For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
People can maintain a positive spirit even in sickness, but once one’s spirit has been crushed, everything is a trial and no joy can be found in anything.
Those who are wise will always seek new knowledge wherever they can find it. Let us never be content that we know all that we need to know.
No matter how many enemies we have, no matter how hopeless our situation may seem,, if we cry out to God He will answer us. If we put our trust in God, we may lie down and sleep knowing that we will wake up in safety. If we serve God, it does not matter if we are surrounded by uncountable numbers of enemies He will bring us to victory. If we seek to do God’s will, we cannot fail.
The night after Paul was taken into protective custody, God revealed to him that he would preach the Gospel in Rome. The next morning, some men who were angry with Paul and wanted to kill him made a plan to do so. Some of those in power in Jerusalem sympathized with their goal of killing Paul, but did not want to be directly implicated in his death (and did not have the power to carry it out directly). The two groups plotted together to come up with what they were sure was a full-proof plan to accomplish their goal. They failed because of circumstances outside of their control. No matter how well-connected, no matter how clever, those who seek to bring us harm are their plans will only be successful in furthering God’s agenda.
Those who plotted against Paul, sought to stop him from preaching the Gospel message. However, rather than doing so, they actually facilitated him preaching the Gospel to those to whom he would otherwise never have had the opportunity to preach.
As I was reading this listing of genealogy, I was struck by verse 10:
Cush was also the ancestor of Nimrod, who was the first heroic warrior on earth.
The NIV says the Nimrod “became a mighty warrior on earth.” And the New American Standard Version says that “he began to be a mighty one in the earth.” In Genesis we are told that Nimrod was the founder(or at least an early ruler of) Babylon. In addition, Genesis tells us that Nimrod founded the city of Nineveh. This reference to Nimrod is a foreshadowing of the fall of both the Northern Kingdom to Assyria and the Southern Kingdom to Babylon.