River of Life Church

2014 Bible Reading

Chronological Bible Reading Plan

Welcome to River of Life, First Baptist Lake Monroe and Ridge Crest Bible Church’s Chronological Bible Reading Plan. Over the next several years, the members of these sister churches will be reading through their Bibles together in a chronological way, following the events of the Bible in the order in which they occurred rather than in the order in which they were recorded. In addition the pastor and adult Bible study teachers will be teaching from the same passages we read each week. At times, additional passages from the Psalms will be provided along with the chronological reading portion.

I hope that you will prayerfully consider making a commitment to reading through the Bible with us. As you approach each days’ passage and questions let me encourage you to:

Pray – Pray before you read. Ask God to make the scripture real to you and show you how it applies to your life.

Read – Read the scripture passage(s).

Ask – Ask yourself, “in what I just read is there a lesson to learn, a truth to embrace, an example to follow, a sin to avoid, a mistake to dodge, a change to make or a promise to claim?”

Meditate – Think about what you have read. We are to be doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22).

Remember God’s promise and condition in Jeremiah 29:13

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

If you miss a lesson and would like it emailed to you,

send me an email at rolwebperson@yahoo.com

Want a link to read the Scriptures?

http://www.biblegateway.com/

Saturday, July 15 - Read for today: Psalms 62

Sunday, July 16 - Read for today: Psalms 63

Monday, July 17 - Read for today: Jeremiah 5

When we no longer fear

A while back, former Vice President Dick Cheney released his memoir, “In My Time”. In it, he recounts how in June 2007, he had urged President Bush to authorize the bombing of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor. The President polled the other advisors around the table: “Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.

In the forty years preceding Judah’s exile to Babylon, Jeremiah was a lone voice in the administrations of five kings. Judah’s religious and political leaders were all corrupt. The prophets no longer proclaimed the words of God. The political leaders of the day no longer defended the cause of justice. Jeremiah was not at all certain that if he walked Jerusalem’s streets, he’d find even one righteous, God-fearing person.

Israel had completely abandoned her allegiance to God and no longer walked in the fear of the Lord. On a practical level, this meant that people felt a license to sin. Fear of God’s judgment, which had once been a restraining force, was discarded. They no longer believed that God would involve Himself in any kind of meaningful way in their lives, and certainly not to judge their sin. Dishonesty, adultery, rebellion, greed, injustice: these had all become commonplace in the lives and culture of Israelites of that time. Perhaps worst of all, no one showed remorse. No one had any sense of having offended God and the requirements of His Law. Instead, the culture they had created, both political and religious, affirmed all of their wrong choices. They had completely rejected God’s authority. That is so similar to our society today.

This is what it looks like to refuse to fear the Lord, and God promises judgment on such a people. Is it not sobering to consider how much our culture resembles theirs? In our day, people feel freedom to sin. The thought of a divine being judging our sin seems out-of-date, medieval almost. And sadly, even churches and entire denominations no longer preach the authority of God’s Word.

When we abandon the fear of the Lord, it often happens gradually. First, we forget to see God as the provider of all good things. Our hearts aren’t grateful for all that we’ve been given. Second, we think we are self-reliant. Our blessings become the very things that have turned our hearts from God, convincing us that we don’t really need Him. Third, we lose sensitivity to sin. We no longer hate it.

Questions for thought:

1. Think about this seriously. Have you lost your sensitivity to sin? Are there things in your life today, that at one point you would not have allowed? What are you doing about it?

2. Do you fear the Lord? How can one tell?

For further study:

1. Read Proverbs 1:7. What does this verse tell us about fearing God?

Tuesday, July 18 - Read for today: Jeremiah 6

That old time religion

In verse 16 we read, “This is what the Lord says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths: Which is the way to what is good? Then take it and find rest for yourselves. But they protested, “We won’t!”

God was calling His people to stop and consider the path their lives were journeying along. He was encouraging them to look around, to open their eyes, and see if they were walking in the “good way,” meaning His ways, the ways they had been called to walk in as His people long ago. He promised that if they did walk in those ways then there would be rest for their souls. But they were not willing to do it, and so they were taken captive to Babylon. God’s advice to His people in Jeremiah’s day is still perfect for our day: “Ask for the old (ancient) pathways.” Those old days when God was honored, when, “In God we trust” on our coins, really meant something.

The “good way” is being willing and ready to do what God wants us to do, even when we do not know exactly what that is. Whenever we come to a crossroad in our life and we have to make a decision, God tells us that the correct path is the one that believer’s down through the ages have taken. It is a simple call to always “walk in the ways of the Lord,” to be obedient. Andrew Murray sums it up well in his book With Christ in the School of Obedience: The true pupil, say of some great musician or painter, yields his master a wholehearted and unhesitating submission. In practicing his scales or mixing the colors, in the slow and patient study of the elements of his art, he knows that it is wisdom simply and fully to obey.

It is this wholehearted surrender to His guidance, this implicit submission to His authority, Christ asks. We come to Him asking Him to teach us the lost art of obeying God as He did . . . The only way of learning to do a thing is to do it. The only way of learning obedience from Christ is to give up your will to Him, and to make doing His will the one desire and delight of your heart.

Remember the words to that old song, “Old Time Religion”?