Day 87 Deuteronomy 9:1-10:22; Luke 8:4-21; Psalm 69:19-36; Proverbs 12:2-3 Ears That Hear Our Old Testament reading continues today with Moses rehearsing some scenes of Israel’s recent past – some scenes that, most likely, they would rather forget. Don’t we all have such scenes in our lives? But, thankfully, in addition to the mistakes in…
Day 86 Deuteronomy 7:1‐8:20; Luke 7:36‐8:3; Psalm 69:1‐18; Proverbs 12:1 Your Perspective or God’s? You’re giving a dinner party. A streetwalker enters the room uninvited and kneels behind one of your guests—letting down her hair, caressing and kissing his feet, crying softly all the while. The code of your religion, which you hold dear, is…
Day 85 Deuteronomy 5:1-6:25; Luke 7:11-35; Psalm 68:19-35; Proverbs 11:29-31 Life in Christ Is Never Dull! Jesus compared the generation of Pharisees and scribes to a then-popular children’s song: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ –Luke 7: song invites the hearer into…
Day 84 Deuteronomy 4:1-49; Luke 6:39‐7:10; Psalm 68:1‐18; Proverbs 11:28 The Blind Leading The Blind Jesus confront us with an issue that scares many of us who are seriously religious – that of being hypocritical and leading others astray. Hypocrites intentionally don’t “walk their talk,” or, keeping with the illustration from Jesus’ parable, they advertise…
Day 83 Deuteronomy 2:1-3:29; Luke 6:12-38; Psalm 67:1-7; Proverbs 11:27 God Chose You Everything is increasingly a la carte. Corporations are continually gathering information on us and developing complex marketing strategies to sell us what we want, even before we realize that we will want it. We like being in charge of making all those…
Day 82 Numbers 36:1‐13; Deuteronomy 1:1‐46; Luke 5:29‐6:11; Psalm 66:1‐20; Proverbs 11:24‐26 Need a Physician? Sometimes we need a physician even when we don’t know it or want to see one… Most of the time, we only see a physician when we feel sick. When Jesus spoke to the crowd which included Pharisees and scribes,…
Day 81 Numbers 33:40‐35:34; Luke 5:12‐28; Psalm 65:1‐13; Proverbs 11:23 Healing From Jesus In the reading from Luke 5, we see that Jesus heals many people as the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal. There are two things that come to mind as I studied these verses. First, how wonderful it…
Day 80 Numbers 32:1‐33:39; Luke 4:31‐5:11; Psalm 64:1‐10; Proverbs 11:22 The Power of Your Words “Let there be light,” and there was light. Do words have power? Do your words have power? Consider the Psalm. In the first verse, the psalmist gives voice to his complaint; he prays telling God his struggles. Is his prayer—is…
Day 79 Numbers 30:1-31:54; Luke 4:1-30; Psalm 63:1-11; Proverbs 11:20-21 Thirsting for Righteousness The reading in the book of Numbers is a reminder of the burden of the Law and the uncertain nature of life in the time of Moses and Aaron. In the later history of Israel, the lot of women had improved somewhat,…
Day 78 Numbers 28:16‐29:40; Luke 3:23‐38; Psalm 62:1‐12; Proverbs 11:18‐19 Time for God In today’s reading from Numbers, we are called to action by and for God. The phrase “Do no regular work,” appears no less than seven times in these two chapters as a way to remind us of the time God requires of…
Day 77 Numbers 26:52‐28:15; Luke 3:1‐22; Psalm 61:1‐8; Proverbs 11:16‐17 Ain’t No Rock Gonna Cry in My Place In the Gospel of Luke, we see John the Baptist challenging the people who approach him for baptism. John, whose primary responsibility was to preach repentance and the coming of the Messiah, pulls no punches as he…
Day 76 Numbers 26:1‐51; Luke 2:36‐52; Psalm 60:1‐12; Proverbs 11:15 God Is Our Inheritance There are several books in the early part of the Bible where it is easy to get bogged down. One of those places is our Numbers reading for today, as it is primarily a list of the tribes of Israel for…
