Tag Archives: The Lord lives

Daily Bible Study

July 24, 2012 Bible Study

     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.

2 Chronicles 11-13:22

     After the Northern Tribes chose Jeroboam as their king rather than Solomon’s son Rehoboam, Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem and prepared to make war against them to gain control over them. The prophet Shemaiah received a word from the Lord that they should not fight against the rest of Israel and the warriors of Judah and Benjamin chose to listen to this advice. Instead of going to war against the Northern Tribes, Rehoboam fortified towns and strengthened the defenses throughout Judah. The priests and Levites that had been living among the Northern Tribes moved to the area controlled by Rehoboam because Jeroboam would not allow them to serve as priests. Jeroboam appointed his own priests to serve at shrines he created where they offered sacrifices to goat and calf idols Jeroboam had made. Jeroboam’s decision to create shrines to idols led many Israelites to move from among the Northern Tribes to the area controlled by Rehoboam.
     Rehoboam spent some time consolidating his control over the territory he still controlled. In addition to fortifying towns and stationing troops in them he gave his sons administrative authority and stationed them throughout in some of those towns. Unfortunately, once Rehoboam has firmly established himself, he stopped trusting in God and turned away from Him. When God brought the Egyptians up to attack Jerusalem, Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah turned back to God to save them from the Egyptians. We are told that the Egyptian Pharaoh ransacked the treasuries of Jerusalem, but left Rehoboam as king.
     Rehoboam was succeeded by his son Abijah. Abijah and Jeroboam went to war against each other. Abijah mustered 400,000 troops and Jeroboam mustered 800,000. When the armies faced off against each other, Abijah told Jeroboam’s forces that Judah continued the practices of worshiping God, while Jeroboam had driven off the priests of God and replaced them with priests to pagan gods. Abijah told Jeroboam’s army that they were fighting not just against the army of Judah but against God Himself. Jeroboam outflanked Abijah’s army and attacked from the front and the rear. The army of Judah called on God and was victorious.

Romans 8:26-39

     Paul writes that the Holy Spirit will help us in our weakness. We do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit will intercede for us as we lay before God our concerns. God will search our hearts and the Spirit will intercede for us so that our needs and wants become aligned with God’s will. Paul tells us that all things work together for good for those who love God. Paul goes on to say that if God is for us, who can stand against us? If we fully rely on God, there is no reason to fear any power on earth or in supernatural realms because none of them can stand against God. Even when we face trouble, calamity and/or persecution we should know that God will still work to bring about good for us. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. He will continue to love us no matter what our circumstance and we should strive to return that love. We must always strive to remember these two things no matter what our circumstance. First, God will work in all things for the good of those who love Him. Second, nothing is able to stand against God and separate us from His love. No matter what hardship or trial we face we can have confidence that God is using it to bring about good for us.

Psalm 18:37-50

     The Lord lives and He will pay back those who seek to harm us. He will hold us safe from our enemies. We can trust in Him.

Proverbs 19:27-29

     We are never too old to learn. There should never come a time in our lives when we are unwilling to take instruction from those who know things that we do not.

Daily Bible Study

June 4, 2012 Bible Study

     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.

2 Samuel 22-23:23

     Today’s passage starts with a song that David’s song of victory. It is a song of praise to the Lord. David’s song of victory was a song of praise to God. He did not speak of how successful he was, or of his armies or his mighty men. He praised God and gave credit to God for the victory. This is something that we need to do, recognize that God is responsible for our successes and give Him praise for granting them to us.

“The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior!”

All of my successes are from God. He is my rock and my refuge. When the trials of this life start to overwhelm me, I turn to Him and He provides me succor.

Acts 2:1-47

     I am actually studying this passage on Sunday, June 3rd. This is important because the sermon in our worship service this morning was partially on this passage from Acts. The preacher this morning pointed out that the Jewish holiday that we know as Pentecost was a celebration of Moses receiving the Law on Mt. Sinai. This made it a rather important Jewish holiday. In addition, he pointed out that at the end of the Gospel of Luke, Luke told us that the disciples spent all their time in the Temple praising God. This means that on Pentecost, the disciples would have been gathered in the Temple. Finally, the description Luke gives of what preceded the disciples being filled with the Holy Spirit is very similar to the description of what happened at Mt. Sinai before Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law. With the Law, God lived first in His tent (the tabernacle) and then later in His house (the temple). With the coming of the Holy Spirit on this Pentecost that Luke describes, God is moving from the House of God to live within the people of God. When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples they were not huddled off someplace by themselves. They were out among the people as a group. We, also, should await the coming of the Holy Spirit in the public square. If we as Christians today were to do that, the Holy Spirit would come upon us in a manner which would cause those around us to be cut to the heart and ask us, “Brothers, what shall we do?” When we get that answer, our answer must be that of Peter, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” We must remember that repenting means that we change the behavior of which we are repenting.

Psalm 122:1-9

     This psalm begins with the psalmist saying that he will rejoice with those who say, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Now that God lives within His people, we should rejoice whenever we spend time with our fellow believers. There are two questions we need to ask ourselves. First, do we rejoice when we spend time with our fellow believers? Second, do our fellow believers rejoice when they spend time with us? If the answer to either of those questions is no, we need to do some serious soul searching.
     Later in this psalm the psalmist instructs us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. He tells us to do so for the sake of the House of God. So, now that God resides within His people rather than within the Temple in Jerusalem, is this instruction still valid? Should we as Christians be praying for the peace of Jerusalem? I will say that many of the conflicts in this world today are connected to the strife over Jerusalem. In order for Jerusalem to have peace, most of the world’s conflicts would need to be resolved. I do not believe that most of those conflicts can be resolved by resolving the conflict over Jerusalem, but if those other conflicts were resolved, the conflict over Jerusalem would also be resolved. So, perhaps we should be praying for the peace of Jerusalem. I will certainly add that to my prayer list.

Proverbs 16:19-20/a>

     This proverb tells us that those who strive for power and wealth face difficulties that those who are willing to live simply with those with little material possessions never experience. This does not mean that all paths to wealth lead to unhappiness, just that sometimes people are willing to pay to high of a price for material possessions. The second of these two proverbs tells us that the path to success is to accept instruction rather than being prideful as the first points out that many who seek wealth are. Finally, it tells us that the path to joy is through trusting the lord. I will certainly attest to that. I experience the most joy when I put my fears and concerns in the Lord’s hands and allow Him to deal with them. His solutions bring me greater joy than any I could come up with on my own.