April 27 – 1 Chronicles 6

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from 1 Chronicles 6. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word. Also above in the tabs is a link to the Bible reading plan.

I think we are about done reading through the listing of names, at least here in Chronicles. I have admitted, and I will admit today that sometimes it is hard to read these lists. They certainly serve a purpose. One of the greatest things they show is how the nation of Israel was exactly as God promised it would be … all descendants of Abraham. Each Israelite can trace their heritage back through their tribal clan. It is then through there they go back through to their fathers Jacob, Isaac and to Abraham.

God has certainly fulfilled part of the promise he made to Abraham. His decedents are as numerous as the sand on the sea shore. Now while that part of the promise has found fulfillment God is still working out the larger promise … to bless all peoples on earth through him. That will come in partiality when Solomon is king. It will be during his day that Israel will rise to its greatest power. They are placed as a nation in the Promised Land at the cross roads of the ancient world. They will bless all people on earth. However, the greatest fulfillment of that promise is yet to come. At this point in our narrative we are nearly one thousand years away from the birth of Jesus.

Let me ask you a few questions as you read these names … is it interesting to you to see how God has worked in the life of the Israelites? Do you find the chronological reading plan of the Bible helping you to understand the entirety of the story of God? I hope so. I hope you have enjoyed doing it this way even if it seems very scattered.

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March 28 – Joshua 19-21

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Joshua 19-21. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

Sometimes reading about the land of the Israelites gets me all confused. Because I have seen maps, read this several times, and have oriented myself over the last several years with the land of Israel I have a decent idea where some of these places and tribes are located. However, a good visual is always nice. So here is a picture of the Promised Land and the divisions among the tribes. Photo credit found through clicking here.

What is really cool are these verses at the end of the reading …

“So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” Joshua 21:43-45 NIV.

God delivered on the promises he made to the Israelites. They followed him and he shared with them the promises. But what I love is the line in verse forty-five … “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed” … you might ask … did some of his promises not go through? Yes, remember the promises where he said hardship would follow if they did not keep their end of the covenant. They kept it so they got the good promises and not the bad.

God wants to and will deliver the good promises he has made for us. We simply have to follow, believe, and do what he asks. How are you doing at that?

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March 20 – Deuteronomy 28-29

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Deuteronomy 28-29. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

If you had never read the Bible before doing this reading plan, and you were reading it like a novel where every page was new you would have lots of hope for the people of Israel. So far you have witnessed them come out of the slavery of the Egyptians. You have seen their weak faith; you have seen their moments of doubt, their question of God and Moses. You have seen them fearful and not trust that God was strong enough, so they wandered the wilderness for forty years. During that time God removed the older generation through death so that the next generation could inherit the land.

If you read chapter twenty-eight with that knowledge and no knowledge of what was to come, you would think their story would be all pointing to faith, to living out what God asked of them. But I don’t have that privilege. As I read just a few moments ago, as I thought about all the things God said he would do … my mind filled the void of what he did actually do. God promised siege … my mind went to King Nebuchadnezzar and his siege of Jerusalem some eight hundred plus years later. When God promised exile I thought of the Israelites living in the land of Babylon and later Persia. I know the story and I know that these aren’t empty threats that God made.

But I don’t know the rest of your story and my story. It is yet to be written. Let me ask you, how is it going to end? You still have the opportunity to decide how you story will end. Choose wisely.

At West Side we are beginning a new prayer partner campaign. We are asking people to join with us in praying daily for West Side. If you would like to join us please click here and subscribe to receive daily emails containing a short prayer request for West Side. We appreciate your partnership.

February 28 – Numbers 14-15 & Psalm 90

Today’s reading comes from Numbers 14-15 & Psalm 90. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

Because we are doing a chronological reading plan … reading the Bible in the order the events played out, not in the order the books and chapters are placed … we are going to be reading from various different books at different times. One way we might do that is like the time when we read the entire book of Job in the middle of Genesis. Other ways might be short little intersessions of different books telling the same story. Today we get something similar. After the punishment of God for the disbelief Moses writes what we consider Psalm 90. For true chronological purposes in our plan Psalm 90 is inserted into our reading for today. Do you see the parallels or the lessons Moses learned and has thus wrote about?

I also found it amazing that Moses had the audacity to try and remind God of who he is and what he has done. His whole argument makes sense … “God I saw the power you delivered us from Egypt with. I know that you were trying to teach the Egyptians, and us, who you are. If you kill off this people and start from me (I think Moses argument in reaction to Numbers 14:12 is acting with the greatest of humility, a lesson we can all learn) then you are going to humiliate your name. And you do not want that do you.” (Paraphrase all mine). But here is the cool lesson; Moses had learned humility and boldness. When God comes to him in the burning bush he asks, “why me, I am not good at speaking.” Now he has the humility and the boldness to correctly speak to God and even change God’s intentions. That can only happen with a life changing relationship with God. How is that developing in your life?

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February 22 – Leviticus 26-27

Today’s reading comes from Leviticus 24-25. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

Today in our reading we find two contrasts. God shares what he will do if they follow him … seasonal life giving rains, constant work because of bountiful harvests, plenty of food, peace in the land, no wild animals, deliverance from enemies, being a fertile people, and God living among them. On the other side, if they do not follow him … punishment, sudden terrors, disease, enemies eating and destroying crops, defeat from enemies, oppression of foreign peoples, disaster, and ultimately hostility from God. Now I do not know about you, but I pick the first one.

Sometimes I wish I could read God’s word as if I did not know what was playing out. I wish I could read it as if I had never read it and it was like a fun new exciting novel. Because if I had read today’s reading that way, I would have been rooting for them to get it, to follow God. Now that might be naivety since we have already seen their sinful nature … complaining to Moses about food, water, and weariness. We have seen them resort back to making a golden calf to worship when Moses disappears on Mt. Sinai. But maybe, in my optimistic mind, they might just get it and follow him.

Would not life be grand for them if they just did what he asked? Unfortunately we are going to in the next several months witness the negative play out because they do not follow him. But here’s the cool thing even in this destruction God does not abandon his covenant with them, he keeps a remnant and prepares the world so that all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abraham … and he said he would in Leviticus 26:40-45 NLT …

““But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me. When I have turned their hostility back on them and brought them to the land of their enemies, then at last their stubborn hearts will be humbled, and they will pay for their sins. Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. For the land must be abandoned to enjoy its years of Sabbath rest as it lies deserted. At last the people will pay for their sins, for they have continually rejected my regulations and despised my decrees.

“But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out, for I am the Lord their God. For their sakes I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of all the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”

At West Side we are beginning a new prayer partner campaign. We are asking people to join with us in praying daily for West Side. If you would like to join us please click here and subscribe to receive daily emails containing a short prayer request for West Side. We appreciate your partnership.

January 20 – Genesis 25-26

Today’s reading comes from Genesis 25-26. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

Apologies for missing yesterday’s thoughts on the blog. We had a rough previous night with Alivia sick and I simply got out of bed without much time to get ready and leave and failed to write out my thoughts.

Today’s reading reminds me of family. Abraham started out without any children. First his wife Sarah gives her maidservant to have a child with, which he does and Ishmael is born. Then Abraham and Sarah have a child, Isaac. Following Sarah’s death Abraham remarries and six more sons are born. Out of the sons listed one name stands out to me … Midian.

Abraham’s family tree is growing. The son of the promise, born to Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, has children with his wife … two sons … Esau and Jacob. Ishmael has sons of his own … twelve to be exact. Esau and his brother have sons themselves. Slowly the promise of decedents as numerous as the stars in the sky and sand on the seashore is beginning to take place.

For some of these names this is a simple listing, something we normally quickly read over. But if we pay attention to the names, they have some importance later in God’s Story. This is not the last time we encounter the Ishmaelite’s … when Jacob’s sons sell their brother Joseph it is to a group of Ishmaelite’s. When the Israelites return to the promise land, one of the groups they face is the Midianites.

Because of the sin in Abraham’s life, especially sleeping with his maidservant, the consequences are something his decedents have to battle with for years to come. Is there a sin in your life that you have received forgiveness for, but is something you are still dealing with the consequences of? Is there a sin in your life now that you can wipe out so the consequences would not be felt by your family for generations to come? Pray that God would give you the strength to overcome them.

January 16 – Genesis 12-15

Today’s reading comes from Genesis 12-15. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

We are again back in Genesis. When we were last in Genesis we were observing the creation story. We experienced God’s hand in establishing the world. We see an explanation for the fossil record that is in the ground. We understand why the world has many vast and different languages. Today we begin another creation story, but this one doesn’t involve plants, animals, mountains, or any other physical aspects of the world. Creation today comes in the form of salvation.

We experience the call of Abram, better known as Abraham, to be the father of God’s people. God makes a covenant with Abram that if he follows Him all peoples on earth will be blessed through him … Gen. 12:3. We see Abram accept God’s covenant and follow Him completely.

One of the amazing things about the relationship between God and Abram is that God protects the covenant. When Abram lies about Sarai his wife and tells those in Egypt that she is his sister, God protects the covenant … Gen 13. In a similar way Abram honors the covenant himself.

After saving Lot from his capturer’s Melchizedek, king and priest of Salem, offers blessings to Abram. Abram responds … “With raised hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me.” Genesis 14:22-24. God protected the covenant with Abram, and Abram honored the covenant by depending on God and God alone.

There is a powerful lesson to learn in this encounter. God has given us the promise of eternal life in His presence. Do we do all we can to protect that covenant? In the way we live, the words we use, the care we take of our bodies, and the love we show others? Do we depend on God for His blessings or do we try to take care of ourselves, to do it on our own? Do we acknowledge that it is God who blesses through the gifts and talents he has given us? If you want a rich full life, then living this way, with the give and take, understanding it is God who leads and guides, you will find it. 

Remembering the Promise

Below is the daily Bible reading I am doing for the West Side Church/ Please feel free to follow along.

If you have been reading through the book of Acts with me, and reading this blog, you have noticed I have pointed out the times I believe God has been protecting his people. We have even talked about the promise given to us in Matthew 28. That promise is if we continue to do the work of Christ, no matter what hardships come our way, God is going to be with us. Throughout Acts we have seen the church and the early church leaders come under attack, especially from the Jews. Through it all God has protected his people. Today’s reading (Acts 28) concludes the book of Acts, and with its conclusion, we are again reminded of the promise.

In the chapter before the ship Paul is being transported as a prisoner on is shipwrecked. They learn they have landed on the island of Malta. As Paul builds a fire, he awakens a viper, which clings to his hands. Paul then shakes the snake off and suffers no big consequences. Paul stays on the island, and is even protected and taken care of by some of the locals there. When winter draws to an end, they set sail on their voyage again. Finally they reach Rome, the capital of the Roman world.

Why has God protected his servants so many times? I believe it is because he wanted their message to spread. When Paul reaches Rome he is has a message to share first with the Jews there and then with the Gentiles. We learn in Philippians that under Paul’s house arrest that the whole Roman guard heard the message of the gospel. Why is that? Because he has his own personal guard assigned to him. In the book of Acts we see how God uses the adversity of his servant’s situations to further the gospel. Let’s review a few of those:

Stephens stoning: The disciples are spread out because of fear taking the message of the gospel to new areas.
The disagreement between Paul and Barnabas: Two new missionary teams are created sending the message even further
Paul in the Philippian jail: God uses it to convert the jailor and his entire family
Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem: Took the message of the gospel all the way to Rome and perhaps even to Caesar himself.

So what adversity is in your life? How can God use it to further his kingdom through you? Do you pray that God will use adversity to mature you and grow his kingdom? It is very interesting that our next chapter on Monday is James 1. It begins by talking about trials and temptations. I didn’t plan this, but I can God’s spirit working in my planning.