Guided reading plans to help you read and understand the Bible.
Tune in tomorrow after church to get the full low down on the weekly “story so far.” We’ll look back at the big picture at our Review/Preview lunch. Then we’ll have a more substantial post to intro our Summer Quarter of Year in the BIble.
We’ve come a long way from creation to the doorstep of the promised land in the Old, and hearing about Jesus Christ to seeing his church take shape in the New Testament. I pray it has been a wonderful experience so far.
But don’t let it be enough…
Have you had any great experiences with your time in God’s Word?
We began Year in the Bible a few months back as a way to continue with the tools our church had learned in a previous study. We learned better ways to study the Bible–how to read it, meditate on it, ask better questions, pray through it, etc. But to learn the how and then fail to put it into practice would have been a waste.
So here we are, reading the whole Bible. In your devotional times, have you been able to gain a better understanding of Scripture? Have you had new insights? Has it helped you to have a better vision of who God is? Has your dedication to the Word worked itself out in your life in ways you didn’t expect?
If you have some story to share, I’d love to hear it. To hear of the varied ways that the Spirit works in us can be a great encouragement and comfort to other brothers and sisters.
And it is good when that bread is topped with cheese and marinara sauce.
That’s what we’ll be doing this Sunday after our late service at church to celebrate the end of our first quarter. One of the goals of Year in the Bible, I guess second only to the obvious reading of the Bible, is doing so together. This Sunday will remind us that we do not undertake such a task alone. We learn better together, we grow more together, we’re better challenged together. We should not take for granted the great cloud of witnesses we’ve been blessed with by being a lone ranger. We need each other.
Some of you have been a part of a small group or a Bible study that is reading along with one another, but others do not have that weekly contact. This luncheon can be a place to rub shoulders with brothers and sisters, hear about their experience, and enjoy the company.
We’ll also get a short review of all we’ve done as well as some words of introduction to the summer quarter. So come out if you can, this Sunday, June 24th. We’ll have pizza and salad. Let me know if you will be coming.
For those unable to join in this fun, let me encourage you, if you haven’t already, to find someone to partner with in this study of God’s Word. Share your experiences, your questions, your joys, and frustrations. Reading God’s Word is great, but doing so as the church is even better.
Acts 22 recounts a message delivered by Paul. He had been before the tribune asking for permission, and receiving it proceeds to speak to fellow Jews.
The crowd appears to listen intently, all the more because Paul speaks in Hebrew. He tells of his stirring conversion, meeting with Christ on the road to Damascus. He then was taken in by Ananias, received back his sight, and was given the call to be a witness. Paul repented and was baptized.
Paul is commanded in a vision to flee from Jerusalem, because the people there will not accept his testimony. Paul knows that people remember the role he took in persecuting the church, even standing by approvingly as Stephen was marytred.
.jpg "St Paul Preaching in Athens, Raphael")
The crowd was listening throughout all of Paul’s message, but in verse 22 it says that at his last line they raised their voice and called for him to be cast out. What could he have said that would cause them, after listening throughout his message so intently, to turn so quickly?
In verse 21 Paul says that God commanded him to, “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”
Paul’s opponents will tolerate his words up to the point that he claims God calls him to go to people unlike themselves. They appreciate that he is like them, that he is from a place like them, and that he speaks a language like them. They do not appreciate that he is ministering to “the other.” Their vision is so clouded and their understanding of God’s intent so narrow that they cannot hear the good news of Paul’s message.
God’s love for the gentiles is described as the core of a great mystery of our faith, revealed to us now. We now know how great is this new word that Paul speaks of in his letter to the church in Ephesus. I, a Gentile, for one am thankful for the ministry of Paul, as called by God, and need to follow suit to seek out not only others who are like me, but to bring the gospel to others.
For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Ephesians 3:1-6
We’ve spent a great deal of time in these last months reading about Moses. But now that we’re finishing Deuteronomy, we’ll have to say goodbye. Moses is such a prominent figure of the Old Testament it is hard to look back and summarize all we’ve learned about him.
He stands apart from so many other people of Scripture, as we see in this line from chapter 34:
“And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face…”
This following article calls to our attention a lesson of grace we can learn from Moses, that even a man who had done so much, still is reliant as we are solely on the grace of God.
An oldie, but a goodie from Third Day, with words taken from Psalm 36, which is in our week’s readings. Enjoy.
It is finally here, our final week of the first quarter. Just as the calendar officially moves from Spring into Summer, so does our Year in the Bible calendar. So, next week we start our count over again and will be in week one.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We still have to finish this week. We have a lighter week with just a bit of Deuteronomy and more Acts. We’ll finish both and continue with Psalms. Once we do that, we’ll have read the entire Pentateuch, learned about the beginning of the church, and we’ll be over a quarter of the way through Psalms.
We finish the quarter with a Review & Preview Session after church on Sunday. It is a perfect time to get the big picture of what we’ve read so far, and if you haven’t read at all, you can come and it’ll be a bit of a shortcut. It’s a good entry point if you want to join for the second quarter. We’ll also have some previews of what is to come–introducing the genres and topics we have to look forward to.
PLUS – we’ll have some lunch. If you’re coming, I’d love to have you let me know so I can best prepare.
I hope you’ve been enjoying the readings this week as we have read the words Moses has chosen to leave Israel with as they prepare themselves to enter the promised land. I imagine it must have been a trying experience for Moses and his role as a leader of the people. He has to deliver words to people who will be entering a land that he will not be able to see. Moses also must pass on warnings and remind them of the promises of God, knowing that the people will never cease to turn toward false gods and false worship (as we still do today). He urges them to faithful to a God who has always been faithful to us, even though we do not deserve it, nor do the people deserve the land they are about to inhabit.
Next week we’ll finally transfer our attention from Moses, whom we met back in Exodus, as Joshua will take over.
In Acts we continue to see just how the Spirit is building up this church and doing so by spreading the boundaries out far and wide. Disciples are voyaging around the Mediterranean, going to both Jews and Gentiles. We read about the council where it was decided more clearly how to bring the Gentiles into the fold and what was (and really what wasn’t) required of them. This good news is brought to the churches and Paul puts himself in harms way to do such work, getting himself arrested.
Tune in next week to find out the fate of Paul!
Year in the Bible 