My Faith View from Here - Daily readings and thoughts

Today’s reading (Bible in 1 year) links to readings at bottom of page Exodus 1,2 Psalm 32 Isaiah 29:17-24 Matthew 23:13-39 It’s been about 350 years since Jacob (Israel) arrived in Egypt and the cast of characters has changed. Pharaoh had passed on and the kings (Pharaoh’s) who reigned in his place started to fear Israel. God caused Israel’s numbers to grow so that Pharaoh said “The sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.”  They made the people of Israel slaves.  Pharaoh attempted to control their numbers by telling the Hebrew midwives to kill all male Hebrew babies as they were born.  Later on in Exodus, we’ll see the plan fails for Pharaoh. I was bullied as a child and I’m sure you who are reading this may also have been bullied or been the bully.  Some of us have been both.  I remember 1 bully named Gary constantly chased me around the school yard in grade 2 and I was scared.  I felt so humiliated from being bullied that I needed to bully someone ...

Today’s reading (Bible in 1 year) links to reading are at the end Genesis 49:28 - 50:26 Psalm 31 Isaiah 29:1-16 Matthew 23:1-12 1. Joseph’s brothers are worried. Jacob has died and has been buried. Joseph’s brothers come to him saying that their father charged them to ask for forgiveness and told Joseph, “We are your servants.” Whether their father actually charged them to ask for forgiveness is unimportant to this discussion, but they were clearly worried that Joseph would get even! Joseph’s response is, “Am I in God’s place?” He explains that they “meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” What a great statement regarding judgment: “Am I in God’s place?” When we judge people, we are stepping into God’s role. Our role is not judgment! So be careful, because it is easy to judge. I judge people when I’m driving and someone makes what I believe to be a dangerous move, or when someone seems to be treating me poorly. We sometimes judge without even realizing it. My response wh...

Today’s reading (Bible in 1 year) links to reading are at the end Genesis 48 - 49:27 Isaiah 28 Matthew 22:23-46 I worry at times!   Will we ever finish the renovations on the house?  Will the funds arrive to replace my truck?  Is God’s best plan to replace my truck (I sure hope it is but I may need to fix this truck, and I really want a new (to me) truck..I have my reasons!)?  Is Jake (our dog) going to be healthy this month or will we have another gigantic vet bill? He’s been sickly since we got him 5 years ago.  What should we do for vacation this year?  Can we even afford a vacation this year?  We’re supposed to go to the wedding of Syl’s only nephew in England next year; where will those funds come from?  Will Sylvia’s medical tests this year show she is still cancer free? She has been cancer free for 3 years, but I worry.  Is the driveway still safe for us?  We’ve had a lot of snow and now at our age, injuries come easier....

Today's reading (Bible in 1 year) links for reading at the end of post Genesis 46,47 Psalm 30 Matthew 22:1-22 God makes bad good! Today, we saw the reunion of Joseph with his Father, and Jacob’s family settling in Egypt.  There were 70 who went down to Egypt representing the whole house of Jacob, the nation of Israel.  We saw God bring a great deliverance to Jacob’s family and  as we discussed yesterday, Joseph was sent by God to do this.  Just as David said in Psalm 30, Jacob could have also said, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing.”   We see the goodness of God as He continues to turn bad into good! Believers in Name Only (BINO) We seem to be in an age of acronyms so I thought I’d start my own.  The extreme right wing US republicans have an acronym for those they think are republican in name only but not really republican (RINO) so I figured I would call this section believers in name only (BINO). Jesus continues teaching in stories (pa...

Today’s Reading (Bible in 1 year) links to today’s reading are at the end of today’s thoughts Genesis 44,45 Isaiah 27 Matthew 21:23 - 46 Thoughts of the day Today’s reading in Genesis is Joseph’s big reveal. Before the big reveal, Joseph gave his brothers a very scary ride. Who knows how long Joseph would have let the story play out, but he became overwhelmed by emotion. By ordering his house steward to plant his silver cup in the mouth of Benjamin’s sack, Joseph made it appear that Benjamin had stolen from the most powerful leader of Egypt (Joseph). Benjamin was Joseph’s little brother and together they shared the same mother, Rachel (the favorite wife of Jacob). We can imagine how, after making vows to return Benjamin safely to his father, Judah made his impassioned request to Joseph: “Please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.” Even though his brothers had been so cruel to Joseph, he still loved them. To see you...

Today’s reading (Bible in 1 year) reading links are at the end bottom of the page Genesis 43 Psalm 29 Isaiah 26 Matthew 21:1-22 This is Palm Sunday; ok, not in our calendars but that’s what we are reading about in Matthew. Jesus rides into the city on a donkey as the prophet foretells “Behold your King is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden” and the key word is gentle.  Jesus is riding in as a humble, peaceful king. A short time later on the same day, Jesus entered the temple and drove out “all those who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers.”  This seems to be quite a contrast from the humble peaceful king we just read about.   It’s interesting that while He was in the temple that day He also healed the blind and the lame. The temple was supposed to be a place of prayer and worship.  The buying and selling was being done in the outer courtyard of the templ...