The official 90 day Bible challenge

[kevlite2020]

Starting Monday, Sept. 14th, myself and several others are embarking on a challenge to read the entire Bible in 90 days, front to back. I will give more details in a second, but before anything else, I would like to pray for this.

Lord, we thank you for your word. Lord we submit ourselves to you. I pray Father that you will use these 90 days to humble us, to teach us, to sanctify us, to move us closer in our relationship with you Lord. I pray you will give us intensity and inspiration, so that we come to your word hungrily, desperately seeking after you and turning our hearts to you, Lord. Lord we invite you into our lives as we study your word dilligently. Lord I pray that this challenge will prove fruitful for us and that you will use this time to renew our spirits and to kindle a passion for you like we've never had before. Lord we love you, and we need you. I pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen!


Here is a list of all those participating in this challenge:
Allen1901, Aino, Little Tigress, JasperJackson, Evie1980, Supplanter, Nilla, .Gaga., WileyCoyote, GQ Chris

If you want to get in on this too, just let me know and I'd be happy to add your name! We may not post every single day, but we will all do what we can to keep up with this reading and share with you all what we are learning and what God is doing in our lives through this challenge. We humbly ask for your prayer and encouragement, as we know this is going to be a difficult challenge and it will test us. You guys have all been so supportive so far and for that I am extremely thankful!

For those of us participating in this challenge, here are some questions to think about each day and possibly to answer in posts here (this isn't a set way to do it, just some things to help get us thinking about how best to share this experience).

What did you read today?
What did you learn new from your reading?
What verse stood out to you the most/why did it stand out to you?
What difficulties troubled you today or made it hard for you to get through your reading?

If you guys think of some good questions to add to that, please let me know.

Attached is the recommended reading list. Don't feel bad if you get a little behind or a little ahead. Just do your best to keep up with it day to day!

And with that, let the challenge begin! Thank you all for participating in this and I cannot wait to see how God uses this for us! God bless you all!

 

[sweetlambofgod]

Praying for you guys!

 

[Supplanter]

I'll be back later to post, but I wanted to go ahead and subscribe to the thread.

 

[Evie1980]

Read the first set of readings. I am not really good at the whole family tree thingy (I have way too many aunts, uncles and cousins of my own to start thinking of other peoples!)

I started of course thinking of Noah. Well I thought a little bit about Cain and how he got to speak God. Imagine turning around to God and saying that the punishment He gave you for killing your brother was too harsh. Well first I was thinking how blest he was to be able to be talking to God but then to be able to criticise God and have God respond in such a way that He was protecting Cain from harm! Whew - did he have something that I would like.

Moving on from that thought I was thinking about Noah. Imagine being Noah for a minute. You are doing your usual thing (I am not sure what it was but I assume it must have been good) and then being told you need to build a boat. Not just any boat but a really, really bg boat. I am glad that it wasn't me because I get confused reading about all the important details like how big, how many animals, what type of wood etc. And thats not including the difficulty of building the big thing! Anyway I was just wondering what would I do if God asked me to build a "boat" ie change my whole life and walk away from what I know. Yes, I have lived in 3 foreign countries (and only 1 spoke the same language as I do) but what if God asked me to change my profession? Do something totally different like live in my home town for a year? Could a really build a "boat" if God asked me to?

And lastly my verse for the read was "Abram believed the Lord. And the Lord accepted Abram's faith, and that faith made him right with God." Genesis 15:6 (NCV). I just loved this. My bible is a devotion as well and I loved how it talked about how this was a time before Christ and before the law. The only thing that made Abram right with God was all that he could give - his faith. Abram, like Noah, followed the call. Noah built a boat and then became a farmer after a call from God. Abram packed his bag and roamed the earth after a call from God. It was their faith, their belief in God that enabled them to not only do what they did but be right with God.

I think I have a lot of thinking and prayer to do.
Blessings to all!

 

[Tink]

Yes!

 

[JasperJackson]

Yes, that boat was BIG! I remember a non-Christian trying to tell me that the story of Noah couldn't be true because the boat wasn't big enough, well 450 feet long is pretty darn big! There are a lot of misconceptions non-Christians have out there, so I think it's really important that we know God's word. I pray that we will keep up these readings.

I also really like that we get the first prophecy of Jesus way back with Adam and Eve (Gen 3:15).

 

[meadowlark]

The first covenent was made with God and all living, which at that time was only 8 people like it says in Peter. The rainbow is a sign of it because it's the eternal sign and it's even around God's throne.

 

[kevlite2020]

Awesome, awesome stuff! Today I read Genesis 1-17. Evie, I love your observations. I was amazed too by Abram and his faith when the Lord promised his descents to be numbered like the stars. Abram knew his wife at that point couldn't give birth and that they were too old to bear children, but still he was like okay Lord, I know you can do it. Here's my faith, I trust in you. And I can't even wrap my mind around the situation with Cain and how God treated him and how he treated God.

One of the things I noted with Cain was Gen 4:7, "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."
This verse really stood out to me. This is before the law, before Jesus, and here is God's instruction to Cain, do your best and you will find favor with the Lord. Do mediocre, and it opens a big door for sin to walk through and overtake you. I don't know if that is a very smart read of that, but that's what it spoke to me, is that mediocre work leads to things like jealousy and bitterness, which in turn can lead to things like violence. But if I just work hard and stay humble, I will find favor in the Lord and I won't open those doors for sin to pull at me in that direction. And also, it says he should rule over sin, just like Paul says we cannot let sin master us, we have to master it.

I noted 2 times where God refered to Himself as Us, or Our, etc, which I believe is talking about Jesus, as I don't think God would call Himself plural if He was literally alone. The 2 verses were: 1:26, 3:22.

Another thing that amazed me was right in the beginning, how abundantly God was giving to man. Look, here's night and day, a beautiful garden, all the fruits and veggies you could ever desire, oh have dominion over the animals, be fruitful and multiply! I mean it's just blessing after blessing, it just reminded me how overwhelming God can be with His blessings, He truly has more to give then I could ever imagine.

Another thing I noted, God sent all the animals to Adam when looking for a partner for him. I think He did that so that when Adam saw the woman, he would appreciate her more. Imagine seeing all those animals, one after another, saying no that's not my partner, no that's no good, no sorry, and then waking up to Eve and saying YES, THAT'S PERFECT! If Eve was the first one he saw, he probably would have been more like, well that's pretty good...

At the fall, when Eve takes the apple, the snake does the deceiving, but I thought it was an interesting little tidbit that Eve was partially deceived because the fruit physically looked good. It was visually pleasing and looked tasty. It made me think of a lot of other sins that kind of fall in that category, where there is deception involved, but other sins seem so visually pleasing or looks like something that should be good, but ultimately lead to death.

When Eve gives birth, she says she aquired a man from the Lord. I love where her priorities are, she doesn't say she got the son from her and her husband, but that it was a blessing from the Lord.

Gen 6:20 explains how the animals all got to Noah's ark, the Lord sent them there. A lot of atheists argue that there's no way Noah could have rounded up so many animals. He didn't have to, God sent them all his way.

Gen 9:2-3 make me happy as a meat eater. It doesn't say we have to eat meat certainly, but it does say that it has been given to us so that we may eat of them.

Those are the things that stood out most to me today. I really love this book, I learned so much and I felt really moved today. I hope I can keep up posting longer things like this every day! I hope this was interesting for you all, I really had a lot of fun getting into the word today.

 

[WileyCoyote]

Is it too late to join?

 

[kevlite2020]

Is it too late to join?

Not at all, this is only the first day! I'd love to have you join us brother! I'll add your name to the list

 

[WileyCoyote]

Cool. Thanks, bro.

 

[Tink]

YAY My Wiley!

 

[Aino]

I read the first 22 chapters of Genesis to get a little ahead in the schedule... Tomorrow's going to be crazy with school and work and all.

Anyways, I think the best that was in the part that I was supposed to read according to the schedule was creation. It never fails to amaze me how God mad so much and so well. Even though I've read the first chapters several times, I always get something new out of it. This time I realised, how easy it was for Eve to take the fruit and to give it to Adam. It wasn't like the snake had put hours of effort into turning her head, but in fact she only had to hear one short statement about the tree and she was ready to go... And on the other hand, God din't try to stop her from doing it, He let her have her free will and do what she wants to. That's one of the most awesome things about God in my opinion.

What I found a little challenging and confusing was the part with Cain and Abel. Why do you think He didn't like what Cain offered Him? Had He even told them what to offer, and on the other hand, what else could Cain have done?

Hmm, what else? Yeah, right. I think that when you get to Abraham the story in itsekf gets really interesting, and it just goes on.. I got really into it while reading from chapter 17 on... Such a shame I got to the stop early for a change. I guess I'm not making too much sense anymore - it's half ten pm and I've been abroad all day. I guess I should go sleep soon. Have a good time reading everyone, and good night!

 

[kevlite2020]

What I found a little challenging and confusing was the part with Cain and Abel. Why do you think He didn't like what Cain offered Him? Had He even told them what to offer, and on the other hand, what else could Cain have done?

From what it says, it seems like Cain offered God just a very typical piece of fruit, while Abel offered God the best offering of his entire flock. When the Lord says to Cain, "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door..." I think what that suggests is that Cain could have given a much better offering to the Lord, but Cain didn't want to give anything good up so he just offered God a very regular, average item, while Abel offered Him the best offering he could provide. That's my read of it at least.

 

[WileyCoyote]

YAY My Wiley!

 

[Nilla]

I've read Genesis 1-16.

Ch 1:

Man were created last, after everything else was done. When I read it I was reminded of that man was set to rule over all the earth and living things. Verse 28 "God blessed them and said, "Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.""
But be it's master, doesn't that mean take care of it and treat it well?
I don't know where I stand where it comes to global warming and so on but we're cut down rainforrests and by doing that we endanger animals who lives there and no where else. I don't know where I'm going with this.. it just got me thinking that's all..

Ch 4:

When it comes to Kain and Abel.. yes it can be seen as God favoured Abel and maybe He did. And I'm sure Kain felt useless and that God didn't care at all, but if that were true, why did God even care to ask why He was mad? Why would He care to put a mark on Abel to protect him and revenge him seven (!!) times if He didn't care???


Something that spoke to me was the verse that Kev also pointed out:
Verse 6-7: The Lord asked Cain, "Why are you angry? Why do you look so unhappy? If you do things well, I will accept you, but if you do not do them well, sin is ready to attack you. Sin wants you, but you must rule over it."
In the Swedish translation is says: You shall rule over it. That to me made me feel hope. I don't know how many times I've stumbled, been tempted and fallen, and felt like a big failure because of it. But here God says, you must rule over it. (or You shall rule over it). I then thought, I can rule over it. It is possible.

Ch 16:
Another thing that made me think.. was Sarai's reaction when Hagar became pregnant. She was the one "gave" Hagar to Abram so that she could have a child through Hagar. But then Hagar started to look down on Sarai, who's reaction is to get mad at her husband. It was her doing, not his! (Please no typical women response!!)

For me it's another reason for sex to just be between husband and wife. (And yes I know the times where different back then.)

~Nilla

 

[Blank123]

posting to subscribe - doing my reading now

 

[Evie1980]

I've read Genesis 1-16.

Another thing that made me think.. was Sarai's reaction when Hagar became pregnant. She was the one "gave" Hagar to Abram so that she could have a child through Hagar. But then Hagar started to look down on Sarai, who's reaction is to get mad at her husband. It was her doing, not his! (Please no typical women response!!)

~Nilla

This is my honest opinoin. I have been known to be wrong in the past but here is my thoughts on the matter -
Sarai thought she had the right answer to the problem. After all, she knew her hisands pain as well as her own intinately. So she went full steam ahead into making this plan for Abram.

Now I want to point 2 things on the side - (1) Abram was the one that was guaranteed a son and a legacy. God had made covenant with him about him having descendants. (2) Abram agreed to this.

So here we have yet again a woman tempting a man to do something he knows he shouldn't (refelction of Adam and Eve). Abram like Adam had the initial relationship with God. I read a book recently that asked where was Adam in the garden when Eve was tempted and why did he easily give in to her sin as well. But that is a side note....

Anyway even though what Sarai was legal in her actions at the time, the sin was really in not trusting what God could do. She took God out of the equation in the hope that 1 + 1 = 2 . Unfortunately she realised she now had 1 + 1 = 3. Abram wanted to have nothing to do with the situation. He had done his part and it was up to Sarai to make it work. At this point she really should have asked God for help but instead she continued to mistreat her servant forcing her to run away.

The main point is that Sarai learnt a very hard lesson for all of us. When we turn our backs in God promises or try to create the promises ourselves we end up in a position we may never have wanted to be in. If Sarai had waited for God to fulfil His promise we would not have this story. Second, that people are complicated. We have a lot of emotions - was Sarai jealous? Yes I think so. Was she guilty of sin? Yes I think so. Was she angry? Yes, most probably with God for not answering her prayers and that she had to resort to this. And there was only one person she could really be angry because she manifested everything that Sarai was feeling right then and there - Hagar. We all like to have a scapegoat for our feelings.

On the other side I don't think that Hagar made it easy for Sarai. But that is another story...

 

[Evie1980]

I
What I found a little challenging and confusing was the part with Cain and Abel. Why do you think He didn't like what Cain offered Him? Had He even told them what to offer, and on the other hand, what else could Cain have done?

I think that the passage explains that Abel brought the best to God in an offering and Cain just brought what he wanted. Abel thought about his offering before God. He set it aside knowing that the Lord was God and deserved the best. Abel gave the Lord what he wanted and enjoyed giving it to the Lord.

On the other hand, Cain just brought some left overs. He didn't give God his best. He didn't even really think about it. He gave what he thought he had to give.

God doesn't want what is left over. He doesn't want the little bits we don't want in our lives. I know that I am guilt of giving the least of what I have to the Lord and expecting God to lavish His love on me.

So here we are in this story. God tells Cain exactly what he needs to do - change your attitude otherwise sin will take over. We all know what it is like to have a poor atttitude to somthing - we care little for, give it little thought and time. And it is our poor attitude that leads us into doing other things such as a poor attitude to school work leads to not going to school leads to finding other things to do leads to doing things that may not be good.... It is a slippery slope and I think in this passage if we see God as more of the Father that He is we realise that He was just disappointed and give Cain some guidance. So Cain's report card had a D and Abel's had an A. God was saying you too can get an A if you fix your attitude, learn your lesson and try harder.

If Cain had taken his Father's advice it would be all good. But he didn't. Instead of learning a lesson, he killed the classmate to fix his grades. He thought if there was no one to compete against then he would go to the top of the class. It didn't work.

 

[Blank123]

finished todays reading (i spaced it out through the day - half this afternoon and half tonight ) and one thing that struck me as very interesting was Melchizadek(sp?) He was the King and priest of the Lord in Sodom and he was supposed to be a shadow or type of Christ because his story has no beginning and it has no end. but it also struck me as interesting that you have this Godly king ruling over an area that was so filled with sin that it had to be destroyed. The comparison between that king and the Lord in that regard just struck me as so obvious, i'm not sure why i missed it before our King and high priest rules over a sinfilled world that already once paid the judgment for its sin (in the flood) and will one day have to be destroyed (2 Peter 3:12)

Eve, i think you're dead on about Sarai. God promised Abram several times before she made that decision that Abram's descendants would be so numerous that they would be like the stars in the sky or the dust of the earth, yet she doubted those promises. It wasn't just some half-hearted "oh yeah you'll have a kid - count on it!" promise either. They made a strict and binding covenant with the sacrifice of animals - back in those days that sort of covenant was so binding that if one person broke the covenant they would be killed. She and Abram both knew that if God failed to make good on His promise, that He would have been as good as dead to them. it would have been worse than betraying their trust in Him, it was unthinkable. And still she chose to doubt and find her own way of making God do good on her promise. That came with consequences she should have seen coming but i believe her pride and her pain clouded her ability to see all that.