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When I cling to old ways of doing things, I cut myself off from new ways of experiencing God

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is when I cling to old ways of doing

The only way out is through

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is the only way out is through. My primary

I make my plans, but God directs my steps

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is I make my plans, but God directs my

Be still and know that I am God

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is "Be still and know that I am God."

If we want God to live among us we must prepare him a space

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is if we want God to live among us

God is present in all the people around us

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is God is present in all the people around

God is with us in our darkest moments

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is in our darkest moments, we won't just feel

When we find ourselves in the presence of God it will ultimately change us

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is when we find ourselves in the presence of

Sometimes it may feel as though God has deserted us, but we must remain faithful and steadfast in prayer

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is sometimes it may feel as though God has

It is the things we do that matter, not the things we say

The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is it's the things we do that matter, not

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When I cling to old ways of doing things, I cut myself off from new ways of experiencing God

Ceilon Aspensen, February 18, 2024February 18, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is when I cling to old ways of doing things, I cut myself off from new ways of experiencing God.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Leviticus 7 & 8: Specifics and details about the consumption of the sacrifice meals, and the investiture of the priests.
Luke 5: Jesus speaks of “new wine,” and how new wine cannot be put into old wineskins, or they will break and fall apart. He is really speaking of new ways of doing things, and how the new ways cannot fit into the old ways of the law.
Psalms 49: “In prosperity people lose their good sense and they become no better than dumb animals.”
Proverbs 18: Many snippets of wisdom on a variety of topics, and brief commentary on the plight of the poor and the privilege of the rich.

In Luke, we see Jesus doing many things that ruffle the feathers of the Jewish spiritual and legal officials. He gathers four disciples; cures a man of a virulent skin disease (supposedly incurable) and tells him to present himself to the priest (which any priest would have recognized as the work of the Messiah); cures a paralytic (again, evidence of the work of the Messiah); eats with all manner of sinners; and does not encourage fasting among his followers.

When he is confronted by the Pharisees about why he hangs out with sinners, and why his followers do not fast, he tells them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; otherwise, not only will the new one be torn, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old. And nobody puts new wine in old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and run to waste, and the skins will be ruined. No; new wine must be put in fresh skins. And nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. ‘The old wine is good,’ he says.” (Luke 5: 37-39)

Jesus is saying that his new way of doing things is unpalatable to those invested in the old way of doing things, because they are set in their ways and they don’t really want change. They are comfortable in the old way of doing things. They’ve spent centuries manipulating the law to justify themselves and their ways of doing things, primarily making themselves financially comfortable at the expense of the poor.

Coincidentally, this message is embedded in Proverbs 18 where the verses talk about the differences between the rich and the poor: “The language of the poor is entreaty, the answer of the rich is harshness.” (Proverbs 18:23) One of the reasons Jesus’ ministry was so successful is precisely because he ministered to the poor and disenfranchised. Those living on top of society were offended by this. If Jesus elevated the poor, sick, and disenfranchised by forgiving them of their sins and providing for their needs, there was no longer a class barrier separating the members of high society from those upon whose backs they had stepped to elevate themselves. Jesus removed their status and claims of superiority with every act of kindness, healing, and forgiveness. To the people who were offended by this, the old way of doing things was good; the new way Jesus did things took away their status.

This message is underscored in Psalms 49, twice, in verses 12 and 20: “In prosperity people lose their good sense, they become no better than dumb animals.” The Pharisees were supposed to be helping the people. They were the keepers of the law and history of the people. However, they had come to abuse their positions and used the law to enrich themselves and create distance between themselves and all those on the bottom rungs of society.

Proverbs 18:11 states, “The wealth of the rich forms a stronghold, a high wall, as the rich supposes.” That provides us with the reason that the Pharisees were so hard-hearted about Jesus helping people who needed help. They saw their wealth as protection against all that ailed the people Jesus was helping. By removing the barriers between the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, the pious and the sinners, Jesus seemed to be removing the “stronghold” of the rich, which was all just an illusion, anyway. They were only fooling themselves, really.

When I read the chapters we are presented with today, I ask myself how I might be holding on to old ways of doing things, and resisting the new way of doing things that Jesus calls us to. In what ways do I deny the truth that I am mortal? In what ways do I pursue wealth as a stronghold against a fate that is inevitable to us all? How would reaching out to the poor, sick, and disenfranchised bring me closer to God and help me let go of the illusions that do not serve me? These are all very good questions for all of us, regardless of our station in life.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can download it here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us!

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

The only way out is through

Ceilon Aspensen, February 17, 2024February 16, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is the only way out is through.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Leviticus 5-6 – More details on the Hebrew ritual of sacrifice for sin and the making of reparations.
Luke 4 – Jesus suffered every human humiliation and then some. His testing in the desert shows us that we will experience times of drought, trial, tribulation, and hardship. These are inevitable in our human existence, but how we respond to them is our choice. We will be tempted to take what seem like shortcuts but doing so will only bring more hardships. The only way out of the desert–the quickest way–is to go through the desert.
Psalms 48 – Always remember and be mindful of the great things God has done in our lives. Recounting them gives us strength in the present, especially when we are going through hard times.
Proverbs 17 – “Whoever can control the tongue knows what knowledge is, someone of understanding keeps a cool temper.” v.27

Avoiding and/or trying to circumvent the difficult circumstances we may find ourselves in only prolongs them. The Bible gives us two great examples of what trials in the desert can look like, and how different these experiences can be depending on our approach.* The first is that of Moses leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt where they then wander the desert for forty years before being able to enter into the promised land. The second is that of Jesus enduring his forty-day trial in the desert. The numbers are intentionally symbolic, and if you want to learn more about that I suggest you get a book about Biblical numerology. However, for this metaphor, the additional numerology is not important. What’s important is the two different approaches to trial and suffering and their distinctly different outcomes.

Why did the Hebrew people have to wander around the desert for forty years? Their distance from God and dependence on Moses as an intermediary inhibited their faith, enhanced their fear, and fed their doubts. They complained a lot and were consistently ungrateful for what he provided for them. When God performed miracles they still doubted. They couldn’t follow the most basic instructions and, as a result, brought pain and suffering upon themselves through their own bad choices. They avoided intimacy with God, denied their own participation in their suffering, and kept a great distance between them and God. Only Moses seemed to be brave enough to “see God face to face.” Every incident of faithlessness, rebellion, fearful resistance, etc., added years to their journey out of the desert and into the promised land.

So, was God punishing them by keeping them in the desert all that time? No. He was teaching them. Our trials and suffering are the best instruction we’ll ever have. Pain is instructive. Failure is instructive. We learn when we endure the lessons instead of trying to find the quickest, easiest way out.

Jesus, on the other hand, prepared for his trial from his birth, resorted to prayer immediately when experiencing difficulties, prayed constantly, resisted temptation even though it meant he was hungry for forty days, refused the offer of power, and refused to call on the angels to save him–he knew he had to save himself. He knew that the only way to save himself was to hold fast in faith, prayer, and trust God. Forty days and the trial was over, and then he went into his ministry (which was also full of trials and tribulations….they never end until we die).

Think of all the ways we complicate and prolong our own suffering. We all do this in one way or another even if we can’t see it in ourselves. The sooner we learn to see the ways we add to our own suffering the sooner we can make behavioral changes and course adjustments and start heading for the exit and out of the suffering.

Here’s an inconvenient truth: if we do somehow manage to find a shortcut around our difficulties, and if we choose to take it, that path will lead us right back to where we left off in our difficulties. God is faithful to his promises to us, and he will never leave us unfinished. Becoming the best version of ourselves is our life’s work. We may be given opportunities to cry “Uncle!” and skip a lesson in order to go onto another one (God is merciful, gracious, and kind–he will not cruelly let us suffer if we ask for temporary relief). But if we do skip a lesson we’ll have to go back and make it up later. There is no getting around it; not permanently, anyway.

The most important thing we can do when we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place in the metaphorical desert is to stop, breathe, pray, and ask God to help us see the way that we are causing our own suffering, what we need to do to change, and then ask for his help in changing us.

Because the only way out is through.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

You can join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us!

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

*There are actually many examples of trials in the desert simply because the entire setting of the Bible is the desert. Many of the Old Testament characters experienced trials in the desert. I submit that the two I have cited here are the most significant examples because of the things I cite in this blog entry. Disagree? Great! Let’s have a discussion in our Facebook group.

I make my plans, but God directs my steps

Ceilon Aspensen, February 16, 2024February 16, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is I make my plans, but God directs my steps.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Leviticus 3 & 4: This is where we got the template for church rituals that we still perform today.
Luke 3: John the Baptist begins his ministry, announces the coming of Jesus, and then baptizes Jesus.
Psalms 47: “For Yahweh, the Most High, is glorious, the great king over all the earth.”
Proverbs 16: “The human heart may plan a course, but it is Yahweh who makes the steps secure.”

Leviticus 3 & 4 focuses on the rituals of the communion sacrifice and the sacrifice for sin. Until I became a Catholic, I did not understand the significance of these passages. They struck me as a far away accounting of the ways in which the Israelites did things thousands of years ago, with little relevance to the way we do things now. However, as a Catholic, I see this ritual performed week after week in the mass, minus the sacrifice of the animals and burning them on the altar.

Leviticus 1 & 2 foreshadow the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross in his crucifixion. Leviticus 3 & 4 describes the ritual of penitence combined with the eucharist. Each week we come together, say the penitential prayer, and then partake of the body and blood of Jesus as a way to remember that he already took care of this for us, once and for all, forgiving us of our sins. The first time I realized this while in the mass, it occurred to me that the way we do things in the Catholic church is still very much the same way the early church did things in their meetings, providing us with a relatively unbroken tradition of worship that is two thousand years old for the Christian church and over three thousand years old for Judaism. The rituals of the mass are not arbitrary.

I was raised a United Methodist, and even in the monthly communion service in that tradition I see the remnants of the traditions and practices described in Leviticus 1 through 4.

The order of the mass, and the order of the communion services in the major Protestant denominations, is not arbitrary. Everything in the service has significance and is designed to point us back to the cross and beyond.

In Luke 3, we meet John the Baptist as he begins his ministry, announcing the coming of Jesus, and then baptizing him. In verses 5 and 6, Luke quotes the prophecy from Isaiah that foretells the coming of John the Baptist. Once again, we see that the old testament cannot be properly understood without the new testament, nor can the new testament be properly understood without the old testament.

Psalm 47 is about the greatness and glory of God. In these verses (as in most of the Psalms), God is anthropomorphized as a king. However, the message of these verses is that God (in whatever form we imagine him) is order itself, and indeed the highest order, deserving of our respect and reverence, and all glory and honor. He is the Creator of all that is.

Proverbs 16 brings us yet another litany of instructions for right living. However, the part that stands out to me the most, every time I read this section, is verse 9: “The human heart may plan a course, but it is Yahweh who makes the steps secure.” The whole point of the Proverbs is to show us how to live a life that is in alignment with the intentions God has for us, in harmony with the natural laws of the Universe, and which will also cause us the least amount of pain and strife. No one gets a perfect life that is free from distress, but we can minimize our discomfort and disappointment if we align our goals with those of God, and behave ourselves.

The way to do that is outlined in the Proverbs. Nowhere does it tell us what vocation we should seek to follow–that’s up to us. St. Ignatius believed that our truest desires–those things that we are passionate about–reveal what our vocation should be. In the movie “Chariots of Fire,” Eric Liddell expresses this to his sister after church one day, explaining to her why he felt so compelled to run in the Olympics, when he says, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.” It was St. Ignatius’ belief that our truest desires are actually God’s desire in us and for us. It’s the way we live out our little part in God’s vast and unknowable plan. As so many people say today, if we love doing something so much we would probably do it for free, that is the work we should be doing.

But the way in which we approach the work we do and the way we live our daily lives is outlined in the Proverbs. And while we may follow our truest desires, and make plans for ourselves, we can never know the outcome. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, we only need to see the next step of the staircase.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

Be still and know that I am God

Ceilon Aspensen, February 15, 2024February 14, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is “Be still and know that I am God.”

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Leviticus 1 & 2: Specifics about the offerings to be made in the ritual of sacrifice.
Luke 2: Simeon, Anna, and Mary all begin to understand who Jesus is and what he is destined to do for his people and all of humanity.
Psalms 46: “Be still and know that I am God.”
Proverbs 15: More wisdom for daily living.

Once again, we see the coincidental alignment of the scriptures (and remember–coincidence is just God winking at us). In Leviticus 1 and 2, details of the ritual sacrifice are lined out. The sacrifice requires a firstborn male without blemish; spotless. In Luke 2, Jesus is born and and angels declare the significance of his birth and what he will do to a bunch of shepherds. Those shepherds go to see the child and tell his parents what the angels told them. Mary “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” She sees the significance of the moment and the life of her son. Later, they take Jesus to the temple to be circumcised and she hears again from Simeon and Anna the same thing. Flash forward to about 12 years later when Jesus goes missing on a trip to Jerusalem and is found in the temple with the teachers there.

Leviticus 1 and 2 are a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that Jesus will later become when he is crucified. Luke 2 shows us that Mary, Simeon, and Anna all recognize that Jesus is to be that sacrifice for his people, and all people. This is one of those coincidental paired readings in which it becomes obvious that one cannot understand the old testament without the new testament, nor can one understand the new testament without the old testament. The old testament predicts the life and significance of Jesus. The new testament shows Jesus fulfilling the old testament prophecies.

Every mother knows that from before the time our babies are born, and throughout their lives, we worry and fret about their lives and safety. Mary surely did the same. When I read Luke 2, I see how she seemed to understand what her son would do for his people, how that would likely end, and I wonder how she was not in a constant state of terror.

The answer is in today’s Psalm, from which we get the verse, “Be still and know that I am God.” When faced with whatever situation we find ourselves in, especially when we are afraid, the wisest thing we can do to calm ourselves is to remember that God is with us, and when “God is in the city it cannot fail.” Jesus reminded his disciples of this twice when he calmed stormy seas they were sailing just by being in the boat with them. We would do well to remember this as well.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

If we want God to live among us we must prepare him a space

Ceilon Aspensen, February 14, 2024February 13, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is if we want God to live among us we must prepare him a space.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Exodus 39 & 40: If we want God to live among us we must prepare him a space.
Luke 1: Nothing is impossible with God, and he is able and willing to answer our prayers.
Psalms 45: When we pray and prepare ourselves, God provides for us splendidly.
Proverbs 14: More details about how to live a just, honest, and good life.

After all the details and minutiae of the building and outfitting of the tent of meeting for the last umpteen chapters in Exodus, we are finally presented with the point of all of that: the Israelites prepared a place in their camp for God, and God dwells among them. To me, what is most important about this is not all the symbolic details of the architecture, furnishings, and rituals we have been reading about for many chapters, now. What’s most important is the idea that if we want God to dwell among us we must prepare a place for him. We need to spiff up our digs so he has a tidy place to take residence within us.

This is what daily prayer and meditation are all about. It’s why I read the Bible every day. Think about your own actual place of residence. Is it clean and tidy? Are you ready for visitors at any time? Or is it dirty and heaped with clothes and possessions that have not been put away? If someone were to come to your house today, would you have to clear out a corner of the sofa or a uncover a chair so they have a place to sit? Would you have to do the dishes and clear off the stove before you could begin to cook a meal?

There’s an entire school of thought today that says keeping a clean, organized house is an antiquated idea, and that one’s closest friends will not mind hanging out in your mess. I’m not so sure. I know I, personally, would not be comfortable in such an environment, and I work to keep my space cleaned up and tidy not just for potential guests but also for myself. I can’t think in a messy house.

There’s another school of thought based in psychological science that says a person’s space is an outward reflection of their inner state of mind. I believe that’s more accurate, and there’s more evidence to support it.

If we subscribe to school of thought number two, it makes sense that preparing our inner space also makes room for God in our lives. In Luke 11, Jesus tells a story of a demon that is cast out of a person, roaming the world, looking for another abode. It returns to the place it was originally cast out of and finds it cleaned and tidied since it last lived there. So it decides to take up residence there again, and even invites its friends. The point of that story is that it is not enough to clear out the junk; we must also replace it with furnishings and rituals that keep the place clean and suitable for a healthy spiritual life. We must fill it with good things. We must fill it with God.

That, I believe, is the point of all of the details about building and outfitting the tent of dwelling in Exodus. It is not only a detailed accounting of something that the Israelites actually did (and to some extent they still do to this day in the setup of the synagogue), but it is also a metaphor for us in preparing our inner space for God to dwell within us. What are we doing to keep our space cleaned up and inhabited by the living God? Daily prayer and reading the Bible are a good start.

In the first chapter of Luke, we see that the angel Gabriel has a very busy time, and receives two different responses to the good news that he bears. Zechariah receives the good news that, after years and years of prayer, he and his wife will finally conceive a child. Mary receives the good news that she will become the mother of the savior of all of humanity. Zechariah doubts and is given an affliction (not being able to speak) until the baby is born. Mary accepts the news and her fate without doubting, but not without many questions, which Gabriel answers.

I believe the important message in this passage is that although we may pray and pray for a solution to whatever ails us, we are most often not prepared to receive what we ask for. Zechariah was a priest of the sanctuary but apparently did not expect to receive an answer to his prayers. We don’t know anything about Mary prior to meeting Gabriel, but we can probably guess that she likely had no inkling before this of what was about to happen to her. Even so, she accepts it without question and is willing to do what God asks of her.

How do we respond to the blessings God gives us? Do we really expect answers to our prayers? Or do we doubt the ability and willingness of God to answer those prayers?

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

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God is present in all the people around us

Ceilon Aspensen, February 13, 2024February 13, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is God is present in all the people around us.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Exodus 37 & 38: Specifications for building the ark of the covenant, as well as the table for the loaves of the offering, the lamp-stand, the alter of incense and anointing oil, the alter of burnt offerings, and the court.
Mark 16: God is present in all the people around us.
Psalms 44: A prayer for help in a time of abandonment.
Proverbs 13: “The teaching of the wise is a life-giving fountain for eluding the snares of death.”

It may seem tedious to lay out all the details of every last thing that goes into the sanctuary, but the details are symbolic. Although these details were specific to the faith traditions of the Israelites 3200 years ago, we can still see them put into practice in our own churches. When I get to these chapters about architecture, building, and furnishings, I try to focus on what each of these things symbolically represents. However, it is not important to dwell on them too much. Religion that works is about changing ourselves from the inside out, not keeping to the letter of the law as it was laid down 3200 years ago.

In Mark we see, once again, the women showing up to minister to Jesus. They go to his tomb to anoint him and are worried that they won’t be strong enough to roll away the stone so they can get to Jesus’ body and properly tend to it. However, the stone is already rolled away and it is empty except for “a young man in a white robe.” He tells them not to be afraid and that the person they are looking for is not there because he has risen from the dead. He also tells them to go tell the disciples, and Peter. In this account of the resurrection story, the women run from the tomb, terrified, and they don’t say anything to anyone.

Jesus then begins appearing to his disciples; first to Mary of Magdala, who had been so terrified at the empty tomb. At that point she does go tell the disciples, but they don’t believe her. (Remember, she was just a woman, and women were of no consequence, so why should they listen to her?) Then he shows himself to two others “under another form.” When they tell other people what they have seen, no one believes them, either. Finally, he shows himself to all of the eleven disciples while they are having a meal. He scolds them for not believing those he revealed himself to when they tried to tell them he had risen.

The part of Mark that stood out the most to me this morning was where “he showed himself under another form.” Back in the early 2000s, there was a wonderful TV show that only lasted two seasons called “Joan of Arcadia.” The theme song for the show was “One of Us,” written by Eric Brazilian and performed by Joan Osborne. In the show, Joan, a teenage girl, is constantly confronted by God taking the form of various people she comes into contact with during the course of her day: the bus driver, the cafeteria lunch lady at her school, etc. When she meets these people, they have important things to say to her, and usually some instructions. That’s what I envision when I read “he showed himself under another form.” I’m guessing the two people to whom “he showed himself under another form” are the two people on the road to Emmaus (a story in the last chapter of Luke), because those two didn’t recognize the traveler they met as Jesus until after he was gone.

This chapter of Mark presents us with a bunch of people who had spent most of their time for the last three years living closely with Jesus, day in and day out. They knew him better than anyone else. Yet, when he presents himself to them after he has resurrected, none of them recognize him at all. It’s as though they had forgotten everything he had taught them about what was to come.

This chapter always makes me wonder how often we do not recognize Jesus when he shows himself to us in the people around us, until after the moment has passed. How often do we not recognize him at all? Back in Matthew 25 Jesus said that whatever we do for “the least of these,” we are actually doing for him. He tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves–when we take care of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the forsaken–we are loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. When we are presented with opportunities to love our neighbor, God is showing up in those people as well. Every person we meet every day presents us with an opportunity to encounter Jesus and demonstrate to them the love he first showed for us.

Just a few chapters ago, Peter boldly pronounced that he would never deny Jesus, and then he did it three times within a very short span of time. Then Jesus appeared to his closest friends after his resurrection and they didn’t even recognize him. It almost seems as if his appearances were a test of what he had said in Matthew 25 (“what you do for the least of these…”. They all failed (except the women). How often do we also fail this test?

In Psalms, once again we are presented with a desperate prayer for help in a time of abandonment. Juxtaposed against the reading in Mark, I can’t help but put the two together and realize that God intends for us to reach out to one another during those times, and in doing so we extend the hand of God to our neighbors, and they extend it back to us. Our relationship with God is not simply a vertical one. It is also horizontal. In loving our neighbor as ourselves we extend the love of God to one another and pull each other through dark times.

Proverbs 13 is once again chock full of nuggets of wisdom for daily living. The verse that stood out the most for me, and seemed most relevant to the rest of the reading, was verse 14: “The teaching of the wise is a life-giving fountain for eluding the snares of death.” When we do find ourselves in dark, lonely times, we should reach for that life-giving fountain.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

God is with us in our darkest moments

Ceilon Aspensen, February 12, 2024February 12, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is in our darkest moments, we won’t just feel abandoned, we will be actually abandoned by all those we know. Only God remains with us.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Exodus 35 & 36: More on furnishing and building the sanctuary.
Mark 15: In our darkest moments, we won’t just feel abandoned, we will be actually abandoned by all those we know. Only God remains with us.
Psalms 43: More on the importance of continuing to hope and have faith in God, praying always, when we feel abandoned.
Proverbs 12: More on what to do and how to live during any time, whether dark and treacherous or when things are going our way. Discipline keeps us on the right path.

In Exodus, now that Moses and the Israelites have gotten past a crisis of faith, it’s back to business as usual, and they continue furnishing and building the sanctuary.

In Mark, Jesus continues his dark journey toward the end of his life. He is taken before Pontius Pilate, who really doesn’t want to have anything to do with this thing he considers to be a local squabble. However, being a politician, Pilate chooses to placate the people and succumbs to their demands that Jesus be crucified. As a result, Jesus is mocked, humiliated, beaten and tortured, and finally sent on a long walk to his crucifixion carrying the very cross he will die on. He continues to feel forsaken, but says not a word in his own defense. Just before he dies, he cries out to God asking why he has been forsaken, and then breathes his last breath.

His disciples had also abandoned him. Only the women who had followed him remained with him until the end.

I think this is the most important message from Mark today: In our darkest moments, we won’t just feel abandoned, we will be actually abandoned by all those we know. Only God remains with us. There are times in our lives when we must pull ourselves through with nothing more than our own willpower, surrendering to the inevitable, while continuing to pray and be faithful in the tasks we are given to do. Later, after the worst is over and Jesus is resurrected from the dead, his disciples will gather around him again. But for now, in his darkest hour, he is completely alone. In the words of Captain Mal from the show Firefly, “Everyone dies alone.” When it is darkest, it is just us and God.

I am obviously overlooking the women who stayed with Jesus until the end; but so did everyone from that time period. Women were of no consequence to anyone. They were considered property. They had no rights at all. Even so, they are the ones who remain the most faithful to Jesus and stay with him until his death, and beyond.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

When we find ourselves in the presence of God it will ultimately change us

Ceilon Aspensen, February 11, 2024February 11, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is when we find ourselves in the presence of God it will ultimately change us.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Exodus 33 & 34: When we find ourselves in the presence of God it will ultimately change us.
Mark 14: Jesus himself goes through the ultimate dark night of the soul. Although he feels abandon he prays.
Psalms 42: Even when feeling abandoned, we should continue to pray and praise God.
Proverbs 11: What to do and how to behave during a spiritual drought.

Today’s reading in Exodus starts with a stern and angry God telling the Israelites to move on from the place where they had forgotten the goodness of God, crafted a golden calf to worship while Moses was getting the ten commandments, and lost faith. God tells them to keep moving toward the land of milk and honey he has promised them, but he makes no promises to go on the journey with them, or not destroy them on the way.

I know a lot of people who have chosen not to practice any kind of faith tradition based on passages like these, where an angry God who seems unstable and dangerous threatens to obliterate them. That response (or excuse) is based on the idea that the stories in the old testament are literal, but they’re not. Once again we are faced with a storytelling device that suited the needs of the people who were using it about 3200 years ago. In the same way that hair’s-breadth escapes and impossible cliff hangers are common, practical storytelling devices used today in movies and books to make stories more interesting, so is the angry, unstable, and dangerous God a storytelling device that personifies the forces of nature in an attempt to explain them. The Israelites really did make a long journey from Egypt to the place they eventually settled. It may have even taken forty years. But the truth is that a forty year journey through the desert makes for a long and boring story if it isn’t spiced up a bit. We have no way of knowing the mind of God, and the only way to approximate a relationship between the forces of nature and an enormous nation of people is through personification of the elements.

What’s important in the beginning of that story is the reality that a long journey through the desert is dangerous and unpredictable, and quite often people don’t survive it. When the author of Exodus writes that God says, “Move on towards a country flowing with milk and honey, but I myself shall not be going with you or I might annihilate you on the way,” he’s simply personifying a fact of life of desert travel for a huge group such as the Israelites. He also writes that God says, “I shall send an angel in front of you and drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” After the Israelites had moved through those countries and conquered those peoples, it would have been easy in hindsight to say, “God was with us and sent his angel in front of us.” Again–a personifying storytelling device to explain their success: God was with them.

Also important is the overall message of this passage: When we find ourselves in uncertain and dangerous circumstances, sometimes we lose faith in the things that have sustained us in the past (even the very recent past) and we make mistakes. All we can do is try to make amends and keep moving forward to a better place, do our best to do our best, somehow maintain faith in God to sustain us even when things seem grim and we feel alone, and trust that God will get us through to the other side. That is life in a nutshell. It’s faith in a nutshell.

At times like these we tend to look to our leaders for answers, but later in this section we see that Moses himself is continuously in a crisis of faith. Once again we see the storytelling device whereby Moses convinces God to change his mind and accompany his people and get them to the other side. In reality, there is no changing God’s mind. As C.S. Lewis said, “I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.” We can certainly see how helpless Moses felt in his situation. The pleading with God to change his mind is just a way to illustrate fully the way in which Moses immerses himself in prayer and begs for God’s mercy on his people.

This all culminates with God showing himself to Moses (but not his face), and Moses being changed by the experience. He receives the covenant and the tablets of the law again, and an agreement and understanding are established that God will never abandon his people, will travel with them always, and send his angel before them to clear the way ahead of them. It also results in Moses being permanently changed, his face being so radiant from his encounter with God that everyone noticed.

That is the second, and perhaps most important, message of this section of Exodus: When we spend meaningful time with God, we will be changed significantly by the experience.

Together, these two important take-aways make one loaded message: When we find ourselves in dark, dangerous times, and it feels that God has abandoned us, we should pray and throw ourselves at his mercy. When we do so, he will answer us and we will find ourselves in the presence of God. When we find ourselves in the presence of God it will ultimately change us.

It is my belief that this is the real reason that people avoid prayer and reading the Bible. When we pray and read the Bible, we find ourselves in the presence of God and it changes us. Many people don’t really want to be changed. Most of us want God’s help, but not to be changed into his image. However, when we spend meaningful time with God there is no way to avoid that.

In Mark, we get more of this message. Jesus himself goes through the ultimate dark night of the soul. Although he feels abandon he prays.

The message is underscored in Psalm 42. The author prays to see the face of God while feeling abandoned, and finishes the psalm by saying that despite feeling abandoned he will continue to pray and praise God.

Once again, Proverbs provides us with “what to do when you’re waiting for an answer from God.” When we find ourselves in dark times, feeling abandoned, Proverbs always gives us a guide for what to do and how to behave in the meantime.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

Sometimes it may feel as though God has deserted us, but we must remain faithful and steadfast in prayer

Ceilon Aspensen, February 10, 2024February 10, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is sometimes it may feel as though God has deserted us, but we must remain faithful and steadfast in prayer.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Exodus 31 & 32: A day of rest from our work each week is the essential. Also, humans have short attention spans and often don’t take responsibility for their actions.
Mark 13: No one knows when their faith will be put to the test, so be vigilant in the faith and stay awake.
Psalms 41: Sometimes it may feel as though God has deserted us. It is during these times that we must be the most faithful and steadfast in prayer.
Proverbs 10: Lots of advice and indicators about what it looks like to be vigilant in the faith and wait patiently for God’s plan to unfold.

In Exodus, we see that humans have short attention spans. Moses goes up to the top of the mountain to receive God’s instructions for the people, but when he is gone for what they feel like is too long, they forget all the good things God has done for them, and they ask Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship. He succumbs to the pressure and does it, because while Aaron might be a great mouthpiece for Moses, he is not a great leader. When Moses gets back, instead of owning his actions, he tries to shift responsibility for what he did by saying that a golden calf spontaneously formed itself out of all of the gold objects they heaped on the fire. Moses punishes the people responsible for leading others astray and for pressuring Aaron into making them a golden calf, and then heads back up the mountain to get another set of tablets.

In Mark 13, Jesus speaks a lot about prophecy that we can’t possibly understand. Many have tried to sort out exactly what he was talking about, but Jesus himself says, “But as for the day or the hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.” The clear message here is that figuring out the details of the prophecy is not important. What is important is being vigilant in the faith at all times so we are prepared for whatever may come our way.

In today’s Psalm we see the prayer of someone who felt as though God had deserted him, just like the Israelites waiting for Moses to return from the mountain. Todays Proverb provides us with what it can sometimes look like to be vigilant in the faith and wait patiently for God’s plan to unfold. Both chapters reflect the sum of the human condition. A lot of what we do here during our lifetimes is wait for direction and instructions. In those situations, all we can do is pass the time gracefully, living our lives with wisdom, patience, and in peace.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

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It is the things we do that matter, not the things we say

Ceilon Aspensen, February 10, 2024February 10, 2024

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is it’s the things we do that matter, not the things we say.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

Exodus 29 & 30: More consecration, investiture, and traditions associated with the sanctuary.
Mark 12: When God is at the center of our lives, so is gratitude for what what we’ve been given, and our priorities will be in the right order. In this regard, it is the things we do that matter, not the things we say.
Psalms 40: Don’t keep the great things God has done for me a secret. They are a testimony to his goodness.
Proverbs 9: Wisdom is available to all who seek it, but not all do seek it. When we see others shun wisdom and choose folly, stay out of it and let the Holy Spirit sort it out. (Remember the advice to not “grab a stray dog by the ears.”)

In Mark 12, Jesus reminds us through a parable that all of the Earth was created by God, and though we derive benefit from it through our own hard work, the raw materials for our success were provided by God. The only appropriate response is gratitude and thanksgiving. However he reminds us of the basic nature of human beings, which is to forget all that we’ve been given and to attribute all of our success to our own efforts as if we had invented the Universe, and not the other way around. In illustrating this fundamental truth through the telling of this parable, he is also recounting the history of the prophets who came before him, as well as forecasting his own future.

There’s a lot going on in this chapter of Mark, but it is all connected. On the surface it seems to be a series of unrelated questions of Jesus, designed to catch him in an error of some kind, by which he could be discredited. But the questions aren’t unrelated. He takes us from a parable of ingratitude, to answering a question about potential tax evasion (which would have been considered seditious in those times), to answering a question about who a woman would be married to in Heaven if she had been widowed by seven brothers from the same family. All of the questions were about property (women were considered property in those days).

Jesus provides the perfect answer when he says, “Pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar–and God what belongs to God.” “They were amazed at him” because his answer exposed these Pharisees as being more committed to their social traditions and financial advantage than they were to the spiritual laws of God. He later tells his followers to beware of people like this, who are more concerned about the trappings of faith than the spirit of the law and a relationship with God that included love for one’s neighbor.

Jesus addresses that also, when he answers yet another question by telling them that the greatest of all the commandments is to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” I’ve mentioned before that I knew a United Methodist pastor who regularly preached that he believed that Jesus was saying there was only one great commandment (love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength), and that loving your neighbor as yourself was the way to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. I agree with him. It all comes down to that one thing.

Finally, Jesus points out that the way we give reveals our true spiritual intentions. He contrasts the wealth of those who enrich themselves at the expense of the poor with the widow who literally gives her last penny to the offering box at the synagogue. She gave all she had to the poor, when she herself was poor, while the wealthy gave a little of their surplus. I don’t think this is necessarily a call for all of us to give away everything we own (although Jesus does have something to say about that in other places), but it is meant to shame those who barely give anything (if they give anything at all) to the poor while the poor give all they have when necessary to support those in greater need than themselves. I believe Jesus uses this story to demonstrate what loving your neighbor as yourself looks like: when someone is in desperate need, if you have anything to give them you should give it.

One last thought on this topic comes from today’s Psalm. That chapter is all about giving thanks and letting others know of the great things that God has done for us. Many people interpret that to mean that we should go around shouting about the goodness of God, being a conspicuous witness. Perhaps. Perhaps not. I think the way in which we do this should be dependent on the circumstances we find ourselves in. For example, I am an academic with a PhD. If I am in the company of other academics and those with PhDs, quoting the Bible and talking about the goodness of God will likely give them the impression that I am a lunatic Bible thumper. I don’t think that’s what God has in mind. However, the widow in the temple giving her last penny to the poor, when she herself is poor, communicates volumes to those watching about the goodness of God. By her actions she demonstrates the goodness of God to those around her, and to any Pharisees who might have been paying attention, she might shame them into reconsidering their own actions in that regard. It is the things we do that matter, not the things we say.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day.

Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit.

This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.

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