Latest Thoughts of the Day

Proverbs 2:1

10/6/2026

MY SON, IF YOU ACCEPT MY WORDS AND STORE UP MY COMMANDS WITHIN YOU,...

Take seriously the word of God for what it is, think about it and determine to remember what you have thought about and great blessing will be yours. Solomon goes on to emphasize the diligence in which we should approach our study and the persistence with which we should pursue our study. He will go on to tell us that understanding of what God has revealed and a genuine relationship with him will be the result. When a person is born-again by the Spirit of God, he is given a heart that desires to do what Solomon challenges him to do here. What we receive by study is not what we are paid for the work we have done, but rather what happens to us when these goals have occupied our thoughts about Jesus.

Psalm 4:8

10/5/2026

I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me to dell in safety.

Disquiet and anxiety seem to be the way of life for those surrounding David, but David is thankful for having seen that peace comes from God. Safety is something we tell ourselves we have when we have locked the doors, but it could be we are locking in a real danger. Circumstances of life can be manipulated so that I am fairly certain to come out all right, but I could have missed something. Earthquakes and tornadoes shake and tear up the strongest shelters. David sees that his only security is that he is kept by the power of God unto salvation. When He remembers that God loves him, he really stops worrying and loses himself in God’s embrace. He can surrender consciousness safe in the arms of Jesus.

Job 2:12

10/4/2026

When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.

On their way to visit Job, had these men thought about outward things they would do to show their grief and distress over his condition? There were accepted ways to show such things in those days. Perhaps they were glad to know these practices because they really felt the amazement and grief they were regarded as expressing. The words do express to us something of a show. In what ways was seven days of silence primarily protocol? The words they finally speak come across as more critical than sympathetic. They are quick to try to blame Job for his dilemma. Help us, Lord, genuinely to feel and honestly to comfort grieving friends. You comfort us in this way, Lord Jesus.

Esther 3:3

10/3/2026

Before a girl's turn to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh, and six with perfumes and cosmetics

Overall charm and deportment lessons must have gone along with cosmetic regimen with a goal to make beauty and fashion a natural part of her life. It had to be a part of her nature to be the person the king was told he should expect a woman to be. That any woman’s true character and individuality would remain intact at all is a marvel. That Esther retained the quality that attracted Xerxes is a testimony to the glory of our sovereign God. The world would squeeze us into its mold. With all the ways society would seek to mold us, Lord, help us retain the character of one who loves Jesus.

Nehemiah 3:3

10/2/2026

The fishgate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassanaah. They laid its beams and put its doors and bolts and bars in place

Far more skill and ingenuity is needed to install a gate than to arrange stones for a wall. Hassenaah and his family needed to obtain wood and iron hardware, to shape and to install it in a way that would make the gate secure and functioning. He probably volunteered to do that section, since the skill needed would not be possessed by the ordinary worker on the project. God rewarded him by including his name in the account of the rebuilding and indicating the area of expertise he had exercised. Help us, Lord, to serve you not simply with our time, but with our skills. Help us do what no other individual can do. Help us use our personal strengths to the glory of Jesus.

Ezra 2:23

10/1/2026

of Anathoth 128

Cyrus had permitted the return of captives in Babylon of people whose families had been originally from the land around Jerusalem. But it was not simply a swarm of migrants. A careful census had been maintained in Babylon, and people knew to what clan and people they belonged. The names of those who had returned were maintained in the family records and the number from each family was recorded here. People knew who from their family group had joined the migration back and the people going back knew why they were going. The order in which it was all done would make especially hard the confusion and resistance and opposition the people faced when they did get there. Each returnee faced his own spiritual battle with discouragement. Nehemiah would serve to keep the focus on what was actually being accomplished behind the scenes by Jesus.

2 Chronicles 2:17

9/30/2026

Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were in Israel, after the census his father David had taken, and they were found to be 153,600.

Thousands of workers were needed to prepare material for the magnificent Temple that Solomon was planning to build. Wood must be cut and turned into lumber and transported to the site. Expert stonecutters needed many hands to get the stone from the quarry, cut it exactly to specifications and carry it from the quarry to Jerusalem. The workforce was drawn from people living in Israel who were not citizens, so Solomon had a census taken to determine who would be conscripted for this task. Sometimes I feel like I am not a citizen of the country in which I live, but am enrolled on a list of conscripts, sent to gather materials for a glorious temple being assembled by Jesus.

1 Chronicles 1:34

9/29/2026

Abraham was the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel.

The genealogy is being preserved for the new Temple in Jerusalem, that the line of the messiah may be preserved until he comes. Twins appear on the scene, and the line to be followed changes from technically the firstborn to Jacob, his brother, who is mentioned by the new name God gave to him, even Israel. Some descendants of Esau are recorded, in order to account for some of the nations that came into being because God had promised that Abraham would be the father of many nations, but the focus on Israel will pick up in the next chapter, and the line will continue from there. The record keeps looking forward to the Son of David, the Desire of the Ages, the longed-for Redeemer, the yearned-for Messiah, the Hope of Israel, even Jesus.