A Message of Hope

Like other churches in Albany, our church has been involved in the Bible in 90 Days program.  It has been great for community unity and has gotten a lot of people into the Word.  It has also been very difficult for people to keep up.  As a minister, I was able to, but only because I was able to devote part of my “work” day to the task.  This week, I completed my Bible reading (in 89 days, no less!), and made a note of it on my Facebook page.  A friend of mine asked what new perspectives I had gained from reading the Bible cover-to-cover in a relatively short time span.  My reply was off-the-cuff, and I need to think about it more, but I thought I would post my thoughts here:

“As for new perspectives on the Bible, reading the OT was a needed reminder on the wrathful side of God’s holiness. It’s something we don’t talk/think about much anymore, but it dominates there. Another perspective is that I came to the conclusion that the Bible isn’t really meant to be read in 90 days. There were parts, especially in the NT, and there, especially in the gospels, where I really needed to camp out and let Jesus’ words work on my heart, but I didn’t have time because I was rushing to keep up with the schedule.

Not that the experience was a waste — it wasn’t. There are lots of things that tie together that I was able to connect — like the book of Obadiah & Malachi 1 and the Romans 9 thing about “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Was he really talking about predestination of individuals, or God’s election of certain peoples, e.g. Israelite over Edomites / believers over unbelievers? In thoroughly CofC fashion, I lean strongly toward the later.”