(a personal note to the LORD’s people who gather at 204 Eastland Drive North in Twin Falls, Idaho)
Dear Beloved of God,
It’s like this every December isn’t it? Right after this blessed season of Christmas, the birth of a new year is upon us, Lord willing. We’ll say things like, “Can you believe the new year is upon us?”, “What happened to last year?”.
As the years click by on me I grow with an increased desire to see the redeemed of God grow in grace and for the many children God has blessed your homes with these past years that all would taste this great salvation of Christ. Like the apostle Paul, “With God as my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” This increases on me every year.
I don’t know what the year 2018 holds for us. It is likely, as we do every year, we will experience many things of this temporal world; birth, death, sorrow, joy, sickness, health, pain, and comfort. We will be allowed many times to display who our Lord is in how we respond to good and difficult times. We will likely fail because of lack of discipline and we will yet again bless the Lord for his mercy and grace as we grow and overcome simple sins that once owned us as a slave master.
May we learn sooner that we stand strongest in Christ when we depend upon Him and not upon ourselves or others. To do so, we must be driven more to our Bibles. If we are to stand at all in the many things that are before us, if the Lord delays His coming, we will best face them with an illuminated path with the lamp of Scripture on.
There are many Bible reading plans to help us persist in this beneficial task. It is my desire that you receive my invitation to read the Bible with me in 2018 with an understanding of the benefit it will be to our souls together. It will bless the aged and it will help our children.
I have selected the reading plan originally developed by Robert Murray M’Cheyne in 1842 for his congregation in Scotland. As you consider this, know that this must not be viewed as a work of Salvation. You are not selected for God’s grace of salvation to rest upon you because of your keeping this reading schedule. You do not lose favor of His mercy throughout the year if you fail and stumble your way through the reading plan.
I am working on making a few adjustments to His original plan and I’ve adapted and reworded his cautions and advantages. I’ll post them soon along with the adapted reading plan for 2018.
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