90 days to read the bible

So I'm starting this today/ tonight.

My goal, reading the bible in 90 days. This came up while at Otters and hearing Amy Jo talking about it and I thought that's a great idea. I can't commit to a year (I know how ridiculous is that), but I can do it in 90 days.

So I have a plan. I stole it from Zondervan and they have a little group, but I'm going solo. Me and the blog and the bible. And not really solo, I mean I've told people to keep me accountable, and I'm putting it here. But I'm excited.

So here we go.

Day 1:
Genesis 1- Genesis 16.

(oh yeah, I'm reading in the Message...so it's kind of like cheating...)


Genesis 1: First six days of God creating Earth. Something I noticed is that the message says that God put the Sun in charge of Day and the Moon in charge of Night. Then when God created Man he put us in Charge of all Earth. So in some ways God was almost delegating.

Also this is good it's in the beginning of Genesis in the Message, "Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's spirit brooded like a bird above a watery abyss." This made me think of me without God. A soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness. Reminds me of that God-size space we all have in our lives and how we try to fill it up with all sorts of things if we don't have God and how it's not something that can be filled with anything other God. And then on top of that you have God brooding, flying above, keeping an eye on it watching the abyss and thinking, "Why don't they just call out to me?"

Genesis 2: God rests on the seventh day, but the Moses back tracks and gives us some info on making the animals and making Man (Adam) and Woman (Eve).

So we open with rest. God took a breather. He created the world and then he took a day to rest. Interesting it says, By the seventh day God had finished his work. He was finished before he rested. That makes me think about when Jesus got called out for healing on the Sabbath, the Holy Day of Rest. His work wasn't done. He had more to do. Is that finished in there to let us know that we need to complete our work before our holiday?

And then when Moses goes back to give us some more info (I really wonder why this info wasn't put in there when he was creating man? I mean why the rush job?) But I noticed that in the Message it says, around 2:18ish "I'll make him a helper, a companion" So it's a bit flip flop of Day 6 order. I mean we hear about the animals first and then about Man, but here God created the animals almost as a companion. And found that they were not suited as appropriate companions and so then he made woman.

I listened to a sermon one time where it said that God took Adam and let Adam see that all these creatures were not fit companions for him. That's why the naming almost God's way of saying to Adam, check these out and see what you think so that Adam would know that they were not fitting. Lesson for today that sometimes God does show us the options more so as a way of letting us know that in the end they wouldn't have worked out?

Genesis 3: The serpent seduces Eve, she eats from the tree of knowledge, gives some to Adam he eats, they realize they are naked, they are kicked out of the garden and Adam, Eve, and the serpent are cursed.

I can't eve get over the image of God walking through the garden. Can you imagine? God literally walked with them. They had the opportunity to see God and to sit with him and chat with him and hang out and on the lure of knowing everything, it was thrown away. To lose so much to know so little.

A big deal is made out of their nakedness. When they're first created in chapter 2 it closes with "and they were naked and knew no shame" and then they eat the fruit and that's the moment that we know it's all over for them. The moment that they know shame about their nakedness. Or even what nakedness is. Remember God says to them, who told you were naked. They had no concept before that moment.

In spite of the curse something I never picked up before. God makes them clothes out of leather. He doesn't kick them out naked or with their make shift fig leaf clothes. He makes them clothes and sends them out into the world. I think it had to be hard to make those clothes for them. That moment of knowing that now they knew about nakedness and that they knew about "the world" and that He was sending them out into it. The devastation that lay ahead. I mean God knew that when he made them, but still he wanted to protect them however he could so he made them clothes. He made them a cover, a protection almost.

Genesis 4:(just a note this writing about every chapter is making this take longer, but I think this is going to be helpful for retention....maybe I'm already making excuses for when I don't finish on time?) We get Cain, Able, the first murder, Cain's lineage, Seth and the beginning of prayer and worship in the name of God.

I think here we also get the first mention that going East is going away from gone. Cain was sent East of Eden.

So Cain's lineage is really our first biblical lineage. We get Enoch (who built the city Enoch) then his kids through Lamech. Lamech marries two ladies (first mention of two wives). They give us Jabal (ancestor of all who live in tents and herd cattle), Jubal (musicans), Tubal-Cain (other momma's son, bronze and iron makers) Also mention that other momma had a daughter Naamah...curious as to why she is mentioned.

Then we find out Adam and Eve had a son to replace Abel (Eve's words) and his name was Seth and his kid's name was Enosh.

Then this little note, "that's when men and women began praying ans worshiping in the name of God" My question is what brought that about. I mean more people and so less God speaking directly to them? Like he asked Cain. And Cain and Abel were making offerings to him....don't know..but it's curious.

Genesis 5: Family tree to get us to Noah...and this is one of those moments where eveyone's name starts to be the same...but the Enoch whow as the son of jared who was the son of Mahalalel who was the son of Kenan who was the son of Enosh who was the son of Seth who was the son of Adam. That Enoch walked with God and one day disappeared because God took him.

Genesis 6: for our purposes let us focus on this little tid bit "Sons of God and Daughters of Men"
So it says that the "Sons of God" noticed the "Daughters of Men" and took them as wives. Then it throws in there "Giants in the land" and then God decides that he only wants humans to live for 120 years (but then we go and tell some stories about people living longer than that) and so seriously But the big point here that I am also going to need to investigate for later is this whole "Sons of God" "Daughters of Men" I mean license to believe in fairy tales?

The rest of Genesis 6 - Genesis 10: equals Noah and the flood.

The flood opens with God seeing how evil humanity is and it breaking his heart. I love the beauty of that image. God watching us with so much love that our depravity breaks his heart. That sounds strange to say that I love that image, but it's love that gets me. For Him to care that much about me about you about us. When God makes his convenant with Noah to never destroy the Earth by floodwaters again he says, "I know they have this bent woard evil from an early age, but I'll never again kill of everything living as I've just done." I think the things that are interesting there is that God says, "I know that humans are bent to evil."Almost that fatherly tone of, I know they can't help it. I know they'll break my heart again. I know that it's inevitable, but here's my promise just the same..."

At the end of Chapter 9 we learn that Noah is the first farmer to plant a vineyard and upon drinking his wine gets so drunk that he passes out naked. Here is an interesting little thing about that culprit of evil nakedness. One of his kids "Ham the father of Canaan" saw his father naked, and told his brothers. They walked in backwards and turned their heads and dropped a cloak over their father. Noah wakes up right and finds out Ham saw him naked and curses Canaan

Genesis 10: Noah's family tree. Developed into nations....

Genesis 11: Start with Babel and God garbling the language. Note that where they built the tower of Babel was East. Then we track Shem's family tree to Terah the father of Lot and Abram...

Note Nahor (Abram's brother) married his neice, but after her father died.

Okay i'm breaking here...four chapters short of the goal, but it's Abram to Abraham and those are big chapters....