Monthly Archives: December 2012

Dec 31 2012

the Christ House project: Jan. & Feb. reading schedule

 

The-Christ-HouseAll MoSt Church members are urged to reading the New Testament completely through this coming year at the rate of one chapter per day. Along with our reading, we’re all encouraged to memorize one verse that focuses on Jesus as the Christ from each book of the NT. A listing of the year’s “Christ verses” appeared in a post here yesterday.

Each day of The Christ House (TCH) reading project you’ll find a link to each day’s reading here on my site; however, for your convenience of preview, the reading schedule for January and February follows. Our reading during these two months will focus on the writings of Luke, both his Gospel and the book of Acts.

May the Christ bless the reading of, and reflection on the words of the Spirit. Amen.

The Gospel according to Luke

Jan. 1 – Luke 1
Jan. 2 – Luke 2
Jan. 3 – Luke 3
Jan. 4 – Luke 4
Jan. 5 – Luke 5
Jan. 6 – Luke 6
Jan. 7 – Luke 7
Jan. 8 – Luke 8
Jan. 9 – Luke 9
Jan. 10 – Luke 10
Jan. 11 – Luke 11
Jan. 12 – Luke 12
Jan. 13 – Luke 13
Jan. 14 – Luke 14
Jan. 15 – Luke 15
Jan. 16 – Luke 16
Jan. 17 – Luke 17
Jan. 18 – Luke 18
Jan. 19 – Luke 19
Jan. 20 – Luke 20
Jan. 21 – Luke 21
Jan. 22 – Luke 22
Jan. 23 – Luke 23
Jan. 24 – Luke 24
Jan. 25-31 – days of reflection

The Book of Acts

Feb. 1 – Acts 1
Feb. 2 – Acts 2
Feb. 3 – Acts 3
Feb. 4 – Acts 4
Feb. 5 – Acts 5
Feb. 6 – Acts 6
Feb. 7 – Acts 7
Feb. 8 – Acts 8
Feb. 9 – Acts 9
Feb. 10 – Acts 10
Feb. 11 – Acts 11
Feb. 12 – Acts 12
Feb. 13 – Acts 13
Feb. 14 – Acts 14
Feb. 15 – Acts 15
Feb. 16 – Acts 16
Feb. 17 – Acts 17
Feb. 18 – Acts 18
Feb. 19 – Acts 19
Feb. 20 – Acts 20
Feb. 21 – Acts 21
Feb. 22 – Acts 22
Feb. 23 – Acts 23
Feb. 24 – Acts 24
Feb. 25 – Acts 25
Feb. 26 – Acts 26
Feb. 27 – Acts 27
Feb. 28 – Acts 28

Do remember, a copy (.pdf) of the year’s reading schedule and Christ verses (memory verses) is always available from the “downloads” section of MoSt Church‘s site.

Dec 30 2012

the Christ House reading project 2013: the Christ verses

 

The-Christ-HouseAs we read the New Testament through completely in 2013, every MoSt Church member is encouraged to memorize a single verse of Scripture from each book of the NT. A listing of all the Christ verses for this year’s reading follows as they appear in the Common English Bible. May these verses serve you well as we consider Jesus Christ.

Jan. 1-24 – “Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2.11)

Feb. 1-28 – “… let all Israel know beyond question that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2.36)

March 1-16 – “I assure you that whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will certainly be rewarded.” (Mark 9.41)

April 1-5 – “You are being made into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2.5)

April 6-8 – “… grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him belongs glory now and forever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3.18)

April 9-13 – “My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you don’t sin. But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.” (1 John 2.1)

April 14 – “Grace, mercy, and peace from … Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, will be ours who live in truth and love.” (2 John 3)

April 15 – “… for the sake of Jesus Christ …” (3 John 7)

April 16 – “… keep each other in the love of God, wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will give you eternal life.” (Jude 21)

May 1-28 – “He said, ‘And what about you? Who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” (Matt. 16.15-16)

June 1-13 – “We are partners with Christ, but only if we hold on to the confidence we had in the beginning until the end.” (Heb. 3.14)

June 14-18 – “My brothers and sisters, when you show favoritism you deny the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been resurrected in glory.” (James 2.1)

July 1-16 – “The wages that sin pays are death, but God’s gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6.23)

Aug. 1-16 – “You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.” (1 Cor. 12.27)

Aug. 17-29 – “We all must appear before Christ in court so that each person can be paid back for the things that were done while in the body, whether they were good or bad.” (2 Cor. 5.10)

Sept. 1-21 – “This is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.” (John 17.3)

Oct. 1-22 – “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he will rule forever and always.” (Rev. 11.15)

Nov. 1-6 – “… a person isn’t made righteous by the works of the Law but rather through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.” (Gal. 2.16)

Nov. 7-12 – “This is what God planned for the climax of all times: to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth.” (Eph. 1.10)

Nov. 13-16 – “God has generously granted you the privilege, not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for Christ’s sake.” (Phil. 1.29)

Nov. 17-20 – “All the fullness of deity lives in Christ’s body.” (Col. 2.9)

Dec. 1-5 – “Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thes. 5.18)

Dec. 6-8 – “May the Lord lead your hearts to express God’s love and Christ’s endurance.” (2 Thes. 3.5)

Dec. 9-14 – “This saying is reliable and deserves full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’—and I’m the biggest sinner of all.” (1 Tim. 1.15)

Dec. 15-18 – “… anyone who wants to live a holy life in Christ Jesus will be harassed.” (2 Tim. 3.12)

Dec. 19-21 – “… we wait for the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of our great God and savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2.13)

Dec. 22 – “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” (Philemon 25)

Dec 29 2012

the Christ House (TCH): reading project 2013

 

The-Christ-HouseHaving recently completed our church-wide Bible reading project for 2012 (Uncommon Truth for Common People) at MoSt Church, we’ll start our reading project for 2013 - The Christ House (TCH) – this coming Tues., Jan. 1. Let me introduce this new reading plan in the form of questions and answers.

Q. What’s the objective of TCH? What’s our focus?

A. The objective is to fix our attention on Jesus Christ as we journey through the New Testament (NT).

Q. Will we read the NT though in the order it appears in our Bible or in some other order?

A. While we’ll all read the NT through in 2013, we won’t follow the order in which the books appear in the NT. The order we’ll follow is based on commonality of the books’ authorship. For example, in January and February we’ll read the writings of Luke (Luke and Acts). In this way, we’ll not only get a better feel for each particular author’s style, but we’ll be able to spread out the reading of the Gospels across the course of the year (January, March, May, and September).

Q. What will we read each day and how much?

A. The pace is simple and steady, reading a single chapter each day while incorporating a number of days at the end of most months for catch-up, reflection, review, and/or independent study. That means, on average, your reading time each day will total about five minutes.

Q. Will there be Scripture to memorize?

A. Every person involved in the project is encouraged to memorize one, selected verse of Scripture that specifically mentions Jesus Christ from every book of the New Testament. We’ll refer to such verses as “Christ verses.”

Q. When will the The Christ House project begin?

A. This coming Tues., Jan. 1.

Q. When and where can I see a copy of the whole year’s schedule and acquire a copy of all of the Christ verses?

A. A copy of the year’s reading schedule and all of the Christ verses is currently available for download from MoSt‘s site (and will remain available there throughout the coming year). Tomorrow’s post (Sun., Dec. 30) here on my site will list all of the Christ verses while Monday’s post (Dec. 31) will give the reading schedule for January and February. Starting on Tues., Jan. 1, a link to each day’s reading will appear as a post here on my site.

Q. Will we use a specific translation of the New Testament?

A. You can use any quality rendering of the NT you please with this schedule. The links in the daily posts here on my site will be to the Common English Bible (CEB).

Dec 28 2012

imagine you, on food stamps (9)

 

Now I know you’re curious as to what exactly I plan to eat in January so, let me just go ahead and tell you while explaining some of the rationale behind my purchasing choices. I refuse to bore you with a daily “journal” of what I ate, so do let me bore you here in a single post with the details of the lion’s share of my eating plan.

CerealFirst, I’m a breakfast person. If I could eat only one meal a day, it would be breakfast. And so for the sake of that meal, I’m willing to make some sacrifices elsewhere through the course of the day’s menu. What that means in practical terms is that I’ll stick with my normal diet for breakfast in January. What is that? Nothing exciting, to be sure – and quite likely to be viewed as “boring” or just plain “nasty” to some of you reading this – but here it is: (1) a bowl of Kashi GoLean cereal (50 cents) with (2) a splash of Silk Pure Almond “milk” (40 cents) and (3) either a banana (25 cents) or a single Kashi Pumpkin Spice Flax granola bar (25 cents). This is what I eat for breakfast probably 360 days out of the year and have done so for the past two or three years. Such has served me well, providing me with a healthy start to the day that gives me energy without weighing me down. By the way, if I go the granola bar route instead of the banana, that works out to 255 calories with 16 1/2 grams of protein and virtually zero grams of saturated fat. Healthy.

Second, if I eat nothing else, I eat some vegetables every day and commonly avoid fried foods almost completely. While I realize fresh vegetables are the healthiest way to go, I elected long ago to go the microwave route. I’ve found that the Green Giant “Healthy Weight” offering (sliced carrots, sugar snap peas, black beans, and edamame) appeals to me and I was able to catch these on sale for $1.00 per package early this week at Target and so, I stocked up the freezer. Throw in a little bit of tuna, grilled chicken breast, or whatever and a person has all that’s necessary for a simple, low fat lunch or supper. This meal, along with breakfast, should provide the vast majority of the protein and fiber necessary for each day.

Third, while the preceding will be the foundation for my nutrition in January, the groceries that made up the sack of groceries I received from our church pantry – along with misc. food items I procure along the way over the course of the month – will round out the makings of my month’s meals. This is where the real variety in my eating will happen. If I slightly exceed my $4.00 budget one day, I’ll make up for it by cutting back in some slight fashion the day before and/or the day following.

And having said all of that, let me say one last thing: while you might see a post or two in this series during the month of January, don’t expect for me to break radio silence on this subject until Feb. 1.

Until then … anyone care to join me in this project?