Read the Bible in 2 Years: Proverbs 12, Isaiah 60-62
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Isaiah 61:10 ESV
Making the Choice to Rejoice – FormerAtheist58
Rejoice – Getty
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Proverbs 10, Isaiah 54-56
And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Isaiah 56:6-7 ESV
My Life is an Offering to Jesus – FormerAtheist58
Take my Life and Let it Be – Norton Hall Band
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 149-150, Isaiah 30-32
The Israelites put their trust in Egypt to save them, rather than God. Where is our trust?
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! … The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.
Isaiah 31:1, 3 ESV
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
Psalm 20:7 ESV
Praise the LORD!
Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!
Psalm 150 ESV
Stop Trusting in Horses and Chariots. Start Trusting in God – FormerAtheist58
Everyday Hallelujah – Phil Wickham
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 148, Isaiah 28-29
Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him.
Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it.
This also comes from the LORD of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.
Isaiah 28:23-29 ESV
A farmer doesn’t only plow; he knows when to stop plowing and when to level the ground, when to plant, and what to plant where. A farmer uses different tools at different times and works them all together to produce crops. In the same way, God knows what instruments to use in our lives, and when to use them. We don’t have to doubt or despair at what God is doing in our lives, because He is an expert farmer, working on us with all His wisdom.
David Guzik
God is an Expert Farmer – FormerAtheist58
How Firm a Foundation – Grace Community Church
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Read Through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 125, Hosea 9-10
Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars.
Hosea 10:1 ESV
God has given us every good gift to enjoy. He has blessed us with heat and sunshine and air to breathe. He has given us homes to live in and children to fill them. He has blessed us with abundant food and wealth. He has given us eyes to see, ears to hear, and minds to comprehend. Yet, what do we do with all of these gifts?
Do we enjoy them or neglect them? Do we praise Him or take credit for them? Do we use them for good or for evil?
When was the last time you thanked God for the children sitting around your table or clinging to your legs?
When was the last time you thanked the Lord for dirty dishes and floors littered with clothes and toys?
When was the last time you took a leisurely walk outside and thanked God for the blue sky and warm sun?
It seems that the more full our homes and lives become, the less interested we become in the Lord. Why is that? Why would the Lord bless us with more if it will just turn our hearts away from Him?
His mercy keeps us begging for our daily bread. His mercy makes us hunger for the gift of a child. His mercy keeps us dependent on Him for a roof over our head and money in our bank account.
Sunday night I flew home after spending six long days and five short nights with my daughter and her three children under five. It was hard. It was messy. It was exhausting. But, oh, the memories it brought back.
Like all good farmers, this soil-preparing, seed-sowing, plant-tending work requires rising early and working late, but oh does it bear GREAT FRUIT.
“Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” Proverbs 14:4 ESV
Last week, while I sat on the floor building trains with the 4.5 year old and 2.5 year old, we listened to “Sing the Bible” Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 by Slugs and Bugs on Pandora. “The Ox Song,” based on Proverbs 14:4, croons, “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” How true!
The Ox Song – Sing the Bible Vol 4 – Slugs and Bugs
No children = no legos to step on, no trains to pick up, no diapers to change.
But no children also means no little ones to put a smile on your face and joy in your heart and no older ones to help care for you in your old age.
One day I’ll be alone with a hot fresh cup of Joe Wishing that someone would just drop by And I’ll sit and reminisce, the times that I sure miss Scattered toys and a baby on my hip I thought finding peace in the quiet’s what I wanted But I’d give anything to go back to being needed
String Cheese – Hannah Harper
Heavenly Father, Help me to be faithful in the little things that You might entrust to me more things. Help me to be thankful for every single little gift, the birds that sing before the sun rises, the wind that blows gently through the trees, the sound of trickling water. Thank You for giving me eyes that see and ears that hear. Thank You for giving me a mind and heart that know You. And thank you especially for the children and grandchildren that you have blessed me with. May I be grateful for every day and every memory. The days are indeed long, but oh are the years so short. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 121, Hosea 3-4
If I asked a class of third grade students, “Raise your hand if you love ice cream.” I bet every hand would shoot up. 🙋🏿♀️🙋🏻🙋🏽♂️🙋🏼♀️🙋🙋🏾♂️
But if I then said, “Raise your hand if you love Brussel sprouts,” I’m quite sure I’d get a very different response. Even if I followed it up with words like, “They are really good for you! They’re high in fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.” Still, it’s a no. 🙅🏽♂️🙅🏼♀️🙅🏻🙅🏿♂️🙅🏻♀️🙅
It is only logical to love ice cream. It’s sweet and creamy and delicious.🍦😋 But Brussel sprouts … They are more of an acquired taste, suited for a more refined palate. 🥬 😝
I’m afraid I think of myself as ice cream, naturally easy to love, rather than Brussel sprouts, good for you but a little bitter, stinky, and hard to digest.
When we read the book of Hosea, I’m afraid we tend to picture ourselves as the faithful prophet, when in reality we’re much more like the wandering prostitute. Please, sisters, don’t forget that we are Gomer, that woman who abandons her true love to pursue idols, and God is Hosea, the faithful One who again and again chases after His bride, pulling her out of the pig slop. 🥴🐖
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10 ESV
Don’t forget 1 Corinthians 13.
Love covers a multitude of sins.
Love is not irritable or resentful or rude.
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Love forgives.
Love never ends.
Love is steadfast and patient and faithful.
Praise God that He loved us while we were yet sinners, and now He calls us to go and do likewise.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your steadfast, patient, faithful love toward me. Thank You for pursuing me, though I didn’t deserve it, though I don’t deserve it still. I’m not worthy, but You are. You deserve better. You deserve chocolate, chocolate chip ice cream with whipped cream and sprinkles and a cherry on top. And yet You have demonstrated Your love by sending Your own Son to be the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, the substitutionary offering, for my sin. Praise Your Name forevermore. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 120, Hosea 1-2
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.”
Hosea 1:2 ESV
How had the Israelites forsaken the Lord? Had they stopped making sacrifices and offerings? Had they stopped observing the feasts and Sabbaths?
No, they had forsaken Him by making Him one god on a buffet of gods. They had forsaken Him by worshipping both Him and Baal. They had forsaken Him by offering themselves to other lovers in addition to the Lord God.
Friends, we can have a dozen coworkers, a dozen children, and a dozen friends, but we can only have ONE husband and he can only have ONE bride.
A good husband refuses to share his bride with other men, and our good God refuses to share His bride with other gods.
It is not enough for us to make God the biggest god in our life, or the most valuable idol that we have. He can’t be our “favorite” husband. He wants to be our ONLY husband. He wants ALL of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He wants to be our everything. He is either Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all.
God despises adultery of all forms, especially adultery toward Him. God wants our whole heart. He is a jealous God. He will not share His glory with another.
Exodus 34:14 ESV — (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
Deuteronomy 4:24 ESV — For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Isaiah 42:8 ESV — I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
Heavenly Father, You are a good husband who loves His bride and refuses to share her with another. I pray that we would be a loving bride, rejecting all other things who vie for our attention. I pray that You would be the apple of our eye, the center of our attention, the singular focus of our lives. May we be found pure and faithful as You, O Lord, are pure and faithful to us. In the Name of Jesus Christ, our redeemer and bridegroom, Amen.
Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 52, 2 Chronicles 34-36
“Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 34:29-32 ESV
Love God? Love Others – 2 Chronicles 34-26 – FormerAtheist58
How Deep the Father’s Love for Us – JJ Heller
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 50-51, 2 Chronicles 33
The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
2 Chronicles 33:10-13 ESV
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:10-12 ESV
Our Sins are MANY – His Mercy is MORE – 2 Chronicles 33 – FormerAtheist58
Create in me a Clean Heart – Keith Green
His Mercy is More – T4G Live
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