Job 8:1 — A second speaker arises, and some have questioned how tall he was (he was a Shuhite)!
Job 8:6 — Does God respond to the upright? Yes (Proverbs 15:8), but does He respond on our timetable? That is the problem with Bildad’s argument. Because his premise is faulty (if you are upright, God responds when you want Him to), his conclusion is also faulty (because God did not respond when you wanted Him to, you are not upright).
Job 9:2 — The question of the ages, repeated by the Philippian jailor a couple thousand years later (Acts 16:30)! Job realizes God’s superiority to man (Job 9:3-15).
Orion and the Pleiades
Job 9:16 — Job lays out his problems with God, emphasizing his desire for mercy (Job 10:2). Job is a hurting individual who is struggling with his innocence (Job 10:7).
Job 11:2 — Zophar is frustrated with Job, but sadly he uses God as a weapon (Job 11:5). Today, too many people use God as a tool to force others to do what they want done. Instead of letting God justify Himself, we try to co-opt God into fighting for our agenda.
1 Corinthians 15:1 — Time to get back to the basics! Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again! Yes, this is the truth that saves people from separation from God (1 Corinthians 15:2).
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 — Listen to “For I Delivered” by Earl Martin:
1 Corinthians 15:6 — Five hundred people saw a dead man alive and all at the same time! The former skeptic, Josh McDowell, was bothered by this statement:
Are you telling me that no skeptic among those profound Jewish leaders examined those witnesses? Paul’s whole reputation would have been ruined if his assertion were not true.
1 Corinthians 15:22 — Paul repeats his argument from Romans 5:17 – one man brought death, but another Man brought life!
Psalm 38:1 — The psalmist utters the cry of Job, but for a different cause (Psalm 38:15). Despite the suffering, we, like the psalmist, will hope in the LORD (Psalm 38:15).
Proverbs 21:28 — Yes, the evil will be punished and the good rewarded, but notice that the word “shall” is used and not “is.”
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
Job 4:7 — The danger of being 80% correct. Eliphaz believed that God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. And that is a good generalization, but the application made some faulty assumptions.
Job 4:17 — Eliphaz again recognizes a truth but doesn’t stop there. Stop while you’re ahead, Eliphaz! We’ve talked about the atheist argument “more moral than God,” and Eliphaz picks up on that. Instead of only saying, “Don’t argue with God” … period … he says, “Don’t argue with God …” and then proceeds to compare Job to the foolish and silly (Job 5:2).
Job 6:6 — Egg whites haven’t gotten any tastier in the last 3,000 years.
Job 6:8-9 — Poor Job! Like the old preacher said, “Thank God that He doesn’t answer all of your prayers!”
1 Corinthians 14:33 — Whether worship was in the Old Testament under the Levitical code, or in the New Testament as regulated by the epistles – it was never one of confusion, but always practiced decently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40).
1 Corinthians 14:34 — Paul says that some things seem to be in conflict with accepted cultural values of the day. But if God’s desires always lined up with our desires, we would have no need for the corrective imperatives of the New Testament.
Psalm 37:31 — How much of God’s Law is in your heart?
Psalm 37:40 — This is an interesting contrast to the story of Job. Job was trusting in the LORD but had not been delivered … yet. The word “yet” is a key word in Job and the Psalms – God will deliver but sometimes “not yet.”
Proverbs 21:27 — This explains why God was not happy with Cain’s offering (Genesis 4:5, Genesis 4:7).
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
Job 1:21 — I have a friend that has gone through the loss of his family (Job 1:15, Job 1:19), the loss of financial provisions (Job 1:17), and also the loss of good health (Job 2:7). Today, you may be facing these same challenges, or you may know someone who is. If you aren’t being challenged right now, thank God for this season of blessing. If you are, this is the book to read!
Job 2:13 — Sometimes the best thing you can do for your friends is to sit silently by. Job’s friends did well until they opened their mouths.
1 Corinthians 14:5 — It would be exciting to have a cool spiritual gift to be seen by many (or even just your friends), or to be admired or even envied. But as we read in 1 Corinthians 14:12, your value is not in how impressive your gift is, but in how it edifies the church. From Preaching Today:
Edward Kimball is probably not known to you. He lived over a hundred years ago. He was a Sunday school teacher in Boston, where a young teenager became part of his class. The young man was a country boy. He didn’t know the ways of the city or of the church. But he came to Kimball’s Sunday school class.
When the teen first came to his class, Edward Kimball handed him a Bible. When Mr. Kimball said, “Turn to the Gospel of John,” the country boy didn’t know how to find the Gospel of John. Edward Kimball recognized what was happening, and while the other boys were snickering, he opened the Bible to the Gospel of John and handed it back. When he asked the boys to read, the country boy fumbled as he read.
But Edward Kimball had a big perspective, and he saw possibilities in the boy. Kimball worked with him, and after some months he went down to the store where the boy was working, went into the back room where he was stacking boxes, and led Dwight to Jesus Christ. That was the beginning of the ministry of Dwight L. Moody, this continent’s greatest evangelist during the last century.
Psalm 37:16 — Contentment … whether it’s with your spiritual gift or with your financial state. For at the end, you will be satisfied in the days of famine (Psalm 37:19)! You will not be begging bread (Psalm 37:25)! You will not be forsaken by the LORD (Psalm 37:28)!
Esther 8:14 — Why did the couriers hurry? Because they had an important message that would save the lives of many people! There was a limited amount of time until the people would die, and they had the message that could save their lives! This wasn’t just an ordinary message – this was a message from the king!
We have a message that our King has given us. There’s a limited time left to get this message out to the ends of the earth. This message can save people’s lives – let’s hasten and spread the royal message!
1 Corinthians 12:27 — What is your role in the body of Christ?
1 Corinthians 13:1 — Look at the things that you can do and yet be meaningless:
speak with the tongues of men and angels
gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries
have faith to remove mountains
bestow all my goods to feed the poor
give my body to be burned
1 Corinthians 13:4 — What is “charity?” Love today seems to be a feeling – “I love this song,” or “love is love,” or “as long as our love shall last.” Let’s use the KJV word “charity” so we’re not confusing the biblical definition with a temporal emotion:
long suffering
kind
not envying
not vaunting
not puffed up
not unseemly
seeks not her own
not easily provoked
thinks not evil
rejoices not in iniquity
rejoices in truth
bears all things
believes all things
hopes all things
endures all things
1 Corinthians 13:13 — Faith can move mountains, and hope is the assurance (not a “hope-so” guess) of eternal life, but charity is greater. Why? How? Because it was charity (love) that brought the hope through faith to us (John 3:16)!
Psalm 37:2 — The lawnmower’s theme verse! Yes, we have some simple commands:
Esther 4:2 — Esther is a legitimate hero, but the account shows she’s a bit naive. When she sees someone with sackcloth, she seems ignorant – she doesn’t ask what’s the matter but offers new clothing. When she hears her people are going to die (Esther 4:8), her initial response is that she’s incapacitated – “I can’t do anything about it (Esther 4:11).”
Esther 4:14 — Without talking about the LORD, Mordecai (the Jew who didn’t return to Jerusalem because he possibly was too influential and partially secularized) still knew that his people would be delivered. Many people today may not recognize the divine protection of the Jewish people or why an obscure Canaanite tribe from 3,000 years ago that was virtually wiped out 2,000 years ago, has regrouped to be at least the 8th most powerful nuclear state in the world. Yes, people may not ascribe a divine reason to this, but Esther shows us that this is not mere coincidence. It’s divine providence!
Mordecai’s timeless words to Esther can be turned from a question into a declaration: “Thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” Has God put you in a place that you can use your title, your time, your talents, or your treasure to advance the Kingdom? Don’t be ignorant or pretend you’re incapacitated. You have been placed where you are for such a time as this!
Esther 5:3 — The fearful Esther was offered half of the kingdom!
The Banquet of Esther and Ahasuerus by Jan Victors
Esther 5:14 — Speaking of Providence, the very day that Haman was going to ask Mordecai to be hanged (Esther 6:4), the king orders Haman to honor him (Esther 6:10).
Esther 6:13 — Ah, the wise men figure out that this isn’t going well. But Haman is too committed to back out now. Haman decided to hang in there, and he was soon hanged (Esther 7:10)!
1 Corinthians 12:3 — Paul has to start out with the very basics of discernment!
1 Corinthians 12:18 — Contentment … God may not have given you the preaching ability, the deepness in prayer, the quick wisdom, the capacity to gift millions, the ability to do works for God that everyone will sit up and take note of, but you can be content with what He has given you.
When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one Talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest he returning chide; “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?” I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Psalm 36:5 — Let’s thank God for:
His Mercy (Psalm 36:5)
His Faithfulness (Psalm 36:5)
His Righteousness (Psalm 36:6, Psalm 36:10)
His Judgments (Psalm 36:6)
His Lovingkindness (Psalm 36:7, Psalm 36:10)
His Trustworthiness (Psalm 36:7)
His Satisfaction (Psalm 36:8)
His Pleasures (Psalm 36:8)
His Fountain of Life (Psalm 36:9)
His Light (Psalm 36:9)
Proverbs 21:21 – We just read about mercy and righteousness – how they lead to the fountain of life. Whose fountain is it?
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
_____ Image Credit: Jan Victors, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Welcome to the 2024 Bible Reading Challenge, presented by VCY America. Join believers around the world as we together read through the entire Bible in 2024. Many people start a Bible reading plan but get lost in the genealogies, lack an easy to use reading plan, or just need friendly encouragement to keep going. We’ve provided the tools to help you succeed in your 2024 Bible Reading Challenge!
Three easy to use tools (print “daily reading” Bible, online mobile app Bible plan, or a booklet with the passages for each day) to help you track each day in the Word.
Joining our email team – we’ll encourage you each day to stay faithful. We’ll share observations, testimonies, and ways to get the most out of the Bible.
I was researching some figures in Church History and came across James H. Brookes, a Presbyterian minister who led the Niagara Bible Conferences – an interdenominational meeting committed to the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. From Chapter 12 of his memoirs:
Many and many a time Dr. Brookes has been asked: “How did you obtain
your mastery of the Scriptures?” His answer was to the point: “By studying it.”
His idea of Bible study, however, was very different from that of most men. So familiar was he with the Scriptures, that it has been said in all seriousness by admirers: “If all the Bibles were destroyed, Dr. Brookes could produce one from memory.”
On one occasion, while preaching at a conference in Asbury Park, New Jersey, the editor of a New York semi-religious publication was present. He had heard of Dr. Brookes’ marvellous power of quoting the Scriptures, and he determined to test it.
On a note book, during the sermon, he jotted down every verse quoted. Utterly amazed, the man went to Dr. Brookes after the sermon, and pointed out that he had quoted verbatim, almost a hundred separate Bible texts; giving not only the words, but the chapter and verse.
From his earliest youth Dr. Brookes was a Bible student.
As a child he had been expected to learn and quote much Scripture; and his mother was scrupulously careful that the quotation was faultlessly exact. She held that to misquote in the slightest degree was something almost a sin. It was God’s Word, she said, and must be studied, and repeated exactly, or not at all.
(Alas, how would her soul be torn if she heard some of the wretched misquoting of the Scriptures — where any is quoted at all — in many pulpits, even Presbyterian pulpits, today! A sermon was heard by the writer in a St. Louis Presbyterian church, in 1897, in which the Savior was “quoted” as saying certain words which no man, even with a magnifying glass, can find in any portion of the New Testament.)
The influence of that training was marked throughout Dr. Brookes’ career. The Bible was his vade mecum (a handbook or guide that is kept constantly at hand for consultation). He pored over it. He, so to speak, absorbed it. He knew it, and he knew everything worth knowing that had been written about it.
He kept himself thoroughly posted, too, as to the work of the destructive German critics (and their servile American “Men Fridays”) whose hope of recognition and worldly success, in the former country — and to a growing extent in our own— lies in their power to win notoriety, and gather about them a following.
There have been certain deluded men who have ignorantly implied that Dr. Brookes knew little but the English Bible.
It would not be charitable, though doubtless true, to say that he could have taught them Hebrew, Greek and Latin. But it is only a simple fact to state that he was an expert scholar in ancient languages. While in German and French he laid no claims to a profound study, as in the ancient tongues, yet he could easily read both those languages. He studied the German theological professors’ “sensation”-seeking utterances in the original, something which (let it be said under the rose) it is to be doubted if many of their subservient followers in American seminaries can do, with all their I’m-holier-than-thou air of philologic eruditeness.
This acknowledged champion of the Plain People’s English Bible knew all that they did concerning the Bible in the original [languages], and a great deal more, in numerous instances. Having delved deeply into the roots of words, and the textual study of men and times, he was fully equipped to battle with the destructive Biblical critics in their own camp. He saw through the pretensions of many alleged great textual scholars, and despised their lofty and exclusive assumption of sacred learning….
On blank pages of his Bibles, and on the margins of the printed pages, in small, perfect penmanship, he wrote down with the utmost care the rich results of his life-long labors. Only a photograph can adequately describe those marvellous “notes,” and only the multitudes who “heard him gladly,” and the greater multitudes who have read his books in many languages, know the value of them.
To make himself certain as to the use of any one word, he thought nothing of reading the entire Bible through for that particular purpose. If the word appeared three times that fact he established for himself. He believed in being his own concordance. (It should be added here, that he was urged scores of times to
write a concordance.)
It was often his custom to read the Bible through three or four times during a summer vacation.
When he wished to fortify himself as to any doctrine from the Bible, he, of course, read the Bible through with such especial end in view. The passages were carefully marked.
When he reached the end of Revelations, every text bearing on the topic was at his tongue’s end. He had gone to the court of last resort, and all was settled.
The results of that tremendous labor would then be written down, briefly and beautifully, in a portion of his Bible. Dr. Brookes was constantly urging men
to study first the Bible itself, and then the books about the Bible.
He believed too many preachers, young and old, held the books “about the Bible” to be far too important.
Yet he was a great bookman, and his library was a “thing of beauty.” The four walls of his large study were crowded with theological lore, and to the day of his last illness he kept close watch on new works, and secured all the worthy ones.
Williams, David Riddle. James H. Brookes: A Memoir. St. Louis: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1897.
Date: December 6, 2017 Host: Jim Schneider Listen: MP3 | Order Jim began with a question for Randy: How is our Bible IQ as a nation and as a church are we reading our Bibles?
Randy’s response my sound shocking but it’s true. He indicated that many people aren’t reading anything. A recent study found that one out of four adults haven’t opened up any book in the last year.
Randy quoted the following statistics from Al Mohler:
–Fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels.
–Many Christians can’t identify more than 2 or 3 of the disciples.
According to data from the Barna Research Group:
–60% of Americans can’t name even 5 of the 10 Commandments.
–82% of Americans believe ‘God helps those who help themselves’ is in the Bible.
–The majority of adults believe the Bible teaches that the most important purpose
in life is taking care of one’s family.
–Over 50% of graduating high school seniors thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were
husband and wife.
–A considerable number of respondents thought the Sermon on the Mount was
preached by Billy Graham.
Obviously this shows a great lack of biblical literacy. This shouldn’t surprise us when you consider that only 45% of those who regularly attend a church read the Bible more than once a week. 1 out of 5 people who attend church regularly never read the Bible at all. And the most scary statistic Randy found? 80% of Americans have never read the Bible through even once.
On the flip side, Back to the Bible’s Center for Bible Engagement did a study of those who read the Bible just 4 days a week. Here’s what they found:
–You’re 57% less likely to get drunk.
–You’re 68% less likely to have sex outside of marriage.
–You’re 61% less likely to engage in pornography.
–You’re 74% less likely to engage in gambling.
–You’re 228% more likely to share your faith with others.
–You’re 231% more likely to disciple others.
–You’re 407% more likely to memorize Scripture.
The key is to have a plan and a way to get started. One way to do that is through the 2018 Bible Reading Challenge that was presented on this edition of Crosstalk. It involves use of The One Year Bible published by Tyndale. This King James Version paperback is divided into 365 portions. Each day (15 minutes per day) you’ll read a portion from the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Psalms and Proverbs.
More Information:
To obtain your KJV paperback edition of The One Year Bible for a donation of just $15 or more (price includes shipping) call 1-800-729-9829 or go to www.2018bible.org
