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Hiding the Word in Our Hearts!

On Sunday those of us who participated int he New Testament Challenge finished reading the New Testament--in 63 days!  That's quite an accomplishment, but as my good friend, Mark Geppert, always says, "It isn't how many times you've been through the Bible, but how many times the Bible has been through you that counts!"  His meaning is clear: APPLYING God's word is the key.  In order to apply God's word, though, we do have to have it in our minds and hearts.  That's why I want to encourage you to KEEP READING God's word.  On Sunday, I offered a few ways to do that, and I want to post them here in case you didn't make it to worship at New Life.

1. Do the New Testament Challenge again.  Just go back through the previous 63 blog posts and get the readings for each day, and read them again.  After all repetition is the mother of learning!
2. Read a chapter of Proverbs each day of the month. Proverbs has 31 chapters and most months have 31 days, so just read the chapter that corresponds with the day of the month. (Since a new month starts on Thursday, it would be a great time to start reading through Proverbs.) When you get to day 30 (or 28 for February) in the months that don't have 31 days, just read to the end of the book.  Then start over on the 1st with chapter 1.  If you'll do this for a couple of years, you'll gain wisdom from the wisest man who ever lived and have it available for your daily life!
3. If poetry, music and prayer appeal to you, consider using the "formula" in #2, and start reading 5 Psalms each day of the month.  Since there are 150 Psalms, if you'll read 5 a day, you'll read through the Psalms each month AND you'll be exposing yourself to some of the most powerful prayers ever written!
4. The Gospel of Mark has 16 chapters. If you'll start reading chapter 1 on the first day of the month and then read a chapter a day through the month, you'll read through Mark twice a month (again you'll have to read a couple extra chapters on the last day of the month).  As you read through Mark a couple times a month for the next six or eight months, you'll find that the main events in Jesus life, ministry, death and resurrection become fixed in your memory, which is extremely helpful as we seek to live in Jesus every day!
5. Many standardized "through the Bible" reading plans are available on the internet, in the front of many Bibles, and there are actually through the Bible in a year Bibles for purchase. 

The KEY is to READ God's word and then APPLY it in our lives!  Congratulations to those of you who completed the New Testament Challenge---NOW keep on reading and applying God's word--or as King David put it "Hiding God's Word in your heart"--so those who may never have taken the time to read it, will experience it through You.  After we've been through the Bible, the challenge and opportunity is to have the Bible go through us, to God's glory and praise!

The New Testament Challenge Companion--Final ENTRY--Day 63!

Sunday, March 28, 2010 Reading for the Day Revelation 20-22 Focus on Revelation 21:5

In the final two chapters of the Book of Revelation we find ourselves in heaven.  One of the most powerful statements in these chapters is:  I am making all things new!  Jesus told us that in order for us to go to heaven we must be born again.  Here at the end of the New Testament we find that God has finally established those who will reign with Him forever!  In order for that to be the case, each of us must be made new.  Yes, we have been born again and have inherited eternal life, if we have trusted Jesus as our Savior and Lord.  Yet, as we die to this life, or as Jesus returns and we are received into heaven, the reality is we and every other thing that will remain is made NEW, by God in that moment.  This is what we wait for all our lives after Jesus becomes Lord of our lives!  This is what separates our faith in Jesus from all the other religions of the world.  We aren’t going to be recycled through thousands of incarnations here on the earth.  We live once, and then we die once.  Then all of us who trust Jesus will be raised to new life to live with Him forever.  We’ve read about it since we picked up the New Testament and started working our way through the gospels. Now, we read about it again as we come to the close of the New Testament.  That’s because eternity IS a reality, and living in eternity with Jesus is our end experience as human beings who have trusted in Him.  Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus, Our Lord!  Amen.

Congratulations to all of you who have stayed with the New Testament Challenge through today and who have read the entire New Testament in 63 days!  Now, as you look forward to tomorrow here are a few suggestions of what to do next to continue growing in God’s word:

1)   Go back to the beginning of the New Testament and read it again.  After all, repetition, is the mother of learning!

2)   Go to Genesis and start reading the Old Testament.  If you continue to read at your same pace of 20-30 minutes each day, you will complete the Old Testament in about four months!  (A big suggestion here:  When you come to portions of the Old Testament that seem boring to you—SKIP over them and go on to the next section of interest.  Some portions of the Old Testament are rather draw on a first reading (and a second or third for that matter!), so don’t let that you sidetrack from reading all the great passages found in it.

3)   Consider a repetitive reading program such as the one that follows to deepen your understanding a certain Scriptures.  For example, read one chapter of Proverbs each day and one chapter of the Gospel of Mark each day.  If you do that you will read through Proverbs one time each month (It has thirty-one chapters), so if you read a chapter a day, you’ll read through it each month.  In addition read one chapter in the Gospel of Mark each day.  Mark has sixteen chapters, so if you read one a day and then double up on the last day or two of the month depending on whether it is a 30, 31, or 28 day month, and you’ll read through Mark’s Gospel twice each month.  Some also like to read 5 Psalms each day, since there are 150 Psalms, and by reading five each day you will cover the entire book each month.  This repetitive reading helps a person grow deeper in his or her faith, and also to gain some mastery of specific Bible texts.  

Whatever you choose—KEEP READING!  Keep filling your mind and heart with God’s word, and pray for Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit that you’ll understand it and apply it in your life.  As you do that you will grow more and more into the full stature of Jesus!

Heavenly Father, I thank You for every person who has taken the New Testament Challenge and finished the readings!  Fill each of us with Your Holy Spirit that we may continue to learn and live Your word, and bring Your love and salvation to the world.  This we pray in Jesus’ name.

The New Testament Challenge Companion--Day 61!

Friday, March 26, 2010 Reading for the Day Revelation 13-16 Focus on “The Beast”

So much ink has been spilled down through the ages about who or what the “Beast” may be.  Those who take a “preterist” view of Revelation, meaning they think it was written primarily for the first century audience to whom it was written, believe the Beast was Rome and that the antichrist was either the Emperor Nero or Domitian.  Those who take the view that Revelation was written for a later era have seen many Beasts and many antichrists.  The reality is we don’t know whether John’s words were intended for his day or ours or both.  I believe it was written as ALL of Scripture was written—for the time it was written and for all other eras of history.  After all, God’s truth is ALWAYS true in every era.  The problem with identifying any particular person as the antichrist is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for the person who makes the prediction.  The person then tries to identify other people, places and events as fitting into the scheme from Revelation 12 and following.  Using that process has made a lot of people “non-prophets” throughout history, because they have been wrong.  What all of us can learn from these chapters is that at the end of time evil will seem to prevail.  Anytime evil “seems” to prevail we can be sure that the appearance is deceiving because God has never lost control of the universe He created.  At times evil DOES win a battle, but the war is ours.  We need to remember that Revelation doesn’t end with the Beast on the throne. It ends with GOD on the throne!

Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your written word.  Thank You for making it clear that while evil wins a fight or a battle, You are ultimately in control.  Fill me with the Holy Spirit that I may honor You when evil comes my way, and that I may win the ultimate victory as well.  This I pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The New Testament Challenge Companion--Day 60!

Thursday, March 25, 2010 Reading for the Day Revelation 9-12 Focus on Revelation 11:15-19

If the book of Revelation ended at the end of Chapter 11, we wouldn’t miss the rest of it.  So proclaimed a professor I had for a course on the book of Revelation back in seminary.  I’ve thought about that statement a lot over the years (the MANY years) since.  He’s right.  Think about it.  As chapter 11 comes to a close John tells us that the twenty-four elders say,   “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign.   “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign.  Doesn’t that sound like an END?  Earlier in the book God is the one who is and was and IS TO COME.  Now God is the one who is and always was—there’s no more is to come, because the is to come has come!  Also, God had now ASSUMED HIS GREAT POWER AND HAD BEGUN TO REIGN.  This is the consummation of everything!  So why are there still ten more chapters?  The same professor contended that the rest of Revelation is just a repetition of what we’ve already seen:  cycles of judgment and grace with the end being God’s ultimate victory and God’s people celebrating that victory.  Whether you agree with Him or not, his original point is well taken.  If Revelation ended at chapter 11, we wouldn’t miss the rest.  It’s so important for us to remember as we read Revelation that God HAS won.  When Jesus died on the cross two thousand years ago, the victory over sin and death was WON.  Now, it’s just a matter of time—and God has eternity.  It may seem like a long time to us from the moment John penned the words of Revelation, but in the scheme of eternity it’s the blink of an eye.  One day we who trust Jesus as Savior and Lord will live the reality of heaven, the Reality of Revelation 11:15-19 FOREVER.

Heavenly Father, Thank You for REIGNING!  Thank You for being the one, true and living God. Reign in my life today that my thoughts, words and actions will bring you glory and praise.  This I pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The New Testament Challenge Companion-Day 59!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Reading for the Day Revelation 5-8 Focus on Revelation 5-8

Revelation 5-8 offers us a dramatic view of God’s judgment AND His grace.  In fact, in chapter five we find the “hero” of the entire book:  The Lamb.  He is, of course, Jesus.  He is the only one who is able to open the scroll—the scroll which we find initiates several cycles of God’s judgment.  A number of these judgments are reminiscent of God’s judgment against the Egyptians when they would not release the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  The significant point about ALL the judgments of God through these chapters is that every one results in what one scholar calls “fractions of grace.” For example, when the star called “Bitterness” or “Wormwood” falls out of the sky, it causes one third of the water to turn bitter.  Even in His judgment God shows grace.  That’s such a crucial truth about God.  It isn’t God’s desire to “smash us like bugs,” as some people seem to think.  Jesus told us back in Matthew that it is not the will of His Father in heaven that even one of His little ones should perish.  As we “fast forward” to the Book of Revelation the time of judgment has come, and God is still seeking to give people the opportunity to repent and turn to Him.  Unfortunately, as with the Pharaoh in the Old Testament, most will reject the opportunity.  That doesn’t make God unjust or desiring to judge us.  It just shows the nature of human beings in our fallen state.  The important reality for us as we read these chapters is to recognize that we who know Jesus MUST tell those who don’t about Him.  We don’t want anyone to experience the judgments God is going to visit on the earth at the time of the end.   Since we don’t know when these times will come, the best action for us is to tell as many people as we can about Jesus NOW!

Heavenly Father, Thank You for the reality of Your grace even in the midst of Your judgment.  Fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I may show Your grace to everyone around me.  This I pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The New Testament Challenge Companion--Day 58!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Reading for the Day Revelation 1-4 Focus on Revelation 4

How do you describe the indescribable?  John had the opportunity to SEE heaven!  Yes, it was a vision.  No, he didn’t physically go there.  But there was a door OPEN into heaven and he got to see through it.  While the Book of Revelation has so many vivid images and metaphors, Revelation 4 is John’s description of the “view” he saw when he looked into heaven.  His description of God on the throne resorts to the use of gemstones.  He said God looked like jasper and carnelian.  What does that mean?  It means God is INDESCRIBABLE!  Human language falls short of a description.  In fact there was an “emerald rainbow” around the throne, or as the New Living Translation puts it “the glow of an emerald circled his thrne like a rainbow.”  The “audience” around God is twenty-four elders, each seated on their own throne.  Who are these elders?  Some have suggested the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles minus Judas, plus the Apostle Paul.  We don’t know.  What we do know is that when everyone worships God and the four living creatures start saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty—the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come,” the elders throw down their crowns and confess that only God is worthy to receive glory, honor and power.  Why?  Because he created everything, and the reason they exist and were created is God’s pleasure.  Some see this picture and assume that the only thing that goes on in heaven is this intense worship for all eternity.  That’s possible. But there’s a lot more of Revelation to go, and as we’ll see there are other images of heaven yet to be revealed.  What we know for sure is that being in God’s presence will be so awesome we won’t be able to describe it either!

Heavenly Father, Thank You for giving us a glimpse of Yourself through John’s vision!  Give me an ongoing sense of Your holiness so I’ll live a holy life, too.  Let my life be a glimpse of You for others, so they’ll come to know You and experience eternity with You as well.  This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The New Testament Challenge Companion--Day 57!

March 22, 2010 Reading for the Day 2 John 1; 3 John 1; Jude 1 Focus on Jude 1:

Jude is one of several one chapter books we find toward the end of the New Testament.  As Jude closes, he includes an amazing prayer or ascription of praise.  Here it is:  ²⁴And now, all glory to God, who is able to keep you from stumbling, and who will bring you into his glorious presence innocent of sin and with great joy. ²⁵All glory to him, who alone is God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, glory, majesty, power, and authority belong to him, in the beginning, now, and forevermore. Amen.  In three brief sentences, Jude calls us to praise God, reminds us of how God keeps us from sin, and reminds us that God is the one, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who has all glory, majesty, power and authority.  This has been the case from the BEGINNING—that is from the foundation of eternity and will be forevermore.  When we have days that nothing seems to go right – and we all have those days – we need to remember this prayer of praise!  Our God is worthy of all our praise.  If we turn ourselves over to Him and His Spirit in the name of Jesus, we will experience victory.  Rick Warren said it well in the opening sentences of The Purpose Driven Life:  It’s not about you.  It’s not about me.  It’s all about God! It IS all about God.  Jude knew that.  Jude calls us to remember that, to praise God for it.  I’ve always wished Jude would have written more, because what He wrote was so good!  What he did write gives us encouragement for the times when we may be a little off our games, and need to be reminded of the awesome nature of our God.  All glory to God!

Heavenly Father, with Jude I praise You for who You are and thank You for keeping me from stumbling!  I thank You that one day I will stand in Your glorious presence innocent of sin and with great joy, because of what You have done in and through Jesus Christ!  Empower me by your great glory, majesty, power and authority to live victoriously today and each day.  This I pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The New Testament Challenge Companion--Day 54!

Friday, March 19, 2010 Reading for the Day John 17-18; 1 Peter 3-5 Focus on 1 Peter 3:1-7

Peter’s words to wives and husbands in 1 Peter 3:1-7 sound a call to mutual love, respect and service that swims upstream against the current of marriage advice in our day.  Our culture teaches that marriage is a 50-50 performance relationship, with each spouse in the relationship doing his or her part to hold up the “bargain.”  The problem is we can never know when we have done our 50% and it never seems like our spouse has done his or her 50%.  The reality we find from Peter is that our love for our spouses calls us to serve, to put him or her before ourselves.  In the case of husbands we are called to work hard to show our love through understanding, and in the case of wives to show love through obedience.  Those concepts aren't exactly modern, but they are proven.  When husbands live with understanding toward our wives, our wives know we love and care for them. When wives submit to their husband’s authority, we husbands recognize that our authority is delegated to us by God and that we remain under His authority.  Then we don’t see ourselves as “masters,” but as fellow servants with our wives in serving Jesus.  As we put Peter’s words about marriage to work in our marriages in the power of the Holy Spirit, we’ll see our marriages growing, flourishing, being renewed and restored in ways we may not even have thought possible.  May we take his words to heart—literally--and may we apply them in the power of the Holy Spirit—today!

Heavenly Father, I pray for every married couple who calls Jesus Savior and Lord. I pray You will pour out Your Holy Spirit in marriages that Jesus may be first and that husbands and wives may live faithfully toward You, each other and their children.  Glorify Yourself in our marriages today, that others may see You in them, in us, and give You all the glory.  This I pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The New Testament Challenge Companion--Day 53!

Thursday, March 18, 2010 Reading for the Day John 15-16; 1 Peter 1-2 Focus on 1 Peter 1:17-20

 

Peter gives us a great image of how faith and works come together in our salvation in 1 Peter 1:17-20.  He tells us we will be judged based on our works.  That sounds like our salvation is dependent on what we do, but He also tells us God paid a “ransom” to save us from the empty lives we inherited from our ancestors.  That “ransom” was the precious blood of Jesus.  So which is it:  works or Jesus' free payment of our ransom?  YES!  We are saved by grace through faith, as we have read throughout the New Testament, except in James, where we found James emphasizing our part in the process.  But here Peter brings faith and works together as they ought to be.  We aren’t saved by our works, but once we are saved, our works begin to reflect the “new management” we're under in our lives.  We do our part and God does His part.  God’s part is absolutely essential, since it is His provision of Jesus that brings salvation to us.  Our part is also essential since even Jesus told us that not everyone who cries, “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the ones who do the will of His Father in heaven.  Works have their place—AFTER—we receive the free gift of salvation Jesus died on the cross to procure for us.  Faith AND works go together in the growing Christian life.  When faith is emphasized to the exclusion of works, our lives turn to license and we find the Apostle Paul’s question to Christians in Rome coming to mind, “Should we sin that grace may abound?”  Paul’s own answer to that question was, “May it never be!”  When works are emphasized overly much in our lives, we become proud, forgetting that even the ability to do good works is a gift from God!  May we trust Jesus enough today to be empowered to live out the good works He designed for us to do before the foundation of the world!

 

Heavenly Father, Thank You for designing us to live in faith and for that faith to result in good works. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit in this moment that I may live out my faith in thoughts, words and actions that honor You.  This I pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The New Testament Challenge Companion--Day 52!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 Reading for the Day John 13-14; James 4-5 Focus on John 14:1-6

Jesus’ claim: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me,” puts Him on a level above everyone else who ever lived.  So many people in our day claim  there are “many ways to the top of the mountain,” as we seek spiritual direction and meaning in our lives.  In other words, many religious “paths” can lead to truth or enlightenment.  Jesus said He is the only path or way.  He is the only One who can lead us to God, because He IS God.  He is the only one who can ensure that our lives will be lived eternally with God in heaven.  Those claims make Jesus someone to take seriously or to dismiss completely.  Many have said Jesus was a great teacher, but He wasn’t God.  Actually, if Jesus wasn’t God, then He wasn’t a great teacher—He was a liar, or He lived under a great delusion—He was a lunatic.  You may have heard the statement that Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend or LORD.  He didn’t really leave us with many other options to consider.  His claims are so amazing and the actions recorded in the gospels so compelling we’re forced to see Jesus as greater than any human being who has ever lived, or as just so many stories.  The historic record both in the days of Jesus and in the centuries of the Church since offer compelling evidence that Jesus WAS and IS who He told us He WAS and IS:  the Son of the living God.  To be sure, faith will always play a role in what we believe about Jesus, since He isn’t here with us now, and since we can’t repeat many of the things He did in the “laboratory.” Even so, the evidence that Jesus is LORD was so strong in His own day that His original followers except for Judas gave their lives in serving Him.  The early church bore witness to Jesus’ powerful impact in the lives of those who belonged to it.  As we move through the season of Lent, a time of reflection on the life and ministry of Jesus, and of preparing for the celebration of Easter, Jesus’ words resound down through the millennia, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  May we put Jesus first.  May we follow Him.  As we do, may we know the assurance of our faith that only comes when we Jesus is OUR way, truth and life, and we come to know the Father through Him!

Heavenly Father, Thank You for Jesus’ bold proclamation that He is the only way to You. Thank You for validating that claim by raising Him from the dead, and by living in Jesus followers in an unbroken line from His days on earth to ours!  Fill us anew with Your Holy Spirit that we may be bold in bearing witness in our lives of how Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one comes to You, our Heavenly Father, except through Him.  This I pray in His holy name.  Amen.