Bible League: Living His Word Trust in the LORD with all your heart,and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. One of the key features of Western civilization is a strong commitment to reason and understanding. This feature began around 600 B.C. as a reaction to the mythology of the Greek people. Rather than faith in irrational myths, early Greek philosophers proposed that one should rely on reason based on evidence for the answers to the big questions of life. The trouble with this decision, however, is that reason proved to be an inadequate substitute for faith. Since reason is limited to evidence derived from within the created order, it has difficulty providing definitive answers as to how the whole created order was set up in the first place, or providing definitive answers to any of the other big questions of life---questions like: What does it mean to be human? Why is there sin and evil? What is the solution to sin and evil? Christianity is another key feature of Western civilization. Beginning around 100 A.D. Christians began to challenge the Western commitment to reason and understanding. What's needed to definitively answer the big questions of life for a person, they proclaimed, is not reason based on evidence, but faith based on the true revelation of God. Only God, the true source and origin of the created order, can give us the proper perspective on its meaning and purpose. Our verses for today have important things to say in support of the Christian position on these matters. If you want to live your life right, if you want straight paths, then stop trying to figure everything out on your own, stop relying on your own limited understanding. Instead, trust in God. God makes Himself and what He requires of us known in His revelation to us, primarily and authoritatively in the Bible, and we should have faith in Him and follow His ways. Doing so enlightens us with the answers to the big questions of life and helps us straighten out the crookedness in our lives. Reason has its place, but even reason needs the guidance only true faith can provide. Indeed, some of the most crooked and distorted products of reason have come from the minds of intelligent men and women who forsook trust in the Lord and leaned on their own understanding. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingExodus 39, 40 Exodus 39 -- The Priestly Garments; Moses Inspects the Completed Work NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Exodus 40 -- Tabernacle Erected and Filled by the Glory of the Lord NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 24:1-22 Matthew 24 -- Christ Foretells the Destruction of the Temple and His Glorious Return NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion LORD, have mercy on me.See how my enemies torment me. Snatch me back from the jaws of death. Save me so I can praise you publicly at Jerusalem's gates, so I can rejoice that you have rescued me. Insight All of us want God to help us when we are in trouble, but often for different reasons. Some want God's help so that they will be successful and other people will like them. Others want God's help so that they will be comfortable and feel good about themselves. David, however, wanted help from God so that justice would be restored to Israel and so that he could show others God's power. Challenge When you call to God for help, consider your motive. Is it to save yourself pain and embarrassment or to bring God glory and honor? Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Ephesians 6:18 Praying always.What multitudes of prayers we have put up from the first moment when we learned to pray. Our first prayer was a prayer for ourselves; we asked that God would have mercy upon us, and blot out our sin. He heard us. But when he had blotted out our sins like a cloud, then we had more prayers for ourselves. We have had to pray for sanctifying grace, for constraining and restraining grace; we have been led to crave for a fresh assurance of faith, for the comfortable application of the promise, for deliverance in the hour of temptation, for help in the time of duty, and for succor in the day of trial. We have been compelled to go to God for our souls, as constant beggars asking for everything. Bear witness, children of God, you have never been able to get anything for your souls elsewhere. All the bread your soul has eaten has come down from heaven, and all the water of which it has drank has flowed from the living rock--Christ Jesus the Lord. Your soul has never grown rich in itself; it has always been a pensioner upon the daily bounty of God; and hence your prayers have ascended to heaven for a range of spiritual mercies all but infinite. Your wants were innumerable, and therefore the supplies have been infinitely great, and your prayers have been as varied as the mercies have been countless. Then have you not cause to say, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplication"? For as your prayers have been many, so also have been God's answers to them. He has heard you in the day of trouble, has strengthened you, and helped you, even when you dishonored him by trembling and doubting at the mercy-seat. Remember this, and let it fill your heart with gratitude to God, who has thus graciously heard your poor weak prayers. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Timothy 1:14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. Romans 5:20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, Ephesians 2:7-9 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. • For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; • not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. • For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Galatians 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. Titus 3:5,6 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, • whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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