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/

Monday, May 23- Read for today: Jeremiah 36

The Bible

       Here we have a fascinating record of God commanding Jeremiah to write down in one place every message since he began his ministry in 627 BC. This is how the book of Jeremiah was preserved after the first was destroyed. God told him to read it to the people in the temple so that everyone would be responsible because they had to hear exactly what God has been saying to warn the citizens of Jerusalem of the coming storm. It is approximately 604 BC the year the Babylonians won a decisive victory over Egypt. It seems that Jeremiah started his ministry about 626 BC or 23 years earlier as a teenager.

      Today we live in an exciting time as archeologists seem to rediscover every year that the Bible has correctly recorded events and locations exactly as they happened. It seems that it had become fashionable in that arena of science, to try to ‘debunk’ scripture for decades. But thankfully better scientific methods and tenacity by scholars of integrity in the last few decades have re-evaluated earlier work. The British archeologist Kathleen Kenyon dug up Jericho and found that the city fell during a short attack. Vast amounts of grain were found, which shows there was not a long siege. And the walls had fallen outward, as if in a sudden collapse.  But Kenyon also concluded Jericho fell 150 years before Joshua and the Hebrews arrived. That has been challenged according to Time magazine (March 1990) in its science section, says Kenyon may have been wrong and the bible correct after all. It quotes Canadian Archeologist Dr. Bryant Wood, an expert in ancient mid-east pottery, who says the city’s walls came tumbling down at just the right time, based on pottery unearthed in graves there.

      Christians have always been able to rely on God’s Word down through the ages and nothing has changed in this era of skepticism and rude atheism. As American evangelist D. L. Moody discovered many years ago,” “I prayed for faith and thought it would strike me like lightning. But faith did not come. One day I read, ‘Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ I had closed my bible and prayed for faith. I now began to study my bible and faith has been growing ever since.”

Questions for thought:

  1. Do you trust the Bible? Why or why not?

  2. What happened when the king tried to destroy part of the Bible? has it ever succeeded?

For further study:

  1. Read Matthew 5:18. What does this verse tell us about the Bible? How has that been proven over the years?

Tuesday, May 24 – Read for today: Jeremiah 37

No Turning of the Tide

     The stage was set for disaster and the tide would not be turned. Judah would fall to Babylon as sure as the tide came in. Regardless all King Zedekiah could focus on was personal gain and desired Jeremiah to pray for his benefit even though he had no interest in hearing a word from the Lord about any judgements coming. Egypt advanced toward the southern border of Judah to come to the aid of Jerusalem but were turned away quickly when Babylon turned to fight them. Egypt fled and were of no use to Judah. Word from the Lord came through Jeremiah that Babylon would surely return and burn them to the ground. The tide of judgement was coming in as directed by God and nothing could change that. God sent word that even a few wounded soldiers from Babylon could defeat them because it was God’s will to do so.

       We see evil and indifference today in our world but judgements will be coming according to God’s timing.  We as believers are here to hold forth the light of God’s Word like Jeremiah and it may mean we will be uncomfortable in doing so. Persecutions may come our way as Jeremiah had to endure but we are to be faithful and stand for the Lord and the truth He represents. Jeremiah was briefly released only because the king of Judah wanted any information he may have from God about the current situation. The king really had no interest in Jeremiah but only what he could get out of him. The message that Jeremiah gave from the Lord was not what he wanted to hear which was simply that Babylon would defeat Judah and there was no escape.  The tide of judgement was coming in as God directed and there was no turning it.  The tide is coming in today as well upon a world that has turned from God and also upon the disobedient children of God to bring them back to Him.

 Thoughts to Consider:

Romans 1:18-Consider here the wrath coming to the ungodly. Although as believers today we do not experience the wrath of God we can experience His hand of discipline for disobedience.

I Peter 4:18-Remember that God can bring severe judgement as needed and the ungodly are in a very dangerous position.

For further study:

II Peter 2:4-It is good to remember that angels were sent to hell to wait for coming judgement. The good deeds of people today is not what delivers a person from judgement.

II Peter 3:7- Consider here the irreversible tide of judgement coming to this world by fire and destruction of the world and the ungodly people in it.

Wednesday, May 25 - Read for today: Jeremiah 36

God’s Word Can’t be stopped

  The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.Isaiah 40:8

     In 2000, Li Guangqiang, a Hong Kong businessman, was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for smuggling Bibles into China for underground Christians. Such attempts to stop the spread of God’s Word are not unusual, yet Christian churches in places like China continue to grow by millions.

      The importance and power of God’s Word is seen in today’s reading as well. Before the Babylonian invasion had even begun, God instructed Jeremiah to “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you” (Jeremiah 36:2). Jeremiah then dictated those words to his scribe Baruch, who recorded them in a scroll. Baruch took that scroll, went to the temple, and read aloud the words. The goal of all of this was clear: to give the people a chance to hear their sin, to be warned about their coming judgment, and to repent. It was both God’s hope and Jeremiah’s (Jeremiah 36:3, 7).

     Two reactions are recorded in Jeremiah 36. At first, a group of officials heard Baruch’s words and were struck with fear and alarm. They seemed to recognize the severity of the situation, so much so that they thought the king needed to hear about it as well. Even so, they realized that Jeremiah’s message may not be very popular, and so instructed Baruch and Jeremiah to stay hidden.

     Unfortunately, the king’s reaction was not nearly as sympathetic. Upon hearing just part of Jeremiah’s message, the king cut up the scroll and threw it into the fire. He then ordered the arrest of Baruch and Jeremiah. Yet, the end of chapter 36 is important. God once again commanded Jeremiah to copy His words onto a scroll a second time. Despite its rejection, God’s Word would remain; human opinion could not change it.

Questions for thought:

  1. How important is the Bible to you? How do you demonstrate that it is important to you?

  2. When was the last time you memorized part of it?

For further study:

  1. Read Isaiah 55:11. What does this verse promise?

  2. Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17. What do these verses say about God’s word?

  3. Read Psalm 119:105 & 11. What do these verses say about the Bible?

Thursday, May 26 - Read for today: Jeremiah 38

Telling the truth, continually

     How faithful are we? To what extent do we go to spread the Gospel and the knowledge of God? Do we tell people only when we feel perfectly comfortable? Or do we distort the message so that we do feel more comfortable? Are we truly living the message?

     Jeremiah had to tell many people God’s message as a life ministry. That didn’t mean just his close friends and other like-minded scribes and people. In chapter 39 he tells princes of Judah, and they, not being very inclined to his message, set about putting him in jail. Problem was, the ‘jail’ they put him in was actually a cistern with no water in the bottom. Instead there was mire. So, he had no food or water, and if he sank too far into the mire he would die as well. What a pickle. When he finally got out (and we’ll look at that in a little while), what did he do but tell the king the same message! He did make the king promise not to kill him though. He didn’t change the message. And he didn’t shirk his duty. Remember his duty was to tell everyone God’s message, that he was given specifically by God. Doesn’t sound too different to us does it? Our whole life is a dedication to God, and a big part of that is telling other people about Him. Telling them the message He has entrusted to all of us specifically in the Bible. To what lengths do we go to accomplish this?

     So, back to how Jeremiah got out of the cistern. It turns out that someone had overheard the talk amongst the princes of how they were going to treat Jeremiah. An Ethiopian no less. And he had the moral fibre and strength to go to the king and request that he be taken out.

     ‘Ebed-Melech went out of the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying: “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon, and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is. For there is no more bread in the city.”’ (Jeremiah 38:8-9)

      How often do we see evil and do nothing about it? How can we sit back in our self-contented shells, blissfully unaware of the evil that goes on around us? Being faithful also requires action. This Ethiopian was a foreigner and stranger to Jeremiah, but he knew right from wrong. We who are Christians have a much greater responsibility!

Questions for thought:

  1. What do you do when placed in difficult situations where being a Christian means taking a stand?  Do you?

  2. How might a Christian take a stand without attacking?

For further study:

  1. Read James 4:17. What does this verse tell us we are responsible for?

Friday, May 27 - Read for today: Jeremiah 39

Two Choices, Two Outcomes

     This chapter gives us a strong contrast between faithfulness and the lack of faith. Jeremiah pictures faithfulness to the Lord and then God being faithful in return to him. On the other side, we find King Zedekiah who is a picture of faithlessness and weakness that fails to be courageous when pressure comes and paid a terrible price for his cowardly indecision. The irony of this section is that the king who refused to see had his eyes put out and the temple that burned incense to idols was itself burned to the ground. Even the citizens of Jerusalem who illegally held fellow Jews in slavery were themselves led away as captives into slavery by the Babylonians. Hebrews 12:6 “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and disciplines every son whom he receives.” Faith in God makes demands on a believer almost every single day. Faith in God requires determination and strength of character demanding us to clinging to, trusting in, and relying on God. When we fail, stumble, and fall, then we must simply go back and humble ourselves before God. Then the Lord faithfully picks up where we left off and we go on down the road a little farther again. When Francis of Assisi was asked why God called him, he said, “God picks the weakest, the smallest, the meanest of men on the face of the earth, and he uses them.”

Questions for thought:

  1. Which path have you chosen?

  2. Why do you think the Lord waited so long to bring judgement on these folks?

For further study:

  1. Read 2 Peter 3:9, one of the greatest verses in the Bible. What does it say about God’s delay?