Bible Read Thread

[Goodbook]

Ive seen that happen because pagan gods are easier to worship, nothing much is required.
Also, what you see for most people is more real than actually having faith in Almighty God who, we cant actually see. And because our God is so big, having Him as our Lord is frightening for some people because hes so powerful.

Those pagan gods we can kinda control.

Thank God He sent his only begotten Son Jesus to show us what he's really like!!!

 

[SarahsKnight]

Week Six, Wednesday: Psalms

Psalms 15 through 17.

 

[Swan7]

15 was short and sweet. The last line is something I like to pray about when I'm at work. Irate customers like to try and pick a fight, and I can say with certainty that I've been able to counter that with a calm heart.

 

[Goodbook]

Some things

Psalm 15 On Usury - people who lend choose to lend money and charge interest on it are evil. A righteous wealthy person would just give it away as a gift. If you need to borrow money and be in debt for any reason, best to borrow from a bank. But best if you don't borrow at all...

Psalm 16 - a great psalm. I can picture David sitting up all night blessing the Lord and studying holy scripture, being close to God and listening to Him.

Psalm 17 - the wicked are often fat because of their greed and overindulgence. They are also like lions, greedy for prey. That is why I find it weird that people think Jesus is like a lion. He isn't. He's the slain lamb. Who rose again. So IN YOUR FACE lions! lol.

 

[Rhamiel]

Psalm 15 On Usury - people who lend choose to lend money and charge interest on it are evil. A righteous wealthy person would just give it away as a gift. If you need to borrow money and be in debt for any reason, best to borrow from a bank. But best if you don't borrow at all...

but banks charge interest too?

 

[Goodbook]

Yea banks are bad. I was just thinking that they really did cause the GFC. Lending all that money to people who had no hope of paying it back.
Why cant they just have interest free loans. In my country, there used to be student loans WITH interest. Thankfully the govt abolished it. People were leaving the country because they didnt have jobs to pay for it, or if they were earning it wasnt enough.

People still are in debt years later. Its hard to make a head start in life here. For my generation anyway.

 

[Goodbook]

Credit cards are the worst because of compound interest.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Credit cards are the worst because of compound interest.

Yeah, I agree. I think it is wrong as it is to demand interest at all on any sort of loan. I never did that to my friends when they might need a bit of financial help from me. But interest rates at high levels are downright criminal. I borrowed about 16,000 on my student loan, and ended up having to pay 22,000 back later. That's like a 35% increase. It's just wrong. ... And yet I was still one of the luckier ones.

 

[Swan7]

Just goes to show if you ever wanna learn something new, to do so at your own expense rather than paying in thin air.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Week Six, Thursday: Poetry

Job chapters 11 and 12.

 

[Goodbook]

hmm some back and forth with Job here.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Week Six, Friday: Prophecy

Isaiah 29 through 33

 

[SarahsKnight]

Couldn't really find anything to comment on concerning yesterday's reading, but today we are back in the most beloved part of Scripture, the Gospels, with Matthew chapters 14 through 16.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Matthew 15:15-20

A good passage, I believe, for being to careful to judge other Christians over every little thing. We cannot know their hearts as well as God does. Again, it is not what goes in, but what is returned from the mouth and actions of man that defiles him.



Probably my favorite portion out of this day's reading is the very next passage, Matthew 15:21-28, where the Canaanite woman persists in receiving goodness from Christ. He tests her faith by turning her away and insinuating that His blessings are only meant for the traditionally chosen people of God (the Jews, I assume), and that as a Canaanite she is but a dog who should have no inheritance from God. But the woman persists, saying that even a dog would be happy to take what little falls from the master's table (I also assume by "master" she refers to God Himself). And Jesus applauds her display of faith, and grants her her request to have her demon-possessed daughter healed. It is a beautiful scene.

(If I may personally assert this as well, I believe this short story is a good argument against the notion that God plays favorites by pre-selecting only a few for Christ to die for, rather than anyone being welcome to come to belief in Christ.)

 

[SarahsKnight]

We will end the sixth of fifty-two weeks with more of St. Paul's teachings as a new and most enthusiastic convert to Christ in Romans 11 and 12.

 

[SarahsKnight]

St. Paul continues to boggle the mind almost as much as Jesus Christ did in His time with his teachings.

Chapter 11 seems to be teaching Calvinism (with Paul speaking of a remnant of Israel that God had/has set aside) in the beginning. But then seems to offer renewed hope and warning at the same time with the free will to choose by his use of the illustration of the branches on the olive tree, where unbelieving Israel can be grafted in again and the Gentiles can be cut back off even though apparently through Israel's disobedience the Gospel was made available to the Gentiles in the first place. And finally Paul seems to teach universal reconciliation towards the end through statements such as "For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all." And finally in the last passage of chapter 11, without really giving a definite conclusion, Paul sums it all up by pretty much saying "I know; I don't get God's ways of judgment and mercy, either."

 

[Goodbook]

ohh Have to catch up, missed a few.

 

[Saucy]

Right now I'm in Genesis reading about Esau and Jacob

 

[Swan7]

Chapter 11 was about works rather than just believing. We have to believe we cannot save ourselves through tradition of what we have been taught by men. There's a huge emphasis on belief and I think at the same time telling us to put ourselves away and look to Him only.

Chapter 12 Goes right in line from 11 and explains further about doing good to evil instead of "doing it back", fueling the fire with fire. Flame against flame doesn't work and just makes an even bigger mess, which makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Goodbook]

hmm
Well, for me Chapter 11 has nothing to do with calvinism or any ism its just talking about Israelites and Gentiles. As I am a Gentile of course I've been grafted in. Paul was part of the remnant of Israelites who believe. He was speaking to the Gentiles, the 'elect' are the Israelites, God's chosen ones through Abraham's seed.

Though Paul was an Israelite, Paul wasn't Jewish, he was from the tribe of Benjamin, not Judah. But he became as a Jew to reach them. It was the tribe of Judah who was MOST resistant because they didn't believe that Jesus who grew up in Nazareth, Galilee, could be their Messiah (although his line was from David, and he was born in Bethelehem, which is in Judea). Jerusalem is in Judea. (which is where we get the religion or tradition of Judaism, much of which is men's traditions)

Chapter 12 has good advice. I like that it exhorts us to have good hospitality. So important and often overlooked.