The scripture for today, August 2, is Matthew 8:2 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’  Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.  ‘I am willing,’ he said.  ‘Be clean!  Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.’ “

People in Jesus’ day who had leprosy had to live outside of town in what we would call a leper colony.  And if someone without leprosy started getting close too them, they were required to call out, “Unclean!  Unclean!”

Then Jesus did another remarkable thing:  He touched the man.  He touched the leprosy.  Not only was he willing to be seen with an unclean man, he was willing to touch the disease.

Jesus still does this today.  When we come to him with a diseased heart wondering if we are good enough, Jesus reaches out across the centuries and touches us.  And his voice echoes across the centuries and says, “I am willing.”

No matter how much sin mars your life, Jesus still today can say, “Be clean.”

The scripture for today, July 14, is 2nd Chronicles 7:14 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

There is always a little bit of turmoil in all nations of the world. Of course, there is more in some. The average person cannot make their own nation call on God. But the average person can do this: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone ~ for kings and all those in authority” (I Timothy 2:1-2). Further, we should pray for them by name.

Even if you think some people in authority in your nation are against you, you must pray for them anyway. Then wait quietly for God to work things out. It may take Him a year, a decade or a lifetime to bring about your heart’s desire for your nation. But keep praying.

Your job, in the mean time, is to follow God’s ways yourself. Romans 13:1, 3-4 says, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. …For rulers hold no terror for those who do right….For he is God’s servant to do you good.”

God is aware of the suffering going on in your nation. He will not leave you or forsake you.

The scripture for today, July 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.

The scripture for today, July 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?

The scripture for today, June 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 50 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 was 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.

The scripture for today. June 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. We may not understand, but God always does.

The scripture for today, June 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.)

The scripture for today, June 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.

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

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.

The scripture for today, June 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, are they glad you’re gone, or 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.