Download Schedule (.pdf) for reading the Bible in 90 days.
When I heard that my colleagues, Pastors Chris Enstad and Clint Schnekloth were starting on June 1 to read through the Bible in 90 days, I decided to make another attempt. I’ve never managed to read straight through the Bible. In fact, my attempts have led me to wonder where the idea is even all that useful a way to access Scripture. I love intensive reading of Scripture, focusing on a few sentences or paragraphs and relating those to the book they are in. Extensive reading is another matter: I feel simultaneously rushed and bored trying to gobble down big chunks of text each day.
However, I really like Chris and Clint, and I respect their instincts for ministry and for living the Christian faith. “If they’re doing this,” I said to myself, “It must be worth doing.” So I’m trying again. Doubts about the project’s merit for me notwithstanding, I’ve just finished the reading for Day Two.
The Message?
I’ve chosen The Message as my version, mostly because when I have tried to read a real Bible translation, I get stuck in books like Leviticus or Numbers. I’m hoping the conversational style and popular vocabulary of Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase will help me make it all the way through the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments.
Today's Highlights
Genesis 1: "Lights! Camera! Action!"
The first chapter of Genesis is fun to read in The Message. God sounds like a play director, shouting direction to actors, stage manager, lighting guys. There are one-word sentences with exclamation points (e.g. “Light!”) and a count of the days whose form actually mirrors the Hebrew (e.g. “Day Four.”)
Genesis 18: Entertaining Angels Unawares
I have always loved the story in Genesis 18 about the three men coming to visit Abraham. These are the guys who elicit laughter from an eavesdropping Sarah when they tell Abraham that they will return “this time next year,” and Sarah will have borne a son.
The news of Isaac’s birth is both funny and joyful, but the part of the story I like best is the first part, when Abraham sees the strangers from a distance and runs out in the heat of the day to greet them. Won’t they stop for a while, he asks, just to rest in the shade perhaps? The strangers agree and (presumably) rest; meanwhile Abraham and Sarah shift into high gear, slaughtering and roasting a calf (how long must that have taken?), baking bread, getting milk, and otherwise working to put "a morsel" (18:5, KJV) before the travelers. This story is for everyone who ever over-prepared for a special meal; more profoundly, perhaps, it reminds an audience thousands of years removed from Abraham that by showing hospitality to strangers, we may, like him, “entertain angels unawares” (cf. Hebrews 13:2, KJV).
Dr Shore, we have a crew of about 15 that are doing the same at Trinity Lutheran in San Pedro, CA. Some of us are using #tlc90 as a hashtag. Love your reflections! Jesus' peace. Thanks for the middler preaching course!
Posted by: Nathanhoff | June 02, 2011 at 11:35 PM