Pastor Jay’s Weekly Bible Reading Guide



Pastor Jay’s Weekly Bible Reading GuideDecember 3 to 8I’ve selected a Bible reading for each day to help us go deeper into the themes from the previous Sunday’s sermon. My notes are designed to help you understand the passage and apply it to your life. I encourage you to find a place where you can have about 15 minutes of quiet. Begin by praying for the Holy Spirit to open up God’s Word to your soul. Then read the Bible passage from your favorite translation. Then read these notes, referring back to the translation. Then read the passage again, slowly, inviting God to highlight a certain verse or key word to guide your day. Finish by thanking God in prayer, and praying for the needs of others. Prayer of the Day Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection alert us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and redeem us for your life of justice, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.Mon. Dec 3: Genesis 6:11-22 The flood is comingThis is the first week of the Christian year, and the beginning of the season of Advent. Advent is a time to focus on being ready to meet Jesus. We do this by taking these few weeks to imagine what the world was like before Christ came, before the beginning of the kingdom of God. As we identify with those people who were longing for the arrival of the Savior, we renew our appreciation for the wonderful gift of living after the Savior has come, confident that God has dealt with our sin and begun to make all things new.For our weekday devotions, we will look at some other Bible passages which speak of mortal danger and eternal salvation. Our goal should be to wake from any spiritual sleepiness, and stop taking God for granted. In Advent, we recognize the danger of our sins, but look with hope and confidence to Christ our Savior.Since the story of Noah is the first major Bible story about God rescuing people, we will start there. When Noah lived, nearly the entire human race was corrupt and violence. Try to imagine how much faith it took, for Noah to believe God’s Word, and build the ark. After all, if you take the Bible literally, up to this point, it had never rained before (see Genesis 2:4-6)!Tue. Dec 4: Genesis 8:1-19; 9:8-13 God saves Noah and the animals As you continue to read about Noah, pay attention to several interesting details. The Bible says that God “remembered” Noah – very similar to Jesus “remembering” the penitent criminal on the cross. When God remembers us, he is actually remembering his promise to give us life and salvation. That’s why the rainbow in chapter 9 is so important. It is a sign, not only to encourage us, but it also serves to remind God of His promise. Wed. Dec 5: Hebrews 11:1-7, 32-40 Living by faithThe story of Noah is used as an example in several other places in the Bible, including this important section of Hebrews. This passage describes what faith is and why faith is important. Toward the end of the chapter, the writer lists many examples of faithful people. Note that they all share something very important – they died before they received what they were hoping for. This is an important spiritual lesson. We tend to want a blessed life and a perfect world right away. The Bible teaches something quite different. The perfect world God is making is better than we can understand, but also different than we can imagine. We need to live our lives, enjoying the fact that we have a place in that future world. With that kind of faith, we can gracefully and joyfully endure great trials, like the people mentioned in 11:32-40.Thur. Dec 6 Isaiah 54:4-10 God will save the people Here is another passage that mentions Noah. Here the emphasis is that there are indeed times when we are being punished for our sins. God does this by allowing us to experience the natural consequences of our rebellious and hurtful actions. But we can endure this correction, knowing that a time is coming when God will redeem us. This time, the image for redemption is marriage. Recall how, when you fall in love, the world seems transformed and wonderful. Isaiah is teaching that salvation is similar, but this time we are falling in love with God.Fri. Dec. 7: 1st Thessalonians 4:1-18A life pleasing to God till the endThis passage builds toward v. 4:13, “do not be like those who grieve without hope.” We live peacefully and honorably in this world, in spite of the craziness around us, because we have faith in the new world God is building, and we wait with open ears for the “trumpet of the Lord.” This passage, by the way, is the inspiration for the old gospel song “When the Roll is Called up Yonder.”Sat. Dec. 8: Psalm 124 We have escaped like a birdI remember this psalm mostly for v. 8, which was part of the Sunday liturgy in the old red hymnal. The lesson from this psalm is that credit for our salvation always goes to God. ................
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