Dave Miller's 2025 Bible Reading Challenge

   Through the Bible in 2021 Bible Readings:   Job 39-40, Romans 5, Psalm 94:13–19, Proverbs 20:11–13     Daily Devotional:    While Still a Sinner I was out working in the yard and I needed badly to get cleaned up. There was my shower - hot water, shampoo, soap - all the things I needed. If only I could find a way to get myself clean enough to be worthy of getting into the shower. It was so clean I just wasn't sure if I would ever find a way to work my way up to shower readiness. Absurd, right? You don't clean up to get into the shower, you get in the shower to clean up. We instinctively know that when it comes to getting clean. But when it comes to life and to our relationship with God, we revert to the same absurdity. "One of these days I'm gonna clean up my life, start going to church, and get my life right with God."  We have a fundamental tendency to believe that our relationship with God is based on what we do, on our activity and merit. We...

   Through the Bible in 2021 Bible Readings:     Job 37-38, Romans 4, Psalm 94:6–12, Proverbs 20:9–10    Daily Devotional:   You Can't Handle God's Job   We live in a seriously messed up world. Sin. Perversion. Racism. A justice system that is often a travesty. War and terrorism. It is a sad, sick, sorrowful world that our sin and rebellion against God has created. And in the middle of this, many ask the question, "Where is God?" Why does he allow this to happen? Why does he permit that injustice? This tragedy? Why do the evil prosper and the righteous suffer? This world defies explanation. But sometimes there is an even more personal question we ask. "Where were you, God, when I needed you?" Why did you stop this? Why did you let that happen? We know that God is both sovereign and good, but our circumstances often make it appear impossible for both to be true. These were the kinds of questions Job was asking throughout his story. After God allowe...

   Through the Bible in 2021 Bible Readings:   Job 35-36, Romans 3:21–31, Psalm 93:1–94:5, Proverbs 20:6–8     Daily Devotional:   By Faith Alone   I can remember the bumper sticker clearly. "Proud to be a Christian." That is an oxymoron. You can be proud. And you can be Christian, but you cannot be both. A proper understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ absolutely, totally, and eternally precludes any boasting on my part. I understand that the person with the bumper sticker may have had something else in mind - that he was not ashamed of his (or her) faith, that he would not apologize for his convictions. Perhaps. But it is a crucial point. Pride is the opposite of Christianity! Paul made this clear in Romans 3:27. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded.  Paul devoted chapters 1-3 to stating our utterly helpless position before God. We have all sinned and are guilty, Jews and Greeks. And in verses 21-26, he spelled out the rea...

   Through the Bible in 2021 Bible Readings:   Job 33-34, Romans 3:1–20, Psalm 92:11–15, Proverbs 20:4–5    Daily Devotional:   Basically Bad   "People are basically good."  It is established as truth beyond contestation in popular culture. Politicians flatter people by trumpeting the innate goodness of man. Educational systems are designed around the assumption that people, given the opportunity and resources, will make choices that are wise and good. Parents tell their children over and over again how good they are. Your heart will never lead you astray. Do what you think is right. Trust your feelings! The problem with all of this is Romans 3! It presents a very different picture of the human condition. It will tell us in tomorrow's reading that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory. Today's reading is the foundation for that conclusion. In verse 9, Paul gives his preliminary conclusion, that Jews and Gentiles are united in sin and are t...

   Through the Bible in 2021 Bible Readings:     Job 31-32, Romans 2, Psalm 92:4–10, Proverbs 20:1–3    Daily Devotional:   God's Favorites! God chose the Hebrews to be his very own people and he demonstrated his love to them over and over again, by blessing them, by disciplining them as a father would his errant children, by forgiving their sin and restoring and renewing them when they had turned from him to idols. But there was one part of being the chosen people of God that the Jews never quite got. They loved their special place in God's heart and in his plans, but they did not understand one simple truth.  All of God's blessings are designed to be passed on to others. God told Abraham that he would bless him (with a nation of descendants) and through that nation he would bless all the nations. Israel chose a different path. They became inwardly focused and thought themselves superior to others. They forgot that God chose them as an ...

   Through the Bible in 2021 Bible Readings:     Job 29-30, Romans 1, Psalm 92:1–3, Proverbs 19:28–29    Daily Devotional:   Servants, Saints, Sons   Since Paul was not known to many of the Roman Christians, it was important that he establish his identity in writing this treatise. Apostle. Man of God. Leader of the church. Keeper of the mysteries of Christ. There were so many ways that he could have described himself. But he went in a totally different direction. Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus. A slave. A common household servant - a position of humility, even humiliation that no Roman wanted to accept. The Romans viewed being a servant as intolerable and awful. But Paul embraced it. Serving Jesus was not humiliating, it was glory. He embraced the concept of devoting his life fully to the service of Jesus Christ. But when it came to describing other believers, he focused on something completely different, in verse 7. To all who are in Rome, loved b...

   Through the Bible in 2021 Bible Readings:     Job 27-28, Acts 28:17-31, Psalm 91:7–16, Proverbs 19:25–27    Daily Devotional:    Unhindered Volumes have been written about the ending of the book of Acts.  Acts tells the story of the spread of the gospel in the early days of the church, in  Jerusalem ,  Judea , and  Samaria , and to the ends of the earth.  The book ends with Paul sitting under house arrest in  Rome , awaiting trial on charges of treason.  Luke tells us that Paul preached the  kingdom  of  God  and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ “ boldly and without hindrance. ” “Without hindrance” is one word in the original Greek language (akolutos), an adverb.  It is the very last word in the Greek text of Acts.  Paul preached with great boldness, “unhinderedly”.  And the book stops.  It is such a strange ending that some scholars have theorized that the l...