let's see how this works

I've got this idea to post up here each day what I've read out of the Bible and some of my thoughts/reflections/questions etc about part of what I've read. Not because I am the holder of any particularly useful insight, but because I think it'd be useful in the very least for me. It will help me to consider more fully what I'm reading and to process it a little bit. Maybe you will get something from what I write, or maybe you can help me with questions I may have, or maybe you'll get bored by it all and not pay attention. All of those things are fine...that's just something I want to try to do with my site here. I will still post as much as I currently do about other things, but I want to add this as a constant to this blog. That way I may have some kind of reason for people to come back regularly. Anyway, blah blah blah, that's the deal with this.

I am currently reading through 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament and 1 Corinthians in the New Testament.

Today I read Chapters 4-6 of 2 Chronicles, and Chapter 2 of 2 Chronicles.

In 2 Chronicles 6 Solomon prays to God to ask Him for various things. His prayer seems to focus on asking God to forgive those who honestly ask for it. The passage that stuck out to me most though was this:

If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, punishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. - 2 Chr. 6:22-23 (NASB)

This is similar to Matthew 5:22-24 where Jesus tells people to set their relationships right with others before they worship God. To me this shows a God very concerned with the way we treat other people and with the status of our relationships. We can't treat other people poorly, hate them or hold bitterness against them, and at the same time worship God in the way He wants us to. That's a pretty big thing. I also like how it communicates a constancy between the God of the OT and the God of the NT, who so many people like to say are night-and-day different.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 talks about how when we talk about God it's not about being clever or convincing others with what we know. Preaching/talking about God should be about Him and His power to change hearts, not about our own cleverness. I wish I would have learned that lesson in high school when I was so concerned with arguing the right way to win people over to my point of view.