The Beginning (Advent Reading Starts Today)

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2021 Advent Reading Plan

Advent is the 4 week season of preparation that precedes Christmas. Christmas is an event of joy and feasting, but if we don’t learn the reason for the celebration it can become superficial and materialistic.

This year we need the joy of Christmas more than ever—let’s take the time to prepare so that our celebrations are as rich and joyful as the grace of God can make them.

 

Reading Plan Details

Readings are Monday-Friday, beginning today and ending Friday, 12/24.

Munger is a Bible-reading church. We believe that the Bible tells a unified story that leads to Jesus; many of the readings in this plan come from the Old Testament to help us understand the story of which Jesus is the fulfillment.

Each day, I’ll provide a brief commentary about that day’s reading, and include a reflection or question or prayer focus or thought to help connect the reading to our everyday lives.

Of course, feel free to do your readings at any time, but I strongly encourage you to develop the habit of the First 15: spending the first 15 minutes of each day in silence, prayer, and scripture.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

 
 
 

I like to pray early in the morning this time of year, just sitting in my chair under the light of the Christmas tree. Where’s your spot?

 
 

The Beginning

My goal is throughout this Advent reading plan is to trace the whole story of salvation starting from The Beginning, because the entire Bible tells a unified story that leads to Jesus, and we rarely take time to see it. Christmas is great, and preparing for it makes it even better. Let’s do this.

 
 

Genesis 1:1-2

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

 
 

The Lord, like a master artist, brings beauty and purpose out of nothingness.

 
 

Prayer for the Day:

A great prayer to pray during Advent 2021:

“Lord, can you make something beautiful out of all of this?”

Today We Begin Romans

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Today we begin our reading plan of Paul’s Letter to the Romans. We’ll finish the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (God willing), and our readings will be assigned to weekdays only. If you are on my Bible mailing list, you’ll receive each Romans blog post I write in your inbox every morning at 4:00 AM Central. (Subscribe and unsubscribe at any time.)

 

I’ll be leading morning prayer Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings this week at 7:00 AM. (Evening prayer on Monday at 7:00 PM, too.) Would love to have you join me—I’ll give a very brief thought about each day’s Romans reading. Access via Facebook or mungerplace.live.

 

I’m teaching a churchwide Bible study at Munger this Wednesday from 6-7 PM. More info here.

 

Finally. get your own Romans scripture journal here and download the reading plan at www.mungerplace.org.

 
 

Today’s Scripture Reading: Romans 1:1-15

 
 

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Paul begins his letter with a long “From” section. He has never been to Rome and didn’t found the Roman church, so he lays out his credentials and summarizes the gospel while he’s at it. He is an apostle of Messiah Jesus, this same Jesus to whom the entire Old Testament was pointing, born to a Jewish family, and then raised from the dead. Paul’s whole mission is to tell people about this Jesus.

 
 

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

 

Paul tells the Roman church (whom he has never met) how much he prays and praises God for them. He has wanted for a long time to come visit them but was unable to do so, and he feels that he has something to offer them, though of course he knows that he would also be blessed just by spending time with them. He reminds them that he has a special mission to non-Jews—both the civilized “Greeks” and the uncivilized “barbarians”—to tell them about Jesus and invite them into the church.

 
 

I think what strikes me on reading this is the immediacy of the words; it’s as if Paul is writing the letter to us, today, and not to ancient Romans 2,000 years ago.

But this is the power of scripture—it is evergreen for God’s people.

What might 7 weeks of reading Paul’s great letter do in and for you?

 

“Don’t CONFORM, but be TRANSFORMED.”

 

How to Be Antifragile

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My apologies for missing Friday’s post—our house was actually burglarized on Thursday evening, though later that evening my friend and I actually caught the bad guys! A story for another day. The point is that I didn’t get my post finished.

I preached on Acts 3-4 Sunday, and I’ve included the video below.

[Today’s scripture reading is Acts 4:32-37—a summary statement from Luke about the generosity of the early church toward people in need.]

 
 

How to be Antifragile

Something fragile is hurt by stress and difficultly.

Something ANTIFRAGILE becomes stronger through stress and difficulty.

A candle in the wind is quickly snuffed out;

A fire in the wind gets stronger.

If ever there were a time to learn how to get stronger through difficulty, now is that time.

Now is the time to become ANTIFRAGILE.

The early church in Acts faced great difficulties and it grew because and not in spite of those difficulties.

When Peter and John are arrested, for example, their response to the threats they face is astounding.

(Hint: they don’t ask for the threats to be removed.)

 
 
 

Seven Questions and Answers About the Book of Revelation

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I did an online Bible study last night as an overview to the Book of Revelation. (My notes are below.)

(I’ll cover today’s and tomorrow’s readings tomorrow, Friday.)

 
 

[If the above video doesn’t come through, you can find it here.]

 
 

Andrew Forrest

10/14/2020

 

Seven Questions and Answers About Revelation

 

What Does Apocalypse Mean?

 

An apocalypse is an unveiling.

 

 

 

What Is the Book of Revelation?

 

Revelation is the literary account of a vision given to a Jewish Christian prophet named John near the end of the first century.

 

The book takes the form of a circular letter sent among the churches of Asia Minor, meant to answer this question: What is the church’s role in God’s plan?

 

 

How Should We Interpret It?

 

The key to understanding Revelation is not today’s newspaper but the Old Testament.  If you use the newspaper to interpret Revelation, you’ll get it wrong.  If you use Revelation to interpret the newspaper, you’ll do what John wanted you to do: see reality from God’s perspective.

 

Revelation is the culmination of Old Testament prophecy.  Every image in it is somehow connected to the Old Testament.

 

 

What’s the Point of Revelation?

 

The Purpose of the Letter is To Tell The Churches of Asia Their Role in God’s Plan

 

Revelation discloses that the Church will conquer by being a faithful witness to Jesus, even unto death.  (See Revelation 11.)

 

The key passage of the entire book in Revelation 11, the account of the two witnesses.

 

 

 

 

Does the Vision Proceed Linearly?

 

No.  The vision proceeds cyclically and not linearly, in that the judgment section is telling the same thing in 3 different ways.

 

The book’s plot doesn’t play out linearly, but circularly: the 7 seals, 7 judgments, and 7 trumpets are making the same point, namely that the nations are not responding to judgment by repenting

 

The judgments are like Russian nesting dolls, with each 7th one opening up the next ones.

 

Each judgment gets worse

o   The seals destroy a quarter of the earth (6:8);

o   The trumpets a third (8:7-12, 9:18);

o   The bowls the entire thing. 

 

 

Who or What do the Monsters Symbolize?

 

The Beast (or earth-monster) is Roman imperial power, based on violent conquest.  Chapter 13 is thus about political power.  The Beast seems inevitable (13:3).

 

Babylon or the great whore/harlot of Babylon is Roman economic wealth, commercial success, and materialism, derived from exploitation and conquest.  Chapters 17-18 are thus about economic power.

 

The harlot rides the Beast (17:3) because Roman wealth comes from Roman military conquest; economic power comes from war.

 

The harlot offers beautiful things (17:4), but they are actually morally disgusting and filthy.

 

The dragon/serpent is Evil itself, the chaotic destructive power opposed to God.

 

The wounded head is Nero (13:14)  after his death there was civil war and the year of 4 Emperors, but then Flavius consolidated power and the beast went on. 

 

The beast thinks of itself as god, but we  are willing slaves (13:3-4).

 

The second beast or earth-monster probably represents the imperial priesthood in Asia.

 

The beast is totalitarian (13:16-17) and demands complete allegiance.

 

If Christians oppose it, they will be martyred.

 

 

 

Why Does John’s Vision Begin in the Heavenly Throne Room?

 

·       On earth as it already is in heaven—that’s what the throne scene tells us.

·       Either you worship God (and are set free) or you worship the Beast (and are enslaved).

·       It’s about true and false worship.