Category: Bible

The scripture for today, July 3 (7/3) is Acts 7:3 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.'”

This is part of a speech by Christian Stephen soon after the church began. He was reminding the Jewish leaders how God told their ancestor Abraham to leave his religion, home and family, and move to where God had something special for him ~ to begin the Jewish nation and religion.

But when Stephen got to the part where now God wanted them to leave the Jewish religion and move on to a still better one ~ the Christian religion ~ they got mad. They were not like Abraham; they did not want to change. So, not liking the message, they killed the messenger. These religious leaders stoned Stephen to death.

It is hard to change. It takes a great big “leap of faith.” But when God does the recommending, we can know he has something special in mind for us. So gear up and get ready for that leap!

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The scripture for today, July 2 (7/2), is Proverbs 7:2ff as found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

“Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.  Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.  Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister,’ and call understanding your kinsman.”

It seems, everywhere we turn, we are given differing religious opinions.  They cannot all be true, but everyone who says them seems to be so good.  They all pray and do good deeds, and never lie, cheat or steal.  But how can they all be right when they contradict each other?  Preachers and creeds and elders and dogmas.  When it comes down to it, only God’s opinion counts.  

So how do we get God’s opinion?  We look up everything in the Bible using the key word we are concerned about.  We look it up for ourselves and decide for ourselves.  We do not let other people decide for us.

Well, how do we find all those verses?  By using a concordance which is like a large dictionary listing all the words in the Bible and what verses carry those words.  It is the size of a large-city telephone book.  You can also get it on the internet free here:

http://bibletab.com/

So today look up something about Christianity you have always been curious about.  Then you’ll have wisdom, understanding, and God’s opinion.

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The scripture for today, July 1 (7/1), is Leviticus 7:1f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

“These are the regulations for the guilt offering, which is most holy.  The guilt offering is to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and its blood is to be sprinkled against the altar on all sides.”

Romans 3:23 says the wages of sin is death.  The price was paid over and over with perfect animal sacrifices in the Old Testament. But Jesus nailed the Old Law to the cross (Colossians 2:14), and with his one sacrifice made it so that no more blood sacrifices were necessary (Hebrews 8-9).

In a sense, Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, laid down on the altar of the world where his blood flowed from all sides of the cross to all sides of the earth.

Jesus paid the penalty for our sins in our place.  Do you ever thank him?

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The scripture for today, June 30 (6/30), is 1st Kings 6:30 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.”

It has been estimated that Solomon put over $12 trillion worth of gold in the Holy Place and Holy of Holies in the temple to line the ceiling, walls and floor.  Talk about streets of gold in heaven!

The book of Hebrews in the New Testament explains to the Hebrew (Jewish) Christians that they no longer need or want the temple. Why? Hebrews 8:13 says, “By calling this covenant (Testament) ‘new’ he has made the first one [Old Testament] obsolete.”

Let’s look at the temple in a spiritual sense through the eyes of a Christian ~ and of Jesus himself ~ in Hebrews 9:

1Now the FIRST COVENANT [TESTAMENT] had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. 7 Only the High Priest entered the inner room [Most Holy Place]…and never without blood.…. 11When Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle [temple] that is not man-made. 12. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood [He being the Lamb of God ~ John 1], having obtained eternal redemption. 24. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered HEAVEN ITSELF. For this reason Christ is the mediator of a NEW COVENANT [TESTAMENT].

So, who of us would want an imitation temple and Holy of Holies made with hands back in Jerusalem again, along with all the animal sacrifices on the altar, and priests who would have to be of the Tribe of Levi, and tithing and all the other over 600 laws of Moses?  It makes no sense.

Thank God, we live in a more spiritual age ~ the age of Christ and the temple which is heaven itself.

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 The scripture for today, June 29 (6/29), is John 6:29 as found in the New Testament of the Bible.

“Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: To believe in the one he has sent.”

Yes, it is true that the gift of salvation is just that ~ a gift, a free gift. And it is true that we cannot be good enough to earn salvation, because we don’t know how to be perfect, and heaven can only accept the perfect.

But at the same time, James 2:18 says “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” In other words, there are things we need to do to obtain salvation. We have to believe there is a gift for us somewhere, walk over to it, reach out, and grasp it. Repenting is a work. And Jesus himself said believing (faith) is a work.

And how do we go about obtaining faith?  By believing what other people tell us to believe?  Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing/reading the Word of God ~ the Bible.  It is going directly to God’s Words to find out for ourselves.  It takes a little bit of work to read through it.  But then, we can know whether what we believe is really what God said.

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The scripture for today, June 28 (6/28), is Luke 6:28f  as found in the New Testament of the Bible:  

“Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”    

There was a book published several years ago entitled,  “Hurt People Hurt People.”  There are some people out there who have been hurt and then turn bitter.  They lash out at everyone.  One method of lashing out is when someone tries to console someone who has lost a loved one in death by saying, “I know how you feel.”  Then the hurt person lashes out at the other person and says, “You DON’T know how I feel!   How dare you pretend that you do!”  

That is a hurt person trying to hurt someone else.  It’s as though they are bragging, “My hurt is so amazingly great, any effort on your part to understand is puny and not worthy of the greatness of my hurt.”  

How do you react to your pain?  Do you run people off?  Or do people admire you for your courage?  When you feel cursed, do you curse back, or do you bless?

 

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The scripture for today, June 27 (6/27), is Daniel 6:27 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“He [God] rescues and he saves, he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.  He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”

This was proclaimed by none other than Darius, Emperor of Persia and Babylon.  He normally worshiped idols.  What made him respect God?  It was Daniel’s example of being true to God no matter what.

Everyone has problems.  You can consider them opportunities.  People of the world do not see any benefits to Christianity in their everyday life.  You can show them the advantage by how you face your own difficulties.  They will notice.

A friend of mine was a logger (lumber jack).  This big guy got up at 4 AM every day and didn’t get home from work and finish eating dinner until about an hour before bed time.  So he began reading his Bible out in the forests during his lunch break.  The other men made fun of him.

They had to ride a small bus together to get deep into the forest, and the guys would harass him on the bus.  One day they harassed and teased him so bad because of his Christianity (he wouldn’t cuss and swear with or at them) and Bible reading, that he asked the bus driver to stop.  He got out and walked ten miles toward his home.

Some time later one of the men who had teased and harassed my friend went to him in private with a problem.  He said, “I teased and harassed you with everyone else, but deep down I admired you.”  Then he went on to explain his problem to my friend “because you are the only one I know to turn to.”

So today, if you are facing a problem, face it together with God.  Face it with courage.  Face it with the belief that it is for a reason and that reason may be so you can be an example of godly strength to others.  Give it a try.  You can do it!

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The scripture for today, June 26 (6/26) is 1st Chronicles 6:26ff  as found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

“Elkanah his son, Zophai his son, Nahath his son, Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son and SAMUEL his son.  The sons of Samuel:  JOEL the first born and Abijah the second son.”

This is a little long, but I think you will enjoy it.

The prophet Samuel came from a musical family who descended from Levi’s son Kohath.  Samuel’s son listed in this scripture was Joel.  Verse 33 called the son of Joel and grandson of Samuel “Heman the musician”.  Just what did Heman the musician do?  

David told the Levites to appoint “singers to sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals“.  Heman was the first one they appointed (I Chron. 15:16f) and he had two assistants ~ Asaph and Merari (I Chron. 6:39, 44).  David put them in charge of the music in the house of the Lord and they performed their duties according to the regulations (verses 31f).  

So what David appointed was a choir and orchestra.    When David first appointed them, Heman had 120 relatives in his clan, and his assistants had 220 and 130 in their clans (I Chron. 15:5-7; 19-22; 27-28) so they had a total of 470 musicians.  Wow!  And these musicians had a full time job!

They were to minister before the Lord “according to each day’s requirements” of sacrifices as written in the Law of Moses.  Heman and the others were responsible for sounding the trumpets and cymbals and playing the other instruments ~ lyres, harps and cymbals (15:19-21) ~ for sacred song (16:37-42).  In addition to playing the prescribed lyres, harps and cymbals, trumpets were to be sounded to announce sacrifices, etc. (16:4-6).  

By the time David was old, there were “four thousand…to praise the Lord with the musical instruments” (I Chronicles 23:5)!  What an amazing choir and orchestra they had by this time!  Remember, they were all male Levites, and were to help Aaron’s descendants, the priests, in the temple every day and at special feasts (verse 28, 30f).  And what instruments were they still playing?  Cymbals, lyres and harps“for the ministry at the house of God” (I Chron. 25:1 & 6).  

Years later after David died and his son Solomon had completed the grand Temple in Jerusalem (II Chron. 5:1), “all the Levites who were musicians…stood on the east side of the altar dressed in fine linen and playing >cymbals, harps and lyres, accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets.  The trumpeters and singers joined in unison as with one voice to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and the other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the Lord” (verses 12-13).

Can you imagine such an orchestra and choir?  The tinkling of the harps and lyres, with cymbals keeping the tempo, and trumpets calling attention to it all?  And all those singers!  Was God pleased?  Indeed he was, for in the form of a cloud “the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God” (verse 14).  

All this occurred around 1000 BC.  Three centuries later when Hezekiah was king, the same instruments were being played ~ cymbals, harps and lyres (II Chron. 29:25f).  Why?  Because they were prescribed by David, Gad the seer and Nathan the prophet as commanded by God through his prophets.  (Acts 2:29-30 says David was a prophet too.)  

So we see that during Old Testament times, God commanded that they have full-time musicians to sing and play during daily sacrifices and special feasts and they had to be male Levites and they had to play cymbals, harps and lyres, sometimes accompanied by trumpets.  

What a family Samuel had!  And I’ll bet he was musical himself.  How proud he would have been of his descendants.

Interestingly, although God specified every detail of the instruments that had to be played in the Old Testament, nothing like that was specified in the New Testament.  Did God forget?  Perhaps God took us to a higher plain in the New Testament era.  We do know that in I Corinthians 14:15, we are told to both pray and sing with mind and spirit.  And in Ephesians 5:19 we are told to “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.”  The term “make music” in the original Greek language of the New Testament is to play on strings.  Since we are to make music in our hearts, then it looks like we are to play on the instrument of our heart. How beautiful! Check this out:  http://www.live365.com/stations/christian144?play

About 45 years ago when my father died, the funeral was in a little country church.  The music consisted of a small group from the congregation who sang hymns without the accompaniment of an instrument.  They were not good performers ~ they twanged a lot and sometimes were a bit off key.  But it was some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard.  Why?  Because their singing accompanied by their heart.  They were telling my family, “We love you,” and I really felt that they did.  

God looks down at our singing ~ no matter how good or feeble ~ and says, “I can tell you love me.”  And that’s all that matters.

 

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The scripture for today. June 25 (6/25), is Matthew 6:25 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”

Do you sometimes wonder how God can allow people to starve with such a promise as this?   Try to remember the Big Picture.  

Remember the Jews being in slavery in Egypt for 400 years?  They must have prayed thousands of times to be freed, but most died still in slavery, believing their prayers never had been answered.  God had a greater plan for them ~ a plan to give them time to multiply from the original 70 people who went to Egypt to the over 3 million who left Egypt.  

So, too, God has a Master Plan for each person and each nation.  It is our assignment to hang on and keep believing in Him and that which we do not understand.  God always does.

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 The scripture for today, June 24 (6/24),  is Numbers 6:24f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” 

This beautiful blessing from the Bible has been set to music and turned into a spiritual song.  Click here and you should be able to hear it sung: http://woodlandoaks.org/audio/Singing%202008-12-14/The%20Lord%20Bless%20You%20and%20Keep%20You.mp3 (This is congregational singing, not a choir.)

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