Category: Genesis

January 9: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

January 9:John 6:25-71, Genesis 12, Genesis 13,

The four chapters chosen for today are significant and thought provoking.

In John 6:25-71. Jesus had fed 5000 and been seen walking on water. In spite of these miracles the Jews demanded a sign. Jesus responds in kind saying he is the bread of life, and if people want to have eternal life they must come to him and eat of his flesh and drink of his blood. When hearing this, many abandoned Jesus, but Peter said: To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Then in Genesis 12 Abram was called to leave his home in Ur. He traveled to a land he did not know, promised by God, and he obeyed, but when a famine came he went to Egypt and resorted to deceit rather than trusting God.

In Genesis 13 Abram and his sidekick Lot went back from Egypt and separated paths. Lot chose the fertile plain of Jordan, and Abram went to the hills of Mamre.

And in Genesis 14 Lot got in trouble and was taken captive by a local Mafia. Abram rescued Lot, and on the way back gave a tithe to Melchizedek, king of Salem – (later to become Jerusalem), after God gave him success in battle.

Question: Who was Melchizedek, and why is that important?

January 8: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

John 6:1-24. Jesus performed miracles 4 and 5 recorded by the Apostle John, feeding 5000 (plus women and children) and walking on water.

Genesis 11 tells about the Tower of Babel, and how different languages arose, all by being disobedient to God.

Psalm 3 is a Psalm of David from when he fled from his son Absalom.

 

January 7: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

John 5:31-47. Jesus defended His testimony.

Genesis 9, God established His covenant with Noah (The Noahic Covenant), and as a sign He established the rainbow in the sky. Noah planted a vineyard, got drunk and exposed his nakedness. This lead to “the curse of Ham,” which gave the excuse that the black race was for slavery. It was in reality the curse of Canaan, the original inhabitants of the yet to be promised land.  Ponder that!

Genesis 10 is a genealogy of the descendants of Noah. It describes how the earth was repopulated.

January 6: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

John 5:1-30, describes how Jesus healed a man at the pool of Bethesda on a Sabbath, which offended the Jews. In addition Jesus claimed to be equal with the Father, for which the Jews sought to kill him, but Jesus defended His testimony.

Genesis 7 tells of Noah, having completed the ark, took with him seven (pairs) of clean animals and two of unclean animals, and also birds. The aquatic life did just fine. After the animals had entered God shut the door and the rain started forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 8. The water receded and Noah sent out a raven and later a dove, returning empty. The second time the dove was sent out, it returned with an olive branch in its beak. This has now become the universal peace symbol. After exiting the ark Noah built an altar and sacrificed from the clean animals. God made a promise to Noah: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Psalm 2 tells of what happens when “the heathen rage” and this psalm speaks of what is going on today.

January 5: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

 

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, scorn and rejected by her many husbands, 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.)

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 through the Holy Bible in a year.

 

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; 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 murder, the first man (Enoch) to be carried directly to God rather than die. (because ha walked with God).

January 3: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

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, and the 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 doing so we think we can do better without fellowship with 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 through the Holy Bible in a year.

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.

 

 

 

January 1: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

The Holy Bible is the most important book ever written. It is the word of God.

Both the New Testament and the Old Testament begin with the words “In the beginning”. John1:1-18 deals with creation spiritually, and Genesis 1 deals with the physical creation, but with a 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.

February 29, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today is leap day, February 29, and we could take the day off, but the Holy Bible is the most important book ever written and too important to ignore, even for a day. It is the word of God.

May I suggest we go back to the beginning.

The three chapters chosen for today are   Genesis 1 ,John 1 and  1 John 1 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Both Genesis 1 and John 1 start with the words “In the beginning”. , Genesis 1 deals with the physical creation, but with a spiritual emphasis, laying the groundwork for spiritual understanding of how and why we exist. The gospel of John then deals with creation spiritually.

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).

They alone are eternal, everything else, including time and space, is created.

1 John 1 then starts from the beginning and deals with how we should live today, in time and space, with an eternal perspective.