In this innovative Daily God Book, Skip Heitzig gives you unique insights, points to ponder, and most important, a convenient daily system for reading through the Bible in one year. Recent best sellers reflect a renewed interest in the Bible and what it says. Skip Heitzig highlights the key stories and chapters throughout the Bible so you can get a handle on them.
the daily God book THROUGH THE BIBLE
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE BIBLE IN A YEARBy SKIP HEITZIGTYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC.
Copyright © 2010 Skip Heitzig
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4143-1300-9Chapter One
READ GENESIS 1:1-13
January 1
God Speaks!
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.... Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. GENESIS 1:1, 3
Did you know that the Bible, made up of sixty-six books and approximately thirty-one thousand verses, is the best- selling and most widely distributed book of all time? More than 2.5 billion copies have been sold since 1915, and at least part of the Bible has been translated into 2,233 dialects.
Even more important than its popularity, however, is its message: God speaks! He likes to communicate. Genesis 1 says repeatedly, "God said." God wants people to know who he is and what he is up to, and he reveals himself to us through what he has said in Scripture. No matter what issue you face, difficulty you encounter, or question you have, somewhere in the Bible "God said" something about it.
Genesis is a book of beginnings: of humankind, of sin, of marriage, of government, of nations, and most important, of God's plan to rescue the world. The Bible's landscape makes a grand sweep from eternity past to eternity future. In between are events, people, and places, all centered around one Person and two events. That one Person is Christ, and the two events are his two comings to Earth. In the first, he comes to cleanse people from sin; in the second, he will rule with those he has cleansed.
God has a lot to say in this first book-about creation, sin, redemption, and culture. And he has even more to say about people, namely Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. The book of Genesis is a treasure chest of God's speaking and interacting with his creatures and pointing us toward the day he would enter humanity through his Son, Jesus, when the "Word became human" (John 1:14).
Martin Luther once said, "The Bible is alive; it speaks to me. It has feet; it runs after me. It has hands; it lays hold of me!" As you read each day, listen with your heart to what "God said," and get ready for the adventure of your life!
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January 2 READ GENESIS 1:24-2:14
My Father Made That!
This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.... The Lord God made the earth and the heavens. GENESIS 2:4
I love telescopes. They take me away from my everyday life and catapult me into the vastness of the cosmos. I don't know much about galaxies or telescopes, but I've discovered that our universe reflects God's creative order. Far from being the result of a chaotic accident, God's creation was a well- organized event! The six days of creation reveal how God created everything, from light on the first day to land animals and humankind on the sixth day. He created it all ex nihilo-out of nothing-and it's still working after all this time.
Some people say it all just happened! Really? Does the sun "just happen" to be ninety-three million miles away, with a surface temperature of twelve thousand degrees Fahrenheit? No. The sun is the perfect temperature and at the perfect distance from Earth to sustain life. Does the earth "just happen" to rotate 365.25 times in a year? No. If the rotations occurred more or fewer times per year, the temperatures on Earth would be extreme. Does the earth "just happen" to tilt just over twenty-three degrees on its axis, which gives us the balance of four seasons? Does our atmosphere "just happen" to be a perfect balance of seventy-nine parts oxygen, twenty parts nitrogen, and one part variant gases? No. None of it "just happened." Our Father made it that way!
Now, if the art hanging in the skies is so magnificent, what must the Artist be like? The creation reveals that our good Father loves to give good things. Seven times in the creative process, God noted that what he had made was "good." What's more, human beings were given the regal status of being created in God's "own image" (Genesis 1:27).
The next time you see a multicolored sunset or a snowcapped mountain or a pristine stream, pause and remember, My Father made that!
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READ GENESIS 3 January 3
From Creation to Corruption
[Eve] saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. GENESIS 3:6-7
People can be funny. If you randomly tell them there are 735,688,412,564 stars in the universe, they'll tend to believe you. But when they see a Wet Paint sign, they have to make a personal investigation to see if the paint really is wet! That's been our dilemma from the beginning of creation. God gave Adam and Eve so many wonderful gifts to enjoy. God essentially told Adam and Eve, "Enjoy the fruit I've given you. Have fun in the rivers. Take pleasure in each other and enjoy naming the animals!" God gave only one negative command, and it ended up functioning sort of like a Wet Paint sign, only this one read, "Danger-Lethal Tree!" But in spite of the strong warning, our first parents chose to make a personal investigation.
When I was a boy, I stood with my dad and three brothers on the shore of Jackson Lake one pristine summer morning. The image of the mountains was perfectly reflected on the mirrored surface of the lake, until one of us decided to skip a tiny stone across the water. Instantly the image was distorted, and the ripples continued to mar the reflection. That's what Adam and Eve did to all humanity! Their disobedience marred the reflection of God's image in every person who came after them.
Have your eyes been opened to some sin in your life? Maybe you feel ashamed because your sin has further distorted God's image in you. Adam and Eve's disobedience meant "paradise lost!" But Jesus' death on the cross brought the hope of paradise regained. When you confess your sin, Jesus' loving act on the cross becomes the covering for your sinful acts.
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January 4 READ GENESIS 6:1-22
The Weather Channel
The Lord said, "I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing-all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky...." But Noah found favor with the Lord. GENESIS 6:7-8
I love watching The Weather Channel. I'm intrigued by the technology and expertise used to predict climate patterns that could affect my immediate future. Noah must have become interested in weather when God told him that a catastrophic flood was coming and provided an evacuation plan for Noah and his family. Noah was to build a 450-foot boat, complete with three decks, an upper window system for ventilation, and a portal for access. Estimates are that this vessel could accommodate eighteen thousand species.
Why would God destroy the earth? Sometimes things get so bad that before there can be something new, something old has to go. In Noah's case, the world had become so wicked and corrupt that in order for God to fulfill his future...
