Little Gods

While bed sick for a couple of days,  I just had a walk back through the history of evil tyrants and monsters. I binged "Evolution of Evil" on Amazon Prime. The series covered:

• Gadaffi
• Hitler
• Kim Jong-il
• Mao
• Mussolini
• Bin Laden
• Papa Doc
• Sadam Hussein
• Stalin
• Hideki Tojo

One of the things these men and other brutal men of power have in common is their hatred of the Jews and of Christianity. Until watching all of these mini-bios back to back, I think I had forgotten these common denominators.

Those men are the ones that were featured in the series. As I watched, I began to mentally add some others:

• Nimrod
• Pharoah
• Herod
• Satan

There are many others but these "rulers" are the ones that came immediately to mind.

All of these men ruled in life without understanding that God rules in eternity. The entire time I was watching the series, I was thinking that these men are another proof of the Bible. No other race, religion, or group of people are hated as much as the Jews are and have been throughout history.

These men - and those individuals like them - forget that no matter how "godlike" they may think they are here on earth and in their mortal existence, they can only be "little gods". Death will bring them into the greatest reckoning of all. 

I highly recommend watching the series. At the very least, it is a history refresher and a reminder of where evil springs from. The verse that I thought of was this one from Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (NKJV)

Pray for the people who live under regimes like this and, as we always must: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Peace

--Free

Esther: The Book I Always Skipped

 The Book of Esther is probably the one book of the Bible that I never paid much attention to. When it came up next in my daily reading list, I groaned. But I have started reading it, a couple of chapters at a time. Chapters 1 through 5 were the first. And, by the last of chapter 5, I didn't want to stop.

The story of Esther is more interesting than I ever thought. But it's strange because it seems like something that can be lifted out of the Bible as a solo story. Or so I thought. There are 10 chapters and I am about to start on chapter 6. 

As part of my Bible study and along with my own copies of the Scriptures, I use e-Sword.net and Blue Letter Bible for the commentaries and other features. Afterward, I will watch a video from the series by Chuck Missler. This is the first part of his series on Esther:

By the way, there are many copies of the Missler series of Bible studies all over the internet. If a video or link stops working, you can always find another source.

I will continue my read-study-watch method as I finish Esther. I have learned a lesson that Missler and other Bible teachers reiterate: Everything in the Bible is integrated. Nothing is there without reason.

Peace

--Free

NOTE: Blue Letter Bible has resources that I use quite a bit. Here are some that you might find interesting:

• Commentaries, references, courses, etc.
• The reading plans. I am using the 1-year Chronological plan now.
• BLB is not available offline the way e-Sword is but there are some useful apps and tools.
• The Daily Reading Program (for example, mine) can be placed on your PC's start bar for reference.

When a Verse Hits You in Your Conscience

 Every Christian can probably relate to the title. It either happens when you're sitting through a sermon or teaching and feel like the words are directed right at you. Or, as in my case this morning, you're reading a chapter and some verses jump right off the page and slap you on your conscience. Yeah.

My Bible reading was the book of  Haggai. I won't be longwinded about it but these are the verses and the corresponding bits of commentary added for 1:9

Hag 1:6  You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. (ESV)

BTW, I had just finished browsing the Prime deals on Amazon that day... The verse made me consider my chasing after material things that aren't necessary for my daily living needs. Then I kept reading and got to verse 9.

Hag 1:9  You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. (ESV)

Haggai 1:9 (commentary from John Gill):

... and ye run every man unto his own house; were very eager, earnest, and diligent, in building, beautifying, and adorning their own houses; taking care of their own domestic affairs; sparing no cost nor pains to promote their own secular interest; running in all haste to do any thing and everything to increase their worldly substance; but sat still, were idle and slothful, careless and negligent, about the house of God and the affairs of it.

Wow, right? Did that one hit you too? All I could think about was how I worry so much about how nice my own living space looks when I maybe don't worry enough about how the inside of my heart and mind - the temple that is me and my body looks.

Anyway. I just wanted to share that with the blog. Maybe someone needs to see it and think on it. I know I did.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: By the way, I copied the commentary that I use when reading the Bible via eSword. It's very useful to have the commentaries, dictionaries, etc right at hand while doing my Bible study. Here are shots of another feature of eSword - the Summarized Bible commentary: