For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
What people truly desire above all else is to be loved unconditionally. Therefore it is better to be poor than to lie, to claim that we love someone when we do not.
God will test our thoughts and examine our hearts. If we allow Him, He will cleanse them and mold them so that we will do what is right. If we truly desire to do what is right then the first step is to be determined not to sin in what we say. If we gain control over our tongue, the rest of our actions will follow.
I strive very hard to keep my political views from entering into this blog because I believe that Christians are called to leave politics to God. When I read the psalmist’s statement that following God’s commands kept him from following cruel and evil people, I thought about how so many of those involved in politics are following cruel and evil people. Rather than following such people, let us put our feet upon God’s path and not waver from following Him.
I am struggling with what to write about this passage. Not because I am having trouble understanding the message, but because it speaks to my thoughts on some of the issues we are facing in our society today. The first point Paul makes is that when we accepted God’s grace through faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection, we were freed from obligation to the letter of the law. We are now able to do what is right according to the spirit of the law without worrying about whether what we are doing meets the technical details of the law.
Paul points out that sin uses the law to get us to sin more. I believe that part of what Paul is talking about is our human tendency to do things like say, “Well, it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.” That is, when we read the law, we look for loopholes which allow us to violate it’s purpose without technically breaking it. When the law says, “You shall not steal,” we say, “Well, it’s not really stealing. He dropped that $20 bill and was never going to know where to come back and get it.” We can do this all we want, but we know its not right, and now we have been freed from the letter of the law so that we can follow the spirit of the law.
When Solomon completed the Temple, he summoned all of the leaders of Israel to Jerusalem to worship God and celebrate the establishment of the Temple. This is how a nation achieves unity, when all of the leaders unite to worship God. I am not in favor of religion in politics. For that matter, I believe that Christians should stay out of politics. However, I also believe that the answer to the problems in this country (and every other country in the world) is for the people of this nation to gather together as one to worship God. I don’t think that will ever happen, but I do believe that if those of us who do believe would gather together to pray for our neighbors we could transform this nation and the world.