Month: October 2014

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The scripture for today, October 11 (10/11) is Psalm 10:11 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-Cover-KINDLE“He says to himself, ‘God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.’ “

Most of us believe in God in some form. And we believe that God knows what we do. But do we sometimes bury our belief in God in our subconscious mind so we can go around and do things we know are wrong? Do we believe we won’t get caught, and we can slide into heaven doing whatever we want?

In other words, do we justify our favorite sins? Or do we justify our sins of omission ~ good things we should be doing, but are not ~ under the excuse that we don’t have time to do good to others?

God loves us more than we can ever imagine. He never forgets us. The only things he doesn’t approve of are things that will ultimately hurt us and which he calls sin. Therefore, we can conclude that pleasing God is ultimately, at the end of all things, pleasing ourselves.

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The scripture for today, October 10 (10/10) is Proverbs 10:10 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“He who winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to ruin.”

REV-Cover-KindleHow can eye winking be malicious? Let’s look further at Proverbs 6:12-14 ~ “A scoundrel and villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plans evil with deceit in his heart ~ he always stirs up dissension.”

Have we ever said something to someone, but turned to someone else in the room and winked as though to let the second person know we didn’t really mean what we just said? That made our words a lie.

We might have pre-arranged signals before a meeting, such as crossing our feet as a signal we do or don’t like what is being said. Or we may run our fingers over our hair, or tap 3 times on a table as a pre-arranged signal to someone else in the room. If we are saying one thing but signaling something else to our partner, then our words are lies.

Perhaps we think it is purely innocent and claim that everyone does it. But Revelation 21 says “…all liars ~ their place will be in the fiery lake.”

So, from now on, let us be truthful in everything we say in word and deed. It can be done. And it is liberating.

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The scripture for today, October 9 (10/9), is Job 10:9 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?”HS-COVER-KINDLE

Job was sick, his so-called friends came to him to say God was punishing him, and Job was frustrated. He could not reason with his friends, so he tried to reason with God. It was a lovers’ quarrel.

By verse 18, he was so upset with God that he said, “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.”

Job’s body was broken, and even more his spirit was broken. Satan was doing everything he could to get Job to deny God. But, even though Job argued with God and perhaps came close to denying him, he always acknowledged the good God did along with the bad. He just didn’t understand the bad.

We don’t understand the bad in our lives. But remember, it is Satan that causes the bad to happen. God may step back and let Satan give it a try, but we are not their toys. We are soldiers in the army of God. When Satan throws darts at us, we hold up the shield of faith.

Sometimes, the bad happening in our life is God’s assignment for us. We are part of the war between God and Satan. As good and loyal soldiers, we take our assignments and stand firm. We may complain, but we still stand firm. We may trip sometimes, but still we stand firm. Being a soldier in the army of God is not easy. But the battle will be won. Some day. So stand firm!

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0-Cover-KINDLEThe scripture for today, October 8, is Romans 10:8f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

The word is in our mouth through confession of our faith in Jesus, and in our heart for truly believing it and not just saying it.

Some say we are not saved by works, and it is true in the sense that we cannot go around doing so many good works that God will feel obligated to take us to his home. We can never be good enough because we sin and those sins need to be washed away.

In the sense that we do not have to do anything to be saved, it is not true. After all, Jesus himself said faith is a work: “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: To believe in the one he has sent’ ” (John 6:29).

To many faithful Christians there are times in their life that faith is indeed hard work. They are beset with so many problems that they begin to wonder, “Does Jesus really care, like he claimed?”

Let us continue to work at our faith. You will have your ups and your downs. Sometimes your faith will be strong and sometimes weak. But remember, even when you doubt God, God never doubts you.

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Clouds in blue skyThe scripture for today, October 7 (10/7), is Joshua 10:7f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.’ “

We today cannot imagine a good God condoning violence, let alone promoting it. But think back. Mankind was quite barbaric in the centuries and millenniums before Christ. God never runs very far ahead of mankind, or else mankind would not understand, would get discouraged and then not even try to follow God. By the time Jesus came, God was saying, “No more violence.”

In this scripture for today, God was telling Joshua to attack people in the Promised Land ~ Canaan. This brings up another question: Why would a good God allow one group of people to kill off another group of people? God told Abraham centuries earlier, “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:16).

In Leviticus 18:24, 28, God warned the Jews through Moses, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled….And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” So God warned the Jews that, if they got at bad as the previous people in Canaan, he would drive them out too.

Further, in Old Testament times, God often punished people immediately. Why punish them? Partly to get them away from the good people. And God used armies of believers to do the punishing for him.

Today God does not expect us to do the punishing. Romans 12:19 says, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay’ says the Lord. On the contrary, If your enemy is hungry feed him….Do not be overcome buy evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Thank God, he has taken the terrible task of vengeance away from us. We can just forgive our enemies and hand things over to God to take whatever steps need to be taken. In the mean time, we can read the Old Testament and learn that God takes notice when people are doing bad things to us. God does take care of us. God does love his children.

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Campbell-Cover-KIMBLEThe scripture for today, October 6 (10/6), is Jeremiah 10:6 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“No one is like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.”

The word “name” here is from the Hebrew word for “renown” ~ shem. This same word is sometimes translated fame. Sometimes we say someone “has made a name for himself” to indicate s/he has become successful and possibly even powerful.

The Lord is known to this prophet (Jeremiah) as being more mighty and powerful than any being in existence.

Do you see the Lord this way? Not in a general sense, but a personal sense? Think back over your life. In what way has the Lord used his power to cause certain “coincidental” things to occur in your life just at the right time?

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Campbell-Cover-KIMBLEThe scripture for today, October 5 (10/5), is 2nd Corinthians 10:5f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”

This is about the 40 years that the Jews wandered in the wilderness between leaving their slavery in Egypt and beginning a country for themselves. They believed their way was better than God’s way. They kept God at a distance.

Events in the Old Testament are there as examples to us. Do we keep God at a distance? In that case, God keeps us at a distance. God treats us the way we treat him. The early Jews did not want to listen to God, so God did not listen to them. Do we want God to treat us the way we treat him?

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WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLEThe scripture for today, October 4 (10/4), is Romans 10:4 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

When Jesus nailed the Law of Moses to the cross (Colossians 2:14) it came to an end. Thank God. There were over 600 commandments in the Law of Moses, not just the “Ten Commandments.” They were tedious. Try reading Leviticus and see if you can keep every commandment in it.

Jesus was the only one who ever kept the Law perfectly (Hebrews 4:15). Once that occurred, he could be the Perfect Lamb of God without blemish, and he could be sacrificed on the altar of the world (the cross) in our place ~ take the punishment for our sins.

And with his death came the introduction of a New Law covered in the New Testament. Read the New Testament in its entirety. It is not tedious. It is beautiful. Let us not try to dip back into the Old Law and bring back showy worship practices done back them. He put it to death and gave us a new and wonderful and simple law of grace and love.

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REV-Cover-KindleThe scripture for today, October 3, is John 10:3ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out….I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”

First of all, we use the term saved/salvation so loosely, we tend to forget what we are being saved from. We are being saved from hell! This is not a minuscule matter!

Second, how do we avoid hell? Through Jesus! This is the only way!

How many of us have been to funerals where the deceased was preached into heaven? So many people believe they are “good enough” or “not too bad” and so God would be horrible to not let them into heaven. Such people will climb through windows so to speak into heaven as the “thieves and robbers” Jesus referred to.

But heaven is God’s home, not ours. He has a gate into it, just like we have doors on our houses. Just like we are not obligated to open the gate or door into our home to just anyone, God is not obligated to open his gate to just anyone. Our door and God’s gate are there for a reason. Let us enter heaven through the gate ~ Jesus. Then God will smile and say, “Welcome home.”

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HS-COVER-KINDLEThe scripture for today, October 2 (10/2), is Daniel 10:2ff as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks…On the twenty-fourth day of the first month…I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude….Then he continued, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia.”

The description of the speaker indicates he is an angel, possibly Gabriel. Michael is another known angel. In Daniel 12:1 he is called “Michael, the great prince who protects your people.” Jude 9 refers to Michael as an archangel who disputed with Satan over the body of Moses.

Revelation 12:7-9 says, “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down ~ that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him.”

Now, let us look back at Daniel 10. Daniel prayed for 21 days. The un-named angel (Gabriel?) appeared to him on the 24th day and said Daniel’s prayers had been heard the first day, but God’s angel could not break away to help because of fighting Satan’s angels.

Now look at Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Does our persistence in prayer give strength to the angels? Something to think about….