Category: faith

January 5, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; commented.

John 4, speaks about the first real evangelist spreading the good news of Christ the Messiah. It is the woman at the well, a Samaritan, held in contempt by the Jews, scorned and rejected by her many ex husbands and the town people, yet used by God to tell the good news.

Genesis 6 . Sin and wickedness got worse and worse on earth. God saw it and decided to start over. But Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, eight in all found favor with God, so God told him to build an ark. This Noah did, and it was the biggest ship built until the time of Ptolemy (around 215 BC.)

After the fall God revealed himself in His marvelous creation, but the Word of God was not yet given. The spiritual connection was lost, so people did what they deemed most pleasurable. This is much like the situation today: Sigmund Freud declared sexual man the most mature man, rejecting the spiritual aspect and we have gone downhill ever since, rejecting all personal relationship with God as pure imagination.

Ponder that the first evangelist was a scorned woman who happened to meet Jesus, and that Noah, being obedient to God built the ark on dry land, too big to be of any use unless there was going to be a giant flood. This takes faith!

January 4, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; commented.

Today we read John 3, the new birth chapter; you must be born again (literally: from above), the new birth is necessary to enter into the Kingdom of God; John 3:16 is the most quoted verse in all the Bible.

 Genesis 4 tells of the results of original sin with the story of Cain and Abel and the beginning of animal sacrifice. After the fall people had the spiritual void not being able to fellowship with God, nor even communicate. To satisfy the need to do what they felt God wanted, and God showed that only sacrifice involving the shedding of blood would suffice

 Genesis 5 gives the Genealogy from Adam to Noah.

The take home for today is there are two births, the physical birth and the spiritual birth (the birth from above), the first sacrifice, the first murder, the first man (Enoch) to be carried directly to God rather than die, (because he walked with God).

January 3, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; commented.

Today we read in John 2, that Jesus turned water into wine, cleansed the Temple, and when the Jews demanded a sign he gave them just one sign (which they of course did not understand).

Genesis 2 left us with the idyllic Eden, no diseases existed yet. But God created us with free will, the ability to do independent critical thinking, and the inevitable fall is then described in Genesis 3 . The problem is, after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (not an apple tree) and in so doing we think we can build a better world without God.

The question to ponder is: Why did God create us with a free will? He knew the result from the beginning, and knew He would have to send His Son to redeem us back to Himself. In fact He knew it from before the beginning: “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8, NIV)

Answer: We are created in God’s image, male and female, not so much physical, but spiritual, and free will is part of the package. Without free will there is no fellowship with God, only puppetry.

Psalm 1 is a beautiful poem about righteous living, and only one person could fulfill all the conditions mentioned, the exception to ” There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3: 10)

January 2, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; commented.

Today’s reading of the Bible begins with John 1: 19-51. John the Baptist testified about the Messiah: “Make straight the way for the Lord”. When he met Jesus he referred him as “The Lamb of God” that “takes away the sin of the world”, and “this is the Son of God”. Jesus called his first disciples, Andrew and Peter, Philip and Nathaniel.

Genesis 2 tells of how God created woman out of man, showing that creation was not complete without man and woman as a unit. This must be taken spiritually, since in Genesis 1 he already created man in His own image, male and female. God’s design is one man, one woman, one lifetime. This would still be the case if we let God chose our mate. If we had followed God’s intent, many sicknesses would not exist, especially sexually transmitted diseases. “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.” Proverbs 18:22

To find out how God created woman we move to verse 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.“The rib” is from the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. The original Hebrew meaning is “took part of the man’s side“, but since the Greek Septuagint was the most used version of the Scriptures for the early Christians, the rib won.

Don’t get stuck on the detail if it was from the side or from a rib. That is not the point of the story. Some take it to only mean “the two shall be one flesh” is only for procreation, but it is more than that. I can attest it works, having been married now to my wife for over 57 years. It works through communication and fellowship with God. This fellowship is broken in Genesis 3 and forward in the Old Testament.

January 1, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; commented.

The Holy Bible is the most influential book ever written. According to Wikipedia it has been translated in its entirety into 724 languages, and the New Testament has been translated into 1617 languages. At least one part of the Bible has bee translated into 3,589 languages, and more translations are coming every year, especially from the Wycliffe translators.

Both the New Testament and the Old Testament begin with the words “In the beginning”.

John1:1-18 deals with creation spiritually.

Genesis 1 deals with the physical creation with spiritual emphasis, laying the groundwork for spiritual understanding of how and why we exist.

We are existing in time and space. The question is: What was there before time and space existed, before the beginning?

Answer: God, existing in three persons, God the Father, God the Son (the Word) and God’s Spirit, (the Holy Ghost).

The Three-in-one God alone are eternal, everything else, including time and space, is created.

Another Question: Why did God say “it was good” for day 1,3,4 and 5 but not for day 2 and it was very good after day 6?

Answer: The ecosystem is a work in progress and will function differently for each phase and finally come to completion when all parts are set in place, which includes people. We are responsible to God to be good stewards of the earth and leave it a better place than we found it. The main regulator of temperature on earth is the clouds. They cool by day and warm by night. The time of day they appear is also very important, and there is no risk for the earth to overheat.

December 31, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Revelation 22 begins with the Angel showing the Apostle John the River of Life, the time is near, Jesus is coming soon and He testifies to the Churches, don’t add to or take away from God’s word. Jesus is coming Quickly, Amen!

Proverbs 31. The sayings of King Lemuel. The book of Proverbs ends up with “The Wife of Noble Character”, and every day I thank the Lord for my wife of 57 years. Lives would have been quite different (three children and seven grandchildren would not exist at all) if God had not brought us together.

Psalm 150. Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD!

December 30, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Revelation 21. The apostle John saw in a vision how all things are made new, the New Jerusalem was before his eyes and the glory of the New Jerusalem was on full display. there was no temple in it, all glory goes to the Lamb, the Alpha and Omega!

Malachi 4 describes the great and dreadful day of the Lord, but before that day God will send His messenger Elijah.

December 29, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Revelation 20 is full of action: Satan will be bound for 1,000 Years and the saints will reign with Christ for the same length of time. Then there will be a satanic rebellion which will be crushed, and after that comes the Great White Throne Judgment.

Malachi 3. The LORD promised to send His messenger before His coming: “But who can endure the day of his coming“,”For He is like a refiners fire.” So return to God instead of robbing God, but the people complained. God assured them there is everything to gain to serve Him.

December 28, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Revelation 19. Hallelujah! While the world is quite upset at the demise of Babylon, (the failure of Global Governance), heaven is full of songs, jubilation and worship. Then John saw Christ on a White Horse,  and the beast and his armies were defeated. On Christ’s robe is written “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords“.

Malachi 2 tells of corrupt priests and the treachery of infidelity.

December 27, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Revelation 18:21-24. The last four verses of this chapter tells of the finality of the fall of Babylon the great and the one world order. The important thing to remember is that the Holy Bible is one consistent book, God is in control and gives the victory through Jesus Christ. We will not grasp it all, for if we did, we would try to save the world all by ourselves without God, (and fail miserably, as the Old Testament proves over and over again).

Malachi 1. God loves Israel, but Israel responded with insincere and polluted offerings.