TFTD - 14 August 2014 - Thoughts from Today's Bible Readings

14 August 2014

1 Kings 9
Jeremiah 35
Mark 9

"THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND"

Our chapter [9] in Mark contains several things hard to understand, but that is one of the reasons why the Bible commands our attention all through our lives as we try to bring our minds into a proper focus to understand it more and more. Jesus is preparing his disciples for when he is not physically with them, they have a lot to learn, but it will be learning from the heart - rather than the mind. We can say, "emotional" learning, matters far beyond intellectual comprehension.

We read that "he passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, 'The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.'" A plain enough statement, but it was not on the radar screen of their minds, "they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him." Afraid? In what sense? Surely, they were thinking, he could not mean this in a literal sense; surely this was some kind of parable!

The verses which follow show they arrive in Capernaum, but had argued between themselves before they got there "about who was the greatest"  - this shows they were in competition in their expectations of their coming role when, as Jesus was to tell them, they would one day "eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." [Luke 22:30] Their expectations of the future dominated their thinking, this is all they wanted to hear about, not realizing that, as with Jesus, it was because "of the hope set before them"  they would endure the trials - as he would endure the cross!

We should meditate on this - about how much the same principle applies to us - as our world falls further apart. Believers are already under great pressure in some countries - such as Iran. The disciples had to become, Jesus next told them, servants, and whoever becomes genuinely childlike in their attitudes, said Jesus, "receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me, but him who sent me"  [Mark 9:37] Do we understand this?  "They did not understand"  but in John's gospel this remarkable truth is opened out further, "If anyone loves me"  (that's more than to say one "believes in " Jesus) "he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." [John 14:23] The disciples came to understand this - after he had ascended to heaven! Let us do the same.
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- DC


Thought for the Day

14 August 2014

"Truth ... reveals to us the reality beyond the seen things. One of the difficulties of human philosophy has always been its inability to escape from the circle of its own thought and to see outside it. But God, knowing the limits of the human mind, reveals himself to man and asks him for a simple act of acceptance: “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). This belief in, or acceptance of, God is really the first important characteristic of the seeker after truth. But for it to be of the Truth itself, it must be a “thoroughly perceived” acceptance, and not an intellectual assent which satisfies one’s sense of form or respectability, and which leaves one feeling that one has done the right thing, and has no need to commit oneself any further."

- John Marshall
The Word of Truth (1960)

TFTD - 13 August 2014 - Thoughts from Today's Bible Readings

13 August 2014

1 Kings 8
Jeremiah 34
Mark 8

"… WHOLLY TRUE TO THE LORD" 
In the end there can be no half measures in truly believing, and, as a result, having a daily relationship with our Saviour. The completion of this relationship leads us to more and more fully sense the wonder of the Creator of all things ­ and the unlimited nature of those "all things." 
In 1st Kings today we read one of the longest chapters in the Bible: it describes the awesome glory of the Temple in which just about everything was overlaid with gold. Solomon had just completed it and we read his words of benediction. First he offers an emotional prayer to God, "that all the peoples of the earth may know your name"  [1 Kings 8:43] When he finishes his prayer "he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, 'Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel …'" [1 Kings 8:56] and we ponder how even greater, far greater, must be the blessing and the joy, and the greater "rest"  when, as we will read on Friday, Jesus the greatest king of all opens "the house of prayer for all nations" [Mark 11:17]

Solomon brings his benediction to a climax with a petition to the Lord "that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other"  and then utters the even more significant words, "Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day." [1 Kings 8:61]

Human nature is such that the challenge to be "wholly true to the LORD"  is only accomplished when we have a real living relationship with Him and his Son, and how thought provoking is our chapter in Mark in showing us how the disciples failed to be fully committed, despite constantly witnessing remarkable miracles and hearing his teaching.

Jesus said to them, "Having eyes, do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?  And do you not remember? … Do you not yet understand?"  [Mark 8:18,21] And for ourselves, having eyes, do we not read, and having brains, do we not yet understand? Let us apply our God-given intellect ever more diligently to what we read and then make sure we meditate upon it. A true blessing for us - every day - only by this means will we be "wholly true to the Lord".
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- DC


Thought for the Day

13 August 2014

"The Word of God was made flesh, and dwelt among men; was manifested and declared by those who companied with him during his ministry. Their witness has been preserved, and we have it ready to hand. Herein lies guidance enough to keep us in the Way: we neglect it at our peril."

- Clement E. Hinde
From Head to Heart (1997)

Re: TFTD - 12 August 2014 - Thoughts from Today's Bible Readings

12 August 2014

1 Kings 7
Jeremiah 33
Mark 7

"THEY SHALL FEAR AND TREMBLE" 
Who will "fear and tremble"? What will be the cause? We follow on from yesterday's thoughts and read and reflect on the remarkable latter day prophecy given to Jeremiah while he is "shut up in the court of the guard"  [Jeremiah 33:1] His situation was a real trial of his faith ­ and we should ponder what kind of desperate situations we might experience in the "time of trouble, such as there has never been … But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book." [Daniel 12:1]

How long before this time? God has not provided a calendar, but he has provided signs! Israel regathered and turmoil in and around the Holy land! The verses at the end of Daniel 11 are but one place where the signs are described. Jesus said, "for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short" [Matthew 24:22]

About his people, now in terrible trouble, Jeremiah is told, "I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security, I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel … and this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it."  [Jeremiah 33:6,7,9]

God then tells Jeremiah, "In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness … Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called, "The LORD is our righteousness." [Jeremiah 33:15-16] Imagine the feelings of the prophet as he, in his anxieties over all that is happening, and his personal situation, receives this divine message.

Now switch the perspective to the 21st Century and the potential, before Christ comes when "they shall fear and tremble…"  [Jeremiah 33:9] but while those who do not know God's word will do so out of great anxiety, those who do know ­ and most surely believe his word, shall, says the Lord to Jeremiah, "fear and tremble because of all the prosperity I provide … there shall be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride …"  [Jeremiah 33:11] Let us make sure we are part of the bride; meditate on Revelation 19:7-9.
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- DC


Thought for the Day

12 August 2014

"The practical outworkings of love, and the intimate self-questionings its consideration provokes, will occupy us all our lives ... a beautiful point from Peter’s second letter. Peter, who many years earlier, had realized that he could not yet lay claim to agape, writes this letter when he is old, and says in 2 Peter 1:3, that God "has granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness ... exceeding great and precious promises." We have to add to our faith "virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness" ...; but his list does not stop there; to our brotherly kindness we must add "charity," love, agape. Peter realizes, perhaps with a memory of his interview with Jesus, that the climax of all spiritual virtues is love. But not only so. He says that those things must be added. If we do add them, if we do supply in addition all this, then, he goes on in 2 Peter 1:11 and he uses exactly the same word, though it is veiled in both A.V. and R.V., there will be added, there will be supplied to us, a full enjoyment of love in all its completeness. "So an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

- H.A. Twelves
As Touching Brotherly Love (1942)

TFTD - 11 August 2014 - Thoughts from Today's Bible Readings

11 August 2014

1 Kings 6
Jeremiah 32
Mark 6

"HAVE TAUGHT THEM PERSISTENTLY"

Jerusalem is under siege, all the messages the LORD caused Jeremiah to prophecy about the city are now starting to happen. The prophet is surprised by being told to buy his uncle's field, "for the right of redemption by purchase is yours."  [Jeremiah 32:7] He does so and a "deed of purchase"  is signed.  He is told to "put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the LORD of hosts … Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land." [Jeremiah 32:14-15]

Jeremiah is a man of faith, he seeks to understand; we can conceive of him meditating, he writes, "prayed to the LORD saying, 'Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who has made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm!  Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands … O great and mighty God … great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.'" [Jeremiah 32:17-19]. We note and ponder the point the LORD is making, he is looking to see what "fruit" the ways of his people produce!  What "fruit" do our ways produce?

What does God see in Jeremiah's day? The Lord says, "And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction."  [Jeremiah 32:33] Today we can say, very few have diligently read God's word so as to receive instruction ­ and the world is full of "bad fruit" as a result.

How greatly was the Bible appreciated when it was first available for everyone to read ­ but there is little appreciation today! Our world faces God's anger and his acts of judgement, just as Jerusalem faced it in the days of Jeremiah. Let us read and listen, and then, as with the few who did listen in the prophet's days, God says, "I will rejoice in doing them good"  [Jeremiah 32:41] What a wonder the divine rejoicing will be! May we be there to share in it and know "the joy that knows no ending."
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- DC

1 Kings 6:7

"And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of IRON heard in the house, while it was in building."

As we read of no iron tool to be used at the temple site, we are reminded that no iron tool was to be used for the altar stones to leave its mark. (Deut 27:5, Josh 8:30-31).

This takes our mind forward and a similar warning for us, Iron bears the same defilement as the flesh it represents.

Christ warns that we are not not to bear the marks of iron - Rev 14:9-10

"And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb"

What is this system that seeks to force the mark on peoples? The iron of Rome, developed into the Babylonian/Romish mother religious system and it's harlot daughters. 

Thought for the Day

11 August 2014

"In our confidence that we “stand” in Christ, it still behoves us to “take heed lest we fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). The one great certainty is that God will never forsake us; whether we may be tempted into forsaking Him is the point which evidently requires our vigilance."

- Fred Pearce
Exhortation and Warning (1979)

TFTD - 10 August 2014 - Thoughts from Today's Bible Readings

10 August 2014

1 Kings 4; 5
Jeremiah 31
Mark 5

"AT THAT TIME … THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE"

Today's chapter in Jeremiah [Jeremiah 31] provides us with a sequel to yesterday's thoughts about God's reaction to the time when the all nations, at the climax of human history, regard Israel as "outcasts … for whom no one cares" It is of the highest interest because of the attitudes today more and more fit this picture.

Today's chapter follows on from the final verse of Jeremiah 30, "The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intentions of his mind. In the latter days you will understand this. "At that time", declares the LORD. I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people." [Jeremiah 30:24; 31:1 ­ they are consecutive verses]

Jeremiah 31:7 reads, "… raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel." The meaning is not totally clear, but it implies there is a time when leading nations learn the reality of God's existence "and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth" [Jeremiah 31:8]. We know that half of the Jews still live in other lands, also, that the land promised to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, is a great deal more than Israel possesses at present.

This spirit is totally opposite to what many nations, especially the Islamic, are saying today. As we read on, these words jumped out at us (among a number of others). "Behold the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah (all 12 tribes) … this is the covenant I will make … after those days, declares the LORD, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people." [Jeremiah 31:31-33]

This climax of human history also brings the return of Jesus to earth and the resurrection. These events are the trigger for these verses to be fulfilled.
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- DC


Thought for the Day

10 August 2014

"Food and clothing are a temporary means of maintaining life: but the life to be maintained is a bigger thing than the means used to maintain it, and in the end it can only be given them by God. A straining anxiety after the means of life will not bring life but death: a sorry self-defeat! God who feeds the smallest things of His creation is to them a heavenly Father: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness: and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:25-34)."

- L.G. Sargent
The "Blessings" of the Kingdom (1939)

TFTD - 09 August 2014 - Thoughts from Today's Bible Readings

09 August 2014

1 Kings 3
Jeremiah 30
Mark 4

"... EVERY FACE TURNED PALE"

All 3 readings today are very thought provoking. First, in 1 Kings 3 we have Solomon's choice of wisdom when the LORD appears to him and says, "Ask, what I shall give you" [1 Kings 3:5] and he responds, "Give your servant an understanding mind to govern your people" [1 Kings 3:9] and the LORD gives him that and more. What mind will those in the kingdom be given?

Then in Mark 4 we have a succession of parables by Jesus beginning with that of the sower together with an explanation of its meaning. How applicable to today is the kind of soil the seed falls into - the soil where "the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word" [Mark 4:19]

And then in Jeremiah 30 we read some really fascinating long term prophecies which climax in the last verse with, "in the latter days you will understand this." Jeremiah is told, "Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. For behold days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land, that I gave to their fathers' they shall take possession of it." [Jeremiah 30:2-3]

Then the LORD says, "We have heard a cry of panic, of terror and no peace ... Why has every face turned pale? Alas! that day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it." [Jeremiah 30:5-7] Israel was not saved out of trouble in the days of Jeremiah, nor after they rejected their Messiah and put him to death, but we live "in the latter days" and those who truly fear God and understand "the intentions of his mind" should be in the process of gaining that inner strength of true faith so they possess a face that does not "turn pale".

The time is coming when Jacob (Israel) will at last have "quiet and ease none will make him afraid" [Jeremiah 30:10] And those who truly know God's word will have the same experience for the kingdom will be established.
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- DC


Thought for the Day

09 August 2014

"All the wonders God has wrought in the past and will perform in the future stem from the simple fact, expressed so succinctly by Jeremiah when directed to buy fields in an enemy-occupied country. "Ah, Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, there is nothing too hard for thee" (Jeremiah 32:17) - "too wonderful for thee" (R.V. margin)."

- Albert T. Abbotts
The Witness of Hosea and Amos (1963)

TFTD - 08 August 2014 - Thoughts from Today's Bible Readings

08 August 2014

1 Kings 2
Jeremiah 29
Mark 3

“THAT YOU MAY PROSPER … WHEREVER YOU TURN”

Today we read of David's final words of advice to his successor - Solomon. Two weeks ago we read of Solomon in his youth “and the LORD loved him" from his birth [2 Samuel 12:24]. Today we particularly noted David’s parting words to him, "Be strong, and show yourself a man. and keep the charge of the LORD, your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes his commandments ... that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn" [1 Kings 2:2-3]

David’s words are ideal for all human beings to take to heart.  It does not mean strong in a physical sense, but strong in attitudes of mind and belief and service to God. Let us keep in mind what we read recently in Romans about Abraham. "No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised" [Romans 4:20-21].

David had originally set many examples of living and acting with a strong faith; this is an attitude of mind that constantly has the vision to see God is in overall control.

Solomon would not have experienced his father at his spiritual best. The phrase “and the LORD loved him”  surely reflects the relationship he developed with God, a foundation for all the proverbs he was to write.   In recognising this let us give the highest priority to developing our own relationship with God, our relationship cannot be second-hand, we must pray for his oversight of our lives remembering that "whatever is not of faith is sin" [Romans 14:23].

We will read tomorrow [Mark 4] of the seed that is scattered, it either produces more seed that germinates to produce a valuable plant -  or it doesn't, there is no third option. Thus those who develop a genuine faith in God and his oversight in their lives will win through whenever life for a time become difficult, and it  maybe become very difficult in coming years, even months.

While there is opportunity we must be strong and live in the right spirit.  Jesus was still looking for workers in his vineyard at "the eleventh hour" [Matthew 20:6] WE are now living in the eleventh hour so let us live so that we may prosper wherever we turn in our life and our relationship with our Lord!
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- DC
Mark 3:5
"And when he (Jesus) had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other."

It is recorded many times how Jesus "stretched forth" his hand to heal and to make whole. Here, this man with the withered hand was symbolic of the leaders of Israel, who would not stretch forth their hands to help others with their burdens.

We read of the contrary Matt 23:4, Lu 11:46:
"For they (scribes & Pharisees) bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."

We are to be as Christ, as Paul exhorts Gal 6:2
"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ."

Thought for the Day

08 August 2014

"True believers are deeply impressed by the wonders of Bible design. Their faith is renewed and fortified by the discovery of more and more evidence that the wisdom of God is wrought into the very fabric of Scripture. Just as the natural man needs a constant supply of food to keep him alive, so too the spiritual man lives by his daily bread. The Scriptures have been miraculously arranged to give an unfailing supply of spiritual strength to those who seek for it; and one of the features of Scripture that makes a great contribution to one’s spiritual sustenance is what we so often refer to as design."

- Peter Watkins
The Inspired Scriptures - Our Sure Foundation (1962)