Today’s Bible Reading:
 1 Samuel 5-6; Romans 5; Jeremiah 43: Psalm 19
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Sometimes I just want the words of God to sink in…today’s readings have some of my favorite passages, passages that I shall meditate on and carry with me today.  These are the words of life.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. -Romans 5:1-5, ESV
 
The heavens declare the glory of God,
     and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
     and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
     whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
     which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
     and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
     and its circuit to the end of them,
     and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
     reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
     making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
     rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
     enlightening the eyes;
 the fear of the Lord is clean,
      enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
     and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
      even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
     and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
     in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can discern his errors? 
     Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
     let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
     and innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
     be acceptable in your sight,
 O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.  -Psalm 19:12-14, ESV
 
Grace, peace, and mercy,
Debra
 

Today’s Bible Reading:
 Judges 21; Acts 25; Jeremiah 35: Psalm 7-8

I have not been very good with keeping up with my reading this summer.  Somehow in my list of things to do it has not been a priority,  I look at my to do list and starting my day in God’s Word gets set aside…maybe that is why I have been going through a bit of depression;  I have not allowed God’s word to refresh my soul, I have not taken the time to really listen,  I have not spent time sitting at His feet and listening to His word…oh dear, I have become Martha this summer!  (You remember Mary and Martha, the inspiration for the name of my blog?  Luke 10:38-42)

I have to say that I am not very inspired by today’s reading: First, the things the people of Israel did to get wives for the tribe of Benjamin are just disturbing.  Then Paul proclaims his innocence and yet remains imprisoned, though what an opportunity he had to share the Gospel with King Agrippa and his wife, in defending himself against the charges brought by the Jews Paul gets to tell them all about Jesus because that is what the whole dispute is about.  Next I come to Jeremiah-now it is interesting to read about the Rechabites, it seems to me that God brought the Rechabites to the house of the LORD in order to show Israel why He was proclaiming judgement on them.  Here was a people who had obeyed the command of their father, given some 200 years earlier to not drink wine or live in houses or plant crops, but to live in tents as nomads-they had faithfully obeyed this command for all these years and God proclaims to Israel, “I have spoken to you (the people of Judah and Jerusalem) persistently, but you have not listened to me.  I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me…Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered.” (so maybe there is something here for me about sitting at His feet and listening to His word?)

Finally I come to Psalms 7-8.  This line from Psalm 7 struck me, The Lord judges the peoples;
    “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.” (verse 8) I could not help but think it is a good thing I am not judged by God according to my righteous and integrity but rather the righteousness imputed to me by Christ.  Imputed is one of those words we hear but do we know what it means?  By definition it means, “ascribe (righteousness, guilt, etc.) to someone by virtue of a similar quality in another.”  In essence we are declared righteous because Christ is righteous.  When I first read that verse in Psalms my thought was I could never say such a thing-but I realize  that that to state such a thing would deny the work of Christ in my life.  God does see me as holy and righteous and I still struggle to wrap my mind around that.

Grace, peace, and mercy,
Debra
 
 
 
 
 

Today’s Bible Reading:
Deuteronomy 8; Psalm 91; Isaiah 36: 2 Peter 3

Just in case I thought I was not as forgetful as the Israelites along comes Deut. 8.  I love it when a very familiar verse pops it’s head out in a book that I never really look forward to reading.  (Can I admit that there are some books of the Bible that I come to reluctantly?)  “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” (Deut. 8:3b) This is familiar because Jesus quotes it when He was being tempted by the Devil, so why is it that I always seem to forget that it is present in this Old Testament chapter?  It is like I discover it anew every year.  And that my friends should be a lesson to me on how vitally important it is to read through God’s Word over and over again. 

But back to this little gem of a verse…this was a lesson Israel was to learn from their wanderings in the wilderness, to put it in context: “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.  He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.  Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.  Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.  Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.” (Deut. 8:2-6)  It is pretty easy to forget in the day to day how important God’s Word is for the believer-something we need just like the daily provision of manna the Israelites were given.

How interesting to next come to Psalm 91 as the previous reading brought to mind Jesus being tempted by the Devil-in the wilderness-after fasting for 40 days and nights…coincidence?  In Psalm 91 are some of the words that the Devil used to tempt Jesus, “For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.  They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone.” (Ps. 91: 11-12, ESV and see also Matthew 4:1-11)  But the words I cling to in Psalm 91 are these: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!’” (psalm 91: 1-2) I don’t know about you, but this is manna my heart and my head need to hear today.  When the tears are so near the surface I need to dwell in the shelter of my God-my refuge and fortress-the Lover of my soul when I feel so alone in the world.  I am reminded of a little conversation I had many years ago with one of my preschool students.  He and I were the last ones left at school and he revealed that he thought I lived at the school.  I told him that I would be all alone if I lived there after everyone else had gone home.  The heartfelt response of this little boy has always stayed with me, “But Miss Debra, you are never alone, Jesus is always with you!” 
 
Grace, peace, and mercy,
Debra