For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
No matter how bad someone’s parents have been, if that person curses their parents they will have their light go out. If we spend our lives blaming our parents for the bad things in our lives rather than changing our behaviors in order to correct those problems, we will continue to experience the bad things.
The Creator of the universe provides me with light to see. My defenses are built by Him and He will protect me. Why should I be afraid of anything? Those who seek to harm me will stumble and fall in their attempt to damage me. It is they who will suffer from their plots and plans against me. I can remain confident, no matter how powerful the force assembled against me. Even if my enemies are able to muster the entire world against me, they will still have insufficient power to overcome my Defender, who is the Lord. All I need to do to remain safe is seek the Lord and His will. If I do that, it is foolish to fear anything else.
Everyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior has been made holy by God, has been made a saint. Every group of Christians has every spiritual gift that they will need. Whether that group is one, or three, or hundreds, whatever gifts and talents are necessary is possessed by sufficient numbers within that group to accomplish whatever task God has set for that group. God has provided us with the knowledge and the appropriate way of speaking to serve His purposes. When God calls us to a task, let us not fear that we do not have the means to accomplish that task, He will provide us with whatever is needed.
Yesterday, as we looked at Paul’s conclusion to his letter to the Romans, we saw that we should stay away from those people who cause divisions by teaching things contrary to sound doctrine, contrary to the teachings of Christ. Today, in his opening to his letter to the Corinthians, Paul warns us against dividing into factions. The Church today has failed to heed his warnings. That is why it is divided into denominations. However, Paul addresses those who think they are avoiding this failing by being “non-denominational”. Some say, “I follow Luther”(Lutherans), others, “I follow John Wesley”(Methodists), still others, “I follow Menno Simons”(Mennonites), and some say, “I follow only Christ”(non-denominational). We are not called to follow these separate teachers. We are called to be united in thought and purpose.
This call to unity is difficult because we are also called to be faithful. There are those who will use our desire to be united to attempt to get us to accept teachings which are counter to God’s. So, let us seek to be unified with those who are allowing God’s Spirit to guide them in seeking to do His will, who are serving God and teaching the Gospel message to those around them. But let us avoid those who are creating divisions by teaching things contrary to God’s word.
Josiah called the people to celebrate the Passover. He brought the people together to worship God and celebrate His deliverance of their ancestors from Egypt. The people celebrated in a great festival of worship honouring the Lord. Unfortunately, shortly after this, Josiah failed to seek God’s guidance when King Neco of Egypt marched across his land to do battle with the Babylonians. Josiah marched out to do battle with the Egyptians. In the battle, Josiah was wounded and died. Those who succeeded Josiah did not follow his example of faithfully serving God and the land soon fell to the Babylonians. This is a warning for us that we can easily fall from a spiritual high if we fail to continuously seek God’s will for our lives.