Good evening friends, So this is the last day for this section of the blog.  Here is the road map to help you navigate if you have started the M'Cheyne reading plan on your own after October '21. Days 1-30 are the most recent entries as the blog was not up and running initially and I had to come back and post them.  Since the blog goes by the most recent entires, just scroll down too Day 1.  Then once you finish Day 30, go all the way back to the first entry at the "bottom" of the blog.  Unfortunately, I didn't start with day numbering until day 100 but there is an entry for every day. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me in person at church, make a comment, call me at 860-381-9557 or email me at bisthefish@gmail.com. Blessings, Jeff So why don't I fast?   How does this fit with John passage that it is better for us that Jesus leaves so  that the Spirit will come?  In that sense, believers still have the bridegroom...

Good afternoon friends, I continue to be amazed at how short these early devotions from last year were.  Maybe I knew that they were not going to be in the blog for awhile and didn't spend as much time as I should have. I think I was reacting to much of the "identify politics" issues that have become more and more prominent over the past year.  I was also listening to MLJ sermons on Romans where the only two options are being "in Adam" (under the law, spiritually dead) or "in Christ (under grace, spiritually alive).  Now we have all the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer plus options, the various ethnic options.  All playing into intersectionality where the degree of oppression is the source if identity.   This passage shows that there is nothing new under the sun.  God is at center stage, but people try to force Him out of the way.  Thankfully, He will have none of it. Blessings, Jeff The concept of identity being "in somebody" is on full...

Good afternoon friends, Well today's devotion is really dated.  Looking back on what I thought before the election last November is a challenge.  Obviously, the January 6th insurrection has come to a low point in the American experiment in ordered self government.  Yet this was not the revolution I was thinking about.  As a political movement, Black Lives Matter is essentially Marxist.  And Marxism and constitutional representative democracy are not compatible.  And reference to fleeting power is the French Revolution.  No one was safe from the scaffold. Finally, our first revolution was against the crown, the second was against the union.  So the next one will be the third.  However, using this passage as a basis for political analysis is really not valid. So what have I learned?  I think I am still learning. Blessings,  Jeff The submission of Esther in the midst of trying time.   Suppose that a third revolution occurs as...

Good morning fellow exiles and pilgrims, For those of you who have never been in the Navy, I want to share an example of how the secular world just can't shake the reality of biblical history.  You see, a rope ladder was called a Jacob's ladder.  This handy device allow a sailor to climb up from a small boat to a main deck of the ship.  So you get the idea of "angels ascending and descending".  Of course Jacob's dream is more of a stair case than a vertical ladder, but the imagery is dramatic. Blessings, Jeff  God graciously reveals this aspect of His active involvement in the affairs of man.  A sign to confirm Jacob as the line of the promised line back to 3:15. So why this stairway to heaven?  Is the only reason so that the messiah could refer to this event?  Certainly angels don't really need a stairway to go back and forth between heaven and earth.  Calvin points to the ladder as a type  of Christ as mediator between God and man....

Here is my catch up post.  Jonathan has pointed out that one of the proofs of authenticity is inclusion of unnecessary details.  Today we have an example. Blessings, Jeff Why would anybody makeup a story like this?  Especially since it was so easy to disprove. If any one claim was false, the whole argument would fall apart. All the Jews had to do to silence Paul and put an end to Christianity was produce a witness to refute just one of his claims. Killing him is only reasonable if his claims are actually true.   Open statement of facts only works if the facts are true.  Why do we seek additional proof?  Use of personal testimony of what Jesus has done for me or others for example. Why is subjective unverifiable information used instead of objective unrefuted evidence?   Thanksgiving - a rational logical personal God creates a rational logical cosmos.

Good morning friends, Have two excuses.  Missed yesterday as daily routine interrupted by Apple Festival baking day.  Left around 7:30 and didn't get home until around 2:00.  Completely forgot about updating the blog. Second, this was a very short devotional.  It was written on the day of the CareNet charity golf tournament last fall.  Pretty much consumed the day.   I hope that this will encourage you to write our your thoughts even if they are not very detailed.  I have found that asking questions of a passage can get me to think about the passage during the day. Blessings, Jeff Did wonder about the difference between trying to parade Vashti before the leering officials and losing virginity in try out to be the next queen. The only qualification to be queen is beauty and gratification of Ahasuerus lust. The year in the harem prior to a night with the king was surely training for sexual performance. How does this fit with '"His glory and our good...

Good morning friends Just a short reflection on 20 years of prayer as an encouragement to all of us to be constant in prayer. Blessings, Jeff Rebekah is barren for twenty years while Isaac prays for her.  The young woman from whom her family expected thousands of ten thousands. The daughter in law of the one who was promised descendants as numerous as the stars. Yet in all this, God was working His purpose.  Do you trust Me?  As Paul asks, who hopes for what he sees?  Do You know me?  Am I better to you than 7 sons?   Is this what " strengthened with all  power, according to Your glorious might for all endurance with joy" means?  Submitting to His will is what strengthens my faith, not getting my desires.

Good morning friends, It has been an interesting experience re-reading thoughts from a year ago.  Surely Nehemiah went back and re-read this history in the light of the intervening years.  Maybe he too asked, "What has changed in the heart of the exiles who had returned since these events happened/"  So I ask What has changed in my heart since I wrote this?   Dear reader, God's word is sharper than a two edges sword.  It does expose the thoughts and inttents of the heart.  The form of asking what does this passage teach me about God must become personal as the Holy Spirit applies truth to our hearts. Blessings, Jeff Neglecting the house of the Lord is the fruit of an assortment of bad roots. Based on corrective actions, Failure to distribute portions to the Levites was a leadership issue. People brought their tithes when they saw them properly used.   While people are commanded to tithe, leadership is commanded to use the tithe properly. When...

Good afternoon fellow hearers and doers of the Word As I look back on what I wrote over a year ago, I think I may not have been consistently using Luther's 4 strand analogy.  The instruction/text book strand is to focus on what we learn about God, not trying to find ourselves in the passage..  Not sure where I picked up the "thoughts converge on God" but it gets this concept across.   Second, we have heard how "pray moves the hand of God."  But my experience has been that by the time  a praise God for who He is and confess that I am not living the truth of who He is, my "daily need" petitions are not nearly so important as I thought they were.  In this passage, the servants don't get to ask the King why they are doing this, they just obey. Maybe this explains why I was uncertain after I wrote this last year. Blessings, Jeff Converge on God - if the invited guests were the Jews, then the guests who were invited in their place are we Gentiles. Indisc...

Good morning brothers and sisters in Christ, Remember, Moses is writing a history of God's chosen people before they were named Israel.  While this may have been based on oral history, the Holy Spirit was at work inspiring these words.  I am always amazed at the immediacy of obedience.  Abraham had the dream and then rose early in the morning to obey.  All about faith. Blessings, Jeff nâsâ; a primitive root; to test; by implication, to attempt: — adventure, assay, prove, tempt, try. šâḥâ; a primitive root; to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God): — bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship. Abraham says worship, not sacrifice.  Even though God had said burnt offering and Isaac asked about lamb for offering.  This is the work that completed Abraham's faith according to James.  If  he was still in Adam, he would have refused to go....

Good morning fellow saints in Christ, Just a reminder that Ezra and Nehemiah are the last historical books in the Old Testament and Genesis is the first historical book.  This can be a little confusing.  In this passage, the exiles are promising to obey the law and a festival that they know about but which we have not yet read about. Blessings, Jeff The upkeep of the house of the Lord is the highest priority. The firstfruits, the best of what the land produced.  As it is written in the Law.  Committed to do what their ancestors had failed to do. Obeying the Mosaic law was the key to not committing idolatry.  They apparently knew that idolatry was the downfall of their ancestors. Take positive steps, not renouncing the negative.  To avoid treasures on earth, lay up treasures in heaven.  Thanksgiving  -  100 years after initial return, there were people focused and committed to keeping the Law of Moses at least as it applied to firstfruits....