Category: Bible

 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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The scripture for today, June 23 (6/23), is 2nd Chronicles 6:23 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“Then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing down on his own head what he has done. Declare the innocent not guilty and so establish his innocence.”

Did you notice here that God brings down on our head what we do to others? It includes how we treat him too. If we don’t have time for God, God doesn’t have time for us. If we put God last, he puts us last. If we refuse to forgive others, he refuses to forgive us. This is the boomerang effect. Here are several scriptures that reflect God doing to people what they do.

“The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden. The Lord is known by his justice; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.” (Psalm 9:15-16)

“In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.” (Psalm 10:2)

“The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. But their swords will pierce their own hearts.” (Psalm 37:14-15)

“Let the heads of those who surround me be covered with the trouble their lips have caused.” (Psalm 140:9)

“He mocks proud mockers.” (Proverbs 3:34)

“Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?” (Proverbs 6:27)

“If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it; if a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him.” (Proverbs 26:27)

“Woe to you, O destroyer, you have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you have not been betrayed. When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.” (Isaiah 33:1)

“According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes.” (Isaiah 59:18)

“I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices.” (Ezekiel 7:8)

“As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.” (Obadiah 1:15)

In the mean time, we’re to leave punishment to God. And, if you are falsely accused of anything, God will declare you innocent. His is the important judgment.

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The scripture for today, June 22 (/22), is Ephesians 6:22 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“I am sending him to you for this very purpose:  That you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.”

Have you sent a letter to anyone in your family lately?  How about your elderly parents, your grown children, aunts or uncles, nieces or nephews?  Do they love you?  If they do, they are going to worry about you until they hear how you are.

I have a letter written by my great grandmother to her daughter (my grandmother) saying (besides the usual chit-chat), “You never write.”   I have another letter written a generation later by my grandmother to her daughter (my mother) saying, “You never write.” And I have a letter from my mother saying to her daughter, “You never write.”

Each generation goes through this.  We grow up, go out on our own, get busy, and forget to write our loved ones.  They spent somewhere around 20 years raising you, taking care of you, making sure you were clean, your clothes decent, you did your homework, you got along with your friends, your scratches were healed, you ate right.  How can they devote that much daily time and energy (both physical and emotional) on someone until they are grown, and then just turn it off?  Just quit caring?  They cannot.

So today, sit down and write a letter to someone who helped raise you.  If you think you don’t have anything to say, you really do. Tell them what you had for lunch yesterday, what song on the radio you heard, where you went, who you saw.  Just chit-chat things.  All they want to do is know how you are.  Then they will feel a lot better.  Because they love you.

 

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The scripture for today, June 21 (6/21), is Romans 6:21ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?  Those things result in death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sometimes we do things we are ashamed of, and decide God would be too ashamed of us to accept us as his child.  But God can get rid of the shame, for he can forgive so completely that it is as though we never did those things.

Some people bristle from the phrase “slaves to God” or even slavery at all.  But we’re all slaves to something ~ a big car, high position, beauty, a hobby, chasing after the opposite gender, reading, eating, music, sports, etc.   

From the beginning of time, sin has always resulted in death.  Death means “separation” , and in the case of sin, it means separation from God.  God allowed us in Old Testament times to kill a perfect animal in our place, but we had to keep doing it throughout life. Then Jesus came as our perfect Lamb of God, and allowed himself to be killed in our place.  

The wages were paid through Jesus; so by believing this is true and following Jesus, we are no longer in debt.

 

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The scripture for today, June 19 (6/19), is 1st Corinthians 6:19f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have received from God?  You are not your own.  You were bought with a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.”

Our bodies are pretty valuable.  Jesus bought us with something very expensive ~ his blood.

This world’s temples are sometimes small and sometimes large.  Sometimes plain, sometimes fancy.  Sometimes there is complete silence in a temple.  And sometimes it echoes with song.  Sometimes it has many people, sometimes it stands alone.  People can usually figure out that each is a temple whether or not it has a sign.

Can people tell what you are without you having to tell them?  When your family and friends need a place of quiet and rest, can they come to you?  When people need a place of joy, can they come to you?  After you part company with someone, do they feel good about themselves and look forward to the next time they can be with you?

Today, allow your body to be seen as a temple.

 

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 The scripture for today, June 16 (6/16), is Jeremiah 6:16 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the old paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”

We need history, not only for an appreciation of what our forefathers did for us, but also to learn which mistakes not to make all over again.  This is true with religion also.  There are hundreds of denominations and religions out there.  This divisiveness hurts us.  It seems the more denominations and religions we have, the fewer people are interested in spiritual things.

Within Christianity, think about creeds for a moment.  If a creed is less than the Bible, it isn’t enough.  If it is more than the Bible, it is too much.  If it is the same as the Bible, why have it?  Let us change our loyalties away from denominationalism and toward the Bible.  All this confusion is exhausting!  

Human nature has always been the same, and the Bible written long ago applies just as much to human nature today as it did then ~ Proverbs!  The life and speeches of Jesus!  The many mistakes made by people in the Old Testament!  The advice to Christians in the New Testament!  

It’s not confusing.  And maybe by following only the old paths, only the Bible, we will find rest for our souls.

 

 

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The scripture for today, June 15 (6/15), is 1st Timothy 6:15 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

…which God will bring about in his own time ~ God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords!”

But it’s hard to know just when God’s time is.  You may think it is when an opportunity arises, but something happens and it doesn’t turn out.  So later another opportunity arises, but something happens there too and it still doesn’t turn out.  

This verse can carry you from hope to hope.  Your life is like a line drawn across a piece of paper, and you have to stay on that line.  But God looks down and can see the entire line at once, and he can also see everything going on around you.

Rather than give up on God and decide he doesn’t really love you like he claims, amidst your tears of disappointment, stretch your spirit and praise him anyway.  Acknowledge him.  Then rest until his own time.

 

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The scripture for today, June 14 (6/14), is Numbers 6:14 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“There he is to present his offerings to the Lord…a year-old ewe lamb without defect for a sin offering…. “

A lot of people don’t understand what Jesus dying on a cross has to do with going to heaven.  Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.”  In Old Testament times, God allowed people to kill a perfect animal in their place whenever they sinned.  But they had to keep doing it over and over, because it is impossible for us to be perfect.   Finally Jesus came to earth as a human, and John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God (John 1:29).  

Jesus was perfect; that is, he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).  Then he took the wages of sin and died as the perfect Lamb of God in our place ~ both physically (separation from people on earth) and spiritually (separation from God).  He even went a step further and miraculously came back to life!

Then God said, If you’ll believe and imitate Jesus, I will forgive your sins and consider you perfect too. Then I’ll bring you back to life.  (Romans 6)  How amazing!

And, by the way, since he came back to life on Sunday, that’s what makes Sunday so special.  It’s an I’m-sorry-you-had-to-die-for-my-sins Day, and a Gratitude Day.

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The scripture for today, June 13 (6/13), is Judges 6:13f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

” ‘But sir,’ Gideon replied, ‘if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about?…But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us in the hand of Midian [enemies].’ The Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have.’ “

Sometimes we spend our time concentrating on our problem rather than a possible solution. Or we try to find someone else to solve our problem for us. Or we feel so helpless, we sit back and ask God to take care of our problem. When Captain Gideon did this, God basically replied, “You’ve still got strengths. Use them.”

Don’t sit idly by while bad things happen around you. Everyone has some sort of God-given strength. Look deep within your heart. It’s there. Then go forth in the strength you have.

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The scripture for today, June 12 (6/12), is Luke 6:12 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountain side to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”

How in the world did Jesus think of enough things to say that he could pray all night? Most of us on a good day only manage a 5-minute prayer. The next verse says that the next morning he selected his twelve apostles. He had probably spent at least half an hour each praying for them by name, as well as for others he was considering.

Who do you pray for by name? Do you have a prayer list? How about opening the newspaper and praying for all those people in the news ~ perpetrators, victims, causes, governments, situations? Or everyone you work with? Or everyone your children go to school with? Or all their teachers and administrators? Or the clerks in the stores you go to regularly? Or members of an organization you belong to?

There are always people in need of prayer. And one of the joys of such a prayer life is now and then telling people whom you know that they are in your prayers; or writing a note to someone who was a stranger to you that you pray for them.

Some people have never heard their name in prayer. Some people have never even been told that someone prays for them.

God loves to answer prayer. Do you love prayer?

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