Archive for the Read Thru The Bible 2021 Category

The most important thing was that Moses obeyed, just as the LORD had commanded. He didn’t argue or say, but why, God? This doesn’t make any sense! He obeyed. God’s ways are higher than ours. There are so many things we don’t understand. But if we follow Him, we can have faith that He does indeed have a plan, a holy perfect plan, even when we have no clue…

Jesus asked Bartimaeus, the blind man, the exact same question He had asked James and John, “What do you want Me to do for you?” James and John had asked for positions of power. Bartimaeus asked only to see. Jesus had refused the disciples’ request. But he healed Bartimaeus and gave him sight.

In my case, I knew I was completely innocent. I did everything I could to resolve the problem but it was beyond my control. My situation was painful, but mostly petty understanding. Some people pay a much higher price. Jesus was executed because of false accusations. There are times when we must just fix our eyes on Jesus and know that justice WILL come eventually when our Savior returns.

Don’t worry about the glory! Instead seek Jesus. Be serious about your own walk with Him. When we focus on God and drawing nearer to Him, we have no time for bickering amongst ourselves or craving personal glory. All the glory goes to God!

The boy’s father cried, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” I LOVE this prayer! It is a good one for us to pray often. And that is all it took. Dad wasn’t there yet in the faith department but all of the sudden he understood that he needed Jesus’ help. Dad still had a long way to go. But just that tiny shift from ‘IF’ to ‘HELP’ was all that was needed. Jesus commanded the demon to leave the boy and he was healed.

The disciples were still mentally living in the physical world. Jesus has shown them that the physical world does not really matter. Five loaves of fish multiply to feed five thousand. Blind men see and lame people walk. Obviously, Jesus was never constrained by physical limitations. He continually tries to gently but firmly shift the disciples from their physical mindset into the spiritual.

I find it so interesting how Jesus healed different people. He first put His fingers into the ears of the deaf mute man. Then He spit on His finger and touched the man’s tongue with His saliva. Okay first of all, gross. But actually I think it’s kind of wonderful, like a holy kiss from Jesus! Then Jesus said, “Be opened!” and the man was completely healed.

God knows you intimately. Every thought, every struggle, He completely understands. The more you seek Him — spend time with Him in prayer and meditation, dive into His love letters to you in the Scriptures — the more you do those things, the more He will open up your soul to understand the glorious truth of Him.

It is easy to laugh at these foolish Israelites and their golden calf. But we have our own version of this. Did you ever consider how most of our living rooms are arranged — chairs and couches in a half circle around a glowing screen. Doesn’t that kind of resemble an altar? How much time do we prostrate ourselves in front of it and let it feed our minds every day? How about those little shining boxes we carry around with us everywhere, to our dinner tables, into the bathroom, into our beds? The Israelites worshipped an idol made of gold. How many of us also worship money. Maybe we aren’t so different from those foolish Israelites?

This way that God provided, Jesus, is the greatest gift ever given to us. And God has poured out many gifts upon us — life itself, laughter, sex, procreation, beauty, nature… too many gifts to list! He gave us guidelines to navigate through this life in harmony and spiritual communion with Him. He doesn’t need to punish us when we stray outside of these guidelines. We punish ourselves. Look around at this wretched world, all the pain and misery, and you can see the undeniable truth of this.