave, so we should be content with enough to feed and clothe ourselves. We should avoid arguments with those who want to quibble over words and pursue teachings that promote godliness. If we pursue wealth, we can easily fall into temptation. This does not mean that wealth is evil, just that we should not seek it as a first goal. We should pursue righteousness and a godly life. The disciplines which lead to a godly life are faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. If and when we acquire wealth we should not be proud nor come to rely on that wealth because it is unreliable. Instead we should use that wealth to do good. We should use whatever wealth we acquire to share with those in need.
The psalmist writes that he feels abandoned by God, that God has allowed him to be disgraced. Yet despite feeling this way He praises the Lord and calls on us to praise the Lord forever. Let this be a model to us that even when we feel far from God we will lift up praises to Him.
