For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The actions of the wicked expose them to dangers and obstacles. If you desire a long life you will avoid them and their plans. Show your children the right way to live when they are young and they will live their entire lives that way.

    I really needed to read both the NLT and the NIV translations of this psalm in order to get a fully formed idea of what it meant to me today. Those who are kind to the poor and help the weak will be blessed by God. God will protect them and people will see them as the justly blessed. Even if we have sinned against God, He will forgive us and bless us when we turn to Him and help the poor and weak.

    Paul starts out today’s passage by stressing that there is no need, and no benefit, to read between the lines of what he writes. He did not write his letters intending to convey a hidden message, nor did he intend to write something that went over their heads. He was confident that they could, and would, understand what he wrote.
    Paul then addresses the issue of what to do about the man about whom he had written in the previous letter. In the first letter Paul had told the Corinthian believers that they should cast the man out of their company for his sins. In this passage, he tells them that now that the man has repented of his sins, the Church should forgive him and welcome him back. This is an important second part to Church discipline. We need to be ready and eager to forgive and welcome back those who have repented of their sins. In the previous letter the key problem was the failure to recognize that their was anything wrong with sinful behavior. Here the key is the willingness to admit that his actions were wrong and seeking forgiveness.

    I always struggle when I get to this point in Job because the arguments from both sides have run their course. Job’s friends insist that he must be guilty of some heinous sin. Job insists that he is not. In today’s passage, Job agrees with his friends that God will judge the wicked, even if it sometimes seems as if they suffer no harm. Job points out that everyone dies, but the wicked have no hope, no comfort, when their fate befalls them. The righteous, on the other hand, can take comfort from God, even in their suffering.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    No matter how smart, wise, and knowledgeable you are, if you make plans which run counter to God’s plans they will fail. No matter how well prepared you are, you will only succeed if God ordains it to be so.

    We often sin by what we say, especially what we say when in the presence of those who do not love the Lord. However, the answer is not keeping quiet, it is not failing to respond to the provocations of the wicked. No, the answer is to acknowledge our sin and turn to the Lord. The way to avoid sinning by what we say is to ask God to guide our words and acknowledge that we will not live long enough to have all of the answers (or even most of them). Let us remember that we are but travelers passing through this life. It is not our home.

    Paul continues his argument in favor of the idea that there will be a resurrection of the dead. Actually, Paul’s argument is more than that; he is arguing that there is more to life than just the material world, that our existence does not end with our death. If our existence ends with our death, than there is no reason why we should not do whatever brings us pleasure. The belief that our existence ends with our death is what led to the Columbine shootings and many other mass murders.
    One of the arguments made against the resurrection of the dead is the nature of our bodies. The argument is a many faceted one, including such things as, “But what about people whose bodies are destroyed (either through cremation, or being eaten by wild animals, or some other means)?” Paul’s answer is simple. The natural body we wear in this life is not the same as the body we will wear in eternity. Our bodies will be transformed by God into something suitable for eternity. It is beyond our ability to comprehend what those bodies will be like, but we can begin to understand what it will be like by looking at the way a seed is transformed into a new plant.

    Job reacts to his friends arguments by pointing out that they are no better than he, which highlights an important thing to remember when we seek to comfort those who are suffering. We are not offering comfort when we speak and/or act as if we are somehow better than those we are attempting to comfort. It is important that we remember that sometimes only God can provide answers as to why someone is suffering, sometimes only God can offer comfort to those who are in pain. If we do not have specific examples of how a person has sinned, we should not accuse them of being a sinner. If they have sinned in secret, God will know and convict them.