Daily Readings for June 7 – 13

June 7, 2026June 6, 2026Todd R Leave a comment

Fellow travelers:

For those looking for a Bible reading plan, each week I post 2 chapters to read per day as a main reading plan, and for anyone who wants to read the whole Bible in 2026, I’ll post the extra chapters to read that week. The main readings will include nearly all of the New Testament, plus Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Prophets, and a few other Old Testament books.

Reading 3 chapters a day on weekdays and 4 on weekends almost exactly covers the 1,189 chapters of the Bible, so the “extra” readings will be about 9 chapters per week. These readings will cover the Pentateuch, the OT histories, a few other OT books, plus Jude and Revelation from the NT.

Regardless, I hope this schedule encourages others to read and study their Bible more, whatever parts they decide to read. Follow along (or not) any way you choose!

2 chapter a day plan:

Monday, June 8: Proverbs 9, Acts 4
Tuesday, June 9: Proverbs 10, Acts 5
Wednesday, June 10: Proverbs 11, Acts 6
Thursday, June 11: Proverbs 12, Acts 7
Friday, June 12: Proverbs 13, Acts 8
Saturday, June 13: Proverbs 14, Acts 9
Sunday, June 14: Proverbs 15, Acts 10

Extra chapters for those reading the whole Bible in 2026:
Joshua 18 – 24; Judges 1 – 2

A Ministry Lesson From Jonah

June 6, 2026Todd R 2 Comments

In the Old Testament, God’s people – the Jews – were supposed to be a blessing to other nations[1], pointing them to God. Ultimately this blessing came through Jesus Christ, but in the meantime God’s people didn’t always live up to His expectations. One disappointing example was Jonah. God said to him in Jonah 1:2 –

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

But Nineveh was in Assyria, one of Israel’s enemies. God said in the call to Jonah that they were “evil.” 50 or so years later Assyria would conquer Israel. Jonah hated his enemy Assyria and didn’t want to prophesy to them even though God told him to, so what did he do instead? He ran away.

In his commentary on Jonah, Warren Wiersbe wrote: “When you turn your back on God, the only direction you can go is down.”[2] What did he mean?

Notice that in verse 3, Jonah goes “down to Joppa,” and “down into” a ship he found to take him to Tarshish, far away from both Israel and Nineveh. Later in verse 5, Jonah “had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.” From the minute Jonah decided to run from God, he found himself in a descending spiral and ended up in despair, asking the sailors to throw him (down?) into the sea to calm a storm. The Bible doesn’t use the word “down”, but you could say that after Jonah was tossed in the sea that he went down into the belly of the great fish when he was swallowed up.

It is only when Jonah prays a prayer of thanksgiving to God for saving his life and he says “you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God” that things start to look up for him. He is then “vomited…out upon the dry land”[3] and given a second chance.

Like the ancient Jews, the modern church is also called to be a blessing to the nations, for example in Matthew 28:19-20, the verses known as the “Great Commission”:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This commission is to bless “all nations,” and note Jesus said to “make disciples,” not to “make converts” which means that the Great Commission goes beyond evangelism. While we are all called to evangelize, and some are particularly blessed in it, the commission includes each Christian’s ministry to the church as well as we help each other live as Christ did, blessing those around us. As Paul wrote in Romans 12:4-8, we all have a role in making disciples:

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

This isn’t a full list of what are called “spiritual gifts,” but prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, generosity, leadership and mercy cover a lot of different activities and ministries.

While Jonah had his call to preach to Nineveh, and all Christians have the call to “make disciples of all nations,” but like Jonah do we also have certain people or types of people – maybe those we consider evil – we’d rather not minister to? Are there tasks that we run away from, even if we feel God is calling us to do them, because of who else is involved? Are there times where we, like Jonah, are what Wiersbe called a “narrow-minded patriot,”[4] more concerned about being on the right side from our worldly or political perspective than about being on God’s side?

If so, the lesson from Jonah is: don’t neglect what God has called you to do, because when you do, “the only direction you can go is down.”

Maybe even into the belly of a big fish.

Who is God asking us to minister to today?

[1] Genesis 12:3
[2] Wiersbe, Warren. Be Amazed (Minor Prophets Hosea – Malachi) (1996). P. 99.
[3] Jonah 2:10
[4] Wiersbe, Warren. Be Amazed (Minor Prophets Hosea – Malachi) (1996). P. 113.

What is Our Conscience?

June 5, 2026June 4, 2026Todd R 1 Comment

What do you think of when you think of a conscience? For some it’s the image from old cartoons of a person with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, each giving competing moral advice. That image is funny partly because it might not be far from the truth.

For some, a conscience is a “moral compass” – that internal voice that helps us distinguish right from wrong. While this is another good image for a conscience, we have new technology now. We use GPS now, and when I think of a conscience, the voice of my GPS comes to mind. Let me explain.

A compass is too simple a metaphor. The voice of our conscience is not usually like a clear sign or bright, flashing lights pointing the way (although God can use whatever means He chooses). In my experience, a conscience is more like a broken GPS system, that has many voices, not just one, like a real GPS. Not that we’re all “hearing voices,” but since our conscience is giving us directions, a voice seems a good metaphor. You could call it an influence or something else. Anyway, some of the voices tell us to go places we shouldn’t and not to go places we should, and some of them lead us the right way. We find ourselves weighing the pros and cons of these multiple voices. For every decision we make, there’s a reason we make it, and often we don’t explicitly think about why. It could be something we learned from our culture, our family, our education, or from anything we’ve experienced. It might come from something we saw or listened to recently, or many years ago. It could also be something we just invented ourselves. But it’s there, trying to influence us.

Now not everyone has the same voices in their conscience. For someone who isn’t a Christian, their GPS considers all the factors it has, and they make decisions as they see fit by prioritizing among the influences. But for a Christian, salvation requires realizing our GPS is fundamentally broken, trusting someone who knows how to fix it, and then striving to follow the new instructions. When this happens, a Christian gets an added feature in their internal GPS – a new voice. This voice is the Holy Spirit, but it doesn’t become the only voice, it just adds one more competing voice to the cacophony. However, the Spirit is the only voice that can be trusted to guide us to the right destination 100% of the time.

As we make decisions in the world, each of us try to follow the advice of our conscience, but we must remember that our consciences are broken until we reach heaven. Many voices work hard to influence us, and any voice that we follow into disobedience from God can be considered an idol for us. Only the Holy Spirit speaks with the wisdom needed for us to fulfill our purpose as individuals made in God’s image.

However you think of what a conscience is, let Him rule it, and “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy” – 1 Peter 3:15a

Then you can have a clean conscience, whatever you do.

The Exodus of Jesus

June 4, 2026Todd R Leave a comment

Bible translators have a tough job, otherwise one English translation would be all we have or need. Translation isn’t a straight-forward process. There are many trade-offs, including between ease of reading in contemporary settings, and depth of meaning in the original context, but sometimes I wish different choices were made.

One example is Luke 9:30-31, which says: “And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (from ESV, emphasis mine). This happened during an event known as the Transfiguration, when Jesus took His disciples Peter, James, and John up a mountain for a vision of His future glory. Matthew records in his gospel that Jesus “was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.”[1]

While on that mountain, the 3 lucky disciples also witnessed a conversation about something: Jesus’ “departure.” In a recent sermon I learned that the word translated “departure” is “exodos” in the original Greek. For ease of reading purposes, “departure” is a more familiar word and makes a lot of sense to a modern reader, because Jesus was soon to depart the world temporarily through death, then more permanently after His resurrection. On the other hand, “exodos” literally means an exit, or figuratively a death, but to the original audience and those familiar with Old Testament history, the word “exodos” carries other meanings as well.

So, why would Moses and Elijah be talking to Jesus about His “exodos”? Because they both had history with such “departures.”

As told in the Old Testament book of Exodus, Moses was called by God while the descendants of Israel (Jacob) were slaves in Egypt. After performing many miracles in God’s power, Moses led the new nation of Israel on an exodus out of literal slavery in Egypt.

Elijah performed many miracles, and prophesied that the nation of Israel, unless they repent of their disobedience, would be taken back into exile, but later be freed from Assyrian rule in that generation’s exodus.

Again, why would Moses and Elijah be talking to Jesus about His “exodos”? Because Jesus was going to lead spiritual Israel out of slavery to sin around the entire world, from each nation, in every generation’s Exodus. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus would have had a lot to talk about.

“And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodos, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”

[1] Matthew 17:2