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Bible reading for weekend March 29 -- 30 Mar 29 -- Proverbs 16 and Philippians 3 Mar 30 -- Proverbs 17 and Philippians 4 "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." (Proverbs 16:9) MAKING PLANS. We all make plans, and that's a necessary part of life. In the early section of Proverbs 16 I noticed the repetition of the theme, plans of the heart (vv 1, 9). Eric Lane, in his commentary on Proverbs (Christian Focus Publ., 2000), entitles this section (16:1-9), "Living Under the All-Sovereign God." We make our plans, but always with the awareness of God's sovereignty. Our words, and the response to them, are used or over-ruled as the Lord sees fit (v 1). "Man proposes, but God disposes" is a phrase from Thomas a Kempis, who wrote, "For the resolutions of the just depend rather on the grace of God than on their own wisdom; and in Him they always put their trust, whatever they take in hand. For man proposes, but God disposes...

Bible reading for weekend March 26 -- 28 Mar 26 -- Proverbs 13 and Ephesians 6   Mar 27 -- Proverbs 14 and Philippians 1 Mar 28 -- Proverbs 15 and Philippians 2 "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12) HOPE DEFERRED (ch 13). What do we do with our desires in life? Do we merely seek to fulfill them, or should we deny them? Proverbs addresses what the wise person does to manage, and ultimately fulfill, his desires in life. Solomon is writing on the theme of wealth, along with the related topics of being teachable and preserving good speech (vv 1-10). Look at this one portion (vv 11-20) which repeats the phrase "a desire fulfilled" toward beginning and end. What do we learn from the proverbs recorded between those statements?   We do not deny all of our desires, because life from God includes fulfillment of good desires (v 12, 19). Fulfillment of desires (especially wealth) comes incrementally, and we should not...

Bible reading for October 9.  I will be taking a break off-line for the next several days. Below I'll list the readings for the upcoming days.   1 Kings 12. "So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the LORD that he might fulfill his word, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat." (1 Kings 12:15)  THIS TURN OF EVENTS. This is one of those places in Scripture where we see that God rules and over-rules in the affairs of men. Rehoboam's inclination to take the bad advice of his younger friends -- which was his own sinful choice, and his responsibility -- was nonetheless ordained by God to fulfill his plan. Some theologians call this compatibilism, or the principle that God sovereignly ordains to use even the sinful choices that people freely make (from no outward compulsion) in order to accomplish his own will. This is clearly seen also in the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus (Acts 2:23; 4:28...

Bible reading for October 8.  1 Kings 11. "For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father." (1 Kings 11:4)  FALLING APART. To say that Solomon had a problem with women is an understatement. How could he even remember the names of 1000 women he had been intimate with? The foreign women, especially, posed a difficult problem. Such marriages were a common way to make alliances with nearby nations, but these wives -- not converts to Yahweh worship -- would want to preserve their own culture and make Jerusalem feel more culturally comfortable. This, of course, brought pressure on Solomon to build worship sites to accommodate them. One compromise led to another, and so, Solomon, who loved these women, introduced pagan worship into God's land. Judgment comes in the form of adversaries, one of whom, Jeroboam, will actually take away ten of the tribes (northern ...

Bible reading for October 7.  1 Kings 10. "And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her." (1 Kings 10:4-5)  BREATH-TAKING GLORY. This chapter is about the magnificence of Solomon's empire. The Queen of Sheba travels from Ethiopia to see it, and the glory of Solomon's kingdom takes her breath away (v 5). His wisdom is seen not merely in the answers he gives to her questions (v 3), but also in the architecture, the honor of his table and guests, the organization of his servants, his rule of justice, and his worship of God through offerings. It was more than personality, the glory was seen in all his works, as well.  HAPPY ARE HIS SERVANTS. There's a parallel for us, in that our Lord Jesus is the King t...