Scriptures for the Week, August 22 - 27, 2011 The Scriptures for this week are based around the themes of discipline and responsibility. MONDAY Scripture:Leviticus 5:1, 17 If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible. If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible. We are a people of the Book.From the beginning, God has made clear that there are two important relationships.One is how we deal with each other, and the other is how we respond to God’s commands.Jesus Christ reminded his first disciples that there are two commandments – to love God and to love neighbor.No matter where we look or how we try to understand it, we as God’s own will always live in these two communities, one with God and the other with each other.We are to live responsibly. TUESDAY Scripture:Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. We become what preoccupies us.If we are fascinated by money, that will shape how we live.If we spend our hours in front of the television set, that will affect our interpersonal skills.If we devote time each day to the Spirit, we will discover the gifts of the spirit.Like begets like.Let the Spirit in. WEDNESDAY Scripture:Genesis 4:9 “Am I my brother’s keeper?” This is Cain’s fabled answer to God, when God had gone searching for Abel.Though God knew the answer, Cain did not understand even the question.The resounding answer is, “Yes, I am my brother’s keeper, my sister’s keeper, the one who cares for others wherever there is need and I can make it better.”Those who say “no” deny their responsibility to others.But they also lock themselves in a prison all alone.God from the beginning has told us that life is found in caring for one another.
THURSDAY Scripture:2 Peter 1:5-9 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Faith isn’t something we get.It is something we build upon.It is only a foundation, the starting point.Just as a house without a foundation or a foundation without a house seems absurdly pointless, so lives that do not grow in any way spiritually are possessed of a remarkable blindness.Worse than that, to not want to improve and mature is to be near-sighted to the point of wasting the gifts God has already bestowed on us.Add something to your faith this year.It is good for you, for others, for God.
FRIDAY Scripture: Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. Sometimes the Scriptures put it the way we wish we could say it.No one is more stupid than the person who refuses correction.We have all been that stupid at some time in our lives.It takes great courage to face our faults and to seek new ways to behave and believe.Let us not be numbered among the stupid if at all possible, and God willing. SATURDAY Scripture:Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding. We are deep into the political season.Finding truth is going to be tough again this year.Listen for those who are wise, and for those who understand.Demand a depth not only in those who would lead, but also from your own life.God blesses us with minds with which to think, hearts with which to control, and bodies with which to bring both of these together in faithful living.