Blue Letter Bible

On the Blogroll are helpful sites that I use and will add to through the year.  The one I use a lot is the Blue Letter Bible.  The OT was written in Hebrew, except a few passages were written in Aramatic.  It is important sometimes to look up the Grammatical Meaning of a Word.  Sometimes it makes the pages go from Black and White to Color!! 

If you have a minute try to see what the word “created” is in Hebrew from the Website.  Type in Genesis 1, (use KJV version) click the C (for Concordance….and you will see that it means BARA.  which means FORMED.  Picture God Forming us.  He didn’t just close His eyes and we appeared…He formed us and the earth EXACTLY as he wanted us.  Bara.  With a single word he can FORM whatever He wants.  That is the Power of God.  SO anything you are holding onto that you think is too Big for God to overcome for you….remember what  HE did in a single Word!

Scripture Interprets Scripture

When we start on Friday, cross reference if you read a scripture and you really don’t understand it there are a few ways to handle it.  Read Commentaries, asking someone, read it in another version  or cross referencing.  Although all 4 are great methods, the last is the best (for me).  Reading a cross reference is so amazing.  Take this example:

 And I will put enmity
       between you and the woman,
       and between your offspring  and hers;
       he will crush your head,
       and you will strike his heel.”  Genesis Chapter 3:15

I confuse easily.  I didn’t understand this at all.  So I looked in the margin and I saw 3:15…1Jn 3:8 and Ro 16:20.  So I looked them up

He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1John  3:8)

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.(Romans 16:20)

So in GENESIS we see a prophesy of Jesus taking our Sin!

Scripture interprets Scripture!      

Where will we be on…

• New Year: Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man
• Groundhogs Day: Sodom and Gomorrah!
• Valentines Day: The Priesthood
• Ash Wednesday: Rules of Cleanliness
• Daylight Savings: Balaam and his talking Donkey
• St. Patrick’s Day: Description of a REAL king and REAL Prophet
• April Fool’s Day: The story of Gideon
• Easter: Samson and Delilah
• Mothers Day: David becomes King after killing Goliath
• Memorial Day: Solomon (David’s son) asks for Wisdom
• 4th of July: Ahab’s family is killed
• October 1: New Testament Begins
• Halloween: Jesus is teaching his Disciples
• Thanksgiving: Paul teaches about our Freedom in Christ
• Christmas: Jude, a letter from Jesus brother
• New Years Ever: we read AMEN!

Some History of HIStory!

None of what I am about to tell you is coming out of my brain.  I have stumbled across some great literature this past year and I kept some notes. Every post has a comment section, may I encourage all of you to use it for:

• Adding information/opinion that others could gain from.
• Asking questions, if you are thinking it …. I know someone else is too! SO PLEASE ASK.
• Personal stories of how this journey of 365 is changing your life.
• The honesty of how difficult this is going to be.  This is a test of time, discipline and obedience.

Our faith is not dependent on human knowledge and scientific advance, but on the message of the Word of God. William Lyon Phelps, a former president of Yale University said “I thouroughly believe in a university education for both men and woman; but I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without the Bible”.

So why read the Bible? It is easy for me to say “to know God better”, however the Bible is more than that.  In the Scriptures are the answers to life’s questions.  We are all searching for a reliable authority; the Word of God is the only real authority we have.  It answers: Where did we come from? Where am I going? What is my purpose?  The scriptures explain our human nature, the world’s current events, but more so, it explains the way to God, His plan of salvation. 

Some fun facts: 

The Bible is 66 books all inspired by  God.  He used 40 authors (yes there are books Paul did not write).  The Bible covers a time period of about 1,600 years.  The Old Testament  was written in Hebrew, the New Testament  was written in Greek.  The word BIble in Greek is Biblos, meaning “book” .  The word Testament means “Covenant”, or agreement.  SO the Old Testament is a covenant with His people before Christ.  The New Testament is His agreement after Christ. 

The Old Testament books has 5 Law books, 12 Historical Books, 5 Poetical Books, and 17 Prophetical Books 5 major; 12 Minors.

Why is it important to learn the Old Testament?  Well,  I could give you a ton of reasons (and my sweet friend Lori could give you 100 more) but know that if Christ quoted from 22 OT books:  in Matthew 19 times, in Mark 15 times, in Luke 25 times and in John 11 times, (the book of Hebrews quotes the OT 85 times and Revelation quotes the OT 245 times!) it must be important to still know even though we were born under the New Covenant.

So we are about to read 31,102 versus and about 775,693 words.  Sources say it takes about 80 hours to complete the Bible (they have no idea how slow of a reader I am) but I figured God is giving us 8736 hours this year to find only 80 to Read the Book He wrote for us.  I can do it.

Countdown 5!

Five days to go. My desire to do this grows every day.  I am in full mode again!  I have this urge to make charts and help aides this time and last time I didn’t.  Very exciting to see what God stirs up.  Well do you have the schedule printed twice? One in your Bible and the other in your car or purse.  Trust me, the moment you don’t have one for those times  you are “waiting” you will think…uggg I could be reading right now.

Are you a journaler? Treat yourself to a new one!  I personally am not,  but I m going to keep a folder of all the pictures or handouts we share together.

Not sure if I like the background yet.  Do you or should I experiment a litte?  Anyway, did you all ask someone to keep you accountable?  If not I will, just let me know.  ALSO, does anyone need a bible?   I have some extras that are really pretty that I would be willing to give to anyone who needs.  5 days!

2010

Is this the year you are drawn by the Lord to read the Full uninterrupted Plan of Salvation called The Bible?  Why read the whole Bible?  Well, for starters WHY NOT!  Also, the New Testament Covenant does not make sense without the foundation of the Old Testament.  The purpose of reading the Bible is to learn about God (not us).  From Genesis to Revelation God’s character NEVER changes.

Here are a few recommendations:

• Pray.  Pray that the Lord set a desire in your heart to be on Fire for reading the Bible.  Also pray that your heart be open to change, a change that will happen if we allow the Word to be set upon our hearts.
• Friend.   I highly recommend you pair up with a friend(s) for accountability and encouragement.  The disciples were paired up as well as Paul.  God knows our weaknesses and our hearts.
• Prepare.  I may say “this is 25 mins a day” but you have to find that everyday in a quiet place. So have a flexible plan.  Mine was in the morning before the kids got up.  Some did it at lunch everyday and others do it in bed at night.  This is a commitment to the Lord, so prepare your mind for the task ahead.
• Don’t be legalistic.  When I ask people their biggest regret it was ALWAYS, “I got behind and could not catch up…so I stopped”.  Here is the deal, know that you may have to NOT catch up and just pick up sometimes where everyone else is.  Ask someone to “fill you in” on what you missed and then go back and read what you missed when you can.  IT IS OK TO NOT CATCH UP.
• Beware.  We are reading this chronologically and by Jan 4th we will be in Job.  One of the main purposes of Job is that satan is very real.  When you commit to this, arm up, satan is going to camp out.  The more you dig, the more crap he is going to pull!  So suit up your armor!  Time to battle.

Everyone has a different reason or an idea of why they want to read the Bible in THIS stage of their Faith.  I would LOVE to hear why you want to read the Bible.  Be honest.