For 2010, I'm using Eugene Peterson's Message Conversations as my devotional bible. It's the text of The Message, with many inserted notes and commentaries by Peterson. It's fabulous and inspiring as he's such a wordsmith. I temper the notes with study notes from the Wesley Study Bible, the Faith in Action Bible, and the Spiritual Formation Bible. The reading play I'm using comes from Youversion.com, the Historical version. I've tried Chronological formats, but they've not been what I've wanted, and I've done a few "through the year" bibles, including the Daily Message. The Historical plan began at Genesis 1 in January and went up to 2 Kings, skipping Ruth. Since then, I've been reading the prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah. I expect tomorrow will be Micah. and perhaps the rest of the minor prophets.
Reading through the prophets at such a time as this in our current national economic, political, sociological and theological contexts has been provocative as an understatement. The prevailing call to justice, righteousness, love and obedience cannot be silenced. The harmonic call to authentic worship, which seeks full submission and full accordance with God continually challenges. The tension in these daily readings and the daily working of ministry coupled with the weekly pre-scheduled message texts can be maddening. Hearing these prophets call to the depths of my soul can conflict with what I am "scheduled" to speak on in a given week, and oftentimes the prophetic word sneaks in, even if surreptitiously.
From Isaiah 19: 1-25--three truths taught: The inadequacy of things to give meaning to life; God's intention to save people from EVERY nation on earth; inevitable failure of all false hopes. Each of us is called to make the claims of the gospel visible in the most powerful way possible...from today, as we "Go TO Peace." Isaiah 19:24-25 glimpses at the expected expansion of the OT world, reaching well beyond its current ethnic boundaries..even to the Gentiles, whom God also loves.
As I re-opened the blog, I thought I'd go back through my journal and share thoughts, but there are too many words to record. This book has from Isaiah 13 to today...so I'll look at the last few days and share...
Ezekiel 18-20 notes from EP: "This is a God more interested in creating life than causing death, more interested in resurrection that in decomposition, more interested in rolling away tombstones than sealing them. But Ezekiel can't convince everyone. He was accused of presenting a God whose views weren't just. Everyone was more comfortable with a predictable, cause & effect morality that punished people than with a God who took each person seriously as a new creation to be loved and saved. Sounds a little like Jonah's quarrel with God's mercy toward Ninevah--Jonah had a basic understanding of God's nature, and he knew God would be far more merciful than he'd like, especially if the Ninevites listened to the words God had given Jonah for them, so Jonah ran instead of obeying. Isn't that one of the repeating stories of scripture and of our lives?
I've always attributed "God helps those who help themselves" to Ben Franklin. Turns out Aesop said, "The gods help those who help themselves." How different is that from our God who helps those who cannot help themselves, and bids us to do the same?
Ezekial 37:26-28: "I'll make a covenant of peace with them, that will hold everything together, an everlasting covenant. I'll make them secure and place my holy place of worship at the center of their lives forever. I'll live right there with them. I'll be their God! They'll be my people! The nations will realize that I, God, make Israel holy when my holy place of worship is established at the center of their lives forever."
Ezekiel 46-48--"You don't exit the gate through which you enter, but through the opposite gate." Ez wanted to bring the exiles to repentance, faithful endurance, and hope through a vision of reordered relationship.
Hosea, a prophet of love, a parable of God's love for God's people, a lived parable. God loves us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes lovers of men and women who knew no real love. 2:1--"Rename your brothers, "God's Somebody." Rename your sisters, "All Mercy." Rename, new creation, whoohoo! 4:1--God indicts the whole population. No one is fatihful. No one loves. No one knows the first thing about God. 6:6--"I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings. You broke the covenant, just like Adam! You broke with me, ungrateful wretches!" "And I'm supposed to help them while they feed me a line of lies?" "Israel cries out: 'My God, we know you!' But they still don't act like it." 10:1--"The more lavish the harvest, the more promiscuous the worship. The more money they got, the more they squandered on gods-in-their-own-image. Their sweet smiles are sheer lies. They're guilty as sin." 11:12-13--"Sow righteousness, reap love. It's time to till the ready earth, it's time to dig in with God, until he arrives with righteousness ripe for harvest." 12:6--"What are you waiting for? Return to your God! Commit yourself in love, in justice! Wait for your God, and don't give up on him--ever!" 13:2--Religion customized to taste. Professionals see to it, anything you want in a god you can get."
"That God would command that Hosea marry a prostitute is shocking. How would a church respond today if its pastor or an elder were similarly called? What does this say about God's radical love for sin-stained people? Spiritual idolatry is compared to sexual promiscuity--unfaithfulness to God.
FIA, p.1417 on Hosea: "A belief system that accepts its culture's thinking and combines it with a few Bible verses looks and acts like an unholy prostitution of true faith." 4:12--"A spirit of prostitution controlled the hearts."
Hosea 5:8-7:16--The people chose nationalism over God.
JOel 2: 12-13: "Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins! Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God, your God. And here's why: God is merciful and kind. God takes a deep breath and puts up with a lot, the most patient God, extravagant in love, always ready to cancel catastrophe."
Whoever calls, 'Help God!' gets help. 3:21--"The sins I haven't already forgiven, I'll forgive."
EP on Amos: "More people are exploited and abused in the cause of religion than in any other way. Religion is the most dangerous energy source known to humankind. The moment a person (or government or religion or organization) is convinced that God's either ordering or sanctioning a cause or project, anything goes. The history, worldwide, of religion-fueled hate, killing and oppression is staggering. The biblical prophets are in the front line of those doing something about it. Prophets keep religion honest, humble, and compassionate. They sniff out injustice, especially injustice that's dressed up in religious garb. They see through religious hypocrisy, aren't impressed by position, power or authority, not taken in by numbers, size or appearances of success. They pay little attention to what men and women say about God or do for God. They listen TO God and rigorously test all human language and action against what they hear." Amos called out 8 lands, including Israel. 5:10-12--consequences of running over the poor. "You talk about God being your best friend--live like it--and maybe it'll happen." 5:15-"Hate evil and love good, then work it out in the public square." 5:21-24-"I hate your religious show-when was the last time you sang to me? I want justice, oceans of it. I want fairness, rivers of it. That's all I want. That's ALL I want."
Wesley: "To be God's chosen is to live in an equitable relationship with others. " "A Christian, however zealous for works of piety, should be more zealous for works of mercy--even reading, hearing and prayer should be postponed 'at charity's almighty call'-when we are called to relieve the distress of our neighbor, whether in body or soul."
"With God at the center, the people learn to worship, to administer justice, to show mercy, to live by faith in God and by obedience to God's word. Judgment wakes us up to God. People of faith learn not to dread judgment but to face it. Amos teaches us not to panic in the face of judgment but to be courageous, for we know that if judgment is from God, it's for our own good."
Amos' question: "Why do you feel so secure?" 9:11-15-"On Judgment Day, I (God) will repair, replace, restore, rebuild, make everything right. David's people will be strong again and they'll participate in the rebuilding. Everywhere you look: Blessings!"
"Patriot" (tendency to value security based on military pride--natural for nations with strong armies). Patriot derives from expressions meaning "father" or "of one's father." Patriotism, even for Christians, can become a substitute for, or dangerously co-mingled with belief in our Father God. Misplaced trust in anyone or anything but God alone is inconsistent with true Christian faith."
8:1-14--God cares about motives, honesty and fairness. Those who shortchange and overcharge may be clever, but they are God's enemies. So much for "Caveat Emptor."
9:1-10--God's judgment came from the altar/temple. Amos also foresaw the conversion of the Gentiles.
"Behavior matters to God. Salvation is a gift of grace, but good works are to characterize our living into God's kingdom."
EP-" It takes the entire Bible to read any part of the Bible." Can't just pick pieces and parts; must read with the unity of the whole story.
Obadiah--compelling portrait of God's opposition to pride. Pride-not only to ascribe anything we have to ourselves, but to think we have what we have not. Putting oneself before God and others--leads to lust, gluttony, lying, covetousness.
Jonah--one of my favorites, and I always see something new. What's a storm? It's the environment in which we either lose our lives or are saved--it's life or death. "We become what we're called to be by praying" just as Jonah does as chapter 2 begins, from the belly of the big fish. "Jonah had been surprised by grace and shamed by grace. But he didn't surrender to grace--which is why he sulked under the fig tree. Sulking came from a failure of imagination as well as a failure of heart--he knew little of God's love or the depths of God's mercy and the breadth of salvation. He was childish--selfish and pouty, reluctant to obey, had his own ideas, his own dreams, his own desires--he was self-focused to a fault. John Wesley spoke of God's sovereign power and remarkable mercy demonstrated through a reluctant prophet. He's a mix of contrarities, always seeking yet always fleeing from God.
So now I'm sort of caught up, having skipped a bunch of rather large books of the Bible and many pages. I continue to be grateful for the seminary professor who, when I asked, 'We don't read a whole lot of the Bible in seminary--for classes and projects, and all, but not much comparatively,' responded by telling me I've got my whole life to read the Bible. May it be so, as God's living word continues to penetrate my thick head and hard heart and form me and shape me into who God has called me to be.
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