The Event ~ Through the Bible in a Year

Pastor Wayne Mundell has challenged the congregation to read through the entire Bible this year.  Like so many others, I have in the past attempted to do that -- start in Genesis 1:1 and proceed daily through all the books and chapters.  By the time I get to middle of Genesis, I have been completely lost in the ability to understand it all.  That routine has been started and abruptly halted several times in my lifetime.   

But Tim and I have both been so encouraged by this challenge, and we have both read through the entire New Testament in a paperback "New Testament in a Year".  Tim actually read through the same New Testament book again in 2013, so he was ready to take on this challenge.  I was somewhat hesitant, knowing my failures in the past to achieve.   So when he asked me if I wanted to go to the Bible Book Store with him to get a new "Bible in a Year" book,  I tagged along.  I didn't need a new Bible because I liked the one I had that I used with daily devotions. 

However, at the store as we were both browsing through choices available, I came across the book called "The Daily Bible in Chronological Order -- With Devotional Insights to Guide You Through God's Word."  

I liked what I saw because it had explanatory paragraphs simply describing what one was going to be reading next.  And nearly every paragraph has a three-four word phrase describing the paragraph subject matter.  The entire Bible was laid out in daily readings, but in a chronological order. I thought this would help me understand better.  So I bought the book.  Tim bought a book that gives him daily readings of old testament, new testament, Psalms, and Proverbs.  We have both been very diligent in our daily readings at the breakfast table.  The best way to start out each new day.

To my surprise, I have been deeply absorbed into the pages of this book.  I am about 20 days ahead in my daily readings.  It is much more understandable.  So much of what I have read I have gleaned through bits and pieces throughout a lifetime of Sunday School stories and lessons, Bible studies,  and sermons.  The stories and events are all there, but it's all the descriptive events that tie it all together that has become so interesting and amazing.  I am currently in the fifth book, Deuteronomy, and the Jewish people are just getting ready to finally enter into the land of Canan - the promised land  - and Moses is turning over leadership to Joshua as Moses is preparing to die.

When Moses dies, so ends the life of the greatest man of God since Abraham.  As Abraham had taught his family and people about faith, Moses had taght a nation about law.   And in centuries to come, One greater than them both will teach the whole world about love and grace ~ Jesus. 
I am amazed at how the exodus and the lives of the Jewish people so parrallel our world, society and personal lives today.  Sometimes I think not much has changed.  Except that Jesus sacrificed his life for us, and we are no longer under all the sacrificial laws of the old testament.  Those 12 tribes must have had thousands or millions of  livestock because they were always having to present blood sacrifices for one thing or another.  Today, we are covered by the blood sacrifice of Jesus himself to redeem us.

So far its all been about God's chosen people, the Jews - the Israelites - the descendents of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob - all stories I have learned in the past, but reading in this context is enlightening, interesting, educational, informative, inspiring, and certainly eventful.  I eagerly anticipate the sequence of the rest of the stories, like Samson, Goliath, the Judges,  Daniel, Ruth, and many more old testament stories, and gain a better spiritual understanding of everything that leads up to the New Testament.

One thing I did not know was that Jesus did not come from the lineage of Rachael, but rather from the lineage of Leah.

I have alot to get through yet in the next ten months.  I hope I can stay on track.  I know I will complete this challenge,  even if it takes me longer than a year.  I am so glad I found this particular Bible. 

My new son-in-law, Val, is of Jewish descent, and this is all about his Jewish history and heritage.  My prayer is for him to know and accept the Jesus that is truly the King of the Jews, through the lineage that started with Abraham, through the God that led these people to become the nation of Israel, still God's chosen people.