Leviticus 14:1~57, Mark 6:30~56, Psalm 40:1~10, Proverbs 10:11~12

~ Feb 23: Click here for today's readings ~

Old Testament - The section of Leviticus 14 on cleansing a house of mildew is interesting, because it sounds like a warning to someone who continues to sin. "If the mildew reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house scraped and plastered, the priest is to go and examine it and, if the mildew has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew; the house is unclean. It must be torn down—its stones, timbers and all the plaster—and taken out of the town to an unclean place."

New Testament - I took away a few thoughts from this passage. First, there are thousands of people that are hungry. Jesus has compassion for them (and so should we.) Jesus instructed his disciples to take responsibility for feeding them. We have the same opportunity today. He also showed that a small amount of food (or money in our case today), can be multiplied to have a much greater impact. One key is to look up to heaven with our gift and give thanks.

Another thing I notice is that Jesus often went to a solitary place to pray. Although he spent significant time with his circle of disciples, and with the multitude of people to whom he preached, he always made time for himself to spend 1-on-1 time with his Father in heaven. We should do the same. One difference in the way we should pray is that as we pray to our heavenly Father, we should pray through Jesus, and he told us that the only way to the Father is through him.

Mark 6:51-52 is interesting because it mentions that the apostles' hearts were hardened because they had not understood the miracle of the loaves. Seeing the imperfection of the apostles always gives me hope, because it reminds me of something that Jesus said to Thomas in John 20:29 "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Psalms - Psalm 40:1-10 is interesting for many reasons. First, it gives the notion that the Lord does not always answer us immediately, but sometimes requires that we keep calling upon him and have patience for his reply.

This psalm also suggests that if we want to replace the language that comes out of our mouth, a good replacement would be a hymn of praise. If we always have a hymn of praise to God on our lips, it must be difficult to have anything bad come out of our mouth.

Finally, this psalm also reminds us not to hide our righteousness and our love for the Lord from others. We should share our faith with others, not conceal it.

Proverbs - "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life". When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, he talked about Living Water. In John 7:37-39, Jesus also said "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." In spreading the Good News, our mouth is like a spring of this Living Water! How amazing is that?!