Reading from Thursday, December 2

Yes yes. Way behind.

Reading for December 2
Daniel 9:1-11:1
Daniel asks for God's forgiveness of Israel. Daniel is the first one to admit that Israel has sinned. He confesses in a very sincere prayer to God that he and his brethren have shamed their creator. He asks for God's mercy, confessing that God is righteous in everything he does, even the punishment of the people.

After this Daniel sees a vision of a man who tells him that he is highly regarded by God and also warns him about impending trouble for Israel from surrounding nations.

1 John 2:18-3:6

⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

This is interesting. I don't know a single Christian who is sinless. I believe that it is actually impossible to go a single day without sinning. So how then could we be sinful beings and know Christ at the same time? 1 John says it can't be done.

Maybe what it means is to go on intentionally and consciously sinning, even with the knowledge that its wrong, means that you really haven't experienced what Jesus can offer to you and therefore you are still stuck in the rut of sin.

Psalm 121:1-8

⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—
   he will watch over your life;
⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going
   both now and forevermore.

This is dangerous stuff here. Sure its lovely to think about a God shaped bubble around you that keeps anything bad from ever happening to you, but its just not the case. You become a Christian and the same challenges from life are still there, you and your family still argue, you're still subject to a crappy job or boss, tripping and falling will not result in finding money, but rather a scraped knee.

I believe that God does watch over us and tries to influence us to go in the right direction, but he doesn't "keep us from all harm" - that's just silly.

Proverbs 28:27-28
 ²⁷ Those who give to the poor will lack nothing,
   but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.
 ²⁸ When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding;
   but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive.