For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 21:4

    When one starts to believe that they are better than others, it is only a matter of time until they will begin to undertake evil acts against those they believe are their inferiors. It is when we start to believe that certain individuals and groups are of less value than ourselves that we start to justify mistreating them in order to advance our own interests.

Psalm 31:19-24

    God has stored up goodness waiting for us to turn to Him. When we learn to fear Him and follow His commands He will release that goodness to us. If we cry out to Him for mercy, God will rescue us and shelter us from those who wish to see us fall. God will protect us if we loyally serve Him.

1 Corinthians 7:1-24

    When I read today’s passage it sounds like he was talking about contemporary society. Paul says that staying single and nor having sexual relations with anyone is a good thing, but because of how much sexual immorality there is it is not practical for everyone. In order to minimize the temptation of sexual immorality that our society throws at us everyday, each man should have a wife and each woman a husband. Husband and wife should work to satisfy the sexual desires of their partner so that their partner is not as susceptible to lust. This is clearly a two way street.
    Paul makes it very clear that he is not commanding Christians to marry. He states that it would be ideal (Paul’s view of ideal) if everyone would be able to resist sexual sin without being married, but he knows that not everyone has that gift. Those who are single and find themselves struggling with sexual temptation should get married. So, Paul tells us that he believes that the ideal is for single Christians to stay single. However, he emphasizes that those who are married should stay married. It is wrong to leave your spouse. The only wiggle room which Paul allows is that if one is married to an unbeliever and the unbeliever leaves the believer, the believer is freed (I believe Paul would have had some serious words for a believer who married an unbeliever).
    Ultimately I find three key points in this passage. The first is that those of us who are married should strive to satisfy the sexual desires of our spouses. The second is that if a single person (whether never married or widowed) is able to resist the sexual temptations of our society, it is a blessing if they remain single…being single does not make one a second class Christian, on the contrary, we should hold them up as the ultimate example of Christianity. The third is that a Christian should not divorce their spouse under any circumstances. However, a Christian whose non-Christian spouse divorces them is free to go on with their life.

Nehemiah 1:1-3:14

    Nehemiah received a report that things were going badly in Jerusalem for the returned Exiles. However, he did not rush off to do something about it. And he did not demand that the government do something about it. No, Nehemiah fasted and prayed for several days, actually, from the context of the passage it appears that he did so for several months (my reading is that he fasted and prayed for days at a time over a period of several months). At the end of that time, Nehemiah felt that God had given him an answer as to what he should do. This represents the model we should follow when we hear of a tragedy somewhere which touches our heart. Let us fast and pray until God gives us a direction as to what action He wants us to take.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 21:4

    Arrogance and pride, thinking you are better than others, are as much a sin as any other evil act. We are all God’s creatures created by Him to serve His purposes in this world.

Psalm 31:19-24

    God has great goodness stored up for those who fear Him and turn to Him for protection. He will keep us safe from those who wish us harm. We may think that we are cut off from God, but if we cry out to Him He will hear us and answer our call. No matter how desperate the situation seems God is able, and willing, to come to our rescue. Let us put our trust in the Lord. He will protect those who are loyal to Him.

1 Corinthians 7:1-24

    Paul tells us that we can better serve God if we remain single. However, the ability to remain single and not give in to sexual sins is not given to everyone. God intends for most people to get married. We should each (those of us who are married) work to satisfy the sexual urges of our spouse. Further Paul tells us that if we are married to a fellow believer, we must stay married, or if we cannot remain with our spouse we must remain single. It is a failure of the modern Church that we fail to emphasize this fact as much as we do other sexual sins.
    Paul makes an important caveat to his teaching about divorce and remarriage. He tells us that if a believer is married to a non-believer (a situation which should only come about if someone becomes a believer after they were married) they should not leave, or separate from, that unbeliever. However, if the unbeliever leaves them, they are freed from the marriage. It is the failure of the Church, which means it is our failure, to distinguish between these two separate types of divorce which is at the root of its(our) failure to be a witness to the world on the issue of sexual immorality.

Nehemiah 1-3:14

    When Nehemiah heard the state of affairs in Jerusalem, he mourned how bad things were. However, he did not just feel sadness about the situation, he cried out to God with prayer and fasting for guidance. After “days” of fasting and prayer, Nehemiah felt called to do more about the situation in Jerusalem than just fast and pray. He then asked God for success in doing what he felt called to do. Nehemiah did not just feel depressed about the circumstances in Jerusalem, he sought God’s guidance and used his gifts to address the situation.
    When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, he discovered there was opposition among some of the regional officials. In the face of this opposition, Nehemiah did his own evaluation of the state of affairs in secret before revealing his intentions to the leaders of the returned exiles. Because he had done his homework and knew the extent of the work to be done, the leaders of the returned exiles embraced his plan enthusiastically.
    Nehemiah’s approach is one we should study when we feel called to address a situation which is tugging at our heart-strings. Start by seeking God’s guidance with prayer and fasting. Follow this up with a plan to address the problem, including a timetable and a budget. Obtain the government permissions necessary, if any. Make an assessment of the opposition and the actual on the ground situation. Recruit the assistance of those with a vested interest in the success of the project. Finally break the task up into pieces that were within the abilities of those who had agreed to aid you.

     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.

Nehemiah 1-3:14

     Nehemiah was serving in the court of Artaxerxes as the king’s cup-bearer when his brother and several other men visited him after taking a trip to Jerusalem. Nehemiah asked how things were going in Jerusalem and his visitors told him that it was not going well, the wall was torn down and the gates destroyed. Nehemiah was heartbroken at this news, so he began to fast and pray. He admitted his sins, and the sins of his family and his people. He asked God to remember His promise to restore His people when they turned back to Him. Finally, he asked God to make the king favorable to him and grant him his request.
     At some point during his fast Nehemiah appeared before the king looking sad. Nehemiah had never before appeared sad before the king and the king asked him about this change in demeanor. Nehemiah was terrified, but nevertheless summoned the courage to tell the king that he was sad because of the state of Jerusalem. The king asked Nehemiah how he could help him. Nehemiah replied by requesting that the king send him to Judah to rebuild Jerusalem. The king asked him how long he would be gone and, when Nehemiah answered, granted his request. Nehemiah followed that up by requesting letters to the governors of the province west of the Euphrates allowing him to travel through their territory unmolested to Jerusalem and a letter to the overseer of the king’s foresters instructing him to provide Nehemiah with timber for the work. The king granted this request and sent a military escort with Nehemiah. Despite the letters from the king, two of the officials in the areas around Judah were upset that Nehemiah had arrived to work on rebuilding Jerusalem.

***
     I never noticed this before, but during the time when Nehemiah was fasting and praying before he appeared before the king he was doing more than fasting and praying. He was making plans. When he appeared before the king he had his plans all made, so that when the king asked him how long he would be gone on this project, he knew the answer. This is an important lesson for us. While we are praying and seeking God’s support for our course of action, we should be planning what we will do if and when God grants us that support. It would not have been enough for Nehemiah to have spent that time down on his knees praying to God, “Please cause the king to approve my going to Jerusalem to rebuild it.” He wisely spent some of that time planning what he would do if the king granted his request.
***
     When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, he spent several days settling in before telling anyone why he had come. He then slipped out of the city at night and made a survey of Jerusalem’s defenses. In the morning Nehemiah addressed the various leaders of Jerusalem. He summarized the results of his survey, acknowledging that the leaders were well aware of what he had found, and proposed that they begin rebuilding the wall. He told them about his conversation with the king and the support the king had given him for the project. The leaders were enthusiastic about the project.
     When several of the officials of surrounding areas(Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem) heard what the Jews were doing they suggested that rebuilding the walls was rebellion. Nehemiah replied that God was with them and that these men (Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem) had no share or claim (legal or historical) on Jerusalem. Various family groups began working on sections of the walls and gates of Jerusalem.

1 Corinthians 7:1-24

     In today’s passage Paul addresses an issue that was apparently raised in a letter the Corinthians had sent to him. He begins by saying that it is good to abstain from sexual relations. However, because society puts such an emphasis on sexual activity and assumes sexual immorality as the norm, it is good for most people to be married. Those who are married should meet the sexual needs of their spouse (husbands filling the sexual needs of their wives and wives filling the sexual needs of their husbands). Married couples should strive to regularly be sexually intimate, only occasionally abstaining when they have agreed to do so as part of a specified period of praying and fasting.
     Paul says that he wishes everyone was single, as he was, but that not everyone is given the gift to be able to live like that. He recommends that those who are not married, or are widowed remain single. However, he encourages those who feel they cannot control their sexual urges to get married. He then gives a command from God. Those who are married are to stay married with their current spouse. If they do separate, they should remain single, or get back together. He continues by saying that in the case where a Christian is married to an unbeliever the Christian should stay with their unbelieving spouse because perhaps the spouse will come to know the Lord through the Christian’s witness. However, if the unbelieving spouse leaves the Christian, the Christian is no longer bound to the unbelieving spouse (Paul seems to be teaching that if someone who is married becomes a Christian and their spouse does not and that unbelieving spouse divorces them, it is OK for this new Christian to remarry).

***
     I would like to add to this that when Paul discusses a believer staying with an unbelieving spouse, I concluded that he was talking about someone who became a Christian after being married. I reached this conclusion because elsewhere Paul tells us that we should not be unequally bound.

Psalm 31:19-24

     Today’s psalm is summed up by the first verse.

How great is the goodness
you have stored up for those who fear you.
You lavish it on those who come to you for protection,
blessing them before the watching world.
The psalmist tells us that even when it appears that we are cut off from God, He hears our cries for help and will come to our aid. If we put our hope in God, we will not be disappointed.

Proverbs 21:4

     I read this proverb in the New Living Translation (NLT) and thought, “This is interesting.” The NLT translation says that being proud and arrogant is as much sin as taking evil actions and therefore just as bad. That certainly is consistent with what I read elsewhere in the Bible.
     However, when I looked at the NIV, this proverb reads to say that being proud and arrogant leads one to commit sins. There is certainly truth to that as well.