Read Your Bible Everyday

I have had the opportunity to teach teenagers and mature adults over the years, and my theme song has always been READ YOUR BIBLE EVERYDAY.

Thy Word is a lamb unto my feet and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105

Someone reading these words may think that Amy Grant wrote them. Smile. She, like song writers over the centuries, used the Word of God, the Word of Truth. This makes her wise in this area.

Why should you read the Bible daily?
1. It is the Word of truth. When you pray or when you listen to words of advise from others, the Bible can tell you if the words you are hearing are within God’s vast Kingdom, or from the tiny kingdom of damnation.
2. You cannot be obedient unless you know what obedience is and what pleases God. Reading the Bible can help you avoid sin.
3. From His youth, Jesus studied and learned the scriptures. We as Christians should follow His path.
4. When talking to others, whether Christians or otherwise, we are responsible for truth. Sometimes we sound foolish when we act like we know the Word and our knowledge is spotty. We can lead others astray and permit gross heresies in ourselves.

What should you read? Of course, read all of it, both Old Testament and New Testament. Interpret the New from the Old. However, there is no time constraints, nor limits of times to read the Bible. There are new, fresh ideas continually as long as life lasts.

Here is a suggestion for starting: First get a bookmark and place it at the beginning of a book, such as Genesis, Matthew, I John, or Psalms. Take your time and read something, maybe only a few verses, everyday. It’s okay to read the same passage over and over for several days. You are not in a hurry. Ask the Lord of Truth to direct your mind as you read. Second, make an appointment daily to spend time in the Word. It will not happen unless you set aside time. Perhaps your time will be first thing in the morning, at lunch, or before you turn out the lights.

One night I got in bed and realized that I had failed to read my Bible. So I took my Bible into my closet so not to disturb my husband’s sleep with the light. God met me in that closet and revealed Himself in a most wonderful and personal way. That is another amazing story.

Please share with others what the Bible means to you. Tell how the Word has changed your life, perhaps a special story.
Blessings.

New Year

Every new year I make a laundry list of goals. This year will be no different. All will genuinely centered around worshipping My Redeemer. I am working on decreasing and on Jesus increasing. I want to continually say no to the world and to say yes to the Lord.

I want to love my husband more, and to serve others more.

What do I want less? Less junk food.

God be in my head
God be in my heart
And in my understanding.

strange entry

This is going to be a strange entry, but I must believe that only a portion of what I have spent time and effort to write and to post is meant to be kept.

I always write a Word document, save, and paste it to the blog. This time, for the first time that I can remember since the 1980’s, I somehow accidentally erased scripture and thoughts on the vision of the powerful Christ in Revelation chapter 1, followed by Daniel’s vision of the Ancient of Days and One like unto the Son of Man in Daniel 7. The following is all that is left of 3 pages:

When John saw the glorified Christ, he was so frightened that he fell down as if dead.

This was not at the first nor at the last of the document. When writing about the powerful, frightening, and judgmental Christ, and it somehow goes away, I will not rewrite it. I will believe that whatever message God wants you to have is herein.

Revelation of John - Let's begin

Revelation of John

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Dreams are valuable both from a spiritual and a psychological point of view. They are the part of the sleep cycle that happens right before awakening, and thus can be recalled with vividness, at least for a short time.

Visions are usually considered spiritual revelations and are often thought to be dreams in an awakened state. The difference is valuable, but can bring about similar insights. I have had many dreams that have helped me understand my present situation, and many that has given me a spiritual step up. Have you had such experiences that you would like to share?

John, the youngest of the original disciples of Jesus, was a prisoner on the island of Patmos when he was given a vision, perhaps many visions, of the end times and of heaven. It seems that many have a renewed interest in interpreting the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to John.

John had known about all of the other disciples dying for their Lord, and of many others who were severely persecuted for their faith in Jesus as Lord and Messiah. It was at this time of isolation and uncertainty that he was given this revelation for the people of God at that time, throughout the hard times over the centuries, and for us today. Are we the last generation before Jesus returns? Perhaps yes, and perhaps no. No matter, the warnings and the strong words of comfort pushes us forward to the high calling.

John addresses the seven churches of his time. Before he gets too deep into visions and other worldliness, he offers blessings and hope to all, whether or not they are on the correct path. His earthly sight, as well as his visions, are on JESUS. Let us focus on Jesus:

Revelation 1:4-8
Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.
To Him who loved us and washed[a] us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings[b] and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,”[c] says the Lord,[d] “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

First, John bestows blessings, which we all have a right to give to one another. Grace, which is undeserved gifts, and peace, which is difficult in persecution and uncertainty.

Skip down to verse 5 and see the assurance that Jesus loves so much that He cleansed from the worst offenses by paying with a criminal’s humiliating death on the cross. Christian Friend, never permit yourself to sanitize the cost of salvation. Death and red Blood pouring out are the requirements for sin.

People who are redeemed through the blood sacrifice of the Perfect Lamb of God are made into priests and kings inside God’s very real kingdom. John, and many of these folks were poor and made wretched for the sake of the Gospel. They needed to see how God sees them. So do we.

With that in mind, look at these initial descriptions of Our Lord. He is still:

He who is and who was and who is to come
Faithful witness
The firstborn from the dead
Ruler over the kings of the earth
Loves us
Cleansed us from our sins with His own blood
Made us kings and priests
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end
The Almighty

If we focus on these true words concerning The Almighty, we can put one foot in front of the other even on the most difficult times. We can praise Him and have hope in His Kingdom, of which we belong.

Verse 7 assures us that BEHOLD He is coming. All will see Him, even those who pierced Him.

Keep on keeping on and look expectantly, for soon He will come and take you home. Take the gifts of grace and peace to help you trod the road ahead.

Adam and Eve leave Eden

When I was 10 years old, Chester Kemper, the young senior past of our Nazarene mission church preached often that we should read our Bible daily. Thus I looked diligently through a catalogue and chose a Bible with references for my parents to purchase for me. Since that time I have purchased many Bibles, but that first one in the old King James version is still my favorite, because I learned to listen for the voice of God as I read daily through its pages.
Today I picked up this old Bible and found a favorite passage that I had not yet underlined.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7
Many say that God created the earth in 6 twenty-four hour cycles. Many say that Man evolved through a long process of life changes. Even though I believe in one of the Big Bang theories, and that man and woman was a separate experience from the animal kingdom, I don’t think you must believe this to have a right relationship with God. In all the confusion, the most important information is that God created the heavens and the earth and God breathed into man and gave him a soul. This breathing into man made him different from all the rest of God’s creation in this universe.
Man is a special creation with the gift of God’s breath and eternal life, whether with Him or elsewhere, commonly called Hell.
Even though God made man to till the earth in the garden of Eden, it was more than that reason that He created mankind. He made man with the idea of relationship and love, that evasive, relevant, most important word.
Can there be such a thing as love if there is no choice to walk away from that relationship? There cannot be love if there lacks choice to not love. Choice by its very nature means potential disaster, failure, and ruination of the original plan. By giving mankind choice, God is even greater and more powerful than if we just had one possible path of existence.
We do not have unlimited choice. There are natural laws to the universe, and there are laws to behavior. We can choose to not have a relationship with God, but the consequence is separation from Him. Who in his right mind would want this? And yet by our very behavior, we over and over again walk away from the One who loves us the most.
God gave Adam and Eve one rule to not eat of the Tree of Good and Evil. They disobeyed and sin entered the human race. Sin is ugly and heinous in the sight of God. It was so terrible that God Himself slew an animal to cover the newly discovered nakedness of Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:21
Eating the fruit of a tree doesn’t seem that terrible. However the consequences of that one act was the killing of an innocent animal and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. No longer did Adam and Eve talk face to face with God in the cool of the evening.
Sin separates us from the true relationship with God for which we were intended. If you say that we were not born in sin, then why is it that we do not see God with our physical eyes and hear Him with our physical ears? We are born separate from Him. Unless something happens we are separate from God, hopelessly alone.
Before the Perfect Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ, an innocent, perfect animal was slain to cover the sin of man. Sin is so awful that blood is the only thing that can cover it in the sight of God.
Without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin. Hebrews 9:22, Leviticus 17:11.
Now Jesus, the Perfect Sacrifice, was offered for our sins. As we accept His atonement, we have a right relationship with Him and our sins are forgiven as we confess them. We can walk with Him in a spiritual way. In our souls we can hear Him calling to us. We have hope of eternal life with Him.
Ask God to forgive your sins through the gift of salvation offered by Jesus Christ. Walk with Him in prayer, by reading your Bible, and by your daily habits, both self and towards others. You will have difficulty in hearing Him because we can no longer hear Him with our mortal ears, but with our spiritual ones. We still want to do things our own way and not submit to the humble path that we must follow in order to follow God. Let us talk to one another in our struggles and offer encouragement to one another, because, after all, we really do need each other.