Meditate on it

Create , by Shanna Noe My Bible reading has taken on different characteristics and flavors through the years.  I'm reading a chronological Bible plan right now.  If you are curious, you can find it here .   Although I follow the sequence, I don't follow the dating.  In fact, I've been in this plan for over 2 years now, but have just made it into the New Testament!   Through the years I've used a variety of plans--some mixed it up so that I was reading OT, NT, and a psalm or proverb every day.  Most of them had a pace of reading through the entire Bible in a year, a place that I can manage, but find I don't necessarily enjoy.   I would recommend both and all---it's good to move through the scriptures in a variety of ways.  One time, I spend two months on one chapter of John--John 17.  Of course, that was unusual, but it proved to be a deep well that warranted that much time. Over the years, I've had different favorite books or sections.  When

The older I grow, the more I slow down in my Bible reading.  Too often I've sprinted past diamonds chasing an elusive Bible plan.  Here's a diamond of a story that I've grasped fast in my hand last week.   Like many such stories, it's dangerously too familiar, but like a diamond illuminated by light, if I take time to examine it, each time I turn it, I find a new facet worth pondering. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish."   "Master," Simon replied, "we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if You say so, I'll let the nets down again."   And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!   A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.   When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and sai

"The form of the preaching of Jesus was essentially Jewish. The Oriental mind does not work in the same way as the mind of the West. Our thinking and speaking, when at their best, are fluent, expansive, closely reasoned. The kind of discourse which we admire is one which takes up an important subject, divides it out into different branches, treats it fully under each of the heads, closely articulates part to part, and closes with a moving appeal to the feelings, so as to sway the will to some practical result. The Oriental mind, on the contrary, loves to brood long on a single point, to turn it round and round, to gather up all the truth about it into a focus, and pour it forth in a few pointed and memorable words. It is concise, epigrammatic, oracular. A Western speaker’s discourse is a systematic structure, or like a chain in which link is firmly knit to link; an Oriental’s is like the sky at night, full of innumerable burning points shining forth from a dark backgro

"He was sinless, and yet He never had a harsh word for the sinners—provided they were not hypocrites."  -Biblical Illustrator Jesus cleansing the temple, Stained Glass Incorporated

Unknown  -  Original image:  Photochrom  print (color photo lithograph)  Reproduction number:  LC-DIG-ppmsca-02740  from  Library of Congress ,   And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets."  Luke 5:4-5  " Though an experienced fisherman himself, Peter accepted advice from a Carpenter, and as a result, the nets were filled. “ ... at Your word I will let down the net.” This shows the value of humility, of teachability, and of implicit obedience."        -Believer's Bible Commentary I believe there are times when the Lord calls us to trust Him implicitly, though his direction may be contrary to our humanly acquired knowledge.  Yet,  I don't believe that He calls us to make foolish unfounded emotional investments.   This thought worried me as a child.  When