For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I ask that those who are regular readers of this site please visit both Bible Gateway (it is a great resource for whenever you need to look up Scripture) and One Year Bible Online. The people who run both sites do great work.
Those who plan to do evil are lost. As long as they do so there is no hope for their redemption. Those who plan to do good will find love and faithfulness. It is not talk which leads to prosperity, that requires actual work, and hard work at that.
Today we finish psalm 104 which talks about the grandeur and might of God. Today’s psalm reminds us that every living thing depends upon God for food. When God completely withdraws His favor from any living being, that being dies. The last three verses of this psalm make an excellent prayer and meditation:
I will praise my God to my last breath!
May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let all sinners vanish from the face of the earth;
let the wicked disappear forever.
Let all that I am praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
John the Baptist makes many points we should pay attention to when he answers his disciples concerns over people going to Jesus rather than coming to John. However, the most important point he makes is that we should never feel jealous when another person becomes more prominent in doing God’s work than we are. We can only receive honor for serving God if it is given to us by God. John’s point is that we will be as prominent in the Church as God wills. Any attempt to have greater prominence than God wills for us will have us serving Satan rather than God.
The story told here is a terrible tragedy with no heroes in it anywhere. The men of the town of Gibeah behaved atrociously in how they attempted to treat the traveling Levite and in how they treated his concubine. The Levite behaved terribly in giving them his concubine. The men of the rest of the tribe of Benjamin behaved badly by choosing to defend the men of Gibeah. The men of the rest of Israel behaved badly by seeking to destroy all of Benjamin for the crimes of the men of Gibeah. All in all this story shows us how our outrage over an injustice can easily get out of hand. In many ways this story is one we need preached in our country today.