Day 30 - God-sized Stories

Daily Reading:  Exodus 8-10

Exodus 10:2 "....that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord."


Footnote:

God told Moses that his miraculous experiences with Pharaoh should be retold to his descendants. What stories Moses had to tell! Living out one of the greatest dramas in Biblical history, he witnessed events few people would ever see. It is important to tell our children about God's work in our past and to help them see what he is doing right now. What are the turning points in your life where God intervened? What is God doing for you now? Your stories will form the foundations of your children's belief in God.

Please share answers to any of these questions.  Leave a comment!

Let's encourage each other with stories of God's faithfulness, big and small. To God be the glory!

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O n e - t w e l f t h !

Celebrating small victories! We have been reading the Bible for a whole month.....we've read 1/12th of the Bible!

Keep reading -- 335 days left!

All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV.

Day 29 - GOD IS....always at work!

Daily Reading:  Exodus 5-7

Then Moses went back to the Lord and protested, "Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people, Lord? Why did you send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people. And you have done nothing to rescue them!  Exodus 5:22-23

Footnote:

Pharaoh had just increased the Hebrews' workload, and Moses protested that God had not rescued his people. Moses expected faster results and fewer problems. When God is at work, suffering, setbacks, and hardship may still occur. In James 1:2-4, we are encouraged to be happy when difficulties come our way. Problems develop our patience and character by teaching us to 

1. trust God to do what is best for us, 

2. look for ways to honor God in our present situation, 

3. remember that God will not abandon us, and 

4. watch for God's plan for us.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” [This is] the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”—Isaiah 55:8–9

Did it cause you any concern that the magicians were able to duplicate Moses' miracles?

Footnote:

Some of their feats involved trickery or illusion, and some may have used satanic power since worshiping gods of the underworld was part of their religion. Ironically, whenever the sorcerers duplicated one of Moses' plagues, it only made matters worse. If the magicians had been as powerful as God, they would have reversed the plagues, not added to them.


Keep reading -- 336 days left!

All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV.

August Reading List

Hope you're ready for August!  We will cover a lot of books of the Bible this month!

     
        AUGUST
❏1   Exodus 14-17
❏2   Exodus 18-20
❏3   Exodus 21-24
❏4   Exodus 25-27
❏5   Exodus 28-31
❏6   Exodus 32-34
❏7   Exodus 35-37
❏8   Exodus 38-40
❏9   Leviticus 1-4
❏10 Leviticus 5-7
❏11 Leviticus 8-10
❏12 Leviticus 11-13
❏13 Leviticus 14-16
❏14 Leviticus 17-19
❏15 Leviticus 20-23
❏16 Leviticus 24-27
❏17 Numbers 1-3
❏18 Numbers 4-6
❏19 Numbers 7-10
❏20 Numbers 11-14
❏21 Numbers 15-17
❏22 Numbers 18-20
❏23 Numbers 21-24
❏24 Numbers 25-27
❏25 Numbers 28-30
❏26 Numbers 31-33
❏27 Numbers 34-36
❏28 Deuteronomy 1-3
❏29 Deuteronomy 4-6
❏30 Deuteronomy 7-9
❏31 Deuteronomy 10-12


This is the Junior Bible Challenge reading list for August.

    AUGUST
❏1   Genesis 37
❏2   Genesis 39
❏3   Genesis 40
❏4   Genesis 41
❏5   Genesis 42
❏6   Genesis 43
❏7   Genesis 44
❏8   Genesis 45
❏9   Genesis 46
❏10 Genesis 47
❏11 Job 1
❏12 Job 2
❏13 Job 38
❏14 Job 42
❏15 Exodus 1
❏16 Exodus 2
❏17 Exodus 3
❏18 Exodus 4
❏19 Exodus 5
❏20 Exodus 6
❏21 Exodus 7
❏22 Exodus 8
❏23 Exodus 9
❏24 Exodus 10
❏25 Exodus 11
❏26 Exodus 12
❏27 Exodus 13
❏28 Exodus 14
❏29 Exodus 15
❏30 Exodus 16
❏31 Exodus 17

It works really well to print your list and use it as a bookmark!

Day 28 - Exodus

Daily Reading:  Exodus 1-4

The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey -- the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."  Exodus 3:7-10

Footnote:

God's rescue doesn't always come the moment we want it. God had promised to bring the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt. (Gen 15:16, 46:3,4) The people had waited a long time for that promise to be kept, but God rescued them when he knew the right time had come. God knows the best time to act. When you feel that God has forgotten you in your troubles, remember that God has a time schedule we can't see.

Did anybody find Exodus 4:24-26 a little strange? God calls Moses and then all of the sudden he's going to kill him!

Footnote:

God was about to kill Moses because Moses had not circumcised his son. Why hadn't Moses done this? Remember that Moses had spent half his life in Pharaoh's palace and half his life in the Midianite desert. He might not have been too familiar with God's laws, especially since all the requirements of God's covenant with Israel (Gen. 17) had not been actively carried out for over 400 years. In addition, Moses' wife, due to her Midianite background, may have opposed circumcision. But Moses could not effectively serve as deliverer of God's people until he had fulfilled the conditions of God's covenant, and one of those conditions was circumcision. Before they could go any farther, Moses and his family had to follow God's commands completely. Under Old Testament law, failing to circumcise your son was to remove yourself and your family from God's blessings. Moses learned that disobeying God was even more dangerous than tangling with an Egyptian pharaoh.

Keep reading -- 337 days left!

All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV.

Day 27 - Job is Restored

Daily Reading:  Job 38-42

What a great ending! Didn't you love these chapters?

Instead of answering all of Job's "why" questions, God asks him a bunch of things he can't possibly answer, but they make Job realize exactly who God is!

Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm........  Job 38:1

Footnote:

Out of a mighty storm, God spoke.  Surprisingly, he didn't answer any of Job's questions; Job's questions were not at the heart of the issue.  Instead, God used Job's ignorance of the earth's natural order to reveal his ignorance of God's moral order.  If Job did not understand the workings of God's physical creation, how could he possibly understand God's mind and character?  There is no standard or criterion higher than God himself by which to judge.  God himself is the standard.  Our only option is to submit to his authority and rest in his care.

Keep reading -- 338 days left!

All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV.

Day 26 - Beyond Our Understanding

Daily Reading:  Job 35-37

How great is God -- beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out. Job 36:26

Footnote:

One theme in the poetic literature of the Bible is that God is incomprehensible; we cannot know him completely. We can have some knowledge about him, for the Bible is full of details about who God is, how we can know him, and how we can have an eternal relationship with him. But we can never know enough to answer all of life's questions, to predict our own future, or to manipulate God for our own ends. Life always creates more questions than we have answers, and we must constantly go to God for fresh insights into life's dilemmas.

Lord, help us remember to come before you ALWAYS for EVERYTHING!

Keep reading -- 339 days left!

All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV.

Day 25 - Why??

Daily Reading:  Job 32-34

In this reading, Elihu claimed to have the answer for Job's biggest question, "Why doesn't God tell me what is happening?"
Footnote:

Elihu told Job that God was trying to answer him, but he was not listening. Elihu misjudged God on this point. If God were to answer all our questions, we would not be adequately tested. What if God had said, "Job, Satan's going to test you and afflict you, but in the end you'll be healed and get everything back"? Job's greatest test was not the pain, but that he did not know why he was suffering.

Our greatest test may be that we must trust God's goodness even though we don't understand why our lives are going a certain way. We must learn to trust in God who is good and not in the goodness of life.

What if God did tell us everything that was going to happen? Sometimes it might make things a lot easier, knowing the end result, but in many other situations, it would make us live in constant fear and anxiety if we knew some of the things that were just right around the corner. What do you think?

Keep reading -- 340 days left!

All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV.