Our senior pastor challenged us to a church-wide mitzvot to read through the One Year Bible in 2010. This sounded like a great idea to me. As much as I hate to admit it, I've never read the ENTIRE Bible--cover to cover--even though I've been following Christ since I was a child. This also really, really appealed to my somewhat competitive ambitious nature-- I LOVE A CHALLENGE! I went right out to amazon.com and purchased the One Year Bible for my kindle--FABULOUS Christmas gift from my sweet husband--and jumped right in on January 1.
The whole thing started off swimmingly. Genesis was great; it had the excitement of creation, the flood, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, the great promises made to Abraham. Revisiting all those bible stories I've loved since I was a kid was wonderful. The time seemed to fly by each morning as I read through the assigned passages and before I knew it, I had read 12% of the bible! Then we got to Leviticus...
Leviticus 9: 19-21 Then he took the fat of the bull and the ram—the fat of the broad tail and from around the internal organs—along with the kidneys and the long lobes of the livers. He placed these fat portions on top of the breasts of these animals and burned them on the altar. Aaron then lifted up the breasts and right thighs as a special offering to the Lord, just as Moses had commanded.
And there you have it, the reason I've never read the Bible all the way through. I would always get bogged down in Leviticus, with all those repetitive, very graphic passages about goat heads, kidney lobes and Aaron's bloody toes and earlobes--yuck! And I'd really like to know what God had against yeast--a wise man would have definitely gotten entirely out of the yeast market and put all of his shekels in turtle doves... okay, now I'm rambling.
Surely that stuff isn't so important today, it's not like we round up the first born of our flock every Sunday morning before heading off to our place of worship, right??? Riiiiight, but let's get back to this mitzvot thing. The whole point of the mitzvot is to commit to something that if done in the right spirit can prove transformational to the um--mitzvee. And let me tell you, I could use transformational--ESPECIALLY. IN. THE. AREA. OF. DISCIPLINE. Okay, you don't have to agree SO vigorously--I can see you out there nodding your heads-- "oh bless her heart she sure could..."
So that's it-- no skipping, skimming or dodging of the less than riveting passages. This will be my sacrifice, the sweet fragrance I offer up to Him. I will joyfully apply myself to this task, even when it's not exciting. And while I'm at it, I'll claim this promise, "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." Philipians 1:6 NLT
Here's a link if you want to join me on this journey...One Year Bible
Leviticus is hard, however the real kicker is Job...now there's a story for you. Especially when his friends are talking...it is hard to tell who is speaking. Well worth the read...but takes some concentration.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your blog. By the way my dad is Billy Adams who wrote the song "I Saw The Man" that the Goodmans recorded several years ago. My dad and your dad were good friends. You guys did a concert for us in Georgia and I so enjoyed meeting you.
I love to hear you sing...your song "A Love Of My Own" was one of my favorites and I chose to sing it a lot when I was asked to sing at different churches.
Really miss your dad. Awesome vocalist. His voice could reach into your soul. I really enjoyed his contemporary album. He was just super.
Good thoughts. I, too, am reading through and am currently wading through Ezra. Prophecies sorta freak me out, which is funny because I'm doing a Bible study on Daniel, and loving it!! (Today I posted on spiritual diligence vs spiritual lethargy. Ouch!)
ReplyDeleteKeep on swimming....right through the entrails of Leviticus. LOL!
I did not care for that book either however I've been trying to read it through with my children, ages 13 and 8, and it makes it quite comical - the 8-year-old is a hyper, very imaginative, little boy and he usually makes these passages entertaining for us to get through... I can lend him out to you, if you'd like :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Janetta and Jen, I'll have to check out your post Jen!
ReplyDeletePenny, Daniel and Denise are reading through with Katherine as well. She said after some of the things they read in Genesis, Katherine's response was, "wow, and there are some MOVIES you won't let me watch..." :)