365 Reflections

Genesis 13:10 (ESV)   And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord , like the land of Egypt , in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) When Abram and Lot separate, Abram puts the choice in Lot's hands as where to go. Then Lot mentally compares the desirable land to Egypt and Eden. To understand this passage you have to understand how Egypt and Israel function very differently environmentally. Deuteronomy 11:10–12 (NLT)  For the land you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain— 12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year! Do you see what that’s saying? Egypt and ...

The Psalmist prays in Psalm 19: Psalm 19:13 (NKJV) 13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression. Two interesting words here... First is the idea of "presumptuous" sins. The Word can be translated arrogant or insolent. It is the sin where one thinks they can control it, get away with it, indulge it without too much damage being done.  Yet the next phrase shows the flaw in such a concept. "Let them not have dominion over me." When you sin in arrogance, thinking you have it under control, it quickly proves the opposite is true. Arrogance and insolence with God's ways are the surefire way to be caught in bondage. Sin never wants a little of you, it wants all of you. It's a fools game with sin. A little leaven affects the whole lump.  You think you control that sin, but it eventually dominates you.  The only hope we h...

Jesus has been doing some remarkable stuff so far in Matthew.  In chapter 12, He allows the disciples to eat grain and heals a man with a withered hand.  After these two incidents, the religious establishment set out to kill Him. Matthew 12:14 (ESV) But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. This verse strikes me funny.  Here are men fully devout to the law.  They have a list of rules on how to obey the real rules.  They maintain "obedience" to the highest standard.  And yet, when Jesus doesn't fit their agenda or threatens their authority... they are ready to "KILL" Him.   Isn't there a commandment that says, "Thou shalt not kill?"  Funny how they failed to see the log in their own eye. What bothered them most was the authority Jesus took over the Sabbath.  He entered, "their synagogue" and broke "their rules." Religion kills.  And by religion, I don't mean caring for orphan...