Day 59 Bible Reading - Mark 10: 15 (ESV)

Leviticus 3 & 4, Mark 10: 1-31, Psalm 31: 19-24

Mark 10: 15 (ESV)

” Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

When I first heard and read verse 15 from Mark 10, I used to think it meant that we needed child-like faith in God. Having faith in God the way a child trusts his father. I believe I have a child-like trust in God. But after reading several commentaries, many biblical scholars believe this verse also emphasizes that children don’t feel that they have to earn everything they get. Children will never refuse gifts out of self-sufficient pride. A child will receive a gift because at their age, that’s all they can do. I like this new way of looking at this verse because as an adult, I do often find it hard to receive gifts. The first thoughts that inevitably run through my head upon receiving a gift are 1) what does this person want? 2) I’m going to have to give them something now just to even out the scales, 3) I don’t deserve a gift ever, and 4) what did I do to earn this gift?” I’m going to have to add the child-like attitude of being able to just receive to my definition of faith.

Day 58 Bible Reading - Mark 9: 49-50 (ESV)

Leviticus 1 & 2, Mark 9: 33-50, Psalm 31: 9-18

Mark 9: 49-50 (ESV)

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.””

Some theologians have speculated that fire in verses 49 and 50 from Mark 9 refers to troubles and suffering. But others have said that the fire refers to the Holy Spirit. I like the interpretation of fire being the Holy Spirit. As followers of Christ, we will be salted with the Holy Spirit. But to keep our faith constant and unwavering, we will have to keep the Holy Spirit in ourselves at all times. If we keep the Holy Spirit within us, then we will have always have peace. But I can see why the fire could be interpreted as troubles and suffering. When our faith is tested by troubles and suffering, our faith becomes stronger and we grow closer to God.

Day 57 Bible Reading - Mark 9: 23-24 (ESV)

Exodus 39-40, Mark 9: 1-32, Psalm 31: 1-8

Mark 9: 23-24 (ESV)

“And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!””

When I read verses 23 and 24 from Mark 9, I tried to imagine myself as the father of this child who needed healing. This man had so much belief in Jesus. I don’t know for myself if I would have that kind of belief in someone to heal my child. But the father does say to Jesus, “help my unbelief”, so he did have doubts but he asked Christ to help with his doubts. Christ healed the father’s son, even when it looked like the child had died. I’m trying to imagine what the father thought because the spirit did come out of the child, but then the child was lifeless. The father’s faith was tested again, until Jesus brought him to life. Asking for God to help us with our doubts even if we believe, is probably the wisest thing to do because there are times in our life when our faith will be tested like this father.

Day 56 Bible Reading

Exodus 37 & 38, Mark 8: 1-38, Psalm 30: 8-12

Mark 8: 33 (ESV)

“But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.””

I’ve always found verse 33 from Mark 8 very interesting. When I read his passage, I always think of Peter as just being mindful of any harm coming to Jesus and warning him. When Christ scolds him, it makes me realize that a person can so easily and unwittingly be used by Satan. God can do all things, but Satan whispers doubts in our ears and make us wonder if God is really that powerful even though we have evidence as did Peter to the contrary. We have always remind ourselves if our thoughts and words are contrary to the truth we know about God and the Christ.

Day 55 Bible Reading

Exodus 35 & 36, Mark 7: 31-37, Psalm 30: 1-7

Exodus 36: 1 (ESV)

“Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.”

I find verse 1 from Exodus 36 very intriguing. God filled the people who would be building the ark of the covenant with the necessary skills to build and decorate it. Does this mean if God tasks us with doing something, he will fill us with the “skill and intelligence” to complete the task? I think the answer is yes. I think of all the times God has asked me to do something, and I had doubts about doing the task. But if I just allowed myself to follow God’s wishes, I found myself able to complete the task even though I wasn’t sure at the start that I knew what I was doing. Did God fill me with “skill and intelligence” but I didn’t know it? I don’t know. I would like to think God did, because I know without God’s help I wouldn’t have been able to complete the task. So the next time God asks me to do something, I’m not going so much of doubter. I’m going to just do it, and trust that God will provide me with the skills I need to get the job done.

Day 54 Bible Reading

Exodus 33 & 34, Mark 7: 1-30, Psalm 29

Mark 7: 18-23 (ESV)

“And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean. And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.””

In these verses from Mark 7, we read of Jesus redefining the strict laws for eating laid down by the Pharisees. But I think Jesus in some way also expanded the kosher laws to include all things that enter our heart. If we hear things and let it enter our heart that are not in keeping with God’s laws in the both the Old an New testament, then slowly but surely it can start to poison us so when it does come out it will defile us. These last few weeks, Holy Spirit has been convicting me of listening to people who are all doom and gloom. I told myself I listen to these people because I am an open-minded person and I like to hear different points of view on a topic. But Holy Spirit has been warning me that listening to people with negative points of view is not a good thing for me because I feel depressed afterwards. If I look back on the track record of these people in predicting world events and trends, I have to say that 80% of the time their predictions have not come true. Some people even refer listening to doom and gloom as “fear porn”. So I stopped listening to them and my mood has improved because I think I am by nature a very optimistic person. And of course, Holy Spirit was right. I was letting myself take in something that started to defile me inside.

Day 53 Bible Reading

Exodus 31 & 32, Mark 6: 30-56, Psalm 28

Mark 6: 48-50 (ESV)

“And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.””

Something about these verses from Mark 6 struck me today. It must have been so terrifying for the disciples to see Christ walking on the water. But then Jesus says to his disciples, “Take heart, it’s me. Do not be afraid.” Wouldn’t it be so amazing to hear the voice of Christ crying out to us when we are in scary situation? I was trying to remember if I was ever in a scary situation and praying to hear God’s voice, but getting to scary situations isn’t a normal event for me. The last situation I was in where I think I had some fear was the first time I drove cross country, which was six years ago. I had mapped out my route so I knew where I was going and the route, but I had never driven over two days by myself to another state. I have friends who do it all the time over the holidays, when they drive cross country to visit parents. My cousin drove from California to New Jersey by herself to visit her parents, and she was under 21 years old. I was so proud of her. I’m not sure I could make that same trip, because I have fears of travelling alone in my car for that many days. But if I did make a similar trip like my cousin, it would be so cool to hear the voice of Christ telling me not be afraid because he is with me and guiding me the whole way.

Day 52 Bible Reading

Exodus 29-30, Mark 6: 1-29, Psalm 27: 7-14 

Mark 6: 11 (ESV)

“And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.””

I like Verse 6 from Mark 6 because it reminds me that I may not be liked wherever I go. We’ve been taught that everyone is supposed to like us and if they don’t, then there is something wrong with us. Here Jesus is saying to his disciples if people do not receive or like you, move on and don’t worry about it. Remember the parable of the sower. Not everything you say will take root. But you must keep sowing. But be kind and treat them well. This is a good reminder when telling someone you are a Christian. You many not be received with kindness, but that is okay. Shake off the dust and move on.

Day 51 Bible Reading

Exodus 27 & 28, Mark 5: 21-43, Psalm 27: 1-6

Psalm 27: 1 (ESV)

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

I love verse 1 from Psalm 27. I remember reading this psalm, but this verse never stood out until today. I am developing a love for any bible verse that refers to Jesus as a light in the darkness, and this verse is perfect. I’m not a tattoo-type person, but “Psalm 27: 1” might be a good candidate for a tattoo if I were to ever get one. I also like the use of the word “stronghold” because this word is often used to talk about addictions. But instead of an addiction, my strong “stronghold” is God. Does that mean I’m addicted to God? I kind of like that thought.

Day 50 Bible Reading

Exodus 25 & 26, Mark 4: 30-41, Mark 5: 1-20, Psalm 26

Mark 4: 30-32 (ESV)

“And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.””

I love the mustard seed parable, which I posted earlier when we were going through the Gospel of Matthew. After reading a few bible commentaries, I didn’t know that some theologians consider these birds as “emissaries of Satan” because of what Jesus said earlier in Mark 4 in the parable of the soils. The birds devoured some of the seed and Jesus tells his disciples that “Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.”  Some theologians say that the size and status of God’s work are not necessarily a benefit because of our sinful nature.  Was Christ referring to the corruption in the temples in his time? There have been many large Christian churches that end up in the headlines because of their corrupt practices. One thing I do believe is that our sinful nature will come out eventually, no matter how hard we try to push it down, and we have to pray to God to help us detect those “birds” early and keep them out of every growing faith tree.

Day 49 Bible Reading

Exodus 23 & 24, Mark 3: 31-35, Mark 4: 1-29, Psalm 25: 16-22

Mark 4: 9 (ESV)

“And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.””

Verse 9 from Mark 4 is one of my favorite sayings of Christ. God is all around us, in everything we do, in what we say and sometimes in what other people say, but only if we have the “right” ears to hear will we hear it as God. I think of all the times I have prayed for answer from from God, and the answer has come from a random thing I’ve seen on TV, from a random passage from a book, from a conversation with a friend even. But only if I was open to hearing it. If wasn’t open to hearing it, then I think God could have sat down next to me on my bed and shouted it in ear my ear and I wouldn’t have heard it, because I was too wrapped up in wanting to get the answer in the way that I wanted to receive the answer and I already knew what the answer should be. I didn’t want God’s way and his answer. I wanted my way and my answer. I had an issue that I was praying about and I wasn’t getting an answer. A friend suggested that I do a certain thing to solve it, and I dismissed it because it wasn’t the answer that I wanted. But after a few months, God did start to give me clues as to what his answer would be and, and in the end his answer was exactly what my friend had recommended months earlier. God was speaking through her to me, but I didn’t have the ears to hear it because I was too caught up in wanting my way and my answer, and not God’s way and answer. I could have saved months of anguish and doubt, if only I had ears to hear.

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.

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.

Day 41 Bible Reading

Exodus 6: 12-30, Exodus 7-8, Matthew 26: 47-68, Psalm 21: 8-13

Matthew 26: 53-54 (ESV)

“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?””

Verses 53 to 54 from Matthew 26 remind that Jesus is the model by which we must surrender to God’s will for our lives. Jesus knew he was going to his death when he was arrested, but he submitted it to his fate so what was prophesized in the Old Testament would come true. It struck me one day when I remembered that Jesus was called the “lamb of God” and in Jewish culture lambs have been used a sacrifice, that Jesus was always going to be sacrificed to take away our sins. We had a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, but he did not. God was going to sacrifice his only son to free us from sin. Was Jesus always so sure of his submission? No, because he asked on that same night that the burden be taken away from him. The human part of him asked, but the divine in him surrendered to his father’s will. I have never been in the position of having to sacrifice my life for God, but I have had to sacrifice things that sometimes felt just as horrific such as my ego. The death of your ego is like a physical death in so many ways, but it’s not. And when I do manage to give something precious up to me, God always rewarded me in one way or another. And if felt like one door closed and another chapter in my life was closed, so a new chapter and a new door could be opened. And it always worked out if I reminded myself to surrender like Jesus to the plan for my life.