Day 45 Bible Reading

Exodus 15 & 16, Matthew 28: 1-20, Psalm 23: 1-6

Psalm 23: 1-4 (ESV)

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Psalm 23 verses 1-4, some would say, are the most recited lines from the Old Testament. I love the imagery of God’s people being sheep, and God as the good shepherd. This is a God that give us a good place to sleep and takes us to water to drink. But this is also a God who restores our soul and makes us feel less fearful as we face death, and protected as well. I have recited Psalm 23 many times when I’ve needed comfort from the Bible. Someone should do a survey of how many times Psalm 23 is recited in a movie or tv show, because I bet that number will be high.

Day 44 Bible Reading

Exodus 13-14, Matthew 27: 45-66, Psalm 22: 22-31

Exodus 14: 22-23 (ESV)

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.”

I was listening to a bible commentary by Davidd Guzik on Exodus 14 verses 22-23, and he talked about every Christian having their “Exodus” moment. The “Exodus moment” is the moment in a Christian’s life when they felt that God had freed them, from whatever was enslaving them. For some that could have been a sin, for others it was an addiction like alcoholism or drugs, and for some that moment could have been when you realized Christ was your savior and had taken on your sin. Do you have an “Exodus moment”? My “Exodus moment” happened to me at a very young age, when I felt very unloved by the people who were raising me. It happened so long ago that I don’t even remember the exact moment, and I was so young as well. But what I do remember is hearing a voice inside my head telling me that I was loved, and that voice telling me he was Christ from the church. That’s all I remember, and it’s probably a fragment of a memory, but I remember the feeling I had afterwards that everything was going to be okay. I don’t remember much of church as a child except that we went every Sunday. And that experience of Christ speaking inside of my head would occur now and again when things weren’t going very well in my life. It wasn’t until these last few years that I felt like God was asking me to develop a deeper and more mature relationship with him, by reading the Bible every day, by getting into a good church, and by writing down daily what I’m grateful for and the miracles that I saw happen that day. It’s been an interesting journey and I cannot wait to see where it leads me.

Day 43 Bible Reading

Exodus 11-12, Matthew 27: 1-44, Psalm 22: 12-21

Exodus 12: 36 (ESV)

“And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.”

I like verse 36 from Exodus 12. God told Moses that when his people left Egypt in Exodus 4 that “you shall plunder the Egyptians, and this verse is the fulfillment of what God said. But I am very sure that when Moses first heard God say this, he didn’t expect it to happen in the way that it did happen. I have prayed to God to grant me things and situations for years, and never once did they ever come about exactly the way I had pictured them in my head. But when your prayers are answered, you experience first-hand the fulfillment of God’s plan but never it seems in the way you thought it was going to happen.

Day 42 Bible Reading

Exodus 9 & 10, Matthew 69-75, Matthew 27: 1-10, Psalm 22: 1-11

Psalm 22: 1-2 (ESV)

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”

Verses 1 to 2 from Psalm 22 has probably been uttered by every Christian at some point in their life. Christ himself quoted verse 1 from Psalm 22 from the cross. Thoughts like these come up when we are going through a dark season in our life, and we don’t hear an answer from God. Our patience is stretched thin and we come to this dark place where we have the greatest doubt in God. Our faith is being tested as we wait to hear from God. I know I have had these thoughts many times. The only thing that saves me is when I remember how many times God has been faithful to me and answered my prayers. I think it’s the waiting that gets us. I was listening to a commentary on Exodus about the plagues and scholars have said the plagues took place over a year. Moses had to wait a long time to accomplish this first part of his mission. The silence also gets us as well, at least it does me. If I don’t get a hint of an answer from God, I feel abandoned. The patience and the silence engender feelings of extreme abandonment in me. In these times, I have to cling to faith as hard as I can, like a drowning person trying to keep above the water. But God always comes through, even though it seems to take a long time.