Finished!

Well, we officially finished our Bible-in-a-year challenge! It was a battle at times to keep at it, but based upon the conversations I have had with several of you, it was well worth it.
Thanks to all of those who participated!

Observations from Daily Readings (through Ezekiel)

I passed by one of our team leaders (Mary) two Sundays ago, and she asked me, "So are you keeping up in the reading?!" I was so glad for the challenge to stay current. Accountability helps all of us stay faithful in our commitments; never apologize for keeping people accountable! Thank you Mary!

More observations:

• Alisa wrote in an email, " I was fascinated to read about Ezekiel's calling to lay on his side for a year! Quite honestly, I do not know if I ever read that story before!" 
• A phrase written many times in Ezekiel -  “And they will know that I am God.” This is God's desire, that all people would know Him and worship Him. John Piper, a pastor and theologian in MN, says that "Missions exists because worship doesn’t." 
• Ezekiel really brings out the color of God's words by dramatizing it. What are we doing in our lives to bring out the color of God's Word to our world?
• Jeremiah ends with a very bright passage talking about the depth of God’s love as being deeper than the ocean. We are so thankful that God's love and mercy never ends, and His forgiveness is deeper than our sin!

Observations from Daily Readings (through Jeremiah)

• There are many references to Sodom and Gomorrah. That particular story of destruction must have played an interesting part in history, as Jews considered Sodom and Gomorrah to be some of the most vile of all nations. God’s comparison of Israel to those cities would have been quite a blow to Jewish feeling of elitism.
• Why would Jeremiah tell exiled Israel to “make your homes there” in Babylon? Maybe it was to counter what other prophets were saying about the exile ending shortly. Jeremiah was making sure that God’s judgment would not be taken lightly and that Israel would understand that God’s punishment would not be shortened. However, the light of hope does shine in the midst of tragedy.  
• We all have experienced  God’s hope as a “light at the end of the tunnel” in our lives. You know it’s going to be a journey, and you realize that with some struggles in life, you will just have to “deal with it,” stay faithful and focused. God has not forgotten, even if we feel like it. 

Readings up until August 2nd (through Jeremiah)

As we read through Scripture, we observed the following as a staff:

• Different sections of Scripture have slightly different information, and then also different perspectives (Chronicles, Kings, Jeremiah, etc.). One sees the situation from an historical perspective, another interprets God's intense feelings on the matter, etc. 
• Josiah...what happened? He started out well, but then it seemed maybe he became overconfident in himself and his judgement. He died, and his sons make terrible decisions. It's a good lesson for us. We have to stay focused. We have to stay in prayer and God's Word. Otherwise, Satan is crouching, ready to attack and deceive. Our only defense is God Himself, not our past experience with Him per say. We need Him presently, at all times.
• It is exhausting to read Scripture at times, especially with the rough political history preceding the exile and then the harsh language of the prophets to the Israelites. Makes you want to say, "Come quickly Lord Jesus!"...which was EXACTLY the point. The light of Jesus' birth will pierce the darkness for the exiled Jews, and ultimately for all nations and people. It is the least we can do to discover the joy, by reading this sobering and thought provoking section of Scripture. 
• Jeremiah and his scroll is a great lesson about just simply doing the work God calls you to do, leaving the results to Him. Sometimes we want to ensure longevity in the work we do. We must have confidence that the work we put into God's hands will last forever, regardless of what we perceive in this world. Only God's word will last forever...we are simply conduits. 

Readings up until June 28 (Jonah)

Reading through the Bible is not easy. It takes discipline to stay committed, and it takes humility to just pick up where you left off (even if a week "or so" behind) without feeling like a failure. We are in this for the long haul. Our society is so interested in quick victory, that it fears failure. And as we see in James "We all stumble in many ways." Don't give up. Keep going. Ask for strength. It's not about how great we are - our goal is to understand how great God is.

OBSERVATIONS IN READING

• It was amazing in the book of Jonah how God used nature to get Jonah to do what he needed to do! God uses nature to speak to us, and to show us that all creation declares God's glory and surrounds us with reminders of His love. As we talked as a staff, we all had recently thought of an amazing creation of God that shows His splendor...lightning bugs! Lightning bugs are examples in our land of something that turns our thoughts to God's greatness. We desire to recognize God's greatness in everything, and not be so obstinate that it takes a storm get our attention. 
• All of this bloodshed in the king's family is horrific at the end of Kings and Chronicles. What a waste! There's a lot that goes into raising a child, and then they are killed for someone to assume a throne. This was a judgement of God upon the Israelite nation for deserting Him and worshiping idols. We would not liked to have live back then in that violence (even pregnant people ripped open). We are so thankful to be living in a free, safe land because this is happening throughout the world. Though we shy from being labeled "Ugly Americans," we cannot deny that much of our Biblical heritage is responsible for bringing about a measure of peace in our country. We praise God for that as we head into 4th of July weekend. 
• Question: What are raisin cakes? It seems to have been connected with fertility (thought to increase fertility), and the sexual immorality mixed with idol prostitution during that time explains why raisin cakes may have been brought to the temple, and were a symbol of immorality and sin among the people. Need to do more research...

May 10 - Observations from reading

It's interesting how in reading Scripture, we see parallels in our own lives. That is one of the benefits of reading through the Bible daily - you get lost in the story, and the Scriptural narrative becomes your story.

Observations:

• It's amazing that David is hunted all of his life, yet he still finds things to be thankful for. Life is relentless, and he is running from enemies, yet he finds a way to keep getting up in the morning and thanking God for all of His goodness in the midst of it all. This is so encouraging to see someone who had it worse than most of us (running from Saul, being betrayed by his own children). The message to us is "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and rejoice that God has not forgotten you! He is in control and He will give final victory over enemies - even death itself."
• Psalm 23 made sense in a new way. "Prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." David was living with his enemies, the Philistines, and in the land of Gath (Goliath's home town!) and actually ate at the kings table. God protected him with his enemy in arm's reach. 
• We love reading the story of David with his Psalms interspersed throughout. It slows the story down a little and gives us an inside look at David's perspective. One sentence from today's reading was especially helpful - "He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn." I pray this would be true of my life, that my living is bold and righteous in such a way that God's justice is expected. 

A conversation about reading through the Bible

Kent wrote,


"Pretty incredible week in Judges, huh?  Isn't it something how growing up we heard all about Ruth, Naomi, Hannah and Eli, but for some reason our Sunday School teachers didn't mention the concubine who was raped, abused, then cut into pieces by her master and sent to the twelve tribes of Israel?  It's horrific!  Then that episode leads to a battle between relatives where, by my count, over 65,000 people are killed!  Then the Israelites take a vow to not give a wife to a Benjamite, but they feel bad that the Benjamites won't have heirs so they say, "Wait!  I know!  There's a festival to the Lord going on in Shiloh.  Why don't you hide in the vineyards until the girls come out to dance, then rush out and kidnap one and take her back with you to be your wife!?  That ought to work!" 

And to our continued horror as dads of little girls, it DOES work!! 

Passages like these are remarkable stories, and it's tempting to just say "Whoa" and move on, but when I pause and really think about what that must have been like, and when I consider the agony I would be going through if I were a parent, or child, or soldier or whatever back then, it is difficult to comprehend why God allowed it to unfold in that way."

Joel replied,

"My, my, my…you said it!

This Book doesn’t always provide simple answers for sure. It’s a lot of digging into meaning, leaving confused, and coming back again to find out “why?!!” It’s a great reminder to me that in Children’s Ministry, there is a fine line between simplifying, and over-simplifying. Sometimes we just make it TOO easy.

One guiding principle in Judges that is helpful for me is “there was no king. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” The writer keeps saying that. As an English teacher back in high school taught me, “Repetition is the key to understanding.” So, whenever I read stories like this in Judges, I have to think that is what the writer of Judges wants me to think. The writer WANTS us to be disgusted – basically it builds up to the need for a king. The obvious point being is that until you fix the PROBLEM, you will never really fix the problems.

But, honestly, another confusing part for me is the fact that it was a weakness to desire a king. Even Samuel said that Israel’s desire to have a king was a rejection of God as king. 

Yeah, honestly, I just don’t get that. There’s something there…I just have to seek an answer!"

Observations about Hannah and Samuel

• How old was Samuel when he was dropped off? Maybe 3-6 years old. Can you imagine just dropping him off somewhere, and then seeing him once a year?! Desperate. That is the word for so many situations in the Old Testament. And she didn't know if she would have any more children. But look at what it accomplished - Samuel was considered the final bridge between the time of the judges and the time of the kings. 

Responses from Bible-in-year readers!

• "Our family is loving it! We had to make the point with our children that the reason God was asking the Israelites to kill EVERYONE in Canaan was because the people who lived there sacrificed their children to Molech. We went into detail about how we would feel if a people group were doing such a thing now. How the environment you are surrounded by impacts your lifestyle. Therefore, the Hebrews would have begun to kill their own babies to a false God. After explaining that, things made better sense. Also, we had to explain that God told them what the blessings were repeatedly if they obeyed, but went into greater detail with what He'd do if they failed to obey because we all are forgetful people. For instance, how often do we have to tell our kids to "take out the trash", "clean your room", "do your homework", etc. That was the same thing God was doing. Good conversations."

- Susan

• "I also have been struck by how many times God essentially says to the Nation of Israel, “follow my commandments and things will go well for you; fail to follow my commandments and a lot of really bad things will happen to you”( Challa paraphrase) . It seems He reemphasizes that over and over again but still, we see individuals and groups of people consistently failing to obey. Interesting."

-Dan

• "I really like reading the Bible this way. I've done "read thru" programs before but never chronologically.  For some reason this new perspective highlights things differently.  Kind of like staring at an unfinished crossword puzzle and not finding any pieces, then moving around to the other side of it and finding a bunch of them because your angle is different." 

-Kent 

• It's amazing that all of the surrounding nations have heard about God’s power through Israel. People even come surrender themselves. God is doing amazing things in Israel. And yet, years later, and even centuries later, we see the Jews in horrific circumstances. How can such a blessed, God-protected nation experience events like the exile to Babylon? We clearly see that God is not a respecter of persons. He wants all people to worship Him, and there are no exceptions. When God's own people do not worship, they also experience death and judgement. 
  
  
  - Children's Staff

Observations from Daily Readings (through Deuteronomy)

Reading through the Bible gives us a daily way to say "Here am I" to God and His thoughts for us that day. Taking even just 5 minutes in the morning to read through part of the section that day may prove to be just what you need!

Observations from Deuteronomy

·         God loves us more than we love ourselves. He wants to bless. He asks us to trust Him, and He will provide for all of our needs. And what do we do? So many times, like the Israelites, we don’t listen. We are arrogant, stiff-necked, and selfish.

·         The Israelites still had to go in and take the land of Canaan…God didn’t flush them out automatically. They are shepherds, nomads. And then God says, “Go to war against warriors!” The world saw this war as evil, but it was a command of God. You have to shut down all of your sensitivities to what you think is “right and wrong,” and just obey. The only right thing is to obey. 

March 15 - Observations

• God has a special property for each tribe and family. As an application for us, we are not living in Grand Rapids, MI by accident. Our houses, our homes, everything in our lives is purposeful. This is the place and time for where God has us.
• Moses’ recap was great in the beginning of Deuteronomy. He spends a little time talking about how he failed to honor God in the site of the people when he hit the rock and water came out. Maybe he is confessing and showing that his inability to enter the land is also a punishment for his lack of faith as well.
• Deuteronomy 4:27 “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” I have never noticed this verse here before. What a great summary of the joy we have as Christians!

Observations from Daily Readings (through Numbers)

Reading everyday is a challenge EVERYDAY! How do we keep going? Well, cram in a couple days, skim, read in depth occasionally, etc. But just keep pushing through! The discouraging part comes when you stop altogether. Don't give up!

General Observations:

• When God and Moses are talking, "Gonna get drastic" language keeps popping up. God is serious about being worshiped. It's not an option. He is God...which means there are no other options when He gives a command. He must be obeyed! 

• In Leviticus and Numbers, what are the importance of all of the numbers given for people, sacrifices, etc.? 
• First, it points to the seriousness of the sacrifices. God's requirements are serious. The price of sin is high. This is important to us as Christians because it shows the cost of sin, and the extravagant gift of God sending His own Son - the worth of Jesus!
• Small clues exist in the numbers. We see a nation that is growing and the Abrahamic covenant is being fulfilled (numbers of people affirm "great nation"). Also, we see that the tribe of Judah is large, and the Levites are a large group of people dedicated to the temple.

• Everything God says, He says twice. If things did not need to be repeated, the Bible would be half the size. Repetition is the key to understanding. Repetition allows God's message the time necessary to rise above the clutter of the many and unceasing cultural messages that bombard us.

• Balaam and the donkey
• Donkeys were considered ignorant and "dumb" in the culture. 
• Balaam is trying to curse Israel, but God says bless. It is obvious that Israel is blessed and not cursed by God. Balaam is more stubborn and ignorant than the donkey! 
• However, in the next section, we see Israel serving Baal instead of God. Could it be that the picture of the prophet and the donkey is taken a step further with Israel? Here they are, rescued from Egypt by God, and now they are turning to worship an unknown god named Baal who has done absolutely nothing for them! The digression is: Donkey is dumb, Balaam is dumber, but Israel is acting most ignorant.

• Phineas is the grandson of Aaron, and he remembers the error of his uncles a couple of chapters back, and how God killed them for offering "strange fire." He knows by experience in his own family that if this sin is not stopped, then death is imminent. 

Observations from Daily Readings (through Leviticus)

• Reading through the Bible is difficult. It takes commitment and discipline. It actually feels healthy to consistently read through and stay on task.
• It seems that Jesus and our faith becomes more real as we read the Bible. There is a feeling of closeness with God. Why is that? Probably because our minds are so often pulled away from the source of our faith. When we are reading the source (the Bible), we see afresh the reason we hope in God. We remember. How can we make sense of our faith if we slowly forget the images and words that it was built upon? Reading Scripture daily actually helps us remain vibrant in our faith. 
• Leviticus emphasizes God's holiness. Once again, we see the language of being "Separate" show up everywhere. God wants us to be holy because He is holy, not to make us more respectable than others. God should get the glory not us. Being holy takes time. We are reminded of the hymn, "take time to be holy." Reading through the Bible is one very practical way to "take time to be holy!"
• Is there a better time to read Scripture in your perspective? Does the morning work better, or night? One perspective is that filling your mind with Scripture early in the morning helps set your day into motion, and gives content for spiritual thinking throughout the day. Reading at night may help categorize the experiences of the day and help you compare your experiences with others in the Bible.

Readings up until Feb. 1st (Through Genesis 47)

We are realizing that reading the Bible "chronologically" is not a natural way to read the Bible. Logical flow and predictability (linear thinking) is almost a backwards approach to the way that Scripture was actually written. Maybe it's because the Bible was written to be soaked up, not so much methodically as meditatively, repetitively, almost circular (each new reading revealing a new characteristic of God). Maybe the Bible was written in many smaller books, mixed in a timeline, to allow us to experience God in wholeness, one smaller story at time, to keep us from treating it like a task (such as we are with the Chronological Bible, oddly enough :) ) and more like a treasure. Instead of saying, "Yes! I DID it!" we instead say, "We are EXPERIENCING God while reading."

More Observations

• WOW! How many names did you read from these genealogies before you started reading into it, "yah, yah, yah,...?!" Some of us are just not into genealogy! Maybe it feels oversensitive or too "touchy feely." Or maybe its because we have too much to keep up with in our own sphere of relationships and friendships to worry about long lines of meaningless names in ancestry. Some of us even feel that way about our own genealogies. But obviously it was important to the Israelites. Whether we like it or not, we have to recognize that our lives are the product of people who have come before us, and their choices do affect our outlook on life. The more attention we pay to our "roots," the more grounded we become in making choices, or even in our understanding of the enormity of the task in changing behaviors rooted in what has been taught to us, but also rooted in un-taught physical characteristics passed on through bloodline.
• God actually uses messiness in the Bible for good. Take a look at Jacob. Jacob's wrestles with Esau at birth, he wrestles a birthright from Esau, Jacob wrestled a blessing from his father Isaac, he wrestled two daughters from Laban (and livestock, to boot!), he wrestled with God for a blessing too. His life is kinda messy, almost "in your face" about wrestling and winning. Is that okay? Is that a prescription for us how to live? Well, as we see later, this messiness shows up in Judah's life, many of the other brothers, and even down to Joseph's life. But, God provides salvation in the midst of it all. In Joseph's words, "God intended it for good." Simple observation - God is not intimidated or confused by the messiness of human decisions. He sees beyond, and no one can thwart His plans. That does not excuse our sin; matter of fact, it requires us to admit our helplessness and give Him the glory for anything good.

The book of Job

We in Kingdom Kids were moved by reading the book of Job.
Observations:

• When God speaks, He has all things figured out. He's not "working through it" at the moment. It's a shock when we realize, like Job, that God has been in control all along. 
• Job must have felt like an ant when God spoke. When God makes things clear to us that we have not been patient about, we also feel the need to close our mouth, as Job did,  because sometimes we just don't have a clue. In some ways, we have zero knowledge about what is happening all around us, and we just need to listen to God. We can't do that when we are expressing confusion and in a sense, arguing with God.
• We need to be empathetic to others who are suffering, and sometimes keep silent as we support them. Job's friends wanted so sincerely to help him, but they overstepped their boundaries of knowledge and gave answers which were not accurate. When we support others in their time of suffering, speak softly and speak carefully. Actions of love and concern are most helpful. What we think is wisdom may go completely against God's wisdom. If there isn't an answer to suffering, don't make one up. 
• Why do we ignore the message of the book of Job so often? As we grow and mature in our suffering, the goal is to move from our human perspective of success and "blessings,"  and have a more eternal perspective. At no point did God give Job a promise that his suffering would end on earth, though in the end God proved how clueless about the outcome Job was by giving him double in every category. We must be more content and trust in God no matter where we are at in life. Although we pray for God to give us the desire of our hearts, God's desire is that our prayers go from "fix this problem" or "give me what I need" to "tell me what I need" and "You, God, are THE ANSWER." We are called to embrace suffering and simply wait on God. It comes down to patience and trust. This is difficult, but God said to Job in essence, "Man up! Tell me who is in control here? Who is God?" The answer is not that we receive blessings and an easy life on earth, but that we trust God is in control of our destiny and our eternal future. 

January 1-4 (collective observations of Kingdom Kids staff)

Our reading thus far has brought out some significant thoughts. First, have you noticed the repetition? Whether it's "God saw that it was good" or the genealogies mentioned, many things are repeated over and over. For us, this helps clarify important items. Some important themes we noticed:

• God is the judge of good and evil, not man. He is the One who decides what is "good" or "not good" in Genesis. The problem comes when Adam and Eve want to know and decide for themselves, without trusting God. Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil takes on new meaning, because we see that only God has been calling the shots of "good" and "not good" up until then.
• "Separation" comes up all of the time. God separates light from dark, waters from earth, plants and animals after their kind, man from beast, woman from man, etc. God must have an interest in keeping things separate. Maybe this will come up later with His people Israel being separate from the world, and their God being separate from other gods. God is separate, "Holy."

Some of us are reading out loud with our spouses. It seems to flow differently than just reading silently. Maybe it actually helps to read out loud occasionally, especially in light of the fact that the Israelites depended on oral history, and storytelling. Genealogies may feel a bit long, but each name most likely brought up feelings of nobility or frailty in the mind of listeners. It's amazing that 1,000's of years did not yield inaccuracy in the storyline because God preserved it and communicated it to Moses.

A few other observations:

• In Genesis, light was created before bodies of light. There was no sun in beginning, but also Revelation says that there will be no sun necessary in the end, because God (the Lamb) will be its light.
• After the flood, the first mention of sacrifice was with Noah - before the law of Moses. Were sacrifices also a cultural phenomenon? 
• Bible is not exhaustive in nature (it doesn't tell us everything there is to know about everything), but sufficient (it tells us what we need to know for salvation and trusting God). Similar to Adam and Eve, we have enough knowledge to know that we must trust God. He will reveal more in time.
• People lived for almost a millennium near the beginning of time. How would living until the age of 900 change your life pattern? Would you be less worried about getting everything done in time? Would you be more driven and excited about living and have your priorities?

By the way, we won't be posting the reading selections every day, but just for those of you who may be interested in reading along, the selections will be very complicated to keep up without the Chronological Bible that we are using. If you are thinking about joining, it would be a good idea to purchase the Bible pictured to the right of this blog. The selections have been as follows:

January 1-3

                Genesis 1:1-9:29

                1 Chronicles 1:1-4

January 4

                Gen. 10:1-5

                1 Chronicles 1:5-7

                Genesis 10:6-20

                1 Chronicles 1:8-16

                Genesis 10:21-11:26

                1 Chronicles 1:17-27

Day 3

For all who are joining us, we should be on day 3 of reading the Chronological Bible. If you haven't begun, or just found out about this challenge, it's not too late! We are using the Bible pictured to the right, and they are reasonably priced.

I was excited that several people passed me in the hallway yesterday at church and shared observations already from reading the text just two days. If you are reading along and would like to share any comments about your reading or just how God is speaking to you in His Word, leave a comment on any recent posting so that others can rejoice with you!

Just a reminder that I will post an "Observations from the Text" blog every Tuesday after my staff and I gather for our weekly meetings. That would be a great time for you to check in. Also, once a month our Team Leaders have a meeting, and more observations and testimonies will be posted from that.

Get Ready!

We are almost ready to begin our read-through-the-Bible-chronologically challenge! We will be using this blog to record any insight and testimonies from those who are reading along together. At the very least, Children's Ministry staff will meet on most Tuesdays, discuss reading, and record any observations that came to us as we read during the week.

What better way for us to start this year, looking for God to speak to us, just as He has spoken to all - in His Word.

PLEASE COMMENT as much as possible to keep this a community-building activity! We really want to hear from you.

Sincerely,
Joel Shank