22-Day New Testament Reading Plan

We began “Octoberfast” today in my church. For the next three weeks, we we will be fasting and praying corporately.

Because I have been extremely sick lately, I am not going to begin completely abstaining from food right away, but I have decided that one of the key projects I will accomplish in this 21-day period is to reread the New Testament. I’ve included my reading plan for the next 22 days here. I’m aiming for about 12 chapters a day and will break that up throughout the day. The plan is:

22-Day Bible Reading Plan

October 4
Matthew 1-12

October 5
Matthew 13-24

October 6
Matthew 25-Mark 8

October 7
Mark 9-Luke 4

October 8
Luke 5-16

October 9
Luke 17-John 3

October 10
John 4-9

October 11
John 10-21

October 12
Acts 1-12

October 13
Acts 13-24

October 14
Acts 25-Romans 8

October 15
Romans 9-1 Corinthians 8

October 16
1 Corinthians 9-2 Corinthians 4

October 17
2 Corinthians 5-13

October 18
Galatians 1-Ephesians 6

October 19
Philippians 1-1 Thessalonians 5

October 20
2 Thessalonians 1-2 Timothy 4

October 21
Titus 1-Hebrews 8

October 22
Hebrews 9-1 Peter 5

October 23
2 Peter 1-Jude

October 24
Revelation 1-11

October 25
Revelation 12-22

A quick note that since I am a band director and have marching contests the next two Saturdays, I am making those Saturday readings a little shorter than the other days.

What about you? What cool things are you going to do this month?

Enough Is Enough!

I’ve had it!

I’m fed up with my dumb self.

My desire to know everything, to keep with everything, to have everything, to experience everything. It’s time to call it quits. It’s time to count the cost and pursue holiness anyway.

A year and a half of unfulfilled promises
Looking back at my blog post from December 25th, I see that most of my planning and aim to reduce my debt has gone by the wayside. I still weigh as much as I did at the beginning of the year. I don’t spend any more time regularly in prayer or Bible study now than I did back then. I’m not married or even heading in that direction.

Basically, 2009 has been pretty bleak for me in a lot of ways. In fact, it doesn’t only start there. Even in June 2008, I was seeing that things were out of control. I think it goes back even further than that.

Granted, things did change for the positive over the summer as I began to see a glimmer of hope. I began playing piano at a new church where my good friend Greg is the pastor, and that is turning out to be an exciting process. We are starting to see some growth in the church, both in numbers as well as in life within the fellowship.

Sadly, when I survey the state of the American church, comfort and excess have replaced giving and sacrifice as Christian virtues in the 21st century. The mantra of contemporary Christian circles seems to be “Man’s chief end is to get lots of stuff, end enjoy it for ever. And be sure there’s good air conditioning and comfortable seats in church while you’re at it!” The Puritans taught us that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him for ever.” Quite a discrepancy.

Well, I’m tired of the stuff. I’m tired of distractions. I’m tired of clutter in my life – physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. I grow weary of the undisciplined nature of my current state of existence. It’s time for a change.

This morning, Pastor Greg read a little bit out of E.M. Bounds book The Weapon of Prayer. I’ve read his book Power Through Prayer a few times and every time I read it, I am convicted of my woeful lack of prayer. This week, I will work my way through The Weapon of Prayer. I’ll also focus more of my time on prayer. Real prayer, not the superficial stuff.

My online life takes up too much of my time. My iPhone provides more distractions than I even know what to do with. So it is time to move forward. Instead of feeling like a victim of my circumstances, I’m going to take control. In the next three and a half months, I will regain control and discipline in my life.

Fasting will be a huge part
In the process of regaining control, I must regularly deny the flesh through fasting. For the most part, these will be day-long water/juice fasts, though there may very well be extended fasting happening as well. This past spring, I experienced the power that fasting had in recovering my focus as I went through three 5+ day fasts. Since then, the longest I’ve gone without food has been 12-15 hours.

This is an urgent need
As easy as it would be for me to sit back (like I have for months and years even) and say that I’ll get around to it later, there is no time like the present to begin to see transformative changes in my life. No more of the “just one more time” mentality. That simply delays the inevitible. To quote Professor Harold Hill from The Music Man, “‘Pile up too many tomorrows and you’ll find that you’ve collected nothing but a bunch of empty yesterdays.” Do something now!

What you can do

• Pray for your pastor. He needs it!
• I encourage you to commit to make some changes in your life. That one nasty habit you’ve been meaning to overcome. The 10 pounds you’ve gained since college. Or the 50 pounds. Or the 100. You get the picture. Read more. Watch less.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
For God will bring every work into judgment,
Inlcuding every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

• Encourage me. Self sacrifice is never easy. 100 days of it will be greuling for me. If you happen to see me online, encourage me and ask me how things are going. Pray for me. Tell me you are praying for me and I’ll be sure to pray for you as well.

Devotional 07-12-09

Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You. I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word…Your word have I hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things.

Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way…Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law…Make me understand the way of Your precepts; So shall I meditate on Your wonderful works…Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day…And I will delight myself in Your commandments, Which I love, My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes…Direct my steps by Your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me…Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path…My eyes fail from seeking Your salvation And Your righteous word…My soul faints for Your salvation, But I hope in Your word…Blessed are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!

Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.

Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits..

Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever.

Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals, Praise Him with clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!

Sources:
Isaiah 55:6-9
Psalm 138:1-2
Psalm 119:9, 11
Job 23:12
Ephesians 1:3-6
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 3:14-15,17-21
1 Corinthians 10:31
Romans 12:1-2
Philippians 3:7-9
Ephesians 2:4-9
Philippians 3:12-14, 10-11
Philippians 4:8
Psalm 119:37, 18, 27, 97, 47-48, 133, 105, 123, 81, 112, 1-2
Psalm 1:1-3
Psalm 103:1-2
Psalm 139:23-24
Psalm 136:1-3
Psalm 150