Author: lobochronicles

How to Read Your Bible

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Hi Reader!
It’s wonderful you are interested in reading your Bible! The Bible is a miraculous book and it will feed your heart and soul and provide the path to knowing the Lord and finding comfort and direction and ultimately eternal life! Here are a few options for starting the adventure of reading God’s Word on a daily basis.

Before you start pick an easily readable Bible.

I prefer the New Living Translation (NLT) and the New International Version (NIV) is a good one too.

Plan #1

Start with reading the Proverb of the day. The book of Proverbs is right in the middle of your Bible and was written by the wisest man on earth, King Solomon. When in a dream God asked Solomon what he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom to lead God’s people instead of riches. So God gave him wisdom AND riches!

Depending on the date, say today is the 22nd, then read Proverbs chapter 22! There are 31 chapters in Proverbs so there’s one for each day of the month! It’s as easy as that!

Plan #2

King David wrote most of the Psalms through the highs and lows of his life. There’s a plan we call “The 30 Plus Plan” which enables you to read through the book of Psalms (all 150 chapters) in a month.

So today is the 22nd, start by reading Psalm 22, add 30, read Psalm 52, then 82, 112 & 142. That’s five Psalms in all, some are much longer than others but for the most part it will take around 15 minutes. When you get to Psalm 119 (very lonnnggg) save it for months with 31 days and only read Psalm 119 that day all by itself.

The above plans are all about reading the Old Testament (OT) which gives the history of creation (Genesis chp1) and the creation of the Jewish nation from whom Jesus was eventually born. The OT also contains all of the hundreds of prophecies about the coming Messiah (Jesus) and the story of what the Jews went through to reach the Promise Land (the current land of Israel).

Plan #3

Reading the New Testament (NT)
The NT starts with the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke & John and are all about the life of Jesus here on earth up to his crucifixion and resurrection. The best book to start with is the Gospel of John. John was the last surviving disciple and he wrote his book decades after Jesus died and even after his fellow disciples had died as martyrs. So he had a full look back at what had transpired and wrote a complete story.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WITH ALL OF THESE PLANS IS THIS PRAYER BEFORE YOU START READING GOD’S WORD:

“Lord open my eyes to behold wonderful things from Your Word.” (Psalm 119:18)

I pray this prayer EVERY time before I start to read God’s Word and He is faithful to bless me every time! It’s life’s great adventure!

You might also want to have a pen or high-lighter in hand so you can underline or mark the verses that “jump off the page” to you. Believe me, that WILL happen! You could also write those verses on 3×5 cards for memorization or in a journal for later study.

Lastly, it’s best to start your day with God’s Word. I know that’s not always easy, but it will have the most impact on your day rather that tagging it on later in the day.

May the Lord bless you real good and happy reading!

Check out my below index of other encouraging and life changing stories.

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One Stop Shopping – Country Style

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X-Ray Auth_0001 Customers Out Front!

You could hear the distant sound of a tractor heading up the valley road. “Chossy” (Josiah Zechman) as he was known to valley residents) was coming out from his farm for his evening refreshment. It was 1948, a simpler time of party phone lines, flat head engines and cook stoves. But the rising innovation of the twentieth century was on the horizon. With the baby boomers generation in full swing a whole tidal wave of change was moving across the countryside. Some of the things the residents treasured would pass away so gradually they would hardly even notice.

Neighbors still knew each other by first names, and communicated on a daily basis. People needed rest after a long days work, instead of exercise. They didn’t hesitate to help a neighbor build their home, gather crops, or even help raise one another’s children. A mischievous youngster couldn’t get…

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Getting Started Right

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Good advice! If I must say so myself! 🙂

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Photo by nappy on Pexels.com

Did you ever start anything and then in retrospect say, “Boy I really messed that up!”? Oh yeah, we’ve all done that! Well, there’s one huge thing in which you DON’T want to start out wrong, and that’s the Christian life! You say, “what do you mean Christian life?”. It’s the life which starts when your realize you have sinned against your Holy God, and then turn in repentance from that sin and trust Jesus Christ, His Son, to forgive you and make you His child. That is the first step which opens up your life to a whole new world of blessings. I started my life with Jesus on May 2, 1975 and since then have learned some important steps to take for a person starting out the Christian life. Here’s a few of them:

Write the date you trusted Christ in the front…

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My Substitute

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What is good about Good Friday? On this day in the Biblical record Jesus was arrested, declared guilty in a mock trial, spit upon, beaten, mocked, a crown of thorns jammed onto His head, His back turned into ribbons of flesh by scourging and then He was forced to carry His cross to the place where He would be nailed onto it and die.

What is good about Good Friday? It is good because Jesus did it all for me! Yes, it is most powerful when we personalize it, because I would have had nothing to bring to a Holy God but my sins and my worthless works. But thankfully, His Son Jesus made a way for my sins to be forgiven on Good Friday. Is there any other way? No there isn’t. It took a sinless sacrifice to please a Holy Heavenly Father and there was no other person…

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Right With God?

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Artist’s conception of Israel’s Worship Center in the wilderness

Are you right with God? Are you on speaking terms with Him? Do you sense His presence and leading in your life? Will you be with Him someday? The answer to these and many more questions can and should be a resounding YES! Why you ask? Because God has gone to the farthest degree to make it possible! He wants your answers to be yes because He created you, He loves you and wants the best for you!

All we need do is look back in Bible history to see the extreme ends to which God went through to help His people be “Right With Him”. To accomplish this for the Isreal nation He gave detailed and strict instructions to Moses to pass on to the Priests of Israel to follow in their wilderness journey.

Their worship was performed at the Tabernacle where they gathered around it in the wilderness. The Lord appeared to them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. All twelve tribes camped around the worship center. It was the center of their lives.

The Priests followed God’s commandments and an elaborate system of rituals and animal sacrifices on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis. Blood was shed and poured out at their altars and in front of the Lord in the Holy of Holys once a year inside the Tabernacle. Why you might ask? The main goal was to keep the people “Right with Him”.

We read fifteen times in the book of Numbers & Leviticus Moses where God uses the phrase “Right with the Lord”.

This phrase “Right with the Lord” appears 10 times in Leviticus chapter four alone, and showed He was very intense and intent on the people being one with Him. At the end of one of the instructions for sacrifice it summarizes:

“Thru this process the priest will purify the people making them right with the Lord and they will be forgiven.” (Leviticus 4:20)

From this verse we can glean the purpose of their worship.

  1. Purify the People

2. Re-establish a Right Relationship with God

3. Grant Forgiveness for their sins

Centuries later these same purposes were fulfilled “Once For All” for “All People” by Jesus ministry on earth which culminated by His death on a cruel Cross.

By Jesus coming to Earth and living a sinless life and then willingly offering himself as a pure sinless sacrifice He did away with the entire previous system! No more rules and regulations, no more endless sacrifices of animals. Just a personal step of Faith to trust in Jesus. You know the verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) This is the Gospel or “Good News” in a nutshell.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Have you trusted in Him? If not, do it today! For then, and only then will you be “Right with God”!

Read more Faith building stories here:

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He Called Me Brainiac!

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Laramie and I at Uncle Snack’s house. There’s another cool nickname (Snack)!

The 3 year anniversary of my brother Larry going to be with the Lord is this week. He was better known as “Laramie” in our family and he loved nicknames! My oldest brother Warren was called Butch & Pooch but Laramie called him Poochbone! My great grandmother addressed my birthday card to “Brain Wolfe” hence, my older brothers Laramie & Pooch nicknamed me “Brain” from that time forward. Then they came home from school one day and started calling my twin brother Bruce “Smith”, just because they had a classmate named Bruce Smith! Yes, we still call him Smith today! Our little brother Frederick’s name was of course shortened to Fred, but they also called him “Freeedrick” which later transformed to “Fled” for some unknown reason! Yep, you guessed it, he’s Fled today! Our youngest brother Steven’s nickname was more conventional as “Stevie” which I don’t think has any story attached to it. Though as an adult “Stevie” has mostly been dropped for Steven instead.

God liked giving people nicknames, or name changes as it were. He changed Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Jeshua to Joshua and in the New Testament Jesus changed Simon Barjona to Peter. Their name changes were’nt for fun though, they were very serious and were tied to His plans for BIG things to take place in their lives and the life of His Church. After Jesus launched His Church in the Book of Acts another categorical name change took place. Those who put their faith and trust in Him began to be called “Christians” first as a derrogatory name by the faithless leaders of their time, but eventually as a powerful name of the true Christ Followers who would turn the world upside down as they took the Gospel message to the ends of the earth!

My brother Laramie calling me Brainiac was an endearing term to me. Not that I’m a real brainiac, but it felt like a demonstration of appreciation and brotherly love which I will treasure for the rest of my life. As an Evangelist who had a strong passion for souls he would often leave an encouraging, or sometimes lighthearted comment on my blogs, especially those in which I gave the Gospel message. Twenty eight days before his departure to heaven he left his last comment on my blog “Trees and Me” (see link below). I truly miss his fellowship, big brother advice, encouragement and of course being called “Brainiac”! I wonder what new nicknames he’s coming up with now!

Larry’s Story
Trees and Me
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