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.

November 7 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 7  Psalm 120  Hebrews 8  Ezekiel 13; 14; 15

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?

People on a spiritual journey to Jerusalem would sing Psalm 120. They sang about our God who had been faithful to respond to their prayer. They sought peace and had grown tired of violent deceitful people.

Hebrews 8 turns the open letter to the main point: Jesus Christ our Savior now serves as Great High Priest and Mediator of our New Covenant agreement with God. Jesus Christ is now in the presence of Almighty Father God, bringing offering and fulfillment to the Tabernacle and Temple worship of days past. We will benefit from following Him and living in a constant awareness of our Lord Jesus.

Through the prophet Ezekiel, God warns of coming judgment on the unrepentant evil. False prophets were making up their own version of the future, “we will have peace and no punishment of our wrong”. Leaders of Israel were “embracing things that led them into sin”, in their hearts. God called everyone to turn away from their sin. The prophecy of God recorded in Israel’s history serves as proof that Yahweh is our sovereign God.

November 6 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 6  Psalm 119:169-176  Hebrews 7:11-28  Ezekiel 10; 11; 12

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 life I can wander from my relationship with God and become aimless. May God help me return to Him. Let my mouth express appreciation for our Creator, my Good Shepherd, and His faithful guidance. I will not allow myself to forget the Word of God. Psalm 119 is a faithful encouragement of this relationship.

Jesus Christ our Savior brought to fulfillment the priesthood of Levi and now guarantees the New Covenant for us, with God. Jesus lives forever and is now making intercession for us to God.

After hundreds of years of rebellious rejection of God, idol worship, oppression of the poor, and senseless violence God is bringing judgment on the Israelites and removing His manifest presence from His Temple. Their place of worship would not be the same. It would be destroyed. God predicted a restoration of those who were in exile. This would include a dramatic change of heart and a unity of new purpose. They would become sensitive and responsive to God. Ezekiel’s ministry included a call for people to repent and choose restoration before God brought judgment for violence.

November 5 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 5  Psalm 119:161-168  Hebrews 6:13-20; 7:1-10  Ezekiel 7; 8; 9

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?

We can experience peace when we make a lifestyle of following the guidance of God. Let us search the Scripture for the thoughts of God on how we should live. Let’s pursue this new lifestyle together. Many times each day we can thank God for the benefits of His guidance.

Throughout human history, our Creator has made promises to us and brought us into covenant agreements with benefits. Abraham is an example to us of God’s faithfulness to fulfill His promises. Melchizedek the priest and king resembled the coming Messiah Jesus and was recognized by Abraham as a spiritual authority. Abraham expressed respect by bringing a tithe.

God reveals to the prophet Ezekiel the coming punishment on those who refused to repent of their rejection of their Creator. Their lives had been twisted by sin and yet they would not forsake it. God would not violate their free will (which He Himself had given to them). Almost like Ebenezer Scrooge, Ezekiel is shown the many ways that the Israelites rejected God in favor of horrible sins and idol worship in public and in private.