For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Those who refuse to listen to facts which do not support their beliefs, who do not fear the Lord, are rejecting wisdom. Wisdom is there for us to learn, if we start with fear of the Lord and accept knowledge, even when we don’t like what it implies. If we reject wisdom we will end up being destroyed by our folly. Those who listen to wisdom, and thus fear the Lord, will live in peace and have no other fears.

    The psalmist wore himself out praying to the Lord. He did not give up. He continued to cry to the Lord, even as his troubles mounted. In the end, God heard his prayers and answered them. Let us follow the psalmist’s example and cry out to the Lord in our troubles. Let us turn to Him. He will hear our prayers and answer them. However, let us not forget to be listening so that when God answers our prayers we will hear Him.

    Jesus continues His teachings about what it means to righteously keep the Law. It is not about obeying the letter of the Law. Rather it is about the spirit of the Law. The Law says that it is wrong to commit adultery. Jesus tells us that even looking at someone with lust is committing adultery. Both involve looking at others as mere objects to satisfy our desires. Jesus goes on to say that even though the Law says a man may divorce his wife by giving her a letter saying so, it is wrong to do so. If a man divorces his wife, he causes her to commit adultery. These two teachings taken together set a very high bar for sexual fidelity. They also set a standard for Christians on sexual behavior. If the Church had held itself to these standards, we would not be having the conversation with society about “gay marriage”.
    Jesus goes on to teach about the honesty, justice, and love. Jesus tells us that if we do not lie, ever, there is no need to take vows to support what we say. If people can trust that every time we answer a question our answer is the truth to the best of our knowledge, they will not need to ask us to take an oath that we are telling the truth. Further, if we are willing to lie in the first place, why should they believe our oath that this time we are telling the truth?
    The next teaching is one of the hardest: “do not resist an evil person.” There is more to it than this, but part of what Jesus is saying here is that we should not let others provoke us. Let them continue to abuse us rather than rise to the bait, but make it obvious. His instructions here are more than just not retaliating. Jesus tells us that if someone strikes us on the cheek, turn the other cheek. If someone forces us to carry their burden one mile, carry it two. I have a situation I deal with where someone I work with frequently tries to get me angry so that I respond defensively and attempt to strike back at his accusations. I need to learn not to rise to his bait.
    Jesus tells us that it is not enough to love our neighbors, we need to also love our enemies. It is important to remember that love is not just an emotion. It involves action. If we love someone we will actively work to promote their well-being. That is a very difficult thing to do. It is so easy to passively stand aside and allow our enemies to suffer harm. Jesus tells us that if we can, we should take action to prevent that harm.

    When Abram and Lot arrived in Canaan they soon ran into a problem. Their herds were too big to share the same pastures. As a result, their herdsman were in constant conflict. Abram sought a solution and suggested to Lot that they separate. Each going their own way. Abram gave Lot first choice. Lot chose the territory that appeared to be better land. As a result of his choice, Lot ended up getting caught up in a war and taken captive. In the meantime Abram had prospered and formed alliances. He was no caught up in the war, but was able to launch a retaliatory raid to rescue Lot. It is important to realize that the consequences of our choices are not always apparent when we make those choices.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Wisdom is there for us if we are willing to listen. If we seek wisdom, we will find it. However, it is too late to seek wisdom once things have gone wrong. If we wait until we are in trouble to seek wisdom, no amount of wisdom will allow us to escape our problems. Seek to act wisely before things go wrong, otherwise it will be too late.

    If we wish for God to hear our prayers and listen to our cries we must be sure to pray to no one, and nothing, but Him. He takes no pleasure in wickedness and will not tolerate sin, neither should we. I was going somewhere else with this, but that caught my attention. In our world today there is a lot of talk about tolerance, and the importance of being tolerant. There is something to that. We should be tolerant of others. However, we should not be tolerant of sin.
    Back to discussing how this psalm applies to our lives: God will destroy those who tell lies and detests murderers and deceivers. If we do not put such things away from us we will be unable to approach God. Fortunately, because of God’s great love we can enter His House and worship Him. And verse 8 will be my prayer:

    This passage contains the Beatitudes and I am not going to write much about them today. Except to say that I like the way the NLT translates them as a change of pace from the way we usually read them, “God blesses…”. It reminds us that all blessings come from God. However, I generally prefer the traditional way of translating them, “Blessed are…” because it reminds us that being blessed for those things is built into the Universe.
    What I really want to focus on are the teachings which come after the Beatitudes. Jesus uses the example of salt for how we should live several times. It really is a great metaphor for being a Christian. If we, as Christians, are not different from those around us, what good are we? But it is not enough to be different. We need to be different in a way which transforms the people around us into something better than they would be otherwise. You should observe your non-Christian acquaintances behaving in a better, more “Christian”, way the more time they spend with you. This will only happen if you are open about your faith and how it governs your behavior. In order to maintain our “saltiness” we must let our light shine. We cannot serve the Lord by hiding that we seek to serve the Lord.
    Jesus goes on to tell us that the Law of Moses is not going away. God’s basic laws are here to stay and if we want to have a good life we need to follow them. Those laws exist for a reason and ignoring them because we don’t like them will end no better than ignoring the oil in our car because we don’t like it. However, we cannot obtain righteousness by making a big show about how much better we are than others. The purpose of the law is not to distinguish who is better than who. Rather the purpose of the law is to teach us how to have a good life and avoid pitfalls and unhappiness.
    Finally for today, Jesus gives an example of what He means about the Law. The Law says that someone who kills someone else is subject to judgement. Jesus tells us that if we allow our anger to control our actions we are no better than a murderer. If we are in the midst of worshiping God, or anything else, and realize that someone has a gripe with us, we are to drop what we are doing and go resolve the issue.

    I have heard many interpretations of the story about the Tower of Babel. Several of them made good sense to me. However today when I read it two things struck me (I find it interesting that I seem to usually break things down into two parts). The first thing is that if people work together and communicate with each other effectively, they can accomplish anything to which they set themselves. That looks like two things, but they are really two parts of the same thing. A group will not remain united if its members do not communicate with each other. Nor will its members continue to communicate with each other if they stop being united in purpose.
    The second, and more important, lesson is that if we attempt to do this without putting God at the center, our communication and unity will fail. If our focus is not on serving God, no matter what other common goal we share, we will seek to advance OUR understanding of that goal and OUR personal interests, rather than the goal as shared by everyone. As that happens we will start to interpret what others say as agreeing with our understanding, rather than actually listen to what they say. In addition, we will start to word what we say so as to disguise how what we say goes against what the other person wants.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Wisdom is there to be found by any who seek her. It is not hidden and we do not have to go to far away exotic places to find it. Wisdom is there in our every day life just waiting for us to pay attention. No one is condemned to remaining foolish unless they choose to be so. It is up to us, we can choose to listen to wisdom or choose to ignore it.

    The psalmist calls out to God when he needs relief from his troubles. He reminds us that God sets aside His faithful servants. Let us stop turning God’s glory into shame. It is time to give up delusions and false gods, those things which promise to give us what we want if only we turn to them rather than God. I will spend my nights searching my heart and seeking how I can better serve God tomorrow, rather than let my mind wander on to how I can satisfy my own pleasure.
    The people of this world are seeking to follow the one who will give them prosperity and worldly pleasures. I will follow God because the joy of doing His will is greater than what I can get from material things. I will not let prosperity nor poverty distract me from seeking God’s face.

    As I read the passage today, I saw something that had never really registered before. The passage tells us that when Jesus heard that Herod had arrested John the Baptist, He left Judea (where Herod ruled). I had read that before, but it was always just a comment about the order in which things happened. However, today I realized that Jesus left Judea because He (and probably His disciples) thought that Herod might follow up the arrest of John the Baptist by arresting Him. This tells us more than just that. Why would Jesus (and others) think that Herod might follow up John’s arrest by arresting Jesus? The answer is because people at the time viewed Jesus as being a leader of the same movement of which John was also a leader. There are other indications later in the New Testament that suggest that the followers of Jesus and the followers of John the Baptist considered themselves part of the same movement well after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

    Five months after the flood began, the Ark came to rest. It was another two and a half months before other mountain tops became visible. After forty more days, Noah released birds to see if there was dry ground. Seven days later, he released a dove. This dove did not return until the end of the day. When it returned it was carrying an olive branch. After another seven days, Noah released the dove again. This time it did not come back. At this point, Noah has been in the Ark, with his wife, three sons, and their wives (and maybe grandchildren) for over nine months. The passage tells us that Noah stayed in the Ark for over a year, until God told him it was time to leave it. I am not sure I would have been able to wait any longer after I saw that the ground was basically dry at around ten months. This passage reminds us of the importance of patience and waiting until God tells us that it is time to act.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The writer warns us against those who see easy money in taking advantage of the innocent or unwary. They may seem like easy prey, but not everyone who appears to be unwary is the easy mark they appear. Those who seek to ambush the unwary will, sooner or later, find themselves caught in the trap they laid for others.

    Our enemies may say that God will not rescue us, but we can sleep safely in the knowledge that He will indeed do so. I will put my trust in God and seek to allow His Spirit to guide my actions. Then I will be confident that He will rescue me from all dangers.

    When the religious leaders came to where John was baptizing, perhaps to be baptized (the text is unclear), John called them out. They had not come in response to his message. Rather they had come in order to feel superior to those they felt needed to heed his message. They did not need to repent, they were teachers of the law. John was having none of it. They were not better than anyone else and their heritage would not save them.
    When we read this we often think of the Pharisees and the Sadducees as the hypocritically religious. That is not wrong, but there are others who are not traditionally religious who fall into the same category. The Pharisees and the Sadducees thought they were better than everyone else. They felt that the “common people” should listen to them and run their lives according to the rules which they, the Pharisees and Sadducees, laid down. But those rules did not really apply to them. Oh, it was important to put on the appearance of obeying the rules, but they did not have to actually follow them, just appear to do so.
    You can spend a lot of time trying to figure out who the Pharisees and Sadducees of today are. I will tell you the only important question to ask yourself: Am I a Pharisee or a Sadducee? If your response to that question is, “Oh no, I am much better than they were.” you are one of them. If on the other hand, you read the passages and either wish you had it that together (even with the condemnation they receive), or worry that you are one of them, you are, at least, on the path to NOT being one of them. I talk with someone from time to time who spends a lot of time identifying who the modern Pharisees are, the thing is, it is always some group with which he disagrees. When he does that, I always get the feeling that he is being one of them.

    We have here the account of Noah building the Ark to prepare for the flood and then of the flood itself. I remember that as I was growing up, and since, hearing Noah described as a man who stood up in the face of ridicule for following God. As I read this passage today I realized that there is nothing in this story to make us think that anyone took any particular note of what he was doing. I actually think it likely that Noah was off somewhere away from everyone else, except for his family. How else was he able to get two of every type of wild animal. In addition, if he was around other people, they would want to know what he was doing. When he told them, most of them would have laughed at him, but some would have wanted to stop him and made efforts to destroy the Ark before it was completed.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here. This is the first day of a New Year. Let us dedicate ourselves to serving God each and every day in everything we do. I will ask His Holy Spirit to make me more faithful in service to God this year than I was last year.

    As we start a new year, it is worth considering how reading the Book of Proverbs can help us live better lives. The Book of Proverbs was written in order to teach people wisdom and discipline. It even answers the question: why do we need wisdom and discipline?
    The answer to that question is: so that we may do what is right, and just, and fair. So, join me in this new year in finding guidance for our lives by exploring the sayings recorded in this book. May God grant us understanding so that we may receive guidance for living our lives.

    Speaking of receiving guidance, this psalm gives us some good guidance about living our lives. If you want true joy in your life, this psalm gives you a couple of things not to do and a couple of things to do. Things not to do:

1. Follow the advice of the wicked
2. Hang out with sinners
3. Join in with those who mock others

It is not enough to know what not to do, we must also know what to do:

1. Delight in the law of the Lord
2. Meditate on that law day and night

That sounds fairly simple. Why do I have so much trouble doing it?



Matthew 1-2:12

    When Joseph discovered that his arranged bride was pregnant, he did not become vindictive and demand she be publicly shamed. Instead, he planned to quietly step aside, perhaps to allow her the opportunity to marry the father of her child. However, God sent a messenger to Joseph in a dream. Joseph listened to the messenger and married Mary. There is a lesson there for us. Joseph did not seek to assuage the hurt he must have felt by shaming Mary. As a result he was receptive to hear God’s guidance when it was given to him. Joseph suffered a lot for Jesus to come into this world and apparently did not live to see Jesus begin his ministry.
    The other part of this story is the wise men. Actually what I notice here is that when someone asked Herod where the Messiah (because that is the only “king” that he would have expected to be heralded by a star) was to be born, he knew just who to ask. And when he asked them, they knew the answer off of top of their head. Yet out of all of the political and religious leaders not a single one of them chose to go and see this long awaited Messiah. They knew the answers, but when it came time to do something, they did nothing.



Genesis 1-2:25

    It is appropriate to study the creation story on the first day of the year. This story tells us the power of the Word of God. Time and again we are told, “Then God said…” and what He said came to pass. Not only did it come to pass as God said, but it was good.
    To cap it all off, God created mankind. God placed man in the Garden, where He decided that man needed a companion. First God showed all of the animals to the man and the man named them. However, none of the animals were found to be suitable companions for the man. When I was growing up, I was under the impression that God brought each of the animals to the man in order to see if they might do. But now when I read it I realize that God brought all of the animals to the man to show him that none of them would do. God already knew that none of the animals was a suitable companion for the man. Having shown the man that none of the other animals would do, God created woman. After having seen all of the animals, the man knew that the woman was meant for him. He realized it at once that she was to be his wife. I wish I could say that the same was true for me. It took God a lot longer to convince me that the woman He had brought into my life to be my wife was the right one, but I am glad He finally convinced me (her persistence had more than a little to do with that as well)

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