I know that I was supposed to resume the Bible study this week and that has already slowed down some. I honestly was starting to feel a little guilty about it. Not now. Not after a helpful, uplifting, and inspiring impromptu meeting with my interim rector, Father John.
3/29 Reading (Ecclesiastes 1-3; Matthew 10)
I’ve really struggled the past few weeks with the Bible study. I feel completely alone through this process and it is eating away at me.
Introduction to Ecclesiastes: It’s interesting to read that one of the two main voices in this book is a person referred to as “the teacher.” This book is still part of the wisdom literature. Overall I’ve been impressed with the wisdom literature. Well, except with the majority of the psalms. Oh well. It’s also interesting that it’s unclear who the teacher was. A fun mystery indeed.
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3/10 Reading (Proverbs 20-22; Psalms 90-92)
Proverbs 20: Here’s the ones I find most interesting in this chapter:
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1/27 Reading (Job 7-9; Psalms 79-81)
During the BINY class today (1/28), I remembered a conversation I had with one of my F3 brothers when my stepmother passed away. My stepmother made the tragic decision to take her own life in April 2015. It was and still is a challenging situation for my family, especially my father and me. One F3 brother, probably trying to console me, said that her death was part of “God’s plan” and that we just need to understand his plan. I remember how much that bothered me. The notion that God wanted my stepmother to take her life did not sit well with me. Thankfully I don’t agree with this person that this is how God works in our lives, but I’m amazed that people think this. I hear the phrase “it’s all part of God’s plan” all the time, but I can’t recall someone taking it to this extreme.
On to my thoughts about the readings.
1/25 Reading (Job 1-3; 1 Timothy 4)
Job 1: I’ve never read Job. In fact, whenever I hear anyone say Job I think of the movie Mission: Impossible with Tom Cruise. Job 3:14 played a big role in that film. I know, a silly story, but that’s what happens.
1/24 Reading (Esther 9-10; 1 Timothy 3)
Esther 9: The first half of this chapter tells of the Jews retaliating against those who tried to kill them. They killed tens of thousands of people. We also see that Esther still has a considerable amount of power over the King. He offers to do whatever she wants. She tells him what she wants and he makes it happen. This all happens on the 14th and 15th days of Adar (the 12th month of the year).
1/13 Reading (Ezra 10; Psalms 75-77)
Ezra 10: Ezra summons all the people to Jerusalem. There he tells them that everyone who married a foreign woman must send away their wives and children. They all agree as a community. That pretty much sucks!
An update to the schedule
I decided to make an update to the schedule. I had slowly gotten further and further behind and began to feel more pressure. I reflected on this and realized a very important thing: this is my experience. There is no medal given at the end just because I finished reading the Bible in a year. So what if it takes me longer. The goal of this experience to actually get something out of it. For me to get something out of it. I began to feel so much pressure that I didn’t think I was actually getting something out of it. I say this because it is possible that the schedule could change again in the future. This is a very challenging experience and I want to make sure I learn something. Just in case someone is actually reading this thing, I’ve bolded the line where things changed on the schedule page.
12/2 Reading (2 Chronicles 10-12; Psalms 70-72)
One of the things I’ve started to notice throughout this journey is how I feel connected to things in a different way. I’ve always been a big fan of Christmas songs (just ask my lovely bride). It’s one of my favorite times of the year. However, this year feels a little different. I feel a different type of connection to the music and the discussions than I have in years past. I mentioned this to one of my F3 brothers and he said this made perfect sense because the words have a different meaning now. That’s probably it, but I want to go deeper. I need to go deeper. The only problem is that nothing is coming to mind at the moment. One thing that I need to do better is to write down these thoughts as they hit me and then compile them into one of the reflections like this.
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11/30 Reading (2 Chronicles 4-6; Romans 15)
2 Chronicles 4: This chapter provides a detailed description of the equipment inside the Temple.
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