Daily Bible Reading: Day 121

Spring blooms -Fort Griffin State Historic Site-March 2014

The verses that stood out to me this morning:

Psalms and Wisdom:
Psalm 119:89-176
-How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way. (v. 103-104)

-My eyes long for your salvation
and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.
Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love,
and teach me your statutes.
I am your servant; give me understanding,
that I may know your testimonies! (v. 123-125)

-The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple. (V. 130)

-Turn to me and be gracious to me,
as is your way with those who love your name.
Keep steady my steps according to your promise,
and let no iniquity get dominion over me. (V. 132-133)

-give me life, O Lord, according to your word! (v. 107b)
-give me understanding according to your word! (v. 169b)
-deliver me according to your word. (v. 170b)


Pentateuch and History:
Leviticus 26
(What a contrast!)
-"I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.  And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves.  And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect." (v. 11-13)

-“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. (v. 27-28)


Chronicles and Prophets:
Isaiah 35
-Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. (v. 4-6a)


Gospels and Epistles:
Ephesians 4:17-32
-Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.  But that is not the way you learned Christ! (v. 17-20)


-Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (v.31-32)


My Rambling Thoughts:
Some pretty clear pictures of the difference between a life lived in obedience to the Lord and one that rejects Him.  If you were to read the selection from Psalm 119 (which I hope you will do!)  there are also verses like this one: All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross. (v. 119)  
In the passage from Leviticus we first learn of the blessings God will bestow on Israel if they follow His commands; followed by what God will do if Israel breaks their covenant with Him. It is not a pretty picture.  

“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,  if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,  then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.  I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. " (V. 14-17a)  

Even so, God is not through with them yet, if they continue to reject Him...

“And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.  And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant."

What strikes me is that God's reason for discipline is to restore Israel.  It is not done out of spite, or meanspiritedness as some are quick to believe.  God discplines those whom He loves.  


And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives."  It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:5-11, ESV)


The author of Hebrews quotes Proverbs 3:11-12 here.  Why do we choose to see discipline only as a punishment and not as an act to turn our hearts back to our sovereign God?


And then there is the reading from Ephesians.  The difference between the children of God and Gentile unbelievers.  Here begins Paul's admonishment for how we are to walk as a people who are no longer aliens and strangers but sons (and daughters) of the Living God.  When I call out to Him as Father God, I am acknowledging HIs authority to do what He deems best for me-even when that means he sends a time of discipline my way.


Grace, Peace, and Mercy,
Deb