60IN60 Day 58 - Tues Feb 28

It's Day 58 and we're in Acts 6.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 4 - These two things form the core of what a pastor should spend his time doing.

Help:
- Verse 7 - Sometimes we talk like all the religious leaders rejected the claims of Christ.  That's not true - many became believers.

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 57 - Mon Feb 27

It's Day 57 and we're in Acts 5.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 17 - You'd like to think we work from higher motives, but even in the things of God it often comes down to things as petty as jealousy.

Help:
- Verse 5 - This is shocking.  I think it speaks to the purity of the early church and how much God wanted to maintain that.

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 56 - Sun Feb 26

It's Day 56 and we're in Exodus 34.

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Nothing really jumped out to me today.

 

Help:

- Verse 7 - We talked about this "third and fourth generations" issue back at Exodus 20.  The best explanation I've come up with is that this is a statement of the way life works: when parents are disobedient, their children learn that and the influence can filter down generation after generation.

- Verse 14 - "a jealous God" - Not a petty jealousy, but it means that God expects us to keep our commitment to Him, the same way a wife should expect her husband to keep his marital promises to her.

- Verse 26 - "young goat" - An obscure point, but some of what God shares is for this particular rural nation at this particular time in history.

- Verse 28 - "he did not eat. . . or drink" - That would make this, like Jesus' 40 days, a supernatural event.

 

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 55 - Sat Feb 25

It's Day 55 and we're in Exodus 33.

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 13 - Nice phrase: finding "favor in Your sight."

 

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 54 - Fri Feb 24

It's Day 54 and we're in Exodus 32.

We finished at Exodus 20 a while back with the Ten Commandments.  Now we finish up the story with the pathetic actions of Israel in response.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 6 - It's amazing how quickly they got off track.  Why did that happen so quickly?  Two things are key: 1. Israel, as seen by their whining in previous chapters, didn't have their hearts into following God, so they were eager to turn aside; 2. Aaron was not a mature leader (see verses 22-24).

Help:
- Verses 27-29 - This seems harsh, but apparently that severe a response was necessary to wake the people up to how bad what they were doing was.

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 53 - Thurs Feb 23

It's Day 53 and we're in John 21.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verses 21-23 - Just a reminder to me that sometimes we read things into passages that are not intended.

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:

- "Who was the 'other disciple' besides Peter? What is the significance of the face cloth being folded, and the other linen just 'lying there'? Vs. 8 says the other disciple entered the tomb, saw, and believed. Then Vs. 9 says they (neither one) didn't understand. The two disciples went onto the tomb, and Mary only looked into the tomb. Why did the angels appear to Mary but not the disciples?" - 1. The "other disciple" was almost certainly John. He refers to himself in similar ways in other places as well. 2. I've heard a number of speculations on the significance of the face cloth being folded separately, but I haven't found most of them particularly convincing. The one thing I do think we can solidly take from that is this: the neatly folded cloth speaks to something happening there that was not a grave robbery. If someone snuck in to steal the dead body, you would expect them to rush in and out as quickly as possible to avoid being caught. The folded cloth speaks to something else going on (namely, a resurrection!). 3. The disciples went in and saw that the body wasn't there (v. 8) but they didn't understand that meant that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead by God (v. 9) (it could have meant the body had been stolen or something like that). The disciples leave and then Jesus appears to Mary. We can't know for certain why Mary was chosen as the first to see Jesus because the Bible doesn't speak directly to that, but there a couple things about it that are significant. First is that the women were the last ones at the cross after most of the male disciples (not John) had fled. It's fitting in a way that the first to see the resurrected Christ is a woman since they were the most loyal to Him at the end of His life. Second is that having a woman as the first witness (in a culture that devalued women) is a bold statement about Christ's concern and attention to those who are downcast and outsiders.

60IN60 Day 52 - Wed Feb 22

It's Day 52 and we're in John 20.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 9 - Even after all He'd said to them, they didn't get it.  I wonder what the parts of the Kingdom are that He's spoken clearly about and yet I have not fully grasped.

Help:
- Verse 17 - It would seem that Jesus ascended right after His resurrection, then returned to earth for 40 more days before the ascension we read about in Acts.
- Verse 23 - This is an amazing power that He has given us.

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.