Bible Readings for May 31, 2020

Let's read the Bible together in the next year. Today our passages are 2 Samuel 17:1-29; John 19:3-42; Psalm 119:129-152; and Proverbs 16:12-13. The readings are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 

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2 Samuel 17:1-29 (The Message)

2 Samuel 17

 ^1-3 Next Ahithophel advised Absalom, "Let me handpick twelve thousand men and go after David tonight. I'll come on him when he's bone tired and take him by complete surprise. The whole army will run off and I'll kill only David. Then I'll bring the army back to you—a bride brought back to her husband! You're only after one man, after all. Then everyone will be together in peace!"  ⁴ Absalom thought it was an excellent strategy, and all the elders of Israel agreed.
 ⁵ But then Absalom said, "Call in Hushai the Arkite—let's hear what he has to say."
 ⁶ So Hushai came and Absalom put it to him, "This is what Ahithophel advised. Should we do it? What do you say?"
 ^7-10 Hushai said, "The counsel that Ahithophel has given in this instance is not good. You know your father and his men, brave and bitterly angry—like a bear robbed of her cubs. And your father is an experienced fighter; you can be sure he won't be caught napping at a time like this. Even while we're talking, he's probably holed up in some cave or other. If he jumps your men from ambush, word will soon get back, 'A slaughter of Absalom's army!' Even if your men are valiant with hearts of lions, they'll fall apart at such news, for everyone in Israel knows the kind of fighting stuff your father's made of, and also the men with him.
 ^11-13 "Here's what I'd advise: Muster the whole country, from Dan to Beersheba, an army like the sand of the sea, and you personally lead them. We'll smoke him out wherever he is, fall on him like dew falls on the earth, and, believe me, there won't be a single survivor. If he hides out in a city, then the whole army will bring ropes to that city and pull it down and into a gully—not so much as a pebble left of it!"
 ¹⁴ Absalom and all his company agreed that the counsel of Hushai the Arkite was better than the counsel of Ahithophel. (God had determined to discredit the counsel of Ahithophel so as to bring ruin on Absalom.)
 ^15-16 Then Hushai told the priests Zadok and Abiathar, "Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel thus and thus, and I advised them thus and thus. Now send this message as quickly as possible to David: 'Don't spend the night on this side of the river; cross immediately or the king and everyone with him will be swallowed up alive.'"
 ^17-20 Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting around at En Rogel. A servant girl would come and give them messages and then they would go and tell King David, for it wasn't safe to be seen coming into the city. But a soldier spotted them and told Absalom, so the two of them got out of there fast and went to a man's house in Bahurim. He had a well in his yard and they climbed into it. The wife took a rug and covered the well, then spread grain on it so no one would notice anything out of the ordinary. Shortly, Absalom's servants came to the woman's house and asked her, "Have you seen Ahimaaz and Jonathan?"
    The woman said, "They were headed toward the river."
    They looked but didn't find them, and then went back to Jerusalem.
 ²¹ When the coast was clear, Ahimaaz and Jonathan climbed out of the well and went on to make their report to King David, "Get up and cross the river quickly; Ahithophel has given counsel against you!"
 ²² David and his whole army were soon up and moving and crossed the Jordan. As morning broke there was not a single person who had not made it across the Jordan.
 ²³ When Ahithophel realized that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and left for his hometown. After making out his will and putting his house in order, he hanged himself and died. He was buried in the family tomb.
 ^24-26 About the time David arrived at Mahanaim, Absalom crossed the Jordan, and the whole army of Israel with him. Absalom had made Amasa head of the army, replacing Joab. (Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra, an Ishmaelite who had married Abigail, daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah, the mother of Joab.) Israel and Absalom set camp in Gilead.
 ^27-29 When David arrived at Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Ammonite Rabbah, and Makir son of Ammiel from Lo Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim brought beds and blankets, bowls and jugs filled with wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey, and curds and cheese from the flocks and herds. They presented all this to David and his army to eat, "because," they said, "the army must be starved and exhausted and thirsty out in this wilderness." 

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John 19:3-42 (The Message)

John 19

The Thorn Crown of the King

 ^1-3 So Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. The soldiers, having braided a crown from thorns, set it on his head, threw a purple robe over him, and approached him with, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Then they greeted him with slaps in the face.  ^4-5Pilate went back out again and said to them, "I present him to you, but I want you to know that I do not find him guilty of any crime." Just then Jesus came out wearing the thorn crown and purple robe.
   Pilate announced, "Here he is: the Man."
 ⁶When the high priests and police saw him, they shouted in a frenzy, "Crucify! Crucify!"
   Pilate told them, "You take him. You crucify him. I find nothing wrong with him."
 ⁷The Jews answered, "We have a law, and by that law he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God."
 ^8-9When Pilate heard this, he became even more scared. He went back into the palace and said to Jesus, "Where did you come from?"
   Jesus gave no answer.
 ¹⁰Pilate said, "You won't talk? Don't you know that I have the authority to pardon you, and the authority to—crucify you?"
 ¹¹Jesus said, "You haven't a shred of authority over me except what has been given you from heaven. That's why the one who betrayed me to you has committed a far greater fault."
 ¹²At this, Pilate tried his best to pardon him, but the Jews shouted him down: "If you pardon this man, you're no friend of Caesar's. Anyone setting himself up as 'king' defies Caesar."
 ^13-14When Pilate heard those words, he led Jesus outside. He sat down at the judgment seat in the area designated Stone Court (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). It was the preparation day for Passover. The hour was noon. Pilate said to the Jews, "Here is your king."
 ¹⁵They shouted back, "Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!"
   Pilate said, "I am to crucify your king?"
   The high priests answered, "We have no king except Caesar."
 ^16-19Pilate caved in to their demand. He turned him over to be crucified. 

The Crucifixion

   They took Jesus away. Carrying his cross, Jesus went out to the place called Skull Hill (the name in Hebrew is Golgotha), where they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, Jesus in the middle. Pilate wrote a sign and had it placed on the cross. It read:

   jesus the nazarene
   the king of the jews.  ^20-21Many of the Jews read the sign because the place where Jesus was crucified was right next to the city. It was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. The Jewish high priests objected. "Don't write," they said to Pilate, "'The King of the Jews.' Make it, 'This man said, "I am the King of the Jews."'"
 ²²Pilate said, "What I've written, I've written."
 ^23-24When they crucified him, the Roman soldiers took his clothes and divided them up four ways, to each soldier a fourth. But his robe was seamless, a single piece of weaving, so they said to each other, "Let's not tear it up. Let's throw dice to see who gets it." This confirmed the Scripture that said, "They divided up my clothes among them and threw dice for my coat." (The soldiers validated the Scriptures!)
 ^24-27While the soldiers were looking after themselves, Jesus' mother, his aunt, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene stood at the foot of the cross. Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her. He said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that moment the disciple accepted her as his own mother.
 ²⁸Jesus, seeing that everything had been completed so that the Scripture record might also be complete, then said, "I'm thirsty."
 ^29-30A jug of sour wine was standing by. Someone put a sponge soaked with the wine on a javelin and lifted it to his mouth. After he took the wine, Jesus said, "It's done . . . complete." Bowing his head, he offered up his spirit.
 ^31-34Then the Jews, since it was the day of Sabbath preparation, and so the bodies wouldn't stay on the crosses over the Sabbath (it was a high holy day that year), petitioned Pilate that their legs be broken to speed death, and the bodies taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man crucified with Jesus, and then the other. When they got to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn't break his legs. One of the soldiers stabbed him in the side with his spear. Blood and water gushed out.
 ³⁵The eyewitness to these things has presented an accurate report. He saw it himself and is telling the truth so that you, also, will believe.
 ^36-37These things that happened confirmed the Scripture, "Not a bone in his body was broken," and the other Scripture that reads, "They will stare at the one they pierced."
 ³⁸After all this, Joseph of Arimathea (he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he was intimidated by the Jews) petitioned Pilate to take the body of Jesus. Pilate gave permission. So Joseph came and took the body.
 ^39-42Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus at night, came now in broad daylight carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. They took Jesus' body and, following the Jewish burial custom, wrapped it in linen with the spices. There was a garden near the place he was crucified, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been placed. So, because it was Sabbath preparation for the Jews and the tomb was convenient, they placed Jesus in it.

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Psalm 119:129-152 (The Message)

 ^129-136 Every word you give me is a miracle word—
      how could I help but obey?
   Break open your words, let the light shine out,
      let ordinary people see the meaning.
   Mouth open and panting,
      I wanted your commands more than anything.
   Turn my way, look kindly on me,
      as you always do to those who personally love you.
   Steady my steps with your Word of promise
      so nothing malign gets the better of me.
   Rescue me from the grip of bad men and women
      so I can live life your way.
   Smile on me, your servant;
      teach me the right way to live.
   I cry rivers of tears
      because nobody's living by your book!
 ^137-144 You are right and you do right, God;
      your decisions are right on target.
   You rightly instruct us in how to live
      ever faithful to you.
   My rivals nearly did me in,
      they persistently ignored your commandments.
   Your promise has been tested through and through,
      and I, your servant, love it dearly.
   I'm too young to be important,
      but I don't forget what you tell me.
   Your righteousness is eternally right,
      your revelation is the only truth.
   Even though troubles came down on me hard,
      your commands always gave me delight.
   The way you tell me to live is always right;
      help me understand it so I can live to the fullest.
 ^145-152 I call out at the top of my lungs,
      "God! Answer! I'll do whatever you say."
   I called to you, "Save me
      so I can carry out all your instructions."
   I was up before sunrise,
      crying for help, hoping for a word from you.
   I stayed awake all night,
      prayerfully pondering your promise.
   In your love, listen to me;
      in your justice, God, keep me alive.
   As those out to get me come closer and closer,
      they go farther and farther from the truth you reveal;
   But you're the closest of all to me, God,
      and all your judgments true.
   I've known all along from the evidence of your words
      that you meant them to last forever.

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Proverbs 16:12-13 (The Message)

 ¹² Good leaders abhor wrongdoing of all kinds;
   sound leadership has a moral foundation.

 ¹³ Good leaders cultivate honest speech;
   they love advisors who tell them the truth. 

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Verse of the Day

“With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God's trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever.” - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Quote for the Day

An early prominent German Nazi official and politician who was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, Gregor Strasser wrote, “If the machinery for distribution in the present economic system of the world is incapable of properly distributing the productive wealth of nations, then that system is false and must be altered.”

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A Joke for Today

This girl needed some money, so she is doing odd-jobs around her neighborhood. She decides she's not making enough money, so she goes to a rich neighborhood. She walks up to this house and rings the doorbell. The guy answers and tells her she can paint the porch. He gives her a can of paint and $25. When he goes inside, his wife says, "$25! Does she know that the porch wraps all the way around the house?"

"Oh, she'll do fine." the guy says.

An hour later, the doorbell rings. It's the girl. She says, "I'm finished. I even had some extra paint, so I put another coat on."

The guy is surprised. Then the girl says, "Oh, and by the way, that's not a Porsche, that's a Ferrari."

A Thought from the Word

A brief thought based on Psalm 103:17-18 - The Lord is always kind to those who worship him, and he keeps his promises to their descendants who faithfully obey him.

Bible Readings for May 30, 2020

Let's read the Bible together in the next year. Today our passages are 2 Samuel 15:23-16:23; John 18:25-19:2; Psalm 119:113-128; and Proverbs 16:10-11. The readings are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 

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2 Samuel 15:23-16:23 (The Message)

 ^23-24 The whole country was weeping in loud lament as all the people passed by. As the king crossed the Brook Kidron, the army headed for the road to the wilderness. Zadok was also there, the Levites with him, carrying God's Chest of the Covenant. They set the Chest of God down, Abiathar standing by, until all the people had evacuated the city.
 ^25-26 Then the king ordered Zadok, "Take the Chest back to the city. If I get back in God's good graces, he'll bring me back and show me where the Chest has been set down. But if he says, 'I'm not pleased with you'—well, he can then do with me whatever he pleases."
 ^27-30 The king directed Zadok the priest, "Here's the plan: Return to the city peacefully, with Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan, Abiathar's son, with you. I'll wait at a spot in the wilderness across the river, until I get word from you telling us what's up." So Zadok and Abiathar took the Chest of God back to Jerusalem and placed it there, while David went up the Mount of Olives weeping, head covered but barefooted, and the whole army was with him, heads covered and weeping as they ascended.
 ³¹ David was told, "Ahithophel has joined the conspirators with Absalom." He prayed, "Oh, God—turn Ahithophel's counsel to foolishness."
 ^32-36 As David approached the top of the hill where God was worshiped, Hushai the Arkite, clothes ripped to shreds and dirt on his head, was there waiting for him. David said, "If you come with me, you'll be just one more piece of luggage. Go back to the city and say to Absalom, 'I'm ready to be your servant, O King; I used to be your father's servant, now I'm your servant.' Do that and you'll be able to confuse Ahithophel's counsel for me. The priests Zadok and Abiathar are already there; whatever information you pick up in the palace, tell them. Their two sons—Zadok's son Ahimaaz and Abiathar's son Jonathan—are there with them—anything you pick up can be sent to me by them."
 ³⁷ Hushai, David's friend, arrived at the same time Absalom was entering Jerusalem. 

2 Samuel 16

 ¹ Shortly after David passed the crest of the hill, Mephibosheth's steward Ziba met him with a string of pack animals, saddled and loaded with a hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred baskets of fresh fruit, and a skin of wine.  ² The king said to Ziba, "What's all this?"
    "The donkeys," said Ziba, "are for the king's household to ride, the bread and fruit are for the servants to eat, and the wine is for drinking, especially for those overcome by fatigue in the wilderness."
 ³ The king said, "And where is your master's grandson?"
    "He stayed in Jerusalem," said Ziba. "He said, 'This is the day Israel is going to restore my grandfather's kingdom to me.'"
 ⁴ "Everything that belonged to Mephibosheth," said the king, "is now yours."
    Ziba said, "How can I ever thank you? I'll be forever in your debt, my master and king; may you always look on me with such kindness!"
 ^5-8 When the king got to Bahurim, a man appeared who had connections with Saul's family. His name was Shimei son of Gera. As he followed along he shouted insults and threw rocks right and left at David and his company, servants and soldiers alike. To the accompaniment of curses he shouted, "Get lost, get lost, you butcher, you hellhound! God has paid you back for all your dirty work in the family of Saul and for stealing his kingdom. God has given the kingdom to your son Absalom. Look at you now—ruined! And good riddance, you pathetic old man!"
 ⁹ Abishai son of Zeruiah said, "This mangy dog can't insult my master the king this way—let me go over and cut off his head!"
 ¹⁰ But the king said, "Why are you sons of Zeruiah always interfering and getting in the way? If he's cursing, it's because God told him, 'Curse David.' So who dares raise questions?"
 ^11-12 "Besides," continued David to Abishai and the rest of his servants, "my own son, my flesh and bone, is right now trying to kill me; compared to that this Benjaminite is small potatoes. Don't bother with him; let him curse; he's preaching God's word to me. And who knows, maybe God will see the trouble I'm in today and exchange the curses for something good."
 ¹³ David and his men went on down the road, while Shimei followed along on the ridge of the hill alongside, cursing, throwing stones down on them, and kicking up dirt.
 ¹⁴ By the time they reached the Jordan River, David and all the men of the company were exhausted. There they rested and were revived.
 ¹⁵ By this time Absalom and all his men were in Jerusalem.
    And Ahithophel was with them.
 ¹⁶ Soon after, Hushai the Arkite, David's friend, came and greeted Absalom, "Long live the king! Long live the king!"
 ¹⁷ Absalom said to Hushai, "Is this the way you show devotion to your good friend? Why didn't you go with your friend David?"
 ^18-19 "Because," said Hushai, "I want to be with the person that God and this people and all Israel have chosen. And I want to stay with him. Besides, who is there to serve other than the son? Just as I served your father, I'm now ready to serve you."
 ²⁰ Then Absalom spoke to Ahithophel, "Are you ready to give counsel? What do we do next?"
 ^21-22 Ahithophel told Absalom, "Go and sleep with your father's concubines, the ones he left to tend to the palace. Everyone will hear that you have openly disgraced your father, and the morale of everyone on your side will be strengthened." So Absalom pitched a tent up on the roof in public view, and went in and slept with his father's concubines.
 ²³ The counsel that Ahithophel gave in those days was treated as if God himself had spoken. That was the reputation of Ahithophel's counsel to David; it was the same with Absalom.

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John 18:25-19:2 (The Message)

 ²⁵Meanwhile, Simon Peter was back at the fire, still trying to get warm. The others there said to him, "Aren't you one of his disciples?"
   He denied it, "Not me."
 ²⁶One of the Chief Priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, "Didn't I see you in the garden with him?"
 ²⁷Again, Peter denied it. Just then a rooster crowed. 

The King of the Jews

 ^28-29They led Jesus then from Caiaphas to the Roman governor's palace. It was early morning. They themselves didn't enter the palace because they didn't want to be disqualified from eating the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and spoke. "What charge do you bring against this man?"  ³⁰They said, "If he hadn't been doing something evil, do you think we'd be here bothering you?"
 ^31-32Pilate said, "You take him. Judge him by your law."
   The Jews said, "We're not allowed to kill anyone." (This would confirm Jesus' word indicating the way he would die.)
 ³³Pilate went back into the palace and called for Jesus. He said, "Are you the 'King of the Jews'?"
 ³⁴Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own, or did others tell you this about me?"
 ³⁵Pilate said, "Do I look like a Jew? Your people and your high priests turned you over to me. What did you do?"
 ³⁶"My kingdom," said Jesus, "doesn't consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn't be handed over to the Jews. But I'm not that kind of king, not the world's kind of king."
 ³⁷Then Pilate said, "So, are you a king or not?"
   Jesus answered, "You tell me. Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice."
 ^38-39Pilate said, "What is truth?"
   Then he went back out to the Jews and told them, "I find nothing wrong in this man. It's your custom that I pardon one prisoner at Passover. Do you want me to pardon the 'King of the Jews'?"
 ⁴⁰They shouted back, "Not this one, but Barabbas!" Barabbas was a Jewish freedom fighter. 

John 19

The Thorn Crown of the King

 ^1-3 So Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. The soldiers, having braided a crown from thorns, set it on his head, threw a purple robe over him, and approached him with, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Then they greeted him with slaps in the face. 

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Psalm 119:113-128 (The Message)

 ^113-120 I hate the two-faced,
      but I love your clear-cut revelation.
   You're my place of quiet retreat;
      I wait for your Word to renew me.
   Get out of my life, evildoers,
      so I can keep my God's commands.
   Take my side as you promised; I'll live then for sure.
      Don't disappoint all my grand hopes.
   Stick with me and I'll be all right;
      I'll give total allegiance to your definitions of life.
   Expose all who drift away from your sayings;
      their casual idolatry is lethal.
   You reject earth's wicked as so much rubbish;
      therefore I lovingly embrace everything you say.
   I shiver in awe before you;
      your decisions leave me speechless with reverence.
 ^121-128 I stood up for justice and the right;
      don't leave me to the mercy of my oppressors.
   Take the side of your servant, good God;
      don't let the godless take advantage of me.
   I can't keep my eyes open any longer, waiting for you
      to keep your promise to set everything right.
   Let your love dictate how you deal with me;
      teach me from your textbook on life.
   I'm your servant—help me understand what that means,
      the inner meaning of your instructions.
   It's time to act, God;
      they've made a shambles of your revelation!
   Yea-Saying God, I love what you command,
      I love it better than gold and gemstones;
   Yea-Saying God, I honor everything you tell me,
      I despise every deceitful detour. 

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Proverbs 16:10-11 (The Message)

It Pays to Take Life Seriously

 ¹⁰ A good leader motivates,
   doesn't mislead, doesn't exploit.

 ¹¹ God cares about honesty in the workplace;
   your business is his business. 

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Verse of the Day

“I praise your promises! I trust you and am not afraid. No one can harm me.” - Psalm 56:4 

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Quote for the Day

Progressive writer, Randolph Bourne wrote, “Few people even scratch the surface, much less exhaust the contemplation of their own experience.”

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A Joke for Today

Ways to tell if a redneck has been working on a computer 

10. The monitor is up on blocks. 
9. Outgoing faxes have tobacco stains on them. 
8. The six front keys have rotted out. 
7. The extra RAM slots have Dodge truck parts installed in them. 
6. The numeric keypad only goes up to six. 
5. The password is "Bubba". 
4. The CPU has a gun rack mount. 
3. There is a Skoal can in the CD-ROM drive. 
2. The keyboard is camouflaged. 
And, The Number One Way To Tell If A Redneck Has Been Working On A Computer...
The mouse is referred to as a "critter". 

Third Presbyterian Sunday Morning Bible Study - May 31, 2020

Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on 1 Corinthians 1:10-17.

Family feuds.  I don’t mean the TV show, I mean real family feuds.  You know, there is just something tacky about a family feud.  Families are supposed to be symbols of togetherness not at each other’s throats. What causes families to feud?  (1) pride, (2) misinformation, (3) jealousy, (4) greed.  In fact they act that way just like society acts that way.  The same dynamics come into play.  A while back on Judge Judy, a daughter was suing her mother who owed her some money. But the money wasn’t the real reason they were in Judge Judy’s court. Hurt feelings, anger and stubbornness really drove them into court. Because they went to court rather than give in a little, a daughter lost her mother and grand children lost their grandmother. In the end an angry bitter grandmother left the court with the family problem unresolved.  The feud will continue.

Unfortunately, a church isn’t spared from feuds either. Bitterness and hard feelings grow and blossom among it’s congregation. All the things that caused problems in the mother/daughter relationship on Judge Judy can cause a church to split into warring factions.  You see, it is easy to have a feud.  It generally starts with two strong willed people who are sure that they are 100% right AND 100% righteous.  To compromise is like saying your side is less righteous than the other side. The real challenge in a church feud is in getting rid of the feud and bringing the church family back together like Christ intended.

Today we study a problem that Paul was having with the Church at Corinth that was threatening to split that church up into not two, but four competing factions. Feuds were flowering faster than weeds in your garden.  Some times we feel that the early church was immune to this sort of thing, but remember there were human beings like you and I in that early church and you know what kind of people we are.

In order to fully understand what Paul was up against, we have to have some understanding about the history and culture of Corinth. If you looked at a map Greece, you will see that Corinth enjoyed a prime location. If you wanted to travel from, say, Athens to Sparta, you would have to pass through Corinth. In fact, Corinth was known as the Bridge of Greece because it united the northern half with the southern half. All trading and commerce between the northern and southern halves of Greece had to pass through Corinth.

In addition most east/west naval traffic also passed through Corinth.  Remember, in those days all sea navigation consisted of sailing around land masses so that the boat’s captain could always get his bearings by being able to recognize the land features. Isn’t it easier when given directions to someplace, if you know buildings or businesses - landmarks - you can look for that get you on the right road rather than having to strain to find where the city decided to put the street sign?  When people ask for directions to my house (these are people who still don’t trust a GPS), I always tell them to go like they are going to the Little Creek Amphibious Base and the second block after Military Highway they will come to a dead end street with a Young’s Body Upholstery on one corner and an Urgent Care on the other.  My house is the first house on the right in the fourth block. People can get to my house without ever looking for a street sign.

Now, if the captain wanted to sail around the southern tip of Greece, he was picking a dangerous journey. The southern tip of Greece was known as Cape Malea and sailing around this cape was as dangerous as sailing around Cape Horn was centuries later. There was even a saying in those days that if you were going to sail around Cape Malea you better make out your will first. Now-a-days, that’s the same advice you give people going to Pungo. To avoid Cape Malea the shippers would either sail up to one side of Corinth and, if the boats were small enough, they dragged them out of the water, put them on rollers, and hauled them across the land to the other side of Corinth, a distance of about nine miles, and relaunched them. The second and most popular way was to sail up the river to Corinth, remove the cargo from the boat, transport it through the city of Corinth and charter another boat on the other side. So, you can see that Corinth’s trade was covered both east and west as well as north and south. The result was a very rich city.  In fact nearly all of the wealth of ancient Greece flowed through the city of Corinth.

Now, Corinth had a reputation for commercial prosperity, but with all this wealth there were problems. The wealth was concentrated into the hands of only a few people. Most of the people were poor and sixty percent of the people were slaves.  North of the city, was the hill of the Acropolis, and on that hill stood the great temple of Aphrodite who was the goddess of love. In the temple there were a thousand priestesses who were sacred prostitutes. In the evening, they left the temple and went down into Corinth looking for customers. As you can imagine, Aphrodite was by far the most popular goddess in ancient Corinth.

In addition there were taverns and places where people went to get roaring drunk. How does TV and movies usually portray Southerners? Hicks that live in trailer parks with big brown dogs under the porch and a car up on blocks in the front yard.  Well, Corinth’s reputation for drunkenness was so wide spread that when a character in a play portrayed a drunkard, that character would be a Corinthian just like today a character who is a dumb hayseed will always be a southerner.

As Greece grew into a world power, Corinth grew in wickedness and immorality. It was said in ancient Greece that the cost of drinking and playing around in Corinth was so high that only a very rich man could afford to travel there. It was a city for high rollers.  Las Vegas and Atlantic City all rolled up into one.  It looked like life in Corinth would never change. Let the good times roll.

But change it did. In 146 BC the Romans who were starting on their world conquest zeroed in on Greece. The city of Corinth led the opposition to the Roman invasion probably because they had the most to lose financially and as a result, when the Romans captured Corinth, they completely gutted the city. The only thing left was a pile of ruins where the city had stood.  Corinth stayed a destroyed forgotten city for a hundred years.

Then Julius Ceasar chose Corinth as a retirement community for his soldiers and rebuilt the city.  More over, Corinth became the capital of the Roman province of Achaia.  Because of it’s strategic location it soon became a thriving commercial center again. But this time the population consisted of retired Roman soldiers, Greek merchants, Jews taking advantage of the commercial opportunity and a sprinkling of Easterners with strange and exotic customs.

Acts 18:1-17 tells of Paul’s first visit to Corinth. It was on Paul’s second missionary journey. Paul had left Macedonia because people were threatening to kill him so he had crossed over to Athens. In Athens Paul did not have a lot of success saving souls, so he left Athens and went down to Corinth which was about ten miles south of Athens.  Although only seventeen verses in Acts describe his mission in Corinth, Paul actually spent a year and a half there. While in Corinth, Paul stayed with Aquila and Priscilla, who were a Jewish couple very much involved in the early church.

Paul had more luck preaching in the Synagogue in Corinth than he had in Athens and his efforts were improved when Silas and Timothy arrived from Mascedonia. While there, Paul was able to convert Crispus a ruler in the Synagogue who had a lot of influence in the Jewish community.  Unfortunately, the Jews got tired of Paul always preaching about Christ, so they forced Paul to stop speaking in the Synagogue. Did that stop old Paul?  No way.  How do you think Paul out smarted that crowd in the synagogue? What Paul did was to move into the home of a man named Justis who lived right next door to the synagogue.  Paul would stand on Justis’ front porch and preach to the Jews on their way to and from the synagogue.  Where there is a will, there is a way.  Maybe that should say, “Where there is a Paul, there is a way.”

In 52 AD a new Roman governor named Gallio arrived. Now Gallio was an easy going sort of guy who was very charming and gentle. The Jews tried to take advantage of Gallio’s easy going nature to bring Paul to trial on a trumped up charge of teaching contrary to their law.  Gallio refused to hear the case so Paul was able to finish his work there and then move on to Syria.

Three years later, Paul received a letter from Corinth telling him that things weren’t going well. Paul was in Ephesus at the time.  In no time at all, he had sat down and wrote this letter to the Church in Corinth.  Let’s see how Paul handles a church feud.

1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and same purpose.  11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, brothers and sisters.  12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephus,” or “Ibelong to Christ.”

What is Paul’s appeal to them? They stop fussing and get along with each other.  They are to be of the same mind.  In other words, Paul has heard that there were feuds erupting in the church and it had to stop.  How does Paul know about the problem in Corinth?  Chloe’s people.  What did they report?  The church people were fighting with themselves - a feud if I ever heard one.  Who is Chloe and why is she snitching on the Corinth?  We really don’t have any idea.  She was probably a business woman in Corinth who was a member of the church there. If she wasn’t important in the church in Corinth, Paul might have waited for more input from other people.  Obviously, Paul had known her while he was in Corinth and he knew that every member of the church in Corinth knew and respected Chloe. It just might be that church services were conducted in her house.  By mentioning Chloe it was like Paul was saying, “I have on good authority that there is a lot of feuding going on in the church. Chloe, who you all know as a fine, fine Christian woman, saw that the church was being torn apart.  So, she sent some of her servants to Ephesus to tell me what was going on.”

Specifically, what was going on?  The church was being divided along personality lines.  Who were the four people named?  Those who were influenced by Paul’s teachings; those who were influenced by Apollos; and those influenced by Peter.  Anybody here ever hear about Apollos?  We know Paul and Peter, but, who is this guy, Apollos? We are introduced to him in Acts 18:24-27. We are told that he was a Jew from Alexandria in Egypt and was an eloquent man who knew the old testament scriptures backwards and forwards. In those days, Alexandria was a university town known for it’s philosophical and intellectual activity. The Harvard of it’s day. The largest library in the world was there. As many as 1 million Jews lived in Alexandra.  The Jews there would take parts of the Old Testament scripture and try to find hidden meanings or ways in which things that happened in their day might have been foretold in the Old Testament scriptures. Sounds like what some fundamentalist preachers do today.

For instance, in Genesis 14:14 and 18:23 we are told that Abraham had a total of 318 people in his household when he followed God’s orders to circumcise them.  Now Greeks used alphabetic letters to symbolize numbers and the letters for 18 contained the first two letters in Jesus’ name. Further more, the letter for 300 was the Greek letter Tau which is in the shape of the cross. These intellectuals put these two things together and came to the conclusion that this incident with Abraham foretold the crucifixion of Jesus. Apollos being among the Jews in Alexandra probably tended to intellectualize the Scripture and being a man who spoke what he believed, may have included some of these unusual interpretations in his sermons. We are told that Pricsilla and Aquila heard him preach one day and while recognizing that Apollos was on fire for the Lord, he was some what inaccurate in his understanding of the Gospel.  They took him aside and instructed him. He appreciated this new information and went off to Achaia which is where Corinth was located and preached what he had learned from Pricsilla and Aquila.

Now, all three men preached about redemption and the necessity of Jesus’s death and resurrection. What, then, was the difference?

There were those who belonged to Paul. Paul had already been to Corinth and preached mainly to the Gentiles which consisted of probably Roman families associated with the retired military men and some Greeks. It may be that these believers had misunderstood Paul’s message and thought that the freedom from the Law that Paul told them they had in Christ was license to do what ever they wanted - to break all of the Ten Commandments and civil law, also, if they wanted to.

There were those who belonged to Apollos.  These were the people who were attracted to mysteries and philosophy.  They enjoyed the mind games of reading into scripture anything that advanced their personal agenda.  You see, for them knowledge led to salvation.  Later as we learned from our study of John, agnostics would follow this same attitude leading them to conclude that all matter is bad and only the spirit is good.

There were those who belonged to Peter. These were probably the Jews who felt that a person had to be a Jew before he could be a Christian. They felt that the Jewish law had to be obeyed and was to be held important and necessary, even by the Gentile believers. Essentially, they believed that a Gentile had to become a Jew before he could become a Christian.  This view would later lead to a major meeting of church leaders who would decide that it was not necessary for a Gentile to become a Jew before he became a Christian.

What was the fourth group names? Those who claimed they belonged to Christ.  Wait a minute.  Doesn’t everybody belongs to Christ? So, how can this be a division in the church? This group were the fundamentalist of the day. They had all of the answers and nobody else was right, no matter how sincerely they believed in Christ.  Nobody was really saved unless they agreed with the fundamentalist’s views. Haven’t you met people like that?  They ask things like “Exactly when did you accept the Lord?”  They don’t mean at what general point in your life.  They mean the exact year, day, hour and minute it happened.  To them, accepting the Lord was always a Damascus road experience.  Or, when did you first speak in tongues?  If you can’t give the right answers then they shake their head and assign you to the fiery pit or try to save you one more time.  With these kind of people the problem is not in their belief in Christ, but in their belief that Christ belongs only to them. To characterize this probably small group of people in Corinth, they were an intolerant, self-righteous group who believed that saying the right words was the same as feeling those words in your heart.

Surely these followers of the great men of the early church, didn’t start out to sew divisions in the early church. It was all a matter of their approach and style in preaching the Gospel. When Apollos preached, he tended to be more intellectual and to see confirmation of spiritual things in natural events. He stressed the wisdom of culture and as a result his followers considered knowledge and philosophy as important aspects of one’s spiritual development. Peter on the other hand stressed the Torah and his Jewish heritage. That’s what he knew.  The Old Testament and the writings of Moses were considered as an important part of what Jesus wanted from believers. Then there was Paul. Paul preached a law-free gospel. To Paul’s zealous followers, there were apparent questionable beliefs held by other Christians taught by Peter or Apollos. How could you be free of the Law and be a follower of Peter who spoke of the importance of the Law? How could you be a believer in the Torah and accept Apollos’ philosophy which had nothing to do with the trials of the Jewish nation?  As for the fourth group - the fundamentalist - they were playing on their own field of dreams.  You see, the problem was that people were identifying with personalities which suited their particular cultural back ground.  Not too far from how some people react today.

1 Corinthians 1:13 Has Christ been divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?  14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.  16  (I did baptized also the household of Srephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)  17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of it’s power.

What are the three questions Paul asks?  Is Christ divided?  Was Paul Crucified for them?  Were they baptized in Paul’s name?  These are rhetorical questions.  If they were serious questions, then Paul’s sanity would be in question.  Paul’s questions weren’t looking for an answer.  The reader would immediately answer in their mind, “No.  Jesus was the one who was crucified for them.  It was in Jesus’ name that they were baptized.”  The answers are simple and obvious.  The questions are asked to make the reader stop and think.

Paul tells the Corinthians that too much attention is being paid to who performed the baptism and not what the baptism meant. Paul mentions Stephanas, a Greek, who was probably his first convert, Crispus, a Jew, who had been a ruler in the temple and Gaius, a Roman, who may have been a retired soldier and was probably the person who acted as Paul’s host in Corinth. Remember, last week, we found out that Gaius was also known by John.  Paul didn’t baptize many people, but, he isn’t saying that baptism is not important. It is a matter of what you have been called to do and Paul was called to preach.  Paul goes on to say that Apollos, Peter and himself have no disagreement. They all acted as Christ’s servants using their particular talents to bring the lost to Christ. The three would be the first to raise their voices in condemnation of the splits forming in the Church. Further, they would be hurt if their name was being used to support these splits.

It is important to keep several things in mind in evaluating what Paul is saying to the Church at Corinth and really to our Church today:

1. Unity - there are beliefs that we all as Christians share. What are they? (1) faith, (2) a risen Savior, (3) forgiveness of sins, (4) confession. We start with the things that bind us together not those things that drive us apart.
2. Diversity - In speaking of unity, Paul does not say that there should not be diversity. There were people hearing the word coming from different cultures and Christ was placing certain individuals who could present salvation in a way that these different cultures could grasp the good news. Paul illustrated this fact by the nationalities of the people he himself had baptized - Greeks, Jews and Romans. It is a matter of recognizing that people are different and if they are to understand this great gift from God, the message has to hit them where they live.
3. Differences - If three people meet there will be at some times differences in understanding or applying Christian teachings. These differences may be honestly held, but, they need not separate us from each other. If these different views don’t get in the way of all of those important things that we as Christians share, then don’t let them divide us.
4. Divisiveness - This is where we really seek to separate ourselves from the positions held by others by tearing down that person or group. It divides us and has as it’s goal, discord. Unfortunately, many times it is more important to win the point than to learn the truth. This is what was happening in the Corinthian Church and this is what Paul was arguing against. The people had become so protective of and loyal to the one who had given them the Gospel, that they lost sight of the big picture and wanted to make sure that their man was considered the most important guy. The guy who wore the shiniest metal. Like when we were kids and said, “My Daddy can beat your Daddy.”

Family feuds are always hard to deal with.  In our own families it takes love and respecting the other person and cutting them some slack.  But, family feuds in a church open up opportunities for discord and splits which can be so loud that we fail to hear and accept the unity of Christ’s message.  A unity that brings together rich, poor, every nationality, every race, young and old into a relationship of shared faith and love that defies our own culture.  If we hear this call, then family feuds will never threaten our church.

Prayer: Dear Father, we pray that we never place our own agenda before what you would have us do as Christ’s disciples.  In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Hopeful Church - Finding meaning in times of crisis

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic I’ve been thinking a lot about Victor Frankl. It’s like he’s the answer to everything pastors especially are struggling with right now. I don’t know if you know who he is, or remember who he was, but he wrote a seminal book titled Man’s Search for Meaning in the 1950s that helped people discover transcendence even in the midst of suffering and tragedy.

Frankl had a tremendous influence on me as a teen, especially since I was an aspiring therapist. A Jewish, Viennese psychiatrist in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Frankl spent three years in four different Nazi concentration camps, including the infamous Auschwitz. Frankl survived the camps, but tragically his mother, father, brother, and wife did not. What’s remarkable about him is that he emerged from the camps with a profound sense of faith, hope, and love despite experiencing such horrors and anguish.

How was he able to be so positive after so much suffering and death? In his writings and teachings he often reflected on this question. He knew that much of surviving had to do with happenstance—he was never sent to gas chambers, shot, or beaten to death like so many others had been. Still, he noticed that survivors often shared a trait: they discovered a sense of meaning and purpose, no matter how terrible and degrading the situation was. They found meaning and purpose in helping each other survive physically, keeping others’ spirits lifted, searching for the good even in times of suffering, and believing that they had a purpose once freed to help heal those who had suffered. It was during his captivity that he came up with the framework for a new kind of therapy, logotherapy, that influences many therapists to this day.

A central story in his book was an event that happened after a day spent digging a pit in the frozen ground—labor meant to degrade and dehumanize them because it had no purpose other than imposed suffering. As they silently walked back to the barracks, a man stopped and said, “Look at the sunset!” For five minutes they all stared in awe at the most beautiful sunset they had ever seen.

Moments that provide meaning

Frankl said that this one moment of meaning changed how everyone experienced their situation. Suddenly it became tolerable again, if only for a little while. His life became a search for those moments. Frankl later taught that we find meaning in those moments because humility and transcendence coalesce to provide a sense of meaning in what would otherwise seem meaningless.

Helping people piece life back together after the war, he noticed how many no longer felt a sense of meaning. He said, “People have enough to live, but nothing to live for; they have means, but no meaning.” He believed we face a choice in any situation: do we let the situation define us or do we define ourselves by adopting an attitude of openness to something more. He called this a “will to meaning”—a sense that even in darkness we can find light, and that light can sustain us until out situation becomes better.

Lamenting our loss

Across the country church leaders and pastors are having a crisis of meaning during this pandemic. And this crisis extends way beyond what previous crises (9/11, two wars, mass shootings, the Great Recession, and the present Great Unravelling of the country politically) presented. What makes this crisis worse is that it impacts all areas of church life and ministry:

• Organizationally, by disrupting routines and schedules.
• Vocationally, by causing us to question what our role is and what people expect of us?
• Technologically, by forcing us to learn how to record, stream, Zoom, post and more, while dealing with church members who resist and just want to go back to how it was.
• Communally, by stripping away the old ways and forcing us to find new ways to stay connected.
• Emotionally, by dredging up feelings of helplessness, frustration, anger, sadness, confusion, and more that we don’t know what to do with.
• Relationally, by forcing us to stay home too much, spend time with others too little, all while balancing parenting, tasks, and obligations.
• Physically, by putting us in situations where it’s easy to eat and drink too much, exercise too little, overwork, under-rest, and generally not take care of ourselves.
• Spiritually, by making us either feel blah or abandoned in our relationship with God, without a sense of who can understand our struggles.

The result is that many pastors are ending up with a crisis of meaning. We don’t know what our role is anymore because much of what we used to do we’re now unable to do, and we struggle to adapt. We signed up for a very different kind of ministry than what we’re being asked to offer now.

There’s a purpose during a pandemic

The coronavirus crisis may be changing the means by which we do ministry and church, but it hasn’t changed the meaning behind what we do. The meaning we derive from church is still there, even if the means by which we do it has changed: serving God, opening people to God’s Spirit, helping people find healing for their lives, and offering faith, hope, and love.

The struggle for many of us is that we think that the way we did something was what provided the sense of meaning and purpose. What really provides a sense of meaning and purpose is what we offer in ministry and in life, regardless of the means by which we do it. Like Frankl, we can discover beauty, wonders, light, life, love, and more if we’re willing to look for it, especially as we help others listen for God’s guidance in the midst of pandemic.

The Rev. Dr. N. Graham Standish, is executive director of Samaritan Counseling, Guidance, Consulting in Sewickley, PA, and directs their Caring for Clergy and Congregations program. He is the author of seven books on spirituality and congregational transformation, with a new one, “…And the Church Actually Changed” due in September (www.ngrahamstandish.org).

Where is God in a pandemic?

The short answer: God is amidst us in the suffering

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

The Rev. Dr. Richard Boyce

LOUISVILLE — Pastors from four churches invited congregants to listen in Thursday evening while the Rev. Dr. Richard Boyce, Vice President and Dean of Union Presbyterian Seminary’s Charlotte campus led the online discussion “Where is God in a Pandemic? Understanding and Responding to Suffering.”

About 150 tuned in at the invitation of the seminary’s graduates serving Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian Church in Cary, North Carolina; Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church in Tampa, Florida; South Mecklenburg Presbyterian Church in Charlotte; and Park Lake Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Florida.

“Thank you for entrusting me with an impossible topic,” Boyce said at the outset, noting that a participant had already asked the question, “Why are we talking about such a topic? Shouldn’t we study the psalms of lament tonight?”

Boyce outlined three types of suffering from the human point of view:

• We suffer because we are finite creatures in a blessed but broken world. In his experience, most suffering falls in this category, Boyce said. “It falls on the just and the unjust, young and old, rich and poor,” he said. Realizing we’re all bound to die, “we are challenged to recognize our place in this good Creation as creatures.”
• We suffer because we are disobedient. Boyce calls this the most dangerous category, and in Leviticus 26 it carries strict penalties: For those who spurn God’s statutes and abhor God’s ordinances, God will “bring terror on you; consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away … I will make your sky like iron and your Earth like copper. Your strength will be spent to no purpose.” In Luke 13, Jesus says 18 people who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them were no worse than all the other people living in Jerusalem. “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did,” Jesus says.
• We suffer because we’re obedient. With the Holy Spirit’s help, Boyce said, we have chosen to follow Jesus on his way to the cross. “Sometimes we are called to suffer as obedient creatures out of love for God and sacrificial love for each other,” Boyce said.

COVID-19 has exposed truths about our society — much of it sinful, he said. Viruses are neutral in that they’re just trying to live and replicate. Humans, on the other hand, show partiality, and we’re supposed to be partial to the ones who are the most threatened by the virus. “I worry that while the virus is neutral, the effects that it’s having are far from neutral,” Boyce said. “Maybe it’s exposing sinful behavior we have allowed to go on for too long,” including lack of attention to providing basic health care and the lack of cooperation among nations over how investments are to be made for research and development.

After a vaccine is developed, who will get it? “Those in our own national borders?” he asked. The pandemic “has pulled back the veil from suffering that’s been going on a long time, where not everyone is treated as if they were made in the image of God,” including the death at the hands of Minneapolis police of George Floyd.

“What takes my breath away,” Boyce said, “are the stories of people sorting groceries and bringing us our mail, the behavior that gets us closest to the heart of God who loves us enough to be with us to suffer with us and to die with and for us, that we might begin to see life, and have it abundantly.”

There are easy answers to the question of where God is in the pandemic, but they’re not scriptural, Boyce said. One is that we live in a world God created and left behind, a place where “everything is neutral and nothing is meaningful.” There’s a spirit in Ecclesiastes “that covers that sense of the neutrality of a world that doesn’t care much for us.”

We are learning to be “a little more humble,” he said, about the interdependence of life on Earth. “We breathe in viruses all the time,” Boyce said. “Our bodies are constantly trying to calibrate which ones are helpful to us and which are harmful. COVID-19 has migrated from some other species to ours, and we don’t have the antibodies or the vaccine to fight it.”

Why would God invent pesky mosquitos, much less a deadly virus? Boyce said he’s trying to avoid the “easy demonization” to “get rid of all bad things and preserve all good things. That’s bad theology and dangerous science as well.”

“Let’s not call upon God and blame God,” Boyce suggested. “We are in this web together and by God’s grace, let’s figure this out.”

Asked how the church and society will be different once the pandemic has subsided, Boyce wondered out loud why God didn’t grant human beings “a better ability to know the future.”

“I hope and pray that we will not be the same as we were. That ought to be our goal every day, that we will be transformed into the community God created us to be,” he said. “We’ve got to find better ways to welcome vulnerable and overlooked people” and provide opportunities for children and young people to fellowship, because “they are suffering right now.”

“Isn’t there a presumption,” said the Rev. Dr. Dan DeBevoise, co-pastor at Park Lake Presbyterian Church, “that the pandemic will make us into something? Why would we want to depend on a pandemic to do that for us? What kind of people do we need to be to respond as Christians to the pandemic? There will be practices that will help us become something new and more Christ-like every day.”

“In Acts, the Holy Spirit is always ahead of the church,” said the Rev. Jody Welker, senior pastor at Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian Church. “The call for me is to trust that God is ahead of us in this thing. That’s the story of Scripture from Abraham on.”

A Thought from the Word

A brief thought based on Romans 12:15 - When others are happy, be happy with them, and when they are sad, be sad.

Bible Readings for May 29, 2020

Let's read the Bible together in the next year. Today our passages are 2 Samuel 14:1-15:22; John 18:1-24; Psalm 119:97-112; and Proverbs 16:8-9. The readings are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 

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2 Samuel 14-15:22 (The Message)

2 Samuel 14

 ^1-3 Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king, deep down, still cared for Absalom. So he sent to Tekoa for a wise woman who lived there and instructed her, "Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in black and don't comb your hair, so you'll look like you've been grieving over a dead loved one for a long time. Then go to the king and tell him this..." Joab then told her exactly what to say.  ⁴ The woman of Tekoa went to the king, bowed deeply before him in homage, and said, "O King, help!"
 ^5-7 He said, "How can I help?"
    "I'm a widow," she said. "My husband is dead. I had two sons. The two of them got into a fight out in the field and there was no one around to step between them. The one struck the other and killed him. Then the whole family ganged up against me and demanded, 'Hand over this murderer so we can kill him for the life of the brother he murdered!' They want to wipe out the heir and snuff out the one spark of life left to me. And then there would be nothing left of my husband—not so much as a name—on the face of the earth.
 ^15-17 "So now I've dared come to the king, my master, about all this. They're making my life miserable, and I'm afraid. I said to myself, 'I'll go to the king. Maybe he'll do something! When the king hears what's going on, he'll step in and rescue me from the abuse of the man who would get rid of me and my son and God's inheritance—the works!' As your handmaid, I decided ahead of time, 'The word of my master, the king, will be the last word in this, for my master is like an angel of God in discerning good and evil.' God be with you!"
 ⁸ The king said, "Go home, and I'll take care of this for you."
 ⁹ "I'll take all responsibility for what happens," the woman of Tekoa said. "I don't want to compromise the king and his reputation."
 ¹⁰ "Bring the man who has been harassing you," the king continued. "I'll see to it that he doesn't bother you anymore."
 ¹¹ "Let the king invoke the name of God," said the woman, "so this self-styled vigilante won't ruin everything, to say nothing of killing my son."
    "As surely as God lives," he said, "not so much as a hair of your son's head will be lost."
 ¹² Then she asked, "May I say one more thing to my master, the king?"
    He said, "Go ahead."
 ^13-14 "Why, then," the woman said, "have you done this very thing against God's people? In his verdict, the king convicts himself by not bringing home his exiled son. We all die sometime. Water spilled on the ground can't be gathered up again. But God does not take away life. He works out ways to get the exile back."
 ¹⁸ The king then said, "I'm going to ask you something. Answer me truthfully."
    "Certainly," she said. "Let my master, the king, speak."
 ^19-20 The king said, "Is the hand of Joab mixed up in this?"
    "On your life, my master king, a body can't veer an inch right or left and get by with it in the royal presence! Yes, it was your servant Joab who put me up to this, and put these very words in my mouth. It was because he wanted to turn things around that your servant Joab did this. But my master is as wise as God's angels in knowing how to handle things on this earth."
 ²¹ The king spoke to Joab. "All right, I'll do it. Go and bring the young man Absalom back."
 ²² Joab bowed deeply in reverence and blessed the king. "I'm reassured to know that I'm still in your good graces and have your confidence, since the king is taking the counsel of his servant."
 ^23-24 Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. The king said, "He may return to his house, but he is not to see me face-to-face." So Absalom returned home, but was not permitted to see the king.
 ^25-27 This Absalom! There wasn't a man in all Israel talked about so much for his handsome good looks—and not a blemish on him from head to toe! When he cut his hair—he always cut it short in the spring because it had grown so heavy—the weight of the hair from his head was over two pounds! Three sons were born to Absalom, and one daughter. Her name was Tamar—and she was a beauty.
 ^28-31 Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years, and not once did he see the king face-to-face. He sent for Joab to get him in to see the king, but Joab still wouldn't budge. He tried a second time and Joab still wouldn't. So he told his servants, "Listen. Joab's field adjoins mine, and he has a crop of barley in it. Go set fire to it." So Absalom's servants set fire to the field. That got him moving—Joab came to Absalom at home and said, "Why did your servants set my field on fire?"
 ³² Absalom answered him, "Listen, I sent for you saying, 'Come, and soon. I want to send you to the king to ask, "What's the point of my coming back from Geshur? I'd be better off still there!" Let me see the king face-to-face. If he finds me guilty, then he can put me to death.'"
 ³³ Joab went to the king and told him what was going on. Absalom was then summoned—he came and bowed deeply in reverence before him. And the king kissed Absalom. 

2 Samuel 15

 ^1-2 As time went on, Absalom took to riding in a horse-drawn chariot, with fifty men running in front of him. Early each morning he would take up his post beside the road at the city gate. When anyone showed up with a case to bring to the king for a decision, Absalom would call him over and say, "Where do you hail from?"     And the answer would come, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel."
 ^3-6 Then Absalom would say, "Look, you've got a strong case; but the king isn't going to listen to you." Then he'd say, "Why doesn't someone make me a judge for this country? Anybody with a case could bring it to me and I'd settle things fair and square." Whenever someone would treat him with special honor, he'd shrug it off and treat him like an equal, making him feel important. Absalom did this to everyone who came to do business with the king and stole the hearts of everyone in Israel.
 ^7-8 After four years of this, Absalom spoke to the king, "Let me go to Hebron to pay a vow that I made to God. Your servant made a vow when I was living in Geshur in Aram saying, 'If God will bring me back to Jerusalem, I'll serve him with my life.'"
 ⁹ The king said, "Go with my blessing." And he got up and set off for Hebron.
 ^10-12 Then Absalom sent undercover agents to all the tribes of Israel with the message, "When you hear the blast of the ram's horn trumpet, that's your signal: Shout, 'Absalom is king in Hebron!'" Two hundred men went with Absalom from Jerusalem. But they had been called together knowing nothing of the plot and made the trip innocently. While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he managed also to involve Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's advisor, calling him away from his hometown of Giloh. The conspiracy grew powerful and Absalom's supporters multiplied.
 ¹³ Someone came to David with the report, "The whole country has taken up with Absalom!"
 ¹⁴ "Up and out of here!" called David to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem. "We've got to run for our lives or none of us will escape Absalom! Hurry, he's about to pull the city down around our ears and slaughter us all!"
 ¹⁵ The king's servants said, "Whatever our master, the king, says, we'll do; we're with you all the way!"
 ^16-18 So the king and his entire household escaped on foot. The king left ten concubines behind to tend to the palace. And so they left, step by step by step, and then paused at the last house as the whole army passed by him—all the Kerethites, all the Pelethites, and the six hundred Gittites who had marched with him from Gath, went past.
 ^19-20 The king called out to Ittai the Gittite, "What are you doing here? Go back with King Absalom. You're a stranger here and freshly uprooted from your own country. You arrived only yesterday, and am I going to let you take your chances with us as I live on the road like a gypsy? Go back, and take your family with you. And God's grace and truth go with you!"
 ²¹ But Ittai answered, "As God lives and my master the king lives, where my master is, that's where I'll be—whether it means life or death."
 ²² "All right," said David, "go ahead." And they went on, Ittai the Gittite with all his men and all the children he had with him.

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John 18:1-24 (The Message)

John 18

Seized in the Garden at Night

 ¹ Jesus, having prayed this prayer, left with his disciples and crossed over the brook Kidron at a place where there was a garden. He and his disciples entered it.  ^2-4Judas, his betrayer, knew the place because Jesus and his disciples went there often. So Judas led the way to the garden, and the Roman soldiers and police sent by the high priests and Pharisees followed. They arrived there with lanterns and torches and swords. Jesus, knowing by now everything that was coming down on him, went out and met them. He said, "Who are you after?"
   They answered, "Jesus the Nazarene."
 ^5-6He said, "That's me." The soldiers recoiled, totally taken aback. Judas, his betrayer, stood out like a sore thumb.
 ⁷Jesus asked again, "Who are you after?"
   They answered, "Jesus the Nazarene."
 ^8-9"I told you," said Jesus, "that's me. I'm the one. So if it's me you're after, let these others go." (This validated the words in his prayer, "I didn't lose one of those you gave.")
 ¹⁰Just then Simon Peter, who was carrying a sword, pulled it from its sheath and struck the Chief Priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. Malchus was the servant's name.
 ¹¹Jesus ordered Peter, "Put back your sword. Do you think for a minute I'm not going to drink this cup the Father gave me?"
 ^12-14Then the Roman soldiers under their commander, joined by the Jewish police, seized Jesus and tied him up. They took him first to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the Chief Priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was to their advantage that one man die for the people.
 ^15-16Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was known to the Chief Priest, and so he went in with Jesus to the Chief Priest's courtyard. Peter had to stay outside. Then the other disciple went out, spoke to the doorkeeper, and got Peter in.
 ¹⁷The young woman who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, "Aren't you one of this man's disciples?"
   He said, "No, I'm not."
 ¹⁸The servants and police had made a fire because of the cold and were huddled there warming themselves. Peter stood with them, trying to get warm. 

The Interrogation

 ^19-21Annas interrogated Jesus regarding his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered, "I've spoken openly in public. I've taught regularly in meeting places and the Temple, where the Jews all come together. Everything has been out in the open. I've said nothing in secret. So why are you treating me like a conspirator? Question those who have been listening to me. They know well what I have said. My teachings have all been aboveboard."  ²²When he said this, one of the policemen standing there slapped Jesus across the face, saying, "How dare you speak to the Chief Priest like that!"
 ²³Jesus replied, "If I've said something wrong, prove it. But if I've spoken the plain truth, why this slapping around?"
 ²⁴Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to the Chief Priest Caiaphas.

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Psalm 119:97-112 (The Message)

 ^97-104 Oh, how I love all you've revealed;
      I reverently ponder it all the day long.
   Your commands give me an edge on my enemies;
      they never become obsolete.
   I've even become smarter than my teachers
      since I've pondered and absorbed your counsel.
   I've become wiser than the wise old sages
      simply by doing what you tell me.
   I watch my step, avoiding the ditches and ruts of evil
      so I can spend all my time keeping your Word.
   I never make detours from the route you laid out;
      you gave me such good directions.
   Your words are so choice, so tasty;
      I prefer them to the best home cooking.
   With your instruction, I understand life;
      that's why I hate false propaganda.
 ^105-112 By your words I can see where I'm going;
      they throw a beam of light on my dark path.
   I've committed myself and I'll never turn back
      from living by your righteous order.
   Everything's falling apart on me, God;
      put me together again with your Word.
   Festoon me with your finest sayings, God;
      teach me your holy rules.
   My life is as close as my own hands,
      but I don't forget what you have revealed.
   The wicked do their best to throw me off track,
      but I don't swerve an inch from your course.
   I inherited your book on living; it's mine forever—
      what a gift! And how happy it makes me!
   I concentrate on doing exactly what you say—
      I always have and always will. 

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Proverbs 16:8-9 (The Message)

 ⁸ Far better to be right and poor
   than to be wrong and rich.

 ⁹ We plan the way we want to live,
   but only God makes us able to live it.

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Verse of the Day

“The LORD is always kind to those who worship him, and he keeps his promises to their descendants who faithfully obey him.” - Psalm 103:17-18 

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Quote for the Day

German historian and philosopher of history whose interests included mathematics, science, and art and their relation to his cyclical theory of history, Oswald Spengler wrote, “This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us; to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves; to act in such a way that some part of us lives on.”

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A Joke for Today

A Scout Master was teaching his boy scouts about survival in the desert.

"What are the three most important things you should bring with you in case you get lost in the desert?" he asked. Several hands went up, and many important things were suggested such as food, matches, etc.

Then one little boy in the back eagerly raised his hand. "Yes Timmy, what are the three most important things you would bring with you?" asked the Scout Master.

Timmy replied: "A compass, a canteen of water, and a deck of cards."

"Why's that Timmy?"

"Well," answered Timmy, "the compass is to find the right direction, the water is to prevent dehydration..."

"And what about the deck of cards?" asked the Scout Master impatiently.

"Well, Sir, as soon as you start playing Solitaire, someone is bound to come up behind you and say, "Put that red nine on top of that black ten!"