Happy Monday

Lest You Be Deceived
I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes. - Psalm 119:59

In today's passage, we see that once again Moses gathered the people together to hear a second copy of the Ten Commandments read so that they might remember and obey, lest, as James 1:22 tells us, they deceive themselves.

When the people heard the commands of God, they responded in a wonderful way. They said, "It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today" (Deuteronomy 5:3). Don't you just love to see people take the Word of God seriously?

For years I have approached the Bible, book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. I go into each chapter on four different roads. The more ways you enter, the more you see.

Road one: What does the chapter say? Here I stop and write a summary in my own words.

Road two: What does it say that I don't understand? Here I stop and write down the problems and difficulties.

Road three: What does it say in other portions of Scripture? Here is where I cross-reference the verses in the chapter.

The Bible is its own best commentary, so I want to throw the light of the rest of Scripture on the passage I'm studying.

Road four: What does it say to me? Here is where I pray over the passage and write out a personal application God has shown me for my own life. And then I seek to do it.

I encourage you to make the Bible a personal message from the heart of God to you.

PrayerLord, as I read Your Word today, I welcome Your personal word to me, and I will obey it. Amen.

It is not enough simply to know what the Word says; we must obey it.


"Lead Me Home"
I have seen my last tomorrow,
I'm holding my last breath,
Goodbye, sweet world of sorrow,
My new life, begins with death.

I am standing on the mountain,
I can hear the angels songs,
I am reaching over Jordon,
Take my hand, Lord lead me home.

All my burdens, are behind me,
I have prayed, my final pray,
Don't you cry, over my body,
'Cause that ain't me, lying there.

No, I am standing on the mountain,
I can hear the angels songs,
I am reaching over Jordon,
Take my hand, Lord lead me home.

I am standing (Lord, I am standing) on the mountain (on the mountain),
I can hear (I can hear the angels' songs) the angels' songs,
I am reaching over Jordon, (over Jordon)
Take my hand, Lord lead me home.
Take my hand, Lord lead me home.

Daily Smile:
INTERVIEWER to job applicant: "Do you think you could come up with any reason you want this job other than your parents want you out of their house?"

In The News:

Boy Scouts Urged to Lift Ban on Atheists
A top atheist wants the Boy Scouts of America to lift its ban on atheists as well as homosexuals, CBN News reports. As the BSA considers replacing its current ban on gays with a policy that would let individual troops make their own decisions, American Atheists president David Silverman says Scouting should also welcome boys who don't believe in God. But BSA spokesman Deron Smith said the Boy Scouts are not considering a new policy toward atheists and that the organization continues to view "duty to God" as one of its core principles.

New Horrors in Syria Prompt Waves of Refugees to Flee
The recent horrors of finding yet another mass grave in an Aleppo canal are part of what's driving more people toward Syria's borders, Mission Network News reports. After 22 months of civil war, the death toll now exceeds 60,000, and the United Nations can't keep up with the "unrelenting flow" of families fleeing violence. The number of documented refugees has topped 700,000 -- and more than 3,000 crossed into Jordan on Monday alone. "Food is scarce, children can't go to school, families can't live, for fear of their lives," says Jeff Palmer, CEO of Baptist Global Response. "So, now we have more people flooding outside the country. We have more internally displaced people inside the country and it's just chaos." If nothing changes, there will be over a million internally displaced people and over half a million scattered throughout the border countries of Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. "When this started over a year ago, everybody thought it was going to be short-lived," Palmer said. "Here we are, well over a year into it, and it just continues to grow and escalate."