Two year Bible reading program.

Congratulation on finishing the two year Bible reading program!! If you want to do it again or have friends who would like to, I won't be republishing things every day. However, if you go to this link , you can access each day as an individual pdf, according to the date in the file title: eg. "20180101 - Two year Bible reading program" is that of 1 January in the first year (which was 2018). BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:29-31 Understanding to grow in What a way to end. We started with a pair as God's people, we end with a great multitude. We started in a garden as God's place, we end in a flourishing and renewed creation. We started with a pair obeying God with

This reading program finishes tomorrow! If you want to do it again or have friends who would like to, I won't be republishing things every day. However, if you go to this link , you can access each day as an individual pdf, according to the date in the file title: eg. "20180101 - Two year Bible reading program" is that of 1 January in the first year (which was 2018). BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:27-28 Understanding to grow in Christ will be victorious. That a key message of Revelation. However much that may not feel the case when Christians suffer, we have seen how it all ends. Jesus wins. The rest of chapter 19 sets that out vividly with this vision of Christ as king of king

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:26 Understanding to grow in Now Babylon is the focus. She is a prostitute, intoxicating earthly rulers and peoples and drawing their love away from the Christ who should be their "husband" (19v7). Her prostitution seems to be that of taking their wealth in trade and feeding their immorality in return (17v4). But she is also the persecutor of God's people. What follows is hard to understand. She seems to be identified with Rome, which was said to sit on seven hills and ruled throughout the earth (17v9, 18). She rides the satanic beast (anti-Christ) in the sense that she is upheld by his power and reflects his stance to Christ - a power and stance to b

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:25 Understanding to grow in Some see these seven bowls as describing what was seen in the seven trumpets, but with differing emphases. However, with them we are told God's wrath "is completed" (15v1). So, to my mind, they describe an intensification of what took place with the seven trumpets, as final judgments that will come just before the seventh is blown and Christ returns. Those who have withstood Satan throughout history are pictured worshipping God for his awesome acts of judgment. They are safe in heaven, witnessing God's anger being poured out on those on earth who worship the dragon. Yet still these refuse to repent (16v9-11). Towards t

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:24 Understanding to grow in If you're doing this program in a year, today should be Christmas Day. And it's quite an appropriate reading. The woman is Israel, giving birth to Christ as prophesied in Psalm 2v9. But Satan and the angels (stars) who fell with him seek to devour him. Christ, however, ascends to heaven and the Jewish people end in a wilderness place for the three and a half years that mark the church age - the time of persecution (12v17). What follows implies that during Christ's ministry or at his ascension, the dragon and his angels were defeated, and are now overcome as God's people are cleansed by Christ's blood and stand firm i

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:23 Understanding to grow in These chapters need more explanation. They give pause to help us understand what is happening to the church whilst the events so far have been taking place. Before the seventh and final trumpet is sounded a majestic angel declares that "the mystery of God" will be accomplished. Throughout the New Testament, this is his purpose of gathering those from Jew and Gentile to faith in Christ. The angel combines the earlier descriptions of God and of Christ (10v1,3 with 4v3, 5v5), so may be Christ himself or a representative of him. As Christ opened a scroll in chapter 5 detailing the events of history, the scroll John takes from angel

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:22 Understanding to grow in Many see each of the 7s (seals, trumpets etc) to cover the entire church age rather than follow one-another. My increasing conviction is that each 7 fits within the final 7 of the previous set, so taking us closer and closer to the return of Christ and renewal of all things. So as the seventh seal is opened, there is silence to mark the solemnity of what is about to take place. The prayers of God's people as seen to rise (probably their cries for justice, as 6v9-10) and judgment is then dispensed on the world in response. In other words, the trumpet events are realeased by the opening of the 7th seal. The significance of trumpets is

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:21 Understanding to grow in The harsh realities of history should not surprise us. They are no surprise to the Lord. Note 6v1. It is the lamb (Jesus) who opens the seals that loose the various judgments on the earth: conquest, violence, famine, death, and with it the persecution of God's people who cry out for justice when in heaven. In marking the seven almost complete, the sixth seal seems to bring cosmic upheaval (whether purely symbolic or partially literal) that cause the most mighty and most lowly to seek shelter from the wrath of God and the lamb that is about to be dispensed at the end of history. The point is that God's people are about to get the

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:20 Understanding to grow in Jesus is the centre of all history. That's the point. There's too much symbolism to explain it all. But we are told what follows shows what will take place "after" (4v1) the details outlined to the churches - ie. in subsequent history. John sees inside heaven a scene that reflected the design of Israel's tabernacle that was to be a copy of heaven (Heb 8v5). The unapproachable holiness of God is emphasized, separated from his creation by a sea of glass, with a rainbow backdrop reminding us of his promise to Noah. This is our creator. Around him are 24 elders that probably represent the complete people of God (Israel

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:19 Understanding to grow in These letters come to angels as representatives of churches (some think they symbolise key leaders). The number "7" represents completion, so the 7 churches probably represent churches throughout the world and in every age. Each letter contains a statement picking up an aspect of John's vision of Jesus in chapter 1, a commendation and/or rebuke, action to be taken, and an encouragement to those who perseve in faith until the end. A key point is that Jesus' presence amongst his churches means that he sees and knows all that we do - what we suffer for his sake, and how we sin. The letters therefore urge Christians today

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:18 Understanding to grow in We must remember that Jesus is a lion as well as a lamb, awesome as well as meek. The one who displayed such humility on earth is now glorified in heaven. And that's what we see at the beginning of this book, which was written perhaps as late as the 90s AD. It opens telling us it is a prophecy given from the Lord Jesus through an angel speaking to John in a vision. It's visionary nature alerts us to the fact that it is highly symbolic. So its images aren't necessary to be taken literally, but we should ponder the realities they reflect. The book is to show Christ's servants "what must soon take place" (1v1). Bu

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:17 Understanding to grow in Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, being written a short time after the temple was rebuilt in 516BC. It begin asserting just how unconditional God's love for his people is. He has loved those descended from Jacob, whereas he deals with Edom, descended from his brother Esau, according to his justice. Yet despite this love, the Lord's priests dishonour him by bringing faulty offerings, and showing favouritism in how they administer God's law. And the men sin by marrying those who worship other gods or divorcing their wives without good reason and so being unfaithful to them (perhaps they did the latter in order to

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:16 Understanding to grow in It is comforting to know that in the end all wrongs will be righted, the humble exalted and the exalted humbled. Zechariah ends with a picture of the nations attacking Jerusalem again, just as Babylon had leading to the exile. But this time, God destroys the attackers. In that context we are told his people will then look on the Lord who they will have pierced, and by God's Spirit mourn over that with supplication. This was in some way fulfilled at Pentecost as Jews were "cut to the heart" to realise they had crucified their Messiah. But Revelation 1v7 sees further fulfilment when Christ returns in judgment and the whole w

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:15 Understanding to grow in The LORD is the only God. That's the point that begins chapter 10. So prophets speaking for other gods must by lying. Because of this God’s anger burns against their leaders who should be their shepherds. Yet he promises to care for his flock (Judah) himself, making them strong and dignified, and restoring them with Joseph and the Ephraimites (those from the northern kingdom who were exiled), and bringing Egypt and Assyria down. This was partially fulfilled in the following years, but will be fully only in the new creation where in Christ all faithful Israelites will be raised from death and united in these sort of numbers, with the

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:14 Understanding to grow in It's a glorious picture of restoration: Jerusalem now faithful, in a flourishing land, where children and the elderly dwell in peace and security. And it is given as a promise to motivate the rebuilding of the temple, and an encouragement to live the godly life. Likewise, grace motivates us. What God has promised to give, moves us to honour him in thankfulness and a sense of priveledge being included in his purposes. The great goal in Zechariah 8, however, is Israel finally fulfilling their calling of being a light to the Gentiles, as ten from the nations ask one Jew out of a desire to know the LORD they know. One cannot but think o

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:13 Understanding to grow in The first vision probably portrays Zerubbabel and Joshua as the two olive trees, providing oil for the lampstand in the sense that their work in leading the rebuilding of the temple will lead to the presence of God again being with his people and shining as a light in the darkness of the world. This is followed by two visions stressing the sin of the people, likening them to the Babylonians, and then one of four chariots signifiying God's Spirit at work throughout the world because of God's universal sovereignty. The Spirit at "rest" in the north implies he is with the exiles still in Babylon. The next vision sees Josh

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:12 Understanding to grow in It's a principle that remains: If we return to the Lord when we sin, he will return to us. And the Jews who heard Zechariah did - unlike their ancestors. What follows are visions declaring God's sovereignty over all nations and the judgments he will therefore bring on them for how they treated his people. There is also a promise of Jerusalem rebuilt and God dwelling there, ensuring its safety - and so the lack of need for walls. The surprise is that we are told those from the nations will there join the Jews as the people of God - as is the case when Jew and Gentile come to faith in Christ. What follows explains how this is poss

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on The wife of nobel character... Proverbs 31:11 Understanding to grow in The first wave of exiles returned from Babylon in 538BC. God to them spoke through Haggai and Zechariah to encourage them to rebuild the temple and renew their commitment to God under the leadership of the governor - Zerubbabel, and High Priest - Joshua. Haggai begins with a rebuke that they were prioritising the building of their own homes over building God's. And because of the lack of devotion that displayed, God was witholding his blessing so that they experienced a drought. It's a challenge to each of us in our materialistic age, to give our time, money and effort to building the church as the spiritual dwelling place of Go

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 31:10 Understanding to grow in Through the prophets, God had promised to restore his people to Jerusalem and renew their hearts so that they could serve him faithfully (Ezek 36v24-36). But it is evident this was only partially fulfilled. The people's hearts remained the same. The very things they had committed to do they failed to do: The tithes were not being distributed properly, with the storage for offerings compromised. The Sabbath wasn't being kept. And the people were intermarrying with non-Jews. All this defiled the people and put them (yet again) in danger of God's wrath. Nehemiah set an example of a godly reformer, by seeking to put things right for the Lord's sake. But t

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 31:9 Understanding to grow in It's a challenge to be ready to move house in order to establish good churches. People were ready to move to Jerusalem to ensure God's city was well established. But the leaders set an example by moving there first. This was so commendible, that the names of those who moved are listed before any others. The completion of the rebuilding of the walls was then celebrated with the people purified, two large choirs giving thanks, and a commitment to provide for the musicians and the work of the temple. Joy has always marked the service of the people of God. The existence of the church, and the building up of the church are both reasons to celebrate. Indeed, don'

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 31:8 Understanding to grow in God's word must be the centre for any revival or reformation of the church. Here the people initiate it, asking for God's law. And they get a sermon lasting half a day! He reads it to "all who were able to understand" from daybreak until noon, with the Levites explaining its meaning. We read the people listened "attentively." It's a model for all God's people in every generation. Their attitude was one of worship - praising God and bowing down as the book is opened, for when God's word is read God is present and speaking. Their response was one of repentance, mourning and weeping as they listened - no doubt remembering the exile

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 31:4-7 Understanding to grow in A famine had hit. Because of their involvement in the building those with many children hadn’t been able to produce enough grain. Others were having to mortgage their property to gain money for grain, whilst others were having to borrow money to pay taxes, probably to the Persian Empire. In the latter two cases, it was Jewish nobles and officials who were lending their fellow Jews the money they needed, but charging high interest (against Deut 23:20), forcing them to sell them their children as slaves in order to pay their debts (as Deut 15v12). Nehemiah is rightly angry, noting this shows no fear of God or concern to honour him before the Gentiles. He publicly