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Jan 15, 2024 06:00am

The Bible Recap: Days 302-308

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(The following are reflections from the writer’s personal journey through The Bible Recap by Tara-Leigh Cobble – a Bible reading plan to read the Bible chronologically in one year. To learn more about The Bible Recap, visit thebiblerecap.com. Find more posts from this series at lifeword.org/thebiblerecap.)

Day 302: Read John Chapter 11

My Takeaways:

Every miracle takes Jesus one step closer to the cross.

Oh, friends, every time the Pharisees get wind of a miracle and start to plot against Jesus, I find myself wanting Him to lie low so that He can live longer! And, I know the ending to the story!

The thing is this: the Pharisees aren’t really in control here…God is. Honestly, this study has shown me so much more about Jesus, and God, than I previously thought. Jesus doesn’t back down from the naysayers. He stands firm. They don’t scare Him or intimidate Him. Anytime we seeing Him lying low, it’s because it’s not His timing yet for the cross. It has to be on His mind 24/7. It has to remind Him every time He does a miracle. It has to frustrate Him every time His disciples don’t get it…because His time is close at hand.

This miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead reminds me of John 9, where He healed the blind man. Both of these conditions were allowed for one reason: to display the power of God.

Sometimes, bad things happen in life because there’s sin and its consequences. Sometimes bad things happen because we have an enemy that causes strife. Sometimes, bad things happen for us to reply upon God and it’s there we experience Him and His power and strength. This is my God Shot, friends. Bad things will always happen and sometimes, we just don’t know the “whys” but many times, we can reply upon God to face it and help us walk through that season. It doesn’t feel like a miracle, like Lazarus rising from the dead, but it is. It’s a silent strength to face that obstacle. It’s God’s power working through us.

This miracle caused the lookers to believe! Can you imagine witnessing this?! Was the last time we saw a resurrection when Elijah raised the widow’s son? Is this the second one in the Bible so far? Also, I wonder if Lazarus would have liked to stay where he was before Jesus brought him back to life?! It was paradise! I am smiling because he returns to a very human life where he will have to die again. Just curious.

Day 303: Read Luke Chapter 18

My Takeaways:

We had some short but powerful parables today! What did they show about God?

The parable of the persistent widow showed us to be, well, persistent! Those who cry out day and night to God will experience Him! This is closeness—this is intimacy. This is faith. Persistency pays off!

Oh, guys, I do love the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. While the Pharisee looked down on others, the tax collector couldn’t look up at anyone. He knew who he was. He knew his sins. He was humbled…and that is the one who will be exalted. Those who are repentant and cry out to God have a heart for Him, not the Pharisee who looks down upon these people. The Pharisees lack spiritual poverty. Oh friends, may we always have spiritual poverty that keeps us close to God!

The parable of the rich young ruler shows us that money and wealth can hold us back in a relationship with God. The rich rely upon themselves and don’t have that spiritual poverty, perhaps because they have never needed anything before. Spiritual poverty tenderizes our hearts for God.

And the blind man….oh, friends, he had spiritual poverty. He cried out to Jesus, in faith, for sight. And that is exactly what he got! Not only that, but he also something more priceless: salvation. His simple faith that Jesus was the Son of God healed his soul. He walked away that day with his sight and his salvation.

And once again, Jesus warned His disciples: “It’s all about to change. When I go to Jerusalem, they will kill me.” But the disciples don’t get it yet….but they will. At this point, Jesus has lived with them for over a few years. They are family, and it will rock their world. For now, they are protected from this brutal truth. It reminds me of the many times in life, God protects us from the harsh truth until we are ready for it—spiritually mature enough to trust Him through it.

Day 304: Read Matthew Chapter 19 & Mark Chapter 10

My Takeaways:

Today’s readings target the heart of the matter. Those Pharisees, always plotting the next tricky question, ask Jesus about divorce…and Jesus comes back at them with a higher standard than Moses: what God has joined together, let no man separate. Then, they come back at Him with Moses’ decree of divorce, but Jesus, once again, gets to the heart of Moses’ decree: this was for hardness of heart. Soft hearts respond. Soft hearts are convicted. Soft hearts repent. Hard hearts don’t. It’s all about the heart.

Is it hard? Yes.

Is it challenging? Yes.

According to Tara Leigh, she said, “Divorce wouldn’t be an issue if hearts were soft.” As a child of divorce, I can very much attest to how hard life is when a parent’s heart is hard. And, I can attest to when divorce happened, it finally led to a soft heart to that parent, a waking-up so to speak. He came back to the Lord after many years of being adrift from Him. It saved him. Oh yes, friends, divorce is hard. God knows this, and He brought good from it. But, it’s a path in life that does leave some sort of trauma in its wake.

Then, we read about another issue aimed at the heart: wealth. Jesus also called the rich, young ruler to sell his possessions and follow Him—oh, the agony for this man! He wanted to know what he could “do” to inherit heaven. It boiled down to this question for him: his wealth or God? The rich young ruler chose wealth.

And, another issue of the heart: pride. James and John want seats next to Jesus in heaven—this shows us their hearts! Jesus told them, in code talk, that they will indeed suffer for His name and die for His name but whoever sits next to Him is not His decision—it’s God’s. (PS: Jesus does tell them that they will all sit on thrones! How cool is that? It doesn’t record their reactions but they had to have been shocked!) What a convicting moment! (And, I bet that didn’t make them very popular with the other disciples!)

It’s always been about the heart—it always will be. The heart drives our words, our actions, and our lives. Jesus doesn’t waste a moment to show this. Surrendering our hearts to God helps sift everything that comes from them. We are kinder than what we want to be, we help others out, we show love to the unloveable, and we give grace. It’s not easy—that’s for sure! But, every time we do, we experience God—His blessing, His power, and His strength. He truly is where the JOY is.

Day 305: Read Matthew Chapters 20-21

My Takeaways:

The beginning of the end is here with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Today, the people are crying out “Hosanna” and by the end of the week, they will be crying out “Crucify Him!”

Jesus isn’t holding back. He storms the temple, throwing out money changers and those selling sacrificial animals. He tells parables that should convict the Pharisees, but instead enrage them. He curses a fig tree, whose purpose is to produce figs. He faces opposition everywhere He goes.

He’s been preparing and preparing His disciples over the course of three years and now He has days left. They are about to be put to the ultimate test of faith when He is crucified.

Oh friends, I want more feel good stories! I am not ready for this! We have been preparing for this moment since Day 1 of our study, and it feels particularly harder to read than it has before. God’s plan of salvation is about to be fulfilled, and I can’t imagine how hard this will be for Jesus. Fully God? Yes. But, also fully human. It just makes me love Him all the more.

Day 306: Read Luke Chapter 19

My Takeaways:

Matthew wasn’t the only tax collector to follow Jesus—today, we read about another: Zacchaeus. (I will call him “Z” because my autocorrect changes it every time I type it!) Z wanted to see Jesus but there were too many people (I get this—short people problems!). So, he got creative: he climbed a tree. When Jesus saw him, He invited Himself to dinner at Z’s house—Z was overjoyed and right then and there vows to pay people back he cheated. Salvation happened right there!

Was it the fact that Jesus took the time to see him?

Was it the fact Jesus talked to him?

Was it the fact that Jesus is coming to his house?

Maybe it was all three.

Either way, he was seen that day and it just affirmed what was going on in his heart—he was ready for a change.

He did something God calls us all to do: seek the Lord. Z did…and he found Him. He had spiritual poverty and in that poverty, he sought a man who healed peoples’ bodies and their hearts. I love this!

Jesus’ love for sinners and His love for Jerusalem, especially, came out today in our reading. This is why He came. This is why He died. Those who have a spiritual poverty have a hunger and a desperateness about them that the Pharisees don’t have. Would we have climbed a tree to see a man named Jesus walk by?

Day 307: Read Mark Chapter 11 & John Chapter 12

My Takeaways:

Mary anointed Jesus with a beautiful concoction of her hair, perfume, and tears.

Judas is scheming and judging.

The Pharisees are plotting against Jesus and now Lazarus!

Jesus is riding into Jerusalem on a donkey as people cry out “Hosanna!”

Jesus predicts His death and God speaks out to Jesus, in front of a crowd!

And a beautiful moment in which Peter, ever the questioner, asks Jesus about the withered fig tree. Jesus comes back with a WORD:

“Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’ and does not doubt, IT WILL BE DONE FOR HIM. Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for— believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Doubt is the killer of our dreams. And doubt is the killer of our faith. It reminds me of when Jesus said that the things we lose on earth will be losses in heaven and the things bind on earth will be the things bound in heaven. If we have faith and believe God at His Word, God blesses that! If we lose doubt and distrust, it holds us back from experiecing God in a deeper way. What have we learned about this from scripture?

God loves a trusting heart…one that would be willing to sacrifice His only son, one that would face a fiery furnace, would that would call down fire from heaven, and one that would spend 120 years building an ark when it has never rained.

It’s when miracles happen.

Day 308: Read Matthew Chapter 22 & Mark Chapter 12

My Takeaways:

A vineyard, Caesar, a tricky question, and clever answers, Jesus is holding the Pharisees to the fire! He tells parables about them while they are sitting in His audience, He fires back to all their questions in ways that silence them, and He calls them out, saying they will receive harsher judgments.

And with today came my absolute favorite verse—my life verse—in BOTH readings: Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Oh friends, this has been one of the strongest themes of the Bible! It’s always been about surrendering your heart to the Lord, about loving Him so much, you give Him your time and attention every day. That because you love Him, you would obey Him. That because you love Him, you follow Him, even amid the hardest of circumstances. When we love God most, everything else just falls into place. This, friends, is what we have read since Day #1. He wants His kids to be after His heart…because He’s always after ours.

He sent Jesus to earth as an expression of His agape love—He gave all for us.

I could talk about this topic all day! What about you? Do you feel you love Him more now that we have gone over 300 days on His Word? I mean, we loved Him so much, we waded through all those prophets.