Alternate Plans

Bible Order: Gen 1–3

Chronological Order: Gen 1–3

 

God Is With You

Matthew 1

Happy New Year!  I hope 2011 was a year of blessing for you and your family and that 2012 will be even more blessed.  I feel I must warn you, however, God’s blessings are not necessarily as man would like them.  We tend to think of blessings in terms of good health, wealth, and assorted pleasures.  God thinks of blessings in terms of eternity.  We often complain when we struggle with life.  Sometimes we even think that God has abandoned us.  Nothing could be further from the truth for those that belong to Him.  For the child of God, hardship in this life is simply preparation for eternity.  It is through those struggles that we learn to lean on, and follow, God.  It is in those times of trouble that we are reminded of our need for Him.   It is in difficulty that we mature spiritually.  For this we should be grateful.

Here in 2012 we will read only the New Testament.  We are going to try to dig deeper than before into this last will and testament of Jesus the Christ.  I must add a warning here as well.  The New Testament does not stand alone, it is built upon the solid foundation of the Old Testament.  In fact, if you are not familiar with the Old Testament you will miss a great deal of the story.  Doing so would be like getting to the theatre and taking your seat during the second act of a two act play.  You get to see how the thing ends but you will have missed all the lead up to the critical turn in history.  In fact, the Old Testament is necessary to show us why we need a Savior.  If you don’t know why you need a Savior then learning of His arrival loses a bit of its power.

If you have not been with us over the past two years as we read through the entire Bible together, you may prefer a reading plan that allows you to start at the beginning.  I have made two such plans available for those who would prefer to read the entire Bible this year.  One plan goes straight from Genesis to Revelation in biblical order, the second plan starts at Genesis but proceeds in chronological order.  If you subscribe to the daily e-mail you will receive the New Testament reading for the day along with its corresponding commentary.  The e-mail will also contain the other two full Bible reading plans.  If you click on the passages for the day of the particular plan you wish to follow you will be taken to www.esvbible.org and your day’s passage will be available for you to read.

If you are following the New Testament plan I want to make one thing perfectly clear, if you have to choose between reading the Bible or my commentary, read the Bible.  We all have limited time which means we must prioritize; we must put first things first.  Time with God in prayer and Bible reading should be at the top of your list.  My words are simply an opinion and an option.  If you do have the time, however, I would love to read your comments on the daily passages, which brings me to another point.

Years ago I would attempt to read the Bible in one year as a personal goal.  There would be times when I would stay on schedule and then other times when I would get behind.  In fact, I could get as far as a couple months behind.  I would then do some heavy duty catching up.  The problem with my approach is that I wasn’t really digesting what I was reading.  The words were going in but they were not penetrating my mind, let alone my heart, because my goal was reading the Bible not growing from daily time spent in God’s Word.  I started this blog to force myself to get more out of God’s Word and to challenge other men to join me in the journey.

Along the way I found that reading God’s Word with the intention of writing something about what I had read forced me to digest the Word.  It was no longer a goal to simply have my eyes travel over all the words in the Bible.  I would like to suggest a couple of things for you to consider as you start this year off with me.  First, consider making a daily comment on this blog about what you’ve read.  If you’d rather not have others read your words, consider keeping a journal.  This journal can be a word processing document you keep on your computer or it can be an old fashioned pen and paper journal, but reading God’s Word with the intention of putting your thoughts down on paper is a power tool for spiritual growth.

Second, try to set aside a particular time every day to have your quiet time with God.  We make time for the things that are important to us.  Now I confess that while I target first thing in the morning for my quiet time it often slips to lunch time or late at night.  It can be difficult to keep the same time every day set aside for God.  Our jobs, family life, or any number of other commitments can force us to shift things around.  That is okay as long as we keep our commitment to grow in God’s Word every day.  Even so, it is inevitable that you will miss a day.  What are you going to do when you miss?  Will you try to catch up?  Will you simply pick up at the current place in the reading plan?  The answer to that comes down to your goal.  It is fine to have a goal of reading the entire Bible in a year or the New Testament in a year, but the more important goal, and you can have more than one goal, is to grow through the digestion of the Word.

That brings me to my third and final suggestion.  Don’t quit.  Keep your commitment to grow in God’s Word every day.  When you miss, simply get back in the saddle again.  My father used to say to me “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”  God’s grace is new every morning.  Get up every day and ask yourself “What am I going to do with the rest of my life!”

Well, I’ve written over a thousand words and I haven’t yet commented on today’s reading.  I guess I’ll have to keep this short.  I want you to notice one thing.

Matthew 1:23

“‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”

Mankind could not save itself so God came down to Earth in the form of a little baby so He could walk in our shoes (okay, sandals) and suffer and die so that His blood could save us from the penalty we earned.  While Jesus bodily ascended into Heaven, He is still with us in the form of His Holy Spirit which resides within the hearts of all who have submitted their lives to Him.  This is my point brothers, never forget that you are not alone.  God is with you.

Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

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Here Am I!  Send Me!

Isaiah 6-9

There is so much on which I would like to comment today but there just isn’t time.  I again found my heart soaring as I read passages about God’s Holiness, about Isaiah’s faithfulness, and about our coming Savior and King.  For example:

Isaiah 6:8

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

That one simple verse, composed of three simple sentences, is devastating to me.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are asking “who will go for us?”  Isaiah said “Here am I! Send me.”  You do know that God asks that question every day don’t you?  Do you know He is looking right at you and me when He asks it? Did you notice that Isaiah did not ask “to do what?”  He didn’t ask if he could do it after he finished something else.  He didn’t barter about the particulars.  He simply said “Here am I!  Send me.”

Isaiah reminds me of Abram when God told him to rise and go to a place He would show him.  In other words “get up and get going; I’ll show you where you are going after you show me your faithfulness”.  Ah, the words “trust and obey” come crashing into my brain.  That is at the heart of faith.  This is not to suggest that the brain is turned off, but at the end of the day, when things just don’t make sense, when we don’t have all the answers we would like, we must simply trust and obey.

Isaiah 7:14

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Here it is!  People get ready!  Jesus is coming!  Soon we’ll be going home!!!  Here, 700 years before it came to pass Isaiah tells us that God is coming to earth in human form.  Immanuel means “God with us.”  He was that then and He is still that today.  Christ resides within me.  He is still Immanuel.

Why do we need Him?  Because we walk in the darkness of our own sin.

Isaiah 9:2

“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.”

I remember flipping channels the other day and I paused for a moment on one of the Harry Potter movies that have been playing a lot lately.  It was a scene where Harry and another fellow lay on the ground in a wood next to a small pond.  Dark, ghost like, shadows swirled overhead, coming closer and closer.  As they passed over the bodies they seem to suck the life from both individuals.  Just when it seemed like all was lost, a pinpoint of light from the other side of the pond burst forth.  It was an intense, brilliant light that quickly blossomed to the point of blotting out the screen.  The dark shadowy creatures were shattered in an instant.  Nothing could withstand the light.  That’s like us isn’t it?  Weren’t we being sucked dry of life by our sins?  Were not our sins draining us of life?  It was the light of Christ that broke through the darkness that surrounded us, obliterated our sins, and saved us from death; restoring our souls.

Isaiah 9:6-7

“For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

Praise God!  Praise God!! Praise God!!!  May glory, and power, and honor, and praise be forever His!!!  He saved you.  He cleansed you and now He is asking whom shall I send?  I hope he hears you say “Here am I!  Send me!”

May you have an obedient day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!