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  Bible reading for September 29 -- 30 Sept 29 -- Ezekiel 32 and Psalm 80 Sept 30 -- Ezekiel 33 and Psalms 81-82 ================   "Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, and send them down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the world below, to those who have gone down to the pit: 'Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised.'" (Ezekiel 32:18-19) ONCE MAJESTIC NATIONS (ch 32). As I am writing this, workers in our backyard are taking down a large tree, a beautiful ash, which has been dying from the emerald ash borer infestation. In the Bible empires and kingdoms are compared to large trees which provide beauty, shade, food, and shelter for God's creatures (cf 17:23). But these same trees can become proud, diseased, weak, and rotten, and so must be taken down. The previous chapter contains a lament for the mighty empire of Egypt. With irony (and personification) it is written that the trees of Eden "e...

Bible reading for Aug 18 -- 19 Aug 18 -- Jeremiah 47 and Psalms 23-24 Aug 19 -- Jeremiah 48 and Psalm 25 ================    "We have heard of the pride of Moab- he is very proud- of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart. " (Jeremiah 48:29) JUDGMENT UPON PHILISTIA (ch 47) . We are reading the section in Jeremiah which related God's judgment upon the nations around Judah. Often, when the nation of Israel or Judah was humbled, the surrounding nations would take advantage and raid the land. This chapter concerns the affluent sea-trading cities of the coast: Tyre, Sidon, and Ashkelon. These prophecies were fulfilled around the year 605 BC, when Babylonian forces drove back the Egyptian army from Palestine. On "gashing" themselves (v 5), see 1 Kings 18:28. Ascetic practices such as self-flagellation do not bring deliverance from divine judgment . JUDGMENT UPON MOAB (ch 48). As a nation Moab, to the east of the Jordan and Dead ...

Bible reading for Nov 5.  2 Kings 18. "He trusted in the LORD the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses." (2 Kings 18:5-6)  GOOD KING HEZEKIAH. Finally, a good king comes to the throne. His reign is not without difficulties, as the land of Judah will experience the invasion of the Assyrians (who sacked Samaria in 722). Hezekiah is forced to pay tribute, and the Assyrian armies return a few years later to ravage Judah and besiege Jerusalem. This chapter focuses on the pride of the Assyrians. The commander (the Rabshakeh) boasts on behalf of King Sennacherib, "Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'" (v 35) It's a great line to set the stage for God's deli...

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he  was going.  By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same  promise.  For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God."    (Hebrews 11:8-10 ESV)  We are at that time of the year in our town, a university community, that folks begin moving away.  Perhaps everyone in transition can identify  with these words about Abraham: "and he went out, not knowing where he was going" (11:8).   There are new living arrangements to make, new situations to learn, new  friends to make, and new challenges to master.  The vital thing that sustained Abraham, as he packed up to move out in faith and obedience, was that he was "looking forward to the city that ...

"Anybody who lives beneath the Cross and who has discerned in the Cross of Jesus the utter wickedness of all men and of his own heart will find there is no sin that can ever be alien to him.  Anybody who has once been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sins of a brother.  Looking at the Cross of Jesus, he knows the human heart.  He knows how utterly lost it is in sin and weakness, how it goes astray in the ways of sin, and he also knows that it is accepted in grace and mercy... "In daily, earnest living with the Cross of Christ the Christian loses the spirit of human censoriousness on the one hand and weak indulgence on the other, and he receives the spirit of divine severity and divine love.  The death of the sinner before God and life that comes out of that death through grace become for him a daily reality." ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (Harper & Row...

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."  (Galatians 6:14 ESV) Here are some highlights from The Cross: God's Way of Salvation (Crossway, 1986), a series of messages by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, preached in 1963 at Westminster Chapel in London.  "The whole of the New Testament is proclaiming the blood of Christ, the death of Christ upon the cross, on Calvary. It is the heart and centre of the Christian evangel, the good news of salvation." "He [Paul] preached the cross because it is the cross that really does this thing that sets us free, and gives us our salvation. This is absolutely vital." "Nothing is more necessary than that we should be perfectly clear about our authority, and there are only two ultimate authorities: the Bible, or anything else you like. There is no other choice...  Everybody bases his opinion either upon this book or els...

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,  but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.   (Romans 7:21-23 ESV) John Stott writes, "...why does Paul describe his experience in terms not only of conflict but of defeat?  why does he say not only that he wants to do good, but that he does not and cannot do it?  The simple answer, surely, is this.  In the previous paragraph (verses 7-13) he has shown that as an unbeliever he could not keep the law.  In this paragraph (verses 14ff.) he shows that even as a Christian believer by himself he still cannot keep the law.  He can recognize the goodness of the law, he can delight in the law, and he can long to keep the law, none of which was possible to him as an unbeliever.  But the flesh, his fallen nature, which was...

Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.   "At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"  At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added ...

We take pride in birth and rank, but it was said of Jesus, "Is not this the carpenter's son?"   We take pride in possessions, but Jesus said, "The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."   We take pride in our respectability, but it was said of Jesus, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"   We take pride in our personal appearance, but it was said of Jesus, "He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and  no beauty that we should desire him."   We take pride in our reputation, but it was said of Jesus, "Here is a glutton and a drunkard."   We take pride in our friendships, but it was said of Jesus, "He was a friend of tax collectors and sinners."   We take pride in our independence, but Jesus gave himself to people, and asked the woman at the well to draw water for him.   We take pride in our degrees and learning, but it was said of Jesus, "How is it that this man has learning, when he ha...