Reading the Bible Chronologically in 2022
This year, instead of reading from Genesis to Revelation, we will read the Bible as the story flows, as it happened and was written. There are several plans out there and I have worked to combine them into a plan that lets the Bible tell its own story "as it happened." Remember, the Bible is inspired, but not in the order the books appear in our Bibles. The Old Testament is approximately 3/4 of the Bible, but I have divided it so that we will spend half the year in the OT, and half the year in the NT.
Bible Readings: John 4
Background:
Jesus regularly shocked the religious leaders, those who practiced an empty and dead religion. He followed God but he refused to bow to human rules that corrupted God's truth and enslaved people. In today's reading, it was his own disciples that he was shocked by breaking cultural rules that hindered the spread if his truth.
There were two in particular that were common to that culture. First, there was a widespread loathing for Samaritans, so much so that Jews went around Samaria when they traveled from Judea to Galilee. Jesus went right through Samaria, driven by the universal love and purposes of the Father.
Second, Jesus spoke to a woman, something Jewish men often didn't do, having taken patriarchy well beyond anything God intended. Women were demeaned and treated as property. Jesus wasn't having it. He cared about that sinful woman at the well and ministered grace to her.
Jesus did the unthinkable - he stayed with the Samaritans in Sychar for 2 days. But the result of his cultural faux pas was that many believed.
There were two in particular that were common to that culture. First, there was a widespread loathing for Samaritans, so much so that Jews went around Samaria when they traveled from Judea to Galilee. Jesus went right through Samaria, driven by the universal love and purposes of the Father.
Second, Jesus spoke to a woman, something Jewish men often didn't do, having taken patriarchy well beyond anything God intended. Women were demeaned and treated as property. Jesus wasn't having it. He cared about that sinful woman at the well and ministered grace to her.
Jesus did the unthinkable - he stayed with the Samaritans in Sychar for 2 days. But the result of his cultural faux pas was that many believed.
Daily Devotional: The Kingdom of Our King
The testimony of the gospels is clear that those closest to Jesus, his 12 disciples, were confused about the nature of Jesus' kingdom right up until he sent his Spirit to empower and Illumine them in Acts 2. They expected him to seize power and establish himself as the head of a new government. When they fought over positions of power in his kingdom, it was not the millennial kingdom they thought of but the near future when he overthrew Rome and became king.
They assumed that they would have positions of power and influence in that kingdom. They certainly did not plan on befriending Samaritans and disreputable women. No way.
So when they returned from their unpleasant task of getting food in Sychar they were shocked to find Jesus locked in conversation with such a woman. They would have considered it beneath them and it boggled their minds that Jesus did not.
But he came to seek and to save the lost, not just to rule his own. Not only was he ministering to the Samaritans but he was giving his disciples a lesson. "I'm here to serve." They needed to adjust their thinking to his.
Unfortunately, too much of the disciples' fleshly thinking remains in the church today. We come to be served instead of serving with the kind of humility Christ showed.
They assumed that they would have positions of power and influence in that kingdom. They certainly did not plan on befriending Samaritans and disreputable women. No way.
So when they returned from their unpleasant task of getting food in Sychar they were shocked to find Jesus locked in conversation with such a woman. They would have considered it beneath them and it boggled their minds that Jesus did not.
But he came to seek and to save the lost, not just to rule his own. Not only was he ministering to the Samaritans but he was giving his disciples a lesson. "I'm here to serve." They needed to adjust their thinking to his.
Unfortunately, too much of the disciples' fleshly thinking remains in the church today. We come to be served instead of serving with the kind of humility Christ showed.
Father, help me to live out the humility of Christ as I serve your perfect and eternal purposes.
Consider God's Word:
If you did not envision Jesus as king, you likely would not be reading these readings or wading through my writings. But what kind of King and what kind of Kingdom do you see? Do you look with the disciples' eyes to see riches, glory, and the accumulation of earthly things? Or have you come to understand the nature of Christ's kingdom, which is service to the lowly, the lost, those sin has broken and the world has chewed up and spit out?
What kind of Kingdom do you see?
What kind of Kingdom do you see?
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