#90daysthroughtheBible

On my journey through Scripture, I tweeted my way through it's pages with the hashtag: #90daysthroughtheBible.

Just for fun, here's a compilation of those tweets:

Do you know what gives me hope for my family? Reading about the families in Genesis. Wow!

God tells the Israelites to celebrate the Passover before he ever passes over. This God got game.

God has attention for details. How did Jewish children memorize the entire Torah?

I'm too much of a wimp to be a Levitical Priest. I don't think I could wring a bird's neck & kill animals all day.

If you haven't read the entire Bible, you underestimate how much God talks about bodily discharges.

I'm in that stage of the Bible where I'm tired of him taking land from people & killing them.

"In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit." Does the church know who our king is?

Elisha seems to be great at magic tricks. I am not so good at magic tricks. Elisha 1, Collin 0.

Read Nahum before you read Jonah. Then, you might be a little more understanding of Jonah.

Humans tend to settle for false, flattering descriptions of reality over true, unflattering ones.

It's not always a good thing when you hear, "Then you will know I am the LORD your God."

Job's friends did their best ministry when they sat beside Job in silence. Silence is golden!

After 70 days of reading the Old Testament, I finally read about the one it all points to. It's good news people!

"Jesus preached about the kingdom of heaven from that time on..." Is that the message in your church?

My Journey Through the Bible in 90 Days

Over the first 90 days of 2013, Holly and I read through the entire Bible. It's the first time either of us has read through Scripture within a calendar year. It was a great spiritual discipline for us to commit to together.

One "Bucket List" item crossed off!

What were my impressions?

-Overall, it was a pretty good read.
-I know it's cool to have your name in the Bible, but could we shorten a few of those genealogies?
-It's longer than your average novel. Plan accordingly.
-These people are a mess!
-I'd like to walk through the Red Sea. Anyone want to join me?
-I like that Jesus guy!

Seriously...it was a transformative 3 months.

My more serious takeaways...

-God refuses to give up on his children. He goes to lengths he probably shouldn't in order to be in relationship with us. God will never love you any more or any less than he does right now.

-It's really hard for humans to follow the commands of God. I didn't even need to read the Bible to understand that principle, but the Bible certainly made me feel better about my struggle to obey.

-On the other hand, sin is a really big deal. Like, a REALLY big deal! And I don't think God's trying to steal our fun by his words concerning sin. It's more like he's tired of how we hurt ourselves in our journeys into sin.

-Scripture doesn't seem to rank sin in the same order that we do. Churched people tend to focus on sexual sin. And while sexual sin is a prevalent theme, God seems quite concerned about how we treat our neighbors. And he seems especially concerned about how we treat the poor.

-I like Jesus. I know I'm paid to say things like that, but I really like him! And I believe more than ever that people who haven't committed their lives to God would like Jesus also. That makes evangelism much less of a dread than I have sometimes imagined. It's Good News...remember!

-And finally, history is headed somewhere. God had a plan that he has set in motion from the beginning. And while humans tend to foil his plot, he's also choosing to partner with us in his restoration of all things.

I'm glad I read the Bible. It's good to know what I've been preaching all of these years (just kidding!).

"The Bible" is not just a 5-week miniseries on the History Channel. And if you liked that series, let me suggest you try the book it was based on. It's available in your local bookstore.

And if it takes you more than 90 days to read it, no worries. It took me almost 3 decades!