Reflections on the Bible, and Other Writings, from a Christian Perspective.
One of the challenging duties as a Christian is warning people about their errors. This is especially the case in light of the world's notion of supposed relative truth. In addition to that ideal, it is also necessary to consider the damage that such corrections may cause. Friendships could be lost, bonds broken, and more. Even though these may happen, one part of the text of Psalm 141 teaches us a proper response to correction.
A number of psalms discuss being faced with enemies and relying on God. Some of these topics may be familiar to us, but others are much less so. For myself, I cannot relate to being violently oppressed by enemies. Even though this is the case, there is still much that we can learn from Psalm 43.
It is safe to say that love is an extremely important topic in the New Testament. Multiple chapters discuss it at length, one of which is 1 Corinthians 13. In that text, the apostle Paul even goes so far as to say that love is greater than faith and hope. I have already prepared plans for both of those topics. Today I am finishing this series with the concept of love.
Continuing through our series of reading plans based on the end of 1 Corinthians 13, we now come to hope. At first glance, it may seem very similar to faith. Surprisingly, it is distinct from that. Although the two words are sometimes used in the same context, hope is actually found far fewer times in the New Testament. It is also used for different reasons.
Over the last several months I have released a number of reading plans for both the Old and New Testaments. Most of these have been straightforward, with one just reading a number of chapters each day. Having done those, I am now changing my direction for such Bible resources. For this area of the site I will be focusing on shorter topical reading plans for a while. The first of these is concerning faith.
Today's post continues our studies from the Psalms. I am exploring them in order of length, starting with the shortest. Despite their short lengths, I have found value in each text, and I hope that you have too. We now come to Psalm 15, which is the first to be 5 verses in length. It is attributed to King David, and begins by asking some very important questions.
I will be the first to admit that the Bible can be challenging to understand. It takes effort and diligence to find what it teaches on many topics. Nearly all of them are discussed in a variety of sections of the Scriptures. Because of this, some may be interested to read What Does the Bible Really Teach? by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society as a study aid.
Last year I began writing some articles on concepts from the Book of Romans. I've already discussed a few ideas from the first two chapters, but never shared anything on chapter three and onward. The reason is because I have not been able to write about the Jewish people being blessed by having the revelations of God. This is mentioned in Romans 3:2. I'm glad to say that I am finally sharing some thoughts on this verse today.
There is much value in an in-depth study of a book of the Bible, but sometimes one can benefit from a quick reading as well. Doing so allows you to see the book's big picture and overarching themes easily. Such things may be lost if a text is read more slowly. It is with this in mind that I prepared today's reading plan.
Today's plan leads you through reading four chapters from the New Testament each day. It has four groups of books with each one corresponding to a specific Gospel. This allows you to see how the four testimonies of the Lord are similar to each other, and then read other texts that are related to one another.
