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2019 Bible Reading Plans

2019 Bible Reading Plans

The following are a few 2019 Bible Reading Plans from various sources.  Make a commitment today to faithfully read the Scriptures more next year than you did this last year.

After all, the mantra “no pain, no gain” also applies to spiritual disciplines.

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Genesis Through Revelation Bible Reading Plan

Read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation with daily readings of three to four chapters.  From www.heartlight.org.

Download: PDF

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52 Week Bible Reading Plan

Read through the Bible in a year with daily readings from the Epistles, the Law, History, Psalms, Poetry (Job, Proverbs, etc.), Prophecy, and the Gospels.  From www.bible-reading.com.

Download:  PDF

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Chronological Bible Reading Plan

Read through the Bible in chronological order.  This is one of my favorites.  From www.esv.org.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF

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Historical Bible Reading Plan

The Old Testament readings are much like the order found in Israel’s Hebrew Bible and the New Testament readings are in the order in which the books were written.  From www.blueletterbible.org.

Download:  PDF

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Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

This is the classic M’Cheyne Bible reading calendar that will let you read the New Testament and Psalms twice and the Old Testament once.  From www.edginet.org.

Download:  PDF

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5 Day Bible Reading Program

Read through the Bible in a year with readings five days a week.  From www.BibleClassMaterial.com.

Download:  PDF big_lines

And a special thanks to Ligonier ministries for the reminder.

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418:  What Happens When Our Prayers Go Unanswered

418: What Happens When Our Prayers Go Unanswered

Some of the hardest questions in the Christian life have to do with God not answering our prayers— no matter how much we pray or how much faith we can collectively muster.  Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?  Why didn’t God do what I prayed He would do?  Why doesn’t God love me?  Because if He did, He would not have let happen what happened?  Where was God during my time of deepest need?  I prayed to God for ________ and it did not happen.

Which inevitably leads us to ask this:  Why God?  Is the problem with me?  Am I not doing enough to get my prayers answered?  Or is the problem with You?  Are You showing favorites and am I on the bottom of Your list?  What’s the problem?  Help me understand this, God, because this is hurtful and doesn’t make any sense.


You’re Right, It Doesn’t Make Much Sense

And the reason for that is our reliance on Cliff Note theology.  We grab a few Scriptures, usually out of context, and hold on to them like a life preserver vainly trying to get them to say something they don’t.  Consider these:

1 John 5:14-15 – Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Did you notice something?  The key, according to this verse, is praying “according to His will.”  When that happens, badda bing, badda boom, prayers get answered.  But when we ask for something not according to the will of God, all bets are off.  The answer will be, “Not today, not ever.”

Matthew 18:19 – “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”

First, this statement by our Lord has nothing to do with prayer, but with dealing with a sinning believer.  And even if it did give us a prescription for prayer, can two people agree for world peace and the end of all wars, and it be a guarantee from the Lord?  I think not.  Why?  Because God has already revealed to us that in the future we “will hear of wars and rumors of wars” (Matt. 24:6).  God has already spoken prophetic truth to us and won’t violate His Word because of our prayers.

Do you want to know the reason God often doesn’t answer our prayers?  Because the reason will change the way you look at God and prayer from this point forward.  If you want to know more, then keep listening.

The following is a study on prayer.

To download the slides to this message, click – HERE

Download this episode (right click and save)

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413:  The Importance of Baptism

413: The Importance of Baptism

Baptism has fallen out of favor in the church today.  Many people are confused about baptism. And since there seems to be such a wide diversity of opinion about what baptism means and how important it is, many in the church have relegated it to an archaic, antiquated ritual and not much more.  And that is a grave mistake.  Why?  Because baptism is your first act of obedience as a Christian.

Many in the church who call themselves Christians have not been baptized according to the New Testament baptism.  That may include some of you who are listening to this podcast.  But think, if we are unfaithful to the first command of obedience to our Lord who saved us, it makes it much easier to disobey His other commands.  Does this describe you?

The question we ask today is why don’t people get baptized?  And there are at least five reasons: ignorance, pride, indifference, rebellion, or because they are simply lost.  In this message we will look at each of these in detail.

Are you confused about baptism and why it seemed so important in New Testament times but not so much today?  If that describes you, then keep listening.

The following is a study on baptism.

To download the slides for this message, click – HERE

Download this episode (right click and save)

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Stop Empowering the Fools

Stop Empowering the Fools

Today, I am amazed at how Proverbs 18 shines a light on the current situation in this country.  Just turn on the news and you’ll find the truth of Proverbs 18:2 splattered all over your screen.  Does this sound familiar?

Proverbs 18:2 – A fool (dull, stupid, arrogant) has no delight (pleasure, desire) in understanding, but in expressing (venting, revealing, disclosing) his own heart.

We watch these pundits shoot their mouth off about any and everything that comes into their minds as if it dropped from the lips of God.  As if they, and they alone, had the keys to all truth.  They consider themselves wise in this age because of the platform we’ve given them.  That’s right, we’ve elevated them to where they are by giving heed and importance to the words that come out of their mouth.  We, by our continued involvement in watching them vent the foolish bile that flows from their heart, have given credence and credibility to what they say.  If we watch and listen to them, their platform inevitably grows.  And if we turn away from their foolishness, they will soon be gone.  We hold the power to their influence in our lives, not them.  Maybe it’s time we began to use it.

This proverb sums up their life and motivation quite well.  Their delight is not in understanding the issues of today or the truth of those issues.  Their delight and pleasure come from venting what they think or feel or what seems right in their own eyes.  They tirelessly promote their agenda and twist the facts to support their talking points.  They assume that they alone are the standards of truth and we are too simple to understand the facts ourselves.  We obviously need them to tell us what to think and what to do.  Yet we forget the Proverbs call these type of people fools— dull, stupid, and arrogant.

As Forest Gump would say, “Stupid is as stupid does.”  But is he talking about us?  Or them?


Toxic Verbal Waste

The words that come out of a fool’s mouth are designed to stir up fights and foster controversy.  There’s no value in speaking truth unless it pushes forward the agenda.  Consider the following:

Proverbs 18:6 – A fool’s lips enter into (to go in, to bring) contention (strife, controversy, quarrels, disputes), and his mouth calls for blows (strikes, or a slap to correct insolent behavior).

That’s exactly what happens with the media today.  They pour out the anger and hatefulness in their heart, criticizing everyone and everybody who does not think like they do, and create contention for the sake of stirring up controversy.  But, as the Proverbs say, what they need is a punch in the mouth, a fist in their face, a belt in the chops.  A classic John Wayne moment.

But maybe we need the same thing.  Maybe we need a slap in the face for listening to the dribble that comes out of their mouth.  Maybe we need a wake-up call.  Maybe we need someone to slap us back to reality.  Maybe we’ve become just as arrogant and stupid as they are by listening to the arrogant and stupid things that come out of their mouth.  Maybe we also delight in contention, quarrels, and strife.

Maybe we’re no better than they are.  Maybe we’ve got blood on our own hands.


Our Addiction to Gossip

Those who spend their life speaking ill of another become addicted to the sin of building themselves up by tearing someone else down.  Proverbs 18 speaks to this also.

Proverbs 18:7 – A fool’s mouth is his destruction (ruin, terror, downfall), and his lips are the snare (bait, trap, lure) of his soul.

The more a man verbally tears down another, the more his entire being become enslaved to the sin of gossip.  Having a bitter and quarrelsome attitude becomes part of their DNA.  Words of praise and adoration are foreign to them.  But mocking words of sarcasm and condemnation become second nature.  They take over their being.  They are now the fruit of their hearts.  They possess their soul.

Do you know why a steady diet of gossip turns into an eating disorder?  The Proverbs do.

Proverbs 18:8 – The words of a talebearer (liar, gossip, slanderer, one who murmurs and whispers about others to attack them verbally) are like tasty trifles (to gulp, swallow greedily), they go down into the inmost body.

Those who are honored and exalted by their ability to gossip and slander another, much like the media today, become addicted to that sin.  They are in the limelight only because of their ability to verbally attack another, with false innuendos and half-truths.  They gulp and swallow greedily for another tasty trifle, some shared falsehood, about someone else.  And they hunger for some unsubstantiated rumor they can use to malign their character and murmur behind their back.


Welcome to Western Media in 2017

Come on, aren’t you tired of it?  Haven’t you had enough?

Then no longer go to these fools for the facts.  There are hundreds of alternative news sources that report truth, and not agenda.  The problem is that they are not as well known and CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and the others.  You may actually have to do some digging on your own and then practice biblical discernment.  You may have to work for a change and not fall back on what is easy and spoon fed to you from your sofa.  You may have to pay a price to know truth, and not the politically correct agenda that our culture is being indoctrinated with.

Remember the truth.  Remember where the truth can be found.  And cling, like a drowning man to a piece of driftwood, to the truth.  The only truth.

Proverbs 18:10 – The name of the LORD is a strong tower (an elevated place of strength and truth); The righteous run to it and are safe (inaccessible high).

Do you realize the elevated place of strength where the name of the Lord is proclaimed and the righteous run to for safety, may be the pulpit?  For the pulpit is to proclaim the truth, God’s truth, and cannot fall prey to the trappings and changing opinions of this world.  And those who run to it are safe.  Why?  Because God’s truth never changes and never fails.  And from the pulpit, God has ordained His truth to be proclaimed and His name magnified.

Something to think about, isn’t it?

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390:  Sometimes History Hurts

390: Sometimes History Hurts

When we try to determine the exact day that Jesus was crucified, either Friday or Wednesday, we come face to face with an ugly fact about the history of the church.  That ugly history shows the depth of the church’s hatred for the Jews during the first and second century, much like the church’s hatred of the Jews today.  Church councils were called to try to determine a uniform date for Easter in order for it to not correspond with the Jewish Passover (the 14th of Nisan), even if they are, in reality, intrinsically tied together.

For example, the Council of Nicea (325 BC) unanimously ruled that the Easter festival should be celebrated throughout the Christian world on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox (March and September); and if the full moon should occur on a Sunday, and thereby coincide with the Passover festival, Easter should be commemorated on the following Sunday.

Why try so hard to make sure no Christian festival corresponds to its Jewish counterpart, even if by accident?  Antisemitism.  But there’s so much more to this debate.  You have the two sabbaths during the passion week, the rantings of Emperor Constantine, and the excommunication of the Quartodecimans.  Sound intriguing?  Do you want to know more?  Then keep listening.

The following is a study on John 19:31-37.

To download the slides for this message, click – HERE

Download this episode (right click and save)

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