Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
[If] … you continue in your faith …
Summary: How should we describe faith? In these days of computers following a map is much different than it used to be. Yet the principles are the same. “Do we trust the map?,” or “Do we trust the computer?,” are both basically the same question.
Continue reading “Colossians 1:23b – The Map”
You love those who hate you and hate those who love you.
Today’s passage is a bit odd for a theme verse. Joab, the king’s commander of the army, has just killed Absalom and saved the kingdom for David. Instead of thanks and praise, David rewards him with recriminations. Here is the passage in context:
“Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, ‘Today you have humiliated all your men, who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines. You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that the commanders and their men mean nothing to you. I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead. Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come on you from your youth till now.’”
— 2 Samuel 19:5-7
For the most part, David lived a noble life. He was courageous before his enemies, and faithful to God, even to the point of respecting the life of the man who was bent on killing him, King Saul. It was only when he had achieved relative peace and had been established as king over Israel that the wheels started to come off.
Continue reading “Hyperopia – 2 Samuel 19: 6a”
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
— Proverbs 3: 5-6
So what is the big deal about traveling a straight path?
It depends on what you want, I suppose. Depending on where you are in life, look back on where you have been. Are you one of those people who seemed to know where they were going and walked straight towards their goal? Or are you one of those people, like me, who meandered a bit along life’s trail?
While exploring on our own can be fun, there are dangers along the trail. Like the little lost lamb, we might find ourselves stuck in a briar patch or the bottom of a ravine with a broken leg. Dangers and dead ends waste time and might keep us from getting where we are going.
And where are we going again? We are going to be with our Father in heaven. That is our goal. That is our hope.
Continue reading “Wisdom Wednesday – Paths”