Sunday, November 1, 2009

Day 30: 335 days left…93 books to go!

Exodus 22-27:19

  •  Thought-provoking verse about how liberally & disrespectfully we discuss & view the leaders in government these days..."Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people."  Chapter 22, Verse 28  There are several verses in Scripture about honoring the rulers of government in your country...We consider it our right these days to voice a negative opinion and be perpetually unsatisfied with our leaders...
  • "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong."  Chapter 23, Verse 2  So easy to do....
  • "Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt."  Verse 9  Makes me think of the "Keep on Standing" book I just completed last week....
  • This next verse is hard for me to grasp...sounds like a "name it & claim it" concept...which is contrary to what I believe..."Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water.  I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land.  I will give you a full life span."  Verses 25 & 26  This promise must have been exclusive to the Israelites at that point in time...because there are people in my  life who worship God who have been sick, have had miscarriages and have not lived a full life span...although I do believe God had blessings on their lives...He didn't prevent these things from happening...
  • "To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain."  Chapter 24, Verse 17  Do we sometimes cease to recognize God's consuming fire from day to day?  
  • "You are to receive the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts him to give."  Chapter 25, Verse 2  I wonder if one's heart has to be very in-tune with God for it to genuinely be prompted to give....we tend to hold onto our riches with tightly clenched fists....
Matthew 22:15-25:30
  • "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God'."  Chapter 22, Verse 21  Which I believe means, pay your taxes & your bills...no Christian is exempt from what he owes society in this way...
  • The Greatest Commandment:  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."  Chapter 22, Verses 37-40  The "loving your neighbor as yourself part" is not an easy task to accomplish....it really isn't....my understanding of what this could look like barely touches what I can imagine it can be...
  • "The greatest among you will be your servant.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."  Chapter 23, Verses 11 & 12
  • "More important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness... Verse 23
  • "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."  Verse 39
  • Signs of the end of the age..."Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be famines and earthquakes in various place.  All these are the beginning of the birth pains...Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come...'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'  At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn.  They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.  And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other."  Chapter 24, Verses 7, 8, 12-14, 29-31  Let my love of God not grow cold....

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