My Faith View from Here - Daily readings and thoughts

Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year) Numbers 1:47-2:34 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%201%3A47-2%3A34&version=NASB1995 Psalm 73:1-14 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2073%3A1-14&version=NASB1995 Isaiah 63:1-14 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2063%3A1-14&version=NASB1995 Luke 6:46-7:17 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%206%3A46-7%3A17&version=NASB1995 The Awe We Often Forget In Luke 7:9 Jesus says “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.”  He was referring to a gentile who was a Centurion.  Jesus had the disciples around Him, had just finished His “sermon on the plain,” and was walking to Capernaum.  So if He was surrounded by His followers why did He say what He did about the Centurion?  I think there are probably several reasons but here’s a few that come to mind: The Centurion recognized his unworthiness likely due to the fact that he wasn't Jewish....

Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year) Numbers 1:1-46 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%201%3A1-46&version=NASB1995 Psalm 72 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2072&version=NASB1995 Isaiah 62 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2062&version=NASB1995 Luke 6:20-45 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%206%3A20-45&version=NASB1995 A Good Tree We have some fruit trees and berry bushes in our yard.  It’s really only 1 fruit tree -  an apple tree.  All of the berry bushes and the apple tree are out of control.  As far as berries are concerned, we have strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, current and some poison ones.  We don’t eat the poison ones.  The apple tree is a little east from our house close to the shoulder of Shore Road.  The neighbours told us it’s a crabapple tree and the NS Power guys last year laughed at the “crabapple” tree when they were trimming it (really butchering it...

Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year) Leviticus 27 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2027&version=NASB1995 Psalm 71 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2071&version=NASB1995 Isaiah 61 passage Luke 6:1-19 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%206%3A1-19&version=NASB1995 The Great Divider 1. In Isaiah 61, Isaiah speaks this prophecy. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord”(NASB1995) This may sound familiar because after repeating this in Luke 4, Jesus sets the book down and makes the following statement:  “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  Shortly afterward, the people of His town tried to throw Him off a cliff.  We’ll get more direct clarification on this as we read on in th...

Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year) Leviticus 26:14-46 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2026%3A14-46&version=NASB1995 Psalm 70 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2070&version=NASB1995 Isaiah 60:10-22 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2060%3A10-22&version=NASB1995 Luke 5:12-39 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%205%3A12-39&version=NASB1995 Bad News Today! David seems to write his best songs when his enemies are chasing him (and Syl adds: …and he didn’t even have voice-to-text as he was running!).  In fact, very few of the Psalms written by David are purely positive.  For many Jesus followers, the book of Psalms is one of their favorites.  I suppose it's because they find David’s Psalms speak aloud, some of their own negative feelings at times.  However, most of David’s Psalms also finish off with Godly praise.  Psalm 70:4 Says “Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; an...

Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year) Leviticus 25:35-26:13 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2025%3A35-26%3A13&version=NASB1995 Psalm 69:22-36 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2069%3A22-36&version=NASB1995 Isaiah 60:1-9 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2060%3A1-9&version=NASB1995 Luke 4:38-5:11 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204%3A38-5%3A11&version=NASB1995 A World Renewed The year of jubilee was kind of a reset.  Every 50 years, the Israelites had a law that they would follow and celebrate.  If the “year of Jubilee” was still followed, the next one would be October 12, 2035 sunset to October 1, 2036 at sunset.  The jubilee included: Restoration of Property: Leased or mortgaged land returned to its ancestral owner. Release of Debtors: All Hebrew indentured servants were freed, and debts were cancelled. Rest for the Land: No sowing, reaping, or harvesting was permitted, similar to th...

My Special Guest writer is my wonderful wife Sylvia.  Sylvia Just launched her new website.  If you want to take a look.  You can visit  https://sylviapauls.com/  and you'll see some of her art and she also has a blog to view.  And now on to the post of the day! Annual Spring Forward to Daylight Savings Time (My Perspective) Our Pauls Spring Forward is more likely to resemble Spring Behind. We are one day into the official Spring season, and already we feel we are part of the “Left Behind”, a humorous nod to a Christian movie about the rapture. Yesterday, while the sun lit up our front yard for the afternoon, we had a wonderful person who volunteered to come over and coach us on pruning our ancient heritage apple tree so that it will produce more apples the size they are supposed to be, instead of the crabapple size we have seen since moving here. The size difference is due in part by the over abundance of tall and leafy branches choking out the nourishing ...