The scripture for today, July 24 (7/24), i is Matthew 7:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:           

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

The problem we have with putting into practice the Words of God is that we sometimes read blindly. We don’t see the significance of something. We may read it over and over for years and never see its significance.

Take, for example, the story of Jesus’ birth. We sometimes see pictures of baby Jesus in a stable with the shepherds, and three wise men all gathered around him. But Matthew 2:11 says by the time the wise men arrived, Jesus and his parents were living in a house. 

Oh, and the “little town of Bethlehem” was actually a walled and fortified city (II Chron. 11:5-6). And Mary, Jesus’ mother, was Salome’s (mother of James and John) sister. (Compare the accounts of the four women at the cross.)  And Jesus was beaten by the priests at the high priest’s house until morning before sending him to Pilate (Luke 22:54, 63-66).  And, the Greek word for the soldiers “taking” Jesus up the hill of Golgatha is “carrying”.  

How about 1st Timothy 3:2?  “Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.” This word “overseer” is sometimes translated bishop, sometimes elder, and sometimes pastor. It’s all the same office. We might think at first glance that we believe all this. But do we glaze over the fact that he must have a wife? Hmmm….

When Nathaniel told Jesus upon meeting him, “You are the Son of God”, Jesus had just told him he saw him long distance in a grove; only God can see long distance.  And the older brother of the prodigal son, as the oldest son, always inherited everything, but he begrudged his brother a single dinner.  Did you know the Pool of Siloam the blind man washed in was 1-1/2 miles from the temple where Jesus brought his sight back?            

And not all of the ten tribes of Israel went to Assyria and became the “lost tribes of Israel”.  King Hezekiah in Jerusalem invited the northern tribes to come to Jerusalem and worship again around 700 BC.  The northern tribes had been taken captive 100 years earlier. (See II Chronicles 30:1-10)

And did you know God sings? Check out Zephaniah 3:17.                   

Here’s another one. Did you know the word “baptism” is never translated in most Bibles? It is a Greek word meaning immersion. Did you know the word “unknown” never appears next to tongues in the Bible? Did you know the word “tongues” is translated most places as languages?      

Oh, so many things we overlook ~ meaningful things. Let us continue to study God’s Word daily with our mind and heart open to new things our religious leaders never told us so that we can build the house of our lives “on the rock.”          

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