For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I am away from home on a business trip for a few days. I am pretty sure that I will still be able to complete these as my daily devotions, but I may be later than normal in getting them published. I would appreciate your prayers for me and my wife while I am travelling.
I strive to live as the psalmist describes. I will rely on God to defend me from the wicked. I will love them and pray for them, even if they slander me. I will not hold enmity against them, even when they seek to destroy me. If I do so I will not need to fear their curses because God’s blessings will overcome any curse they may cast.
The writer continues his theme that we do not need to have a guilty conscience for the sins we have committed. Christ’s sacrifice covers over our sins, allowing us to approach God directly. We no longer need any priest other than Jesus to intercede between us and God. Since Jesus is God, this means that we can approach God directly.
As a result of this we should seek to motivate each other to acts of love and to good works of all kinds. In order to do this we need to meet together with our fellow believers. There are those who believe that because they have a personal relationship with God and with Jesus they do not need to regularly join with their fellow believers. They are mistaken. We need the relationship with our fellow believers, both to encourage them and to be encouraged. If we do not spend time with fellow believers being influenced by them to more closely follow God, we will be influenced by the non-believers around us to drift away from God.
The people of Samaria and Jerusalem were not satisfied with being God’s people. They were not satisfied with the power and wealth that came from doing God’s will. Rather than follow God’s will, they sought to become client states of those two powers. Rather than trust in God for their security, they sought the protection of Assyria and then of Babylon. Do we make the same mistake? Do we seek the protection of earthly powers, rather than trusting in God for our security>
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. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Ezekiel condemns the people of the kingdom of Judah for not learning from watching the disaster which struck the Northern Kingdom. Ezekiel compares idolatry to adultery. As I read this passage it struck me that Ezekiel was implying that sexual immorality is a form of idolatry and that idolatry leads to sexual immorality. Ezekiel condemned Judah for sacrificing their children to the idols they worshiped, much as our society today sacrifices children on the altar of convenience.
Our sins have been forgiven, there is no need for any more sacrifices. As a result of Jesus’ death we can enter into God’s presence without fear. Our spirit’s have been made clean by Christ’s blood and our bodies washed by the water of baptism. Let us seek ways to encourage one another to act out our love, the love instilled in us by God’s Spirit, and to do good works. In order to do this, we must gather together with our fellow believers on a regular basis. There are those who believe that they can live a life faithful to God in isolation from their fellow believers. They are mistaken. We need to meet with fellow believers on a regular basis in order to encourage others and to be encouraged.
The psalmist calls on God to protect him because his enemies are telling lies about him. Despite the fact that he has done good for them they are attempting to destroy him. They tell lies about him claiming that he is deserving of misfortune because he has refused kindness to others and persecuted the poor and needy. They claim that he hounded the brokenhearted to death. They condemn him for acts which he never committed and deny the good things he has done.
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As I read this psalm, it occurred to me that this is something that those who refuse to accept God often speak of those who strive to serve God. When we hear someone who calls for righteous behavior condemned for being uncaring and/or evil we should carefully look at those who are making the accusations. Are those doing the accusing guilty of the things which they accuse others of doing? When you hear bad things about someone, consider the source. It is amazing how often I have heard someone tell me bad things about someone, only to realize that the source does not consider those things bad when practiced by those with whom they agree…which leads me to wonder if the person being talked about has actually done that which they are being accused of (all too often I discover that while the person has done what they are being accused of, it only becomes a source of opprobrium when it is taken out of context. In context is is actually a reason for approbation).
I just realized that this proverb does not condemn guaranteeing a stranger’s debt. Rather it merely warns to be wary of loaning money to someone who has offered surety on someone else’s debt, since it is likely that they will have to pay off that debt as well as their own.
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 am sorry if my posts are not posted in a timely fashion for the next little while. OK, I have my power back, and I have my Internet back. I was just getting into a new routine and I think I am going to keep some aspects of that new routine. I hope that no one was too disappointed in my posts for the last week or so (or at least no more than they are routinely disappointed by my posts).
Ezekiel compares Israel and Judah to two sisters who prostituted themselves even though they were married. God had made a covenant with them, but they broke it. They lusted after the power and protection of foreign powers. They worshiped the gods of those powers and failed to keep God’s commands. They sacrificed their children and violated the Sabbath. Repeatedly Ezekiel brings up the sacrifice of their children. As if to say, how could you not know that you were doing wrong in your idolatry when it led you to murder your own children? Do we today see the connection between how we fail to keep a day set aside for God and abortion? We as Christians in America have little by little allowed ourselves to give up the standards that God sets forth in the name of convenience or not standing out. I am as guilty of it as the next person. We say, “Shopping on Sunday isn’t as bad as abortion.” While that is true, is not shopping on Sunday a case of us putting our priorities ahead of God’s? I am not going to tell you that shopping on Sunday is always wrong, but when we do it because it is more convenient, are we not worshiping our convenience when we should be worshiping God. I am not getting the words to come out quite right, but I think you can see where I am going.
We need not fear entering into God’s presence because Jesus has once and for all opened the way into the Most Holy Place of God’s presence. We can go into the presence of God trusting in Jesus to be our intermediary. Our spirits have been washed with Christ’s blood and our bodies have been washed with the water of baptism, so now we are clean before God.
There is a short instruction here that I want to make note of. “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do,…” From time to time, I come across a post from someone who says that they do not need Church. This passage says they are wrong. Of course, Church is not necessarily a group that meets in a building dedicated to “Church”, or even a formal group (although it is close to the latter). Church is the Body of believers. So, it is doing Church if there is a group of fellow Christians that you meet with on a regular (weekly?) basis to talk about your faith walk and worship God. What is the context of the verse I quoted above? We are to think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. We are to encourage one another in these end times. If we are part of a body that does these things, a body of believers that meet on a regular basis, we are following the instructions the writer gives us here.
We have been forgiven through grace, but this is not license for us to continue to sin deliberately. The key word is deliberately. Let us remember how we felt when we first came to know the Lord. Let us strive to serve Him with the same enthusiasm we had at that point. If we do this, the temptations to sin will be farther from us and the Spirit will show us how to be more faithful.
Let us not fear when evil people slander us. God will defend us against those who attack us for no reason except for our love of God. Trust that God will care for us when people repay our acts of good with evil, when those we love hate us. We must place our trust in God when people tell lies about us in response to our praying for them. The things the psalmist talks about will happen to us. Those who do not wish to follow the Lord will tell such lies about us. Let us be faithful to the Lord so that these things are lies.
Someone who is willing to guarantee a stranger’s debt is a bad risk, doubly so if they are willing to guarantee the debt of a promiscuous woman. These things are not bad in and of themselves, but they suggest poor judgment.
