November 14 Bible reading

Each day of the year I’ll post verses to read, with the purpose of reading through the whole Bible within a year.

Reading the Bible is helpful in taking next steps to follow Jesus. It may not be easy and yet it can be rewarding. Digging into Scripture alongside people you know is a life-giving way to pursue answers together. We discover the love that God has for us, expressed through Jesus.

Please read the verses below, prayerfully consider them, and then my comments may be helpful after those moments.

November 14  Psalm 125  Hebrews 12:1-13  Ezekiel 26; 27

What’s the plain simple truth of the verses you read?

Based on today’s reading, what is one thing God is saying to you?

What should you do about that truth?

When the Israelites returned to Jerusalem they would be reminded of the protection of God, standing faithfully like the mountains that repelled would-be attackers. When we rely on God, He will not fail us and we can walk in peace. Let us spend time each day to bring our hearts in tune with God.

We found joy and received salvation through Jesus. Every day we should keep a focus on Jesus our Champion. Jesus initiates our faith and is bringing it to fulfillment. Our strength increases as we daily consider who Jesus is and how Jesus lives. This will motivate us to do anything possible to please God who has lavished love on us. When God brings guidance, reshaping our desires and correcting our behavior, we should be predisposed to respond out of humble gratitude. This adjustment, from God, comes with our best interest in mind. Our Creator knows best how we should live. Let’s not follow self-destructive desires.

Our God watched as the people of Ture lived the way that they wanted to, ignoring their Creator, and celebrating the destruction of Jerusalem. God knew their hearts. God predicted their demise in punishment and asked Ezekiel to sing a funeral song for them. Pride will bring consequences.

November 13 Bible reading

Each day of the year I’ll post verses to read, with the purpose of reading through the whole Bible within a year.

Reading the Bible is helpful in taking next steps to follow Jesus. It may not be easy and yet it can be rewarding. Digging into Scripture alongside people you know is a life-giving way to pursue answers together. We discover the love that God has for us, expressed through Jesus.

Please read the verses below, prayerfully consider them, and then my comments may be helpful after those moments.

November 13  Psalm 124  Hebrews 11:17-40  Ezekiel 24; 25

What’s the plain simple truth of the verses you read?

Based on today’s reading, what is one thing God is saying to you?

What should you do about that truth?

David writes a song, in Psalm 124, reminding his people of specific times when God delivered them. Where would we be without God? Without the grace of God, I would be worse than nothing. I would have been a detriment to society. God rescued me. If God has rescued you by His grace, sing about it. Your help came from the Creator of heaven and earth.

Hebrews 11 lists what some have called the “Faith Hall of Fame”. People who made life-changing decisions based on what they believed about God. They chose to “see the invisible, believe the impossible, and overcome the obstacles”. They recognized God’s purpose in their world and in their life circumstances. They lived by faith in their struggles, in their deaths, on their tedious days, and in the greatest victories of their lives. “They received what God had promised” and yet not all that God had promised. Complete fulfillment will come after Christ returns to earth and we see a great reunion in heaven.

Jerusalem had become a city of murder. God gave Ezekiel an object lesson to illustrate His efforts to cleanse the city of the stain brought by such violence. God said that it could not be cleaned and now must be judged. God instructed Ezekiel to not mourn the death of his wife in a customary way as another means of calling the Israelites to repentance. As a sign of sovereignty, God predicts the punishment of evil actions from the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Philistines.

November 12 Bible reading

Each day of the year I’ll post verses to read, with the purpose of reading through the whole Bible within a year.

Reading the Bible is helpful in taking next steps to follow Jesus. It may not be easy and yet it can be rewarding. Digging into Scripture alongside people you know is a life-giving way to pursue answers together. We discover the love that God has for us, expressed through Jesus.

Please read the verses below, prayerfully consider them, and then my comments may be helpful after those moments.

November 12  Proverbs 27:15-22 Hebrews 11:1-16  Ezekiel 22:23-31; 23

What’s the plain simple truth of the verses you read?

Based on today’s reading, what is one thing God is saying to you?

What should you do about that truth?

In our relationships we can benefit each other or we can cause stress. Human desire will not end until Jesus returns. We should consider this fact when we evaluate whether or not we are allowing our desires to drive our lives.

What is faith? In a sense, it is a gift from God who provides us the ability to move in the direction of what we believe. We can now see what God wants us to see. We can agree with God by choosing to believe. That is faith. Hebrews reminds us of people who chose to believe that God exists and will reward those who sincerely seek Him. Through life and death they made choices based on who God is and their hope of Heaven. They trusted God regardless of what they saw on earth. They were looking for something better than this earth and they found it.

Through Ezekiel, God reveals that He has seen leaders destroy the lives of people for their own financial gain. God wants spiritual leaders who will serve His people with integrity. This must include a faithful commitment to rebuild the principles of healthy right-standing relationships with God and others. God wants spiritual leaders who will pray for people in intercession.

November 11 Bible reading

Each day of the year I’ll post verses to read, with the purpose of reading through the whole Bible within a year.

Reading the Bible is helpful in taking next steps to follow Jesus. It may not be easy and yet it can be rewarding. Digging into Scripture alongside people you know is a life-giving way to pursue answers together. We discover the love that God has for us, expressed through Jesus.

Please read the verses below, prayerfully consider them, and then my comments may be helpful after those moments.

November 11  Psalm 123  Hebrews 10:19-39  Ezekiel 20:45-49; 21; 22:1-22

What’s the plain simple truth of the verses you read?

Based on today’s reading, what is one thing God is saying to you?

What should you do about that truth?

May God in Heaven be praised. We choose to exalt the living God. We watch attentively for what God may do next.  We ask God for His faithful love and mercy. We choose to look to God as our source. We choose to focus on God.

Jesus Christ our Savior has made a way for our guilt to be removed and our relationship with God restored. We had wronged God. We broke up the relationship. Jesus makes it possible for us to return. By accepting Jesus we can be in the presence of God, sitting in the same room with the all-powerful God, in peaceful relationship. When Jesus became our Way, the great curtain keeping people out of God’s presence in the Temple’s most holy place was torn. This is symbolic of the freedom we now have. Let’s hold fast to it, encouraging each other, gathering regularly, and growing in faithfulness and a expectant confident hope of the coming reward.

God will yet reveal Himself to everyone. Through Ezekiel, God communicates a broken heart at the need to punish people who refuse to repent. God predicted this in proof of His transcendent power. God details the sins He has observed in Jerusalem for which they have not repented. We must repent and turn to our Savior Jesus.

November 10 Bible reading

Each day of the year I’ll post verses to read, with the purpose of reading through the whole Bible within a year.

Reading the Bible is helpful in taking next steps to follow Jesus. It may not be easy and yet it can be rewarding. Digging into Scripture alongside people you know is a life-giving way to pursue answers together. We discover the love that God has for us, expressed through Jesus.

Please read the verses below, prayerfully consider them, and then my comments may be helpful after those moments.

Ezekiel 10  Psalm 122  Hebrews 10:1-18  Ezekiel 19; 20:1-44

What’s the plain simple truth of the verses you read?

Based on today’s reading, what is one thing God is saying to you?

What should you do about that truth?

Responding to a call to worship, pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem for spiritual festivals and sang as they journeyed. There was joy in their response. They would pray for (and work toward) the shalom peace of God in Jerusalem and in the preservation of the place of worship.

Our living God, in three persons, is revealed in the New Covenant. God the Son, our Lord Jesus became the once and for all sacrifice to remove sin by offering up the body God the Father gave Him. God the Holy Spirit testifies to the establishment of this New Covenant agreement between God and all who would accept Him. Our wholehearted devotion includes adoration, thanksgiving, and worship in response to the living God.

God cares about each person, their life, and their death. God’s heart is revealed in the Ezekiel 19 funeral song about the death of kings who rejected God and refused to repent. Every single human life will come to recognize Yahweh God as the one true living God. Over the course of human history (and as seen in Israel’s history recounted in Ezekiel 20) Yahweh God has repeatedly reached out to people, offering His unfailing love. God has made personal relationship available, with a commitment made to us and an invitation to enter a covenant agreement. It’s a dedicated love.

November 9 Bible reading

Each day of the year I’ll post verses to read, with the purpose of reading through the whole Bible within a year.

Reading the Bible is helpful in taking next steps to follow Jesus. It may not be easy and yet it can be rewarding. Digging into Scripture alongside people you know is a life-giving way to pursue answers together. We discover the love that God has for us, expressed through Jesus.

Please read the verses below, prayerfully consider them, and then my comments may be helpful after those moments.

November 9  Psalm 121  Hebrews 9:16-28  Ezekiel 17; 18

What’s the plain simple truth of the verses you read?

Based on today’s reading, what is one thing God is saying to you?

What should you do about that truth?

Many many people have worshipped their Creator by singing Psalm 121. Before we bring a request to God it is helpful to consider who we are speaking to. The Creator of all that we see has made access to His presence available to us. The one true living God watches over us and protects us. Spending time to consider this, to sing this truth, will improve our peace of mind and our outlook on life.

At the time of his death, Jesus entered the throne room, a most holy place, of Father God and presented His blood His life as a sacrifice. Once for all time, He has confirmed this New Covenant agreement between God and humanity. This sacrifice makes salvation possible. We can receive this grace and see our guilt removed and relationship with God restored. For this reason, we must look to Jesus for salvation and worship Him as Lord.

Ezekiel 17 presents a riddle of two eagles as another way that God predicted the specifics in which He would punish unrepentant Israelites through the Babylonians. Ezekiel 18 helps us understand that a person who was once righteous and then turns to sin is not protected by their earlier behavior. Sin brings consequences regardless of who you are. In the same way, if a person was sinful and yet turns with repentance to God they will find mercy. Furthermore, a child who loves God will not be punished by God for their parent’s sin.

November 8 Bible reading

Each day of the year I’ll post verses to read, with the purpose of reading through the whole Bible within a year.

Reading the Bible is helpful in taking next steps to follow Jesus. It may not be easy and yet it can be rewarding. Digging into Scripture alongside people you know is a life-giving way to pursue answers together. We discover the love that God has for us, expressed through Jesus.

Please read the verses below, prayerfully consider them, and then my comments may be helpful after those moments.

November 8  Proverbs 27:5-14  Hebrews 9:1-15  Ezekiel 16

What’s the plain simple truth of the verses you read?

Based on today’s reading, what is one thing God is saying to you?

What should you do about that truth?

There’s a great benefit from intentional relationships with people who will be faithful with their words, even when we need correction. This is far better than flattery. We must grow in wisdom.

In the past Tabernacle of worship, only the High Priest could enter their Most Holy Place (where God’s presence would be found) once a year to make sacrifice for sins. The manifest presence of God became obvious by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ our Messiah has entered the Most Holy Place in Heaven, by the sacrifice of His blood and “secured our redemption forever”. God receives His perfect sacrifice, as seen when God raised Jesus from the dead. In this way, we may be free from the penalty of sin. Jesus is our way, our truth, our life. It is Jesus who has set us free, not the Tabernacle, Temple, order of worships, old sacrifices, or instruments.

Our loving God created the people of Israel, provided for them, and brought them to prominence. They became deceived and believed that they were self-sufficient. They turned to worship created things, rejecting their Creator, in a prostitution of their spiritual heart. Their idolatry included human sacrifice of their own children in worship of evil. They became worse than the people they had detested. God predicted punishment, repentance, and restoration. We see God’s sovereignty interacting with the free will He had given His people.