Category: Daily

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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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 18 (6/18), is 2nd Chronicles 6:18a as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“But will God really dwell on earth with men?  The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you.”

Did you ever want to see God, to talk to him face to face?  Perhaps something bad had just happened in your life and you had this urge to complaint to him, then let him explain why. Or did you ever want to touch God?  Perhaps you were so very lonely that you desperately needed his arms around you, and feel his touch as he brushed away your tears.

But, if we could see him and touch him, it would mean that he could not be with others in the world at that time, and could not hear anyone else’s prayers at that time except yours. Let us be grateful that we cannot see and touch him for now.  He is always available to all of us, regardless of where we are in this vast world and regardless of how many others are praying to him at that moment.

How he can sort out all our prayers at once is mind-boggling.  How he can be everywhere at once is amazing.

 

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The scripture for today, June 17 (6/17), is Matthew 6:17 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face.”

This is interesting because Jesus did not say “If, you fast” but rather “When you fast.”  It was as though he was teaching us to take for granted that we would fast ~ it would be second-nature to us.  In a sense it is, for when most people go through a sudden tragedy such as loss of a loved one, they often cannot eat.

But what about voluntary fasting?  The early church sometimes fasted.  Acts 13:2 says a congregation in Antioch, Syria, fasted and worshiped, then chose men to go out as missionaries.  Queen Esther fasted before going to the king uninvited with a request he might not like (Esther 4:16).  Isaiah 58:3 says people fasted in order to humble themselves.

Some people respond, “I’d die if I had to fast.”  And perhaps that’s kind of the idea.  We know we would die if we went without food long enough.  So perhaps one day of fasting is a way of saying, “God, I would die for you if I had to.”  Yes, fasting is a humbling experience, and frightening to some people.  But perhaps that is the point.  

Is something important coming up that you know you will be urgently praying about?  Once you skip one meal, you will have conquered your desire to eat.  Then, with your brain not having to concentrate on digesting food, it will be able to focus more on that important thing happening in your life.  Your prayers will be more focused.  You will be more focused with your eyes more clearly on God.  

So, take a shower, comb your hair, put on some nice clothes, and look like you have something important to do.  Then fast.  Jesus fasted.  Follow his example.

 

 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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