Day 179: Ezekiel 9-12

We still are feeling sick here. It's been a long couple of days. But a discipline is a discipline, and I will continue to go on (even if I'm still a little behind). Fighting through the temptation not to do it is not easy, but I have to fight through it. Still, I don't have much to write about. Ezekiel continues to prophecy to the Israelite people, and he talks a lot about the glory of the Lord. I think I need a commentary to understand all of it. I really don't know what much of this means. But I don't have a commentary, so I'm just going to let the ideas percolate and simmer while I continue reading.

Day 170: Jeremiah 33-36

As a teacher of writing, chapter 36 really interests me. Here, you find the instructions given to Jeremiah to write down all the words of the Lord. Jeremiah dictated the words of the Lord to Baruch, and Baruch wrote them down on a scroll. After they were all written down, Baruch then read the scroll aloud to all the people outside the Temple.

We take for granted having access to the words of the Lord. Bibles are prevalent. We probably have several located around our homes. We can even read it for free on the Internet. Our access is abundant, and we take it for granted.

But those people in the Old Testament didn't have such access, and so when things were written down they were highly valued. People came from all over to hear the words read. Oh, how much they valued scribes and people who could read. So, as we read our Bible, let's remember just how valuable it is and treasure the words of the Lord within.

Day 114: Psalm 44-49

Today I'm thinking that my strategy for reading the Bible straight through has some problems. Up until now, it's worked out pretty well, but now that I'm in the psalms and reading so much of the same thing every day, I can see it is a bit more difficult than reading other books straight through. Some plans have it so that you read some of the psalms each day, which makes it so that the psalms are broken up.

What I do like about reading the Bible this way is that I have already read most of the narrative that comes before the psalms, and now when I'm reading the prayers of David or Moses, for instance, I understand more about the context for the psalm. I also like this method because it allows me to look at the Book of Psalms as an entire entity and study it as such rather than having it all broken up.

Still, this method is a bit problematic for me because the entire book is quite lengthy (I'm not even halfway through it), and I already find myself dreading (that seems really strong, but I can't think of another word) the next several weeks of reading Psalms.

Here are a few verses I liked today:

Psalm 44: 23-26--"Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love."
Psalm 46:1-2a--"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear..."
Psalm 46:10a--"Be still, and know that I am God..."
Psalm 48:9--"Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love."
Psalm 48:10--"Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness."
Psalm 49:15--"But God will redeem my life [f] from the grave; he will surely take me to himself."
Psalm 49:20--"Human beings who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish."

Day 84: 2 Chronicles 23-26

I have another confession to make. Here it is: I feel in a rut with this whole reading thing. I've read the passages for the day and don't have anything to write about them. Everything I've been reading for the past few weeks has already been told in the books of Samuel and Kings, and so I'm not hearing about new stories or learning different things about the nature of God (at least that's how I feel, which is why I'm in a rut). Now I realize when I write that how arrogant that sounds, and I really don't mean it that way. I know there is much more for me to learn. I guess what I mean is that this stuff is a little boring. I learn about kings and battles and how God was involved in them, but I end up asking, "So what?" What does all this matter anyway? Why is it important that I learn about Joash, Amaziah, and the armies of Israel and Judah? What should Christians today take away from these passages in the Old Testament that seem so outdated and ancient?

I recognize the historical significance of the Bible and how Christians today find our identity by connecting our lives to our ancestors. I also realize that we learn about God and about his nature. This is no small thing either. However, often times God is merely referenced and only in rare occasions (at least from what I've been reading) is he the center of the story. Rather, God is only mentioned when the author is summing up the king's life: King ____ did not follow the Lord's commands as his father King ___ did, or King ____ followed the Lord's commands as his father King ___ did, too. Is there something to be learned from that? I'm sure I could post something about it, but that statement doesn't really tell me much. How did he follow the Lord? What did he do specifically that resulted in the author writing this about him? I'm just a bit more curious about the "so what" of it all.

There's also a connection between success in battles and following of God. If the king follows God and keeps his commandments, then God is with him and allows him to gain power and glory. However, in spite of this connection, I know from living life that today good things do not always happen to good people. While this may be true in the Old Testament (and I'm not sure it was), it's not true today. So I'm not sure how to reconcile these differences between our lives today and theirs from long ago.

What can we learn today from the stories of the Israelites so long ago? 

What is God trying to teach us--teach me--through the Old Testament scripture? 


These are questions I'm pondering right now because I feel in a bit of a rut with the scripture of late.
Have you ever grappled with these same questions? What are your thoughts, dear reader? How do you get out of a scripture rut? How do you find meaning when the text seems more historical than applicable and relevant? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Day 44: Joshua 22-24

I have to confess something. I have been reading the Bible for several weeks now and although I have learned a lot about God--his nature and character--I don't feel that I have grown closer to Him. I don't quite understand why not because of how much I have learned about this, and I find this rather frustrating.

My reading so far has taught me a lot about several things: the church, values of God, God's commands and His will, the stories of God's people, sin, obedience, and discipline. However, I'm struck by how our modern notion of "a personal relationship with God" was not evident--or realized--with the vast majority of Israelites. Moses and Aaron had a relationship with God. Joshua and Caleb did, too. Adam and Eve. Cain. Jacob. Joseph. And a few others here and there.

In spite of these few mentioned "personal" relationships with God, the majority of Israelites are not reported to know God in this same way--personally. Rather, they knew him as a group. Israel was God's people. God knew Israel, and "Israel"--not individuals--knew God.

This concept is extremely different from today's widespread views that Christians can and should have a personal relationship with God and that Christians are saved individually through salvation and not as a whole. While I have some thoughts on both of those topics (which I'll save for later when we get to the NT), I mostly want to point out this difference.

I'm not sure from where the contrast originates, but I have a few ideas. It could be a difference between the old law and the new law--the old law that Moses handed to the Israelites and the new law that Jesus instigated. Or it could be a difference between cultures--the Israelite culture and an American culture that emphasizes the individual.

Regardless, the fact that I do not feel I have grown in "my personal relationship with God"--despite reading scripture every day and learning a lot about God in general--troubles me. I'm not sure where the answer lies or when in the Bible this concept of individual/personal relationship with God originates (or if it's in there at all or more the result of church tradition). But I am going to be watching out for it as I continue to read. I'm going to pay special attention to the contact that humans do have with God--in the OT and the NT--so that I can learn more about what this means and grow deeper in my relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Growing closer to God is one of the reasons I'm doing this. I don't just want to know about God; I want to know Him, and I want Him to know me. I pray that God will continue to show me how to use my imagination to envision a different relationship with God than I have now and to see the possibilities that exist when what now seems distant comes nearer.

Today is day forty of this reading venture. I've survived an entire flood (40 days and 40 nights)! In honor of the 40th day, I have decided to take the opportunity to reflect on what I've learned after 40 days and what I'm thinking about this whole idea. These are not in any particular order.

1. Daily reading of the Bible is becoming something more natural for me to do. Before this experience, my Bible reading was scarce. I only read the Bible when I followed along as preachers read it (and this was only occasionally), or when I read the Veggie Tales Bible to Elizabeth. Regardless, my Bible reading was rare. Now, since I've read for 40 days in a row, Bible reading has become more of a practice, something I plan for and do each day. Bible reading is a more of a habit now. I remember to look through the Bible.

2. The relationship between God and Israel has shown me much about the relationship between God and us. God loves Israel; they are his people. They are small, defenseless, and weak, and God chooses them to be his. While he loves them, he also disciplines them for disobedience. Today, we are Israel in relationship to God. By looking at how God deals with Israel, we can learn how to communicate with God. How to trust Him. How to love Him.

3. The Old Testament is connected to a specific historical time and culture, which means that some of the "laws" handed down to the Israelites are outdated and not meant to be hard and fast commands for us today.  However, determining which laws are cultural and which laws are not is not something I have enough training in to make any sort of coherent statement. Yet it is something I think we should consider.

4. God is good, but he disciplines people he loves. God is loving, creative, and good, yet he is also a jealous God. He wants all of us, our whole being. He doesn't want us to have other gods; he doesn't want to share us with other things that would take us away from our relationship with God. Still, God is good.

5. I have discovered connections in the Bible that I had never noticed before. Connections to the New Testament. Connections to the church today. Connections to my personal life. They are numerous and varied, but they are there. And this part of the whole experience has been one of the most exciting things for me so far.

6. Memorizing scripture is a valuable practice, one that I plan to pass on to my children.

7. People in the Bible are not perfect, nor should they necessarily be our role models; however, they can still teach us things about how to be in relationship with God.

8. God is creative, and he has passed on this same creativity to us, too.

I hope the next forty days are just as good as these last forty.

After much thought and contemplation, I've finally chosen the method I will be using for this upcoming year in approaching this task. Drumroll, please..........

I've decided to read the Bible from beginning to end.

Although there were advantages to all methods, ultimately it came down to the approach that was the easiest and quickest to implement. So, I'll be starting with Genesis 1:1 very soon.

So here’s a recap. I’ve decided to venture into a project of reading the Bible and blogging my reflections online, all within one year. I’m not saying that I’ll read and blog every day (although I’ll try!). I am committing that I will consistently read and post. Ideally, this would happen every day, but realistically I’m going to cut myself a little slack if I don’t get to post.

Now, the next task is to decide how to break up the entire Bible into one year for reading. I recognize that this task is not an easy one. Not only is the Bible rather long, but it can also be really dense. Many parts of the Bible contain deep material that needs time for processing and reflection.

In spite of this challenge of reading a long, dense text in 365 days, I need to decide how to break up the reading. There are 66 books in the Bible that contain 1189 chapters. That’s an average of 3.25 chapters per day. So here are the options:

1. I can read the Bible from beginning to end, starting with Genesis and ending with Revelation. This option would provide ease in remembering what I’m doing, focusing on one section of the Bible at a time, and making sure I’m on track to finish in one year.

2. There’s also the chronological approach. This option entails reading the Bible in the order that historians think the events occurred. I like this option in that I see the biblical narrative from the beginning and events are placed within the historical context of when they occurred. But I don’t like how difficult this one is to organize.

3. Another option I have is to read different sections of the Bible each day. For instance, I could read a section of the Old Testament, a section of the New Testament, and passages from Psalms and Proverbs. I like the variety that this approach offers (that is, when I’m reading a part of the Bible that I don’t understand or—should I say it?—is boring, I can take a break from this reading and go to other reading that I either like better or understand more). However, this approach also worries me in the sense that my blogging wouldn’t have as much focus as other approaches and may be disjointed.

4. Another approach is to read the NT first and the OT second. Reading the NT first would allow me to read about Jesus, the apostles, the church, and the early Christians at the beginning of this project; however, I fear that I wouldn’t have the historical context that the OT brings. I do like this one, though. It’s different.

Well, I’m sure there are other approaches but these are the four I’m choosing from for this task.

What do you think I should do? Do I have any readers out there yet?

When I was a child, I read the Bible almost every day. My dad required my siblings and I to read at least one passage of scripture every day. He even bought us new new Bibles each year so that we could start afresh and see the Word with new eyes. My dad even asked us to sign the pages we had read for the day as evidence of our reading. This practice was one that was very important to my father, probably because of his grandmother's knowledge and understanding of scripture. From early on, I knew that scripture reading was an important practice.

Over time, however, I have gradually stopped this practice of reading the Bible. I still call myself a Christian. I go to church. I minister to others, and I try to live my life as a follower of Christ. I'm even a preacher's wife (Wow! Should I be admitting this?!!). But I have to admit that I have not been a faithful reader of the Bible. Part of my reluctance is because I'm married to a preaching minister who has a BA in Bible, a Master of Divinity, and a Doctor of Ministry. That's a lot of degrees in Bible. How can I compare with someone who knows so much about it? It's really easy for me to use that as an excuse for not exploring the Bible from my own perspective. But I do think that I might read parts differently. Even though he has all this theological training, surely God could speak to me through the text as well.

The other part of my sporadic Bible reading has to do with the busy nature of my life. I am a full-time professor at a prestigious university where I have to publish or perish. Work takes up so much of my time, and when I'm not working, I'm thinking about work and all that I should be doing to prepare for researching or teaching. I also have two small children (under 5). I cook dinner almost every night. I want a little relaxation time. And my husband is a minister, so we spend a lot of time with people. All this "already-filled" time takes away from reading the Bible (and other spiritual practices, such as prayer, fasting, and quiet time), and you might say that I have let my Bible reading slide. And what's strange is that I do see reading and meditating on scripture as important, especially since the Bible is God's word to us and a unique way that He speaks to us.

I was thinking the other day that if I read the Bible now, I bet I would have a different understanding of God, the church, people, and everything else that I'm dealing with in life. And that made me want to read it again. And then I got this idea to write about my journey. Partly because it would discipline me to do it, but also because I really want to read the Bible anew through my perspective today.

So, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to read through the Bible in 365 days and write about what I'm reading and learning. I hope that when these 365 days come to an end that who I am right now--on September 7, 2009--will be a person who has learned more about God and people one year from now. I'll be starting tomorrow, and I hope you will join with me on my journey.

Signed,
Kara