Genesis 17-28:1-19
The Covenant of Circumcision to Jacob fleas from Esau
Today was super busy and I barely had enough time to read it. I lied a little bit I took a 6 hour nap. Being done at 11:15 AM is the worst because I always take a nap afterwards and wake up at like 5....so unproductive.
My goal for today was to not only do the reading but to focus on when God speaks. I actually wrote it down on a sheet of paper. A long list made short. God made a bunch of covenants. After I was done reading I looked at the list I had written and the first thing I noticed was how serious covenants were back then. The actual process of a covenant: the animals would born torn into two halves and placed parallel, the two people would then walk through the animals and recite the covenant binding themselves to the same fate of the animals they were walking through if in fact they broke the covenant. Kind of a big deal if you ask me, and God was all about these covenants in this reading. It actually kind of made me laugh when I thought about todays world how the best we have is a signed contract and most of the time people can just find some sort of loophole in them anyways.
I love to challenge myself. As I'm still trying to find some sort of rhythm to reading, digesting, and blogging.
I think I'm going to change the point of the blog a bit. As I may occasionally still summarize what I read about, I feel it would be better for me to focus on a piece of scripture within the reading. As I reread yesterday and today's blog, it feels more like reading a history lesson still...so my hope is that doing a small piece of scripture will be more spiritually engaging/enticing/(a big word of your choice) so I can reflect and grow more and hopefully you can too! So I'm going to leave the history and reading the whole bible to all of you who want to try it, as for the blog expect smaller segments of scripture and more of a bible studyish thing going on.
Finally I'm an unorganized person. To give this a little more structure I'm gonna try to give it some back bone by breaking done the posts into segments.
Day # :
Passages:
Goals from the day before:
Passage to bible study on:
Goals for tomorrow:
Anything Else blog-worthy:
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI think it is awesome what you are doing, and I will be praying for you and your walk with God. Amy and I have recently started reading the book of James together, and it has been so convicting of my actions and my priorities. I find that I consistently put my own personal ambitions before my desire to seek His kingdom, and I am trying to change that.
Matthew 6:24-34 says:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I know you have probably read these verses many times, but I find its meaning so relevant to my current struggles and I hope that it is an encouragement to you as you strive to achieve your goals.
-stephen