Christianity Oasis Forum

[cimi]

August
Thursday



THUMBS UP
READ:
Matthew 5:17-20
____________________________________________________________________________________

The entirety of Your
Word is truth.
__Psalm 119:160
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Pandora is one of the musical marvels of the Internet age. It helps you create your own personal radio station by allowing you to "customize" your music. It plays a song and you then click a thumbs up or thumbs down sign to indicate whether or not you like it. You end up with a grouping of only songs that you like.

Unfortunately, sometimes we do that with the Bible too. People may choose some Scripture passages they especially like and ignore others, and so they "customize" it to their preferences. The psalmist looked at God's Word this way: "The entirety of Your Word is truth" (Ps. 119:160). And the apostle Paul told Timothy, a young pastor, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable" (2 Tim. 3:16).

The Scriptures were important to Jesus (Matt. 5:17-18), but He looked at them differently than the religious leaders of His day. To Him, "You shall not murder" was on the level of being "angry with [a] brother without a cause" (vv.21-22). Far from customizing Scripture, He was concerned about the motivation of people's hearts in applying all of it.

As we embrace God's Word more fully, we'll know Him more deeply and desire to honor Him. __Marvin Williams

````````````````Lord, I don't want to treat Your Word lightly or``````````````````
````````````````to dismiss what seems too difficult. Show me```````````````````
`````````````````my heart and help me to obey from the heart``````````````````
`````````````````whatever You tell me. In Jesus' name, amen.``````````````````
________________________________________________________________________________________
When you open your Bible,
ask the Author to open your heart.

*****************************Today's Bible Reading __ Matthew 5:17-20**************************

17 Do not think that I came
to destroy the Law or the
Prophets, I did not come to
destroy but to fulfill. 18 For
assuredly, I say to you, till
heaven and earth pass
away, one jot or one tittle
will by no means pass from
the law till all is fulfilled.

19 Whoever therefore breaks
one of the least of these
commandments, and
teaches men so, shall be
called least in the kingdom
of heaven; but whoever
does and teaches them, he
shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. 20 For I
say to you, that unless your
righteousness exceeds the
righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you will by
no means enter the
kingdom of heaven.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Matthew seeks to show that Jesus came to fulfill the law and
prophets (vv.17-18). Matthew used the characteristic phrase "that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets" to show
that Jesus' life, from His birth to His death, was the fulfillment
of prophecy (Matt. 1:22; 2:15,23; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35; 21:4;
27:9,35). Jesus Himself purposely lived out His life with the
knowledge "that it must happen thus" so that "the Scriptures be
fulfilled" (Matt. 26:54,56; Mark 14:49; Luke 24:44; John 13:18;
15:25; 18:32). Even in the very last moments before He died, Jesus
was still fulfilling Scripture (John 19:28). He fulfilled over 300
messianic prophecies.