For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
God can see into the depths of death and destruction so that they hold no secrets from Him; they can hide nothing from Him. In the same way, He can see into our hearts, we can hide nothing from Him and He knows all of our secrets.
I will praise God for all that He has done for me. I will thank Him when I meet with those who serve Him. I will spend time thinking about the meaning of the many great things He has done. I will strive to obey His commands. Oh God, transform me into someone who obeys your commands with joy and ease.
Jesus clearly declares here that those who refuse to accept His teachings will die in their sins. Jesus did not preach a message which He had come up with on His own. He preached the message which He had received from the Father. This passage gives us the clearest model of how we are to follow Jesus. He did nothing on His own, but spoke only that message which the Father had taught Him. In the same way, we should speak only the message which we have been taught by God.
When David first heard Goliath’s challenge to the Israelite army, he asked several different groups of men in Saul’s army about the reward Saul was offering for killing Goliath. It seems to me that David was trying to encourage them to go out to fight Goliath. He was trying to find someone in Saul’s army to take on Goliath. This was not out of a desire to see battle. Rather this was because David believed that God would strike down Goliath for defying His army. David perceived Goliath’s challenge as a challenge against God. David did not go out against Goliath because he was so confident in his own ability that he was sure he could defeat Goliath. David went out against Goliath because he was confident that God would defeat Goliath.
David sought for more experienced warriors to take up Goliath’s challenge against God, but when none did, he took up God’s call himself. In the same way, when we see God calling for someone to champion His cause, we should be willing to answer the call. There may be those with more skills to the task than we possess who choose not to take it up. We should not let that stop us. When God calls us to a task, He will give us the ability to accomplish it. When we fight these battles, let us remember that we will not win from our own greatness. Rather the battle is the Lord’s and He will be victorious.