For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I am starting to feel better and, God willing, should experience steady improvement to full recovery in a little over a week. I thank those of you have been praying for me.
Once you start a quarrel you will not be able control its path or direction any more than you will be able to control a flood when a dam gives way. So, stop egging people on before the quarrel breaks out.
When I was younger, I always thought the proverb writer was talking about two separate evils in the second of today’s proverbs. I have realized in recent years that they go hand in hand. A society that acquits the guilty will also condemn the innocent. When society does that it will see evil run rampant.
This psalm would make a wonderful responsive reading, especially for two groups going back and forth. The whole psalm makes a wonderful point about giving thanks to the Lord, constantly coming back with “His love endures forever.” It does indeed.
I certainly understand Peter’s reaction in this story. James, the brother of John, has just been executed, Peter is being held in prison awaiting his own execution. He is being held by four squads of four soldiers each. Peter was sleeping bound with chains between two guards with more at the entrance. Someone wakes him up in the middle of the night and tells him to put on his clothes and follow them. Peter followed the angel past the guards and out of the prison. It certainly must have seemed like a dream.
The interesting thing for me is that, while the believers were gathered, praying desperately for Peter’s release, when he arrived at the door they thought it must be his ghost/angel. How often are we like this? When God answers our prayers, we have trouble that it has actually happened. Do we have the faith to expect God to answer our prayers?
After his impressive victory over the prophets of Baal, Jezebel promised to kill Elijah. Elijah fled for his life and sank into depression. He traveled as if he was in a trance, eating the food put before him and moving on. Then Elijah came to Mt Sinai, where he spent the night in a cave. Elijah was convinced that he was the last man of God alive. Then God reminded Elijah who was really in charge and that power is not what humans think it is. This story always strikes me.
God tells Elijah to stand before Him on the mountain. Elijah stands forth on the mountain. A windstorm hit the mountain, tearing rocks loose from the side of the mountain and tossing them around. But God was not in the wind, mighty as it was. Next an earthquake struck, but God was not in the earthquake. The earthquake was followed by fire, but God was not in the earthquake. Finally, when all of the sound and fury was over, there was a gentle whisper. Elijah knew that the gentle whisper was God. One more time God asked Elijah why he was there and once more Elijah proclaimed that all of the other men of God had been killed and that now they are trying to kill him. God’s reply is, “I’m not done with you yet…oh by the way, I have preserved for myself 7.000 other men who have refused to bow to Baal. Now, stop hiding.” There are times when God acts with sound and fury, but I firmly believe that when He is about to truly change history it begins with a quiet whisper.