Been thinking about some great truth today from Psalm 130:3-4 —
[3] If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?[4] But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
If God marked iniquities, not one of us could stand before Him. We would all have a guilty verdict upon us. But, with Him there is forgiveness and, as a result, we stand in awe of Him. Praise Him today, for the glorious Gospel realities of forgiveness that are yours in Jesus Christ.
I really enjoyed this short podcast from Truth in Love answering this question: Should Christians Count Their Calories This Year?
This coming Sunday, 1/10/16, we will be digging in to 1 John 5:6-12. After studying through this passage, I tweeted out: “1 John 5:6-12 in a sentence – “Testimony (about Jesus) with implications that may lead to life.” #believeinHim
So, what I hope we see this coming Sunday is a clear picture of Jesus and we’d respond accordingly. It’s going to be a great weekend studying this passage and considering it in our small groups, as well. I hope to see you there.
My 1/3/16AM sermon, Faith Overcomes from 1 John 5:1-5 is now online. One way God works assurance in His people is by showing the fruit of lives that are born of God, those who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. This sermon unpacked the fruit of love, obedience and a reality of faith that overcomes the world. I hope it encourages you.
Today, as you think about the newness of the New Year, remember, part of what God’s done in the Gospel is to take away the old and make all things new.
In fact, Revelation 21:5 says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Rest in this glorious reality today.
Do you want to read the whole Bible?
The average person reads 200 to 250 words per minute; there are about 775,000 words in the Bible; therefore it takes less than 10 minutes a day to read the whole Bible in a year.
(For those who like details, there’s a webpage devoted to how long it takes to read each book of the Bible. And if you want a simple handout that has every Bible book with a place to put a check next to every chapter, go to Don Whitney’s checklist.)
(Justin Taylor provides a post on reading the Bible each year, and he’s my source for the above information.)
I love using the ESV Daily Reading Bible.
You might need lots of grace to accomplish this, so maybe you could try to Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers.
There are many Reading Plans Using the ESV.
I’ve distributed the Navigator’s Discipleship Journal Plan a lot.
People have also benefitted from the Bible Eater Plan.
In terms of a newer resource, J.R. Vassar’s Church At The Cross has a Bible Reading Plan that is sensitive to the church calendar (think Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Ordinary Times). They have daily reading bookmarks you can download.
Tolle Lege! Take up and read!
My former seminary professor Don Whitney has done a great service is helping us think through some questions to start the new year. Here’s how he begins:
Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.
Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It’s so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we’re going and where we should be going.
The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.
I’d encourage you to download the questions and consider how God may redirect and/or refocus you in the coming year.
If I were going to ask you about how you would wage war to fight the evil of our world, what would you give as the key component of the battle? Some of us might rush to politics, money or power. But, the Bible paints this entirely different. This coming Sunday, 1/3/16, we will explore 1 John 5:1-5, which says,
“And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. [5] Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Come this Sunday and see how your faith in God changes things.
My 12/27/15AM sermon, Love Perfected from 1 John 4:17-21, is now online. Just like we’d expect to be chilled walking outside on a day with a 5 degree wind chill or be satisfied after eating at a buffet, we can expect that when God moves into our lives with His love, things will be affected. His love perfected in us, means we can expect certain things to characterize our lives. These are what I tease out of this passage. Hope it helps you.
This Friday, remember the amazing news communicated to the shepherds:
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)
