New year, new resolutions. One of my goals is to get back to reading ten chapters a day from Dr Grant Horner’s Bible Reading Plan.
I enjoy reading books of different genres and Dr Horner’s plan suits me well. It wasn’t always easy keeping to it with all the other things I had to do, but new year new hope, right?
This morning I continued from where I left off back in November: Mark 8, Genesis 35, 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Peter 1, Job 38, Psalm 35, Proverbs 1, Isaiah 31 and read chapter 32 because 31 is a short chapter, and Acts 4. I note the date along the inside spine and where the chapter numbers are.
Interpretation
Dr Horner stated in an interview that reading the Bible this way allows it to interpret itself. Scripture interprets Scripture and you build up your library of verse references.
Mark 8
‘But whom say ye that I am?‘ Yeshua asks this all-important question not only to His disciples but to us, to all who say they believe Him.
It’s a question God asks in every book and chapter of the Scriptures. The answers are in the acts and lives of the people we meet on each page.
Your answer shows where you are in your faith and your relationship with God.
Genesis 35
I’ve sometimes wondered why God blessed Jacob and even changed his name, but let his wife Rachel die.
The answer is in Genesis 31:32. Jacob cursed death over whoever stole Laban’s idols. He didn’t know that Rachel took and hid the idols; he was cursing her.
‘But whom say ye that I am?‘, Jacob answers that by obeying God’s call to go to Bethel. He demands his household leave all idols behind.
An act of obedience we’d do well to follow, leave all our idols behind and worship God. And only God.
Please take a moment and write down everything that is an idol in your life. It might be something that looks innocent and unassuming. Have you been single for so long that you’re obsessing over it? Do you always wonder whether you’ll meet the man of your dreams, marry and live happily ever after?
Do you barricade yourself behind your introversion? Do you use it as an excuse not to speak to someone you don’t like? Idols deceive you into believing that they are innocent and unassuming.
1 Corinthians 15
Paul’s ministry declares ‘Thou art the Christ!’, at every turn. Here, he talks about staying faithful to Yeshua’s promise of the resurrection. Isn’t that what we hope for – for Yeshua to return and take us to be with Him forever?
2 Peter 1
Bold and brash, Peter doesn’t hesitate and declares, ‘Thou art the Christ!‘, to Yeshua’s question.
Read Mark 8 and 2 Peter 1 one after the other and you’ll see a different (and better) side to Peter. The impulsive fisherman who declared, ‘Thou art the Christ!’, and just as quickly rebuked Yeshua when He was telling them about dying, introduces himself as ‘a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ…,’ (v1), and writes that we are to add to our faith ‘virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity‘ (v5-7), with a simplicity that shows how far he’s come.
a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ…,’ (v1)
‘virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity’ (v5-7)
2 Peter 1 KJV
And like Peter, let us remember that we’re also ‘eyewitnesses of His majesty‘ (v16).
How are we eyewitnesses? When we acknowledge God’s touch in our (sometimes mundane) lives, we tell Him we’re aware of Him. When we ask His help when we’re struggling with our faith. Or you’re trying to be polite when a self-righteous nosey person asks you why you’re still not married. Only God can help. He is all we need.
Like Peter, we must always remember the one who made us, placed us here and loves us.
Job 38
The questions God asks Job is another way of asking us who we say He is.
Atheists, agnostics and other non-believers, in general, deny the very existence of God. But, the questions He asks Job tells us that He is real. They also answer the question of creation, because the questions can only be posed by someone who was there and did all that. They’re stunning in their directness and poetic in form.
Psalm 35
David knew what only a few living at that time knew, that God is our salvation and He was sending another Saviour.
Come to think of it, millions alive right now still don’t know. Or don’t want to know. This is where we come in, you and I, through our prayers and writing, we share the truth of God and His Christ to the world.
Don’t know where or how to begin? Read the first six verses of David’s plea…
Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.
Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.
Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me, say unto my soul: I am thy salvation.
Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul; let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.
Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.
Psalm 35:1-6 (KJV)
Read them again. Sounds familiar? Do they sound like your angry cries to God? Do you scream that at God after you encounter someone pitying you about your unmarried state? Close.
David was always honest with God about his life and his struggles. He never held back from telling God what he thought God should do to his enemies. We can be honest with God. If you don’t know how to begin, write out your prayers and then read them out loud or whisper them to God.
Proverbs 1
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We respond to Yeshua’s question with our testimony of faith and our act of praise and worship.
Fearing God is acknowledging and worshipping Him in every moment of our days.
Judges 7
I can understand Gideon’s reluctance and doubt. God was asking him to do something that sounded and looked impossible.
Throughout their interactions, God asks Gideon, ‘But whom say ye that I am? He gives Gideon opportunity after opportunity to trust and follow Him. God knows that by trusting Him we acknowledge His sovereignty, and we declare that He is God.
Isaiah 31 and 33
After reading the Old Testament, the Israelites’s disobedience baffled me. How can they even think to turn away from God and worship idols? God chose them to be His people. He protected and blessed them but they chose to revolt against Him.
I’m not so quick to judge anymore because I’ve often turned away from God. It’s only God’s love that keeps me coming back to Him.
His promises in Isaiah 32:17-18 are an introvert’s dream. Quietness. His righteousness.
The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places…
Isaiah 32:17-18 NKJV
Acts 4
Like the disciples, we in our quiet ways testify that ‘we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard‘ (v20). Our quiet lives testify to God’s love, mercy and grace.
We write how He has brought us through another year to a new one. God is faithful.
I hope and pray that this new year is one where we build a stronger faith in God and deeper intimacy with Him. And we forever declare, ‘Thou art my salvation!‘
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