Thurzo Gizella Bible Study

For thus saith the lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah 30:15 KJV

A Christian’s goal should be to create the Kingdom of God here on earth, as it is in Heaven. Not only, to get to Heaven.

To finish the Bible in one year, Read Isaiah 17-18 and Acts 17.

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Reflection for Today.

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Isaiah 17

An Oracle concerning Damascus

17 An oracle concerning Damascus.

See, Damascus will cease to be a city
    and will become a heap of ruins.
² Her towns will be deserted forever;^[a]
    they will be places for flocks,
    which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid.
³ The fortress will disappear from Ephraim
    and the kingdom from Damascus,
and the remnant of Aram will be
    like the glory of the people of Israel,
            says the Lord of hosts.

⁴ On that day
    the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
    and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
⁵ And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain
    and their arms harvest the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
    in the Valley of Rephaim.
⁶ Gleanings will be left in it,
    as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
    in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
    on the branches of a fruit tree,
            says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷ On that day people will look to their Maker, with their eyes on the Holy One of Israel; ⁸ they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles^[b] or the altars of incense.

⁹ On that day their fortified cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites,^[c] which they deserted because of the people of Israel, and there will be desolation.

¹⁰ For you have forgotten God your Savior
    and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant gardens
    and set out branches of a foreign god,
¹¹ though you make them grow on the day that you plant them
    and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away
    in a day of sickness and incurable pain.

¹² Woe, the thunder of many peoples,
    they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
The roar of nations,
    they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
¹³ [[When the nations roar like the roaring of many waters,]]^[d]
    he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
    and like whirling dust before the storm.
¹⁴ At evening time, sudden terror!
    Before morning, they are no more.
This is the fate of those who despoil us
    and the lot of those who plunder us.

Isaiah 18

An Oracle concerning Cush

18 Woe, land of buzzing^[a] wings
    beyond the rivers of Cush,
² sending ambassadors by the Nile
    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
    to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
    a nation mighty^[b] and conquering,
    whose land the rivers divide.

³ All you inhabitants of the world,
    you who live on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
    When a trumpet is blown, listen!
⁴ For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
    like clear heat in sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ For before the harvest, when the blossom is over
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks,
    and the spreading branches he will hew away.
⁶ They shall all be left
    to the birds of prey of the mountains
    and to the animals of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
    and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.

⁷ At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of hosts from^[c] a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.

Acts 17

The Uproar in Thessalonica

17 After Paul and Silas^[a] had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. ² And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures, ³ explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah^[b] to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying, “This is the Messiah,^[c] Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.” ⁴ Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. ⁵ But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason’s house. ⁶ When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some brothers and sisters before the city authorities, shouting, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also, ⁷ and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.” ⁸ The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this, ⁹ and after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.

Paul and Silas in Beroea

¹⁰ That very night the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea, and when they arrived they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so. ¹² Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing. ¹³ But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea as well, they came there, too, to stir up and incite the crowds. ¹⁴ Then the brothers and sisters immediately sent Paul away to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained behind. ¹⁵ Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and, after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him.

Paul in Athens

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and also in the marketplace^[d] every day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸ Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this pretentious babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ¹⁹ So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰ It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” ²¹ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

²² Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. ²³ For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. ²⁶ From one ancestor^[e] he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, ²⁷ so that they would search for God^[f] and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. ²⁸ For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we, too, are his offspring.’

²⁹ “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. ³⁰ While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹ because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

³² When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” ³³ At that point Paul left them. ³⁴ But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Sermons by various teachers about these verses.

Catholic Daily Readings and Reflections

Reading 1, Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14

⁷ Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘Go down at once, for your people whom you brought here from Egypt have become corrupt.

⁸ They have quickly left the way which I ordered them to follow. They have cast themselves a metal calf, worshipped it and offered sacrifice to it, shouting, “Israel, here is your God who brought you here from Egypt!” ‘

⁹ Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘I know these people; I know how obstinate they are!

¹⁰ So leave me now, so that my anger can blaze at them and I can put an end to them! I shall make a great nation out of you instead.’

¹¹ Moses tried to pacify Yahweh his God. ‘Yahweh,’ he said, ‘why should your anger blaze at your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt by your great power and mighty hand?

¹³ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom you swore by your very self and made this promise: “I shall make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and this whole country of which I have spoken, I shall give to your descendants, and it will be their heritage for ever.”

¹⁴ Yahweh then relented over the disaster which he had intended to inflict on his people.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19

³ For I am well aware of my offences, my sin is constantly in mind.

⁴ Against you, you alone, I have sinned, I have done what you see to be wrong, that you may show your saving justice when you pass sentence, and your victory may appear when you give judgement,

¹² Give me back the joy of your salvation, sustain in me a generous spirit.

¹³ I shall teach the wicked your paths, and sinners will return to you.

¹⁷ Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a broken, contrite heart you never scorn.

¹⁹ Then you will delight in upright sacrifices,-burnt offerings and whole oblations — and young bulls will be offered on your altar.

Gospel, Luke 15:1-32

¹ The tax collectors and sinners, however, were all crowding round to listen to him,

² and the Pharisees and scribes complained saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

³ So he told them this parable:

⁴ ‘Which one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the missing one till he found it?

⁵ And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders

⁶ and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep that was lost.”

⁷ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repenting than over ninety-nine upright people who have no need of repentance.

⁸ ‘Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it?

⁹ And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, I have found the drachma I lost.”

¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.’

¹¹ Then he said, ‘There was a man who had two sons.

¹² The younger one said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that will come to me.” So the father divided the property between them.

¹³ A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

¹⁴ ‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch;

¹⁵ so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs.

¹⁶ And he would willingly have filled himself with the husks the pigs were eating but no one would let him have them.

¹⁷ Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s hired men have all the food they want and more, and here am I dying of hunger!

¹⁸ I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;

¹⁹ I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired men.”

²⁰ So he left the place and went back to his father. ‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him.

²¹ Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.”

²² But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

²³ Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we will celebrate by having a feast,

²⁴ because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

²⁵ ‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing.

²⁶ Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about.

²⁷ The servant told him, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the calf we had been fattening because he has got him back safe and sound.”

²⁸ He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out and began to urge him to come in;

²⁹ but he retorted to his father, “All these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed any orders of yours, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends.

³⁰ But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property — he and his loose women — you kill the calf we had been fattening.”

³¹ ‘The father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours.

³² But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.” ‘

Reading 2, First Timothy 1:12-17

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength. By calling me into his service he has judged me trustworthy,

¹³ even though I used to be a blasphemer and a persecutor and contemptuous. Mercy, however, was shown me, because while I lacked faith I acted in ignorance;

¹⁴ but the grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them;

¹⁶ and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the leading example of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who were later to trust in him for eternal life.

¹⁷ To the eternal King, the undying, invisible and only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Dr. Myles Munroe

I am including a video by Dr. Myles Munroe, I’ve listened to him back in the nineties, and rediscovered him recently. Now his perspective seems to be a good way to also look at scripture. In Pursuit of Purpose – Book Highlights