BibleScribbler

Coffee, a Bible, and a Napkin to Scribble On

Reading the Bible in a Year

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With the new year comes a new chance to get on a Bible reading plan. As a family and at the mission we are doing the Chronological reading plan according to the folks at ESVBible.org. If you have never read the Bible all of the way through, or if you’ve never had the adventure of reading it through in the order that it happened, I suggest you check this out.

ESV Chronological Reading plan at ESVBible.org

ESV Chronological Reading plan as a printable and checkoffable worksheet.

I want to plug reading the Bible at the website: If you buy an ESV study bible they give you a free unlock for all of the study Bible notes online. You can also use the notes section to write your own notes and then every few months dump them to Evernote for archiving. It’s really cool to be reading the Bible and come across a digital note you made 2 years ago (and not be distracted by 1,253 other people’s notes at the same time.)

The other thing is don’t let this reading plan be an opportunity for pride or shame. If you miss a day, press on, don’t give up. If you work 5 days ahead, shut up and praise the Lord. I’m currently in the 5th year of a “through the Bible” reading plan that was only supposed to take one year!

Nothing grows you spiritually like reading the Bible deeply and responding daily.

Christ as the Head and Spiritual Maturity

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“To the degree that you hold purpose and principles in common among you, you can dispense with command and control. People will know how to behave in accordance with them, and they’ll do it in thousands of unimaginable, creative ways. The organization will become a vital, living set of beliefs.”

from http://www.fastcompany.com/27677/dee-hock-organizations quoted by Alan Hirsch in Forgotten Ways.

The cool thing about this is how it points to all of us who are in Christ functioning as we are connected directly to Christ Himself. Not how we are connected to our visionary leader, or our such and such coordinator. Not how we are connected to our pastor, who can fail ethically and morally and shipwreck us all. We are connected to Christ. He joins us, He communicates with us, and He coordinates us.

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

When we are lead by laws and shoulds, we are depending on command and control. Granted, the unspiritual man LOVES command and control, both to have it and to be lazy in it, but being led by the spirit is joy and peace, because IT IS REAL LIFE.

When my son is in my house, and I make decisions for him such as “It’s time to go to bed. It’s time now to do your homework.” I am controlling things that he is not mature enough to do himself. My goal in his life, however, is to be able to send him over to a friend’s house and let him be led himself to say “We should quit playing video games and get some sleep.”

That is maturity in life. That is how spiritual maturity looks too.

Ephesians 4:14-16

14As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.