December 15th - Mary

Mary

Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38

What a brave woman Mary was. She risked being an outcast, and even being stoned to death, in order to be a part of God's plan for the world. She was the perfect example of obedience to bring up Jesus to also follow His Father's plan. I wonder how much she understood about what God asked of her. The Bible account doesn't tell us whether the angel told her more about the plan, or the sadness she would face, but the young virgin bowed to God's will and agreed to follow Him. The following link will take you to a beautiful song about Mary and her journey with Jesus:
"When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God."

"Dear God, help me to say, 'Yes,' to you, so that I can share in your plan for the world."

December 14th - Joseph

Joseph

Matthew 1:18-25

Joseph was chosen to be Jesus's earthly father. He agreed to bring up a child who everyone around them would have presumed was illicitly conceived, either through Mary's infidelity or through Joseph's premarital indiscretion. Either way, Joseph would have been the subject of a fair bit of gossip and perhaps pity. However, God revealed the truth to him. The child Mary was carrying was God's son. Not Joseph's, but not the son of any other man either.

Amid the gossip, the pity, the looks down noses, Joseph could be secure in the knowledge that he had been chosen to care for, bring up and teach God's own Son. What an honour. What a huge responsibility.

Bible in a Year - Day 52

Day 46: Leviticus 20 & 21; Matthew 28
Say to the Israelites: ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molek is to be put to death. The members of the community are to stone him. (Leviticus 20:2)
Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. Because they have cursed their father or mother, their blood will be on their own head. If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife —with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. (Leviticus 20:9-10)
 But I said to you, “You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations. (Leviticus 20:24) 
You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. (Leviticus 20:26) 
He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. (Matthew 28:6) 
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” (Matthew 28:10) 
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20b) 

Bible in a Year - Day 45

Day 41 - Leviticus 10, 11 & 12; Matthew 26:1-19
Leviticus is a difficult book so far. I'm struggling to find evidence of our loving God, though perhaps Leviticus 12 shows His love for women. They are unclean from 33 (after a boy) to 66 (after a girl) days after birth. I do not profess to understand all the clean and unclean laws, but I do wonder if perhaps this law was to allow women the chance to rest, recuperate and bond with their new babies. They would be unable to do anything for anyone else, for fear of making them unclean too, so would be free to sleep, to cuddle, to breastfeed, to settle into motherhood. And while it seems unfair that the period of uncleanliness is longer after giving birth to a girl, perhaps this was to allow an extra time of bonding with a new daughter, who would not have the immediate status and importance of a son, and so might need extra love and attachment.

Bible in a Year - Day 40

Day 40 - Leviticus 7, 8 & 9; Matthew 25:31-46

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

I love that our God is so good that He calls us to love Him by loving others, by loving the least of these. God loves the people that society forgets and ignores: the hungry and thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner. I think this includes the unborn child, the homeless, drug addicts and immigrants too. It's about valuing people because they are God's perfect creations, and because He loves us first.

Bible in a Year - Day 39

Day 26 - Exodus 11 & 12; Matthew 18:21-35
‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. (Exodus 12:27)

The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. (Exodus 12:36)

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive someone who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21-22)

“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. (Matthew 18:26-27)

Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ (Matthew 18:33)

Bible in a Year - Day 25

Oh dear. Poorly baby, busy weekend and hubby away on business have all kept me from blogging. Life and people are much more important though, and I am glad of it. I am up to date on my reading. On Friday I finished Genesis, and Saturday brought the beginning of Exodus.

The readings:
Day 18 - Genesis 42 & 43; Matthew 13:33-58
Continuing the story of Joseph. God's love for Joseph is apparent here, as his dreams come true when his brothers bow down before him. And His love for Jacob and his sons who, despite their wrongdoings, are still His people and will be provided for.

Day 19 - Genesis 44 & 45; Matthew 14:1-21
But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. (Genesis 45:5)
God plans ahead for us. He loves us even when it seems He has forgotten us.

Bible in a Year - Day 17

Good grief  - it's 5 days since I last posted about my Bible in a Year challenge, but I can assure you I have been keeping up with the reading.

In a bid to keep this from being the longest post ever written, I shall give the readings and the verses that I feel most show God's love.

Day 13 - Genesis 31 & 32; Matthew 10:24-42
...yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. 
(Genesis 31:7)

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you. 
(Genesis 31:42)

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.  
(Matthew 10:29-31)

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is known to be my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly be rewarded. 
(Matthew 10:42)

Bible in a Year - Day 12

A busy few baby days, so the following is a round up, rather than a deep look at each day's readings.

Day 9 - Genesis 23 & 24; Matthew 8
Today's verses of note show: 

- God's faithfulness and His approval of those who believe:
Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. (Genesis 24:1)
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”(Genesis 24:27)

- And Jesus' love for those who needed Him: 
When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. (Matthew 8:16)

Day 10 - Genesis 25 & 26; Matthew 9:1-17

God is faithful and trustworthy in His love for us. He loved Isaac because He loved Abraham:

Bible in a Year - Day 8

Genesis 20, 21 & 22; Matthew 7

Today we see God's faithfulness. His faithfulness in keeping promises, His faithfulness to provide and His faithfulness when we fail Him.

In Genesis 20 we once again see Abraham failing to trust God to protect him. Despite God's repeated promise to give him a son by Sarah, Abraham worries that she will be taken from him and that he will be killed. He falls back on his old trick of lying about her being his wife. This isn't surprising. The truly amazing part is that God remains faithful to him. God intends to keep His promise - so much so that he prevents Abimelek from being able to perform sexually, thus preventing any doubt over whose child Sarah will carry. He continues to acknowledge Abraham when his behaviour is so embarrassing. What a poor witness Abraham is, what a faithless man. Abimelek - the pagan - is more upright, honest and God-fearing than Abraham at this point. And yet, God still calls Abraham a prophet, still protects him and still listens to his prayers. Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again. (Genesis 20:17)

What we learn here is that it is God's faithfulness that saves us, not our own. We see God's grace at work in Abraham's life. This believer stumbles, but he is secure in God's promise. Our failures do not cause God to desert us.
This is the eternal security of the believer. Once saved, we are saved for good, even when our behaviour doesn't live up to that. This is Grace.

Bible in a Year - Day 7

Day 5 - Genesis 12, 13 & 14; Matthew 5:1-26

In Genesis 12 God speaks to Abram. He tells him to move, to leave everything he knows and head for a new land. In return He makes this promise to Abram:

“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.  

I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”

(Genesis 12:2-3)

Wouldn't it be wonderful if God would do that for us every time He asks us to do something or go somewhere; if He would give us a clear promise of what we will accomplish or receive or learn through our obedience? But look a bit further on. Abram was 75. Sarai, his wife was 65. They had no children. God's promise was that this aged, childless couple would be the beginnings of a great nation, that all peoples would be blessed through them. It wasn't exactly a clear, easily believable promise, was it.

Bible in a Year - Day 3

As many have done before me, I am attempting to read the Bible in a year. Not my first full read-through, but my first with a time limit and a reason. I sometimes struggle to recognise God's love for me; to see how He loves me personally and not just as one of many. So, as I read now, I am trying to pick out every verse that explicitly shows God as loving. Furthermore, I have often heard people saying that the God of the Old Testament is a harsh, cruel god, not one of love, so hopefully this will enable me to refute those claims.

I began reading on Saturday, so I'm day 3 now.

Day 1: Genesis 1 & 2; Matthew 1
In the beginning God creates. Everything. And it's all for us. For me. The earth and everything in it were created to enable us to live the lives God gave us.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. (Genesis 1:28-29)

God blessed them. First He created human beings and then He blessed them. What a wonderful start to life - receiving God's blessing. And then receiving the gift of His Creation.

We can see just how much God loved His final creations - man and woman - from His final thoughts before resting: God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1:31) Up until this point all that God saw was merely "good," but when He sees His human beings, He sees that everything is now "very good."