Week in Review: March 8-14

The Bible is one long story of God meeting our rebellion with His rescue, our sin with His salvation, our failure with His favor, our guilt with His grace, our badness with His goodness. So if we read the Bible asking first, "What would Jesus do?" instead of asking, "What has Jesus done?" we'll miss the good news that in itself can set us free. The overwhelming focus of the Bible is not the work of the redeemed but the work of the Redeemer. This means that the Bible is not a recipe book for Christian living, but a revelation book of Jesus who is the answer to our un-Christian living. ~ Tullian Tchividjian

I wonder how much of our misery stems from our almost religious devotion to our own thoughts and feelings. But that inner personal world where you and I live constantly —what relation does it bear to the atmosphere that the gospel creates? We spend every moment of our entire lives within a mental universe. The quality of that environment matters. Are our ears open to the in-flowing blessing of God? Do we understand what it means to listen to God? In the New Testament we are told, “He who has ears, let him hear.” If the Bible urges us to use our ears, they must be important. Think of the frequent prophetic summons: “Hear the word of the LORD” (e.g., Jeremiah 2:4). Go all the way back to the foundation of Israel’s faith: “Hear, O Israel” (Deuteronomy 6:4). At least 394 times the Old Testament refers to the word of God coming to us. If God’s way of getting through to us is the word, then we need to learn what it means to listen. ~ Raymond C. Ortlund, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners

NASB

• Luke
• John
• Acts

NIV Rainbow Study Bible

• 1 John
• 2 John
• 3 John
• Jude
• Revelation

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible