Day 48 Bible Reading

Exodus 21-22, Mark 2: 18-28, Mark 3: 1-30, Psalm 25: 8-15

Mark 2: 21-22 (ESV)

“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.””

Verses 21-22 from Mark 2 has always been confusing to me. I’m not sure I quite get it, but from reading various commentaries I have come to understand that Jesus was talking about himself and his mission in these statements. His teachings were so different than what was being traditionally taught in the temples. Even though the coming of Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament, what we he was teaching was so radically different that everyone would have to have a new way of looking at things. Did Christ know he was creating a new religion with his teachings? Or did he want Judaism to expand, to change to encompass his teachings? I don’t even know the answer to this question, but history tells us the people in Jesus’ time did not want to change and expand their beliefs to embrace Jesus’ teachings. So a new religion was formed, and one that would overtake and shape all of the Western world. I often wonder what our world would have been like if Jesus’ teachings would have been embraced by the majority of his people after the resurrection. Would our history still have been as violent? Would we have found other people to persecute? I don’t know. But I would have liked to experienced that world.

Day 47 Bible Reading

Exodus 19-20, Mark 1: 29-45, Mark 2: 1-17, Psalm 25: 1-7

Psalm 25: 4-5 (ESV)

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”

Verses 4-5 from Psalm 25 reminded me that we need pray to Christ these verses every day or our own version of it. If we pray a prayer like this every day, it will help in those times when something happens in our life and we don’t understand God’s purpose for it. I like the series The Chosen, and to support them finishing the series, I decided to watch Season 4 in the theaters. I don’t want to have spoilers, but I think it will come as no surprise if you read the Bible, that there are things that happen in the series so far that have to do with miracles and death. Why do miracles happen for some and not for others? Why do some people die young and others live to a long age? These are issues I know as Christians we will wrestle with at some time or another in our life. My friend Amy died many years ago from a brain tumor, that she discovered when her migraines got worse. I remember the last afternoon I spent with her. It was horrible. She didn’t even know who I was, and I was her best friend. She felt so far way from me, and it was the most painful thing in the world to experience. She was so young and bright. She was my role model in many ways. I delivered her rent check once when she wasn’t feeling well from the brain tumor and realized her monthly rent was equal to my monthly paycheck. That floored me! I remember desperately praying to God to understand why my friend had to die so young and feeling so angry at God as well. I look back on that experience now, and I know if I had been praying to God more frequently to understand his ways, I would not have been so distraught and angry at God.

Day 46 Bible Readings

Exodus 17-18, Mark 1:1-28, Psalm 24

Exodus 17: 3 (ESV)

“But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?””.

Verse 3 from Exodus 17 made me ponder how often I have asked God for a miracle thinking it would solve my problems, only to find out that I was saddled with new problems that again needed prayers. I know it comes off as ingratitude by people of Jacob but isn’t that the way of being human. We want our freedom, but when we get the freedom we realize there is a whole new set of problems. I admire people who start their own businesses because I know I couldn’t do it. I liked the comfort of having a regular paycheck, not having to worry about health insurance, getting paid for sick time, and all the other perks of working for someone. When you work for yourself, you become responsible for everything including the work that brings in the revenue. I think my mistake in the past is I didn’t have a Moses in my life to talk to God about my new set of problems after my miracle. I figured that well, I asked God for that one miracle and he came through and I can’t turn around and ask him for another one. Now it was my turn to solve it on my own. But I see now that my attitude was wrong. I should have kept relying on God for guidance in my life and not feel embarrassed to ask for another miracle. Not that my own decision making was that bad, but I’m sure with God’s guidance my life would brought me closer to him and may not have taken so many years for me to want to be closer to him.

Apologies for the delay in Bible Reading posts. I picked up a cold somehow last week, and by Saturday the symptoms kicked me big time. First with extreme tiredness on Saturday afternoon, then I was feverish on Saturday night. Finally went to sleep, but I woke up on Sunday still not feeling all that great. About mid-morning I vomited and the mucous started. I spent most of Sunday day and night trying to sleep. I woke up Monday still not right, but I managed to finally get a meal down so I could take some night-time cold capsules. I woke up this morning feeling better, and I took some cold medicine to clear up the lingering cold symptoms. I did listen to my Bible Readings, but when I’m not feeling well the urge to think and write is just not there.

But I’m feeling better tonight, so I will try to get caught up as I’ve missed four days of Bible Readings.