Dave Miller's 2024 Bible Reading Challenge

Today's Readings - Hosea 6-7, 1 Peter 2, Psalm 135:8–14, Proverbs 29:12–13 Devotional  "This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing though." Those of the words of an old country gospel song - not my favorite form of music but those words teach a truth we need to hear. Too many Christians are too tied to this world - its riches, its pleasures, its ambitions and achievements - and do not understand how the Bible describes the church of Jesus in this world. Look at 1 Peter 2:11. Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles  to abstain  from sinful  desires that wage war against the soul. Peter described us as "sojourners" and "exiles." We are not of this world. We were born as part of this world and its ways, but we were born again, adopted into the heavenly family. Our spiritual citizenship was changed and we are no longer first and foremost citizens of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven, Paul said (in Philippians 3). We now live in a wo...

Today's Readings - Hosea 4-5, 1 Peter 1, Psalm 135:1–7, Proverbs 29:9–11 Devotional  "You are so heavenly-minded you are of no earthly good." That was a favorite insult of a group in my college days, those who had abandoned the gospel of Jesus Christ for what is often called the "social gospel." They believed that we were put here to make the world a better place, to be the best we can be, and felt that getting bogged down in thinking about heaven and hell, deep things of theology, or our future hope would be a distraction from our responsibilities in the here and now. Peter made it clear in 1 Peter 1:3-5 just how misguided that kind of thinking actually is. In fact, the opposite is true. Oh, certainly we are here to help people and to serve others in the name of Christ. But our hope is never in this world nor do we live for it. Look at what Jesus' disciple said. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Because of his great mercy  he has giv...

Today's Readings - Hosea 1-3, James 5, Psalm 133–134, Proverbs 29:7–8 Devotional  The prophets did some weird things to demonstrate the anger of God against sin and the love of God for his people. One wore ill-fitting undergarments to show how irritating Israel's sin was. But Hosea's story is perhaps the most graphic of all. God commanded him to marry a woman who would illustrate Israel's sin (Hosea 1:2). When she strayed back into her life of sin, God sent Hosea to reclaim her and bring her home. This story is a verbal painting of the love of God - nothing sweet, syrupy or sentimental, but a gritty love, the kind that sticks around through the good times and the bad and changes lives. Israel was a rebellious and spiritually adulterous nation, one that had left fidelity to the One True God and was chasing after the gods of the Canaanites. But God's grace was greater even than their infidelity. He told Hosea to illustrate that faithful love. The Old Testament is a r...

Today's Readings - Daniel 11-12, James 4, Psalm 132:13–18, Proverbs 29:4–6 Devotional  On August 27, 1978, I stood in front of a preacher (who doubled as my father) and made promises to God and to the woman standing next to me. I promised to stick with her for better and worse, richer and poorer, in sickness and in health. But along with those positive promises I also made a negative commitment. "Forsaking all others." Marrying one woman meant that I had to give up all the others. Saying yes to Jenni meant saying no to every other woman in the world. A positive commitment to one woman implies a negative commitment to all others. We sometimes forget that as the "Bride of Christ" a similar commitment is required of all of us. We are to declare our love and commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. He is to be the primary passion of our lives. What we sometimes forget is that our positive commitment to Christ also requires a negative commitment to all others....

Today's Readings -  Daniel 9-10, James 3, Psalm 132:6–12, Proverbs 29:1–3 Devotional  When I look back on my 5 decades of Christianity, I would surmise that the highest percentage of my sins have been sins of the tongue. I avoided most of the "big" sins that sidetrack so many in their earlier years, and I would have to confess to more than a few sins of the mind - lust, anger, pride and such. But when I've gotten into trouble it's usually been my big fat mouth that started it all. I guess that ought not to be a huge surprise. My life, my work, my ministry - it's all about words, whether written or spoken. I preach. I counsel. I discuss. I strategize. And all too often I sin. Angry words. Gossip. Backbiting. Inappropriate jokes. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, Jesus said, and my mouth has too often reflected the sin in my heart. That is not unusual, though. According to James 3, the hardest part of the body to control is the tongue. Vers...

Today's Readings - Daniel 7-8, James 2, Psalm 132:1–5, Proverbs 28:27–28 Devotional  Many have seen a conflict between Paul's consistent teaching on salvation by faith alone and the assertion of James in James 2:17 that faith without works is dead. James says in verse 21 that Abraham was justified by works when Paul maintained that Abraham was justified by faith, apart from works. So, did James stand in opposition to the teachings of Paul? Is this a contradiction between two passages of Scripture? No, it is not. It is a matter of perspective. Almost every biblical truth has to be held in balance and in tension with another biblical truth - the Trinity combines God's Oneness with his existence in three distinct persons, Jesus is both man and God, God's sovereignty and human responsibility. The whole Bible is full of "truths in tension." Remember the old story of the blind men who all touched an elephant? One grabbed the tail, another the trunk, another a leg, ...

Today's Readings - Daniel 5-6, James 1, Psalm 130:5–131:3, Proverbs 28:25–26 Devotional  Wouldn't it be great if we could see the kind of miracles today that were seen in Daniel's day?  Three men were thrown into a fiery furnace who come out unharmed; a hand that writes a message to a pagan king on the wall; a man survives in a den of hungry lions - God did many great works. And I'd love to see things like that in this day. But none of these works of power was done for entertainment value. They were performed in the lives of people who had risked their lives in obedience to God's Word. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stood against an entire culture and refuse to bow the knee to an idol. They were called before the king who demanded they acquiesce to his demands but refused. They were thrown into a fiery furnace that was intended to kill them. It was then - when they had risked their lives to the point of death in obedience to God - that ...

Today's Readings - Daniel 3-4, Hebrews 13:20–25, Psalm 130:1–4, Proverbs 28:22–24 Devotional  It is one of my favorite stories in the Bible and has been since my youth. It has drama and tension and intrigue - everything that makes a story grand. It begins in the mind of a megalomaniac named Nebuchadnezzar, who constructs a 90-foot high golden idol and demands that everyone in his kingdom bow down before it when the music sounded. Babylon was filled with captives, people from all over the world who still worshiped their own gods. The king didn't care about that as long as they kowtowed to his demands and when the instruments played demonstrated their loyalty by bowing before his god. But there was a problem, one that was fairly easily identified, and one that Daniel 3:8-9 tells us was reported to the king. If when the music sounds everyone falls on their faces, it becomes pretty hard to hide the fact that three young Jewish men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, were not bowing ...

Today's Readings - Daniel 1-2, Hebrews 12:18–13:19, Psalm 129, Proverbs 28:20–21 Devotional  Daniel is one of the truly great men of biblical history. He is one of the few characters in the Bible's story without a major flaw or a sinful failing. From his boyhood in captivity until his older years in the lion's den and through all the visions God gave him, he is an example of spiritual courage and moral excellence. As we face life in a land that has abandoned and disdained our values, we can gain much from observing how Daniel and his friends took their stands. On the one hand, they were uncompromising and firm in their beliefs, in Daniel 1 and in future events such as those that led his friends into a fiery furnace and him into a lion's den. Daniel and his friends were young men taken from their homes and families, likely teens who knew that their families were dead and their nation lay in ruins. They had every reason to "go along to get along." "When in...

Today's Readings - Ezekiel 47-48, Hebrews 12:1–17, Psalm 128, Proverbs 28:17–19 Devotional  It is one of my favorite metaphors for the Christian life. Having been a marathon runner (slow and steady doesn't win the race, but it gets to the finish line!), I find the words of Hebrews 12:1-2 meaningful. Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance  the race that lies before us,  2  keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, [ c ]  he endured the cross, despising the shame,  and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. In my first marathon (December 1981), I was quite sure I was going to die over the last 5 miles of the race. My feet hurt. My toenails had cut into my toes and they were bleeding. My arm muscles were cramping. I had run the middle miles of...

Today's Readings -  Ezekiel 45-46, Hebrews 11:15–40, Psalm 127, Proverbs 28:15–16 Devotional  Imagine what you could do if you just had more faith! That's what the spiritual shysters tell you. Work up a little more confidence, positive confession, words of affirmation, or however they define faith and you can have whatever you want. Faith, defined as they define it, is a guarantee of a positive outcome. You will get all you want, have your hopes and dreams fulfilled! All you have to do is have faith. But those who think this haven't read Hebrews 11. Frankly, they haven't read the Bible, except for a few verses they have lifted out of context, but we will focus on Hebrews 11 for today. In yesterday's readings, we learned a little about the nature of faith. Faith, which verse 6 tells us is essential - without it we cannot please God, is living on the basis of what God has said, even when you cannot see it as true. Look at verse 1. Now faith is the reality  of what is ...

Today's Readings - Ezekiel 43-44, Hebrews 11:1–14, Psalm 126, Proverbs 28:12–14 Devotional  Links to Today's Readings "Christians need to be more positive, to spend less time focusing on sin and judgment and more time focusing on God's love, acceptance and grace." It sounds great, doesn't it? I don't like to think about my own failures and the guilt of my sins. Just as I don't like to look at myself in the mirror first thing in the morning, I don't much like it when God's word holds a mirror to my soul and I see the filth and wickedness within. Of course, I'd rather think about the good things. I'd love to ignore my sin and only ponder the positives. But there is a problem with that attitude which is so prevalent today. According to Proverbs 28:13, if we ignore sin we can never receive the blessings of God. The one who conceals his sins  will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them  will find mercy. We can never prosper o...

Today's Readings -  Ezekiel 41-42, Hebrews 10, Psalm 125, Proverbs 28:10–11 Devotional  It was hard to get to God in the Old Testament era. One had to travel to Jerusalem (or wherever the tabernacle was in the pre-temple days) and secure a sacrifice. That sacrifice was taken by the priests and put on the altar. But to enter the Holy of Holies - that was even more difficult. No one could go there, where the presence of God dwelt; no one except the high priest and then only once a year. On that day he would enter the holiest place on earth to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat and make intercession for the sins of all Israel. But that all changed one day on a hill just outside the gates of Jerusalem, where a man hung on a cross. He was not just a high priest, but a Great High Priest. Having shed his blood, he ascended and went through the heavenly curtain to make final intercession for us, purchasing our redemption and atoning for our sins. But he did something else that day...

Today's Readings -  Ezekiel 40, Hebrews 9, Psalm 124, Proverbs 28:7–9 Devotional  There is no doctrine more precious or abused than that of the love of God. It is glorious beyond words that God loves me and has acted by his grace to save me. Praise God! But the doctrine is twisted and perverted as well into the idea that God has no standards, that he doesn't care about our sin. God's love does not abrogate his holy standards. In fact, God's love properly understood exalts both God's love and his holiness. There are two facts we must never forget. First of all, someone has to pay for our sins. God will not, by his holy nature he cannot simply look the other way and ignore our sins. His righteousness cries out against sin and demands payment, demands atonement. "The wages of sin is death," Paul said in Romans. Here, the author of Hebrews makes a bold assertion. ...and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22 Because of sin, blood h...

Today's Reading s - Ezekiel 38-39, Hebrews 8, Psalm 123, Proverbs 28:5–6 Devotional  "I guess you know, this means war!"  Bugs Bunny's famous words remind us of an important truth about the Christian life. I am afraid that we, as American Christians, have developed a skewed idea of the nature of Christianity. We are used to living at ease, at peace, to being in comfort. We have devised a theological framework in which health, wealth, peace, ease, comfort, and prosperity are the norm for those who are walking in the faith. But such is not the case very often in the word of God. Yes, God is good and he provides joy to his people. But the peace that he gives is not the absence of conflict or enemies, but the calm assurance that no matter how fierce our foes, no matter how awful the things are that come against us, God is bigger than our enemies and he will see us through. In fact, throughout Scripture, the people of God always had enemies - powerful enemies, scary, impos...

Today's Readings - Ezekiel 37, Hebrews 7:11–28, Psalm 122, Proverbs 28:2–4 Devotional  It is the greatest miracle of all. The Bible records many wondrous works done by God. He parted the Red Sea and stopped the flow of the Jordan. He made the walls of Jericho come tumbling down and sent fire down on Elijah's sacrifice. Jesus walked on water, fed the crowds, made the lame walk and the blind see. But there is one miracle that is greater than all others. It was the miracle that God previewed when Elijah raised the Widow of Zarephath's son, when Jesus interrupted the funeral in the Jezreel Valley, and when he spoke to his friend Lazarus, calling him from the grave after four days. And it is the ultimate miracle of history, which God performed on Jesus early on the morning of the first day of the week, raising him from the dead. Death from life. Something from nothing. This is not art, not renovation, it is creation. It is that kind of miracle that Ezekiel speaks of in c...

Today's Readings - Ezekiel 35-36, Hebrews 7:1–10, Psalm 121, Proverbs 28:1 Devotional  The trek would start at the Pool of Siloam, at the lower end of Jerusalem, the City of David. As the pilgrims would come to worship, they would ascend on a wide road up past the ancient city, past the king's palace, toward the Temple Mount. They would walk up the steps in the picture here to the gate that led into the Temple area, to bring their offerings, worship God and make atonement for their sins. And as they walked up the street, as they ascended the steps, they would sing psalms that declared the goodness of God. These are called the "Songs of Ascent" and they are found in Psalm 120-134. The City of David is on a ridge below the Temple Mount and it is surrounded by hills all around. As the Israelites walked up Mt. Moriah, burdened with fears and cares, struggles and trials, they could gaze at those mountain peaks all around and they could ask: I lift my eyes toward the mount...