1 Kings 19-20; Psalm 121; John 9

 July 6: Walt once said this generation we’re living in hears the Lord’s love as hatred. Does telling the truth make enemies? (Galatians 4:16) It certainly does, although it’s not aimed at that. We’re in a generation that refuses to see love in truth unless it compromises by affirming that which cannot be righteously affirmed. Instead, we have to stand like Elijah in the face of threat, tell the truth like Jesus despite opposition, and seek God’s defense from the proud who hold us in contempt.

2 Kings 1-2: Is this not the return of the Elijah that was established on a rock in 1 Kings 18? The King of Israel worships Baal-zebub. He sends fifty soldiers after Elijah, but God destroys two garrisons of them.

Psalm 123: Have mercy upon us, O LORD, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. I have to say, there have been times I’ve read such things in the Psalms with distance, with abstraction, but now I can definitely feel it. Are sincere followers of Christ not treated with contempt today? By whom? Those who are at ease, the proud. Who is that in our day?

John 10:11-42: What is the reaction of the Jewish leadership to Jesus’ denouncement of them? Sorrow, because it means they are rejected by their God? Regret and longing because they are shut out of the eternal life He promises? No, it is anger as they take up stones to stone Him. 

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