January 31, 2009 by Peter Mead
The new February sheet of encouragement will be given out tomorrow. For those who won’t be there tomorrow morning (because you’re unwell, or because you live in Japan/USA/Malaysia, etc.), the sheet is now available on this site. You can either click on the “Monthly Sheets” tab at the top of the page, or you can click on this link:
Encouragement Sheet – February 2009.
 | Russell Sutherland on Introducing 2 Timothy |
 | K (Bolivia) on Testimony Testimony |
 | John (US) on Resource: Spreadsheet Reading… |
 | Carol (US) on Are You Getting It? |
 | Thadd (US) on Resource: Spreadsheet Reading… |
 | Sara (US) on Introducing Hebrews |
 | Clive (Hawaii) on February Encouragement Sh… |
 | Margy (USA) on The Reading Plan |
 | Neil (UK) on Bible Reading & Bible Stud… |
 | Geri (USA) on Testimony Time |
Tomorrow I cannot wait to start to read the book of Genesis! Why so? Like me, I’m sure you watched a movie and at the climax of the movie you’ve wanted to watch the opening scene again to relive and really capture the essence. In fact, some movies even do this for you and they play out parts of the first scenes to help you the audience capture the depth of that last scene, and really the whole message of the movie. On finishing the book of Revelation today, I was really captured by the whole story of Revelation, but also found myself tremendously curious to go back to Genesis. And so I shall tomorrow. Not only that, I’m looking forward to reading that book with three young adults. It promises to be a really rich time.
All this means that I have read through all 1189 chapters of the Bible in 37 days. That was a first for me in my Christian walk of 16 years. Why did I wait so long!
Was it a wonderful experience? Absolutely. Was it difficult? Actually, not that bad. Did I have to get up early to do it? Yes. Was my life so busy that I couldn’t make the time. Yes, my life was extremely busy during this time, but nevertheless – I made that time. I worked a full load of 50 hours a week, including facilitating three separate weekly group meetings and all the preparation that goes into that, hosted a semi-monthly meeting with key leaders, had a guest visit, spoke at three events, had a board meeting, and hosted a weekly gathering too. Life is busy, but once my heart was captured, busyness did not overwhelm me.
Were there times that there was so much information at one reading it all became a blur? On occasion, yes. But, my feeling about this is that it has created in me a desire to go back and read through the whole Bible again (in six weeks or so), to try to capture more and focus a little bit more on the less clear. No doubt, it might still be hazy but, I’m confident that God will clear some of the cloudiness and help me see more of Him in His Word. Indeed, we see through a glass dimly, but He so delights in showing us Himself and I am glad and eager to put my eyes upon Him.
One final thought. Life during the last 37 days has not been without challenge. Physically I am in a lot of pain, but God’s promises have been a great comfort to me. Relationally, I have been in the midst of a multitude of relationships, some of which, I could not have dealt with were it not for Him and His guidance. I am glad for His help, but I am also glad for who He is in Himself. There is no other beside Him and I am looking forward to knowing Him more as the prophet Hosea promises us, along with the Apostle Paul (Hosea 2:20 and Romans 9:22-26).
I trust this is an encouragement to you. I want to encourage others to read through God’s Word.