Author Todd R

Daily Readings for July 20 – 26

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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, July 20: Hosea 9 – 10
Tuesday, July 21: Hosea 11 – 12
Wednesday, July 22: Hosea 13 – 14
Thursday, July 23: 1 Corinthians 1 – 2
Friday, July 24: 1 Corinthians 3 – 4
Saturday, July 25: 1 Corinthians 5 – 6
Sunday, July 26: 1 Corinthians 7 – 8

Extra chapters for those reading the whole Bible in 2026:
1 Samuel 27 – 31; 2 Samuel 1 – 4

Time for a Change 2026 (6 of 9)

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Fellow travelers,

Are there small changes we can make to improve our lives?  For some people, making New Year’s resolutions or celebrating Lent is a good time to work on changes like these, sometimes permanent and sometimes temporary.  My habit is a bit different.  Instead of making New Year’s resolutions or celebrating Lent, every 40 days I try to make a small, but permanent change in my life habits.  This habit of changing habits has been helpful to me and might be to you, even if you have your own way of doing it.

Two days from now (July 20th) will be the 40th day since the last one.  I’ll be making a small change, and I invite you to participate.  If you do, keep a record of what you’re changing.  As the months and years pass, hopefully the cumulative change becomes enormous.

This is all voluntary, so I don’t criticize myself for missing a deadline or going back on something.  If I fail at some of the changes, the successful ones still add up to a significant shift over time.  I don’t always do “spiritual” changes, just something small I think will make my life better, permanently.  For example, one of my goals from 2021 was to drink at least 32 oz of water a day, and I still do it (with an occasional miss).

The next date on the schedule (40 days later) is 8/29/26, and I have a couple of things under consideration for then.  I’ll be posting a reminder at about that time; if you want to participate, start making a list of things you might want to do more or less of, and let’s see what we can accomplish!

Jesus’ Missing 30 Years

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The four Gospels are not biographies of Jesus, written to tell us all about His life, but they are summaries of His life designed to make the case that Jesus was truly the Son of God who died for our sins and rose again.  Unlike a biography, the Gospels skip over most of Jesus’ life, most notably the 30 years or so between Matthew 2:23 and 3:13.  In one verse He’s a toddler and in the next He’s an adult beginning His public ministry.

What happened in the meantime?  We don’t know much because the Bible doesn’t say much.  Jesus most likely worked as a carpenter[1] in Nazareth most of that time.  But, while we don’t know what He did, we get a sense of how He did it.

At the end of Matthew 3, Jesus goes to John the Baptist to be baptized, and when He comes up from the water, “the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”[2]  In this revelation of the Trinity, the Father says He is “well pleased” with the Son, Jesus, and the Spirit confirms.

Note that the Father said He was “well pleased” before Jesus had done anything in His public ministry.  Since God knows the future, He may have been saying He was “well pleased” with Jesus’ whole life, but those there would take it to mean His life to that point.  The period of Jesus’ life that we know so little about.  What Jesus did in those 30 or so years was pleasing to God the Father.

Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash

What does this mean for us?  Most of us don’t have a full-time ministry, but spend most of our time doing other, sometimes mundane, things.  Most, or all, of our lives are more like the 30 years missing from the Gospels than they are like Jesus’ 3 or so years of ministry.  But since the Father was pleased with the first 30 years of Jesus’ life, we also can fully please God without dedicating ourselves to a full-time ministry.  Lay people aren’t second-class citizens in the kingdom of heaven.

But also, if Jesus pleased God at all times, including His work as a carpenter, to be like Jesus we need to please the Father in not just our acts of ministry, but in all of life.  In how we do our jobs, in how we treat our family and neighbors, in how we do everything.

If we want our Lord to say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant,”[3] we must follow Colossians 3:23 – “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”  All of our activities can please the Father, even the most mundane things.

[1] Mark 6:3
[2] Matthew 3:16b-17
[3] Matthew 25:21

The Apostle Peter, Son of Gomer?

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Peter is one of the most fascinating characters in the New Testament.  His struggles and flaws are written for all to see, but so is the patience and love Jesus had for him.  In Peter’s two letters, we get to see examples of his growth and maturity.  One of Peter’s struggles was how Jews who had become Christian should treat Gentiles.  In Galatians 2:11-21 is a story of Paul rebuking Peter for his hypocrisy toward Gentiles, and in Acts 10 and 11 is a story of Peter receiving a vision from heaven telling him not to treat Gentiles as unclean, because God can make anyone clean.

Peter ponders whether the key is for letting people in or keeping them out.

In 1 Peter 2:9-10, he shares this lesson with his readers:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (emphasis mine)

The bolded words clearly call back to the story of the Old Testament prophet Hosea, who God told to marry a prostitute named Gomer to teach a lesson about idolatry.  Hosea’s children by Gomer are named in Hosea 1:6-9 –

“She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, ‘Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.  But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.’ When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son.  And the LORD said, ‘Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.’” (emphasis mine)

As Peter grew in Christ, he learned the same lesson Hosea learned: that all of God’s people are like Gomer and her children. Both Jews and Gentiles were once estranged from God in spiritual prostitution and adultery, but are now a beloved people, betrothed to one faithful God.  Jesus, our Holy High Priest, made the necessary sacrifice for the salvation of anyone and everyone who will come to Him.  Those He saves join His “royal priesthood”, proclaiming His excellent work to all people who have not received mercy, but who His blood covers.

“Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” – Matthew 7:1-2

“Whatever Works”?

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Proverbs in the Bible can be hard to understand, like many parts of the Bible.  Sometimes one proverb seems to contradict another, as these two seem to:

Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash

“A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it;
            wherever he turns he prospers.” – Proverbs 17:8
“Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household,
            but he who hates bribes will live.” – Proverbs 15:27

What are we to make of this?  Can both statements be true and can both statements contribute to our growing in wisdom?  Of course, the answer is yes, or they wouldn’t both be there in the Bible.

The reason the two Proverbs aren’t a contradiction is that the first just tells us the way things are, but the second tells us the way things should be.  Said another way, Proverbs 17:8 is descriptive and Proverbs 15:27 is prescriptive.  The first makes no judgement as to the eternal value of bribes, but the second suggests that those who reject bribery will have eternal reward.  Both Proverbs are true, but in different ways.

Put the two proverbs together and we see that, even though bribes can be effective, God’s people should hate them.  Christians shouldn’t be pragmatic and do whatever works, but they should seek to do what is acceptable to God, even if it’s not effective in achieving worldly ends.

The wise should understand how bribes work, but the wise also know that “whatever works” often isn’t the right answer.