Many people have asked for a good bible-reading plan for 2012.  Here I will list a few recommended plans.  But first a couple of thoughts; foundational or governing principles, if you will.

1) Read your bible. It may seem obvious, but we must be reminded.  The Psalmist knows the importance of reading scripture and reflecting on his own discipline of reading and study he says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11

2) Bring discipline to bear. Chaos is the only thing that happens by chance.  Your bible reading will be most profitable when you treat it as a priority, setting aside space in each day.  Consider the discipline needed to continue going to the gym in February or the determination required to get out of debt.  When you hit Leviticus you will be tempted by the I’m-too-busy-to-read syndrome.  In fact, any discussion about time (or money, for that matter) is really a discussion about priorities.  You will always have time to do the things that matter to you.  Reading your bible daily requires discipline.

3) Pray. The Holy Spirit will give you grace to read the scriptures.  He will change your affections, re-orienting your desires such that reading the Psalms will be more sweet than time spent watching television or staring at Facebook.  This may not happen immediately, but it will over time.  Pray that the Lord will give you a hunger for Him and His word.  The Psalmist says, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Psalm 42:1-2  Before long you will wake in the morning longing to open your bible.  The time you spend prayerful reading God’s word will shift from a responsibility to a joy.  Within a few months you will wonder how you ever lived without daily bible-reading.

4) Talk amongst yourselves. Find other people who are following the same pattern as you and discuss what you are reading.  Pay particular attention to the broad sweep of the story, asking, “What is God doing in this passage?” and, “How does this move God’s purposes forward; namely creation, salvation and recreation.”.  Finally consider where is Jesus in your reading.  The resurrected Jesus taught disciples on the road to Emmaus that scripture finds its meaning in Him.  “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets [what we call the Old Testament], he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:27 In other words, Jesus is the interpretive key to everything from Genesis to Malachi and then Matthew through Revelation reflect on the implications of those scriptures fulfilled in Him.  During coffee-time talk to each other about your reading.

5) Reading is not studying. The goal of reading through the scriptures in one year is primarily to increase your biblical literacy while coming to understand the over-arching story of God’s self-revelation in His interactions with His people and ultimately in Jesus.  This is different from careful exegetical study.  Both have a place in your life, but studying 3-10 chapters per day will take too long and you will quickly become discouraged.  Read.  Don’t skim, but don’t take time to study all of the notes in your study bible.

Here are some recommended plans:

The Professor Horner Method will have you reading 10 chapters from 10 different places each day.  This plan will guide you through the entire bible several times in the calendar year.  It is challenging, but worth the effort. I have used it as my personal reading plan ever since a friend introduced me to it.  Be circumspect!  This plan is not for the faint of heart.

The M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan is a time-honoured method.  It will have you reading four chapters per day, taking you through the bible in one year.  The chief benefit lies in reading from different parts of the bible each day.  Here you will not get bogged down or discouraged in Leviticus and you will even begin to pick up on common threads that are woven throughout the scriptures.  Don Carson has written a series of devotionals around this plan called For the Love of God.

Three-a-day and five on Sunday Plan is manageable and I highly recommend it if this is your first foray into serious, disciplined bible reading.  Reading three chapter takes less than 15 minutes.  Everyone can do this.

There are many, many bible reading plans available on the internet.  Each has strengths.

I will leave you with one final thought from 1 Peter 2, “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” In longing for the pure spiritual milk of scripture your inner person will grow strong, indeed you will grow into salvation.  Your life will change, your thoughts and conversations will change.  Tasting and seeing the goodness of the Lord in His word expunges malice, deceit, hypocrisy envy and slander.

Read your bibles.

So many of us prayed for Harry over the past month, and prayed for Doreen as she walked with her husband through his surgeries and long hospital stay.  I will always remember the time I spent with them in the Milton hospital.  I remember these times because of their humanity.  It is an honour to visit sick people in hospital.  But I will keenly remember visiting Harry and Doreen because of the glimpses I caught of of God’s grace.

From the time of his diagnosis unto the time of his death, Harry pointed his family and his friends to his faithful Saviour.  He used his suffering and mortality to remind us all of Jesus’ promises and our great hope.

On the morning of Harry’s passing I called their home.  I was greeted with Harry’s voice on their answering machine.  It touched my heart to hear the voice of this saint only moments after he met his Lord face-to-face.  After the obligatory salutations Harry closed off his greeting by wishing me (and anyone else who happened to call his home) a day filled with God’s peace.

Harry’s served his Lord with his life.  Harry served his Lord with his death.

Thank you, Lord, for men like Harry who’s faithfulness and hope in you challenges and inspires us to long for our great hope; the resurrection of the dead.

Jesus said in John 6, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Here’s a great post from a godly pastor.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/a-new-years-plea-plan

Happy New Year, dear St. George’s.

I’ve started to notice Christmas music playing in coffee pubs; some good, some not-so-good.

So I’ve decided to pass along some of my favourite Advent and Christmas music.

The Messiah – George Frideric Handel 

Behold the Lamb of God – Andrew Peterson

Songs for Christmas – Sufjan Stevens

Glory in the Highest – Chris Tomlin

As the end of the year approaches, everywhere we turn someone is telling us we should be happy. But for families who’ve lost someone they love, the holidays can seem more like something to survive than to enjoy. The traditions and events that can add so much joy and meaning to the season are punctuated with painful, repeated reminders of loss. Many grieving people wish they could find a quiet place to hide until January 2.

So is there any joy to be found in the midst of the holidays when you are grieving the loss of someone you love?

Read this Joy to This Cursed World by Nancy Guthrie.

Such is the case for so many people who drop themselves into the Christmas account.  Why is Herod so scared?  Why the singing angels, the wise men with their gifts and why the shepherds?

The Christmas account of the birth of Jesus is profound because it is the beginning of the resolution of thousands of years of promise and conflict. The baby in the manger in Bethlehem is none other than the incarnated Son of God.  He is the one promised in Genesis 3 who will crush the serpent’s head.  He is the perfect Noah, saving all of his family from the coming wrath and judgment of God.  He is the great fulfillment of the covenant God made with Abram in Genesis 12, by whom all nations of the earth shall be blessed. He is the one prefigured in Isaac, who willingly offered his life as a sacrifice.  Even Jacob pointed ahead to the baby born on that first Christmas.  We could go on, but you see my point.

Christmas does not begin in the manger in Bethlehem.  It is the fulfillment of everything God had ever promised.  Everything from the creation of the cosmos and that which the prophets, like Isaiah, longingly wrote reaches crescendo on Christmas morning.  More precisely, the fulfillment is not to be found in an ‘it’ but a ‘he’ – a person; God in human flesh.

So we at St. George’s observe Advent.  In advent we look at the ways Jesus’ coming (i.e., adventus in Latin) connects the stands of the scriptures.  We will spend the next four Sundays looking at the ways that the coming of the Son of God on Christmas fulfilled God’s promises.  In other words, we are going to open the book at the beginning rather than the middle.

On the evening of December 9^th we will meet to consider the history, theology and music of Handel’s Messiah.  We have group seating for the performance of the Messiah at Roy Thompson Hall on December 19^th.  The scriptures chosen for the libretto of the Messiah all show how God was working out His perfect plan; a plan that began before the foundations of the earth, continuing with a trajectory that lead through Christmas, Easter, Ascension and the Resurrection of the dead on the last day.

I pray that this Advent season will deepen your understanding of the coming Christmas season.  I pray that when Christmas day comes you will look upon Jesus, through the eyes of faith, and see in Him all of the promises of God (2 Corinthians 1:20).  I pray that your heart will warm as your mind begins to connect the dots of the story of God’s redeeming grace.  I pray that you will see Jesus as the treasure of measureless worth, and like the man in the parable, joyfully sell everything you have in order to gain him (Matthew 13:44).

Every year I am asked how Christian families ought to observe (or not observe, as the case may be) Halloween.

I came across this good, thoughtful and faithful paper.  it is worth a read. Sent into the Harvest: Halloween on Mission

I fear that we have lost something in the fray of pro-trick-or-treaters v. anti-trick-or-treaters.

On October 31st, 1517 a Roman monk, named Martin Luther, nailed an essay to the church door in Wittenberg.  The essay was entitled Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, but is commonly known as his 95 Theses.  Historians point to this moment as the beginning of the Reformation of the church.

In this unprecedented act of courage and devotion to Christ, Martin Luther began to strip away the layers of medieval myth, exposed the corruption of the papacy and returned Christians to the confidence found in the simple gospel of grace.

Maybe the answer to the trick-or-treat question lies in recovering one of the greatest heroes of the faith, remembering and celebrating his life-message and thanking God for never leaving the Church without prophets who call us back to the scriptures – and back to the Lord.

Take a moment today to tell your children about Martin Luther, and more importantly, Brother Martin’s devotion to his Lord.

We have spent 3 Wednesday evenings in Romans and find ourselves at chapter 1, verse 7.

In reading Romans again, and again, over the past few weeks chapter 1, verse 5 jumped out at me.  Paul declares that he has received grace and/for apostleship.  God’s grace in Paul’s life gave birth to apostleship.  What has God’s grace produced in your life?

Have you received grace for motherhood or fatherhood?  Maybe you have received grace to be an accountant or a lawyer, or doctor, or construction worker.  Here’s my point; do you see your life as a God-given vocation, or merely earning a paycheck?  If you get by as a husband or father on your own power and ingenuity you have missed the whole purpose of your life, and you are probably not doing a very good job.

Paul realized that his apostleship, i.e., the thing he did, was fueled by grace.  It was Jesus working through him and so Jesus deserved all the glory.  Surely the task of motherhood is to nurture, feed and clothe your children, raising them to be godly adults who love Jesus.  However, the big picture calling in motherhood is to glorify God in your daily tasks of mothering.  The same is true in all vocations.  God is glorified when farmers plow, sow and reap as an expression of God’s grace to them.  Husbands glorify God when they tenderly lead their family as a grace and calling from Jesus.

In Romans 1:5 Paul invites you to consider what Jesus has given you grace to do.  Are you relying on your own feeble strength or on His provision?  Are you taking the credit or giving Him the glory?

A guest post from the Rev. Garth Hunt.

Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth!
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken, and we have escaped!
Psalm 124:6-7 ESV

There is a tragic story of broken trust and relationship failure recorded in 2 Samuel 3 that I’d like us to examine this month. It takes place during the turbulent days of transition between the reign of Saul and that of David. Saul is dead, but Abner, the commander of Saul’s army, has established Saul’s son as king over Israel. David reigns as king over Judah at Hebron. There are some skirmishes, and one of the casualties of war is a man named Asahel, the brother of Joab, the commander of David’s military forces. So there is deep enmity between these two mighty Jewish warriors, Abner and Joab.

Abner, despite his loyalty to the house of Saul, recognizes that the hand of God is upon David and that it is obviously God’s intent to make David the king over the reunited nation. With the endorsement of the elders, Abner sets off to meet with David in peace and tell him the good news. After a gracious banquet held for him and his men at which he delivered his message to David, Abner sets out for home, fully intent on seeking to unify the nation once again under David’s monarchy. Joab, David’s commander-in-chief, is notably absent from the festivities.

When he returns and hears the news of Abner’s visit to David, Joab is furious and, blinded by his hatred and distrust of Abner, proceeds to berate his king in the most impertinent manner:-

Joab went straight to the king: “What’s this you’ve done? Abner shows up, and you let him walk away scot-free? You know Abner son of Ner better than that. This was no friendly visit. He was here to spy on you, figure out your comings and goings, find out what you’re up to.” 2 Samuel 3: 24-25 MSG

Note the power of the offense that Joab has taken up on behalf of first his slain brother, and now on behalf of his seemingly gullible and naïve monarch. “How could you be so stupid?? Can’t you see what he’s up to? You can’t trust anything he says!” His vision is completely clouded to the reality of the situation by his own suspicion and distrust. A loyal and dedicated warrior, who previously was willing to lay down his very life for his king, has become belligerent, disrespectful, and totally blind to God’s plan for peace and reconciliation. Taking matters into his own hands and stepping way out of his sphere of responsibility, Joab murders Abner, much to David’s utter dismay, and brings great dishonour to himself and his family. Ultimately, the whole sordid series of events ends in his demise.

So, as Anglicans who pray and desire to see God’s will accomplished in our churches, what does this story have to teach us? What are the snares that we must avoid?

From time to time, we may be asked to pray for others who are going through some very heinous situations. Perhaps there is a form of abuse involved; verbal, physical or sexual. There may also be cases of obvious manipulation and control where the person for whom we are praying is trapped in an ungodly relational web that is suffocating the very spiritual and emotional life out of them. Similarly, we are urged to pray for our rector and other parish and diocesan leaders and we may encounter alarming reports of what we consider to be grossly unjust or mean-spirited criticism of them. Over the past decade, many of us have watched our bishops and priests caricatured and publically dishonoured by those who once called them brothers and friends.

In circumstances like these, there is such a snare awaiting us – the great temptation to take up an offense on behalf of the injured parties. I well remember fervently praying for a woman and her four children who frequently had to flee their home and take refuge with us because of an abusive and alcoholic husband/father. Everything in me wanted to take a good sized two-by-four to the back of his head! Despite his claims of repentance and willingness to receive treatment, I was certain that he could not be trusted and would soon prove my suspicions to be accurate. Had God performed a massive miracle of supernatural transformation in this man, I’m not sure that I would have believed it. Like Joab, I was blinded by the offense that I had allowed to consume me. Praying a blessing for the man was virtually impossible.

Can you see that there must not be any room in our prayer life, either individually or corporately, for this kind of deception? No matter how justified it may seem, we will miss the purposes of God if we are not ruthless in staying free from the snare of being offended. Our prayers will be hindered and our vision badly obscured.

The writer of Hebrews saw the potential danger clearly:-

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; Hebrews 12:14-15 ESV

The image of a “root” is so vivid, working its way inexorably down, down into the deepest soil of our souls, and, if it’s a “root of bitterness”, it will cause untold trouble and many others will be “defiled” by it, sucked into the deception of false justice. Joab was certain that he was doing that which was in David’s best interests (even if the king couldn’t see it!) and that he was helping out God’s purposes, whereas neither could have been further from the truth!

Dear friends in Christ, as we pray for our leaders and difficult situations in our families or parishes, may I encourage us all to examine ourselves frequently by asking God the Holy Spirit to turn on His brilliant light; “Father, have I allowed any root of bitterness to set in? Have I taken up an offense on behalf of myself or others? Am I carrying any desires for revenge or ungodly vindication that are blinding me to the true purposes of God? Show me, even if it hurts!” I am utterly convinced that the Lord will hear such prayers, and illuminate by the Holy Spirit any areas that require our repentance and His healing. Be relentless in your pursuit of holiness in this! Surely then we can extol with the psalmist; “We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!”

Father, in Jesus’ Name, I renounce the bitterness surrounding the offenses that I have taken up on behalf of others. I recognize that, if I hold on to these any longer, others in my church family will be defiled by them. Wash me clean, dear Lord, and grant that I may have greater discernment in the future when such “roots” seek to entangle me once again. Thank You for Your amazing forgiveness!

Garth V. Hunt
prayer@anglicannetwork.ca