The New Testament in 90 Days - Day 1

June 26

Let me preface this with a couple of things:  I have more than a layman's knowledge of scripture due to my upbringing in a Plymouth Brethren/Anabaptist church.  We studied the Bible verse by verse in Bible study and Sunday School; and the sermons every week were based on whole books of the Bible, and not, as is true in most Protestant churches today, topical.  I am grateful for this knowledge.

The other thing I'd like to say is that I'm a lazy cow who is not very self-motivating.  I'm kidding!  I am actually what is known as a Highly Sensitive Person (diagnosable, by the way), and have trouble with focus and compartmentalization.  In other words, it's hard to get me out of bed in the mornings because I'm already so overwhelmed by the day to come that I don't know what to do first, or do at all.  Starting a daily quiet time is more an interruption in my daily routine, routine which I use to keep going every day.

But God has been speaking to my heart lately.  I need so much to bury myself in Him, and let Him do some (all) the compartmentalization and organizing in my life.  In other words, it's more important to be a Godly woman than it is for me to worry about how I'm going to pay my rent.

That all being said, I started this because my Pastor challenged all of us to read the New Testament in 90 days.  I thought "Get off your duff and do this, Dorinda."  Three days later, I finally started.

Matthew1:1-3 - Presents Christ the King to the Jews

All the begats.  The lineage of Jesus on his earthly father's side, all the way from Abraham on down, through King David and the rest of them.  It's interesting to me to see that if one would look at all the other lineages in Scripture, you can pretty much pull an accurate timeline of world events from it.  Anyhow, that kind of stuff is always fascinating to me.

The angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream.  I wonder why I don't hear God's voice sometimes. But Joseph's heart was open and he never questioned that the Lord was speaking to him.  I need to allow my heart to be just as open, just as fearless to trust God.  And then he got on with it, marrying Mary and starting a new life together.

I like that, for the Jews, Matthew is telling a patriarchal story.  It's Joseph who has all the dreams, Joseph who takes action, Joseph who obeys unquestionably.  He's a strong man, that Joseph.

Wise Men.  More males who obey.  And Herod, who can't accept what he already knows, that he isn't really the king of the Jews.  Nasty piece of work, he is.

I know we hear this story every year, but it's always new to me.  The Wise Men who believe so wholly in God that they miss Herod's deception (it happens).  The gifts of gold for a king, frankincense for God, and myrrh as a symbol of the sacrifice of death that was to come.  I love the clearness of the message.  No doubts about who the child was, at all.

John the Baptist.  Later on, we read in other scripture that John was Jesus' cousin, but for now he's a prophet, the first one they've had in 400-odd years.  The people were both ready to hear, and unwilling to hear - they had gotten used to silence from God.  Perhaps it was to challenge them to have faith.  I wonder about that in my own life.  I need to listen better, then I have to believe even if I'm not paying attention to what I hear :)

There is one who comes after me.  John knew his place in history - another strong man who understood that he wasn't the star, that he'd never be the star.  It reminds me of my friend's brother, who is a character actor in Hollywood.  Oh, he's had starring roles, no doubt, and was great in them.  But he's happy just acting in a good movie or Broadway show, where the entire cast is a part of how good the piece is, and even when the star of it is someone else.  I like that.  To me, he's a strong male example.

The dove speaks.  God himself comes down to make his point.  No one was looking for it, but He revealed Himself at exactly the right moment.  Thank God He has better timing than I do, that's all I can say.  It means I really don't have to worry about tomorrow.

And that's it for today.  A long post, to be sure, but I tend to want the people around me to understand why I do the things I do; and I use writing as a way to ponder on God's word, meditate, give ear, etc.  I'm going to do my best (in other words, I'm trusting God) to get out of bed every morning and immerse myself, sink deeply, into His Word for me.