Tag Archives: Deuteronomy 5-6:25

March 26, 2015 Bible Study — Should We Be Looking For Someone Else?

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 11:29-31

    The middle proverb is the one which speaks to me today. I especially like the translators notes that come with the New Living Translation. There they tell us that an alternate translation for the phrase, ” a wise person wins friends” is “those who win souls are wise.” When I put that together with the first phrase of the verse, “The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life,” it really says a lot about how God wishes us to live. One could read this as “The seeds of good deeds bring life to those who practice them.” That would not be wrong. But in the context I think the seeds become a tree of life which wins souls. It is nice for my good deeds to become a tree of life for me, but God is calling us to use our good deeds to plant a tree of life for others, and thereby to win souls for Him.

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Psalm 68:19-35

    I am not quite sure what to say about this psalm. Certainly I will praise God as it instructs and tell everyone about His power. Those who choose to be God’s enemies will face destruction. Those who serve Him and praise Him will rejoice.

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Luke 7:11-35

    When John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, or if they should be looking for someone else, Jesus told them to tell John what they had seen and heard. And what did they see? The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. This is the model of what the Church should look like. If we are not seeing the same things in the Church today, we need to ask God why. Perhaps the reason we do not see these things is because we are looking for someone else. Perhaps we are not truly worshiping the Jesus described in the Gospels.
    The example of Jesus and John show us that there is not one right way to serve God. John was an ascetic, Jesus was most definitely not (as a matter of fact, here He tells us that He was accused of being a hedonist). While this was not the point Jesus was making here, it shows that God calls different people to different lifestyles (although not in the way in which this world uses that term to describe sexual behavior).

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Deuteronomy 5-6:25

    One of the things I have heard taught many different times about making sermons, speeches, and writing is that you should have three points. As a result, I am bothered by the fact that so often when I am working on these Bible studies that I find myself wanting to make two points. Nevertheless, there were two points which struck me about this passage.
    In this passage Moses said that God did not make a covenant with their ancestors, rather He made it with those who were alive and listening to him. That is how the covenant which God sealed by Jesus’ death on the cross is. It is not a covenant made with our ancestors. It is a covenant which God has made with each and every one of us. God will speak with each and every one of us face to face. The key here is that God has made a personal commitment to each and every one of us. This is not a covenant made with a “people”. It is a covenant made with individuals, a covenant which turns those individuals into a people.
    The second point is that it is not enough to obey God’s commands grudgingly…it is not even worthwhile to obey His commands if we do so grudgingly. No we are called to obey His commands with enthusiasm. We are called to commit ourselves with all of our being to obeying and worshiping God. I will love God with all of my heart, all of my soul, and all of my strength. Anything less is a waste of time.

March 26, 2014 Bible Study — Do Good And Proclaim the Gospel

    I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I write this daily blog because it helps me pay closer attention to the Scripture as I read it. Before I started writing this blog I had trouble disciplining myself to read the Bible regularly, let alone every day. I hope that by posting my thoughts I can encourage others to regularly read the Bible (and perhaps my thoughts will give someone encouragement in their walk with Christ). In order to make it possible for others to use my blog as part of their daily Bible Study (the hubris of that idea never ceases to amaze me), I read the passages and write my thoughts a day, or more. in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

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Proverbs 11:29-31

    Righteous behavior provides life enhancing benefits, not just to those who perform it but also to those around them. If those who do good receive what is due them for what they have done, how much more will those who do wicked and evil things?

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Psalm 68:19-35

    I love reading from the psalms each day. The first two verses today (verse 19 and 20) are a wonderful reminder of how God cares for us:

Praise the Lord; praise God our savior!
For each day he carries us in his arms.
Our God is a God who saves!
The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death.


But He will destroy those who choose to be His enemies. I will tell everyone about God’s power before it comes to overwhelm them. All the earth will bow in submission to God. I choose to do so, those who refuse will find themselves crushed by their rebellion until they have no longer have a choice.

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Luke 7:11-35

    Luke tells us here about Jesus raising the widow’s son. This story is different from most of the miracles which the Gospels give us about Jesus’ miracles. No one approached Jesus and asked Him to help the woman or her son. Rather Jesus saw the funeral procession and felt compassion for the woman. We are called to the same sort of action. When we see those in need and we have the ability to help, let us have compassion on them and offer them what help we can.
    Shortly after this, John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah. Rather than answering their question directly, Jesus tells them to report to John what they had seen of Jesus’ ministry and let John judge for himself. We should judge the ministries we see by the same standard which Jesus used. First He told them, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life. So, the first thing we should expect to see in a ministry which is serving God, which is a Christian ministry, is that people’s needs are being met, especially those needs which seem the most insurmountable. Are miracles happening around us? If not, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to move in us (I do not necessarily mean things which unbelievers would view as supernatural, although we should be open to that as well). However, helping others is not enough, Jesus finished His list of things for John’s disciples to report with one more thing. He finished up the list to be reported to John with this, the most telling, “…and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” It is not enough to do good things for those who are suffering, we need to proclaim the Good News of God’s Kingdom as well. We need to meet people’s needs AND we need to proclaim the Gospel. It is not enough to just meet people’s needs. It is not enough to proclaim the Gospel. We are called to do both.

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Deuteronomy 5-6:25

    This passage contains the Ten Commandments, which represent the core of Jewish and Christian understanding of our responsibility to God. Moses emphasized the importance of committing ourselves to God and doing His will. There is a great summary of what we are called to in verses 4-6 of chapter 6. I strive daily to fulfill this command, to love God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all of my strength. When I succeed in doing this everything else in this life comes easily. It is so easy to be distracted by the potential pleasures and joys of this life that I forget to concentrate on God and His will for me.

March 26, 2013 Bible Study –The Blind See, the Lame Walk…and the Good News Is Preached

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

Snow on a fir tree
Snow on a fir tree

Deuteronomy 5-6:25

     Moses repeats the Ten Commandments and reminds the people they heard them directly from the mouth of God. Moses went on to remind them that their leaders were afraid to hear more words directly from God and requested that God speak with Moses and then Moses tell them what God had commanded. God heard the request of the leaders and agreed that it was good. God sent the people back to their tents and spoke His commands to Moses.
     Moses then tells the people that God will soon be bringing them into a land of great wealth. He told them that when they entered that land, they needed to remember and follow God’s commands. If they do that, all will go well for them in the land and they will prosper. Moses reminds them, and us, that they must love the Lord their God with all their heart, minds and souls, with all that they are. That is such a great challenge. I find it hard to devote all that I am to loving God, yet I know that I need to do this. That the answer to all of my difficulties comes from doing that. I must learn to let nothing else come between God and myself. And we must live our lives so that others ask us why we behave as we do. When we receive those questions we reply by telling people about what God has done for us. If people are not asking us, we are not being blatant enough about following God’s commands.

Snow in the woods
Snow in the woods

Luke 7:11-35

     Jesus was going into the village of Nain when a funeral procession was coming out. It was the funeral of the only son of a widow. Jesus felt sorrow for her loss and told her not to cry. He approached and touched the bier on which they were carrying the body. The pallbearers stopped when He did so. Jesus told the young man to get up and he did so. The people who were around were filled with fearful surprise and began to praise God. They recognized that this act by Jesus was a sign that God was working among them and it both thrilled and frightened them. Am I both thrilled and frightened when I see God’s miraculous power displayed? Do I expect to witness God act in ways that will be both thrill and frighten me?
     Shortly after this John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He was indeed the Messiah, or if they should be looking for someone else? Jesus told them to go back to John and tell him what they had seen and heard, that “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” Can we say the same thing about our ministry today? Too many of the ministries I see today either focus on healing the sick/meeting people’s physical needs or they focus on preaching the Gospel. Jesus told John’s disciples that they should see both people’s physical needs being met and the Gospel being preached.
     After John’s disciples left, Jesus began preaching to the crowd about John. He explained to them that they did not go out into the desert to see someone who was blown around by every fad that came along, nor did they go out to see someone who had acquired great wealth. Rather they went out into the desert to see someone who was a messenger preparing the way for the Word of God. Jesus goes on to compare the religious leaders of the day to children who complain because one person (John) does not join them in laughing and playing and another person (Jesus) does not join them in crying and weeping. They complained that John did not join them in eating a drinking at their feasts and said that must indicate the he is demon possessed. Then they turned around and complained that because Jesus was willing to eat and drink with tax collectors and other sinners He must be a glutton and a drunkard.
     There are different ways to interpret what Jesus is saying about the comparison between Himself and John the Baptist. The lesson I take from it is that God calls some people to live an ascetic life, a simple life, where they call others to the denial of self in order to serve God. Others are called to go out among the sinners and show them how it is possible to serve God and your fellow man without being a boring, stick-in-the-mud. First and foremost we should not judge others whom God has called to a different ministry than ourselves. There is another important point here, both John the Baptist and Jesus preached a message that was well-received by the “tax-collectors and the sinners” in their society AND a message that was rejected by the “moral” and powerful. So, is our message directed at the “moral” and powerful? Or at the sinners who are ready to receive God’s forgiveness?

Pomegranate bonsai putting out its spring leaves
Pomegranate bonsai putting out its spring leaves

Psalm 68:19-35

     Another psalm which calls me to praise God. It uplifts my soul on a day when I was feeling a little down. The psalmist says that each day God bears us in His arms, that He carries our burdens. The psalmist tells us to look, that we can see God’s triumphal procession coming into view. Let us be the singers out in front, announcing the coming of the victorious King. God is summoning His might and displaying His power. Soon, the nations of the world will bow in submission to Him. Let us sing God’s praises and proclaim His power to all who will listen. God is awesome, both in the modern sense of being really cool and in the more traditional sense of being overwhelming and a bit frightening. God gives power and strength to those He has made His people.

Hyacinths begin to bloom
Hyacinths begin to bloom

Proverbs 11:29-31

     Those who bring trouble on their own families will inherit nothing of value and those who live foolish lives will end up in servitude to those who are wise. That really frightens me because all too often I have made foolish choices in my life. Those who are righteous produce fruit which brings life to those around them, the wise save lives by giving warning. The righteous, the ungodly and the sinner will all receive their just due both on this earth and in eternity.