Two year Bible reading program.

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 28:16 Understanding to grow in Mark's account of the resurrection is the briefest. Some think its abrupt ending means the original end may have been lost. Mark notes first, that there was no mistake as to where Jesus was buried as the two Mary's were there. Second, he notes the heavenly significance of the events, by the miraculous removal of the "large" stone and the intriguing man dressed in the uniform of heaven (16v5 with 9v3). Third, Mark stresses the reassuring fact that this fulfilled what Jesus had said would happen. So the disciples need not fear in facing life post-crucifixion, as they will see Jesus again. Finally, we see the women nevertheless left "trembling and be...

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 28:15 Understanding to grow in What stands out here is how serious guilt of those who condemn Jesus. Knowing Jesus was being set up Pilate was still ready to have him flogged and crucifed. And the Jews were ready to have a murderer released in order to ensure that Jesus died. We also see here the irony of Jesus' kingship. He is ridiculed as "king of the Jews" when that is just who he is. He is bowed down to in jest when bowing is just what should be done. He is mocked as unable to come down off the cross despite claiming to be the Messiah, when he remained there willingly only because he was the Messiah. And it is this that makes the crown of thorns is in some way fitting, for his great...

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 28:14 Understanding to grow in Here the obedience of Christ to his Father, and his great love for his people shines out. He was "overwhealmed" to the point of death in Gethsemane - evidence that he knew that he was to face was not just the physical and psychological torture of his trial and execution, but the spiritual torture of experiencing the God-forsakeness due for sin when to that point he'd eternally known only the sweetest of fellowship with his Father. Yet despite all that, he still declares "not what I will, but what you will." Of course in this time of trial he longs for fellowship, but he had to suffer the failings of his disciples too. They would not follow him in...

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 28:13 Understanding to grow in The hostility of the Jewish leaders now comes to a head. Contrast their scheming with the devotion of the woman with perfume. And then contrast her readiness to sacrifice materially for Jesus with Judas' readiness to betray him for money. What love for Christ looks like is obvious: giving our all. Of course what happens next proves how worthy Jesus is of our all. He times the last supper to show he is the fulfilment of the passover - he is the lamb to be sacrificed in the place of his people so that God's judgment passes over them. By the means of his broken body and shed blood, his followers will come to drink with him in his kingdom. Yet, there is warning here...

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 28:12 Understanding to grow in After his rejection by so many of his people, here Jesus predicts the judgment that it warrants - the destruction of Jerusalem that took place under the Roman General Titus in AD70. The detail of this chapter is much debated, but verses 1-23 seem to deal with the lead up to this destruction. The turmoil of v5-8 display how significant the event is, with the whole creation in a sort of labour, about to give birth to something new. The sort of events later recorded in Acts are also prophesied, promising persecution, but also the Holy Spirit's enabling. The "abomination that causes desolation" refers us back to Daniel 9v25-27, where an "anointed one...

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 28:11 Understanding to grow in The religious teachers display their dire spiritual state by their attitudes to Jesus. Rather than being genuinely interested, they try and catch him out. The Herodians, Pharisees and Sadducees were different groups. But they were quite happy to unite in their opposition. Jesus' responses display his superior wisdom, pointing to his true identity. His point about there being no marriage in heaven as we will be like angels, does not imply we will not forever know a special relationship with our spouse. It is simply to say that like angels we will not be married in the kingdom of God, for now is the time for having and raising children (The comment about resurrection ...

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 28:10 Understanding to grow in Throughout the Old Testament God had spoken of how he would come to his people looking for the fruit of righteousness. By cursing the fig tree then, Jesus was showing what the Jews would face for not producing the fruit God wanted. It is no surprise then that Jesus immediately drives the money changers out of the temple. The people were concerned with wealth rather than worship. And Jesus' actions were a foretaste of the destructive judgment on the city and temple in AD70 that God would bring about at the hands of the Romans (predicted in Mark 13v1-19). This people's unrighteousness was especially apparent in their leaders. Rather than recognizing Jesus, they ju...

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 28:9 Understanding to grow in To be truly great in God's eyes is to serve. That's what Jesus life and teaching brings home. Again he tells his disciples he is to be rejected and killed. He then uses this in response to James and John's request for priveledged positions in glory. The "Son of Man" is the one given all authority in Daniel 7v13-14. Yet Jesus says that as this Son of Man, even he came to serve by giving his life as a ransom, to purchase people for God. And so Jesus' disciples must be ready to do the same. And Jesus' entry into Jerusalem confirms the point. By riding a colt and receiving praise (see Ps 118v27), Jesus is showing himself the promised king who wo...

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 28:8 Understanding to grow in The sort of faith that God looks for is a child-like readiness to trust and so obey. That's why Jesus blesses little children and says the kingdom of heaven "belongs" to such as these. And that's why he then calls his disciples "children" (v24) when teaching from the rich man, that he could not enter the kingdom because, although he kept the commandments, he was not ready to trust Jesus enough to obey him. Of course, Jesus doesn't ask everyone to sell all they have. The point is that we should so trust Jesus that we are ready to give up whatever he might ask. And the reassurance he gives is that those who do will receive a hundred times as...

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 28:7 Understanding to grow in Because Jesus is the Messiah, nothing is more important than our response to him. So we are told "everything is possible for one who believes" (9v23). Through faith or the prayer of faith, demonic powers are overcome. With the boy's father, we might well therefore ask Jesus to help our unbelief. But the right response is not just one of faith but obedience. So the disciples are taught that in following the one who serves even to death, they are to serve rather than argue over who is the greatest. They are to be ready to welcome even children in his name and accept others who seek to serve Jesus. Moreover, response to those who belong to the Messiah is param...

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 28:6 Understanding to grow in Peter finally sees. But as with the healing of v22-26, at first he sees only partially. He grasps Jesus is the God's Messiah. It means "anointed one" and refers to the king that the Old Testament prophets promised would be anointed with God's Spirit, and would therefore reign in perfect righteousness and justice as mighty God and prince of peace, and whose kingdom would span the earth and last forever (Is 9v6-7. 11v1-9). But what Peter cannot accept is that this king had come to be rejected and die. And by rebuking Jesus for teaching this, he is acting for Satan in tempting Jesus not to go through the very act by which he would achieve his kingly victor...

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 28:5 Understanding to grow in No matter how persuasive the Christian might be, it can sometimes seem as if their hearer is deaf in just not getting it. It was always so. As Jesus performs another miraculous feeding, he is incredulous at his disicples' inability to grasp it's significance: "Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear" (8v18). Repeating feeding 5000 Jews, this miracle in a Gentile area shows the overflow of God's life on offer even to them, as seen with the Phoenecian woman (7v24-30). But the disciples are in danger of the "yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod" (8v15) who refuse to accept what the miracles point to, wanting more signs...

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 28:4 Understanding to grow in "Hypocrite" is a charge non-Christians only too often put to the church. Here we see what hypcritical Christianity is. It is one that goes through the motions of worship, but a worship that is vain because the individual's heart is far from God. And how is this evidenced? Jesus' answer is simple: By letting go of God's commands in scripture and holding instead to human ideas. It's a striking indictment of leaders and members in today's church who claim that modern ideas reflect God's will and that the Bible is outdated. However, there is a word here for all of us. For what Jesus goes on to highlight is that all our hearts are corrupted -...

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 28:3 Understanding to grow in Jesus' miracles do reveal his compassion. His is moved to see the people like sheep without a shepherd - wanding without the leaders they need. And so he teaches them and feeds them. But the bigger revelation intended by his miracles, is his identity. It was the LORD who miraculously fed Israel with bread and quail in the desert. And here Jesus' feeding with bread and fish is so abundant and generous that there are twelve baskets left over. The point is that the life Jesus offers, is more than enough for the twelve tribes of Israel. But there is more. As he walks on water we are reminded of Job 9v8 that tells us that our maker alone "treads on the waves of 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 28: 2 Understanding to grow in We should not be surprised when people respond to our message negatively. They "took offence" at Jesus (6v3), and lacked faith because he was someone they had known. Strikingly, finding someone's words offensive in our own day, means they can be classed as hate speech. How likely then, that we will find people respond to us as they did Jesus. For, although we are not apostles, we too are called to share the message of repentance. And it was a message that led to John the Baptist's death, when the sympathetic but weak ruler was petitioned by someone he wanted to please. Again, it sounds so contemporary, as employers and even own police force act against...

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 28:1 Understanding to grow in There are times in life we feel completely overwhealmed, facinig situations where none can help. However, there is always one who can: The experienced fishermen were nearly swamped, but Jesus calmed the storm with a word. None had been strong enough to subdue the demonized man (5v4) as the legion of demons within him were so many and so destructive as to inhabit and destroy two thousand pigs. But they were so subject to Jesus' as to require his permission to transfer to the pigs, and the man so delivered as to be "in his right mind" (5v15). Next is the woman who experienced bleeding. No doctor had been able to help. She had just got worse (5v26). But a touc...

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 27:23-27 Understanding to grow in "Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother" (3v35). That's the context to today's reading. They are those who prove good soil. The seed of Christ's teaching is not snatched away, or given up on because of trouble, persecution, worry or wealth. Rather it bears fruit in obedience because God has given the hearer eyes to see and ears to hear. We should therefore consider the message that is made known to us carefully, as we will be judged on our response. And we should recognize the kingdom of God is all about growing a good crop through the word in readiness for the harvest on the last day.  Indeed, through that word, the kin...

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 27:22 Understanding to grow in Everyone longs for rest. But the greatest rest is from the struggle with sin and the hardships of life. The Sabbath pointed to this. The rest from work looked to the rest of walking with God in Eden (Gen 2v2-3, 3v8). Here Jesus is clear that this rest is found with him as "Lord of the Sabbath" - the one in whom it is truly found and who governs how it is kept. We therefore see the disciples walking with him and enjoying God's creation. And we see Jesus stressing how appropriate it is on the Sabbath of all days to give life in healing. In what follows we then see, again, his ability to overcome sickness and Satan's works, as he commissions his disciples...

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 27:21 Understanding to grow in Often someone has said they've felt unable to come to church because they are not living a Christian life. It betrays the assumption that Christ is only for the good. Of course they couldn't be more wrong. And that should reassure each of us every day, for who can claim to be without sin. The healinng of the paralysed man proves two key things: First, that people understood Jesus to be claiming to be divine. Second, that he really was, and so has God's authority to forgive sins. Levi's calling immeditaley shows us what that means. He has come for the spiritually sick, like the money swindling tax-collectors. And with forgiveness and a new start with God ...

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 27:20 Understanding to grow in Early Christian tradition tells us Mark recorded his gospel from Peter. It was probably written in the 50s or 60s AD. And it starts, giving us a taste of what the kingdom of God will be like, for Jesus taught that with him it had "come near." First we see that it's centre is Jesus himself. He is the long expected Messianic king. But John testifies to him as "the Lord" himself, and the Father testifies at his baptism that he is God the Son. And he comes dispensing God's forgiveness to the repentant, so that they can enter the coming kingdom. Indeed, in being led by the Spirit to be tempted for forty days in the desert, he displays that he obey...