One Year Bible, June 23

2 KINGS 4:18-5:27                                                                                                      
"SEVEN SNEEZES": Sign of life. Elisha's position over the child was a picture of the Holy Spirit coming into us - matching us face-to-face, hand-to-hand, etc. warming up our spirit and bringing resurrection life into us. The "seven sneezes" are the seven evidences of life within, as stated in 1 John.

THE FEEDING OF THE HUNDRED: Elisha performed Jesus' miracle in miniature! Only he fed them stew, bread and corn-on-the-cob!

LEPROSY: A type of sin. It begins as a small, insignificant event. It is progressive and affects the whole man. It is contagious and can affect others. It brings estrangement, numbness, baldness, isolation - and is incurable except by Jesus.

NAAMAN:  HE WAS A LEPER.  Naaman had a reputation of being a "great man, honorable, and a mighty man of valor."  HOWEVER, his pride had to be dealt with....his remedy demanded submission.  He went to a man of POSITION for healing, rather than to a man of POWER. But even then, Elisha wouldn't wave his "magic wand"! So he left in a rage, but his servants talked him into obeying the prophet. The original language says that when he was healed that his skin was as smooth as a baby's!  NOW he wants to BUY SALVATION!

THE LOVE OF MONEY: Gehazi could have been Elisha's successor, but he was now rotting away of leprosy because of his own selfish desires. He "went out from his (Elisha's) presence a leper as white as snow."  He did not realize the seriousness of his greed.

RESPONSE:  I second-guess my motives often....trying to be SURE that I'm not doing something for the notoriety or for money or to be noticed.  The best way I know to be sure, is to stay in constant contact with God, talking to Him, thanking Him, praising Him for the strength, the grace, the "know-how" to do what I'm doing. Being sure to acknowledge Him "in all my ways" (Prov 3:6) and giving God credit and honor for what He is doing in my life IN THE CONTEXT of my day.

ACTS 15:1-35                                                                                                              
THE COUNCIL OF APOSTLES AND ELDERS: (Otherwise known as the "Jerusalem Council"): The root of the conflict between Paul and Barnabas, and the Judaizers in Antioch was a difference over the definition of the Gospel.

BOTTOM LINE: (1) Salvation is by God's grace alone, through faith in Christ alone.  Salvation by keeping the law is impossible because God requires obedience on the heart level.  Gentiles need not become Jewish to be saved because Judaism has never saved anyone.

(2) Out of love for the lost, we should not do things that are culturally offensive, that would cause people to reject the Gospel.

(3) Out of love for fellow believers, we should not do morally permissible things that would lead them into sin (eat food offered to idols).

(4) Out of grateful love and obedience for God, we must never do things that are culturally accepted but absolutely forbidden by His Word.

(5) Our authoritative guide for all faith and practice is God’s Word, which should be taught and learned.

RESPONSE:     Tere are things we lay aside, as we "crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts..." (Gal 5:24)  Jesus lived a very narrow lifestyle, and that NARROW (Mat 7:14) way is the "way that leads to LIFE."   Living a broad, wide-open life, leads to DEATH.   Anyone who has lived in bondage to emotions, or to their flesh, knows what I am talking about.   All that "baggage" makes it almost impossible to serve God with gladness.   We can't run our race when we are encumbered with all the trimmings that our flesh demands.   We can't go forward when we are anchored in the past either.   All our old ways, our old standards, our old comforts, our old fears, ...have to go when we toss out the "old wineskin".

PSALM 141:1-10                                                                                                       
Do you remember when Saul was hunting David so he could kill him? Saul had gone into a cave to go potty, and didn't know that David was already back in the dark corner of the cave. David sneaked up on him and cut a piece out of Saul's pants just so he could brag that Saul's life had been in his hands, and he had let Saul go. (David regretted his disrespectful deed later.) This Psalm is probably the outcome of that little adventure.

Psalm 141 is a prayer for Right Reactions. We know God IN CONTEXT of daily living - Jesus came to give "the life" the right kind of life.  BEFORE I react in the wrong way, HELP ME, GOD. "Put a guard on my mouth", "don't let my heart be inclined to evil", "let righteous men reprove me when I'm wrong", "keep me from falling into the snare and traps of the wicked."

PROVERBS 17:23                                                                                                             
Perverting justice is shameful - so the bribe is given in secret and received in secret too.

RESPONSE:  Psa 141:3 used to be my most-quoted verse.   I am one of those people who tend to blurt things without thinking. I thought that if an angel put his hand over my mouth when he knew something was coming, God would stop me.  I even prayed that God would give me an instant to think before stuff flew out my mouth.   But, I found Matt 12:34, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" to be true.  That if I wanted to change the outflow, I had to change the pool.  Garbage in, garbage out.   I HAD TO CHANGE WHAT WAS "IN ABUNDANCE" IN MY HEART.  If my heart was filled with anger, defensiveness, offenses, self-pity, unforgiveness, bitterness------then that was what I would spew on others.  Until I changed that, my mouth continued to be offensive and abusive.  I needed to be cleansed, and to teach my heart to trust God, to fear God, to obey God.