The Social Concerns Ministry Team invites you to join them and to continue to…
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR
DAYS 181-210
Our resource is Eugene Peterson’s
THE MESSAGE//REMIX:PAUSE
DAY 181
Jeremiah 31:2-32:44: Does experiencing God’s discipline make you doubt God’s love? Why? What makes the new covenant different from the old covenant? In what way does the coming of the Holy Spirit fulfill the old covenant? How does God guarantee God’s covenant?
Acts 6: Why do you need to be filled with wisdom and the Holy Spirit to serve God effectively? Why would your life “brimming with God’s grace and energy” (6:8) make people angry rather than draw them to you?
DAY 182
Today marks the halfway point on your journey through the Bible. For six months, or more depending on your pace, you’ve engaged in an ongoing conversation with God. Has this conversation been what you expected? Why or why not? What has God revealed about God’s self? What has changed in your understanding of God’s love? God’s holiness? God’s justice? God’s mercy? God’s forgiveness? What has God told you about who you are? About where you came from? About where you are going? How does this conversation change the way you interact with people? The way you see your world and your place in it?
Now for some easier questions. Which book of the Bible has been your favorite? Delivered the most surprises? Opened your eyes to new truths? Which books do you want to study in depth? Which stories are sticking in your brain? Which stories did God give you the moment you needed them most? Which characters did you find most inspiring? Which one reminded you of yourself? Which character made you say, “I don’t want to be like him?” Take time to pray about the person God wants you to be, about how God would like to work through you.
Keep up this conversation with God. No matter how many times you read the Bible, the Word of God remains fresh and new. The Word is alive, and it makes you alive as well. Given all God has revealed to you through this journey so far, imagine what God has in store for you in the second half. Express to God what the Word means to you.
DAY 183
Jeremiah 33-35: God declared, “There will always be a descendant of David ruling the people of Israel.” (33:17) But Israel hasn’t had a king since Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 B.C. So how has God kept this promise?
Acts 7: What did Stephen say that made the High Council so angry, especially when everything he said was true? In what way do his words indict every human being? What about his sermon makes the Old and New Testament connection seamless?
DAY 184
Jeremiah 36-38: Jeremiah told his own people to surrender to the Babylonians. Did that make him a traitor? Why or why not? Why would God send such a discouraging message to people who were fighting for their lives?
Acts 8:1-8:25: Why does God allow persecution against God’s followers (then and now)? Why do people spread the Message enthusiastically in spite of the high cost? Why does God work in counterintuitive ways? How has God worked this way in your life?
DAY 185
Jeremiah 39-41: Why didn’t Jeremiah feel joy at seeing his words come true? Did he or God derive any pleasure from the destruction of Jerusalem? Why or why not? Why should seeing evil people getting what they deserve bring you grief, not joy?
Acts 8:26-8:40: Consider Philip and the Ethiopian. What runs through your mind when God is pushing you to tell someone about God’s Son? What is that conversation between you and God like? What makes most people hesitant to start blurting out Jesus’ story?
DAY 186
Jeremiah 42-44: Why would these people ask Jeremiah for prayer? When have you been angry with God because God’s plans ran counter to your own? How did you express your disappointment to God? What was the ultimate result?
Acts 9:1-9:10: Imagine you are Saul, chief prosecutor of Christ’s followers. How would you react when you heard Jesus offer you forgiveness? Under what circumstances, would you ever be able to take salvation for granted? How can you anyhow?
DAY 187
Jeremiah 45-47: Why does God make nations accountable for their actions? Why does God hold the entire world to the same standard, even those nations who didn’t receive the special revelation God gave the Jews?
Acts 9:19-9:43: Why were the other disciples suspicious of Saul’s conversion? Why would Barnabas take an outcast like Saul under his wings? What changes about your view of people when you see them from God’s perspective rather than a human viewpoint?
DAY 188
Jeremiah 48-49: These words may leave you thinking, Who? And Why should I care? But try to hear them from the Jews’ perspective. These nations surrounded Judah and had fought against her for generations. What does it mean to know God holds you accountable for your actions? Why does God care about ever nation on earth?
Acts 10:1-10:23: Why would an angel of God seek out Cornelius, a non-Jew? Why does God love people from every nation? How does Peter’s telling of the good news to the Gentiles fulfill God’s promise to Abraham to bless all the families of the earth through him?
DAY 189
When God does a work in your life, it’s hard to keep silent. At least that was the case for Jeremiah, Stephen, Peter, James, John, Philip, and everyone else the Holy Spirit touched. Persecution couldn’t silence them. Heavy-handed religious authorities who claimed to have the inside track on God couldn’t silence them. And cold indifference to their message couldn’t silence them. When the Spirit strikes, people speak up. Yet, God doesn’t coerce or force anyone to do something they don’t want to do. Instead, the words spill out because of the incredible joy the Spirit brings, a joy that has nothing to do with external circumstances. When this joy grips you, you can’t help but share it with everyone around you.
What is the Spirit trying to do in your life? Where has it produced joy? Have you built any dams in your life to try to stop the joy from flowing? If so, what are they? Does the same joy grip you that you experienced when you first said yes to Jesus? If you joy has disappeared, what happened to it? What will it take to recover it? Listen to the words that spill out of your life. How do they compare to the Message the disciples in Acts ran around sharing?
In Psalm 92:4 the psalmist sings, “You made me so happy, GOD. I saw your work and I shouted for joy.” If you find yourself running low on joy, it is a sign that you need to get into the presence of God. Joy isn’t an emotion—it is the response of the heart to God’s gentle touch. Spend time alone with God today. Meditate on God’s Word and the promises you’ve read. Stay there until you feel a fresh touch of God’s Spirit.
DAY 190
Jeremiah 50-51: If Babylon was simply carrying out God’s plan by plundering Judah, how can God hold them accountable for their actions? Why does God use the acts of evil people and godless nations to accomplish God’s purposes?
Acts 10:23-10:48: Why were the “insider” Jewish Christians hesitant to share the good news with the “outsider” Gentiles? Who are you hesitant to tell the good news because of indifference of race, social status, or some other barrier? Why?
DAY 191
Jeremiah 52: Why didn’t the Jews disappear from history like so many other plundered ancient nations? Why do they not only endure but continue to play a major role now? What does the existence of the Jews say about God’s ability to keep God’s promise?
Acts 11: Why does God delight in doing things no one expects? What confirmed that God was the one working in the heart of Cornelius and his family? How will you know the difference between a string of coincidences and God at work in your own life?
DAY 192
Ezekiel 1-3: How does Ezekiel digesting the book of God’s message before he can proclaim it apply to you today? Based on the warning God told Ezekiel to deliver, how responsibly are you for the people in your life who don’t know God?
Acts 12: If you were Peter, would you be able to sleep like a baby the night before your execution? What kind of conversation would you and God have? Did God have to rescue Peter in order for this episode to glorify Jesus? Why or why not?
DAY 193
Ezekiel 4-6: Why did God send Ezekiel to the exiles to sing the same tune one more time? Why is knowing facts about God’s work in your head not enough? What further response does God want?
Acts 13:1-13:14: The Holy Spirit had a special assignment for Barnabas and Saul. What is your special assignment? How can you be sure you’ve heard the Spirit’s instructions for your life? Pause and discuss this with God.
DAY 194
Ezekiel 7-8: Why was God so offended by the altars, the images, and the men worshiping the sun inside the Temple complex? Why did the location make the acts even more offensive? When God looks inside your temple, what does God find?
Acts 13:14-13:52: Do you believe what Paul presents in his first recorded sermon? Why or why not? Why did this message sound so good to the non-Jewish outsiders? What gave Paul and Barnabas their joy despite being run out of town by jealous opponents?
DAY 195
Ezekiel 9-11: Could people have destroyed the Temple if the Spirit of God still dwelt there? Why or why not? Why didn’t anyone but Ezekiel notice the Spirit had left? What makes people who claim to follow God so callous that they no longer recognize God?
Acts 14: What made the people of Lystra go from worshipping Paul as a God one day to trying to kill him the next? Why didn’t hard times discourage Paul and Barnabas? What happens to your zeal for God and God’s plan for your life when troubles strike?
DAY 196
In Jeremiah and Ezekiel, bad news spreads and cannot be stopped. God pronounces God’s sentence against God’s people and God will not rest until God carries it out. In Acts, the good news spreads and cannot be stopped. God wants the entire world to hear the wonderful news of hope and forgiveness, and God will not rest until the message gets out. Ironically, the bad news and the good news go hand in hand. The difference between those who find good news in the bad news and those who see nothing but bad news lies within our hearts.
How has the prophet’s parade of bad news changed you? How has the disciples’ zeal to spread the good news challenged you? Look at both the good news and bad objectively, as though you are an outside observer without a stake in the outcome of either. Does the bad news seem too harsh? Does the good news seem too generous? Before you answer, think about the track records of those who heard both. Examine the depths of sin within the human heart. Find this in the lives of those who fill the Bible as well as within yourself. Does the good news and bad look different now? Which seems too extreme and which seems too lenient? Why?
Next week you will discover how the good news first spread to Europe. With time, more and more non-Jews, the Gentiles, believed, which changed the face of Jesus’ followers forever. Throughout the changing landscape the one constant is God. God calls out to everyone who will listen, “I will save you if you simply come to me.”
DAY 197
Ezekiel 12-14: Prophets who told people exactly what they wanted to hear were all the rage in Ezekiel’s day. Are they today? What is so dangerous about their messages? How can you protect yourself from falling for them?
Acts 15:1-15:21: Why would anyone want to add rules as preconditions for being accepted by God? What makes James’ list in Acts 15:20 different from a requirement that everyone be circumcised? What keeps this list from being preconditions for salvation?
DAY 198
Ezekiel 15-17: God wants you to feel God’s pain and anger. Why does spiritual unfaithfulness wound God so deeply? Does your answer change the way you see your own sin, especially the sin of putting something or someone before God? In what way?
Acts 15:22-15:41: Why did the letter from Jerusalem relieve the Antioch believers? What might have happened if all Christians had to be circumcised and keep the Law? If you were under these rules, what would be different in the way you live the God-life?
DAY 199
Ezekiel 18-20: What does God mean when God says, “I respond to you out of who I am, not by what I feel about the evil lives you’ve lived?” (20:44) What is the difference? What does God’s statement reveal about God’s character and the nature of grace?
Acts 16:1-16:15: Why would Paul circumcise Timothy if God no longer required circumcision as a sign of God’s covenant? Why wasn’t it bad that Paul’s plans kept falling apart? Inspect your life. What is God saying to you through your frustrations?
DAY 200
Ezekiel 21-22: In what ways does the inability to tell the difference between the sacred and the secular open the door to moral and religious anarchy? What parallels to you see between Ezekiel’s time and today’s culture?
Acts 16:16-16:40: What prompted Paul and Silas to sing hymns to God from their jail cell? What happened because of their unlikely response to a bad situation? In what way does your response to difficulties make Jesus more or less attractive to unbelievers?
DAY 201
Ezekiel 23-25: Does God’s forbidding Ezekiel to mourn seem too extreme? Why or why not? And why didn’t God’s command turn Ezekiel against God? What would you say to God if God gave you this kind of impossible instruction? What would you do?
Acts 17:1-17:15: Why does the same message fill some people with joy and others with anger? How does the good news of Jesus reveal what is inside a person’s heart? How, then, should you expect people to respond when you share the good news with them?
DAY 202
Ezekiel 26-28: Why should you grieve rather than rejoice when evil people get what’s coming to them? Why does obsession with riches and dependence on wealth offend God? How does sin corrupt beauty? What attributes of the Master shine through when God punishes sin? Why does God want the entire world to see God’s holy glory?
Acts 17:16-17:34: How does Paul’s presentation of the philosophers in Athens differ from his presentation to the Jews? Why didn’t he tell the Greeks how horrible they were for worshipping idols? Why doesn’t one way of telling the Message fit every audience?
DAY 203
You read two small paragraphs last week that you may not have even noticed, Acts 15:36-41. Read them again. Paul and Barnabas, two of the most influential leaders in early Christianity, get in an argument over John Mark. Paul thought he was a quitter; Barnabas thought he deserved a second chance. The disagreement escalated to such a degree that the missionary team split. Paul went one direction, Barnabas the other.
Shouldn’t these two giants of the faith have been able to get over their personal differences and work together? What ever happened to forgiveness? Why would Paul be so unwilling to give John Mark another chance? Would you have given him another chance? Why or why not? Is this church’s first black eye and evidence that Christians simply cannot get along? Before you answer, think through what you’ve learned so far about the ways God works. Look beyond the episode to see God’s hand. What do you think is going on here, and how do you feel about God’s method?
The answers to these questions will impact far more than your understanding of two paragraphs in the Bible. Allow God to use God’s Word to open your eyes to see every situation around you from God’s perspective.
DAY 204
Ezekiel 29-31: Why does God send such a detailed message to Egypt? Why does God want them to know that God is God? How long has God tried to get God’s message across? Why does God keep trying? What will reproduce this same tenacity in you?
Acts 18: Why didn’t Gallio care about what was happening to Christians in his city? Why didn’t Paul complain about him? How much influence does the government today exert over the spread of the good news? Should it do more? Why or why not?
DAY 205
Ezekiel 32-34: Who were the shepherd-leaders God fired? How do the roles of watchman and shepherd go together? Who are God’s watchmen and shepherds today? What responsibility do you share for the fate of the people around you?
Acts 19:1-19:20: How has the Spirit expressed life-change in you? Why didn’t the former witches and warlocks sell their magic books and give the money to God? What compels you to obey regardless of the cost?
DAY 206
Ezekiel 35-37: What makes the Spirit living on the inside a more effective guide to godliness than the Law on the outside? What moved God to put God’s self permanently inside people? Why would God want to do this?
Acts 19:21-19:41: Why was Jesus such a threat to those who sold souvenirs of Artemis? What made people stop visiting the Artemis shrine and adorning their homes with her image? Which is stronger—heart change or exterior change?
DAY 207
Ezekiel 38-39: God says God’s message against God will be fulfilled in the distant future. What do you think of this prophecy considering that everything God declared has come true so far? Look back on the four examples of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In what ways should you prepare yourself for God’s plans for this world?
Acts 20:1-20:16: Why does living the God-life require large amounts of encouragement and fresh hope? Can you relate to Eutychus, the guy who fell asleep during Paul’s long sermon? Why didn’t Paul rebuke him for falling asleep?
DAY 208
Ezekiel 40-44: What is God’s purpose for Israel, and by extension, God’s ultimate purpose for everyone God saves? To what does God want you and everyone else who calls on God’s name to devote themselves?
Acts 20:17-20:38: What fills you with urgency? How do your compulsions compare to Paul’s? Why would “wolves” (false teachings) attack the church and try to lead people astray? What will you do to protect yourself from them? To protect the people around you?
DAY 209
Ezekiel 45-48: Compare worship within the final Temple with the pagan practices Ezekiel saw in the Temple in Jerusalem early in this book. What has changed? Why? What will you say to God knowing that this change describes God’s plan for you?
Acts 21:1-21:26: Why was Paul so insistent on going to Jerusalem, knowing that he would suffer as a result? Would the philosophy of Acts 21:13 free you from fear and anxiety? What is preventing you from adopting this approach?
DAY 210
The prophets may at times sound like one long, broken record, repeating over and over the same song of death and destruction against vile sinners. But yet the prophets didn’t speak for God, God spoke through them. Using each prophet for God’s mouthpiece, God poured out God’s soul with an honestly that is at times painful to read. That was especially the case this week.
Skim through the entire book of Ezekiel. Which passages allowed you to feel God’s heart? Which passages showed you the reason God is so angry with Israel and Judah? Is God’s anger justified? Why or why not? Which passages best revealed to you the pain God feels when people reject or betray God? How did these passages change your understanding of God’s love? Spend the rest of the day meditating on God’s love, talking to God about it. Let God’s passion sweep over you and wash away all your small ideas of what God’s love looks like.