7holycrap Life Lessons

I Read the Entire Bible in a Year and So Should You

When I was in High School, I had to read the Bible through as part of a discipleship and leadership program I was a part of and then when I was first a youth pastor in Wyoming when I was in my 20’s I read through it again. This year I made a commitment in January to read through the Bible and let its words and principles guide and absorb into my life. Little did I know the massive life-changing direction my life would take with the passing of my Father In Law a few days after I made this commitment.

I started my Bible reading plan on January 1st and my Father In Law passed on January 12th.
My wife was elected the President of Christian Television Network on January 14th and a few short days after that, I became the Vice President in charge of leading all 18 of our station managers in 13 states around the country and also in charge of Creative Content Development for the entire network. Needless to say, 2022 was a very busy year for me. I only spent a total of 97 days in our home state of Colorado from flying and traveling with Yolanda to stations and driving our 28’ travel trailer around the country to connect with and encourage all our stations. It has been a wonderful time of travel with my wife and seeing our managers be encouraged by our hard work and step up in each their own ways in our ministry of broadcasting the Gospel of Jesus. We know there was hard work that went into the initial building of CTN from those who have gone before us and we are dedicated to that same work ethic to continue to build for the glory of JESUS ALONE. And we know that prayer and a focus on the Bible is an integral part of what we will do.  

The fact that I felt led to read the whole Bible in a year was kind of random. I already have a devotional time I do but to take on reading the entire Bible was another level. But God knew that was EXACTLY what I was going to need this past year as I am a firm believer that if you want to be used by God in a greater way then you need to do greater things. This is not comparing yourself with anyone else, but to evaluate your life and then make changes if you want to see a different result.

The reason why I am sharing all of this is to encourage YOU to read the Bible through in a year. It was not an easy task. I had gotten about 10 days behind in my reading and took a weekend to get caught back up. And this happened a few times! The good thing is that the plan I use is only based on 25 days a month so you always have time to catch back up if you need to or you can read ahead and get further along.

There were times of reading the Old Testament where I read pages and pages of what seemed like boring information about what generation was connected to another generation. When I read those sections this time, I was gently reminded about how much God loves the family and that generational blessings are important. Things like that are lost in our culture and the Bible was a great reminder to me about it and spurred me to pray for our culture that is losing the concept of family. Then you have the New Testament reading an important truth like Acts 8:3 with an illustration of what Saul was doing to destroy the church going house to house and putting men and women in prison. Reading that verse, I wrote a note to myself that, “Saul (who became Paul) knew the depth of persecution of the church before HE became the one to help build it.” I can now look back through what I highlighted and verses I added notes to and be encouraged for this coming year. I am excited to dig back into the Bible and start over this new year and see what else God wants to speak to me through the Word of God!

A few thoughts for you about the importance of the Bible and putting the Word into your life.

1 – If you think you are too busy to read the Bible this coming year then…you are.
We make time for the things we want to do. So it really comes down to us spending time on things that we value. You need to make the decision for yourself, but you will not regret spending time in the Word.

2 – There is an epidemic of people taking verses out of context and/or using a single kernel of truth and then building humanistic lies around it.
If you consider yourself a follower of Christ it is so important that you know the Bible. To have the context of scripture for yourself so it is not even what your pastor preaches on a Sunday morning but for YOU to know the Word. There are also so many great Bible study tools that are free or low cost on the internet that you can use. I did a segment on my program Man360 that you can watch to read about Blue Letter Bible and Bible Hub website and how to use them. You can click on the Youtube link here to watch that segment – https://youtu.be/2mMT9NAJKMU?t=1298

3 – We always need to be doing things that stretch us
For me, reading has always been a stretch. I read because I know I must and not because I necessarily want to and reading the Bible in a year was something that I knew was going to stretch me. The way we grow in life is to not just stay in the same place doing the same things with the same level of push. On top of the stretching personally, my life changing with becoming the VP of CTN upped the stakes even higher! BUT, it was all something that God knew I needed and was one of the most satisfying years of my life. Busy, but satisfying.

4 – The Bible is not for the people who don’t know Christ, it is for the follower of Christ!
The verse in 2 Timothy 3:16 that talks about the value of the Bible being for “teaching, correcting, and rebuking for training in righteousness. That is NOT talking about non-believers it is for the CHURCH! When those principles are enacted then WE go out into the world and LIVE those Biblical principles to make people hungry for something they don’t have.
The problem is that it’s VERY hard for us to live the principles of the Bible if we are not READING the Bible and allowing it to do surgery on us each day first! Our culture has shifted to a “feeling -based” theology and not a BIBLE based theology. The Bible is replete with verses that talk about how our senses will deceive us (Jeremiah 17:9 & Proverbs 28:26) and not to trust them! It is ok to have feelings and emotions but when left unchecked by the Word of God we run the risk of leading ourselves AND others we encounter away from God and not towards Him!

The Bible should be the beginning and the end of our lives. We need to read it to challenge us, to protect us, to guide us, and give us the encouragement we need each day. The Bible is the BEST way to rehearse the victories of God and what He did back in the day and what He can do for you TODAY!

Take the Bible reading challenge for this year! I dare you!

Click below for a link to a PDF that you can download and get started reading the Bible for yourself!

Click to access bible_reading_plan_man360.pdf

7holycrap Holy Crap, Life Lessons

I Serve a Pushy God…And I Like It

psalms-23-blog

I had a conversation with Ken, one of our team members at work, and we were talking about God taking care of us as we walk through life. We specifically were talking about Psalms 23 because it is such a great example of God telling us what he will do for us in pretty much all seasons of life.

I mentioned something to him and when I said it, I knew it came from God so I want to share it with you today. It has to do with the first three verses of chapter 23 and there are three terms that I want to emphasize because it says a lot about what God knows we will need in this life we live.

1     The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right path for his name’s sake.

It is amazing to think that when God created us he knew we would need to be “made, led and guided” in this crazy life that we live. We are naturally stubborn and want to do our own thing, walk our own path and then just deal with the consequences of those decisions. When I read or listen to the Bible I get a better revelation of the principles in there that are wrapped around and answer the issues I am either dealing with or will deal with the longer I am alive.

It is further proof that God is FOR us and not AGAINST us and offers to help in three different ways as stated in Psalms 23. He will make us rest when we feel like we are running a thousand miles an hour, lead us beside quiet waters when our natural bend is to try and dance around raging rivers and guide us along the right path of life IF we will allow him. The key is getting the Bible in you and allowing it to permeate every part of your thinking, which in turn, will lead to a life that follows after God and brings peace.

Maybe some of you are in a place to not understand this peace that God offers and don’t know why reading a simple book could change your life in such a drastic way. Think of it this way; if life is really a struggle right now for you and you are running out of options, what do you have to lose?

Praying that you will be have hope in despair, wisdom where there is confusion and love where you feel hate. Have a great day!

7holycrap Jesus thoughts, Life Lessons

The end of the world…or is it?

I was reading 2 Thessalonians 2 for my devotions this am and was thinking about all the “end times” talk that we hear from time to time. There is a billboard on Broadway that has a self proclaimed prophet who says that he knows when the end of the world will be and that the tribulation has already started. This blog is not to talk about whether I think he is wrong or not (although I do believe differently) but more the fascination with trying to predict when Jesus will return. First, I think trying to predict the end of it all is a waste of time. 2 Thessalonians and even other sections of the Bible says that no one will know the exact day but can see the seasons changing. I do agree that there are many things pointing towards a one world government for example. Look at the disaster in Japan and the effect it is having on the global market including Toyota car production even here in the US which says it will have to cut back or suspend some cars for now. Look at the debt we operate in around the globe and our gas prices that are so connected to the oil production of countries experiencing unrest right now.
The bigger question to me is what is the motivation of people who claim to know the end of the world? Some are just plain crazy. That has been proved over time and has had some disastrous consequences. Some people are possibly so dissatisfied with life that they want to know the end of it all just to get it over with. I know when I went through my eye stuff and had thoughts of suicide I really didn’t care about living anymore. Other people use it as spiritual manipulation to get people to convert to Christianity which I think is also wrong. The people who follow God the best and make the best spiritual decisions are the ones who have come to the end of themselves and have no more answers inside and have to look to a loving God who wants to fill that God shaped hole in their heart. Not ones who are motivated or operate in fear and just “don’t want to go to hell.”
I want to live my life everyday to the fullest whether I live to be 100 or I die tomorrow or the world ends in 2012 🙂 I want my life to be a reflection of the love of Christ and I want to see people through God lenses. So don’t waste your time on this earth looking to see when it will all end. There are going to be “wars and rumors of wars” like it says in the bible but we need to be focused on Christ and who he can be in our lives. If you don’t have a real relationship with Jesus I encourage you to find a good bible believing church this Easter and listen to the message about how a loving God sent his son to die for your sins. Let the “end” be to the things you used to do to gratify your flesh and start living for a higher purpose. God created you, he loves you and you have the ability to be everything this world needs you to be for the glory of God. Have a great day and God bless.