February 5

Good morning, my friends.

Forgive us for not posting the last couple of days of Bible readings. I’ll try to make up for it now.

Old Testament penalties for treating other people wrongly: Exodus 21:22-23:13

Christians will be put to death & hated by all nations: Matthew 24:1-28

The voice of the Lord: Psalm 29:1-11

Being trapped by a hooker is like being shot in the liver: Proverbs 7:6-23


Jesus’ teaching in Matthew is pretty deep. Note that when Jesus said that the Jews’ beautiful temple will be destroyed, the disciples didn’t ask Him, “How in the world could that happen?”, or “Who in the world would do such a thing?” They simply accepted it as certain and wanted to know when it would happen. Whatever the Lord says will happen, will happen. Here are things that seem certain, and they almost always happen, but they’re not as certain as the Lord’s predictions:

1) The Lord’s predictions are more certain than burping after drinking Dr. Pepper.
2) The Lord’s predictions are more certain than someone thinking you’re cussing when you say the new Auburn football coach’s last name.
3) The Lord’s predictions are more certain than Bush trying to wrestle someone after church.
4) The Lord’s predictions are more certain than being flirted with by middle-aged single women if you’re a middle-aged single man & you take Solomon with you to church functions.
5) The Lord’s predictions are more certain than your auto insurance going up when your kids get old enough to drive.
6) The Lord’s predictions are more certain than even the physical laws that govern the world that the Lord created.

Whatever God says will happen, will happen. Just like it happened when God said, “Let there be light.” The disciples knew this & asked Jesus “when”, not “if”. I have no doubt that they trusted Him when He said that His followers would be put to death. Yet His disciples are the ones who started the church. There would be no church today if the disciples hadn’t set up churches & spread Christianity. And they did it knowing it was a dangerous occupation. All of them except John was killed for being a Christian, and tradition says that the Romans tried to kill John by putting him in a vat of boiling oil, but God saved him.

What would Hueytown, Pleasant Grove, Oak Grove, & Sylvan Springs be like in the near future if all of us had the same no-matter-what, no-matter-who kind of attitude about following Jesus & telling others about Him? If we adopt a creed of LILYMI – Living It Like Ya Mean It, then people after us have a strong chance of learning about Jesus.