And we're off! Bible Challenge day 1 is finally here, I hope you're as excited and jazzed as I am! I also hope that through this challenge you experience blessing upon blessing from the riches of Holy Scripture and the abundance of God's grace.
For the first few weeks of the Bible Challenge the clergy will be blog administrators and participators. We'll be here to post an encouraging word, read your thoughts and comments as you offer them, and put forth a discussion question or two to help you as you read and pray. After the second or third week lay leaders and EfM grads will jump in as blog administrators and participators on a rotating basis, each taking one week every 6 to 8 weeks. No matter when you post or what you post to this blog, someone will be here to read and receive it. And we think that's a pretty good thing!
We begin our challenge with the creation story in Genesis 1-3, the always edifying Psalm 1, and the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. In other places I've suggested you skip the tiresome genealogies, but please ignore that advice when it comes to Matthew 1. As you read it you may notice a few familiar characters... Look up a few people in the Matthew 1 genealogy. What does it say about God and about us that God could use ordinary people to bring about the salvation of us all??
As you read the Bible, where do you see yourself in this vast, sweeping story of God's love for humanity?
To share a thought or response to one of these questions, or anything you find meaningful about the Scriptures today, click on the title of this post and begin typing in the comment box.
Peace and blessings,
Drew+
PRAYER:
God of light and life, open my mind and my heart to your gracious love, and use me for your saving purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
How appropriate that it's Ash Wednesday when we hear God say to "the man" (does he have a name yet?), "you are dust, and to dust you shall return".
ReplyDeleteNancy, I thought the same thing! Scripture is always right on time. I love that.
ReplyDeleteDrew+
One idea that stands out when I read the genealogy that is listed in Matthew 1 is that family matters. When one thinks about it, a lot of your life is shaped by things that your parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents did. It makes me to think about how decisions that I may make may not only affect my life but also generations after me. It's pretty humbling.
ReplyDeleteThe reference to dust intrigues me:
ReplyDelete1. God makes man from dust, the origin of the name Adam may be adamah which means soil.
2. The serpent will eat dust all the days of its life.
3. Cain was a tiller of the ground (dust) and Abel's blood cried out from the ground (dust) and Cain was condemned to till the ground (dust) but it would no longer yield its strength (Garden of Eden).
4. Noah was a man of the soil (dust).
5. God promised Abram that his offspring would be like the dust of the earth, that if one can count the dust of the earth his offspring can also be counted.
6. In Matthew Jesus tells his apostles to shake the dust off their feet and leave if they are not accepted.
Dan, Tomorrow we'll hear Jesus in Matthew 6 say, "Make no store of wealth for yourselves on earth, where it may be turned to dust by worms and weather, and where thieves may come in by force and take it away." I use the BBE translation here because it I like how it uses the word "dust" instead of "rust". I like the sense of tension I feel between dust as a symbol or reminder of my being created at the hands of a loving God who created me in his image and called me fundamentally good, and dust as a symbol or reminder of our fallenness and the impermanence or transitory nature of earthly things. I feel like God might be asking me, What will you create from the dust? What treasure? And who will you spend it on?
ReplyDelete