Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Wednesday, October 14th: 1 Samuel 4-6, Ephesians 4 ~ Tammy

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 4-6; Ephesians 4

In our 1 Samuel passage we see the Israelites treating the ark like a good luck charm, and God like a genie ready to grant their every wish.

Following God because of what He can do for us is not faith.  Obviously, we need to rely on Him for our salvation - it was all Him.  Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life, died for our sins, rose from the dead defeating death and sin, returning to heaven and giving us His Spirit which works within our dead souls to bring us to repentance and relationship with Him.  We need to put our faith in God because of who He is, loving Him, knowing Him, obeying Him.

I love how God demonstrated His power undeniably to the Philistines in the face of their worship of a false god.

Our NT passage focuses on unity within the body of Christ.  We are to love each other.  But unity and peace cannot come at the price of allowing sin to fester unchallenged. We are to speak the truth in love, but we're still to speak it.  Peace at any cost is too high a price to pay.



Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 7-9; Ephesians 5:1-16

2 comments:

Pamela said...

20 Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”

We cannot stand before the Lord because we are so unworthy.

22 to put off your old self,[f] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

But once we have accepted the gift of salvation, we are made new and though we are unworthy, we are invited into God's presence.

Conrad said...

Ephesians 4:27 "and give no opportunity to the devil."

To not give an opportunity would be like totally avoiding something. If you don't want a fire, don't play with it. Temptation is harder to resist if we allow ourselves to be drawn in, even if its just a little bit.