by Don Ruhl

Read the Bible in a Year This evening read Luke 20:27--47

What Should We Discover in the Bible?

The Sadducees thought that they found biblical evidence to prove that there is no resurrection. They presented an actual scenario to the Lord. The Law of Moses said that if a man married a woman, and he died without leaving children, that his brother should take the woman and raise up offspring for the dead brother. The Sadducees presented a situation where seven brothers ended up marrying one woman, because each brother kept dying before having children. Then they said,

33 "Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife does she become? For all seven had her as wife" (Luk. 20:33).

To these guys, the Bible was nothing more than a mysterious puzzle to figure out and to support their preconceived ideas. They failed to grasp what God is doing in the Scriptures.

Do you know what God is doing? Read to find out what He is doing rather than what you want to do. Do you approach the Bible to support your predetermined beliefs or to destroy your old self and remake yourself in the image of Christ? Pay attention to your motivation for reading and meditating.

Don Ruhl Church of Christ 220 NE Savage Street Grants Pass, Oregon 97526-1310 541-476-3100

by Don Ruhl

Read the Bible in a Year This morning read First Kings 6 and 7

Four Hundred Eighty Years Without a House

Remember that David wanted to build God a house. God said that the whole time Israel wandered in the wilderness and since the time in the land of Canaan, God had not dwelt in a house. Therefore, David's intentions were good, but God wanted David's son Solomon to build the temple. Finally, Solomon began the God-honoring work.

1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD (1 Kin. 6:1).

From Exodus chapter 14 to First Kings chapter 6 there is a span of 480 years. During that time, God dwelt in a tent. Before that, there was not even a tent. He went from nothing, to a tent, to a stone building. Yet, in all that time, He was still God, living in the hearts of His people. The temple showed that He was their God, they were His people, and He wanted to dwell among them.

The church, not the building that the church meets in, shows the same. Since the temple was destroyed in AD 70, God has not had a building in which to build, but His people are living stones in the true temple. Therefore, He is our God, we are His people, and He dwells among us. Does He live in your heart? If He does, should it not be obvious? I do not mean that lightning bolts should be shooting out from you or that the ground ought to quake when you walk or that people should melt in your presence, but what ought to happen to show the world that God through Christ dwells in you?

Don Ruhl Church of Christ 220 NE Savage Street Grants Pass, Oregon 97526-1310 541-476-3100