Berkeley sent me a book today titled "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America" for their "On the Same Page" program. It seems the book won the Pulitzer Prize. The program is for incoming students to read the same thing and then have followup convos and lectures about it when school starts.

Devotion notes and thoughts:

2 Samuel 15

Then the king said to Zadok, "Take the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the LORD's eyes, he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling place again. 26 But if he says, 'I am not pleased with you,' then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him."

With his kingship threatened, David still trusts in God and is obedient to his will, even if it means losing everything.

Isaiah 33

O LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you.
Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress

1 John 1

we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

Jesus is the eternal life.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Therefore even the more moral and ethical person is the worst of sinners.

God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

God is both patient and just. Prior to Jesus, animal sacrifices were acceptable due to his patience, and Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was necessary due to his justice.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. [...] Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Faith is the only thing that justifies and saves us, but we are to keep the moral commands that God has set before us.

1 John 2

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

This is similar to James 2

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.