Bible Readings for July 22, 2017

Today our passages are 2 Chronicles 6:12–8:10; Romans 7:14–8:8; Psalm 18:1-15; and Proverbs 19:24-25. The readings are from the Contemporary English Version. If you find these readings helpful, please consider sending an offering directly to Cove Presbyterian Church, 3404 Main Steet, Weirton, West Virginia or through PayPal by using the link below.

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2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10 (Contemporary English Version)

Solomon Prays at the Temple

(1 Kings 8.22-53)

 ^12-13Earlier, Solomon had a bronze platform made that was about eight feet square and five feet high, and he put it in the center of the outer courtyard near the altar. Solomon stood on the platform facing the altar with everyone standing behind him. Then he lifted his arms toward heaven; he knelt down    ¹⁴and prayed:
   LORD God of Israel, no other god in heaven or on earth is like you!
   You never forget the agreement you made with your people, and you are loyal to anyone who faithfully obeys your teachings.
   ¹⁵My father David was your servant, and today you have kept every promise you made to him.
   ¹⁶You promised that someone from his family would always be king of Israel, if they do their best to obey you, just as he did.
   ¹⁷Please keep this promise you made to your servant David.
   ¹⁸There's not enough room in all of heaven for you, LORD God. How could you possibly live on earth in this temple I have built?
   ¹⁹But I ask you to answer my prayer.
   ²⁰This is the temple where you have chosen to be worshiped. Please watch over it day and night and listen when I turn toward it and pray.
   ²¹I am your servant, and the people of Israel belong to you, and so whenever any of us look toward this temple and pray, answer from your home in heaven and forgive our sins.
   ²²Suppose someone accuses a person of a crime, and the accused has to stand in front of the altar in your temple and say, "I swear I am innocent!"
   ²³Listen from heaven and decide who is right. Then punish the guilty person and let the innocent one go free.
   ²⁴Suppose your people Israel sin against you, and then an enemy defeats them. If they come to this temple and beg for forgiveness,
   ²⁵listen from your home in heaven. Forgive them and bring them back to the land you gave their ancestors.
   ²⁶Suppose your people sin against you, and you punish them by holding back the rain. If they stop sinning and turn toward this temple to pray in your name,
   ²⁷listen from your home in heaven and forgive them. The people of Israel are your servants, so teach them to live right. And send rain on the land you promised them forever.
   ²⁸Sometimes the crops may dry up or rot or be eaten by locusts ^[a] or grasshoppers, and your people will be starving. Sometimes enemies may surround their towns, or your people will become sick with deadly diseases.
   ²⁹Please listen when anyone in Israel truly feels sorry and sincerely prays with arms lifted toward your temple.
   ³⁰You know what is in everyone's heart. So from your home in heaven answer their prayers, according to what they do and what is in their hearts.
   ³¹Then your people will worship you and obey you for as long as they live in the land you gave their ancestors.
   ³²Foreigners will hear about you and your mighty power, and some of them will come to live among your people Israel. If any of them pray toward this temple,
   ³³listen from your home in heaven and answer their prayers. Then everyone on earth will worship you, just as your own people Israel do, and they will know that I have built this temple in your honor.
   ³⁴Sometimes you will order your people to attack their enemies. Then your people will turn toward this temple I have built for you in your chosen city, and they will pray to you.
   ³⁵Answer their prayers from heaven and give them victory.
   ³⁶Everyone sins. But when your people sin against you, suppose you get angry enough to let their enemies drag them away to foreign countries.
   ^37-39Later, they may feel sorry for what they did and ask your forgiveness. Answer them when they pray toward this temple I have built for you in your chosen city, here in this land you gave their ancestors. From your home in heaven, listen to their sincere prayers and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
   ⁴⁰LORD God, hear us when we pray in this temple.
   ⁴¹Come to your new home, where we have already placed the sacred chest, which is the symbol of your strength. I pray that when the priests announce your power to save people, those who are faithful to you will celebrate what you've done for them.
   ⁴²Always remember the love you had for your servant David, ^[b] so that you will not reject your chosen kings.
   

2 Chronicles 7

Solomon Dedicates the Temple

(1 Kings 8.62-66)

 ¹As soon as Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and burned up the offerings. The LORD's dazzling glory then filled the temple,    ²and the priests could not go in.
   ³When the crowd of people saw the fire and the LORD's glory, they knelt down and worshiped the LORD. They prayed:
   "The LORD is good,
   and his love never ends."
   ^4-5Solomon and the people dedicated the temple to the LORD by sacrificing twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep.
   ⁶Everybody stood up during the ceremony. The priests were in their assigned places, blowing their trumpets. And the Levites faced them, playing the musical instruments that David had made for them to use when they praised the LORD for his never-ending love.
   ⁷On that same day, Solomon dedicated the courtyard in front of the temple and got it ready to be used for worship. The bronze altar he had made was too small, so he used the courtyard to offer sacrifices to please the LORD ^[c] and grain sacrifices, and also to send up in smoke the fat from the other offerings.
   ⁸For seven days, Solomon and the crowd celebrated the Festival of Shelters, and people came from as far away as the Egyptian Gorge in the south and Lebo-Hamath in the north.
   ⁹Then on the next day, everyone came together for worship. They had celebrated a total of fourteen days, seven days for the dedication of the altar and seven more days for the festival.
   ¹⁰Then on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, ^[d] Solomon sent everyone home. They left very happy because of all the good things the LORD had done for David and Solomon, and for his people Israel.
   

The LORD Appears to Solomon Again

(1 Kings 9.1-9)

 ¹¹The LORD's temple and Solomon's palace were now finished. In fact, everything Solomon had planned to do was completed.    ¹²Some time later, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream and said:
   I heard your prayer, and I have chosen this temple as the place where sacrifices will be offered to me.
   ¹³Suppose I hold back the rain or send locusts ^[e] to eat the crops or make my people suffer with deadly diseases.
   ¹⁴If my own people will humbly pray and turn back to me and stop sinning, then I will answer them from heaven. I will forgive them and make their land fertile once again.
   ¹⁵I will hear the prayers made in this temple,
   ¹⁶because it belongs to me, and this is where I will be worshiped forever. I will never stop watching over it.
   ¹⁷Your father David obeyed me, and now, Solomon, you must do the same. Obey my laws and teachings,
   ¹⁸and I will keep my solemn promise to him that someone from your family will always be king of Israel.
   ¹⁹But if you or any of the people of Israel disobey my laws or start worshiping foreign gods,
   ²⁰I will pull you out of this land I gave you. I will desert this temple where I said I would be worshiped, so that people everywhere will think it is only a joke and will make fun of it.
   ²¹This temple is now magnificent. But when these things happen, everyone who walks by it will be shocked and will ask, "Why did the LORD do such a terrible thing to his people and to this temple?"
   ²²Then they will answer, "It was because the people of Israel rejected the LORD their God, who rescued their ancestors from Egypt, and they started worshiping other gods."
   

2 Chronicles 8

Other Things Solomon Did

(1 Kings 9.10-28)

 ¹It took twenty years for the LORD's temple and Solomon's palace to be built.    ²After that, Solomon had his workers rebuild the towns that Hiram had given him. Then Solomon sent Israelites to live in those towns.
   ³Solomon attacked and captured the town of Hamath-Zobah.
   ⁴He had his workers build the town of Tadmor in the desert and some towns in Hamath where he could keep his supplies.
   ⁵He strengthened Upper Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon by adding walls and gates that could be locked.
   ⁶He did the same thing to the town of Baalath and to the cities where he kept supplies, chariots, and horses. Solomon had his workers build whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and anywhere else in his kingdom.
   ^7-9Solomon did not force the Israelites to do his work. Instead, they were his soldiers, officers, army commanders, and cavalry troops. But he did make slaves of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were living in Israel. These were the descendants of those foreigners the Israelites did not destroy, and they remained Israel's slaves.
   ¹⁰Solomon appointed two hundred fifty officers to be in charge of his workers.
   

Footnotes:

1. 2 Chronicles 6:28 locusts: A type of grasshopper that comes in swarms and causes great damage to crops.
2. 2 Chronicles 6:42 the love you had for your servant David: Or "how loyal your servant David was to you."
3. 2 Chronicles 7:7 sacrifices to please the LORD: See the note at 1.6.
4. 2 Chronicles 7:10 seventh month: See the note at 5.2,3.
5. 2 Chronicles 7:13 locusts: See the note at 6.28.

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Romans 7:14-8:8 (Contemporary English Version)

¹⁴We know that the Law is spiritual. But I am merely a human, and I have been sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵In fact, I don't understand why I act the way I do. I don't do what I know is right. I do the things I hate. ¹⁶Although I don't do what I know is right, I agree that the Law is good. ¹⁷So I am not the one doing these evil things. The sin that lives in me is what does them.
    ¹⁸I know that my selfish desires won't let me do anything that is good. Even when I want to do right, I cannot. ¹⁹Instead of doing what I know is right, I do wrong. ²⁰And so, if I don't do what I know is right, I am no longer the one doing these evil things. The sin that lives in me is what does them.
    ²¹The Law has shown me that something in me keeps me from doing what I know is right. ²²With my whole heart I agree with the Law of God. ²³But in every part of me I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do. ²⁴What a miserable person I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die? ²⁵Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.
   So with my mind I serve the Law of God, although my selfish desires make me serve the law of sin.
   

Romans 8

Living by the Power of God's Spirit

 ¹If you belong to Christ Jesus, you won't be punished. ²The Holy Spirit will give you life that comes from Christ Jesus and will set you ^[a] free from sin and death. ³The Law of Moses cannot do this, because our selfish desires make the Law weak. But God set you free when he sent his own Son to be like us sinners and to be a sacrifice for our sin. God used Christ's body to condemn sin. ⁴He did this, so that we would do what the Law commands by obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires. ⁵People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. ⁶If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace. ⁷Our desires fight against God, because they do not and cannot obey God's laws. ⁸If we follow our desires, we cannot please God.    

Footnotes:

1. Romans 8:2 you: Some manuscripts have " me."

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Psalm 18:1-15 (Contemporary English Version)

Psalm 18

(For the music leader. A psalm by David, the LORD's servant. David sang this to the LORD after the LORD had rescued him from his enemies, but especially from Saul.)

David's Song of Thanks

 ¹I love you, LORD God,    and you make me strong.
    ²You are my mighty rock, ^[a] my fortress, my protector,
   the rock where I am safe,
   my shield,
   my powerful weapon, ^[b] and my place of shelter.
    ³I praise you, LORD!
   I prayed, and you rescued me
   from my enemies.
    ⁴Death had wrapped
   its ropes around me,
   and I was almost swallowed
   by its flooding waters.
    ⁵Ropes from the world
   of the dead
   had coiled around me,
   and death had set a trap
   in my path.
    ⁶I was in terrible trouble
   when I called out to you,
   but from your temple
   you heard me
   and answered my prayer.
    ⁷The earth shook and shivered,
   and the mountains trembled
   down to their roots.
   You were angry
    ⁸and breathed out smoke.
   Scorching heat and fiery flames
   spewed from your mouth.
    ⁹You opened the heavens
   like curtains,
   and you came down
   with storm clouds
   under your feet.
    ¹⁰You rode on the backs
   of flying creatures
   and swooped down
   with the wind as wings.
    ¹¹Darkness was your robe;
   thunderclouds filled the sky,
   hiding you from sight.
    ¹²Hailstones and fiery coals
   lit up the sky
   in front of you.
    ¹³LORD Most High, your voice
   thundered from the heavens,
   as hailstones and fiery coals
   poured down like rain.
    ¹⁴You scattered your enemies
   with arrows of lightning.
    ¹⁵You roared at the sea,
   and its deepest channels
   could be seen.
   You snorted,
   and the earth shook
   to its foundations.
   

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 18:2 mighty rock: The Hebrew text has " rock," which is sometimes used in poetry to compare the Lord to a mountain where his people can run for protection from their enemies.
2. Psalm 18:2 my powerful weapon: The Hebrew text has " the horn," which refers to the horn of a bull, one of the most powerful animals in ancient Palestine.

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Proverbs 19:24-25 (Contemporary English Version)

²⁴Some people are too lazy
   to lift a hand
   to feed themselves.
    ²⁵Stupid fools learn good sense
   by seeing others punished;
   a sensible person learns
   by being corrected.

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Verse of the Day

“Then Jesus asked them, "But who do you say I am?" Simon Peter spoke up, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” - Matthew 16:15-16

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Thought for the Day

American novelist, Tom Robbins wrote, “When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on — series polygamy — until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimension to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.”

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A Joke for Today

Why Some Men Have Dogs And Not Wives

1. The later you are, the more excited your dogs are to see you. 

2. Dogs don't notice if you call them by another dog's name. 

3. Dogs like it if you leave a lot of things on the floor. 

4. A dog's parents never visit. 

5. Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across. 

6. You never have to wait for a dog; they're ready to go 24 hours a day. 

7. Dogs find you amusing when you're drunk. 

8. Dogs like to go hunting and fishing. 

9. A dog will not wake you up at night to ask, If I died, would you get another dog?? 

10. If a dog has babies, you can put an ad in the paper and give them away. 

11. A dog will let you put a studded collar on it without calling you a pervert. 

12. If a dog smells another dog on you, they don't get mad. They just think it's interesting.. 

13. Dogs like to ride in the back of a pickup truck. 

And last, but not least: 


14. If a dog leaves, it won't take half of your stuff. 

Bible Readings for July 22, 2016

Today our passages are 2 Chronicles 6:12–8:10; Romans 7:14–8:8; Psalm 18:1-15; and Proverbs 19:24-25. The readings are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. If you find these readings helpful, please consider sending an offering directly to Cove Presbyterian Church, 3404 Main Street, Weirton, West Virginia or through PayPal.

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2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10 (The Message)

^12-16 Before the entire congregation of Israel, Solomon took his position at the Altar of God and stretched out his hands. Solomon had made a bronze dais seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high and placed it inside the court; that's where he now stood. Then he knelt in full view of the whole congregation, stretched his hands to heaven, and prayed:
God, O God of Israel, there is no God like you in the skies above or on the earth below, who unswervingly keeps covenant with his servants and unfailingly loves them while they sincerely live in obedience to your way. You kept your word to David my father, your promise. You did exactly what you promised—every detail. The proof is before us today!
Keep it up, God, O God of Israel! Continue to keep the promises you made to David my father when you said, "You'll always have a descendant to represent my rule on Israel's throne, on the one condition that your sons are as careful to live obediently in my presence as you have."
¹⁷ O God, God of Israel, let this all happen—
confirm and establish it!
^18-21 Can it be that God will actually move into our neighborhood? Why, the cosmos itself isn't large enough to give you breathing room, let alone this Temple I've built. Even so, I'm bold to ask: Pay attention to these my prayers, both intercessory and personal, O God, my God. Listen to my prayers, energetic and devout, that I'm setting before you right now. Keep your eyes open to this Temple day and night, this place you promised to dignify with your Name. And listen to the prayers that I pray in this place. And listen to your people Israel when they pray at this place.
Listen from your home in heaven
and when you hear, forgive.
²² When someone hurts a neighbor and promises to make things right, and then comes and repeats the promise before your Altar in this Temple,
²³ Listen from heaven and act;
judge your servants, making the offender pay for the offense
And set the offended free,
dismissing all charges.
^24-25 When your people Israel are beaten by an enemy because they've sinned against you, but then turn to you and acknowledge your rule in prayers desperate and devout in this Temple,
Listen from your home in heaven;
forgive the sin of your people Israel, return them to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.
^26-27 When the skies shrivel up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, but then they pray at this place, acknowledging your rule and quit their sins because you have scourged them,
Listen from your home in heaven,
forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel.
Then start over with them;
train them to live right and well;
Send rain on the land
you gave as inheritance to your people.
^28-31 When disasters strike, famine or catastrophe, crop failure or disease, locust or beetle, or when an enemy attacks their defenses—calamity of any sort—any prayer that's prayed from anyone at all among your people Israel, their hearts penetrated by disaster, hands and arms thrown out for help to this Temple,
Listen from your home in heaven, forgive and reward us:
reward each life and circumstance,
For you know each life from the inside,
(you're the only one with such inside knowledge!),
So they'll live before you in lifelong reverence and believing
obedience on this land you gave our ancestors.
³² And don't forget the foreigner who is not a member of your people Israel but has come from a far country because of your reputation—people are going to be attracted here by your great reputation, your wonderworking power—and who come to pray to this Temple.
³³ Listen from your home in heaven
and honor the prayers of the foreigner,
So that people all over the world
will know who you are and what you're like,
And live in reverent obedience before you,
just as your own people Israel do,
So they'll know that you personally
make this Temple that I've built what it is.
^34-35 When your people go to war against their enemies at the time and place you send them and they pray to God toward the city you chose and The Temple I've built to honor your Name,
Listen from heaven to what they pray and ask for
and do what is right for them.
^36-39 When they sin against you—and they certainly will; there's no one without sin!—and in anger you turn them over to the enemy and they are taken captive to the enemy's land, whether far or near, but repent in the country of their captivity and pray with changed hearts in their exile, "We've sinned; we've done wrong; we've been most wicked," and turn back to you heart and soul in the land of the enemy who conquered them, and pray to you toward their homeland, the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you chose, and this Temple I have built to the honor of your Name,
Listen from your home in heaven
to their prayers desperate and devout;
Do what is best for them.
Forgive your people who have sinned against you.
⁴⁰ And now, dear God, be alert and attentive to prayer, all prayer, offered in this place.
^41-42 Up, God, enjoy your new place of quiet repose,
you and your mighty covenant Chest;
Dress your priests up in salvation clothes,
let your holy people celebrate goodness.
And don't, God, back out on your anointed ones,
keep in mind the love promised to David your servant.

2 Chronicles 7

The Temple Dedication

^1-3 When Solomon finished praying, a bolt of lightning out of heaven struck the Whole-Burnt-Offering and sacrifices and the Glory of God filled The Temple. The Glory was so dense that the priests couldn't get in—God so filled The Temple that there was no room for the priests! When all Israel saw the fire fall from heaven and the Glory of God fill The Temple, they fell on their knees, bowed their heads, and worshiped, thanking God:
Yes! God is good! His love never quits! ^4-6 Then the king and all Israel worshiped, offering sacrifices to God. King Solomon worshiped by sacrificing 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep at the dedication of The Temple. The priests were all on duty; the choir and orchestra of Levites that David had provided for singing and playing anthems to the praise and love of God were all there; across the courtyard the priests blew trumpets. All Israelites were on their feet.
^7-10 Solomon set apart the central area of the courtyard in front of God's Temple for sacred use and there sacrificed the Whole-Burnt-Offerings, Grain-Offerings, and fat from the Peace-Offerings—the Bronze Altar was too small to handle all these offerings. This is how Solomon kept the great autumn Feast of Booths. For seven days there were people there all the way from the far northeast (the Entrance to Hamath) to the far southwest (the Brook of Egypt)—a huge congregation. They started out celebrating for seven days, and then did it for another seven days, a week for dedicating the Altar and another for the Feast itself—two solid weeks of celebration! On the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon dismissed his congregation. They left rejoicing, exuberant over all the good God had done for David and Solomon and his people Israel.

God's Confirmation

¹¹ Solomon completed building The Temple of God and the royal palace—the projects he had set his heart on doing. Everything was done—success! Satisfaction! ^12-18 God appeared to Solomon that very night and said, "I accept your prayer; yes, I have chosen this place as a temple for sacrifice, a house of worship. If I ever shut off the supply of rain from the skies or order the locusts to eat the crops or send a plague on my people, and my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I'll be there ready for you: I'll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health. From now on I'm alert day and night to the prayers offered at this place. Believe me, I've chosen and sanctified this Temple that you have built: My Name is stamped on it forever; my eyes are on it and my heart in it always. As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David lived, pure in heart and action, living the life I've set out for you, attentively obedient to my guidance and judgments, then I'll back your kingly rule over Israel—make it a sure thing on a sure foundation. The same covenant guarantee I gave to David your father I'm giving to you, namely, 'You can count on always having a descendant on Israel's throne.'
^19-22 "But if you or your sons betray me, ignoring my guidance and judgments, taking up with alien gods by serving and worshiping them, then the guarantee is off: I'll wipe Israel right off the map and repudiate this Temple I've just sanctified to honor my Name. And Israel will be nothing but a bad joke among the peoples of the world. And this Temple, splendid as it now is, will become an object of contempt; tourists will shake their heads, saying, 'What happened here? What's the story behind these ruins?' Then they'll be told, 'The people who used to live here betrayed their God, the very God who rescued their ancestors from Egypt; they took up with alien gods, worshiping and serving them. That's what's behind this God-visited devastation.'"

2 Chronicles 8

More on Solomon

^1-6 At the end of twenty years, Solomon had quite a list of accomplishments. He had:
built The Temple of God and his own palace;
rebuilt the cities that Hiram had given him and colonized them with Israelites;
marched on Hamath Zobah and took it;
fortified Tadmor in the desert and all the store-cities he had founded in Hamath;
built the fortress cities Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon, complete with walls, gates, and bars;
built Baalath and store-cities;
built chariot-cities for his horses. Solomon built impulsively and extravagantly—whenever a whim took him. And in Jerusalem, in Lebanon—wherever he fancied.
^7-10 The remnants from the original inhabitants of the land (Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites—all non-Israelites), survivors of the holy wars, were rounded up by Solomon for his gangs of slave labor. The policy is in effect today. But true Israelites were not treated this way; they were used in his army and administration—government leaders and commanders of his chariots and charioteers. They were also the project managers responsible for Solomon's building operations—250 in all in charge of the workforce.

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Romans 7:14-8:8 (The Message)

^14-16I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.
^17-20But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
^21-23It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
²⁴I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
²⁵The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

Romans 8

The Solution Is Life on God's Terms

^1-2With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. ^3-4God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
^5-8Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.

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Psalm 18:1-15 (The Message)

Psalm 18

^1-2 I love you, God— you make me strong.
God is bedrock under my feet,
the castle in which I live,
my rescuing knight.
My God—the high crag
where I run for dear life,
hiding behind the boulders,
safe in the granite hideout.

³ I sing to God, the Praise-Lofty,
and find myself safe and saved.

^4-5 The hangman's noose was tight at my throat;
devil waters rushed over me.
Hell's ropes cinched me tight;
death traps barred every exit.

⁶ A hostile world! I call to God,
I cry to God to help me.
From his palace he hears my call;
my cry brings me right into his presence—
a private audience!

^7-15 Earth wobbles and lurches;
huge mountains shake like leaves,
Quake like aspen leaves
because of his rage.
His nostrils flare, bellowing smoke;
his mouth spits fire.
Tongues of fire dart in and out;
he lowers the sky.
He steps down;
under his feet an abyss opens up.
He's riding a winged creature,
swift on wind-wings.
Now he's wrapped himself
in a trenchcoat of black-cloud darkness.
But his cloud-brightness bursts through,
spraying hailstones and fireballs.
Then God thundered out of heaven;
the High God gave a great shout,
spraying hailstones and fireballs.
God shoots his arrows—pandemonium!
He hurls his lightnings—a rout!
The secret sources of ocean are exposed,
the hidden depths of earth lie uncovered
The moment you roar in protest,
let loose your hurricane anger.

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Proverbs 19:24-25 (The Message)

²⁴ Some people dig a fork into the pie
but are too lazy to raise it to their mouth.

²⁵ Punish the insolent—make an example of them.
Who knows? Somebody might learn a good lesson.

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Verse of the Day
“Then Jesus asked them, "But who do you say I am?" Simon Peter spoke up, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” - Matthew 16:15-16

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Thought for the Day

American novelist, Tom Robbins wrote, “The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and the vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love.”