Do you have genuine saving faith? Do you have confidence that if you should die tonight, you would spend eternity with God? Jesus and the Apostles warned us that there are those who may come to church, listen to the Word preached, and even make some moral changes in their lives, but who do not have saving faith and have not had the kind of internal heart change that we call conversion. They have not been born-again by the Spirit of God.
Also, as David’s story continues to unfold in 2 Samuel, we see the foolishness of thinking we can sin in secret and that our sins won’t affect anyone but us. David had set in motion laws of sowing and reaping and the sad results were happening before his eyes in the lives of his own children. This should drive us to our knees to pray for God’s wisdom in our own parenting.
God’s restraining grace is something we often take for granted. It’s even present to some degree in the lives of unbelievers. The Puritans called it common grace. It’s seen in the work of the conscience and in society’s acceptance of certain basics of right and wrong. But is it possible to lose God’s restraining grace?
There is no sin in our lives that is too big or for which God won’t forgive us if we are truly repentant. But knowing that doesn’t mean we can sin with impunity like children with our fingers crossed behind our backs. The person who thinks he or she can do whatever and ask for forgiveness later is in rebellion against God.
One of the consequences of willful sin can be the removal of God’s restraining grace where He steps back and allows us to do what our sinful heart desires. Without that restraining grace, we find that the sin we thought we could control is now controlling us. As someone once said, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”
We live in a world where the Bible and religious liberty are under siege. Many people point to the Old Testament, in particular, and say it’s outdated and irrelevant. Others want to discredit the Bible all together as something devised by men. They call those of us who hold to it everything from ignorant to mean-spirited.
Is the Bible and the Old Testament, in particular, still relevant? Does it have something to say to New Testament believers? If so, why are some Old Testament laws still valid and others are not?
Have you wanted to read through the Bible but the idea seems too overwhelming? Do you wish you had someone to help you understand the more difficult sections and someone to cheer you on when you get behind or bogged down? Kind of a bible for dummies plan?
Most of us are familiar with the proverb: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” But we all know kids who were raised in church and, yet, have walked away from God. What went wrong? Did their parents miss something? Did God fail to keep His Word? Do we have a parental guarantee that our children will always walk with God?
Also in today’s post:
As we start the book of Esther, we’ll look at what God was up to, and the un-fairy-tale-like ending for the other young virgins taken as “potential queen for a night.”
And from Romans, we’ll read about God’s warning to us concerning the danger of self-righteously judging others. So, as you can see there’s a lot to talk about in these passages.
Watch and listen to the Bible in a Year on YouTube! Get your FREE downloadable and printable Bible study through the book of Mark when you subscribe to my channel. Let me know here (so I can send the link)....
I will still be here in the coming year blogging through the Bible in a Year. But beginning this January, I’ll also be posting Bible in a Year videos on YouTube. You can view several of them right now including...
Why a fresh start through the Bible? Why “through” the Bible? Why not just read here and there, perhaps finding a subject that interests you? Or how about a short devotional? As long as you read something every day, isn’t that good enough? Today’s reading from the book of Psalms gives us a very good illustration of why it’s so important to read God’s Word in context.
The psalmist in Psalm 1 talks about a man who is like a tree planted on a riverbank where it gets plenty of water and is always fruitful. The psalmist goes on to say that God prospers whatever this man does.
I don’t know about you, but I want my life to be like that. But despite some who teach that God wants to make every believer prosperous, there are requirements for this prosperity. There are things we must do and other things we are to avoid. We also need to understand what the psalmist meant when he wrote about prosperity. If we don’t, we may find ourselves disillusioned, even angry, with God.
But this is just one example of the importance of understanding God’s Word in context, in its entirety. One of the biggest problems I find among believers is a failure to know God, to know His character, to know how He works through our tests and trials. As a result, far too many lead faithless, defeated lives.
But when we read through all of Scripture, we begin to see the big picture. As we go through the book of Genesis, we’ll look at the creation account and what it tells us about our incredible God. It will launch us on a journey through the history of God’s people and some of the most fascinating stories even recorded. As we go through the Prophets, we’ll see the many examples where their prophecies have already come to pass and our faith will grow. We will, also, come to better understand what was really happening in the book of Job, how much the psalmists were like us, and see the wisdom we can gain from Proverbs. In the New Testament, we’ll walk with Jesus and the Apostles, read Paul’s letters with fresh understanding, and marvel at the glories of eternity future.
So, why read “through” the Bible and not just here and there? So we understand the whole counsel of God and so we know the God of the Bible and not God as we think He should be.
Perhaps the question should be, “Why not read through the Bible in 2022?”
2022. A new year stands before us. 2021 and 2020 before that have been challenging to put it mildly.
Viruses. Bombings. Senseless murders. Shut-downs. Financial hardships. Crime. Dirty, partisan politics. Suicide. Sexual immorality. Anger. Road rage. Persecution. The loss of religious freedoms.
The world around us has been and continues to be in upheaval. Everything is changing right before our eyes.
Even within the church world, there are many false gospels.
So, how will we know truth from lies? How can we stand strong in a changing world, when life gets hard, or stays hard?
This year is fast drawing to a close and many of us are thinking about our goals for 2022. And there are many important goals and resolutions we can make as we look forward.
Certainly, these last two years have reminded us all that it’s important to take care of our health. And while, as believers, we shouldn’t live in fear, we should use wisdom in that area. Maybe you have career, financial, or other personal goals for 2022, as well.
But we should never neglect the most important area of life … our spiritual life. One of the most valuable goals is to read the Bible regularly. And I would like to suggest one of the best ways is to read through it in a systematic way. So, how about you? Do you want to grow spiritually in 2022? If so, what is your plan to do so?
Why is reading through the Bible so valuable? Can’t we get everything we need by going to church, reading a verse or two each day and listening to podcasts here and there? Isn’t it just too time-consuming? One more thing on a long to-do list?
Or what if you’ve tried in the past, only to fall behind and give up? How can you do it successfully in 2022?
