Devotions

Day Thirty-One -- Leviticus 11-13 Read these chapters with the BIBLE READER to the left of this post, or at http://www.bible.com/ . Do you like this post? Share it with your friends on http://www.facebook.com/ or at http://www.myspace.com/ . They might need the encouragement, and it might help them receive the WORD OF GOD. So, guess what we read about today? More rules of what the Israelites could and couldn't do. Fantastic. But, it has a pretty good message. How many of you have a friend that is Jewish? Or, maybe you are a Jew! Regardless, the stuff you read today should ring a few bells if you know a little bit about Judaism. First, the chapters we read were about which animals were clean and unclean. If these rules stand today, then I am definitely unclean. Then, we moved on to what women have to do in order to be clean. Again, if these rules were true, I am unclean. Shame on me. Next, the Bible talks about skin diseases and rashes and skin burns and which cases are clean, and...

Day Thirty -- Leviticus 8-10 Read these fantastic chapters with the BIBLE READER to the left of this post, or at www.bible.com . R E J O I C E ! Today, my friends, we shall rejoice . NO MORE RULES! If you just logged onto this blog, you probably have nooooooo clue what I'm talking about. However, if you're a regular here, you can see that for the past week or so, the chapters that have been assigned were boring rules, and regulations that the Israelites were to follow. (Yawn.) Today however, we are reading a story about Moses and Aaron and their big ol' family! First, Moses called his brother, Aaron, and all his sons to the altar at the tabernacle they all built to worship and sacrifice to God. Moses followed all the rules that God set out for sacrifices, and he dressed Aaron and his sons appropriately, had the appropriate sacrifices lined up... the whole bit. Then, of course, the sacrifice started. Moses and Aaron had a huge sacrifice ceremony, with many animals and ritual...

Day Twenty-Nine -- Leviticus 5-7 You can read these three chapters at http://www.bible.com/ or with the BIBLE READER widget to the left of this post! Also, I've added a "share this" button to the left of this post, too. So if you liked this post, you can share the message with your friends or enemies on Facebook or on Twitter. Let's get this devotion started! Guess what? There are more rules about how to make sacrifices in today's reading. I started this devotional because I wanted to show people that the Bible is an exciting and interesting book that can help you with all of your troubles... But it's hard to do that when I'm supposed to write a devotional about ancient people pouring blood over pieces of their tabernacle and waving a goat's body parts in the air as an offering to God. But, I'll try. As I was reading, I noticed how strange all of this seemed to me. (And how strange is probably seems to you.) It make...

Day Twenty-Eight -- Leviticus 1-4 Read these chapters to the left of this post with the BIBLE READER widget, or at www.bible.com . It's a new book of the Bible today, a new start to read if you haven't been doing so lately! So, I was all excited yesterday because I thought we would move on to actual stories, and stop having to read through a bunch of rules and stuff. We still have to read rules and stuff. Hopefully, not for long. I've decided to do today's devotion on disappointment. I was pretty disappointed when I found out today's reading was all about rules, so I'm writing about it for y'all. Or, is is ya'll? Don't know. Don't think it matters. What I did pick up from today's chapters were that it was mostly about sacrifices. When someone sinned, they were to slaughter one of their goats, and present it to the Lord. You're probably thinking "Well, I sin everyday! I don't have any goats!" Or, maybe you're like "...

Day Twenty-Seven --38-40 Please, oh pleaseeeee read these few chapters at http://www.bible.com/ or with the BIBLE READER to the left of this post. So, there are more (pretty boring) rules in today's reading. That's the bad news. The good news is... EXODUS IS OVER TODAY! Woo hoo! Yesterday, we talked about how Moses had finally gotten the plans from God to build a tabernacle, and how he collected more than enough materials to build it from the Israelites' offerings... and they got to work. Today's reading was about every single little detail of how they built the tabernacle, and everything that goes along with it. It was pretty tedious to read through, it took a long time to read, too. But, the result was fantastic. We ended with a happy scene of everyone doing the right thing, and it pleased God so much that his presence filled the place, and Moses blessed everyone who helped out. Happy pappy. The even better news is, we are about to start the...

Day Twenty-Six -- Exodus 35-37 Please read these chapters at http://www.bible.com/ or with the BIBLE READER to the left of this post. Today has a really good message. Especially in respect of the terrible tragedy in Haiti a few weeks ago... it has a good message of pulling together and helping others when they're in need. Like the Beatles said, "Come together!" Haha. So, we left off yesterday with the wonderful story of all the believers in God who had to kill the non-believers, because they worshipped a golden cow. They weren't very smart... thinking they needed a material object to praise... so, yeah. They broke a commandment by creating an idol to worship, and they died. They were told that if they disobeyed the commandment that "no God was to come before the true God," they were to be put to death. Shame on them. So, all the believers lived, because they came to Moses when he asked who believed and who didn't. Do you remember the last few days? How ...

Day Twenty-Five -- Exodus 31-34 Read these chapters to the left with the BIBLE READER widget, or you can read them at www.bible.com . Today's reading actually has stories, instead of the rules the past couple days have had. So, let's get started, shall we? How many of you out there are happy that today you got to read stories? Like, it wasn't "thou shall do this" or "do that..." it was an actual plot. It's pretty confusing, but I'll try and sum it up best I can! So, first, God talks about how Holy the Sabbath is (or is supposed to be) for the Israelites. That finishes all of his rules he laid out, and you'd think that after all of those commandments that the people would realize how important it is to follow God, and they'd become better people, and raise all of their offspring as good followers of God, and blah blah blah. But, like all the other people in the Bible, they failed. Instead of praising God and thanking him for everything, th...

Day Twenty-Four -- Exodus 28-30 Read these three chapters with the BIBLE READER to the left... or at http://www.bible.com/ if you haven't already. What is with the book of Exodus and rules? It's like every verse. Just rules, and regulations and "do this" and "don't do that." It's boring! Some people might find that it's boring, anyway. But, I believe that everything in the Bible is put there for a reason. Theses last few days have been mostly about the first tabernacle that Moses and the Israelites were to build, and how to build it, where to build it, why to built it, etc etc etc. What can the message possibly be here, right? Why on Earth would we want to know how exactly to build an altar? Or, how the elders of the tabernacle were to dress? The only message I can portray is this: God does the unexpected sometimes. Who knows why he put all those laws into the Bible about things that seem pretty silly to us. But the fact is, he is the smartest...

Day Twenty-Three -- Exodus 24-27 Read these chapters, if you would like, with the BIBLE READER widget to the left, or even at www.bible.com . Again, I'd like to apologize for the shortness of this post. These four chapters were chock full of directions, and plans, and rules for the Altar and Tabernacle Moses built. The Lord wanted him to have a place to praise him, and He made a list of rules of how things were to be made. I don't think the rules are as important as the overall CARE God put into his instructions. He wanted everyone to know that that would be a Holy Place, so they need to put care into it. I want everyone to stop and think about the very first devotional, with Adam, and Eve. God cared so much about them, and all of the animals. He crafted them so well and so meticulously. Take care of your body, and your well-being. God didn't try and make us in his image for nothing! So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him. Male and female, ...

Day Twenty-Two -- Exodus 21-23 Please, feel free to read these easy chapters with the BIBLE READER to the left, or at www.bible.com . I apologize in advance for the shortness of this post... however, I can't choose which places to read, (well, I can, but I need to stay on schedule,) and today's reading is very short. It doesn't have a story, really. It's just God going over all of the rules he has laid out to the Israelites. The rules aren't as important, in my opinion. God's main purpose was to tell the people that if they obey the rules, they can live well and be prosperous. Sometimes, it's not in God's plan to live prosperous. But, if it is, then all you have to do in follow the rules, and tell others about Jesus to live eternally. You not only have to tell people about his miraculous works, but you have to truly believe in the works he has done. For God so loved the world he sent his only begotten Son, and whoever believe in him shall never die, bu...

Day Twenty-One -- Exodus 17-20 Read these wonderful chapters at http://www.bible.com/ or read it to the left with the BIBLE READER. It's a short reading and it has some really interesting things to say. So, let's get started. I want to thank my buddy for doing the devotional yesterday, she does a fabulous job. She left off with the story of Moses walking through water, and not just walking through it, but separating the sea so he could actually walk straight through it without getting wet. Amazing! After Moses escaped the Egyptians, his people were finally free. They were free to do anything they wanted... as long as they followed God. Except, when they were living in Egypt, (even though they were laboring day and night for the Pharaoh,) they still had a steady source of food and water in Egypt. They separated from Egypt, and they were all on their own, all beside themselves, all alone with their lonesome. You get the point. The fact is, even though they were free from Pharaoh...

Exodus 14-16 Ok guys! It's that guest writer from a few weeks ago you all loved! (Well i hope you loved :) ) So I'm back again and thankfully i have an easy story today that most everyone knows! Okay so lets get started! Remember if you want to read this story in detail you can always read it to the side Alright so after all of the plagues the Lord told Moses that he would harden the Pharaohs heart and he would search after them. God said he had planed this so he could do a great act to make all of the Egyptians would know that he is the Lord. So when Moses lead them away the Pharaoh sent about 600 troops (Egyptians) with him. When the Israelites saw them getting near they blamed Moses. They said it was his fault they would be killed and they should have stayed in Egypt. Moses just told them to trust in the Lord. The Lord said to Moses he would make a pillar of cloud for them to follow during the day and a pillar of fire that stopped the Egyptians from approaching them. When th...

Day Nineteen -- Exodus 11-13 There's a lot of funky laws and rules that happen in these mere 3 chapters. Please read them with the BIBLE READER widget located to the left of this post, or you can go to http://www.bible.com/ to read it there. Thanks! Okay, so I saw yesterday's post... and the horrific graph that went with it. It stunk. I've put it on photobucket if you want to see it... just click on the link for a version you can actually read and understand... it's posted below this post. Thanks for your cooperation. So, back to the Bible. It's important stuff, today's reading. It shows just how powerful our God is, and what makes him the ONLY God in the universe. He sent a bunch of plagues to Pharaoh in hopes that he'd let God's people go. Except... Pharaoh wouldn't let the poor Israelites go. It was time for God to take drastic measures, and he laid out a specific set of rules for each follower of God to follow. It was silly things, like "yo...

Day Eighteen -- Genesis 8-10 Welcome back. Today is filled with frogs, locusts, gnats, and hailstorms. Viewer discretion is advised. JUSTTTTTTT kidding. But seriously, there's a lot of gross stuff going down in Egypt with today's reading. You can read all about it on the BIBLE READER to the left http://www.bible.com/ to read the verses there. Okay, so yesterday we talked about how Pharaoh wouldn't let the Israelites worship God... and how Moses and Aaron were supposed to talk to the Pharaoh. If he didn't let their people go, then God would give them the power to send powerful plagues to the area to try and convince them that God was God, and there was no way they could get around it. I've made a handy dandy graph to demonstrate what happened with each of the plagues: There's one more important plague to come... so I'll post that tomorrow! Happy Martin Luther King Day... go in Peace! Don't be stubborn today! ...

Day Seventeen -- Exodus 5-7 Welcome, one and all. What a beautiful Sunday... but aren't all Sunday's beautiful? I think so, personally. Today's reading happens over Exodus, chapters 5, 6, and 7. Please, read these chapters at www.bible.com or on the BIBLE READER to the left of this post. It's only a quick 3 chapters... so read away. I'll be here when you get back... forever... and even after that. So, we left off with Moses and Aaron, (Moses' prophet,) going to tell the Israelites that God has heard their cry, and is coming to save them, releasing them from Egypt and all the hard work that Pharaoh has put them up to. The people believed that what Moses and Aaron said was true, and we ended yesterday's reading with a beautifully happy scene, all the people overcome with joy, bowing and weeping and praising God in gratitude. That must of made Moses and Aaron feel really confident. They went to the Pharaoh and told him to "let their people ...

Day Sixteen -- Exodus 1-4 This is the beginning of a new chapter! Only 65 more to go! Please, start reading if you haven't already. It'll only take you a few minutes each day, and there are some really amazing stories coming up in the next few days. You can read from your Bible, (duh,) or I've provided a BIBLE READER to the left, which you can use. Plus, you can also go to www.bible.com and look up today's readings. Exodus! I'm excited to start this, and there are some of my favorite stories in this chapter. No chapter is better than another, but some chapters might speak to you in different ways. Hopefully Exodus can help you today, and continue to provide hope in times of trouble. Most people know the story of Moses, right? The guy who led his people out of Egypt? Well, that story is coming up soon. In fact, today's reading starts off this story. It's all the stuff that happens before Moses became a great leader... he's just a child/young adult in the...

Day Fifteen -- Genesis 47-50 You might think this is silly, but I'm just going to come out and say it: Is anybody reading this? I wish there were like a stalker-gage on this blog so I could see the # of people who have visited this blog. Unfortunately, there is no such tracking device. I might have to invent one of these. Seriously, though, if you are reading this, and you have ANYTHING to say, please, don't hesitate. You can say and praises or insults or you can post questions about anything you have on the reading. You can even tell me how much you HATE this blog. I won't be mean. I guess having an angry reader is better than NO reader. Sigh. Okay, let's get this thing started. Remember, you can always read today's chapters on the scroll down BIBLE READER to the left of this post... or you can look up Genesis 47-50 at www.bible.com . Today's reading pretty much ends the whole Joseph saga. It started with his colorful coat, them his brothers' jealousy, then...

Day Fourteen -- Genesis 44-46 (Read these chapters to the left with the new BIBLE READER or you can go to www.bible.com to read today's reading there.) I'd like to thank my friend who did the (wonderfully great and fantastic) devotional yesterday. I'm glad to be back, though. OOOOOOOOO-kay. We left off with Joseph's brothers all eating happily at Joseph's palace he and the Pharaoh share. They were, as the Bible says, eating and drinking happily. A perfect Hall-mark moment, if you ask me. It's like those commercials for the Stouffer's microwave meals. They're all eating and smiling and talking about the good old days. Except... there wasn't much talking about Joseph's family, which was sitting right around him at the table. Joseph never spoke of his family, because they didn't know it was really him. I'd imagine them to think this random stuck-up guy is being nice to them. I'd be a little creeped that he's asking about my family a...

Day Thirteen -- Genesis 42-43 (Remember! Verses are on http://www.bible.com/) Hello and welcome back! This is not your usual typer today and it's my first time making a devotion so please bare with me here! Ok everyone! (whoever you are...) We have a amazing story for you today! You remember where we left off right? Joseph was made head of collecting food for the bad seven years ahead. And this is where our story starts. So the famine comes and everywhere (but in Egypt) people were dyeing of starvation, so Jacob sends all of his sons but his youngest, who was born after Joseph was sold, out to Egypt to get food for everyone in their family. But when they get there and try to buy food Joseph recognizes them but they do not recognize him. Joseph decides to not tell them who he is and accuse them of being spies for Canaan to see how vulnerable Egypt had become. I don't blame the guy! His own brothers sold him to slavery! He's only human right? So they try and tell him they are...

Day Twelve -- Genesis 39-41 (Don't forget to read these chapters at http://www.bible.com/ or you can use . . . !!THE NEW BIBLE WIDGET!! that's to the left of this post.) Welcome one and all to day twelve. Do you realize you've done a dozen Bible readings? That's pretty fantastic, so pat yourself on the back, whoever you are. I hope someone is reading this. Hello? Can you hear me? I feel small. This day's story is one of my favorites. We left off with Joseph's brothers selling him off to some random travelers, right? Well if I were Joseph, I'd feel pretty darn angry. I would curl up in a cocoon and only talk when necessary. I'd feel betrayed, and wouldn't want to come in human contact for a few months, at least. But Joseph, however, was different. He continued praising God and God found favor in him. Those people that his brother sold him to could of been mass murderers or crazy people. They could have killed him. But they didn't. Because Josep...

Day Eleven -- Genesis 36-38 (Read these chapters on www.bible.com if you haven't already... or else you'll have no idea what I'm talking about!) Day eleven just adds more to the Biblical confusion, but the stories are pretty interesting, right? What about all of those names? I laughed at a few of the names listed, they just sound funny. I guess times have really changed! I think I'm going to name my first child Oholibamah. It has a nice ring to it. Anyway, most of the storytelling is done about Joseph, one of Jacob's many sons! He was favored among all of his brothers, and his father (Jacob) gave him a colorful robe, which was a very prized possession to him. His brothers became very very jealous of their father's "favorite son," (don't we all) and they became even more angry with Joseph when he told them all about his dreams. In Joseph's dreams, he saw all of his brother's sheaves of grain bowing down to his. His brothers, like I said, we...

Day Ten -- Genesis 32-35 (Read these chapters at www.bible.com if you haven't already.) Welcome back, to your tenth day of devotionals!! Woohoo! What you've read so far has been long, and confusing, and quite frankly, a little boring. It has been to me, anyway. But, the important thing to remember is that only God knows why certain pieces of information is put into the Bible, and I'm not one to judge its appeal to people. Neither are you!! (Whoever you are!) What I read today, however, was only as short four chapters with a lot of messages to reveal. We left off yesterday where Jacob left his uncle after this wild goose chase. Jacob took his two wives and I think there were eleven sons, and continued onward to wherever he was planning on going. Along the way, he must have felt guilty or something, when he thought of his older brother, Esau. Remember the story? Esau was supposed to get his father's blessing but Jacob stole it from him by tricking his father. The two bro...

Day Nine -- Genesis 28-31 (Read these chapters on www.bible.com if you haven't already.) Hola! The last time I logged on, I left off with the story of Jacob and Esau. You know, the oldest son, Esau, who was supposed to get his father's blessing. But the mother of the two brothers loved Jacob (the youngest) more, so she tricked her husband into giving Jacob the blessing. Esau was very angry, and got mad at his brother. The two men split... and took off into different directions. Today's reading was about what Jacob did with his life, and it has a really important message. A lot happened in the few chapters I read... again, it's like a giant Soap Opera. Jacob married his uncle's daughter, Leah, because she was the oldest. But, he really loved Rachel, Leah's younger sister. He worked for his uncle for a really long time in order to marry Rachel, his real love. Leah was furious (there's a lot of sibling rivalry in the Bible,) and then, the two sisters decided t...

Howdy! I'm super excited to start this blog/devotional/claim to fame tonight! I've got a lot of great ideas and I'm excited to share them with you. (Wherever you are.) As you can see, this isn't the first day of the year, (aka the first day I started the reading guide.) Instead of starting from day eight, I would like to sum up the first week or so for you, because I'm a nice person. Or, I like to think I am, at least. The chapters I've read are in Genesis, chapters one through twenty-eight. I'm going to post a link to www.bible.com below. You can read them if you like, or you can skip down to the summary that follows. I won't think any differently of you if you skip down to the easy part. But, if you wanna, you can read the verses. They're good stuff, okay? They're from the best piece of literature in the world, if that makes a difference. And it will only take you around 10-20 minutes. And you can say that you've read the entire Bible onc...