Tag Archives: Read the Bible in a year

Daily Bible Study

December 28, 2020 Bible Study The Last Days Will Not Be Short

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 9-12.

Every year when I read this passage I try to find an interpretation of the events John describes which feels like what John predicted, and every year I fail to be satisfied by what comes to my mind.  However, there are several things which are clear to me.  First, each trumpet blast takes place some length of time after the previous (for example, the suffering after the fifth trumpet blast lasts for at least five months). Next, the suffering brought about in response to the trumpet blasts was not directed at those who had been marked as being among those who serve God.  The final thing from this passage I want to comment on today applies to circumstances outside of those being described in this vision.  Those who experience plagues and other suffering because of their rejection of God will not respond to that suffering by repenting of their sin and turning to God.  This last never ceases to amaze me when I consider the number of people I have known who experienced suffering brought about by their own actions, yet refused to change those actions in order to reduce their suffering.

I am fascinated by the the account of the small scroll, the one of the two witnesses, and of the woman and the dragon.  Despite having some thoughts on those portions of today’s passage, I find myself unable to put those thoughts into a form which would allow me to write about them here.  Perhaps I should seek a small group study of the Book of Revelation where we can talk about what to make of these things.

Daily Bible Study

December 27, 2020 Bible Study Worthy Is The Lamb To Open The Scroll

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 4-8.

I do not believe that I have ever noticed before that in his vision of Heaven and the opening of the scroll John once again presents the idea that Jesus is both separate from God and God ( a central idea of the doctrine of Trinity).  So, John tells us that the twenty-four elders periodically bowed down to the one sitting on the throne (God the Father) and say “You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power.”  Then, when the Lamb (Jesus) comes forward and is given the scroll they bow down to Him and say, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered— to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”  Notice how similar these two statements are.

I know I have mentioned this in previous years, but I think it is worth highlighting again.  The four horsemen mentioned in this passage do not ride out together.  Each of them rode forth before the next one was summoned after the breaking of the next seal.  I have some thoughts about the meaning of each of the four horsemen and how they are related to each other, but that is not the direction I want to go today with this blog.  I want to instead focus on the delay between each seal being broken.  Each seal is broken, then something happens before the next seal is broken.  It would be easy to read this as happening in quick succession, but I believe we are intended to perceive a delay between each seal.  I think this becomes most clear after the breaking of the sixth seal when one angel shouts for those holding back the winds to wait until those who serve God have been marked.  Those who serve God will be marked and protected when God pours out His judgement upon the earth.  One last point I want to make: reading this it would be easy to feel like the seven trumpets which are blown after the seventh seal is broken are separated by as much time as each of the previous seals.  However, I believe that each of the seals were broken with a significant pause in between for what happens after them, while the seven trumpets are blown in relatively quick succession.

Daily Bible Study

December 26, 2020 Bible Study The One Who Is, And Was, And Is To Come

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 1-3.

I want to comment on what Jesus said to John at the beginning of John’s vision.  Actually, I want to go back to what John wrote in his introduction, and forward into the intro portion of the message to each of the seven Churches.  In his introduction, John writes that God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,  I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”  Then when Jesus first speaks to John in John’s vision He says, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.”  So, we see Jesus telling John that He is God, that He was with God in the beginning and will be with Him at the end.  For me, this passage represents the starting point for understanding the idea of the Trinity.  Yet, there is much more to it than that.  It is a message of hope.

If we go on and look at the introductions to the message to each of the seven Churches, we see the theme continued.  In the message to the Church of Ephesus, Jesus describes Himself as the “one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands.”  The “seven stars” are the angels of the seven Churches…their spirits, or their essence.  So, Jesus is telling John that He holds our essence, our spirit, in His hand.  In the message to Smyrna, He says He is the One who was dead, but is now alive.  Death has no power of Him, and since He holds us in His hand, death has no power over us.  To the Church in Pergamum, He describes Himself as the one who wields the sharp two-edged sword.  This is both a promise and a warning.  Because He holds the sharp sword, He can, and will, strike down our enemies.  Because that sword is two-edged, He can strike us down if we turn against Him.  To Thyatira, He describes Himself as having eyes of flame.  Nothing can be hidden from Him, and His gaze can strike down those who think their evil is hidden.  To Sardis, He says that He has the sevenfold Spirit of God.  Being sevenfold indicates that God’s Spirit is complete.  We too must seek completeness.  We cannot be satisfied with just a portion of righteousness, but must seek all aspects of it.  To the Church of Philadelphia, Jesus reminds them that what He opens cannot be closed, and what He closes cannot be opened.  When God gives us an opportunity, nothing can prevent us from taking advantage of it.  And when God closes a door nothing can come through it to harm us.  Finally, to the Church of Laodiciea He informs us that He is a faithful and true witness.  What Jesus has said is true and He will not change His testimony.

I hope the words I have written above convey the message of hope which reading this passage inspired in me.

Daily Bible Study

December 25, 2020 Bible Study Warnings Against False Teachers

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Merry Christmas!

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 John, 3 John, and Jude.

John’s two letters which we are reading today and Jude’s letter were written to different people.  Yet, all three letters have much the same theme.  The writer in each of these letters emphasizes the importance of loving our fellow believers and not following false teachers.  In fact, I read them as saying that loving our fellow believers will aid us in resisting the teachings of false teachers.  The writers also seem to suggest that following these false teachers leads us to not love our fellow believers.  Each letter also gives us guidance about the sorts of things which false teachers will teach.  In the first letter, John warns us against those who teach that Jesus did not have a physical body, that it is the teachings which are attributed to Jesus which matter, not His actual existence.  In the second letter, John tells us that false teachers will discourage us from listening to anyone but them.  They try to silence all opinions which might run counter to their own.   In the third letter we are reading today, Jude gives us a series of behaviors, each of which provides a warning that someone may be a false teacher..  First, they live immoral lives.  Any one who claims to teach the Gospel, but lives an immoral life is a false teacher.  The other behaviors, while not individually decisive indicators, give us warning signs that a teacher may be teaching false doctrine.  They grumble and complain, they brag loudly about themselves, they flatter others to get what they want from them.  We should also take Jude’s letter as a warning against allowing such behaviors in ourselves.

Daily Bible Study

December 24, 2020 Bible Study Living In the Light of God’s Love

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 John 1-5.

John uses the metaphor of light for goodness and it is really a good metaphor.  In his metaphor, the sun is kind of like God.  Just the sun pushes aside all darkness, so God pushes aside all evil, all sin.  If we live in God’s light, God’s love, we will love all of those who also live in God’s light.  Furthermore, there is no room within God’s light for hate.  In fact, John really focuses his letter on two points. First, he emphasizes the importance of loving one another.  We cannot truly claim to be obedient servants of God if we do not love our fellow believers.  Second, John repeats the point that those who live as children of God will not live in sin.  I have always found John’s way of putting it comforting.  If we do sin, we have Jesus to intercede for us with God.  So, John’s point seems to be that while we may sin after accepting Christ as our Savior, we cannot think, “Oh, that’s OK, God will forgive me,” and just go on sinning.  On the other hand, he also does not want us to despair when we do sin.

Daily Bible Study

December 23, 2020 Bible Study Building Upon Our Faith Enables Us To Avoid the Teachings of False Teachers

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Peter 1-3.

I really like the way that Peter shows us how we should build our lives of faith in this passage. In particular, I think the NIV translation of 2 Peter 1:5-7 gives us the clearest picture.  Following those guidelines will help us escape the corruption caused by sinful desires.  We start with faith.  To which we add goodness, but it is not enough to intend to do good, we must actually know what is good.  Once we know what is good, and therefore what is not good, we must have the self-control to do that which is good.  At that point we must stick it out to continue to do good, even when it doesn’t seem to make any difference in the short term.  As we stick it out, we can either become godly, or become bitter.  Let us choose the former.  Everything Peter writes up to here is very hard, but everyone I have known  who gets to this point has a genuine sense of goodwill (affection) for everyone they meet and truly shows God’s love to everyone. So, by the time you get to the last two steps, they seem to come naturally, or maybe by then you have gotten so used to the hard work of taking the next step that you just do it.  I hope to someday find out which it is.

In any case, Peter goes on the tell us why doing all of that is necessary.  We need to do all of that because there will be false teachers among us who will teach destructive heresies.  But if we have built ourselves up according to the process Peter outlined we will be prepared to resist their clever arguments.  Peter emphasizes that many of these false teachers promote sexual immorality.  Peter saying that about false teachers is interesting to me because when I read about cult leaders the first thing which many of them did which made some people question them was teach some form of alternate sexual practice. Actually, I want to note that Peter spends quite a bit of time in this letter warning us about the dangers of sexual immorality.  Sexual sin entices us away from God and righteousness.  Peter tells us that God rescues godly people from their trials, but the wicked continue to experience punishment.

Daily Bible Study

December 22, 2020 Bible Study Living Our Lives So As To Embarrass Those Who Malign Christ’s Followers

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Peter 1-5.

Peter warns us that we will face trials and suffering for our faith.  However, these trials and suffering will bring us great joy if we remain strong in our faith.  Later in this letter, Peter tells us that when we suffer for following Christ that suffering will remove from us the wish to satisfy our own desires and instead make us anxious to do the will of God.  Peter tells us to live such lives that when people malign us they will be embarrassed by our behavior.  By that he means that we must be done with deceit, hypocrisy, and unkind speech.  IF we live such lives, those who seek to portray us as hateful bigoted people will have their claims rejected by those who know us.

Some time back, my wife was unhappy about the negative things which our nonbeliever friends said about Christians.  She felt like the terrible things which others who claimed to be Christians did made our friends think badly about us.  It occurred to me that when our friends said these things they did not think about the fact that we were Christians.  So, I told her that the next time one of them expressed opinions about how terrible Christians were, she should apologize for behaving in that manner.  The thing is, many of our nonbeliever friends don’t actually know any other people who openly profess to be Christians (or, if they do, they do not think about them as Christians any more than they think about us that way, because, you know, Christians are all hateful people and those people aren’t hateful).  Sure enough, when my wife did that, our friends said, “Oh no, I didn’t mean you.”  To which my wife replied, “Who else do you know whose a Christian?”  My wife and I are definitely less than the ideal people of faith, but we had behaved as Peter recommends in the presence of these friends (or, at least, my wife had).

Daily Bible Study

December 21, 2020 Bible Study If We Start By Asking God For Wisdom, He Will Grant Us Everything We Ask Of Him

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on James 1-5.

I love the Book of James.  It contains so many lessons for us.   James starts off by telling us that we should take joy in whatever troubles come our way, because troubles test our faith.  The testing of our faith gives us the opportunity to grow our faith and as our faithful endurance improves we become better people. From there James segues into a topic which he comes back to later in this letter: if we lack anything, we should ask God for it.  In this case, James tells us that if we need more wisdom, God will provide it to us if we ask Him for it.  Later, James tells us that quarrels and fights happen among us because we want what we do not have, and we do not have it because we do not ask God for it.  Even when we do ask, we ask in order to please ourselves rather than to please God and others.

In the beginning when James speaks of asking God for wisdom he warns against seeking wisdom other than God’s.  Then when he later speaks of asking God for what we want he warns against seeking the pleasures of this world.  I cannot emphasize enough the connection between these two things.  The world considers wisdom to be those things which will show us how to obtain the pleasures of this world.  God’s wisdom shows us how to serve others in faithful obedience to God.  The foundational principles of godly wisdom teach us to do those things which are necessary to accumulating material possessions, which often misleads people into thinking that wisdom leads to the acquisition of wealth.  Thus, if we put our focus on the material instead of on God, we can be misled into following the wisdom of the world rather than the deeper principles of true wisdom.

I feel like I have failed to completely explain my title, please read the Book of James to see how he explains it.

Daily Bible Study

December 20, 2020 Bible Study Having a Physical Trainer Is a Good Thing, But What We Truly Need Is a Spiritual Trainer

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 12-13.

As I read today’s passage there were several things which I thought worth mentioning.  We will see how many of them I fit into today’s Bible Study.  The passage begins with the writer referring back to the people of faith about whom he wrote in yesterday’s passage, people of whom the world was not worthy.  To explain how we should act he uses the metaphor of one running a race, such as in the Olympic competitions.  Just as those who wish to succeed in world class athletic competition need to have a great trainer, and need to do what that trainer directs them to do, so to do we need a great spiritual trainer if we want to succeed in the spiritual race in which we find ourselves.  Fortunately, in Jesus Christ we have such a spiritual trainer.  A trainer who has proven their merit as a trainer by winning the highest possible spiritual honor.  In order for a physical trainer to train someone to succeed they must sometimes disciple their trainee when the trainee falls short.   In the same way, God will discipline us when we fall short of the spiritual exercises which He gives us.  God’s discipline is not evidence that He has given up on us.  Rather, it is evidence of His love for us.  So let us accept God’s discipline with joy, since it represents an expression of His love for us.

As you may notice, I did not fit many of the ideas I mentioned at the beginning into this study.

Daily Bible Study

December 19, 2020 Bible Study Motivating Others To Live By Faith

Leave a comment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 10-11.

Jesus’ sacrifice once for all time means that we can confidently enter into God’s presence, knowing that our sins are forgiven through God’s grace.  Each time we fail to turn from sin we can confidently pick ourselves up and strive to do good once again.   As long as we put our faith in Christ, and not in our own works, we can be confident that God’s Spirit will dwell in us and transform us into His likeness.  The writer tells us that we must strive to encourage each other to good works and acts of love.  What he is saying is that there are two reasons we should gather with our fellow believers.  On the one hand we should gather so that we can motivate others to do God’s will.  On the other hand we should gather so that we can be motivated to do God’s will.  The writer goes on to give us examples of people who have done great works of faith throughout history.  He reminds us that some achieved great victories by their faith, but others suffered greatly.  However, he tells us that in both cases they changed the world through their faith and that the world was not worthy of them.  Let us strive to be worthy to be footnotes in their stories.