Bible in 90 Days - Week 1

Well, the first week of the 90 day challenge has passed and I am on pace as long as I do my reading tonight. One of the things I was hoping for has actually started to come to pass. I know that some may think that by blowing through the Bible so fast, that you might miss some stuff and that may be true. However one of the things they said in one of these interviews was that by reading so quickly you have the opportunity to associate more things than you would in a one year plan. The reasoning is that you will notice more things because you are reading things much closer together (than a one year reading plan). I am currently in Exodus and I am reading the plans for the Tabernacle. One of the things that stood out to me was how the Israelites were able to provide so many things for the building of the Tabernacle, the priests robes, and other things. Lots of gold, silver and expensive products went in to the building of these things. As I was reading this, I started to ask myself how were these people who were slaves able to afford so much. Then the answer came to me: when the Israelites left Egypt, God put it in to the hearts of the Egyptians to be favorable to the Israelites. The Egyptians actually gave the Israelites many items of gold, silver, and clothing (Exodus 12:35,26). So after "plundering the Egyptians" (see same verses) the Israelites had enough raw materials to build the Tabernacle, the priests clothing and all the other items and instruments used in worship. It amazes me how even though we think things are all messed up and God is no where to be found, that he has everything planned out way in advance.

Read the Bible in 90 Days

I came across this web site this weekend. Its a Zondervan web site used to promote their the NIV and TNIV translations .. and I suppose reading the Bible. The web site promotes a 90 day reading plan where you can read through the entire Bible by reading 12 pages a day. Over the last year or so, I've been hammering through the New Testament start to finish about ever two months. So when I saw this web site, I was very intrigued. I suppose this just fired up my competitive juices, but all weekend I could not get the thought out of my head. So today I bought a NIV Bible in 90 Days Bible. Its in the thinline format which is nice since the book doesn't look daunting. I thought I would tackle this along with my normal reading. Starting tonight! Wish me luck!

Zondervan Bible Translation Chart

I'm a translation geek ... I love them all. Well except Kings James, but that's just because I don't speak old world English, nor do I understand it very well. And I do think that we've made some advancements in the last couple of hundred years when it comes to how well we can translate the Scriptures from their original languages .. but I digress.

All I really wanted to point out to you today was Zondervan's Bible translation page. Its a really neat page that points out how different translations of the Bible compare to each other from a thought for thought perspective to a word for word perspective.

Perhaps this is not an absolutely authoritative picture of how the different translations compare to one another, but personally, I would lean towards Zondervan's explanation over what the common lay person might tell me, and certainly over what I understand myself. After all, at least the folks at Zondervan are in the Bible publishing business.

Recommended Reading

I always appreciate getting book recommendations, so I thought I would share some great ones that I've enjoyed over the last couple of months.

Promises from God for When You Doubt
My ex gave me this one a while back (for my birthday I think). I didn't use it much, but this summer I started picking it up and it really proved to be a great blessing. Its just a small book of select verses from the Bible categorized into sections like anxiety, comfort, fear, despair, love, mercy, etc. Its a great book if you just need a quick verse to remind you that God loves you and has a plan for you. I believe its published by these folks, but you can pick it up about anywhere like Walmart.

Smith Wigglesworth on Healing and Ever Increasing Faith and Smith Wigglesworth Devotional by Smith Wigglesworth
Smith Wigglesworth (I love that name!) was a Englishman who was born in 1859 and became an incredible man of god. He was nicknamed the Apostle of Faith. His background is really quite fascinating and worth looking in to. I've read lots and lots of book by many of today's Christian authors, and often I can feel the anointing that God has placed on these brothers and sisters and it seems like the power of that anointing varies from person to person and even book to book. And I have to say that in that sense, Smith Wigglesworth blows them all away. His writings are actually taken from his sermons and not from his action of writing. Although he had some speech difficulties in his life, his sermons still carry power .. God's power I believe.

The Supernatural Life by Cindy Jacobs
LOL .. I've read two books by Cindy Jacobs now and both of them really gave me the heebe-jeebees. But I mean that in a good way ;-) This is a great book full of Cindy's personal experiences. This woman of God has lived an incredible life and has a lot of experiences to share as well as practical wisdom. Its a nice book too since it doesn't try and convey heavy spiritual truths or weighty doctrine. I found it to be a healthy explanation of how to live a spirit filled life.

Breaking Intimidation by John Bevere
This was another good quickie. It really helped me this summer as I was dealing with some real stinkers at work. This book uses Scripture and John's personal experience in ministry to expand on the power that we have as Christians to break a spirit of intimidation that sometimes rises against us. Again, this one is not a heavy theological tome, but it provides a good brisk walk through the topic of taking your place of God given authority in both the spirit realm as well as our realm.

Blessing or Curse You Can Choose by Derek Prince
This book addresses how curses can enter in to a persons life and produce destruction. Derek Prince covers many different forms of sin that can introduce a curse into a persons life ... even a Christians life (yes, Christians can in fact be Christians and still live under the effects of a curse. Derek provides a very thorough explanation from Scripture about how curses work themselves into our lives, and how the Jesus and the Cross can free us of these things. This book was very New Testament based, which I like. I did find it rather dry at times, but for me at least this was one of those "read it now and use it later" kind of things I think.

But we have Abraham as our father

Last night I was listening to a CD from a pastor from a university in Lakeland, Florida named Mark Rutland (see GlobalServants.org). Dr. Rutland was speaking about waiting on God to deliver what He has promised. It was a great sermon for me since I feel like I am in a period of waiting on God. And I tell you, it can be very painful to wait at times. Anyway, Dr. Rutland used the story of Abraham as an example of waiting on God. He pointed to the fact that Abraham and Sarah got impatient as they waited on God to deliver the promised son Isaac. In the story, Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham in order for Hagar to bear a child (hopefully a son) to Abraham. Hagar did indeed conceive and her son was named Ishmael who became the father of the Arab peoples.

So as I was listening to Dr. Rutland recount this story from the Bible and warning the audience to be patient on God and not move out ahead of God, I realized how the things that we do in life have eternal consequences. It dawned on me that Abraham was the father of both Isaac and Ishmael. And he loved them both. And was a father to them both. It even says in Genesis that Abraham was greatly distressed (Gen 21:11) because Sarah demanded that he send Hagar and Ishmael away. I realized that Abraham even to this day as he presumably sits in heaven with God (Luke 16:22, Luke 13:28) is grieved over what the sons of Ishmael are doing on the earth. We are living in a time where the sons of Ishmael (and also the sons of Abraham) are called, "terrorists". I think of Abraham as a father figure who loves his sons and wants the best for them. I think Abraham is grieved over the fact that his sons by Ishmael are labeled "terrorists" and I think he is grieved over the atrocities committed by his sons.

It touched me that Abraham who the Bible lavishes praise on, and who seems untouchable in his righteousness, has something in his past that effects him in an eternal sense. It really put a realistic light on the things that we do in our life and how they affect us eternally.