Alan and Susan: Giving
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Eden to Eternity
Revelation 19:1-22:21
I couldn’t help but picture the EPIC fight scenes in The Lord of The Rings movies while reading today. Two sides lined up against each other; good verses evil. Thousands against thousands. The craziest fight scenes Hollywood can put together with creatures un-imagined. They really are some great movies!
But there is a big difference between movies and today’s reading. Where the good guys lose some casualties in their battles in those movies, that doesn’t happen here. Jesus single-handedly wipes out all of the bad guys. Yes, he has an army with him, but he takes care of it all himself.
He grabs the victory and we get to live in its freedom. Where there is no more crying, death, sorrow, or pain! This is a hope we can hold to, and a hope that I pray we will show to others.
We started our journey together nearly a year ago in the Garden of Eden and end it today looking towards eternity with Jesus.
It has been an adventure no doubt. But I want to urge us not to end it here. Use this whole year, reading everyday, as a launch pad to 2014. Find more reading plans, or another yearly chronological bible, or a different translation of a yearly plan, or even re-read this chronological one. Do anything; don’t stop growing. You can read the Bible over and over again and get different gold nuggets out each time. I’ve heard it said before that it is the one book that reads you while you read it.
So while reflecting on a HUGE accomplishment (reading the entire Bible!!!) be sure to plan ahead for the New Year as well!
– Robby
The Last Word
Revelation 15, 16, 17, 18
Revelation is a hard book to read. With all the symbolism and supernatural creatures, it is sometimes difficult to understand. But many times, the fear is what keeps most of us away from this book; the fear of the end of times and the fear that it is still to come.
But as we see in 15:3-4 and what we will see tomorrow, the last word of history is not with Satan and his Antichrist. It is with God and His Son.
And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty.
Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”
We as the church have nothing to fear now, nor what is to come. Why? Because God reigns forever.
At the end of our reading today, all that remains is for Jesus to come from heaven and personally meet and defeat “the beast” and his armies. He will do this with no problem.
The only thing for us to focus on is this question… Are we citizens of ‘Babylon’ (the world) or citizens of heaven? If it is not the latter, now is the time for you to give your life to the Victor. Trust Him with your life, you will never regret it!
Caley
**It has been a joy to spend this year walking through this journey with you. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your day. Have a great 2014!
O Come Let Us Adore Him
Today’s Reading: Revelation 3-6
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, Come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, born the King of angels;
O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
It’s time to get ready for 2014
As we begin breaking down our Christmas trees, lights, and putting away our Christmas music until next year, let’s stop for a second.
Before we put away Bing Crosby and Michael Bublé, let the words of “O Come Let Us Adore Him” touch us one more time.
In Revelation 4-5 the focus is our worship. The focus is us coming to adore Him.
We don’t completely understand what heaven will be like. What we do know is we are going to worship God for our entire time there.
For eternity.
It won’t be like a worship service on steroids, it will be like something we have never experienced before. Today’s reading gives us a picture into our future.
To worship means “to ascribe worth.” In heaven our entire experience will be based around our worship of God. His worth will be proclaimed.
God will love every minute of it and so will we.
“God thirst to be thirsted after” – St. Augustine
As you read today, really focus on the activity going on in chapters 4-5. Before judgement falls and God pours out His wrath, He gives us a glimpse into the future.
So today may we prepare our hearts for that day. Let’s worship Him.
Making a Difference
Jude 1:1-25
Revelation 1:1-2:29
Yes, Christmas was just yesterday, but Tis the Season to begin writing out our New Year’s Resolutions.
MANY of us will make them… and MANY of us will break them.
The reason we write them is because we want to make a difference; a difference in our health, our relationships, our finances, etc.
Here’s what Jude said today in verses 21 and 22.
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference… Jude 1
So here is a thought for us… instead of just making resolutions about how to make OURSELVES better, why don’t we try a another approach and make decisions that will help us make OTHERS better in 2014 too?
Here are some great questions to ask that will help guide you next year.
1. What do I enjoy? God has given everyone of us a gift or talent that is to be used to bless someone else (1 Peter 4:10). Most likely, it is something you already enjoy doing. And if you enjoy doing it, chances are you will… do it. (Unlike vowing to exercise, which most of us loathe and end up breaking that vow)
2. What are some of the things in the world that concern you? Have you ever thought that maybe God is nudging you to take action and make a difference there?
3. What opportunities are in front of you right now? Many times we look for something grand and world changing to pour our time, talent, and money into. But maybe it is just a kind word or a thoughtful gesture we need to offer that will change someone’s world.
Hope that helps you this week as you focus on all you want to commit to in 2014.
Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas
1 John 4:7-5:21, 2 John 1:1-13, 3 John 1:1-15
Merry Christmas Everyone! The day we all have been preparing for is here!
I hope you’re enjoying your families and traditions but it’s also possible your family could be getting on your last nerve. If that’s the case, I think today’s reading is just what we need to hear.
1 John 4:7-8 – “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
We might look at life much differently than some of our family and that could easily frustrate us. That’s okay. Jesus disagreed with many people during his ministry on earth but He still showed them love instead of growing bitter towards them.
Whichever family member you might be butting heads with (or maybe they are just getting on your nerves) choose to love them anyways. Let’s show them love instead of being harsh.
We never know what might come from planting a seed of love. God works in mysterious ways!
I am praying for us all to live out love today.
Merry Christmas!
-Maggie
Greater than the World
1 John 1:1-4:6
Only one day until Christmas!!
Though Christmas is close, we certainly didn’t get an easy read today. In fact, some of the reading is rather difficult to grasp. In order to better understand what the Apostle John wrote in the first century A.D., a little background goes a long way here.
The letters or epistles in the Bible are considered “occasional documents-arising out of and intended for a specific occasion”¹. They aren’t meant to be holistic but parts and pieces to the whole. John is writing to a group of churches where false doctrine is being taught. One of the main false teachings at the time was called gnosticism. This was problematic because it taught that anything material was bad but anything spiritual was good. This teaching progressed to the point where the earth and everything in it (ourselves included) was considered evil. God couldn’t create something evil, so they taught that God could not have created the earth since it was considered evil. This, however, was certainly not the case and something John needed to address.
The way he does so is in 4 parts:
1. Live in the light
Our focus is not to stop sinning or claim to be sinless, but to rely of Jesus as the forgiver of our sins. “But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)
2. The New Commandment
Jesus was the definition of the old commandment to ‘love one another.’ Now, we have an example of what it really means to love each other the way God intended us to. “Anyone who loves another brother or sister is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. But anyone who hates another brother or sister is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.” (1 John 1:10-11)
3. Live as Children of God
If you’re a follower of Jesus, you are a new creation. As such, our desire is now to follow God’s words to us. He has spoken to us through the Bible to live a pure and holy life. Though we will fall short, being a new creation means we repent and keep trying until the day when we meet Jesus face to face. “Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.” (1 John 3:9)
4. Beware of False Prophets
This is the part aimed at those teaching gnosticism but also applies to anyone teaching something other than than the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus today. “This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God” (1 John 4:2-3)
Though today was a bit more background and history than normal, this is important to understanding a relatively difficult passage in 1 John. However, there is one verse that always been one of my favorites and is something we can always rely on. 1 John 4:4 says, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”
Jesus is the victor over life and death. If you belong to Him, you too are on the winning team. No matter what happens today or this Christmas, God is still good and He is still in control.
-Caleb
Bibliography
1. Fee, Gordon D., and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. Zondervan, 2003
Supplements
1 Peter 5:12-14
2 Peter 1:1-3:18
When I was in middle school some friends and I would go to the gym after school to workout. Well, we called it working out. Really, we just did some bench press, hit some punching bags, and then acted like goons the rest of the time. I’m sure the people who were there to actually do some lifting couldn’t stand us. I do feel bad about it looking back, but hey, we paid our monthly fee like the rest of them.
One day, someone brought up the idea to start drinking these protein shakes to get stronger in a healthy way. It was all good and dandy, except when you take supplements you have to actually work out for them to do what they’re supposed to do… That’s where we missed it. So we just wasted a lot of time and money while at the same time drinking some pretty terrible shakes.
In today’s reading, Peter talks about some different kinds of supplements: Moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, patient endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love for everyone.
Peter calls these supplements to faith. He is writing about escaping the world’s corruption and our own human desires. All of these supplements go against the grain a lot of times for what our human desires are. But when we grow in these ways, we are growing in our knowledge of Christ. We are strengthening our faith.
The cool thing to me is that these supplements are results of focusing on Jesus. The closer we get to Jesus, the more these things will flow from us, which in turn will cause us to get even closer to Jesus.
Does that make sense?
It’s like the more you work out, the stronger you will get. And when you add some vitamins or healthy eating or shakes to the mix, you get even stronger. But the supplement without the workout does nothing. So don’t focus on the supplements and then forget to workout. Focus on the workout and add in the supplements.
Don’t focus on the supplements peter talked about and forget about Jesus. The supplements lose their true power without Jesus. The more you focus on Jesus the more these other things will be present in your life. And the more they are present in your life, the more you will get closer to Jesus.
– Robby
Look Ahead
Hebrews 11 & 12
Over the past few years, Jay and I have picked up the hobby of running. Not running like some people do, several miles a day, but just a few times a week running a couple of miles. There is just something that is so relaxing about it. Being outside before the day starts and running with just your thoughts and playlist; it helps me focus on prayer, worship, and decompress from any pressures of life.
I’ve learned something about my run habits though, in the beginning when I’m excited, focused, and energetic, my focus is on what’s around me. I’m looking at the sky, nature, animals, and the path ahead. These are the moments when I’m overwhelmed by God’s beauty in nature.
However, when I begin to get tired and out of breath, my focus moves down towards my feet and the gravel right in front of me. I’m focusing on how tired I am. Looking ahead is too daunting, so I have to look at my feet to make myself keep going just a little bit more.
It is the same in our faith walk… when we get tired and fatigued, our focus many times turns inward, to ourselves. When fatigue walks in, faith walks out.
In our reading today, Paul talks about this in the beginning of chapter twelve…
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus… (Hebrews 12:1-2a)
Paul tells us the way we endure the race (our Christian walk) is by keeping our eyes not on ourselves, but on Jesus. We must keep our eyes focused out towards Him, not on ourselves if we want to make it through the struggles of life.
If you are struggling to keep going, getting tired, and beginning to look down, take some time this weekend, the weekend before Christmas, to pray and let God speak to you through His word. Encourage yourself by reading scriptures like…
Isaiah 41:10
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Psalm 55:22
Isaiah 40:31
Matthew 17:20
Joshua 1:9
Psalm 46:1
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Caley
His love is never outdated
Today’s reading: Hebrews 8-10
In today’s reading we get a clear perspective of the difference between the Old and New Covenants.
One of favorite distinctions between the two is how personal the New Covenant is for all who believe in Jesus.
Hebrews 8:11 ….for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
In Hebrews 10:19-25 God calls us to experience the New Covenant in a way the Old Covenant could never allow for.
Hebrews 10:19-20 …we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.
We were once separated from His presence. The Old Covenant had restriction after restriction. Ritual after ritual of how to enter God’s presence. Now we get to enter His presence with boldness (parrēsia).
What once only the High Priest could do, once a year after being cleansed, we can now be one with God anywhere anyway. There are NOW NO restrictions to our connection with God because of Jesus’ death.
We could never enter His presence on our own character or merit.
In the Old Covenant our forgiveness was rooted in the sacrificing of animals.
The Old Covenant was simply the prequel to what was ahead.
Now it’s all about Jesus.
We are NEW.
Hebrews 10:20 By his death, Jesus opened a NEW and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.
The greek word for new (prosphatos) in verse 20 carries the meaning of “freshly slaughtered”. Jesus is the new way and as our “freshly slaughtered” sacrifice our path to God is now open.
So this Christmas as we reflect on Jesus’ birth let us be reminded of what is birth truly meant for us.
God is with us.
We can now be with Him.
Isaiah 7:14 The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.
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