Category: Psalms

February 12, read the Bible in a year; in PowerPoint, with comments.

Matthew 6:19-34 continues the telling of the sermon on the mount. Jesus spoke of  storing up eternal, spiritual treasures, not physical riches, for you cannot serve two masters, you serve either God or money. Then Jesus continued by telling how foolish it is to worry about the future, concentrate on what is important, seek first the Kingdom of God, and God will take care of all the other things.

Ecclesiastes 3. There is a time for everything. The gift of God is that He has set eternity in our hearts, yet injustice seems to prevail.

Ecclesiastes 4. There is oppression but no comforter, there is vanity of selfish toil. There is value in having friends “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken,” yet, popularity passes away.

With all the double speak today, Psalm 12 is especially valid. The Lord has something to say about that.

Psalm 13 has only 6 verses; used as a moving Anglican Chant. Enjoy.

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

John 20 deals with the resurrection, and Jesus was not there, only his grave clothes, strips of cloth, not the “Turin Shroud.” It was the first day of the week and Jesus showed himself to all the disciples except Thomas. He doubted their testimony, and it is from this we have the expression “Doubting Thomas.” Later, when even he saw Jesus, he bowed down and worshiped him saying “My Lord, and my God”. Jesus also gave the promise they would receive the Holy Spirit.

Exodus 10: Two more plagues, the plague of locusts and the plague of darkness. For these two plagues the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

In Exodus 11 Moses and Aaron proclaimed the tenth and final plague: The death of the firstborn. Interestingly enough the plagues of Egypt are also in the Quran, four are the same, five are different, and one is missing altogether. Guess which one!

Psalm 11 has the phrase “flee as a bird to the mountain”, which bring back memories of songs we used to sing in choir.

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

John 18:1-27 deals with the last 24 hours of Jesus life, the prayer in the garden of Gethsemane and the subsequent arrest of Jesus, the trial before Annas, Peter’s first denial, Jesus trial before Caiaphas, Peter’s second and third denial and the cock crowing.

Exodus 3 tells where God revealed Himself to Moses in the form of a burning bush and declared “I am that I am”. Jesus made a similar declaration in John 8:58 “Before Abraham, I am”.

In the Septuagint Psalm 9 and Psalm 10 belong together. They speak of God’s faithfulness and the only temporary victories of the wicked one.

January 25, read the Bible in a year; in PowerPoint, with comments.

John 16:17-33. Jesus continued his instructions to his disciples. They did not understand why it is good he leaves and sends the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that their grief would turn to joy and ended with this encouragement: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Ecclesiastes 1. The author, king Solomon spoke of the vanity of life and the grief of wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 2. King Solomon continued with the vanity of pleasure, the end of the wise and the end of the fool.

Psalm 9 speaks of God’s faithfulness and the victories of the wicked one are only temporary.

January 21, read the Bible in a year; in PowerPoint, with comments.

John 14:1-14 records the events of the hour after the Passover meal before they all depart to Gethsemane. Jesus told his disciples he is going away to prepare a mansion, more precisely a dwelling place for them. Thomas, always questioning him, asked him “How can we know the way?” And Philip added “Show us the Father“. Jesus answer? “Believe in me“.

Genesis 40 deals with dreams. Joseph’s two fellow cellmates in prison each had a dream, Joseph interpreted the dreams that the cup-bearer would be released and restored to his former position, while the baker would be hanged on a tree.

In Genesis 41  Pharaoh himself had a dream, and Joseph was released from prison to interpret the dream. It dealt with seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Joseph interpreted the dream so well that Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of all affairs of Egypt. The seven years of plenty came and good harvests filled the storehouses. Then came the seven years of famine.

Psalm 8 has been set to music many times. Even I have sung it many times, both as a choir number, and the first verse as an introit. Looking for the music I found a far better, very free rendition of the Psalm, this one by Marty Goetz.

January 16, read the Bible in a year; in PowerPoint, with comments.

John 11:1-44 describes how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (on the fourth day no less).

In Genesis 29, Jacob arrived in Paddan Aram, fell in love with Rachel, worked seven years to be allowed to marry her, but her father Laban tricked Jacob, so he got Leah instead. Then he worked another “seven years for Rachel”. But it was Leah that gave him his first four children, Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah.

Genesis 30 records the remaining children born to Jacob (except Benjamin, who would be born later). It also tells a story about Rachel, desperate to get a child of her own was bargaining with Leah for Reuben’s mandrakes. After Joseph was born, Jacob wanted to leave and go back to the promised land, but Laban bargained with him to stay and make them even more prosperous. Through selective breeding Jacob acquired the majority of the flocks and became wealthy.

Psalm 6 is a prayer, this time from a humble David asking for mercy, but also asking God to humiliate his enemies.

January 15, read the Bible in a year; in PowerPoint, with comments.

In John 10:22-42 Jesus claimed to be one with his Father. This is of course blasphemy unless it is true, so for that the Jews wanted to stone him.

In Genesis 27 Jacob deceived Isaac to get the blessing of the firstborn instead of Esau. Esau got one too, but just the regular blessing, so to avoid more trouble Jacob fled to Laban.

In Genesis 28, Jacob went to Paddan Aram to get a wife. On the way he had a dream, commonly known as “Jacob’s Ladder”. Meanwhile, Esau took yet another wife, the daughter of Ishmael. The promise of Jacob’s dream was that God was to give the land to Jacob’s descendants. Jacob made a vow to God and named the place Bethel.

Psalm 5 is a prayer extolling the joy of praising God and praying towards Jerusalem, but is also an urgent prayer to do away with and destroy all wickedness and wicked people.

January 11, read the Bible in a year; in PowerPoint, with comments.

Today’s reading is very interesting. In John7:25-53 the people started asking Jesus if he was the Christ. Rather than answering directly Jesus promised “Streams of living water”and more, but they were not ready to understand it yet, and to be honest neither would I if I had been part of the crowd at that time. But the pharisees understood that he was a threat to their world order.

And in Genesis 19 Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. There is ample evidence this is a historical true event, the Bible is verified true even here. God provided for Lot, his wife and two daughters to escape.They did, but Lot’s wife looked back towards the city and was no more. After that the strange story about Lot and his two daughters is recorded , and all I can say about that is that it is not good to take matters in your own hands rather than listen to God and let Him guide.

In Genesis 20 Abraham claimed Sarah was his sister. Why? Sarah was his half-sister, so Abraham stretched the truth, also called a lie, or sin. This chapter shows God’s protection even when we do wrong.

Psalm 4 is David’s appeal to righteousness, and the blessings that follow is David’s appeal to righteousness, and the blessings that follow.

January 8, read the Bible in a year; in PowerPoint, with comments.

At first glance there is not much that combines the New and old Testament readings selected for today. In John 6:1-24. Jesus performed miracles 4 and 5 recorded by the Apostle John, feeding five thousand (plus women and children), and then during the night walking on water.

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

Then again in Psalm 3 David prayed earnestly when he fled from his son Absalom.

The common thread is we always seek to get some favors from God, and thus be able to control the outcome. But God may have other plans for us.

January 6, read the Bible in a year; in PowerPoint, with comments.

The common thread for today is Jesus redefining the meaning of the Sabbath and Noah being part of the new beginning. Psalm 2 defines Jesus as the Son and God the ruler of all, and mankind still trying to do it all by themselves at no avail.

John 5:1-30, describes how Jesus healed a man at the pool of Bethesda on the 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 it rained forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 8. The water receded and Noah sent out a raven and later a dove that returned 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 the fight that is going on even today.