The Bible180 challenge, week 20

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This week we will step from Before Christ to the Common Era, and it's amazing - after all of God's longsuffering through His prophets - to open the story again, to see Him speak at last into the silence with the words of His angel to Zecharias and to Mary: first, "Do not be afraid, for your petition has been heard" and then, "Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God."

After all the pain He has endured, after His Name has been trampled again and again by Israel, He still hears - He still finds favor.

He still sends His Son as one last messenger of repentance and salvation, even knowing that like the prophets, Jesus will be rejected, beaten, and killed.

We'll be in the Gospels for the next couple of weeks, reading back-to-back the different accounts of Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection - so for now, I just want to meditate on a portion of Luke that we corporately prayed in church today:

And Mary said, "My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever."
Luke 1:46-55

Even after it all, He has had regard.

He has done great things.

His mercy is upon generation after generation.

He has exalted the humble.

He has filled the hungry.

He has given help.

What joy in knowing that this is the God we serve - the God whose love will never let us go, who suffers long for His people to repent. My soul exalts the Lord!

 

Resources

Luke: God of the Outcast

Genre: Biography
Total read time: 2.5 hours

The Bible180 challenge, week 19

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The Bible180 challenge, week 19

By the middle of next week we will have jumped forward in time 400 years into Luke's chronology of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, so today I'm taking a moment to pull together my thoughts on this year's experience of reading through the Hebrew Scriptures.

This is only the third time I've read the Old Testament from beginning to end, and one of those doesn't really count because it was done on a Florida beach in a timespan of less than a week, so I have very little memory of it other than falling asleep in the middle of Jeremiah (who knew reading 12+ hours a day could be so exhausting?). But each time - and this time in particular - I am left with no doubt of the incredible importance of knowing and studying these precious texts. My knowledge of my God would be tragically shrunken if I did not know the account of His creation, His history with the patriarchs, His patience in the wilderness, His stunningly detailed Law, His heartbreak for His adulterous beloved, His wrath toward Israel's defiance, or His longsuffering promise of the coming restoration. I am struck by the complexity and consistency of His character - by the way His attributes, even those that seem opposite, work together in perfect harmony in every single situation.

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The Bible180 challenge, week 18

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The Bible180 challenge, week 18

This week we will read Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi - the last of God's recorded words to His people until John the Baptist is conceived some four centuries later. As the nation finally rebuilds her homeland after being humbled by exile, a question hangs in the air: Is the promised restoration finally nigh?

We know that the answer is no. But it's a difficult "no" to swallow when we see Ezra and Nehemiah working so hard to inspire revival, desperately pointing their nation back to her God, trying to build something new and lasting from the spiritual rubble that has made up the hearts of Israel's people for so long.

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