Thru the Bible

Bible Intro: Genesis and Job

January 2, 2016 by untilfulllight

Each week I’ll write a brief introduction and some thoughts about the readings you’ll be doing this week in our Through the Bible reading plan.

In most cases I won’t give links like I’m doing below because the additional posts will either follow this on the home page (if you aren’t getting the newsletter) or they will be links on the email newsletter. PLEASE sign up for the newsletter–it will come out on Monday with the notes on the upcoming readings and on Thursday with misc. materials that have been added to the site during the week. To sign up CLICK HERE.

As we are still in the stage of getting started on this new way of teaching, below are some links of current posts that pertain to our readings this week:

One very important post to read before you start Job:

Job intro: Know the end of the story before you read the book of Job-– this is important to read because it reminds you that God condemned the comments of Job’s friends, he said they were wrong in how they accused Job. If you don’t understand this, you’ll read the comments of the friends out of context and because many of them make sense on the surface, (even thought they are false) and believing them will make you believe many false teachings popular today.

Some additional posts that will be useful in your understanding of the readings:

Overview of Genesis and Job, foundations for answers to the big questions of life–brief intro to the books
Video: Job and Genesis, Foundational Answers to the Big Questions of Life –this is an hour long lesson, an in-depth overview of the books. PLEASE take time to look it over or listen to it
What was happening before God spoke the universe into existence?–brief devotional quote and thoughts
How do you know when the various books of the Bible were written?–citations of scholarly notes on dating the Bible with a special emphasis on the importance of when Job was written

Personal note:

“In the beginning God. . . . “

So starts the book of Genesis and for me it is one of my favorite things in the New Year–to start out with God, beginning again to read the Bible through in Chronological order.

I’ve been doing this for many years, but each time I learn more, see more, come to love God and his Word more. I’m so glad you are joining me in this journey.

Overview of Genesis and Job, foundations for answers to the big questions of life

December 30, 2015 by untilfulllight

Asking questions seems to an intrinsic part of what it means to be human. From children’s perpetual “What’s this?” “Why?” “Why not?” to the philosopher’s “Where did we come from?” “Why are we here?” “Is there any purpose to our existence?” questions fill our minds.

We may not be a child or a philosopher and we may not speak our questions out-loud, but we all have them: “Why did this happen or not happen to me?” “Why did I deserve this wonderful or awful, incredible or dreadful thing?” “Is there a God and does he care?”

If we are a Christ-follower, the questions don’t necessarily stop. In reality they often become more complex when our everyday experience of the Christian life does not line up with our expectations of what it is supposed to be. Much of the modern religious message is that if you are a Christian, tithe, and vote the right way, life will be wonderful, you’ll have plenty of money and never get sick. Sounds great and those rules are easy to follow.

Well, maybe the tithing isn’t—but if you are above a certain income level, a tithe is far from a sacrificial part of your income and you can congratulate yourself by giving it and rationalize you don’t need to give more. Few churches today would challenge you on that assumption.

But what happens when reality intrudes and you lose your job, health, or a loved one? You assumed you followed all the rules. It seems like God didn’t keep his part of the bargain. At these times the questions without easy answers bubble up.

Where do we find answers?

Video: Job and Genesis, Foundational Answers to the Big Questions of Life

December 30, 2015 by untilfulllight

These are the first two books of the Bible that we are reading in our chronological reading through the Bible in a year. In this video we’ll talk about why we read Job in the middle of Genesis and how these two books help answer some of the big questions of life.

If you want to just listen to the audio, it will make sense without having to look at the images.

CLICK on the image to download the notes that go along with the video. Anyone may use and copy them for any Bible teaching situation.

Click on the image to download a PDF of the NOTES and DISCUSSION QUESTIONS for this video.

Please sign up for the newsletter (CLICK HERE)so you’ll be notified when I post commentary and lessons on the readings as we go along.

Five KEY Reasons why it’s important to read through the Bible in historical, chronological order

December 26, 2015 by untilfulllight

Reading through the Bible in historical, chronological order, where you read the events as they took place and where you read the material associated with a historical period close to the same times as reading the historical narrative is much more than an interesting alternative way to read the Bible.

It can be a totally life-changing experience. It will help you grow in your trust in and appreciation for the Bible and will enable you to grow as a disciple of Jesus in a way few other things will. Following are Five Key Reasons why it is important to read through the Bible in historical, chronological order:

1. God works in linear, historical order

One of the distinguishing marks of the Christian faith is that it views human history as a linear process with a starting point and ending point. In contrast, many Eastern religious systems view human history as an endlessly repeating cycle.

It follows therefore that God’s work, His revelation of Himself, and His actions are revealed in historical order. Salvation history builds upon the promise of the Savior immediately after humanity’s fall. It moves through the preparation for the Messiah in the Old Testament to His life, death, resurrection, and founding of the church in the New Testament to the promised culmination in the new heavens and new earth.

Revelation is progressive and many of the great themes of the Bible are seen dimly in the Old Testament, further clarified in the Prophets, brought to fruition in the Gospels, and applied to life explicitly by later writers such as the Apostle Paul.

Much of this is missed when Bible reading consists of jumping from passage to passage. Reading that way, you see bits and pieces of God, but not the full display of his grandeur. Continue Reading

An intro: Why read through the Bible in Chronological Order

December 25, 2015 by untilfulllight

As we start reading through the Bible in Chronological order, it’s worth asking why we should do it. To answer, ask yourself, why read any story in the order that the events happened?

The answers are obvious. With the exception of the use of flashbacks or other literary devices, we need to read and experience events and character development in their natural time-dictated sequence for the story to make sense, for us to know the characters, and to care about what happens to them. In a non-fiction book we have to know the premise, the background, the arguments for the practical recommendations that follow for them to make sense.

To illustrate the truth of this:

Jump into the middle of a Harry Potter story with Muggles, Quidditch, Dumbledore, and Hogwarts

Open at random a book from Hunger Game Trilogy and read about Mockingjays, Panem, and the Twelve Districts

Open a book on the popular Paleo diet find these terms: paleo/primal, autoimmune protocols, leaky guts, and ketogenic

All of the above are nothing more than a confusing list of names and terms if you don’t read the entire book but they would all make perfectly good sense if you read the entire book from start to finish and meet each term in context.

It’s no different with the Bible

For someone who did not grow up listening to Bible stories or perhaps grew up in church and wasn’t paying much attention, how much sense does it make when you hear about Shem, Jeroboam, and Barnabas or about atonement, sanctification, and justification?

We wouldn’t claim to know the least bit about the Hunger Games or the Paleo diet if we only dipped into a few pages of each book here and there, even if we had favorite pages we went back to again and again, so why do we think we know the Bible when for many Christian they have:

Never read it all the way through
Or ever read it in Chronological Order

Download Chronological Bible reading plans

December 27, 2014 by untilfulllight

For 2016, these are the reading plans that I will follow for the lessons and commentary that I will share on this site. They arrange the Bible into the order the events happened. Though it can be a bit of a chore to jump around, especially when you get to the historical books and the prophets, psalms and other passages are mixed in, but the effort is worth it.

CLICK HERE to download a PDF of the Chronological Bible reading plan. This is useful if you want to print it off and put it into your Bible.

CLICK HERE to download a MS WORD document of the Chronological Bible reading plan. If you keep this on your computer you can click on the passage and it will take you to http://www.biblegateway.com, where you read the passage in a variety of translations, listen to it, or look up commentaries about the passage.

CLICK HERE if you want to be taken to the Chronological Plan for your phone.