For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I ask that those who are regular readers of this site please visit both Bible Gateway (it is a great resource for whenever you need to look up Scripture) and One Year Bible Online. The people who run both sites do great work.

Proverbs 14:22-24

    Those who plan to do evil are lost. As long as they do so there is no hope for their redemption. Those who plan to do good will find love and faithfulness. It is not talk which leads to prosperity, that requires actual work, and hard work at that.

Psalm 104:24-35

    Today we finish psalm 104 which talks about the grandeur and might of God. Today’s psalm reminds us that every living thing depends upon God for food. When God completely withdraws His favor from any living being, that being dies. The last three verses of this psalm make an excellent prayer and meditation:

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will praise my God to my last breath!

May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.

Let all sinners vanish from the face of the earth;
let the wicked disappear forever.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!

John 3:22-4:3

    John the Baptist makes many points we should pay attention to when he answers his disciples concerns over people going to Jesus rather than coming to John. However, the most important point he makes is that we should never feel jealous when another person becomes more prominent in doing God’s work than we are. We can only receive honor for serving God if it is given to us by God. John’s point is that we will be as prominent in the Church as God wills. Any attempt to have greater prominence than God wills for us will have us serving Satan rather than God.

Judges 19-20:48

    The story told here is a terrible tragedy with no heroes in it anywhere. The men of the town of Gibeah behaved atrociously in how they attempted to treat the traveling Levite and in how they treated his concubine. The Levite behaved terribly in giving them his concubine. The men of the rest of the tribe of Benjamin behaved badly by choosing to defend the men of Gibeah. The men of the rest of Israel behaved badly by seeking to destroy all of Benjamin for the crimes of the men of Gibeah. All in all this story shows us how our outrage over an injustice can easily get out of hand. In many ways this story is one we need preached in our country today.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 14:20-21

    Everyone wants to be friends with the rich, but everyone looks down on the poor. There are those who think that if only the poor would apply themselves they would no longer be poor. But far worse are those who think the poor are like children who need to be looked after and taken care of by their betters. It is a sin to despise your neighbor (and remember who Jesus says your neighbor is). This translation says that those who help the poor will be blessed. I prefer the NIV for that part. There it says that those who are kind to the needy are blessed. The difference being that one can “help the poor” in many ways, but being kind requires direct interaction and involves responding to the specific needs/wants of a specific individual.

Psalm 104:1-23

    This psalm continues the theme of letting all that I am praise the Lord. This psalm speaks of God’s grandeur and of how all of His creation is wonderfully made. I will not try to summarize nor comment on it here. This psalm does too good and beautiful of a job for that. Please read it for yourself. The only thing I will add is that the psalmist is telling us how God set the entire world up as a feedback system to maintain itself and correct for things getting out of balance.

John 3:1-21

    We are all the products of what has happened to us in the past. How are parents treated us. What we learned from those around us, often lessons which no one intended to teach us. Obviously the largest influence on who we are as people is our parents, whether that is through the way they raised us, or through their abdication of that responsibility to others. However, there are other influences as well, our teachers in school, the friends and acquaintances we have made and met over the years, events going on in the world around us. All of these things shape us, both for good and for bad, starting at our birth. Their were people and events which occurred before we have any memory which have shaped who we are today.
    In today’s passage, Jesus tells us that we must be born again. What He is telling us is that we must allow the Holy Spirit to erase those influences. In order to enter into the Kingdom of God, we must be willing to let go of the lessons we have learned over our life time. We must learn new lessons and be shaped into new people. The Holy Spirit will undo the events of the past to transform us, if we allow it to happen. We need to let go of the negative things which happened to us in the past. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us so that we can live as if those things never happened.

Judges 17-18:31

    The lesson of this passage is summed up by verse 6, “all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” Micah stole from his own mother and returned the money to her to avoid her curse. She took the returned money and commissioned an idol. Micah set up a shrine for the idol and installed one of his sons as a priest. Then, he convinced a Levite to take over as priest in his shrine. Micah was convinced that because he had a Levite as priest in his shrine that God would bless him. It never entered his head to consider that neither he, nor his priest, were worshiping God. He did what he thought was right.
    One day, some members of the tribe of Dan came upon Micah and met his priest. They recognized that the priest was a Levite and questioned him about what he was doing there. After completing their scouting mission, they came to Micah’s house with a large number of warriors and stole the idols and implements from Micah’s shrine. When the Levite confronted them, they offered him a better position with them than with Micah. He accepted and they went on their way. When Micah came after them to recover his stolen property, they made it clear that they had sufficient force to prevent him from taking back what was his. They did what they thought was right. They believed that God would bless them because they had the idols which Micah had made and the Levite to act as their priest.
    How often do we check our actions against what God has said in Scripture, or with our fellow believers? Certainly as we look at society around us we can see how many people do what is right in their own eyes. And in many cases, we can see how it is wrong, but what about us? Do we do what is right in our own eyes? Or what is right in God’s eyes?

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 14:17-19

    If you allow your temper to control you easily (that is, if you are short-tempered) you will do foolish things. You will get angry and lash out at people who have done nothing wrong because you reacted in anger before you thought things through. There is a reason the proverb writer lumps schemers in here. Schemers will manipulate those who are short-tempered to get their way, but when tempers cool everyone, both the short-tempered and those unjustly lashed out at, will hate the schemer who brought it about.

Psalm 103:1-22

    I love this psalm. It starts out with a great statement we should all take to heart.

Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
I desire to make this my focus today. I will strive to focus on praising the Lord with all that I am. This psalm reminds me how good God has been to me. Not only has He not punishedme as harshly for my sins as I deserve, He has forgiven my sins. I do not deserve God’s love, yet He loves me beyond my ability to imagine. I will praise the Lord.

John 2:1-25

    I get a kick out of the story about the Wedding at Cana. I grew up in a Church which taught complete abstinence from alcohol. The typical explanation for this passage was that the wine at the time was little more than grape juice. However, as I have gotten older I learned that the wine of the New Testament was indeed significantly alcoholic. This is clear from the statement by the master of ceremonies(MC) about how people usually serve the best wine first, bringing out the cheaper stuff once people’s taste buds are deadened. The other part is that part of what the MC meant is that the “best” wine would have higher alcohol content.
was a drunkard, but He enjoyed drinking alcohol. He spent time with those who ate and drank to excess. I believe that by doing so He gave them an example to follow which they might actually consider following. Jesus had fun and was fun to be around. Are we fun to be around?

Judges 15-16:31

    Samson was a powerful warrior who served as a check on the Philistines’ power over the Israelites. However, he repeatedly exhibited poor judgment. In this passage he once again he showed how he was attracted to the wrong kind of woman. He became involved with Delilah, even though she was a Philistine. He continued to see her, even after she demonstrated that she would use what he told her against him. Every time he gave her a different answer to her question about where his strength came from, she used what he told her and set a trap for him. Despite this, he continued to spend time with her and eventually told her the truth. This is a warning to all men that getting involved with the wrong woman will lead to trouble. I will add that while this story does not point this out, getting involved with the right woman can lead to great heights.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 14:15-16

    It is foolish to believe everything you hear. The prudent think ahead and plan their steps. The wise cautiously evaluate the situation so as to avoid danger, the foolish are sure of their ability to handle any danger which arises and rush in without thought or plan.

Psalm 102:1-28

    This psalm is a reminder both of how short our lives are and how merciful God is. The psalmist reminds us to record the great and wonderful things God has done so that those not yet born will praise God when they read of His mercy and power.

John 1:29-51

    When I have read this passage, I have always assumed that the two disciples of John the Baptist who heard John call Him the lamb of God and followed Him were Andrew and Philip. When a year or two ago a few people told me that tradition says that the other disciple of John the Baptist was John the brother of James, I was surprised. I realized that my assumption that it was Philip was not the clear reading of the passage I had always thought it was. The writer of this Gospel always refers to John the brother of James cryptically and that is certainly consistent with this passage.
    The problem I have with the second of John’s disciples not being Philip (the first is clearly identified as Andrew) is that the next day when Philip talks to Nathaniel he clearly knows quite a bit about Jesus’ teaching. Enough to be convinced that Jesus is the Messiah. At this point in the account there are only three people (four, if you count John the Baptist) who know enough about Jesus to consider Him the Messiah: the two disciples of John and Peter. I will admit that I have always been biased towards this interpretation because I share Philip’s name.

Judges 13-14:20

    I find it interesting to compare and contrast Samson and Samuel. Both were the sons of women who had been unable to bear children. Both were dedicated to God’s service from birth. Both served God in their own way their whole lives. However, Samuel lived a long life and provided Israel with good leadership to take his place (even though Saul was still in power, Samuel had annointed David). Samson, on the other hand, died a prisoner of the Philistines.
    What was the difference? Samson chose poorly when it came to women. Throughout his life he chose to pursue women whose first loyalty was neither to God nor to him. I am convinced that we would do well to point to Samson as a negative role model when it comes to finding the right woman. Rather than seek a wife from among those who worshiped God, Samson asked his father to get him a woman from among the Philistines, who did not worship God. It is worth noting that Samson’s father had clearly spoiled him and continued to do so in this situation. The woman Samson had chosen nagged him to get him to give her information which would disadvantage him in favor of her countrymen. It is worth noting that Samson never learned from the mistake he made here.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 14:13-14

    Laughter may cover grief for a time, but it will not make it go away. Sooner or later, you will need to face your grief and deal with it.

Psalm 101:1-8

    This psalm does such a great job describing how God calls us to live.

1. Live a life of integrity, not just in public but even in the privacy of our own home
2. Refuse to look at anything vile or vulgar, let alone offer it approval
3. Hate the actions of those who abandon their faith, have no part in such actions
4. Reject perverse ideas, have nothing to do with what is evil
5. Do not tolerate those who slander others, reject conceit and pride

And the most important

6. Seek out faithful people to associate with



John 1:1-28

    Where John used “the Word”, I think we might today use “the Ideal”, although that does not quite have the right connotation. The Greek word John used had connotations of logic and rationality. To a degree it implied objective truth. Our society has a problem with the thought that there is objective truth. What people forget is that so did the society in which John wrote.
    Related to John’s use of “the Word” is his imagery of light. Evil is not a thing any more than dark is a thing. Both are defined by what they are not. The point John is making here is that just as introducing a small amount of light into a dark room completely transforms the darkness, so too does introducing a small amount of good transforms our evil world.



Judges 11-12:15

    The story of Jephthah represents an interesting contrast to the story of Abimelech. Both men ruled part of Israel for a time and the story of both men surrounded themselves with scoundrels. However, this is where their stories diverge. Abimelech surrounded himself with scoundrels in order to seize power by killing his half brothers. Jephthah attracted a band of scoundrels after his half brothers drove him out of his father’s lands. Jephthah did not seek power, rather the leaders sent for him to command their forces when an enemy began attacking them. These two stories tell us that we need to look deeper than the surface to know who would make a good leader.

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