Genesis 18:16 - 19:38
Matthew 6:25 - 7: 14
Psalm 8: 1- 9
Proverbs 2: 6 - 15
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This is a tool to help you read through the Bible in a year. Each day there is a reading from The Old Testament, The New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. There is also a place to add comments on what you've read. Just click on the date and you will see any comments posted. Click the scripture verses to read the passage.
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In the passages today I see a tension. A tension in how we are to approach God. Hebrews tells us that we are to approach God with a sense of confidence that he we will receive mercy and grace in our time of need. This also ties into the passage today in Matthew where Jesus tells us to ask, seek and knock until we receive what we ask for. The original Greek emphasizes the action of continuation, that is ask and keep asking, seek and keep seeking, knock and keep knocking until you have it. During our reading in Genesis we have Abraham bartering with God over the lives of people in Sodom and Gomorrah. Notice the way that Abraham approaches God. It is with great respect. The way you might approach a king or someone who has the power over life itself. May we find the balance as we approach God in prayer today.
ReplyDelete“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
I think it's fun to look at the original root Greek and Hebrew meanings of words (yes, I said "fun"). Sometimes it's boring, but many times it adds a lot of color to a verse. If you haven't ever done this, you can always go to www.blueletterbible.com and use their free tools to reference stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnyways... I thought it was interesting that Matthew 7:14 says:
"The gate to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it"
That is kind of a bad translation for studying the original greek meanings, although I love the practical way that is states what Jesus meant. Older translations say, "Straight is the gate and narrow is the path." This is much closer to the original translation. So I looked for the original Greek meaning of "straight" and "narrow" and came up with this:
straight = to make firm, fix establish
narrow = to press (as grapes), press hard upon
So the emotions conveyed in this verse would sound more like this:
"The gate to life squeezes and presses like a grape press and the road to life is firmly fixed and established."
To anyone who has ever really followed Christ and surrendered your life to Him, that whole "squeezed" part hits home. The pressure to let go of all my fears and just trust Jesus is exhausting and easy to run from. Ever been there? The gate to life is not a nice big gate. It's probably more like trying to fit a camel through the eye of a needle... but Jesus said, "nothing is impossible with God". No one can just squeeze through the gate on their own.
It's also interesting to note that Jesus said "few will ever find it". It's weird that he doesn't say, "few will ever accept it".
The word "find" literally means "to find something through enquiry, thought, examination, scrutiny, observation, practice and experience."
Different studies say that 70 to 95 percent of the world has heard about Jesus at this point in time. But it seems that according to this verse, there is a huge difference between "hearing" and "finding". Many will "hear" but few will really "find" him.
This really gets me think, instead of figuring out how I can just tell people about Jesus... how can I get them to "find" him. How can I provoke people to go after him and pursue Him on their own, instead of me giving them a sermon for all their questions. It's so hard to just let people find things out on their own... but people really have to "find" Jesus on their own and learn to be led by Him. Otherwise they'll just follow their church and eventually get bored.
This will continue in tomorrow's reading in Matthew 7:21-23.
Anyone who says the Bible is boring is crazy! :)