Commitment

I am making a commitment.

I have decided to read through the Bible again in 90 days.

I was introduced to the program last summer while browsing over at Mom's ToolBox.

Although I had read through the Bible before, I had not taken on a challenge quite the size of this one.

16 pages per day? Wow!

45 minutes of reading? (not studying, praying, or meditating on the verses . . . reading, as studiously as I can!)

These three months take commitment. They take dedication. They take time. They take planning. Some days, it requires sacrifice. Am I willing to sacrifice sleep, computer time, TV time, "me" time?

Can I make this commitment?

YES!

I make you a promise.

I promise that if you make this commitment and stick with it that your life will never be the same.

I promise that you will be blessed by the seeing the story of the Scriptures unfold.

I promise at the end of three months--you will want to do it again and you will most likely try to recruit anyone you can find: friends, family, neighbors, strangers on the street (well, that may be a stretch) to read through it with you in the Spring.

Will you join me?

Will you make the commitment?

Check out this great post Commit and Prioritize.

Have Mercy!

Today is day 38/90 and I am completely current (after my wonderful husband took care of the kids, house, etc. and I read for almost 5 hours Monday. I LOVE that man!)

This has been an interesting journey for me. One of the things that has stood out to me like never before is the goodness and mercy of our God. Webster defines mercy as: compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power; also : lenient or compassionate treatment.

Over and over and over again HE showed mercy to people who didn't deserve it. They broke HIS laws repeatedly, fell into the same idolatry, worshiped the same false gods, but HE had mercy.

I am so thankful that we have the pictures of Adam & Eve, Noah, Moses, David, Solomon, etc. to remind us of HIS mercy.

They struggled with the same things (sins) that we struggle with today.

They stumbled.

They fell.

They wallowed.

But God had mercy.

The Bible is as relevant to 2010 as it was 2000+ years ago.
I am humbled that HE would love me. I am in awe of HIS mercy.

BIND: Recapping the events of the Old Testament

Amy, of Moms Tool Box reprinted a summary of the OT, up to the end of Nehemiah. It's from Ted Cooper, the "creator" of the BIND program.

Interesting. . .

Click here, if you want to read it.

Gideon the Conqueror . . .really?

I love the story of Gideon.

God took a reluctant hero and changed Israelite history.

He wasn't Hercules.

He wasn't Napoleon.

He wasn't Patton.

He wasn't Petraeus.

He WAS Gideon, going in the power of the LORD.

Who else could win a battle against thousands with 300 scared men, a pitcher, a trumpet, and a torch? It HAD to be the LORD, working through him.

It makes me wonder what God is waiting to do with me, little old plain me, if only I would let HIM.

Day 11 #B90Days

There was no one thing that stood out to me while reading this passage, so here are my observations:

• 9:8--"Stand still" The people were in such an uproar (as usual). Can't you just see Moses holding up his hand, looking them squarely in the face, and saying "Be at ease!"
• 10:35--"Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee." There are days, in this time of "tolerance" for EVERYONE except Christians, that I think of this verse.
• 11:19-20--"until it come out at your nostrils" I actually giggled when I read this. After another bout of complaining, this time about the lack of "flesh" to eat, Moses went to the LORD in frustration. "Wherefore has thou afflicted thy servant? have I not found favor in thy sight? I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me I pray thee." The LORD then appointed 70 men to help Moses bear the load of the people. HE then said to the COI, "ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; but even an whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you. . ." You wanted meat, you're gonna get meat!
• 13 - 15--I am reminded of the kids' tune, "Twelve men went to spy in Canaan, ten were bad and two were good!"

Throughout these verses, there is a pattern that I know you have seen; everything is going great, then the COI get discouraged or things don't go their way, they murmur "we should have stayed in Egypt, things were so much better there," Moses intercedes for them to the Lord, God either shows them a miracle (water from the rock, anyone) or sends pestilence (serpents or plagues) to remind them of Who He is, and they repent "we have sinned."

Let's not be like the COI! Determine in your heart today to learn from their history and make today a new day. Love the life you have. It's the one HE gave you.

Day 10

A Blessing

(Numbers 6:24-27)

• The LORD bless thee, and keep thee.
• The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
• The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

A blessing is defined as:

1. the act or words of a person who blesses
2. a special favor, mercy, or benefit: the blessings of liberty
3. a favor or gift bestowed by God, thereby bringing happiness
4. the invoking of God's favor upon a person

God used Aaron & his sons to pronounce this blessing on the children of Israel, following a lot of laws, geneaologies, and commandments.

It is tucked in there, pretty as you please and if you are not careful, you'll miss it.

God's blessing.

I yearn for God's blessing.

• for me
• for my husband
• for our marriage
• for our children
• for our church
• for our friends
• for our community

I am reminded of the old hymn.

Showers of blessing,

Showers of blessing we need.

Mercy drops round us are falling,

But for the showers we plead.

Lord please bless us today!

Day 9

I finished up a little later than I wanted too last night, so this post is for yesterday.

God was so specific about what He wanted them to do.

AND He was very plain about the consequences, good or bad: rewards for doing HIS commandments and punishment for not.

You would think that with everything out there so plainly, that Israel would have had no trouble. . .but we know that is not the case.

It's a lot like us today. We have everything we need to succeed in the Christian life right in front of us, in His Word.

And yet most of us do not live like it.

When I was reading through, I LOVED how the Lord kept reminding them of who He is when He said, “I am the LORD your God.” Given what we know about the wandering of the Children of Israel, we know WHY He kept saying it too!

Moving on to Numbers–Wahoo!

Top Ten Tips #B90Days

This list was a great thing for me and I would imagine it will be for a lot more!

THANKS Adjunctmom!

Here are my reading “survival tips” from the last time I completed the Bible in 90 Days challenge.

Week Two Check-In: Genesis, Exodus, and a blessing

What a whirlwind week it has been! I came into the challenge a few days late, decided to blog about it a few days later, so I don't have LOTS of posts, but here are my observations:

Click here for BIND.

Click here for observations from Day 6.

Click her for observations from Day 7.

A beautiful "fringe benefit" of this week has been that my 10 y/o daughter saw me reading, asked what I was doing, and asked if she could join me on the journey. . .God is so good!

Day 7

I am taking notes as I read through each day, and this is what I jotted down today.

• Be careful who you associate with. Ex. 34:12 "Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, let is be for a *snare in the midst of thee (*to lead you into evil)
• When you've been with the Lord, it shows on your face! Ex. 35:29-35 "Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone.
• Willing hearted giving = liberal giving. (35:22 & 29)
• They were so excited about giving to the work that Moses had to make an announcement to STOP! 36:7 says "For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much." How different would our churches be if that were the case today.
• Finish what you start, regardless of how hard it is or how long it takes. (Ex. 40:33) "So Moses finished the work."

I dive into Leviticus tomorrow. . .

#B90Days

Day 6

Today I saw that Moses was a stressed leader!

When his father-in-law Jethro arrived, bringing his wife and kids to him (Moses had sent them to stay with him before the Exodus from Egypt), he noticed that Moses was a bit edgy and asked what was wrong.

"The people come to me to enquire of God" was his answer. He was trying to do everything by himself. He was bearing the burdens of the entire nation alone.

Jethro, using wisdom from ABOVE replied, "The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away. . . for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone." He proceeded to give him counsel that he needed to choose good men and train them to be leaders. That way, Moses wouldn't get burned out.

(Micromanagement is not the way to go. Delegate, delegate, delegate!)

"So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he said."

Good management principles from the Scriptures!

Lisa, over at Lost in Him offers thoughts about praying for our President! You should go check it out here.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Andrea in NC