For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
The words we speak can bring happiness or sadness to others. Saying positive things can bring life to others, negative things can bring death. Those who like to talk (and therefore do so a lot) will experience the consequences. This is an important message for me because I like to talk. The more one talks, the harder it is to remember to think carefully before saying amything.
There are two lines in this psalm which I make my prayer today. The first is:
I am indeed weak when it comes to resisting temptation. I put up a good front of strength, but that is just a front. There are temptations which I find myself unable to resist. I know that, while I am able to put on the appearance of strength, it is not true. I strive to reveal that I am as much a sinner as the next, that it is only through God’s grace that I can act righteous in even the most mundane things. But I am embarrassed by the things which tempt me to sin.
The second line in this psalm which is my prayer for today is:
I pray this because I know that one aspect of overcoming temptation is staying away from those who do evil, those who embrace sin. I will seek to spend my time with those who are godly, and therefore encourage me to be godly, rather than with those who are wicked, and therefore encourage me to be wicked.
When Festus brought Paul before himself and Agrippa, Agrippa instructed Paul to state his defense against the charges which the Jewish leaders had brought against him. Paul’s response to Agrippa’s instruction was to state his testimony, to tell the story of how he had come to be a follower of Jesus and what the Gospel message meant to him. The aspect of the Gospel which Paul stressed most strongly in this statement was that the Gospel message was the fulfillment of what Moses and the prophets had said would happen. Paul concluded that those prophets had predicted Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Festus thought Paul was crazy to believe someone had been resurrected from the dead, Paul replied that he was not crazy and pointed out that Agrippa was familiar with the events which he described. Agrippa wondered if Paul thought he could so quickly convince Agrippa to become a Christian. Paul’s response is one which each and every follower of Christ should echo, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains.” When we think of those we know, we should pray that they, whether quickly or slowly, will come to know and put their faith in Jesus.
This passage tells us that the tribes east of the Jordan river fought a great battle for control of their land. It tells us that they gained the victory because they trusted in God. However, the descendants of those who fought in that battle failed to remain faithful to God and ended up being sent into exile as a result. The tribes which lived east of the Jordan gained wealth and prosperity because they trusted in God and were faithful to him. Unfortunately, they came to depend on that prosperity and to believe that it was theirs by birth rite. They then stopped being faithful to God and pursued other gods, and the practices which went with the worship of those gods.
They sought the sexual pleasure which came from worshiping the fertility goddess of their neighbors. They sacrificed their children on the altars of the gods of their neighbors because of the pleasures those gods offered. As a result of these practices God caused them to be conquered and carried off into exile. I fear that the same may happen to the people of the United States, who worship on the altar of sexual pleasure, and offer their children on the altar of convenience.