November 1 Mark 6-7, John 6 The Father's Enablement to Believe

Ten months down and two months to go and you have read the entire Bible. Congratulations and finish well - even through the holidays.

Jesus said, "The work of God is this: believe in the One He has sent." Then Jesus went on to say, "No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him...no one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled him."

Do not let your framework of understanding the Bible (dispensationalism, Calvinism, Arminianism, etc.) affect the way you read this text of the Bible (or any Biblical text for that matter). Instead, let the text inform (or reform) your framework. Don't explain away the plain meaning of the text to have it fit into your framework.

This text is clear - God the Father is the initiator in any relationship between God and man. If God does not draw you, you will never believe. Now, go find in the text the answer for your next natural question - "Does God draw all?"

Well, here is a starter "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots." What do you think Jesus means?

October 31 Matthew 9-11, Mark 6 Just Tell Them About Jesus

I have been to many evangelistic training sessions and have given many myself. I am convinced through the Scriptures and through my own experiences, that so-called proven methods aren't decisive in a person coming to Christ. Jesus never had a one-size fits all method. Jesus just spoke the truth he knew and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. The Apostles did the same and so should we.

I think what is really important is to just do it! Today's reading has to do with the warnings of persecution and rejection - but the admonition to share Christ anyways! To be acknowledged in heaven, we must acknowledge Christ before men. We are to love no one over Christ.

Jesus calls us to a devoted life for Him. He knows no other kind of disciple. Be a true disciple of Christ - not a bar-code Christian - the kind that requires a special sensor to detect. Shine your light before all men.

October 30 Matthew 8, Luke 9, Mark 4-6 Entertained/Amazed or Become a Follower?

Will you be entertained, amazed, interested in Jesus or will you become one of the believers in Him who follows Him (becomes a disciple)? Our readings begin with a bunch of people who delay becoming disciples because of the cares of this world. None of their excuses are bad - they are just wrong! The time to follow Jesus is now - not when it is convenient or expedient.

Many people were pressing in and making contact with Jesus, but it was only the woman with the blood flow that was healed by His contact. The others were curious, but she was in great need and believed Jesus could help her. See the vast difference.

Jesus has never advocated lukewarm belief and discipleship. He has always asked for our wholehearted commitment. That's why there are so few really saved people and many, many pretenders and those entertained, amazed, and interested.

October 29 Matthew 13, Mark 4 Yielding 100 Times

Since being a Christian, going to seminary, and being a pastor, I have been in, read, and listening to many debates about the meaning of the four soils in the Parable of the Sower - namely how many of the four are saved. What I have not heard debated is how one can yield 100 times versus 60 or 30. I don't know about you, but if I have my choice I would like to be a Christian who delivers the maximum yield for Christ. Perhaps, this is just a desire from my carnal side to achieve, perform, or be successful. I hope it is more that I want to please my god who has blessed me in so many ways. When coming to the Parable of the Sower, let's focus on being a fruitful soil as possible.

But why is it that so many so-called Christians are satisfied with being minimally fruitful for the kingdom. One reason is that they are a lot of people inhabiting churches who profess salvation, but really aren't. I think there are others who have one foot in the world and one foot (or maybe a toe or two) in the Kingdom.

Saints, think about what you must do to become 100 fold fruitful for the kingdom - don't be satisfied with 30 or even 60. Christ is worth it.

October 25 Luke 5-6, John 5, Matthew 12 Evangelical Universalism

I have been confronted with a somewhat new resurgence of what some call "Evangelical Universalism." There is a very small stream of evangelical Christians who believe all will be saved. They believe that after death, the love of Jesus will be made manifest to all unbelievers who will be overtaken and become after death believers.

It is my opinion, that to believe this, one has to cast aside some pretty clear passages and some strong verses like one in today's reading - John 5:28-29 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out-- those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

Revelation 20:10-15 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

I don't want to impugn the motives of Evangelical Universalists, but i do think their view of Scripture is wrong. More importantly, their error can lead their adherents to lose their missionary zeal. Ideas have consequences!

October 24 Luke 4-5 The Demons Know Who Jesus Is

In Mark 1:34, we learn that Jesus "would not let the demons speak because they knew Who He was." That the demons knew exactly Who Jesus was is stated several times in the Gospels. We are told in James 2:19 "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-- and shudder."

Why is it that the demons are such believers in God and Jesus Christ and that so many humans have disbelief and such erroneous beliefs in God that they don't worship the one true and living God? The demons fear God (they "shudder"), yet most men are moved to less than a twinge - at least until their deathbed - then they fear meeting their Maker!

I think the problem is that we have set ourselves up as a god. So we reject the truth about God. people aren't as interesting in truth as they are in control. People bend truth to give themselves control.

If people truly seek truth, they will find it - God promises us so. Demons will never have a right relationship with God - perhaps because they personally knew god and rejected Him - Jesus' death was not for them to be reconciled to God - but it was for us. See k truth - you will find God - the one in the Bible - there is no other - the demons know that - you can, too!

October 23 John 1-4 What Sustains You?

Jesus said in John 4, "My food...is to do the will of Him Who sent Me and to finish His work." Food is what is needed to sustain our life here on earth. In addition, food is a great joy to me - I like to eat food. Food is also around which I gather with people. I suspect that Jesus meant a little bit of all those things - doing the will of God sustained Jesus, gave Him joy, and allowed Him to be around people. Doing the will of God should sustain us, it should give us joy, and afford us the opportunity to be around people.

Have you ever thought about what sustains you - gets you up out of bed in the morning - makes your heart pump? Is it doing the will of God? Anything else that takes the place of doing God's will is really a false idol. Your false idol doesn't have to be something bad like drugs or criminal activity, it could be something morally neutral like a career, sports, a person, etc. But morally neutral things that take the place of doing God's will are false idols - any good thing that becomes an ultimate thing. Satan doesn't have to get you to do evil things to feel good - as long as he can keep you from doing God's will.

Christianity is about aligning our will with God's. How are you doing?

October 22 Matthew 3-4, Luke 3, John 1 What Must I Do To Repent?

John the Baptist was preaching about the coming Messiah and the need for repentance. When the people specifically asked John what they should o, John answered them uniquely. To the crowds, John said to share what they had with those less fortunate. To the tax collectors, he said to collect only what they were required - in other words, don't extort money for themselves. To the soldiers, don't use their position to extort money from people through intimidation.

These are probably all people who gather weekly for synagogue gathered worship and who knew God's word pretty well. John told them to live what they know to be God's Word.

If you asked John, "What must I do to repent," I wonder what his answer would be? What do you think you must do to repent - to turn away fro a sin(s) in your life AND turn toward Jesus? I bet you know!

October 21 Matthew 2, Luke 2 What To Do With Harmonized Accounts

Our One Year Bible is compiled as a harmonized account. In other words, where two or more books speak about an episode in the Biblical narrative, all of the writers' writings are added together to give a "complete" account of what happened. This is called a harmonized account.

Throughout the Synoptic Gospels (Syn - one + optic - eye or through one eye), there is a great deal of overlap - that's why they are called the Synoptic Gospels. Over 90% of the content of the Gospel of John is not contained in the other gospels. Having said these things, each of the gospel writers were writing to convey slightly different things to their individual audiences. For example, Matthew was trying to convince Jews that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah as spoken about throughout the OT. This why that Matthew has many OT references and allusions.

Although Matthew, mark, and Luke are very similar, they are also different. They chose to include certain material and leave out other material that another writer chose to include.

The point that I am making is that a harmonized account of Jesus' life, like what we are reading gives us a fuller picture of Jesus' life than any one of the gospels, yet it may dilute a point that a particular gospel writer was trying to make about an episode in Jesus' life.

When I preached through the Book of Matthew, I read all of the other gospels that had material about the same event in Matthew so I could get a fuller picture. However, I normally only used the information from Matthew to preach the passage. I did so because I wanted to make Matthew's point(s) alone  and not Mark, Luke's, or John's. I seldom brought in any of the details that those writers had that Matthew excluded. I forced myself to stay true to the text that I was preaching.

Don't think that each writer didn't necessarily have all the facts or wasn't detailed enough. They were not history writers, they were theologians and evangelists giving their audience enough info to see the point they needed to hear.

October 20 Luke 1-2 Believing God

These are familiar accounts of the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. One of the things that the text spoke to me today was the juxtaposition in the text of the disbelief of Zechariah versus the belief of Mary. There is no doubt that Luke is intentionally showing us the contrast, but why?

It is interesting that a pious, learned, mature man would doubt the words of an angel of God in the Holy Place of the Temple. Gabriel probably felt like saying, "I came all the way here to see if you would fall for my scam!"

Yet, a 13 year old girl would believe that she would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit - and then praise God.

Too many times, we put God into a box of our own making and think that He must act in such and such a way. This is really a form of idolatry - making a god out of our own fancy. Zechariah must have had some construct of the coming of Elijah and the birth of a son to him "in the spirit of Elijah" just didn't fit in. Sometimes, our study and "speculation" gets in the way of letting God be God.

We need to know the Scripture well and hold them fast. We should do our best to interpret them and hold our interpretations with a good sense of humility - we could be wrong! Too many church splits occur between factions who are positive about their particular interpretations of Scripture. There are clear and important dogmas of the faith that we should be willing to go to the mat for - like what must I do to be saved. But there are many other doctrines, that we must hold a bit lightly - like the end times. A mature godly believer knows which are which. Other closed minded know-it-alls which make every one of their interpretations of the Bible - dogma - do much harm to the cause of Christ.

October 19 Matthew 1, Luke 3 The Blood of Jesus

The genealogies of Jesus are quite revealing. Jesus has the blood line of some notable people - good and bad. So, in other words, Jesus is one of us - at least from His human perspective. He was born with every one of our proclivities to be tempted into sin just like all of His ancestors all the way to Adam. He also had every one of our frailties, every one of our emotions, etc. - Jesus is one of us.

We should be able to relate to Jesus - and He certainly to us. What a magnificent plan of God. His thoughts are not our thoughts - in this case in how best to relate Himself and His desires for us to the human race.

October 18 Mark 1, Luke 1, John 1 Finally - The New Testament

After nearly 10 months of reading the Bible, we have reached the New Testament. And the New Testament begins by revealing Jesus - the God man - the Christ - the long awaited Messiah. But John tells us that those who long awaited Him did not receive Him. And the Jews today persist in their unbelief.

In John 1:18, we learn that God revealed Himself through Jesus. All that we heard from God and learned through His law and prophets still fell short of what we learn about God through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. As we read the Gospels, let us learn about God by listening to the words of Jesus but also by watching Him - what He does, where He goes, when He goes, who He interacts with, etc. God is revealed by every aspect of Jesus - let's play close attention - and receive Him as our own Lord and Savior.

October 17 Context for the Birth of Jesus

The readings over the last three days are important. Although they are not Biblical, they are historical in nature (extra-Biblical) and provide a very needed context for the world in which Jesus was born into.

I always encourage people to thoroughly study the context for all Biblical study. Reading a chapter of the Bible is always good, but understanding its context (in the book), context (in the whole of the Bible), and context (in the history, culture, etc.) is best. Context helps us read the text as its 1st hearers heard or read it. Then we can understand the teaching as they did. From there, we can take the intended principle and apply it to our daily lives.

It is sometimes said that you can't go from the Bible directly to Hartford (or where ever you live) - you must 1st go through Jerusalem. What this means is that you will be misled at times if you don't understand the context and 1st hear things as the 1st hearers heard it.

For example, let's consider Paul's teachings to the Corinthians about the Lord's Supper in I Corinthian 11. Some of the wealthy people were getting drunk and eating while the poor were going hungry during the Lord's Supper. Paul told them that they were being punished for this. Upon a cursory reading, we might say that we aren't doing this, so I guess we (in our church) are ok - we aren't drunk and we don't serve food to some and not others. But I Corinthians is all about the disunity of the Corinthian church throughout the book in many ways. Then, in Chapter 11, Paul begins his teaching on the Lord's Supper with 1 Corinthians 11:17-19 "In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval."

Paul, is telling the people that they can't participate in the Lord's Supper if they are in disunity. Although the passage is talking about drunkenness and eating/not eating as THEIR disunity, we have to apply the warning against disunity in our context. Factions, unresolved conflicts, favoritism, cliques, racism, etc. in the church are all forms of disunity. A church that "celebrates" the Lord's Supper like this is doing so in an "unworthy manner." Context helps us get to our application.

October 16 The Apocrypha is Not Scripture

Although the Roman Catholic Church still accepts the much of the Apocrypha in their version of the Bible, Protestants have rejected those books as Scripture for centuries. The main reasons are that Jesus never quoted from any of them, the Jews have never accepted them as Scripture, and they contain historical errors and inconsistencies with the rest of Scripture.

The Apocrypha should be placed in a category of sort of like religious writings today. The writings of today contain historical information about our contemporary culture, thoughts about current religiosity, and other moralisms, all of which might contain error - and depending on the writer, more error than other writings. No conservative theologian would think of putting today's writings alongside Scripture - although some people use today's books or some writers as "gospel" and set the Bible to the side.

Having said all this, the Apocrypha do provide some interesting reading to understand Jewish thinking (realizing some is incorrect) during the time between the Old and New Testaments. Some history is also provided. So, as long as one knows the Apocrypha is not Scripture, its reading might have benefit.

October 15 End of the Old Testament

We must remember that God's revelation of Himself to mankind was progressive - as time went on, man was given more that the successive generation. So, when we teach the Old testament, we must remember what the original readers had in terms of previous revelation. Abraham, Moses, and the prophets did not have the entire Bible - they didn't even all have the amount of the Bible.

Salvation has always been by having faith, but the required content of that faith has changed over time. Adam and Eve needed to have faith in a future unnamed descendant of Eve that would crush the head of Satan, whereas we have to believe in Jesus Christ (who we know a lot about) for died for the forgiveness of our sins.

The new Testament really helps us better understand the Old Testament, so please remember that those living in OT times, did not have the NT. Therefore, their understanding was less complete than ours.

October 14 I Chronicles 4-9 Old Testament Ends

After nearly nine and a half months of daily readings, we have completed the Old Testament. Congratulations. I think that most people never read the OT in its entirety.

God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He was not an angry god of wrath in the OT and now a loving God of grace. The OT is filled with His mercy and grace, exhibited by His faithfulness to His unfaithful people Israel.

In the OT, God presented Himself through different genres of literature - narrative, poetry, proverbs, etc.

October 13 I Chronicles 1-3 The Lists

The lists of the Bible serve sacred purposes which are not always evident to us thousands of years later. The Prayer of Jabez, a popular book about 10 years ago arose from one of the historical footnotes in this particular list. I don't have a particular item of devotion today. So, I'll proceed to daily prayer.

October 12 Nehemiah 12-13 The Word is Powerful

Too many times preachers focus on topical sermons - taking a Christian topic and teaching on it, sprinkling the sermon with varying amounts of Scripture to support the teaching. Although topical preaching is required from time to time, I believe that the power to change lives lies with God's Word, not the preacher's eloquence or content.

The focal point of preaching should be the word of God. It is God's word that ultimately changes lives. In Nehemiah 13:1-3, the people were exposed to God's word and became committed. While I wish this were always the case, many times it is.

Find a church that is committed to expository preaching - take a passage of Scripture and teach from that. Choose a church who bases their teaching on God's word, not the preacher's eloquence. The preacher must always be good at his craft, but should recede into the background behind the Word of God.

October 11 Nehemiah 8-10 Repentance and Recommitment

Today, we read about a great day of repentance (sorrow for sins and a wont to not sin anymore). We also get a great summary of the history of Israel - God's great faithfulness and patience and the Israelites great unfaithfulness. So after exile, living under a foreign government in near slavery, and after the hearing of God's word, the people are cut to the heart, understand their situation clearly, and repent.

Today is a great day to reflect on our own life - to see God's faithfulness and to consider how faithful we were in response. Do we need to confess? Do we need to repent? Do we need a re-commitment?

October 10 Nehemiah 7; 11:20-36; 12:1-26 The Lists

Let's be honest - the lists of the Bible serve a holy purpose(s) - but don't always make for edifying reading. Nonetheless, I always find pearls embedded in the lists that cause me to think and reflect.

Nehemiah 7:2 talks about Hananiah and describes him as "a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do." Wouldn't it be nice to just be mentioned in the Bible like this - written about for centuries so that you or I could be known for our integrity and our holy honoring God by fearing Him more than other people.

Well, we don't have the opportunity to be known this way before countless generations. However, those around us can know us this way. Wouldn't it be nice to have person after person come up to the podium at our funeral attesting to our integrity and fear of God.

More importantly, we can be known for these qualities before God - and being recognized for these qualities before God is eternally and infinitely more important.

So, let's do it! Let's live our lives in the fear of God - easy to do if we constantly stop to think about God - if we take the time to get to know Him - if we read His word. If we truly fear God, we will be men and women of integrity - we will be moved by the Holy Spirit to do so.

October 9 Nehemiah 4-6 Prayer and Personal Responsibility

Nehemiah teaches us about several things, but two of them are the importance of prayer and the necessity of assuming active personal responsibility. In v. 4:9, the text says, "But we prayed to our God and posted a guard..." By praying to God, the people showed their total dependence of God for their protection. By posting a guard, they assumed active personal responsibility for protecting themselves. Protecting themselves (defensively) against those who would stop the work of God is completely moral and consistent with God's will.

We are to be totally dependent on God AND to act decisively to bring about God's will in a moral way consistent with His law. We are never to do anything immoral to achieve God's will.

We are to pray to God for a job AND to work hard to find one! We are to pray to God to grow our churches in numbers AND to be faithful disciples to be healthy spiritually.

Praying without acting in a responsible manner is laziness. Working without prayer is self-dependence. Neither is correct.

Nehemiah was a strong decisive leader who at the same time was totally dependent on God evidenced by his active prayer life. READ THIS CAREFULLY: Nehemiah's total dependence of God made him a confident leader, because it was God Who made Nehemiah successful. Nehemiah was successful because he was operating in the will of God - that's a great place to be.

October 7 Ezra 9-10 Keeping the Holy Race Holy

Ezra came back to find a number of men who were unfaithful to God by marrying pagan women from their surrounding area. God specifically forbade it because God knew that the women would lead their families astray - toward idol worship. This fear has been borne out in Biblical history. Now some of the men returning from exile had begun to defile Israel yet again. Ezra and the elders take drastic, but necessary action.

Does this have any bearing on today's life? It certainly does. Christians should only marry other Christians. Christians have a hard enough time staying faithful - they shouldn't complicate things further by getting yoked with unfaithful people.

Now, you might point to some Christian you know that married an unbeliever and the unbeliever got saved after marriage. Praise God. It happens. But most of the time, the Christian ends up falling away or living a frustrated life with someone with different values. Since we all tend toward spiritual sloth, the children of mixed marriages usually end up as unbelievers.

Christians should marry Christians. One of the purposes of marriage stated by God in Malachi 2 - "He was seeking godly offspring." In the vast majority of cases, it takes two godly parents to make godly children.

Some Christians date unbelievers and claim they won't marry him/her. The problem is two fold:

1. While they are dating an unbeliever, they are blocking God from bringing a godly believer in their life.
2. They are risking falling in love with this person and letting their feelings getting the better of their judgment and eventually marrying the unbeliever. 

Psalm 1 implores us to stay away from sin - to not even go near it. Trust God and wait for the godly believer. Marriage is for a lifetime - that's a long time.

October 6 Ezra 7-8 Watch God Move

One of the interesting things about today's reading is that a letter from a pagan king is part of sacred Scripture. But its import is not about the pagan king, Artaxerxes, but of the Great King, God, over Artaxerxes. We see God moving through Artaxerxes to achieve God's will - to rebuild the Jewish people in Israel. God uses the treasuries of Persia to do so.

Equally interesting is the safe, but unguarded, 4 month journey of Ezra's band across dangerous territory with untold riches. Ezra was embarrassed to ask Artaxerxes for protection, but instead asked God Who delivered the band and their cargo safely.

We need to step back and see the movement of God in this reading. But, we also need to step back and discern this same God moving in our lives and the lives of others each and every day now. When God determines something to happen - it will! God worked mightily in Ezra's life and he does in our lives, too.

Note, Ezra was committed to God's word and to prayer and fasting and to making disciples of others.

October 5 Malachi Honoring God Appropriately

Malachi is about giving God the honor due Him. Malachi chides the people for using their injured, crippled, or diseased animals for sacrifice when they have a perfectly good one to offer. They are giving God their throw away offerings and keeping the best for themselves. God asks the people if they would try such a thing on their governor!

God says, "My name will be great among the nations." He says, "I am a great king." We should bring God our best worship, never our leftovers.

You might say, "OK, but how does that apply to me. We don't sacrifice animals any more." If you have an important meeting or appointment, aren't you well prepared for the meeting and on-time and alert during the entire meeting. Do you try to get a good night's sleep beforehand and come appropriately dressed to impress those in the meetings? Well, of course you do. Then if you do that for business:

• Get a night's sleep on Saturday night
• Come smartly dressed to service
• Be on-time
• Stay alert
• Be active.

We are given the opportunity to worship THE great king. Unbelievers will be in church watching you to determine if you fear this great king. Give God His due - He is more than worth it.

October 4 Esther 5:1-10:3 Providence of God

The Jews could have been wiped out by the evil plot of Haman. Satan was the one really behind the plot - the plot to destroy the seed of the woman promised of God. However, through a long series of fortuitous occurrences, the Jews were not only saved, but also avenged and let to a time of safety and prosperity in the Persian Empire.

God's name was not mentioned and the Jewish people did not seem overly concerned about their relationship with the LORD. Nonetheless, God, not forgetting His covenant, worked behind the scenes through people to save His people.

God is always superintending over His creation and is continually bringing all His good promises to fruition. The divine plan promised of God will happen.

Our hope is sure. God can not be defeated by any plot of Satan. have faith in God - he is faithful.

October 3 Esther 1-4 Sin Has Long Term Consequences

God, through Samuel the prophet, ordered King Saul to completely annihilate the Amalekites. Saul did not and the wrath of God was on him for His disobedience. Saul certainly felt the brunt of his sin, but so did his family and the whole kingdom at his time.

Now, in Esther, 500 years later, Haman the Agagite, a descendant of of King Agag of the Amalekites, has engineered a plot to wipe out the Jews. Because of Saul's disobedience, the Jews are about to be wiped out.

Saints, we live in community with other people and no matter what we do, we leave a legacy to the next generation and beyond. What we do as ripples through the next generations. So the question for all of us is, "What will my legacy look like - good or bad?"

Make the decision today for good!

October 2 Zechariah 9-14 Mourning for the One They Pierced

There will be a time in the future when all Israel will realize that Jesus is and was indeed their long awaited Messiah. In Zechariah 12, the people will mourn and grieve that they have pierced Him - allusion to the spear in his side and/or the nails in His hands and feet. But in the true character of God, He will not open their eyes to destroy them but to cleanse them. Chapter 13 promises that God will cleanse His people from sin and impurity.

All here and now must come to the point of grieving over their sin - it caused Jesus to need to be pierced for its forgiveness. God did not just turn His head from sin - He is just - it was paid for - by Christ in His pierced body. All sin is costly - to us but even more so to Jesus and His Father.

Praise God that He loves us so much that He paid the penalty for our sin for us. This is Good News to be shared with all. I believe that the more that we understand the cost of our sin to Jesus, then the more we will evangelize - the bad news about us makes Jesus' Good News even better.