Dave Miller's 2024 Bible Reading Challenge

Today's Reading - Revelation 21-22 Background We spend a lot of time trying to find life, to find fun and contentment and pleasure and peace in this world. But in Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible, we see a truth that helps us in the search for real life. Observe verses 1 and 2. T hen the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Coming from the throne of God is a river of living water that feeds the tree of life and brings healing to the nations. Life flows from the throne of God - and nowhere else. God is life. Real life, true life - it flows from his throne to us. Don't look for, from this world, what only God can offer. Eternal life, abundant life, joy, contentment and fulfi...

Today's Reading - Revelation 20 Background It will be the most glorious moment in human history when the great battle of evil is going on here on earth and suddenly Jesus breaks out in glory with heaven's armies trailing him and he strikes down the rebellious hordes with the sword coming out of his mouth. Then, he judges the world, binds Satan, and sets up his millennial kingdom. After that comes the final judgment and Satan's doom, along with the terrible moment of the Great White Throne when sinners are judged and sent to the Lake of Fire. It is God's ultimate victory over sin and it is also a moment of sadness as many are sent to the horrible place of torment prepared for the devil and his fallen angels.  Devotional - The Books Open Why do people go to hell? No one wants to talk about it or think about it, but when we arrive at Revelation 20:11-15, we can no longer pretend the final judgment does not exist. There is a Great White Throne and seated on it is the Judge ...

Today's Reading -  Revelation 18-19 Background Babylon is a powerful word throughout the Bible, representing not just the powerful nation that arose to seek to dominate the world, but symbolically standing for everything in this world that unites in opposition to God. There is, in Revelation 17-18, a religious aspect to Babylon, a united religion without loyalty to God or to his Son. There is political Babylon, the uniting of the nations around humanistic power not in obedience to God. And there is an economic Babylon, a world system united in materialism and greed, seeking all this world has, exploiting others and oppressing them to get ahead. And in a moment, God will bring it all crashing down. Boom! Make no mistake about it. God is in control. This world system is loyal to the enemy and opposes the rule of Christ, but it is doomed in that rebellion. You can oppose Christ but you cannot defeat him! Few things are certain in life, but this is. Babylon will fall. It will be ...

Today's Reading - Revelation 16-17 Background This is the end, the very end. Seals have been opened and trumpets have been blown, but now the final bowls of God's judgment will be poured out on the earth in chapter 16 and God'sfinal judgment on the sinful world economic and religious system will commence in chapter 17. God has judged the world before - the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Destruction of Jerusalem. But this is the final, cataclysmic judgment of God on this sinful world and it is awful and terrifying. Devotional - God's Awful Judgment  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a Living God. Mankind has treated God with disdain, disrespect, and disregard since the Garden of Eden. He has loved us and worked to redeem us and draw us to himself, but we have rejected him and walked in sin. God can do no more than he has done to show his love but mankind continues to flaunt God's love and reject his grace. But one day that will end. Humanity mistakes th...

Today's Reading - Revelation 13-15 Background Chapter 13 then turns to the rise of two men who will spearhead the work of evil in the last days, men we know of as the Antichrist and the false prophet - here they are identified as the first and second beasts. Since Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the Garden, the curse of sin has rested on the earth and on the sinners who dwell here. God has repeatedly warned that while he is patient and gracious, his wrath will come. In the ensuing chapters, the wrath of God falls at the end of time - fast and furious, shock and awe! The final seven bowls of God's wrath are poured out on the world and the end comes. Devotional - Embracing Evil There are many misconceptions about the spread of evil. We fictionalize the devil and his ways, casting him as a vile monster who attacks people and drags them to hell against their will. But that is, unfortunately, not what the Bible teaches. What we learn in scripture is leaves us without excuse. Mi...

Today's Reading - Revelation 10-12 Background Today's reading puts us in another gap between the sixth and seventh in a judgment series. The sixth trumpet has blown and judgments have destroyed half of the earth. At the end of chapter 9 the sinners of earth refuse to repent but in chapter 10 and 11 God shows his grace by sending another angel with a little scroll and the two witnesses, believed by many to be Moses and Elijah. At the end of chapter 11, the seventh trumpet will blow and the final judgments of God will fall, after an interlude in which the work of the antichrist and false prophet are explored. Revelation 12 is a spiritual history of the world, tracking Satan's fall from heaven and his pursuit of the people of God, Israel.  Devotional - Mysteries There are some things we just are not meant to know. In Bible studies, I am often asked questions to which I have to give my most common answer. "I don't know and no one does." It doesn't help my sens...

Today's Reading - Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2, John 1 Background Merry Christmas. Read the story of Christ today and enjoy your day with family. Remember to celebrate Jesus as you celebrate! You can read the story as it appears or you can read it below in chronological order. A Chronological Reading of the Christmas Story  The Angel Appears to Mary   (Luke 1)             26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."              29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with ...

Today's Reading -  Revelation 6-9 Background In chapter 6, Jesus begins to open the seals on the judgment scroll and wrath of God is poured out on the world. There are significant issues at stake here, far more than we can discuss in this brief statement - issues that will be argued until Jesus actually returns and settles all the discussions. But there are several significant items that appear here. The first four seals bring out the famous "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," and then we meet the 144,000 witnesses from the 12 tribes of Israel. Finally, the heavenly multitude from every tribe and language on earth is seen in the heavenly vision. There is a pattern here. Jesus opens six of the seven seals, then there is an interlude in which God's grace is offered to sinful man and the hardness of the human heart is displayed. It is after this that the seventh seal is opened and it reveals seven trumpets which blow. The same pattern is followed between the sixth and se...

Today's Reading - Revelation 4-5 Background This is the beginning of the grand story of Revelation. Heaven opens and John is taken up, where a scroll appears on which is written all the judgments of God on the sinful world. No one is worthy to open the scroll and judge the world until the Lamb steps forward. Jesus by his death and resurrection earned the right to judge the world. The rest of the book is the unfolding of this plan of judgment and the glorious victory of Christ over the world. Warning, the preacher goes a little long today! Devotional - Worthy Is the Lamb There are few passages more glorious, more majestic, than Revelation 4 and 5, in which true, heavenly worship is modeled.  In chapter 4, John is transported to heaven in a vision, and he is allowed to see how things take place before God's glorious throne. He sees what we will see and experiences what we will experience one day when we are in the presence of God.  First, John saw a throne in heaven, one Isaiah...

Today's Reading - Revelation 2-3 Background This is a tough one for me! I preached a series of sermons on these two chapters - 12 messages! Now I have to write 1 devotional that encapsulates what I taught in 12 sermons of 30 (okay 40 to 45) minutes each.  These 7 churches form an arch starting to from Ephesus and appear in the order one might deliver the letters. John wrote them while exiled on Patmos, just southwest of Ephesus.  Efforts have been made through the years to see these letters as a prophetic history of the church but that stands on weak ground exegetically. They can be viewed as seven separate letters giving standards for churches, but there is also a definite progression in the churches that go bad.  Two churches have nothing but good things said about them - Smyrna and Philadelphia. It is helpful to look at what Jesus commends about them. They are suffering churches, under the gun of intense persecution. The other five churches have a combination of ...