Daily Bible Study

August 11, 2026 Bible Study — Do Not Put Your Words In God’s Mouth

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 13-15.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

God told Jeremiah that He was going to bring the sword, famine, and pestilence upon the people of Jerusalem.  Jeremiah replied that the prophets were telling them that they need not fear God’s judgement because He was assuring them of peace.  God answered saying that the prophets are lying in His name and that they would be consumed for doing so.  The passage goes into some detail about what would happen to the prophets who lied in God’s name and to the people who put their trust in those lying prophets.  Jeremiah makes it clear that the people who trusted the lying prophets should have known better, that God had given them the knowledge to know that the prophets were lying.  God’s judgement upon them for listening to false prophets was not because they were fooled.  It was because they chose to be fooled.  The same thing happens today.  People choose to listen to false prophets who claim to speak on God’s behalf, who quote words which God never spoke..

I was thinking about what this means.  When Jeremiah refers to prophets he seems to be referring to those who preach to the people how they should obey God.  In light of that, Jeremiah is warning both the people and the prophets.  He is warning the people that they should be careful about which prophets they believe, about which preachers they take guidance from.  He is warning the prophets that they should be careful to speak only that which God has spoken to them.  I don’t normally think of myself as a prophet, and I do not think that I am by the way we normally use the word today.  However, I think that I should listen carefully to the warnings which are given to prophets because I write this blog every day.  I think the warnings about false prophecy issued to prophets in the Bible should be thought about deeply by anyone who claims to be speaking about what God wants people to do.  No matter who you are, when you speak about what the Bible says, about what God wants from His people, you should be very careful to separate your own opinion from that given to you by God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

August 10, 2026 Bible Study — Seek God, Not the Things of This World

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 10-12.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

Today’s passage begins with Jeremiah warning against learning from those who do not fear God.  They will be dismayed at things which they see happening, but we should not be dismayed by those events.  Those who deny God will see omens and portents, but those who fear the Lord need not fear those things.  People have taken material things and worship them.  They dress them up with decorations in order to make them seem elegant and powerful, but they are no more than scarecrows.  Those who fear the Lord need not fear those objects because they can do nothing.  The things which the people of this world worship can do neither evil nor good.  There is no one and nothing like God.  Let us fear Him, and Him alone.  The things which others worship will pass away and be of no account, but God created the heavens and the earth and will endure when they are no more.  Jeremiah tells us that no man can determine the way to go on his own, so let us seek God’s correction because it is He who directs our steps.  We can willingly do God’s will, or be forced into it.  The former is to be preferred to the latter.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

August 9, 2026 Bible Study — Worship the True God and Not Idols

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 7-9.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

Jeremiah called on the people of Jerusalem and the rest of Judah to amend their ways and to return to obeying God.  He began making this call during the years of Josiah’s revival.  Yet even in the middle of the revival which Josiah led, God was saying, “They did not listen to me.”  How much more may God be saying something similar today?  God told them that the burnt offerings and sacrifices were not the primary thing which He desired.  In the same way, going to worship services on Sunday and Wednesday night, tithing to support the local congregation is not what God truly wants.  No, God wants us to obey His voice and walk in the way that He commands.  Jesus commanded His disciples, and through them us, to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Are we preaching God’s word to the people of all nations? And, are we making disciples?  We need to be feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison, welcoming the stranger, and teaching others to do likewise.  If we are not doing these things, then when we gather to worship we are worshiping idols and not the true God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

August 8, 2026 Bible Study — Remove Detestable Things

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 4-6.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

I should have mentioned this yesterday, but it is important to note that Jeremiah began to prophecy while Josiah was king.  In fact, Jeremiah began preaching the year after Josiah began his religious reforms to draw the people of Judah back to God.  So, the beginning of today’s passage seems to be addressed to Josiah’s reforms.  Jeremiah tells the people what they must do if they expect the reforms to make a difference.  If they do these things they will be a blessing to the nations of the world.  First, they must remove the detestable things from God’s presence, which Josiah was doing at the time Jeremiah says this.  Then, they must be sure that when they take a vow in God’s name that they are truthful, that their vow brings justice, and that they fulfill it righteously.  As we read the passage further, God tells Jeremiah to search Jerusalem for a man who does justice and seeks truth, but that he will only find people who swear by the Lord falsely.  So, have we removed the things which God finds detestable from our lives?  Do we speak in truth, in justice, and in righteousness?

Later in today’s passage Jeremiah warns against prophets who falsely proclaim that God approves of things which He detests and leaders who follow their false prophesies.  He tells them, and us, to seek out those who direct us to the ancient ways of God’s truth and to follow those ways.  God has sent watchmen to give us His warnings.  Will we listen to their warnings and walk the ancient ways?  Or will we listen to those who claim to tell us new ways, which are not God’s ways?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

August 7, 2026 Bible Study — A Message for All Nations, God Will Transform Us

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 1-3.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

The Book of Jeremiah begins with God’s call to Jeremiah.  God tells Jeremiah that He has put His words in Jeremiah’s mouth.  This goes along with what Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 10 verses 19 and 20, where He told them not to be anxious over what to say because it will not be we who speak, but God’s Spirit speaking through us.  If we allow Him to do so, God will give us the correct words to speak when God has given us a mission to speak.  God further tells Jeremiah that His message is for nations and kingdoms, not just for the people of Israel.  God gave Jeremiah a message of destruction and a message of building up to all nations.  Jesus gave a message to all nations, one which brings destruction to those who reject it and building to those who listen.

Jeremiah went on to address a message to Israel and to Judah, a message which we should listen to as well.  He speaks of how, despite what God had done for them, the people did not ask where to find the Lord.  Making it even worse, their religious leaders did not know the Lord, nor did they seek Him.  Instead, they prophesied according to their own lusts and desires and chose things which did not bring them, or the people, any benefit.  Yet despite their idolatry, despite our idolatry, despite our treachery and faithlessness, God still calls us back to Him.  If we acknowledge that we rebelled against God, He will take us and bring us to Him.  Despite the fact that we followed leaders we knew did not come from Him, He will give us leaders who love Him and seek His heart.  God will give us leaders who will teach us His ways and lead us back to Him.  We have sinned against God, yet He still loves us enough to send His Spirit into us in order to transform us into what He has always intended for us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

 

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August 6, 2026 Bible Study — God Seeks Those Who Are Humble and Contrite in Spirit

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 64-66.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

The prophet warns that our wickedness will rouse God to anger if we do not repent and turn to Him.  Earlier in the Book of Isaiah the prophet called us to seek the Lord while He might be found.  In today’s passage He tells us that God calls out for people to come to Him, but they do not  seek Him.  In fact all to many of them are busy seeking their own pleasure and performing rituals of their own devising, rituals which are an abomination according to what God has commanded.  The prophet warns us against following our own rituals and thinking that we are too good for others to come near to us, that these others will make us unclean.  As God said to Peter in the vision before Peter went to Cornelius’ house, “Call nothing unclean which God has made clean.”  We need to recognize our uncleanness so that we can accept God making us clean.  God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth.  Only those who are humble and possess a contrite heart will be invited by God to this new earth.  When God calls, we must answer.  When He speaks, we must listen and choose to do that in which He delights.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

August 5, 2026 Bible Study — The Spirit of the Lord Is Upon Us

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 60-63.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

It took me awhile to begin writing today because I really wanted to write something about chapter 60 which begins today’s passage.  The way it starts by talking about how our light has come and that the glory of the Lord has risen upon us.  The prophet tells us that thick darkness will cover the earth and then the glory of the Lord will be seen by us and that nations will be drawn to the light of the Lord which will shine forth from us.  I felt like there was more to be said about that, but I could not see how the rest of chapter 60 fit.  I believe that the rest of the chapter applies to the descendants of Jacob but I do not see how that fits into what God has done through Jesus.

Which brings me to chapter 61, which Jesus read from when He went to the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath near the beginning of His ministry.  Jesus stopped at “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,…” and did not go on to read what immediately followed, “and the day of vengeance of our God;”  I don’t to make too much of this, but I think we should take note of it.  God’s vengeance is but a day, while His favor is for a year.  I don’t think that this means literally a day and literally a year, but I think we should see that the time of God’s favor is much longer than the time of His vengeance.  The prophet goes on to tell us that when God’s favor comes upon us, our righteousness will go out from us like a light into the darkness.  He says that he will not remain silent until that happens.  In the same way, we should not remain silent until the righteousness of the local part of the Body of Christ with which we fellowship shines forth so that the kings and powers around it see God’s glory.

Then I come to chapter 63 where God declares that He trod the winepress of His wrath alone, that no one from the peoples was with Him.  Once again He speaks of His day of vengeance and His year of redemption.  God’s anger is severe when no one stands with Him against those who afflict the poor and against those who imprison the innocent.  It will burst forth against those who do so, giving us the choice in that day to rejoice at God’s redemption of the oppressed or having our blood stain the robes which God wears.  The day of God’s vengeance will be awful, but it marks the beginning of His year of redemption.  While I believe that this passage points to a specific incident in history, I also think it points to something which happens frequently over the course of history.  Repeatedly through history God’s wrath has poured out on the earth, but alongside of it His Spirit has also poured out and revival has come upon people.  Let us partake of His Spirit and welcome Him into our hearts.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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August 4, 2026 Bible Study — God Dwells With the Contrite

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 57-59.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about today.  Then I read where God said this through the prophet:  “I dwell with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit… I have seen his ways, but I will heal him,”  In between, God speaks of the iniquity and sinfulness of this person and how they kept stumbling back into sin.  God will lead and heal those whose heart is contrite, who recognizes their need for God.  The prophet goes on to speak of those who proudly approach God as if they were righteous.  They seek God and follow His instructions for worship, fasting and humbling themselves, calling on God to bring judgement against the wicked.  Yet, when they fast and humble themselves they seek their own pleasure rather than how they can serve God.  They argue with others over the correct way to serve God, rather than actually doing what He commands.  That is not what God desires.  He seeks those who wish to serve Him by feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and clothing the naked.  It is not enough that we go to Church on Sunday, if we do not use our surplus to aid those in need.  It is not enough that we worship the Lord every day of the week if we take advantage of those who work for us.  It is better to go to the strip club and help your neighbor than it is to go to Church and only pay lip service to helping those in need.  God will reach out to those who sin but help those in need.  He will bring them healing and show them how to overcome their sin.  If we do not recognize our sin, we will not listen when God tells us to change.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

 

Daily Bible Study

August 3, 2026 Bible Study –Bring the Good News that Our God Reigns

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 52-56.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

I have some thoughts about what I want to write, but have been having trouble finding the way to start.  I have been stuck on the verse, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,… who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'”  Shortly before that God says that His people will know His name.  The implication being that those who know His name will be His people.  It doesn’t just mean know God’s name in an academic sense, but rather in the sense of knowing what God wants done in this world and serving Him.  The prophet then transitions into chapter 53 where he writes, “He was despised and rejected by men,…” which is part of the same prophecy and is something which clearly speaks of Jesus’ experience on the cross.  Jesus bore our sin and makes intercession with God for us who have transgressed against God’s law.

There is so much in this passage which I want to expound upon, but I only have so much time.  So, I am going to touch on what the prophet says in chapter 55.  He starts by saying, “Come, everyone who thirst, come to the waters: and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!”  I believe that the prophet is primarily referring to what Jesus was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  If you truly hunger and thirst for righteousness, seek God while He can be found.  Return to the Lord and recognize that He doesn’t think the way we do, and our ways are not God’s ways.  God’s ways, and His thoughts, are higher, better, purer than our ways.  If we listen to His words, if we read the Scripture He has given us, it will not return to Him empty.  Trust God, lean not onto our own understanding, but rely on what He says and trust that He knows us better than we know ourselves.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

August 2, 2026 Bible Study — There Is No Rest for the Wicked, but We Can Still Enter Into God’s Rest

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 48-51.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

I really love reading this section of Isaiah out loud.  I have been blessed these last couple of days because I have started recording videos reading my daily passage.  Any way…near the beginning of today’s passage God tells us through the prophet that He defers His anger against us for His own sake.  He gives us the chance to repent and turn to Him, despite the anger He feels when we reject Him, the anger He feels when we do not return His love, when we do not understand that He only gives us commands which are for our best interest, so that we might come to praise Him.  God tells us that He gave us commands so that we might have peace and rest.  One of the more misused verses in the Bible is Isaiah 48:2,  “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”  (Other translations have the word “rest” rather than the word “peace”, which I think helps us connect this passage with related references.)  We miss how Isaiah is contrasting how the wicked will have nor rest or peace with how listening to God’s commands will bring us rest and peace.  He will not allow another to claim His glory.  In Hebrews 4, the writer tells us that God finished His work on the seventh day and rested, establishing a rest which we can share, but He said of those who rejected Him that “They shall not enter my rest.”  When Isaiah says here that there is no peace for the wicked, he is saying that they have rejected God and thus will not be able to join Him in His rest.  Which brings me back to what I said at the beginning.  God has deferred His anger at our rejection of Him and sent Jesus who invited us in Matthew 11 to come to Him.  There He told us that He will give us rest: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  As wicked as we are, if we go to Jesus He is still willing to give us rest.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.