Author: Jon Harris

Leviticus 19; Psalms 23–24; Ecclesiastes 2; 1 Timothy 4

Last Wednesday around 3:30 AM I was lying in bed wide awake. The alarm was set for 4:30 AM and I wanted to go back to sleep, but thoughts of the new day were creeping in. The thoughts started with my excitement for that day’s workout; first a spin class (indoor cycling as part of a classroom format) then Tabata (high intensity interval training), then finish with 10-15 minutes of deep, intensive stretching. While this for some might sound like pure torture, for me it has become exhilarating and extremely rewarding to push my body to its limits – I love it! I hadn’t had an intense workout in four days and was really missing it; my body was rested and ready to go.

Except it wasn’t time to go yet, so I started praying. Since I was thinking about exercise, I started by thanking God for making the human body with purpose. I was thanking him for giving me the strength to exercise, for the joy that it brings to me, for what the human body is capable of, and for the health benefits that come with exercise.

My medical understanding of exercise is that it benefits us in many ways such as controlling blood pressure, helps keep cholesterol at proper levels, strengthens the heart, and helps us maintain a healthy weight (and much more). From my own experience, when I think of exercise I enjoy “sweating out my problems”, where I’ll go for a long run and really process a situation; it helps me think positive and oftentimes brings clarity through the fog. I also love the after-effects of exercise; increased energy, the feeling of accomplishment, and the post-workout shower is a great reward.

There is a problem though. Exercise involves physically training a human body, and human bodies are not built to last forever. Physical training is a temporary investment in something that will eventually fail and die. Just like Ecclesiastes 2 where we read about the futility or vanity of pleasure, work, or even living wisely; while enjoyment of these things is a blessing from God, they all will fade in this life.

There is a solution to this problem. It is called Godly training. Godly training is a spiritual investment in something that will last for an eternity.

⁷ Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; ⁸ for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

Godliness is of value in every way. What a great promise! I’m reflecting on the post God Speaking to Us where David LaFrance mentioned that Godly training has strengthened his soul and state of mind. He also uses words like revived and restored, and shared that God’s word breathes “new life” into him.

Training in Godliness trains us how we should live so that we can live abundantly. Today’s scripture reading has numerous, valuable training instructions as an explanation of the ten commandments including:

• Revere (honor) your mother and father and observe God’s Sabbaths (days of rest). Leviticus 19:3
• Do not turn to idols; Leviticus 19:3.
• Give to the poor; Leviticus 19:10
• Don’t steal, don’t lie; Leviticus 19:11
• Don’t swear falsely using God’s name. Leviticus 19:12
• Don’t oppress or rob your neighbor. Leviticus 19:13
• Treat people with disabilities fairly. Leviticus 19:14
• Judge in righteousness; not out of partiality. Leviticus 19:15
• Don’t gossip. Stick up for your neighbor. Leviticus 19:16
• Don’t hate. Leviticus 19:17
• Love your neighbor. Leviticus 19:18

Spending time thinking through that list reminds me of much room for improvement and some necessary repentance. How about you?

God, thank you for the instruction you give through your word as it guides us, corrects us, and points us toward you. Thank you for allowing us to experience pleasure and joy here on Earth. May we experience these gifts in a way that honors you. Please show us where we may be idolizing earthly pleasures and experiences so that we may put you in the rightful place in our lives as our first and foremost. We recognize this life on Earth is temporary, but your kingdom is forever; thank you for the grace and mercy that we receive through your son Jesus Christ. Amen.

The word detest (or detestable) is used eleven times in Leviticus 11. This word was used in describing the animals and insects that the Jewish people were to abstain from touching or eating.

Leviticus 11–12; Psalms 13–14; Proverbs 26; 1 Thessalonians 5

God was conveying that these detestable things would make them unclean, defiled, and the people would become detestable themselves should they break God’s commands within this realm. I see this as another example of what I like to refer to as “binary”; it is one thing or the other, and nothing in between. God is holy (set apart) and therefore he expects us to be holy because he is holy. We can be either holy or unholy, clean or unclean.

For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44-45)

One of the unclean animals was the pig and reading this reminded me of a verse from the Sermon on the Mount that had previously been confusing to me:

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. (Matthew 7:6)

Dogs and Pigs

In the east, dogs are much more viscous; they are considered dirty and detestable, similar to how the pig was detestable. Picture yourself passing by a fence, and a big nasty looking dog comes running, snarling, growling, barking, and jumping at the fence with the intent to attack you. This actually happened to me just the other day and it scared the heck out of me!

Holy and Pearls

Things that are holy to us, or our “pearls” are God’s word and his precious truth. We need to treat God’s word as sacred and use it with the special intent that it was given. Tying this all together, the verse is saying that we should not be attempting to give God’s precious truth to those who have the intent to twist or abuse the truth or to use it to attack us. It might seem odd to suggest not sharing Biblical truth with those who may need it most, but I believe there is a time and situation for everything. For example…

A Biblical contradiction?

⁴ Answer not a fool according to his folly,
    lest you be like him yourself.
⁵ Answer a fool according to his folly,
    lest he be wise in his own eyes. (Proverbs 26:4-5)

First it says not to answer a fool, then it says to answer a fool. What are we supposed to do about that?

Verse 4 is talking about arguing with a fool; it becomes pointless when someone clearly doesn’t want to listen to you, or if they are twisting your words and trying to use them against you. Verse 5 is saying that if someone says something unwise, hurtful, or perhaps the opposite of sound spiritual doctrine, we need to respond at some point. We shouldn’t for example, argue with someone who is a drunken rage. They won’t listen, they would be much like the pig or dog who turns to attack us. We should however, wait for an appropriate time, when the person has sobered up or calmed down.

As I consider today’s readings there were a lot of negative, depressing words like detest, fool, sluggard, wicked, and hatred; the list goes on and on. These words remind me of the light overcoming the darkness that Mike Somers and BJ Armstrong have recently posted on. Alas, let us be reminded that we need not live in the darkness, and God has destined us for salvation through Jesus.

⁵ For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:5, 9-11)

I want to close today with saying thank you to our readers and to my Bible Journal team, to build you up as you have built me up. Thank you for all of the encouragement and feedback, and for some of the stories people have shared personally regarding the impact that Bible Journal has made on their spiritual journey already. These posts are extremely challenging to write, from a mental, spiritual, and time perspective but I cannot imagine my life had I declined to be part of this. The overall experience is so far beyond rewarding, words cannot explain, so all I can say is thank you all, and give God all the glory for He has great things in mind for ALL of us!

Our culture loves to gossip about the sexual affairs of others. We buy magazines and pay close attention to the television news stories regarding the latest scandal, or we gossip within our circle of friends as to the rumors of the cheating husband or wife (or sometimes both). One of the reasons I believe we are so intrigued by these scandals is that we immediately judge someone as the guilty party and in doing so, we think ourselves as better than the so-called “cheater”.

Today’s reading link: Exodus 29; John 8; Proverbs 5; Galatians 4

John 8:1-11 contains the story of a woman caught in the act of adultery. She’s brought to Jesus in the temple in front of a crowd. As with every Bible Journal post, I read through the scriptures several times looking for patterns, asking questions, and considering various perspectives in search of a topic to write about. The thing that brought me to today’s focus was that the adulteress had only three words to say “no one Lord”, so I started thinking about her perspective in the situation and went from there.

• Where was her partner in crime? She must have felt betrayed in some sense by her lover since she was the sole guilty culprit brought to the temple to face punishment.
• She didn’t deny the charges. We assume she was guilty. Was she sorry for the sin or more sorry she was caught?
• The woman had to have been afraid for her life. The custom of stoning a person to death was surely no surprise. She was basically on trial for her life, believed by the crowd to be guilty, so the likely outcome was going to be death.
• The woman was probably in shock when Jesus demonstrated such wisdom in his response. Perhaps she assumed that Jesus was going to condemn her to death or tell the Pharisees to leave her alone. What he did was a beautiful act of love, mercy, and wisdom which can only come from his connection with the Father. In doing so, Jesus once again does not fall into the trap.
• It wouldn’t have been typical for the scribes and Pharisees to bring the guilty party to Jesus. When Jesus asks her “Has no one condemned you?”, her three word response… “No one Lord”. I’m envisioning a very embarrassed, tearful, honest and soft tone as she speaks these words.
• I was wondering if the woman was remorseful for what she had done. Sure, we’re all seemingly remorseful when we’re caught, but did she truly feel badly? I’m going to assume that based on her sin, she knew deep down she was living a lie. Perhaps she was married, perhaps she was having an affair with a married man, or both. Regardless, she was living in some sort of darkness, afraid of getting caught.
• The woman humbled herself to address Jesus as Lord. Remember, the Pharisees were the ones who were in the power seats with much authority. Jesus was a poor man from Nazareth, so for her to address him as Lord suggests she knew who Jesus was and perhaps even had reverence for him.
• Did anyone else wonder what Jesus might have been writing in the dirt? Since writing supplies were limited, I assume it was a common practice to write in the dirt. He had something perfect to share, but unfortunately he was bothered by greedy accusers trying to trap him. I’ll chalk this up on my list of questions to ask Jesus.
• How about those who intended to throw the stones? Upon being called out by Jesus, did they repent? Dropping the stones and walking away was their own confession that they too were sinners.
• Jesus didn’t condemn the woman, instead he granted mercy and acknowledged the wrongdoing and commanded: Sin no more.

Did anyone else have a renewed feeling after reading this story? I love how this story is a story not just of one person’s sin, but truly a reflection of the sins of us all, God’s judgement, and the mercy given only through Jesus Christ.

1. We have a sinner caught in the act, which could be any of us with any of our sins. God’s penalty for sin is death; no matter how big or small the sin, it still separates us from Him.
2. Jesus, the light of the world exposes the darkness around the sinner in that those who were portraying righteousness were sinners as well.
3. The enemy is not the adulteress woman. The enemy is Satan who wants us to remain in the dark and trapped in our sin. He is the father of lies who wants us to believe we cannot be forgiven. He wants us to think that we are the worst, that no one would understand, that we are all alone in our sin, and that the sinful choice is somehow better than the righteous path. He wants us to die in our sin.
4. The penalty for sin is death, but Jesus intervened and gave the option for her to repent and sin no more. No one else can do this. We all have the choice to either go back to the bondage of sin, or allow Jesus to take over, and to trust that his way is the way that leads to life restored.

While part of me wishes we knew more about what happened to the woman and her accusers, I also enjoy the mystery as well as focus on what we can learn from what is shared with us. In the end, we can fully trust that there is nothing missing from the Bible; had God wanted us to know what happened, he’d have allowed those details to be provided.

God we thank you for revealing your character and your numerous perfect attributes through your words in the Bible. Thank you for giving us the resources to learn more about you and your ways and your will for our lives. Thank you for revealing our sins to us, reminding us of the penalty, and for your perfect plan in sending your son Jesus Christ to die as the substitute for the penalty that we deserve. Amen.

From the sermon at Eastview Christian Church on 6/15/14, I captured that 80% of the world’s population makes less than $2.50 per day. Interestingly enough, as this blog post and readings were permeating through my mind, one of my kids asked if we are “rich”. Compared to 80% of the world’s population, all of us in the USA are financially rich. Apart from financial riches, God also blesses us with the other “riches” such as spiritual, joy, health, and talents. Sadly, too often “riches” are thought of in the financial realm, and attributed to our own good works or success, and we use those riches for our own purposes instead of their Godly intent.

Today’s readings: Exodus 22; John 1; Job 40; 2 Corinthians 10

Recently, one of my contributions at work resulted in some kudos. As I was working on this contribution, I knew it was going to be good. I knew it would result in praise and the anticipation of the praise kept building in my heart and mind. I certainly believed I deserved it. The thing is that when I received the kudos and was under the limelight, it seemed like this millisecond in time, and poof, it was done and over. I was depressed in thinking, “that was nice, but that’s it?” I was then convicted.

No matter how cleverly I try to deny or justify my thinking, I had built up sinful pride and sought to do good so that ultimately I could attempt to save myself. I wanted the praise so that those who make decisions as to the future of my contract would be assured that their investment in me was worthwhile. I was acting under the lie that God has most things under control. It was as if my superiors miss out on something good that I’ve done, well that would be my fault, so it was up to me to be sure to let them know how good I am. What I fool I was. I was putting my trust in me almighty instead of God almighty. Consider God’s response to Job’s pride, a crushing blow to my own pride. God was challenging Job for questioning or doubting Him. God was describing some of his own attributes and basically saying that if Job had these God attributes he could save himself, however Job was a mere human fully dependent on God to save him.

All right, put on your glory and splendor,
  your honor and majesty.
Give vent to your anger.
 Let it overflow against the proud.
Humiliate the proud with a glance;
 walk on the wicked where they stand.
Bury them in the dust.
 Imprison them in the world of the dead.
Then even I would praise you,
 for your own strength would save you. (Job 40:10-14; NLT)

Unfortunately I also gave into the temptation that my works were somehow the result that I might be better than I actually am. I was boasting in myself, perhaps not verbally but in my heart and mind. Maybe no human noticed, but God did, and he revealed this to me through his Holy Spirit. Every gift and talent we have is commended, originated, given by the Lord. It isn’t ours for our own gain.

“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. (2 Corinthians 10:17-18)

For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift? (1 Corinthians 4:7; NLT)

One of the wonderful things about daily Bible reading and daily prayer is that this keeps God’s word and truth close to our heart. I’m so thankful that God’s Holy Spirit and word was with me, to convict me of my selfish line of thinking – and this is what we can and should boast on: He is with us always, speaking, teaching, and correcting. As a result, repentance and redemption gave me far greater joy than any words or rewards from any human, and it will always be this way; this is God’s economy. This sort of joy is so counter to what the world thinks, and I believe it is one of the many reasons this place often seems so messed up, as well as one of the reasons so many people are depressed. We celebrate the wrong things, the fleeting moments instead of the repentant sinner, the prodigal son, the life changed through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5)

Would you consider joining me in repentance today? Every time I humbly ask “God, please reveal my sins”, he certainly comes through on this prayer, and it hurts, but the pain is temporary. In our sin, we’re living in darkness. However, Jesus, the light of the world shines his light in that darkness and through Him, and only Him, are our sins forgiven, and we’re back under the only light that matters.

Today’s reading: Exodus 15; Luke 18; Job 33; 2 Corinthians 3

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
    Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
    awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11)

There is no one like our God. It was only a few years ago that my human brain and emotions started to grasp this concept, and now every time I say it with all of my heart believing that it is true, I get chills, and sometimes tears. There is no one like him. He created this earth and its inhabitants. He gave us the ability to love. He designed our brains to think, to process emotion, to create, to wonder, to worship, to choose.

The more I know God, the more I love him. The purpose of this post is to share some of the attributes of God so that we may know him better, some attributes of the enemy so that we can be vigilant, and some of our proper responses to who God is and what he has done. The Song of Moses found in Exodus 15 is a beautiful poetic song and extremely robust with content. It is worth reading over and over and taking a deeper dive into. Each bullet point below lists a verse reference from Exodus 15.

Names & attributes of God from this song:

• Triumphant; has power over the enemy. (1, 4, 5, 6, 7)
• Strength, song, salvation. (2)
• Masculine gender. Refers to God as “He” or “Him”. (2)
• Warrior (3)
• In control of the earth. (5, 8, 10, 12)
• Powerful (6)
• Great (7)
• Majestic (7, 11)
• Furious (7)
• Holy (11)
• Full of glorious deeds. (11)
• His love is steadfast. (13)
• Leader (13)
• Redeemer (13)
• Guide (13)
• His home is holy. (13)
• Purchaser; he purchased us. (16)
• Creator (17)
• Reigns forever (18)

Attributes of the enemy:

• Pursuer, taker, selfish, ruthless, destroyer (9)
• Powerless against God. (10, 12, 16)
• Melts away. (15)
• Filled with terror and dread. (16)

Proper responses to God: The entire song is their acknowledgement of his many attributes and deeds, but here are a few specific responses within the song.

• Sing to him. (1)
• Acknowledge him as our strength and savior. (2)
• Praise him. (2)
• Exalt him. (2)
• Tremble (14, 15)

God’s ultimate act was to send his son Jesus to this earth, to become human but yet still God, and to sacrifice his life for our sins. How can our response to this even compare to the magnitude of what he has done? We cannot repay him so we must do what he designed us to do, worship him, praise him, acknowledge him, and with trembling hearts in awe of what he has done.

Today’s readings: Exodus 9; Luke 12; Job 27; 1 Corinthians 13

The Merriam-Webster definition of distinction includes the following:

• a noticeable difference between things or people
• the separation of people or things into different groups

Today’s reading contains several distinctions.  The Bible is rich with distinctions so that it can become clearer to us as to who we are, who God is, and what he expects of our lives here on Earth.

In order to understand the distinction, we need to understand the reason behind it; why God is saying what he is saying or doing what he is doing. Notice that in Exodus 9:1, God doesn’t say “Let my people go, that they may (be happy, spend time with their families, have a party, go to work, relax, eat, drink and be merry, complete their chores, farm the fields, tend to the livestock, etc.). His purpose in rescuing them was so that they (we) may serve him.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. (Exodus 9:1)

God made a distinction by revealing his will and by saving the livestock of Israel. He was showing them that he had set apart the people of Israel.

But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.” (Exodus 9:4)

There is no one like God, he is holy, he is set apart, he is distinct and he wants us to know it. If there were someone or something like him, we would be confused as to who or what to worship, to bow down to, to humble ourselves out of reverence and awe. We need not be confused, there is no one like him.

For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.

Distinction: Those who feared the word of the Lord, and those who did not. Isn’t it easy to put ourselves in the position of those who paid attention to the word of the Lord and wonder why some people didn’t? Weren’t they there (or at least aware) when the water turned to blood, and the frogs, gnats, and flies plagued Egypt, the livestock died, and everyone had the nasty boils?

After wondering about those who didn’t pay attention I came to realize that I do not always treat him with the appropriate level of fear nor do I always pay attention and obey. I forget or marginalize what God has done on this earth, the source of the beauty of nature, the smell of a spring morning, or even to the magnitude of what Christ did for me on the cross. I too leave my livestock in the field.

Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. (Exodus 9:20-21)

Distinction: Acknowledgement or denial of Christ. If I do not acknowledge him, am I inherently denying him? It would seem very odd to be friends with someone for a period of time and not acknowledge to the person the fact that I’m married and have children. These people bring me joy.

Similarly to my relationship with Jesus, if I’m not actively acknowledging him before others, I believe I’m inherently denying him. What are the reasons we don’t share (acknowledge) Jesus? I typically correlate this to fear and/or lack of a sound relationship. Jesus tells us not to fear so I need to trust that part, and he’s calling us each day to have a relationship with him, so this part is up to us to act.

And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. (Luke 12:8-9)

Jesus is coming back, and because of that, we must be ready for his return. This parable makes the distinction between people who are eagerly ready for his return and those who are not. Some severe stuff, especially for those of us who have received and believed the truth, but haven’t acted on that belief.

Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. (Luke 12:37)

But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. (Luke 12:45-46)

1 Corinthians 13 distinctly separates love from a lack of love. Today’s reading had a few occurrences that called out wealth and possessions, and where they stand in our lives. The main difference boils down to the object of our love; the things of this world, or God and people. We can possess fine speech, wisdom, and even faith but without love, all of these possessions are meaningless. We can be generous with our possessions but if the intent in the generosity is for something other than love, we gain nothing.

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2-3)

Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection was the ultimate distinction. No one else has ever, or will ever do this. He did it to save us from sin, so that we can be distinct in eternity with him, should we choose to follow him, to love him, and obey him.