My Daily Bible Reading
Today’s Life Journal Reading is from:
2 Corinthians 3; 2 Corinthians 4; 2 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 6
Scripture
1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.
2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:1-6, New King James Version)
Observation:
This really just popped out at me.
Why do we do the things that we do?
This question was brought to me in the form of a bloggy award, and it was a time of “Why do you blog” and particularly if you are a Chrisitan, “why do you blog”?
This quote keeps coming up, from a blog, I had the chance to visit one day and it is a reminder to all of us as followers of Christ, that “If we call ourselves, Christians, we cannot choose whom we love”?
Just like our Father in Heaven, doesn’t pick and choose whom He loves, for He loved ALL of us, that He sent His one and only Son to die, not just for selective people but for all, and it was ALL who has fallen short of the glory of God, not just a select few.
What does the verse speak to you? “………not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God….”
It’s a reminder that we have to be careful that what we share and what we believe in, isn’t to satisfy our self-esteem, or use to justify holding grief or grudge against others, because if we did, is that truly being a follower of Christ or is that being a follower of self.
If we can not rise above ourselves and let God be the one in control and do as our Father in Heaven would, then does it become a case of….we care more about ourselves than what our Father in Heaven, not ask but COMMANDS us to do.
5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
When we blog, particularly about our role as following Christ, we put ourselves into a transparent role of accountability. When people visit our blogs, do they read about us, or do they read about the Good word of our Heavenly Father through our words.
Application:
This verse just felt like a constant reminder that people will come to know our Heavenly Father not in just our words but in our actions too; That be it on our FB, Twitter, blog, wherever we are, we are still accountable for the words and the actions that we share and do.
No matter what we do, we need to make sure that we don’t lose sight of the bigger picture that it’s all about Him and it’s not all about us.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, Thank You for the start of this new day and week and I pray and hope that You see us through this week with conviction, discernment and encouragement. Guide our hearts, our souls and our tongues, that what we do and say, reflects You, Lord and not us.
That it stays about You and not about us and that our actions and our words, serve to lift up, not to tear down. Thank You Heavenly Father for all that You are and all that You do and I pray and hope that all will know You are Lord of all and You are a Loving Father who seeks to free us all from the chains of sin.
Amen.
****Purpose of this post****
Gentle Readers, There are days that I will read a verse or passage and just feel pulled to share here, but there are days when I will read something and just feel, I need to spend the day, in personal contemplation of what is being convey and may just post via Twitter, what passages I have read that day and post nothing on here.
That is what bible reading is about; It’s not about having to write something down everyday; There maybe days when you are reading say, Numbers and it’s just lineages, but other days, you may find yourself dealing with a “powerhouse verse” of the moment and have to just go “WOW” and seek God in personal time and prayer to understand what He is sharing.
I will try to post daily, but particularly on weekends, if I’m sick or I’m just completely in awe of what I’m reading or maybe I am trying to understand what I am reading, I may not post here, I may just write in my Life Journal (hardcopy), because I will find myself having to seek His Word and/or the Commentary and just seek in prayer to understand what our Father in Heaven is seeking to reveal.
Either way.
Reading His Word, is about getting to know Him better and developing your Christian growth and maturity. Do what is right and good for you.
If you do use the Life Journal and participate in the daily readings, I would like to hear from you and your perspective on each day’s reading, when I do have a post up, or feel free to comment on a previous “Daily Bible Reading post” or send me a quick email.
Please feel free to join in the linky that I post below, so others too, who uses the Life Journal/or SOAP method to read the bible can participate.
Don’t feel obligate to have to blog about each passage to be read, but if anything, feel free to share those passages that have the most impact on you that day.
There maybe some days that you may read your daily reading and find nothing to jot down in your journal or on your blog and that’s okay, but there maybe other days, that you will find yourself inspire.
This is about you being encouraged to have a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, and spending each day with Him, You and Him.
It is my prayer and hope that this will be an encouragement to establish a personal daily reading as well.
To find out more about using the S.O.A.P. method, here’s a link to an ehow article and here’s the link to the Life Journal to find out more what it is, and how you can use it for your own daily bible readings. If you don’t want to order the journal or if it’s not available through your local church, another method is simply, buy a journal or notebook or even blog about your life journal readings.
Disclaimer: I am not personally affiliated with the church that the link goes to, but merely share it as a resource of what the Life Journal is, how to order it.
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