March 24, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; commented

Matthew 27:32-66,  After Jesus was flogged he was too weak to carry his own cross, so the Roman soldiers forced Simon from Cyrene to carry Jesus cross all the way to the place of the skull, and there Jesus was crucified together  with two criminals. To identify Jesus they put an  inscription on the top of the cross: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” A number of prophecies were fulfilled during the crucifixion, and Jesus died on the cross. At that very moment the Temple veil was torn in two, from top to bottom and for the first time the holy of holiest was revealed. Jesus, now being dead was taken down from the cross and put in a tomb, a stone was rolled in front of the entrance and the tomb was sealed, and – this is important, they put up a guard to secure the tomb. Why did they do that? Think about that.

Deuteronomy 30, The Blessings of turning to God is pro-life, but if not, God is pro-choice with all its consequences.  See v 15:   “I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil“. (KJV)

Deuteronomy 31 Moses declared Joshua to be the new leader of Israel, “Be strong and of good courage”. The Law was to be read every seven years, Israel’s rebellion was predicted and, as a reminder Moses recorded his song, which is recited in the next chapter.

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

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.

Yes, it was a long time ago, and our pastor wanted us to sing it, but our choir director thought otherwise. However, in obedience we sang it, and it was well received. The disagreement centered around: We are supposed to be in the world, but not of it. To flee to avoid all sin is not in the Gospel commandment.

When Jesus breathed on the disciples, they received the Holy Spirit, but they still had to wait until they received power from above. The Holy Spirit dwells in us, but the power of the Holy Spirit is still given only by God and only to do His will in His opportune time. This is why daily communication with God is so important, in thanksgiving , prayer, and yes ; in spiritual songs.