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#2024 GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 4

Jan4

Day 4. Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?  It only takes a few minutes.

Read Job 1 – 5.

“There was a man in the land of Uz….” It begins almost like a Fairy Tale.

Look at the FOUR THINGS verse 1 says about Job’s character?

Wow! He was blameless. He was upright. He feared God. He turned away from evil.

Notice his WEALTH!  Today he’d be a millionaire (or even a billionaire).  A godly man whom God blessed tremendously.

Riches = righteousness, right?  Wrong!  When Jesus told His disciples that it was very hard for a rich man to enter heaven, they were aghast.  “Who then can be saved?” they cried. This was after a rich, young, ruler asked Jesus how he could be saved. (Matthew 19:16-26)  Jesus told him, and later the disciples, that the answer was to come to Him and follow Him.

It seems Job was on the right track – watch what happens when he later  loses it all.

Also notice Job’s HEART for his children. Daily he would “atone for their possible sins” by sacrificing. Hmmm. Do I even PRAY daily for my kids, grandkids, and great grandkids? Do you?

Then, by Satan’s hand, and God’s sovereign and limited allowing, the UNTHINKABLE happens to job, from both (1) evil people and (2) nature. (Did you see which did what?)

What are YOUR thoughts about God’s sovereignty in the acts of evil men and unanticipated acts of nature (lightning strikes, tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.) that harm and even kill people?

How did Job think about it?  Verses 1:20-22 are AMAZING!!

Of course things get worse. (Satan is never happy until he kills us or makes us deny our God.) Job’s own body and his own wife betray him. What was his response? See 2:10  This man is amazing. His heart was toward God.

OK, then come Job’s “friends.” In 2:11-13 what GOOD things did they do? If you wonder how you can help someone sick or dying, in the hospital, or who has lost a loved one… THIS is the answer.

In chapters 3-5 (and beyond) things get “poetic” and kind of depressing, both from Job and each of his friends. (Tough reading, but look for real emotions, true wisdom, and VERY BAD conclusions/counsel.)

YOU are BLESSED when you read God’s Word! (Rev. 1:3) Don’t give up on it, or Job.  Keep reading.

#2024 GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 2

Jan2

Day 2.  Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?  You can also listen to an audio recording. It only takes a few minutes.

Genesis 4-7
In the story of Cain and Able, we see some  fruit of their parents’ sin. Cain’s feelings of inadequacy, jealousy, anger, a refusal to listen to God’s warning, and ultimately murder, caused him to be cursed by God.
Could righteous Able be a foreshadowing of the death of Christ in some ways?
Adam and Eve experienced the loss of both their sons, because God sent Cain away. But see how faithful He is to the grieving parents with the birth of Seth, the progenitor of the Messaiah, the eventual One who will crush the serpent’s head.
People sometimes wonder where Cain got his wife and, for that matter, where all of Adam & Eve’s other children got their spouses. For the answer, see Genesis 3:20. (And remember the early people were fresh from the hand of God, lived hundreds of years in comparable health, and did not have all the DNA problems we have today.) Incest was not forbidden until God gave Israel the law at Mt Sinai. (Leviticus 20:17)
And look closely at the ages of Methuselah and his son, Lamech.  They died the year of the flood….possibly IN the flood. (God’s mercy or judgement?)
Lastly, do you ever wonder why only the air-breathing land creatures were annihilated in the flood, and not all the sea creatures too?  I have an idea…. think of all the corpses of men and beasts.  Shark fest!! Cleaning up the corruption!
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2024 GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically

Jan1

Day 1.  Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?  I use the ESV (English Standard Version), but you read in the one you love. You can also listen to an audio recording.

Begin with Genesis 1-3.
This tells the story of our magnificent, all-powerful, all knowing, forever existing, triune God creating everything – including all the building blocks that even impact our society today in a matter of six days.  And He did it with just His words. (Jesus is THE Word, He was part of creation. Also see in the beginning verses that the Holy Spirit had a part.)
God created mankind too with his hands and breathed into him the breath of life. Then he took a part of Adam and made a woman. (Adam was very wowed when he first saw her!!)  God placed this pair in the Garden of Delight (what Eden means), to easily take care of it and to eat all the fruit, veggies, and grains that they wanted – just by picking it.
Two special trees were in the garden. The tree of life – which the design of the menorah in later history pictured – and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (NOT evil itself).  And you know “the rest of the story.” Before they hardly got started living there…. before they had any children…. they disobeyed, and now we all bear the imprint of their sin.
I saw a curious fact in their temptation. Compare 1:26-27 with 3:5. How did the serpent twist what Adam and Eve already were?
Oh, LORD, keep me from sinning with my heart, my eyes, and my words today.  You have given me all I need for life and godliness.
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May 3, 2021 – #3 of 31 Days of Biblical Women

May3

Sarah ~~

Genesis 18:1-14

Sarah had followed her husband from Ur of the Chaldees (modern day Iraq) to Canaan (later to be Israel) along with his father, brother, and nephew. A long journey because God had called her husband – a man of faith – to this new land. God had promised it would be theirs forever.

Then, walking from one end to the other of this long strip of “promised” land at the Eastern side of the Great Sea, camping in tents, till the pasture ran out, then moving on, making do.

And then a famine, no crops, no water for the animals, and another long journey to Egypt. “Say you are my sister, Sarah,” her husband whispered as they entered the well-watered land.

And of course she did, because she always obeyed him, and after all, wasn’t she his “half” sister? But who knew that Pharoah would desire her and take her. Sarah looked at her husband with pleading eyes as she was led away. “Tell him the truth, husband!” But he was silent.

Sarah was a woman of faith. She prayed to God and rested in the peace He sent as she settled in the kings harem. And then tragedy struck Pharoah’s palace; women began miscarrying babies, infants who were born died, and not one woman could conceive. And God spoke to Pharoah in a dream. “That woman you took is another man’s wife. Return her to him.”

This Pharoah listened to God. He took Sarah and returned her to her husband, along with food, livestock, servents, gold and silver.

“Your God spoke to me, why didn’t you?  What’s wrong with you, man? What, you were afraid?  Give me a break!  You are lucky, I could have defiled her…. and then what would your God have done to me. BE GONE!”

And yes, reader, that happened again with King Abimilech. But this time she was a few weeks pregnant with a promised son. “Tell him you are my sister,” he’d said, and Sarah didn not even look back. She trusted God. She knew this king would not defile her. God would protect that promised seed growing within her – the One by whom the whole world would be blessed, the One who would come to save His people. Hadn’t He promised it?

Sarah remembered a few months earlier, when three strangers had come to their tent. They looked like angels, Sarah thought! She had hid inside, right at the flap of the tent and listened to them.  And her laugh of… of what? Joy? distain? unbelief?  She knew not which. But the One had said that in a year she would bear a son!  Ha! She was 75 and her husband 100.

But it had happened, so Sarah KNEW the Holy One would protect the small speck of humaness in her by the power of His Word.

And the son was born. He was named Isaac, which means “he laughs.”  Yes, he was a good, happy baby. But Sarah knew that the Holy One had heard her laugh, and had His own joke with the boy’s name.

 

 

LORD,  that I might have patience and faith to trust You in my trials, and joy in all  Your promises.

May 2, 2021 – #2 of 31 Days of Biblical Women

May2

 Michal ~~  

2 Samuel 6:16-23

King David was finally able to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem and put it in the place he had set up for it. His heart was bursting with indescribable joy and praise to Almighty God who had chosen him to be King, and now had allowed the sacred object that symbolized His very Presence among His people to be brought near.

As the procession wound it’s way from the former safe-keeping place, David made sacrifices to God. All of Israel rejoiced with him. Their shouting was joined with the echoing sound of the rams horns heralding the wonderful event. The Ark of God was coming to the City of God, and David, elated beyond measure, took off his kingly robes and danced for joy before the LORD.

From her window in the palace, Michal saw her husband dancing for the joy of the LORD, and blessing His Name continually, and she despised him. She was a daughter of Saul, the former king, a second choice who was given to David as a reward for a military victory. She was bitter and jealous, and when she saw what she considered dispicable behavior by her husband, hatred and anger burned in her.

When David came in to bless his own house, Michal went to meet him and spat out her disdain. “Oh how the king of Israel “honored” himself today, uncovering himself before the eyes of his female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”

Surely this was as a bucket of ice water over the elated King.

“It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and all his house to be prince over Israel, the people of the LORD,” David reminded her firmly.  “And I will make merry before the LORD. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this! And I will be abased in your eyes! But the female servants of whom you spoke shall hold me in honor.”

Michal chose on that day whom she would honor and love. Not the LORD God of Israel and not her husband, the king of Israel. Her heart had frozen to stone. 2 Samuel 6:23 “And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.”

 

Lord, help me to “Keep my heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

“Create in me a clean heart, O god, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10

 

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

May 1, 2021 – #1 of 31 Days of Biblical Women

May1

May 1, 2021 – 31 Days of Biblical Women – Eshet Chayil

It is a 22-verse poem found in proverbs 31:10-31, and sung each Sabbath to honor Jewish women. It is an acrostic poem, each verse beginning with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet (like the sections in Psalm 119). Some interpret it as being about Abraham’s wife, Sarah, or about Solomon’s great grandmother, Ruth.

Eshet Chayil is Hebrew for “woman of worth,” “valor,” “strength,” or “virtue.”

 

The Woman Who Fears the LORD

10 An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.

13 She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.

14 She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar.

15 She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.

16 She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard.

17 She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.

18 She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.

19 She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

20 She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.

21 She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.

22 She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.

23 Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

 24 She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant.

25 Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.

26 She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

27 She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:

29 “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.”

30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

 

LORD, give me a heart of virtue, courage, and strength, to serve my family.

 

jh

 

God Became Like us, so that —

Feb18

—- we could become like God.

But it doesn’t happen by anything we can DO in our self.

It takes God by His wonderful grace, sending His Holy Spirit to “quicken” (make alive) our dead spirits, so that we can receive His gift of faith and believe the Gospel. And then He graciously fills us with His Holy Spirit. When that happens, we are saved.

Now, the Holy Spirit’s job in us is to “sanctify” us (make our thoughts, words, and actions righteous and holy) like Jesus.

 

Romans 8:29 (ESV) –  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

 

 

 

jh

 

What if There’s No Pumpkin Pie? Ending the Year with Hope

Nov17

What if There’s No Pumpkin Pie? Ending the Year with Hope

by  | Nov 16, 2020 | Covid-19, decisions, gratitude, hope, thanks, Thanksgiving, trust |

Spectacular fall colors, warm apple desserts, and spiced-aroma candles. What’s not to love?  Whether my grandsons and I drink hot cider and eat donuts on my screened porch, or I enjoy my personal time under a warm blanket reading a good book, surrounded by the sights and smells of fall, I’m in a happy place.

                  As the leaves began to change and I was greeted by a raining day, my mind turned to baking pumpkin bread. With my weekly shopping list in hand I went to one supermarket only to find the shelf that housed pumpkin was bear. I waited until the next week and the same was true in two different supermarkets. Sure that I had missed the usual baking displays, I approached a store clerk to ask. He told me I’m not alone in that request. Shoppers had purchased the canned pumpkin earlier –at the start of COVID-19, along with the rush on paper products. Stores are waiting for the crop to be picked, processed, and shipped. Another unprecedented experience in 2020.

 

                 No pumpkin. Strange. What if we won’t have pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving?  It’s first world problem I know, but I asked myself that question. We’ve asked and continue to ask many  “what if” questions-more serious than pumpkin pie. We are entering another season that looks different. Our cozy, colorful, and warm autumn picture may have a chilly and cloudy cast.

What if there’s no opportunity to be with family due to COVID-19 restrictions on travel?  Family gatherings look different. Unless I want to quarantine in NY for 14 days and be tested before and after I travel, I can’t fly to see family in NY.  My family may have pumpkin pie without me.

What if grief, already exaggerated in this season, is met with fewer face to face contacts and hugs?  The grief support group I facilitate has been cancelled twice because our church closed due to COVID-19. At a time when grievers especially need face to face support even at a 6-foot distance, we meet by text and phone. Pumpkin pie is not served.

What if the usual Christmas concerts, holiday parties, and children’s programs are canceled this season?

What if there’s no pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving?

The prophet Habakkuk in the OT answers that  “what if” question when he says,

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, (and no pumpkin pie, or travel, or events, or…), yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. Habakkuk 3:17-19 NIV

And the apostle Paul adds to that when he says, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4: 11-12 NIV

So what if?

  • What if I renewed my focus during the closing weeks of 2020?
  • What if I monitored my thinking?
  • What if I intentionally used positive words in my self-talk?
  • What if I followed Habakkuk and the apostle Paul’s reminders?

Then… We can live in contentment because we can draw on God’s promises to stay the course, live in His strength, and remember Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1:3 (NLT) By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

What if? What are your strategies to answer that question with “then”? 

 

For more of Marilyn Nutter’s blog posts, books, etc., click here.

 

ARE YOU THRIVING OR JUST GETTING BY?

Sep25

RE-BLOGGED on September 24, 2019 by  from the “Jewels This Side of Heaven” blog.

My German shepherd was starving to death, and we didn’t know what to do. Sophie got twelve, yes 12 cups of food a day and at a year old, she was only forty pounds. After many tests, the vet diagnosed her with a pancreatic problem, called EPI, which kept her from digesting her food. As a result, whatever she ate went through her system without nourishing or feeding her body. With the help of pancreatic enzymes, Sophie is now thriving.

As a culture, America is starving. So are some of her churches. Why? We live to eat but don’t eat to live. We are not feeding on the one thing we need most, the Word. God made us to have intimacy with him through his Holy Spirit, prayer, and Scripture. Without the catalyst of God’s Word, we won’t thrive spiritually.

We need to digest the Word before we can absorb it and do what it says. But if we barely open the Book how will that happen?

Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit…”

The word living means God’s words are alive, and they give life. Active is the Greek word energes which resembles the English word energy. God’s Word and words are full of life and energy. God’s words are to achieve something in our heart and life. Scripture needs to become more than head knowledge. We shouldn’t let it go in one ear and out the other, because we need the Word to be heart knowledge so it can be absorbed and nourishing to our very soul.

God’s word is sharper than a sword, able to pierce through the soul and spirit. The word pierce means to penetrate or get through. This may be one reason we may not care to read the Bible. Unless the Word penetrates our heart, we will not grow and change.

Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions, and our spirit is what the Creator breathed into us. They are often at war with one another. Our spirit communes with God through the Holy Spirit while our soul is everything which makes us who we are.

So, why would the Word divide the soul and spirit? God wants us to be Spirit-driven, not soul-driven. The Spirit is love, peace, truth, patient, gentle, kind, self-controlled, faithful, and joyful. This is how God wants us to function.

The soul can be moody, self-centered, turbulent, depressed, thoughtless, self-driven, lacking self-control, and deceitful. Satan influences our soul, by manipulating our thoughts. If we are not in the Word of Truth, under the perfect power of the Spirit of Truth, we get off track.

God wants us to be Spirit-led and Word-led. One without the other is only half the equation. Unfortunately, many overdo one or the other. We become so Spirit-led we assume everything we think is of the Holy Spirit and will act and speak out without the guidelines of Scripture. However, being overly Word-lead can stifle or quench the Holy Spirit so we can no longer hear him because everything becomes an intellectual experience. There needs to be a balance.

In Hebrews 5:11-12, the author rebukes his readers for becoming dull of hearing. He says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food.”

The Greek word for dull refers to “a condition of spiritual apathy and laziness that prevents spiritual development.” [1] Isn’t that how we can feel, too?

Studying Scripture takes time and effort.

God does not think less of us if we are not in his Word.

But, have you ever thought how it must sadden him to see the time we invest in things having no Heavenly value?

Do we spend too much time on our phones, iPads or binge watching our favorite shows on Netflix? Yes. Do we need to improve? Yes. Am I preaching to myself? Yes.

The answer lies in putting those things away for a set time each day and getting out our Bibles to let the Holy Spirit guide us through the Word one verse at a time. Don’t set unrealistic goals. Reading one verse and letting God speak to you through it is better than reading one chapter or an entire book just so we can say we did it.

If you are a parent, can you imagine letting your ten or fifteen-year-old still drink from a sippy cup or a bottle for each meal? Unfortunately, that is the state of a lot of churches in our country. We need more than milk; we need solid food. We need to get back to reading, discussing, and studying God’s Word. Our spiritual health depends on it.