60IN60 Day 38 - Wed Jun 10

It's Day 38 and we're in Exodus 16.

If you come across something in your reading that doesn't make sense at first, be quick to re-read and to ask questions. If I can help answer anything, drop me an email.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verses 3-4 - More whining instead of asking God to supply. Why are we so quick to blame God instead of asking Him to take care of our problems?

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have questions or comments, email me at butcher@ymail.com. 

Your Comments and Questions:

- A comment from one of our 60IN60 participants: Exodus 15. "These 'through the wilderness' passages always fascinate me. The chosen people complain about everything, eventually despising the manna and asking for meat, missing the onions in Egypt (onions!), and finally making a golden calf. Small wonder that Moses asked God to take his life rather than deal with them. A British journalist named William Norman Ewer once wrote:

'How odd

Of God

To choose

The Jews'

Having said that, I'm convinced we all need the same amount of patience."

60IN60 Day 37 - Tues Jun 9

It's Day 37 and we're in Exodus 15.

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 24 - It's amazing how quickly we forget the miracles and answered prayers and come complaining instead of coming anticipating His provision.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com. 

60IN60 Day 36 - Mon Jun 8

 It’s Day 36 and we’re in Exodus 14.

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 11 - When things get hard, we are so quick to romanticize the way things used to be. We cry out for deliverance, then long for our chains again when the walk of faith gets hard.

Help:

- Verses 21 - As you can read from the text, it didn't exactly happen the way it was portrayed in the old Charlton Heston movies. First of all, it was incredibly windy in the walk. Second, the path had to be really wide, rather than a narrow path, because there were hundreds of thousands of Israelites that had to make it through.

If you want to read the chapter online, here’s a link. 

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

Your Questions and Comments:

- A comment from a 60IN60 participant: "Early in Exodus 11 God tells Moses to have the Israelites to '. . . ask their neighbors for gold and silver jewelry.'  He also made the Egyptians respect the Israelites and even have great favor toward Moses. Considering all the plagues the Egyptians suffered because of Moses and the slaves (Hebrews) - masters (Egyptians) society, this seems a little strange. In Exodus 12, we see this dynamic play out after the initiation of Passover and the deaths of the first born in every Egyptian home as Moses had forewarned. Only then did Pharoah relent, allow them to leave with all they asked for and '. . . the Israelites carried away the wealth of the Egyptians.' Truly remarkable."

60IN60 Day 35 - Sun Jun 7

It’s Day 35 and we’re in Exodus 13.

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 17 - He knows we're fickle and sometimes chooses the long way around just to keep from getting so discouraged that we give up. 

Help:

- Verses 1-16 - Why this long discussion of the firstborn? I think the underlying principle is that we need to give the first portion to God. For instance, although it's partially just symbolic, the first check I write after every payday is my gift to the church. It's a reminder that what I give God comes first, not after everything else is taken care of.
- Verse 13 - Basically this means: donkeys are sufficiently important to your agriculture that I don't want you do sacrifice them; instead sacrifice a lamb in their place. 

If you want to read the chapter online, here’s a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com. 

60IN60 Day 34 - Sat Jun 6

It’s Day 34 and we’re in Exodus 12.

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 13 - The blood covers us, protecting us from death. 

If you want to read the chapter online, here’s a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com. 

60IN60 Day 33 - Fri Jun 5

It’s Day 33 and we’re in Exodus 11.

When we were in Exodus earlier in the 60 days, we finished up in chapter 7. We've skipped through some of the plagues and are picking up with the last plague. 

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 3 - It's amazing what doors can open up when you have the favor of the Lord with you. 

Help:

- Verse 10 - As I've mentioned before, I think this hardening is a partnership of the Lord moving Pharaoh's heart in that direction and Pharaoh being inclined himself to go in that direction.

If you want to read the chapter online, here’s a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com. 

Your Questions and Comments:

- John 14. "In today’s 60IN60 could you please explain verse 30: '. . . for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in regard to Me . . . .' Is He referring to his upcoming capture and death?" - The "ruler of this world" referenced here is Satan. There are at least a couple senses in which this is true. First, Jesus had never sinned, so Satan had no viable claim over Him with regard to His guilt. He wasn't guilty. He hadn't sinned. This is different than when Satan makes accusations before God the Father about the rest of humanity. In those situations, Satan can rightly say that we are guilty and deserving of punishment. Second, Jesus was not fooled (as many people are) by the temptations of Satan. So it is also true in the sense of Jesus saying something like "Satan's temptations are not enticing to Me. I'm not buying what he's selling."

60IN60 Day 32 - Thurs Jun 4

It’s Day 32 and we’re in John 14.

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 12 - I want to see those "greater things."

Help:

- Verse 9 - If you've seen Jesus, you've seen the character and love of the Father.

- Verses 21, 23 - This is the standard: that we obey.

If you want to read the chapter online, here’s a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com. 

Your Questions and Comments:

- A comment from one of our 60IN60 participants: "Here are the central tenets of our faith as social people—service and love—and his news that his end on earth is near. This time I fixated on the simplest thing—the transfer of bread. Jesus declares one of the disciples will betray him, which naturally causes consternation. When asked he identifies the culprit not by saying “That bum Judas” but by offering him bread. Until this moment Judas betrayal is only intent. Satan enters to provide him the cajones to do what he’d been thinking of doing. Once identified, Judas can only confess and beg forgiveness or follow through, and he makes his choice. Still, that isn’t the tiny thing I focused on. It was the bread. Jesus dipped the bread in an oil and vinegar dressing, a traditional act of friendship and (I didn’t know this until now) a remembrance of Joseph’s betrayal. It’s the first I focused on. I do not think Jesus’s act was ironic, nor was it simply a revelation of the villain in the group. I think it was genuine, a last chance. I noted that Judas perfunctorily took the bread but he did not eat it. He chose to run—not only from the others but from what he might have become if he had accepted it. And at the end, as if to underscore that meaning, Peter is told that he will betray Jesus, and with him we learn that even treachery is forgivable if you accept the offer implicit in the bread."