“The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”
– Tim Keller
Yesterday’s Readings: John 7-8
Today’s: John 9:1-10:21
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.
Jesus speaking in John 10:11-18
Matthew 18.
“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nie on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”
– Matthew 18:12-14
Day 2/294: Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9:28-62
Fun fact – there are only 71 days left of this year.
Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. bUt if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
“If you can?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.“Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
-xMark 9:21-24
So I’ve decided to finish what I started. It’s been a while, but as it turns out I left off my readings mid october, a year ago. This is the perfect time to start back up.
Oct 20th: Matthew 16, Mark 8 and Luke 9:18-27
“For I know the plan I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13
Matthew 4, Luke 4-5, John 1:15-51
John 2-4
Mark 2
John 5
Matthew 12:1-21, Mark 3, Luke 6
Matthew 5-7
Matthew 8:1-13, Luke 7
Matthew 11
Matthew 12:22-50
Matthew 13, Luke 8
So Thanksgiving weekend happened. I was busy. This got put on the backburner, but it’s all good now.
“When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” ” [Mark 2:17/Luke 5:31/Matthew 9:12-13]
I love this verse.
“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.” [Luke 6:32-34]
THIS is one of the many reasons why Christianity is counter-culture, and if we were really living as we should, should be incredibly obvious to those around us.
“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”” [Matthew 11:28]
“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.” [Matthew 12:30]
That’s a little scary. There is no middle ground, there is no neutral territory.
-> “There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every
split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan.”
C. S. Lewis
All caught up.
Matthew 2, Luke 2:39-52 (yesterday’s)
“Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. His parent’s didn’t know what to think. “Son,” he mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.” “But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what he meant.” (Luke 2:46-50)
I can’t even imagine having lost their first born son in Jerusalem for three days. I’m sure it would be a little different than now-a-days but still, even they said they were frantic. And Jesus isn’t even phased.
Matthew 3, Mark 1 and Luke 3 (today’s)
“Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” Matthew 3:8 AND Luke 3:8
This was said to the Pharisees and Sadducees to rebuke them. This was not meant lightly or meant to be a nice little encouragement, this was a rebuke.
Luke 1; John 1:1-14
This was from yesterday. I read it yesterday before I went to bed but then I decided to sleep instead of write a blog. oops.
“But Elizabeth said, “No! His name is John!” “What?” They exclaimed. “There is no one in all your family by that name.” So they used gestures to ask the baby’s father what he wanted to name him. He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.” INSTANTLY Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising God.” Luke 1:60-64
For those of you who might not remember, Zechariah was a priest and when he was chosen to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and the angel Gabriel was there and to told him that he was going to have a son. Zechariah doubted this message and Gabriel said that “[he] will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born”. But what I think is great is that it wasn’t until Zechariah followed through and named the child John like he was told to, was he able to speak. It’s as though he was silenced because he lacked faith and it was God’s way of making his faith grow, and it wasn’t until that faith had been acted on was he healed and returned to normal. OH and then he’s filled with the Holy Spirit and he prophecies. So great.
Matt1; Luke 2:1-38
This was today’s reading.
Did you realize that Rahab (the prostitute that saved Israelites’ spies) was Ruth’s mother-in-law? Well her second mother-in-law. Boaz, the man that Ruth ends up marrying after he first husband dies and she follows Naomi to Judah, is Rahab’s son! I realized this when I was going through the genealogy in Matthew 1.
I love Luke 2:25-38. I love how Luke mentions Simeon and Anna; how Simeon was promised that he was going to live to see the Messiah and he got to hold the child in his arms and know that he could die at peace. And Anna who was a prophet (we rarely hear about female prophets!) who lived as a widow at the Temple, constantly woshipping God with prayer and fasting. Anna was there when Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph. What a great combination of lives mingling together, what a wonderful twist of fate. I’m so glad Luke included it in his book of the gospel.
Malachi.
I AM DONE THE OLD TESTAMENT.
I am happy to be done the Old Testament, can you tell?
I’m really glad I read through it chronologically because in the end it made more sense to me. When you read it sporadically or randomly it feels like they are always either being sent into exile/attacked by an enemy or ignoring the prophets telling them it’s going to happen. They were only exiled from Jerusalem/Judah once. I know. It didn’t seem like it the first time I read the whole bible. But the first time I read through my bible in a year I read a different section of the bible each day. Reading it that way was really good in the sense that I was able to get through the bible easier since you only had to deal with a little bit of each section at a time. But there was no flow to it. Reading it chronologically you get to see it all happen and build on each other, and you get to see how the religion grew. For instance you get to see where it started with Adam and Eve and grew to Abraham and Sarah and their covenant with God, to Moses and the exodus out of Egypt and when the Law was first given to the Israelites, through the judges and kings that Israel had, with the prophets warning them of what is to come if they don’t repent. Now I am at the point where Israel had to wait for their Messiah to come. They had to wait a long time, there’s a large gap between Malachi and the New Testament. It’s really interesting to go into the New Testament with almost being on the same page as the Israelites. They only had the Old Testament until Jesus came. They only had what I have read so far, we are at the same place when we get to meet Jesus. How cool is that?
Malachi is a really interesting book. It’s kind of like a conversation because God brings up the questions that Israel would ask and then answers them. It’s also only 4 chapters. Give it a read.
A Day in the Life 