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

Acts 22. Paul gave his salvation testimony to the Jerusalem crowd in the Aramaic language. When Paul mentioned the stoning of Stephen and that he preached also to the Gentiles the crowd wanted him killed right away. Paul claimed that he was a Roman citizen, so the next day he was ordered to stand before the Sanhedrin.

2 Chronicles 31 tells of the Reforms of Hezekiah. “He did it with all his heart, and prospered.

2 Chronicles 32. Sennacherib boasted against the LORD but was defeated and died. Hezekiah humbled himself,so the LORD sent an angel to deliver Judah. Hezekiah grew in wealth and honor, but he too finally died.

Chronicles 33. Manasseh, king of Judah became a sorcerer, repented and was restored but eventually died and was replaced by Amon , who reigned for two years, did evil, was killed and his son Josiah became king.

July 2: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Acts 21. On the way to Jerusalem Paul was warned everywhere by the Holy Spirit not to go, but Paul continued unmoved, and people finally gave up, saying ‘The Lord’s will be done’. Paul was urged to make peace and purify himself with four other Jews that had taken a vow, which he did. A mob was stirred up anyway and Paul was arrested in the Temple. Because Paul was a Roman citizen he was allowed to address the Jerusalem mob.

2 Chronicles 30. Hezekiah celebrated the Passover and there was great joy in Jerusalem.

Psalm 49, of the Sons of Korah. This psalm is more of a teaching Psalm and give instruction on how to live and hope of salvation “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave,For He shall receive me

Jul 1. The Word for today.

Every day the news is devastating, depressing and seemingly hopeless. Some turn off the TV news altogether, hoping that ignoring the news will make them feel better. But we are called to be in the world, and it is our duty to leave the world a better place than we found it. To do that we must know what is happening. One way is to follow the Apostle Paul’s advice in Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (NIV). Then we find that there is much good happening for which to be thankful..

Here are a few examples: The Covid pandemic is finally diminishing, and we have vaccines and effective treatments avilable. HydroxyChloroQuine together with Zinc and maybe Azithromycine is a cure if taken early in more than 60% of the cases. It is even effective in the later stage of the sicness if taken in much larger doses. Ivermectine plus Zinc is even more effective, over 80% success rate if taken early. These are proven facts, but the media is still bound to promote vaccines as the only solution. Thinking positively, vaccines are good for people over 50, under 50 you are better off with either HCQ or Ivermactine, taken in proper doses of course. An overdose of Tylenol can destroy your kidneys and even cause death, yet it is safe and effective in proper doses. The point of all this is that we have learnt so much during this pandemic for which we should be thankful,.. and the proper treatments should be promoted.

I could go on with climate change. Yes, there is climate change, and this is on balance good. When you want hothouses to yield more, you increase the CO2 level, typically double it. This leads to increased yields. Since CO2 levels have increased, we can now feed 2 billion more people than before, and have fewer people starving. The temperatures in the tropics are not increasing, the control mechanism is clouds, they cool by day and warm by night. The control is so good that just one percent change in cloud cover means more than all the increase in the CO2 levels. One place where God’s temperature control doesn’t work perfectly is in deserts. With no clouds, no temperature control. So w must do what we can to prevent more areas from becoming a desert. One way is to plant more trees. This is especially important to lower temperatures in urban areas with all their roads, houses and parking lots.

My dream is to see built a transcontinental aqueduct from the Mississippi river to the Colorado River. It would save the southwest from becoming a desert, save Lake Mead, double the irrigation in the Imperial Valley and Mexico, water the people of Arizona and New Mexico and provide much needed hydroelectric power storage for the state of Texas. At the moment Texas has none, but they have a lot of wind power and no way to store the energy to use when the wind is not blowing. Arizona and New Mexico would like to have solar power, but they do not have the water to provide hydroelectric power storage. The aqueduct will provide the water for the hydroelectric power storage as the water flows down from the highlands. All it takes is twenty-three Liquid Fluor Thorium nuclear Reactors of 500 Megawatt capacity each to power the aqueduct, so it is very doable. Congress is now disussing an infrastructure bill. If there wver was a project worth their consideration this would be it!

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

Acts 20:17-38. From Miletus Paul called the Ephesian Elders and when they arrived he exhorted them, said farewell and told them he would never see them again.

2 Chronicles 27. Jotham, king of Judah followed God, became mighty, reigned sixteen years and died.

2 Chronicles 28. Ahaz, king of Judah did not follow God, was defeated by Syria and Israel. Israel returned the captives taken. After Ahaz committed apostasy, he shut down the temple and died.

2 Chronicles 29. Hezekiah became king of Judah, cleansed the Temple and restored temple worship.

June 30. The word for today.

Yesterday the word was “the heavenly realms” found 5 times in Ephesians. The King James translation renders this “heavenly places” suggesting it is a physical location. The original Greek does not mention realms or places, it simply calls it “the heavenlies”. For we, created in time and space, have a hard time getting hold of God, after all he exists since creation of both time and space. Just think, without physical matter time and space has no meaning. The apostle Matthew calls the heavenlies the Kingdom of heaven, Mark and Luke calls it the Kingdom of God. Jesus himself says in John 18:36 My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

We tend to think that what we do makes a difference. God has given us access to the spiritual dimension, or realm, or even place in the form of the Holy Spirit, and thanks to that He has given us power. No, he has given us access to the heavenlies, not in our selves but it is Christ, in the form of the Holy Spirit that lives in us. Without him we can do nothing.

Something happened to us today that has never happened to us before. After a successful shopping trip we went to a diner that serves excellent crab cakes. After finishing the meal, the server, followed by the manager, came and said, somebody paid for our meal. At first we were dumbfounded, we have heard of acts of random kindness, but why us, we don’t look that destitute, as a matter of fact, we look rather good, considering our age. We humbly thanked the server and manager for the anonymous generosity. Leaving the diner I remembered that we always pray before the meal, holding hands, giving thanks to God for what He has tone today and for the meal, all in the name of Jesus.

There is something going on, i can sense it. We are praying for a revival of Biblical proportions, and a worldwide awakening. After all, God gives more grace.

Jun 29: The word for today.

The word for today is “in the heavenly realms”. What does that mean? the book of Ephesians has 5 references of it. They form quite a promise for us who believe.

Ephesians 1:3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
1:20. Which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
2:6. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
2:7. In order in the coming ages he might show the in incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus
3:10. His intent was that now , through the church , the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
6:12. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

The heavenly realms is not a physical location, rather it is spiritual. When we received the Holy Spirit we became partakers of the heavenly realms, Christ in us.There is an intense warfare for our souls, and it is spiritual. We are called to be partakers in this spiritual warfare. In the physical world it may look like we are losing with all the violence, sickness, deceit and falsehood, bur be of good Cheer<Christ has overcome the world, and so shall we.

Colossians 2:13-15
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of you sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ, he forgave all our sins.
2:14, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing to the cross.
2:15, AND HAVING DISARMED THE POWERS AND AUTHORITIES, HE MADE AN OPEN SPECTACLE OF THEM, TRIUMPHING OVER THEM by The CROSS.

The key for us Christians is the Cross, the stench of death to those who perish, but victory for us who believe.

June 30: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Acts 20:1-16. Paul left Ephesus and ministered in Greece for 3 months, left Greece and ministered at Troas, where on the last day there he preached on and on and a young man fell down from a third floor window and died, but was revived by Paul. Undaunted Paul continued preaching until daybreak, then he left and went to Miletus.

2 Chronicles 24. Joash repaired the Temple but then committed apostasy and was finally executed.

2 Chronicles 25. Amaziah reigned in Judah and went to war against Edom. Israel routed Judah and finally Amaziah was killed and buried.

Chronicles 26. Uzziah became the next king of Judah, young and successful and made Judah powerful again, but his pride got the best of him and he became a leper, an outcast. Jotham, his son became de facto regent until Uzziah’s death.

June 29: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Acts 19:23-41. The tradesmen of Ephesus, who made souvenirs in the form of shrines and idols of silver considered Paul and the many believers bad for business. After all,Ephesus was the idol worship center of Artemis (Diana). This led to the riot at Ephesus.

2 Chronicles 21. The reign of Jehoram in Judah.

2 Chronicles 22. The reigns of Ahaziah and Athaliah in Judah.

2 Chronicles 23. Joash was crowned king of Judah and Athaliah was slain.

Psalm 48, of the Sons of Korah. “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.”

June 28: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Acts 19:1-22. Paul took the land route to Ephesus, where he met believers that had not even heard of the Holy Spirit. For two years Paul did many miracles there and did defeat evil Spirits, all to glorify Christ.

2 Chronicles 18. The prophet Micaiah warned Ahab of Israel,but Ahab listened to false prophets instead. The result was that Ahab died in battle.

2 Chronicles 19. King Jehoshaphat returned to Jerusalem and instituted a number of reforms.

2 Chronicles 20. Because Jehoshaphat turned to God, Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir were defeated and there was peace until the end of Jehoshaphat’s reign, but he made an alliance with Israel to build trading ships, and they were destroyed.