Week 42 Bible Reading Review

Week 42  Matthew 26:1 to Mark 13:1

Matt 26:75  Did Peter have any ability to not fulfill the words of Yeshua/Jesus about him denying Him thrice?  Would it be better not to know our future if we couldn’t change it?

Matt 27:16  An interesting footnote in the HCSB.  Some manuscripts say “Jesus Barabbas”.  So Pilot may have asked, do you want me to free Jesus the son of man, or Jesus the son of God?

Mark 3:30  Blaspheming the Holy Spirit may be calling it unclean (evil)?

Mark 3:31+  Yeshua seems to ignore his family’s request to see Him.  He must have known they were there to restrain Him. (v21)

Mark 4:12  One may wonder why Yeshua spoke in parables to keep people in the dark.  This is part of a plan to bring in the fullness of the Gentiles as elaborated on elsewhere in scripture.  They also needed to crucify Him to fulfill His purpose.

Mark 5  The account of the man with the legion is amazing.  It even caused the people to not want Yeshua around.

Mark 5:43  Yeshua gives strict orders not to tell anyone of the girl’s resurrection.  One would think it would be obvious to anyone seeing her.

Mark 6:6  Does familiarity breed contempt?

Mark 7  The Greek woman was equated with dogs by Yeshua.  Was this a respector of persons, or simply a plan to start with Israel, which was later expanded by Paul and others to the Gentiles?

Mark 10:13-16  Yeshua was showing how to receive the kingdom through the example of receiving the children with open arms.  Unless we welcome the kingdom of God like He received the children, we will not enter it.  (A different perspective than becoming like little children.)

Mark 11:24  Footnotes for other manuscripts:  “believe that you have received”,  “believe that you receive”, “believe that you will receive”  This changes the way one might think about faith/belief.

Mark 11:25  Important Key:  Forgiving others is necessary for our own forgiveness.

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Next Reading:  Week 43  Mark 13:1 to Luke 11:1

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Wisdom for the week

Here is my choice post from Dale Cresap from this past week.

Purpose Of Prayer

Do you see your prayers as a shopping list; things you need to get from God? Do you assume that if you aren’t getting the results you want you need to step up the effort? My word says that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. Yet is this the only purpose for prayer? Have you noticed that before prayer changes your circumstances it changes you? Do you see this as a side effect or the main purpose?  Are you willing to change your paradigm and approach prayer as a means for your own transformation as opposed to getting what you want? Are you willing to pray for your own transformation with the same fervency you do for the things on your list?

Week 41 Bible Reading Review

Week 41  Matthew 8:1 to Matthew 26:1

Matt 8:5-13  Yeshua (Jesus) commends the centurion’s faith.  His faith in what is said or commanded will be carried out and accomplished.

Matthew reports an array of Yeshua’s miracles and how they are accomplished.  My take, nothing is too difficult and there is no formula.

Miracle examples:
• Heal the sick
• Calm the storm
• Cast out demons
• Forgive sins
• Raise the dead
• Heal blind and mute
• Healing of “Every disease and sickness”
• Walk on water
• Multiplication of provisions

Examples of how healing occurred:
• Healed by touch after a request
• Healed over great distance by faith of another
• Healed by touch without a request
• Commanded healing without touch
• Healed by touching Yeshua

Matt 9:30-31  It always seemed strange that Yeshua heals the blind men then instructs them not to tell anyone and they immediately disobey, yet wouldn’t it be obvious to many who knew them?

Matt 12:12  It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

Matt 12:36-37  Our own words seal our fate.

Matt 15:28  The gentile woman with great faith did not give up or get discouraged but pursued Yeshua.

Matt 15:36  A clue on how the multiplication transpired.  Yeshua broke the bread and ‘kept’ on giving the bread and fish to the disciples to pass out.

Matt 16:18  I like Tod White’s interpretation of this verse.  It is not Peter that the church will be built upon, but His statement that Yeshua is the Messiah, that is the foundational rock of the church.

Matt 17:17  Is Yeshua rebuking of the unbelieving and rebellious generation referring to his disciples?  This is what I have previously thought and the HCSB commentary concurs.  But could this instead be referring to the suffering boy’s father and those like him?  I have heard it said that a demon can not enter a child unless given permission by a parent's actions.

Matt 18:35   Forgive others if you want to be forgiven.

Matt 21:7  Did Yeshua sit on both a donkey and a colt at the same time?  Other gospels only mention one animal.

Matt 23:23  May we all remember the more important matters of justice, mercy and faith!

Matt 24:36  This passage is referred to by many as evidence of a rapture.  Two in the field, one taken…  But read carefully, as in the days of Noah who was taken and who was left behind?  Which do you want to be?

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Next Reading:  Week 42  Matthew 26:1 to Mark 13:1

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My wife and I have added the following admonishment to our prayer time.  Leave a comment if you will be joining too!

PROCLAIM HIS NAME Into the Atmosphere! by Jacqueline McKool

Recently, as I thought about the Islamic influence that has quickly and resolutely infiltrated our nation, I asked the Lord how to specifically pray about it. 

The Lord spoke and said that five times a day the Islamic prayers and declarations released into the atmosphere are in agreement with the enemy, giving him legal ground to advance his evil plan on this nation. The consistent, unified Islamic prayers and the declarations of special interest groups, whose agenda is contrary to God’s Word, currently outweigh the voices of the people of the Kingdom of God.

The Lord also said that if His Remnant would declare aloud that He is the one true God even just once a day, then an acknowledgment of His sovereignty would be released into the airways EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY! 

An example of a declaration: 

Yahweh God, the great I Am, He alone is God, there is none beside Him. Jesus, His only begotten Son is our Savior, the Lord of lords, and King of kings, the One who was, who is and is to come. All glory, praise, honor, majesty, splendor and dominion is His forever and ever.

It is time that we, the Remnant, the called out ones of the Body of Jesus Christ, release our voice, the breath of our Creator, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and declare who the one true God is over this nation. Our collective voice has more power than any other and will supersede the voices aligned with the enemy.

Father God has spoken;  we can take back the airways over this nation that belong to us by the victory of the cross of Christ Jesus. Airways that are permeated with ungodly chants, statements, decrees, invocations and threats. We must mobilize and use our most powerful weapon, the Word of God, and by our spoken word, nullify the decrees of darkness and take back our nation in the name of our redeemer Jesus, the King and Lord of America!

I call you, brothers and sisters, to take the Lord God at His word; declare Him as the one true God and fill the atmosphere with His praise at least once a day. Ask the Holy Spirit to remind you or set a reminder on your smart phone. 

Together, the gates of hell will not prevail against us! (Matthew 16:18)

Sing out the honor of His name; make His praise glorious! Say to God, how awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies will submit themselves to You! (Psalm 66:2-3)

Week 40 Bible Reading Review

Week 40  Haggai 1:1 to Matthew 8:1

Hag 1  Even though the people did what should have been sufficient for their needs, God caused lack (v9).  Does God’s kingdom get ignored while we work on our own today?

Hag 2:17  When things go wrong in our lives, do we turn to God?  Does the “size” of the trouble affect our response?  We might consider troubles as not being under His blessing and turn to God to find out why.

Zec 8:16  God’s short list on what the returning remnant were to do: speak truth, make true decisions, do not plot evil or love perjury.

Zec 14  In the end times this chapter clearly shows that the feast of Sukkot will still be celebrated in Jerusalem during the time when Messiah is fulfilling this festival.

Mal 1:3  “I (God) hated Esau”…  Elsewhere in the Bible we are told to love our enemies, also that God is not a respecter of persons.  I have been taught that ‘hated’ here means ‘not preferred’, yet hated is how it is translated and verse 4 emphasizes this conclusion.  Why is this?  In Psalm 103 it states God loves those who fear Him.  From this we might conclude that Esau did not fear God.

Mal 1  God expects our best.  Do we give him the best part of our time?  Do we serve others with our all as unto the Lord?  Is serving our King a burden to us?

Mal 3:17-18  It may seem the righteous perish and the wicked prosper, but God is preparing a day when justice will rule.

Matt 1:20  Wouldn’t it be awesome to have the Angel of the Lord tell you clearly what to do.  Joseph gets this benefit several times in the first part of Matthew.

Matt 2:8  Herod told the wise men to report back to him.  Their response is not recorded, giving me the conclusion that it was not held against them if they said they would.  Should our response to commitments always be:  “As God wills”?

Matt 3:10  We must produce good fruit.  This is the judgement stick we are to use.

Matt 4:18-22  If a stranger walked up to us while we were working on our job and said to follow him, would we drop everything and do it?  One would think there is more back story or a spiritual draw the disciple recruits experienced, perhaps it was an honor to these unlearned men to be asked to follow a ‘rabbi’.

Matt 5-7  The sermon on the mount.  Yeshua / Jesus raises the bar on a few commands, taking it to the heart level.  Admonishing humility and the seeking first of God’s kingdom and His righteousness, not the things of this world.  An excellent sermon that we should all frequently review.

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Next Reading:  Week 41  Matthew 8:1 to Matthew 26:1

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Instead of a blog post by Dale this week, I am going to share some notes I took from a message I recently listened to by Henry Gruver to hopefully provide for us a practical application of remitting sins we can use in our daily lives.

Henry has many fascinating testimonies of prayer walking.  He has walked in 54 countries and been doing this over the last 55 years.  One main teaching he does is on the remitting of sins. (John 20:23)

When you meet / see someone take your first thought of them to God.
If it is positive – Give thanks and pray God to multiply this in them.
If it is negative – Remit their sins (or repent of yours if need be).

Remitting of sins is asking God to forgive a person who is not repenting.  Upon doing this, God lifts the heavy load of condemnation off of the sinner, giving them a space of time to repent.  Next ask God to pour his goodness upon the person. (Romans 2:4)  It is the goodness of God that leads to lasting repentance.  Then pray God would send laborers into His harvest.

This is something we can implement in our lives and see what God does!

Week 39 Bible Reading Review

Week 39  Amos 1:1 to Haggai 1:1

Amos 4:6+  God lists several things He does to cause Israel to return to Him.  Would knowing God was causing our trials turn us toward or away from Him?  If we know why it should turn us toward Him.

Amos 5:4  “Seek Me and live!” v6 “Seek YHVH and live!”

Israel was being punished for their lack of justice and righteousness.

Amos 7:1-6  Amos request for mercy stops two severe judgments from happening.  The prayer of a righteous man avails much!

Obediah 15  God’s judgement on the nations will be as they deserve.

Jonah’s story seems surreal.  Did Jonah not want mercy shown to Nineveh because they were enemies of Israel?  Can we be merciful as God is to those we despise or are our enemies?

Micah 6:8  A good reminder:  What does God require of us?  Act justly, love faithfulness / mercy, and walk humbly before our God.

Nah 1:2  God’s primary character of love also includes by extension jealousy and vengeance!

Hab 3:2  “In Your wrath, remember mercy”

Zep 1:3, 18, 3:8  At least 3 passages that state God will destroy all flesh from the earth, yet 3:9+ speaks of restoration.  Which is it?  This makes literal interpretation of some scriptures difficult.

Zep 2:3  Seek God, righteousness, and humility, perhaps you will be concealed from His wrath.

Zep 3:5  Proper perspective:  “The Lord is the righteous one who does no wrong.”

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Next Reading:  Week 40  Haggai 1:1 to Matthew 8:1

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Wisdom for the week

Here is my choice post from Dale Cresap from this past week.

Course Corrections

Even when you drive somewhere with total focus on getting to your destination, you don’t lock the steering wheel in place. In like manner when you follow me with all your heart with singleness of purpose the process involves continual course corrections. Do not be discouraged if it seems that you move in one direction and are then brought back to center. You are still making progress and you have things to learn from every segment of your path. Do you see your one true objective to follow me? Do you see that I lead you every step of the way, and that seeming course changes are a part of my purpose and plan?