Reading plan for today: Psalm 84; Exodus 29; Nehemiah 10; 1 Corinthians 2

Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! 

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!

Those are some of my favorite lines from Psalm 84 this morning and lead me to 
stop this morning to consider the blessings of being called a child of the Living God.



In chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians there is another blessing that Paul points out.  We have been given the Holy Spirit that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  It is by the work of the Spirit that the words on the pages of our Bibles are given clarity- that they come to life and speak to us in new ways.  God is with us through His Spirit and we can have no better teacher.  


Grace, Peace, and Mercy,
Deb

With my look at Psalm 119 over I am returning to my daily Bible reading plan.  This year I am approaching it using the ESV Study Bible plan which can be found at http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/esv-study-bible/  This site keeps track of what day you are on and presents the texts to read online.  You can also get a pdf of the plan with boxes to check off here.  If you would like to jump in and join me let me know in the comments.  No need to play catch up, just jump in and starting reading today!  


Reading plan: Psalm 83; Exodus 28; Nehemiah 9; I Corinthians 1:18-31

O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!  -Psalm 83:1

How interesting to have read those words  in the Psalm today and then the chapter from Nehemiah.  I hope you will take time to read through Nehemiah 9- for wonderful insight into God's character reside within it!  It is a chapter that relates the history of Israel and God's intervention time and time again when they called on him in their distress.  It is a confession of how the people had not kept their promises to God, a people that time and again chose rebellion to the statutes of God given through Moses.  It is the story of a people whom God turned over to their rebellion and let them reap the consequences of their disobedience.  But God in his great mercy heard whenever they cried out to him and he rescued them every time.  I am pretty confident that many of them probably felt the same way as the Psalmist as they waited for God to step in and rescue them though.   They must have felt that with each passing year God was being silent-ignoring their pleas.  Yet he heard from heaven and his great mercies  did not make an end of them or forsake them, for he is a gracious and merciful God.

We are powerless to rescue ourselves from God's wrath.  Only he can do that.  May there be no doubt we are all worthy of His wrath-we have all sinned against him and broken his righteous commandments.  His wrath is just as much a part of his nature as his love, compassion and mercy.  We have to take the whole of God and not just pick and choose those attributes that we like-the ones that keep us comfy in our easy chairs.  Equally though, his love, mercy and compassion reach down to save us from our disobedience and sin just as in Israel's case.  But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.  (Nehemiah 9:17b, ESV)  And just like Israel, God sent a Savior to save us from the hand of our enemy.  (see Nehemiah 9:27)  Romans 5:10 states: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.   That is good news!  How thankful I am to God for sending his Son to die in my place.  In Christ I have life and it is all a work of God.  So I proclaim just like Paul to the Corinthians.  And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,  so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”  -1 Corinthians 1:30.


Grace, Peace and Mercy,
Deb