For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Some people are stingy out of a desire to grow rich. Such people are poor, even if they accumulate great wealth (because they only ever spend their wealth grudgingly).

    The psalmist continues to make clear the benefits of following God’s word. He reminds us that God’s word is clear, so that even the simple can understand it (often, the simple find it easier to understand God’s word than those who think they are bright). God’s laws are always right…if you think differently it is you who are mistaken.

    Peter tells us that people will mock God’s truth, asking why it is taking so long for Jesus to return. However, there are two things which those scoffers do not understand. First, God’s perception of time is different than ours. Many people try to use Peter’s statement that, “A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day,” to apply to prophesies in the Bible, but when they are doing so they are missing the point. The point is that God does not distinguish between years and days. The point is, no matter how we try to figure it out, the day of Jesus’ return will not be known until it arrives. We need to be prepared for every day to be THAT day.
    The second thing which the scoffers do not understand is that God has delayed Jesus’ return because He is patient. He is delaying THAT day in order to give more people the opportunity to respond to the Gospel message. It is up to us not to waste the time which God has given to us. We need to use this time to preach the Gospel to as many people as we can.

    Those who were jealous of Daniel got a law passed which targeted his religious practices. A law which Daniel could not obey and remain true to God. Daniel had three choices. He flat out rejected the first, which was to abandon his faith. His second choice was to take his faith underground and only pray in secret. His third choice, and the one he took, was to continue his practice of praying openly. It is worth noting that he neither hid his practices, nor did he flaunt them in front of everyone. His enemies needed to seek out evidence of his “crime”, but he made no effort to hide it.
    I think it is worth examining the second option a little bit. There have been times when people of faith have followed that option. However, in most of those cases, they were people who came to faith AFTER the faith had been made illegal. Daniel, on the other hand, was a prominent person of whom it was well-known that he was a person of faith. If he had hidden his prayer times, others would have taken it to mean that he had set aside his faith. This passage is a call to some of us to stand up in the face of persecution and declare our faith. It is a reminder that when we do so, God is capable of rescuing us from the punishment which the persecutors intend to deliver. More importantly, if we publicly display our faith in the face of threats of persecution we will show others that God matters more to us than anything else.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The hard worker will have enough to eat and the person who is trustworthy will be richly rewarded, but those who seek a shortcut to success will end badly.

    I will dedicate myself to obeying God. In order to do so I must stay away from those who halfheartedly follow his commands. I will meditate on God’s decrees and instructions. If we do what is right and just we have no need to tremble in fear of our enemies. If we faithfully serve God, He will teach us His decrees and deal with us from His unfailing love. I will love God’s commands more than wealth, or fame. God’s commands are right and every other way is false.

    Peter warns us against false teachers and gives us information on how to recognize them. They are greedy and sexually immoral (note how Peter links these two types of sin, just as Paul does). They make up lies in order to get people to give them their money. They brag about themselves…and if you look closely at what they are bragging about there is nothing to it. False teachers use sexual immorality to lure in the unstable, trapping those who were just beginning to escape from a life of sin. They are arrogant and scoff at the supernatural, claiming to have the power to compel demons. They refuse to acknowledge the sin in their own lives while joining in “fellowship” with believers and calling for “unity” (by which they mean not calling attention to their sins, while they call attention to yours). It is worth noting that we should both avoid false teachers and watch out for signs that we are exhibiting some of the characteristics of false teachers.

    This is the passage from which we get the idiom, “read the writing on the wall.” The main point of this passage is that by the time the writing on the wall appeared it was too late to do anything about the coming doom. The people at the banquet knew their history, but paid no attention to it. They arrogantly thought that they were in control of their own destiny, when their predecessors who had built the empire they controlled had been forced to acknowledge a Power greater than themselves. If we have not learned the lessons of history and turned to God before the writing on the wall appears, it will be too late. Not only will it be too late, but we will not understand the writing on the wall when it appears either.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    A guilty conscience will drive people to the grave, there is no benefit in convincing them not to feel the guilt. Those who live a blameless life will escape the consequences of a guilty conscience, but those who revel in perversity will be swallowed by them.

    If we think about God’s instructions and follow them to the best of our ability, they will make us wiser than our enemies. God’s commands will give us understanding and show us how all other ways of life are false paths which lead to sorrow. God’s word will provide us light in a dark world so that we can walk without stumbling. Let us keep God’s decrees to the very end of our lives.

    Every time I read this passage I am struck by the order in which Peter says that our lives should be built. Perhaps “built” is the wrong word. The base of living as servants of God is faith. Without faith, none of the rest matters, or is even possible. The next step, or layer, is goodness. Once we have faith we need to try to be good as best we understand what that means. As we try to be good, God will reveal more to us, giving us knowledge of what it means to do His will, and to do good. The knowledge God gives us will reveal to us the necessity of self-control. If we make the effort to develop self-control it will teach us to persevere in the face of suffering. As we persevere, we will develop godliness (which is goodness based on God’s standards rather than human standards). Godliness will teach us to act with love towards those who love us (even if they do not always show it). As we master the art of mutual affection in the face of difficulties we will discover the ability, and need, to love everyone, even those who do not return that love.
    Peter reminds us that this is not a once and done process. It is an ongoing process which continues as long as we live with each of these feeding the others. Faith will cause us to desire to be good. Working at being good will teach us more about what God desires. Applying that knowledge will lead to self-control. Self-control will teach us to persevere. Perseverance will lead us to godliness (which is similar to goodness, except that it recognizes that sometimes it is another’s interest for us to do something they will not like). Godliness leads us to have mutual affection for those around us (generally, our fellow believers). Mutual affection matures into love for all. Each step along the way increases our faith, which allows us to build up each of the levels above that. Perhaps the most important thing to understand is that you cannot truly have the level above without the one Peter lists before it. You will not develop true love for everyone if you do not have sufficient knowledge. You will not learn knowledge which will lead to love if you have not worked at being good to the best of your understanding.

    Nebuchadnezzar had another dream. This dream warned him against hubris, against believing that he was in complete control of his own destiny. This passage is a warning to each and every person today. No matter how great your accomplishments, they can all be stripped away from you in a moment. It is only by acknowledging that it is God who controls our fate that we can avoid being brought low and ending our lives in misery. Those who have great success in this life are the most likely to fall into this trap. Those most likely to make this mistake are those who think they are too smart and too wise to listen to anyone’s advice. The fate laid out in this passage is the fate waiting for those who believe they know more about finances than their financial advisers and more about people than their personnel advisers. Very few who suffer this fate ever repent and acknowledge God as Nebuchadnezzar did.