2017 Day 365 – Come, Lord Jesus!

365 blogs on the Bible this year. I am ready to be done!!! Yay!It’s been a great adventure to dig deeply each day in God’s Word. As usual, He’s kept His promise: You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 29: … Continue reading →

2017 Day 362 – On that Day (I)

I find it interesting that as I near the end my 20187 daily Bible readings, the Old Testament prophets focus more and more on the coming of Jesus and His eventual kingdom. And John in Revelation focuses on the coming of Jesus and His eventual kingdom. Sometimes the imagery is so similar, I am not … Continue reading →

2017 Day 360 – Behold, Your King

Zechariah and John (in Revelation) give two prophecies about Jesus: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!     Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you;     righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey,     on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9 [The 10 kings who serve … Continue reading →

2017 Day 356 – The Branch

Zechariah prophesies about Israel’s return from Exile to Jerusalem. And like a similar prophesy by Zephaniah, the passage has a second fulfillment in Jesus and the Church (see the Zephaniah blog here): Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves … Continue reading →

2017 Day 354 – Hallelujah!!

When I read the passage today in Revelation, a few verses reminded me of music I had heard many times (in fact I played violin in several Messiah performances) – the Hallejuah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, the lyrics of which follow: Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. (Revelation 19:6) The kingdon of this world is … Continue reading →

2017 Day 353 – On that Day

God speaks through the prophet Zephaniah about the day that the exiles will return to Jerusalem: “On that day you shall not be put to shame     because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me… I will leave in your midst     a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord, … Continue reading →

2017 Day 344 – Loveless Toil

The Apostle John records a message from Jesus to the church in Ephesus: “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing … Continue reading →

2017 Day 343 – Names of Jesus

The first chapter of John’s Revelation is filled with names for Jesus. Here are some amazing ways John refers to Jesus, and Jesus refers to Himself: He who is and who was and who is to come (Revelation 1: 4 8) Jesus Christ (vs. 5) Faithful witness (5) Firstborn of the dead (5) Ruler of … Continue reading →

2017 Day 342 – Jesus is God

Jude equates Jesus with God. So if a friend says the Bible never claims that Jesus was God, here’s a great place to go. For example, Jude writes that Jesus (not God, not the LORD – Yahweh), but Jesus saved the people from Egypt during the Passover. (Jude 5) And Jesus (not God) has kept … Continue reading →

2017 Day 339 – A Love Story

The whole Bible is a love story. Of love begun. Love lost. Love restored. God asked the prophet Hosea to act out the love story through his marriage to a prostitute. By God’s command, Hosea names two of his children “No Mercy” and “Not My People” because God will punish Israel for her idolatry: … … Continue reading →

2017 Day 338 – How to Know You are a Christian

1 John 4 is full of love – and evidence that helps a person know he or she is a Christian. So, how does John tell us we can know the Spirit lives within, that we know God, that Jesus’ death has forgiven our sins? We Confess that the Messiah (Christ) has come and he’s … Continue reading →

2017 Day 335 – By this We Know…

The Apostle John tells us how we can know that we are Christians: …by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 1 John 2: 3 By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he … Continue reading →

2017 Day 328 – Be Subject

The apostle Peter encourages his readers to “be subject” to every “human institution” (1 Peter 2:13), to masters (and bosses, vs. 18), and to husbands (vs. 3:1). It’s not always easy to “be subject” to those in authority or to those who we need to respect, especially when is our leaders are unjust (vs 19). … Continue reading →

2017 Day 327 – People Who Proclaim

…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  1 Peter 2: 9 My daughters and I spent Thanksgiving dinner with friends who served as missionaries in Europe for years. We shared stories about the days … Continue reading →

2017 Day 326 – Inexpressible Joy

The first verses of 1 Peter are loaded with wonderful theology and phraseology. Where to begin this blog? … With a verse that continued to jump out at me: Though you have not seen him [Jesus Christ] you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that … Continue reading →