Study, to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15, KJV

 

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed

and who correctly handles the word of truth. (NIV) 

 

If you have made it this far, then take a moment to consider what you have accomplished: You have read through the New Testament in 30 days, acquiring an overview of the covenant that God has made between Himself and those who will serve Jesus and someday be saved. You have then studied through the New Testament in 90 days, undertaking a detailed study of the things that you chose to know about - whether salvation, grace, love, obedience, or anything else that you decided you wanted to know about, you found out from the only source that counts what God said about these vital areas.

 

Then you read through the entire Old Testament in four separate 30 day challenges, encompassing a total time of 120 days. You have read every word of God's revealed Word, from the creation to the flood, from the institution of the Law of Moses to the destruction of Jerusalem, from the exile to the prophesies of the coming of the Messiah.

 

If you have not taken those challenges yet, you can go to our 30 day Bible challenge website and find the corresponding 30 day challenges that you are interested in. If you haven't done the New Testament reading and study, I would strongly recommend that you do, for whether you and I like it or not, we will be judged someday on our obedience (or disobedience) to the plan of salvation that God has fully revealed in the New Testament. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed with your time spent in the reading of the Word!

 

The last part of this challenge will be a series of studies through the Old Testament that will take another 120 days. Why do that, since we are not under the rules of the Old Testament anymore? It is because the Old Testament not only reveals the most accurate and unique history of the world ever given, but it also reveals the very nature of God. It reveals His holiness, His justice, His mercy, His reasons for reward and punishment, and everything else that He has chosen to show us about the way that He interacts with His people.

 

The study will be just like your New Testament study, in the aspect that you will choose your own topics of interest. I would strongly recommend that you include in your study the topics of the "holiness of God" and the requirement of "seeking God's will", but the study is yours and you can use it any way you want.

 

Why not take a few days from your previous readings and prayerfully consider exactly what you want to know about the Old Testament and the nature of God that it reveals. In a few days, we will begin the study that most people will never take. It will definitely require effort, tenacity, and - most of all - a love for God's revealed Word. 

Are you up to the challenge?

 

They are not just idle words for you - they are your life.

Deuteronomy 32:47, NIV

 

 

 

 

 

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,

nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD;

and in His law doth he meditate day and night.

Psalms 1:1-2, KJV 

 

The final challenge in this series is actually a set of four, 30 day challenges that will take you on a self-guided study of the Old Testament. If you are new to the 30 day Bible challenges and have yet to read and study the New Testament, I would strongly encourage you doing that prior to beginning your study of the Old Testament. The reasoning behind this is that the New Testament reveals everything that God has said about salvation, and you want to be saved. As with all studies you must understand that the words I write are of human origin and therefore fallible, but your own personal study of the actual words of God as contained within Scripture are of Divine origin, and therefore infallible.

 

So, again, my encouragement to you is to read and study for yourself the New Testament first, and to do this on your own. If you would like a guide, you can find the 30 day Bible challenge and the 90 day study challenge at our 30 Day Bible Challenge website. The guide for the New Testament studies, just like this one that we are about to undertake for the Old Testament, is just that: A guide! It is intended only to give you a semblance of structure for your own studies.

 

Now, for those who are ready to begin the 120 day study of the Old Testament, let me give you a suggestion or two for your consideration: First, get you a large notebook or journal to keep your notes. Separate the notebook into how ever many sections that you are interested in studying. My own notebook will be separated into the following categories that I am interested in studying in more depth. They are as follows:

 

  • The Holiness of God
  • The Requirement of Seeking God
  • Prophesies about the promised Messiah (Jesus)
  • The Love of God
  • Obedience & Reward/Disobedience & Punishment
  • The One Bible Story
  • The Power of God
  • Other Passages of Significance

Those are my areas of interest. I'm sure yours will differ substantially based upon your own interests and curiosity. The study is yours. It is a big undertaking, so I encourage you to make it worth your time and effort. The notebook is for you to write out all of the verses of the topics that you have decided to study. When you are through, you will be amazed at the amount of information that God has provided on the subjects of your interest. It will increase your faith and equip you to be a better servant!

 

The first Old Testament study will be on the Books of Moses. Due to the time constraints of the study (30 days), I will be dividing it into about four chapters a day as follows: All of the Book of Genesis; most of Exodus; a few days from selected chapters of Leviticus and Numbers; all of the Book of Deuteronomy. I think that you will enjoy the study since it will be one that you will be directing yourself, but let me caution you: It is big. It is hard (thus the word, "challenge"). It might even seem tedious some days. But, if you finish it, I am convinced that you will come out of the study with a greater faith, a broader knowledge, and a keener appreciation and love for the Creator than you have ever had before.

 

Are you up to the challenge? It begins tomorrow. May God richly bless your efforts as you begin your journey to learn more about Him!

 

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

then you will understand the fear of the LORD

and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 2:1-4, NIV (1978)  

God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark..."

Genesis 6:13-14, RSV 

 

One of the hardest things for men of any era to realize is that God will not tolerate wickedness indefinitely. It is true that He is long suffering and patient, but He is serious about sin and the warning has always been the same: Repent of your wickedness, or suffer the consequences.

 

One of the great lessons of the Flood is that God's patience with sin is limited, but that He will always rescue the righteous. That's where the ark came in. Just think about the ark for a moment: At 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall, it was likely the greatest structure ever built up until that time. Being so large, Noah couldn't hide what he was doing, so there was probably a lot of discussion in the neighborhood about what crazy old Noah was building in his back yard. The ark would have taken years and years to construct, so such discussion probably followed Noah around, all the time.

 

The point is this: The ark was conspicuous. The ark took a lot of time, thought and effort to build. No variance from God's building instructions would be tolerated. Therefore, Noah and his family had to be both dedicated to God and committed to their task. If our understanding of the sequence of events is correct, then all of Noah's children were born after God had told him to build the ark. That means that Noah and his wife would have raised children that knew of no time when their family was not busy with the preparations of building an ark.

 

It was probably hard on them all, but the moment the rains began, does anyone doubt that they were all glad that they had obeyed the LORD and built that ark? Does anyone doubt their joy in the fact that they had built the ark exactly as God had commanded? Does anyone think that after the rain started, that any of Noah's family wished that they hadn't wasted all that time with a lifetime of work on that silly old ark?

 

So what's the point?

 

The point is that God requires you to build an ark for your family, today. No, its not a 450 foot long boat, but if you are building it right it will be just as conspicuous, so you are going to have to be prepared to give an answer to those who ask you the reason for why you are building an ark. That ark will require commitment. That ark will require adherence to God's precise instructions. That ark will require a lifetime of work, and if you do it right, your children will know of no time in their lives when they and you were not working on that ark.

 

The point is that God is having you build that ark because there is going to come a storm someday that will absolutely destroy everyone who does not have an ark. That storm is called Judgment Day and it is coming just as surely as that flood came upon this earth during Noah's time. The good news, however, is this: After the storm comes Paradise!

 

Are you ready? Is your family? Better get busy on that ark!

 

Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 7:21, NIV

 

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

Philippians 2:12-13, NIV 

 

Today is the 2nd day of the 120 challenge to study the Old Testament, with Genesis 5-8 being the text for today. May God richly bless you as you determine to build an ark for you and your family!

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

 

Once upon a time was a king who fancied nice clothing. He wanted the best and was willing to pay the highest price for it. An unscrupulous but enterprising man came upon the scam for the ages. He convinced the king that he had a team of weavers who could make him a garment out of a thread that only the discerning and pure in heart could see. Conversely, the foolish and ignorant man would not be able to see it.

 

The day came when the unscrupulous man presented to the king the garment that did not exist. The king could not see it. The king's attendants could not see it. The king's court could not see it. The king's subjects could not see it. But because they believed the weaver's claim that only the wise and pure in heart could see it, they all said that they could indeed see that which did not exist. It was not until a small child, obviously pure in heart, stated the obvious: The Emperor has no clothes!

 

We live under a similar scam today. Unscrupulous men who neither want to believe in God nor live by His rules have come up with a lie: There is no God! Further, the world was not made by intelligent design, it was just the result of a random accident. As a matter of fact, the world started when some gas blew up and formed "stuff". Where did this "gas" come from? The evolutionist believes, by faith, that it was always there... and he feels sorry those who cannot "see" it! Anyway, that "stuff" after many years formed things like DNA, cells, organs, blood and flesh. Then that "stuff" went in a bunch of different directions and formed other "stuff".

 

And, viola! After a few billion years all of that "stuff" evolved into the world that we all know and love. You can see that, can't you? Or are you too "stupid"?

 

When I look at this year's Cadillac and see that it has amazing similarities to last year's model, I don't think that one "evolved" from the other, nor do I think that the first one was a product of millions of years of "evolution". What I see is that the two models shared the same designer. When I look at a monkey and a human, I see similarities, but I do not think that one "evolved" from the other. What I see is that they share the same Designer.

 

When a man of God looks in the mirror, he sees a child of God. When an evolutionist looks in the mirror, he sees a descendant of apes. One man believes in the eternal God, the other man believes in eternal gasses.

 

Who is wise and who is foolish? Which man has greater faith? I'll leave that up to you, but I will say this: I see much more intelligence in believing in the eternal, Intelligent Designer described in Genesis, than I do in the ever shifting theory that the world and everything in it are just a result of a cosmic accident involving a bunch of gasses that were just always there.

 

What do you believe? May I suggest that you read the Word of God and compare it to the theories of men before you make your final decision? Wouldn't that be the intelligent thing to do?

 

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse.

Romans 1:20, NIV

 

Today is the 1st day of the 120 day challenge to study through the Old Testament, with Genesis 1-4 being the text for today. May God richly bless you as you seek to acquire the knowledge and wisdom that are available only in His inspired Word!  

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing;

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on the earth will be blessed through you.

Genesis 12:2-3, NIV 

 

One of the things that I love about the Bible is that it is consistent all the way through. It tells just one story - from the creation to the revelation of the second coming of Christ - there is one consistent story, and that one story is that of God's eternal purpose. 

 

Just think about the history that the first twelve chapters of Genesis reveals: Starting with the creation, we have read through the fall of man, to the lineage of Abraham that was meticulously recorded in the genealogies of Adam to Noah in chapter 5, and from Noah to Abraham in chapters 10 and 11. Now we come to the promise that God made to Abram (soon to have his named changed to Abraham) that included everything from the promise of a great nation coming through his descendants, to the glimpse of the coming Messiah, the fulfillment of the promise that all nations would be blessed through Abraham's line.

 

As you read, let me encourage you to always keep in mind this one Bible story: From beginning to end, it is the revelation of not only the fall of man, but also of the history of how God carried out His plan to redeem fallen man in order that someday men could dwell with Him forever. Some 2,000 years after the events of Genesis chapter 12, we see God refer to that plan as His "eternal purpose". The Apostle Paul, through inspiration, put it in these words:

 

Although I am the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God who created all things.

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:8-11, NIV

 

Today is day three of the challenge to study through the Old Testament in 120 days, with Genesis 9-12 being the text for today. May God richly bless you as you seek to better understand the one Bible story and His eternal purpose for you that is contained therein!