Category Archives: Daily Reading

Post with each day’s reading.

2012 Day 8 – Mark 1

08 Sunday Jan 2012

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I’ve always found the book of Mark very interesting to read. It’s like speed reading the story of Jesus. Mark goes through each part of the story very quickly, but does an amazing job of catching all the important parts of the story. I also think it’s interesting that the book skips the first 30 years of Jesus’ life and goes straight to John the Baptist and Jesus’ ministry. The first chapter alone is packed with information.

What caught my attention right away was how quick we go to where Jesus is baptized. We then slow down long enough to see the Spirit descending on Jesus. However, this brings up a question in my mind… In the notes of my Bible it only says that the Spirit descending on Jesus proves His divinity and that He is part of the Trinity. I’m having a hard time understanding how He can be part of the Trinity and accept the Spirit at the same time. Wouldn’t He already have the Spirit in Him since He is God through the Trinity? I’m a bit confused… can anyone shed some light here?

Another thing that is fascinating is in verses 23-25 where an evil spirit recognizes Jesus as the “Holy One of God”. It is amazing to think that evil spirits know Him just as well as the heavenly ones. What becomes clear is that evil exists in this world and will continue to live here. We should never be surprised when bad things happen.

Finally, the passage I really love in this chapter is Mark 3:40-42, “40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.” We should never underestimate the amount of compassion God has for each of us. When we are hurting, He has compassion for us and He never leaves us to deal with it on our own.

2012 Day 7 – Matthew 3

07 Saturday Jan 2012

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There are a few interesting things to me in this chapter. First in verse 11 where John the Baptist talks about Jesus baptizing with fire, ““I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” In my notes it makes mention that he is prophesying about the Holy Spirit’s baptism at Pentecost which we will see in Acts 2.

The second interesting thing is in verse 12 where he talks about the winnowing fork, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” A winnowing fork is used to separate wheat from the chaff (I had to read this in the notes… a farm boy I am not). Chaff is the outer part of the plant that is useless and is usually burned. The chaff is a picture of our sin. When we repent, the chaff is removed (like from a winnowing fork) and burned away. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has heard this explanation before, but I do find it interesting.

Finally, verse 17 where it says, “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”” made me think about how much I hope God will say the same thing about me when I get to heaven. All it requires of me is obedience because He has already done the rest.

2012 Day 6 – Psalm 107 & 137

06 Friday Jan 2012

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Psalm 107:1-2a,  “1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2a Let the redeemed of the LORD say this—” This is a proclamation that we should be making to God daily. The beginning of verse 2 is saying, if we are redeemed, we must give praise and thanksgiving to Him who has blessed us so richly. Let those who are redeemed remember the redeemer and all He has done for us.

Psalm 137 is a tough one to read. The author is basically asking God to pronounce judgment on their oppressor. As believers we think of ourselves as people who should be meek and simply turn the other cheek when something hurts us, and we should. However, I think it is ok to ask God to pronounce His judgment. It is God’s call and His method if He choses to take action. It is when we take action and pronounce judgment in “Jesus name” that we step outside God’s plan and purpose. I constantly need to remind myself that the creator of the universe is more than capable of turning bad situations in my life into some of the greatest blessings!

2012 Day 5 – Psalm 85 & 106

05 Thursday Jan 2012

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Today we get to do the first of our Psalms. Psalm 85:4 says, “Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us.” Even in the Old Testament it shows that only God can lead us into salvation. Only He can restore to relationship and fellowship with Him.

Psalm 106 covers God’s judgment and salvation of His people from the time they left Egyptian captivity to the time they became captives of the Babylonian empire. The verse that stood out to me the most was “So he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one,  stood in the breach before him  to keep his wrath from destroying them.” (Psalm 106:23 NIV84) This is a great picture of what Jesus has done for all of us. He stood in the gap between our imperfection and God’s perfection. Praise be to Him for saving us from ourselves.

2012 Day 4 – Luke 2

04 Wednesday Jan 2012

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As I read about the birth announcement, I had an interesting thought that it must have had symbolic meaning of who Jesus came to the earth to save. By announcing to common shepherds it showed that Jesus was coming for everyone. The other interesting thing is the way the announcement took place with a heavenly host, which gave very little doubt as to the importance of the birth. While it must have been terrifying in many ways to experience something so powerful, I can just imagine the shepherds looking at each other in utter astonishment after it was all over.

Jesus’ early life must have been interesting to everyone around Him. On the one hand He is a child and on the other He is God’s son. As for His human parents, how difficult would it be to know how to raise someone you knew was special, even if you did not fully grasp that this was actually God’s son. Yet, they were obedient in everything they did as His parents. One of the notes in my Bible explained that everything Mary and Joseph did in verse 21-24 was according to the law. This was meant to show that Jesus was not above the law, but was here to fulfill the law perfectly. I also love the contrast of Jesus in verse 49 with 51. In verse 49 He is in the Temple where he says to His parents that He is in His Father’s house. In verse 51 it says that He went back to Nazareth and was obedient to His parents. We have to assume that Jesus already knew who He was and what He was here to do, yet He is still an example of a perfect human being and knew that as a child He needed to be obedient to His parents.

2012 Day 3 – Matthew 2

03 Tuesday Jan 2012

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The first interesting thing in today’s reading is in Matthew 2:5-6 where the Magi quote a Jewish prophesy from Micah 5:2 which was written 7 centuries before the time of Jesus birth. How could the Magi from the “East” know about Jewish prophesy? One of the notes in my Bible suggests the Magi could have been Jews who remained in the region of Parthia which was in the vicinity of ancient Babylon. There are other explanations, but this one fascinated me.

The second interesting thing to me is the care Joseph showed for Jesus. While Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, the notes in my Bible say he was responsible for Jesus’ legally. In any case, Joseph showed obedience and care for Jesus as His earthly father.

2012 Day 2 – Matthew 1

02 Monday Jan 2012

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A couple of things fascinate me about the genealogy listed here in the first 17 verses. First, numbers fascinate me and I love that there are 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the exile in Babylon, and 14 generations from the exile to Christ. Second, I love that the genealogy includes a variety of people from heroes like Abraham, Isaac, Ruth, and David; to those with shady reputations like Rahab; to  the ordinary like Hezron and Ram; to the down right evil like Manasseh and Abijah. God’s plan is always perfect and can be fulfilled no matter who he choses to use.

I love Matthew 1:21 where it says, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”” I love it because it gives significance to the name Jesus. One of the notes in my Bible say that Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua which means “The Lord Saves”. I learn something new everyday… I always thought Jesus was a Hebrew name.

2012 Day 1 – Luke 1

01 Sunday Jan 2012

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There is a lot in this very first chapter of Luke to consider and absorb. Starting off with the fact that Luke was a gentile believer who did not actually have a first hand account of Jesus. According to tradition, Luke spent a lot of time gathering information from others who had first hand accounts. He apparently spent time with Mary to capture her story from her first hand account. From a historical sense, Luke also wrote the book of Acts, which can be read with the book of Luke straight through as a historical account of Jesus and the early church.

I love that Zechariah was chosen by “lot” to serve in the temple that day. What was seemingly a random occurrence, lead to the angel Gabriel announcing John the Baptist’s coming into the world and the important role he would play. By the way, this past year when we studied the book of Daniel we learned that there are only two angels that are named, Michael and Gabriel. Michael leads in conquest and Gabriel always bring important messages from God.

Finally, there is so much about the coming of Jesus as the messiah that can not be denied it came from God. First, both John and Jesus were names give directly by God. Neither man was named by family tradition or human distinction. Both came from specific meaning given by God Himself. Second, Mary who was a young, poor, female (all strikes against her in that society) was chosen directly by God to take on the greatest task in human history; bringing the Messiah into the world. And finally, when Elizabeth greeted Mary, she chose to great her as “The mother of my Lord”. I don’t think we can deny the Holy Spirit’s hand in revealing that to her.