Bible in a Year (The Story) Podcast

Day 172: Not Forsaken, But For Our Sake and His Sake

Today we read Isaiah 41-43, and Ezekiel 4-5. We are reading about judgment, deliverance, and atonement. God is doing something, working to make the whole world, Israel, new and renewed. God’s judgment is not neglect or harm, the judgment is for their sake. I think back to the Garden of Eden, we cannot be close to Him, doing His full work, with Him forever without judgment, deliverance, and atonement. This story reminds us that He will not forsake us. He will overcome evil for our sake. And for His sake, He will blot out our transgressions. He will atone us so we can be close to Him as He designed.
 
Credits
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 171: What Do You Need in Exile? Hazak. Hazak. Strength of God and Community.

Today we read Isaiah 39-40 and Ezekiel 1-3. We are reading in Ezekiel how God is and can give strength through His word, His message and in this story Ezekiel is being commissioned more or less on his 30th birthday as a prophet to Israel while sitting by an irrigation canal in a refugee camp in Babylon. This was a sharp change from his plans to become a priest in Jerusalem. We learn about God’s presence in a vision to Ezekiel and the last toll of warning, a second wave of Israelites will be taken from Jerusalem to Babylon and this time, Jerusalem will be destroyed. In our reading of Isaiah, we also get a glimpse of the “after” exile response of God to renew strength, to restore their home, to comfort and yet, the Israelites are signaling doubt and accusation against God based assumingly on their suffering in exile. For some reason, I think back to the story of Job where I’m reminded of the lesson where we can always bring our doubts and questions to God, He may or may not answer them they way we want to because He is wisdom itself. God is goodness itself and we are reminded here, we cannot fathom His understanding. Yet we can rest in the knowledge He shares and repeats in His word that He pursues and cares for us like a Shepherd. He will not let evil and suffering endure. He will strengthen the weary and increase the power of the weak. God will renew strength and give us the wings to soar. Do we have the heart posture to follow Him, trust in Him, even in the storms, trials, and exile?
 
Credits
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Week 33: Review & Reflection Challenge

This is the weekend review and reflection challenge. We'll be back on Monday! If you need to catch up, the weekend gives you the chance to do that. Remember, you can start whenever, pause whenever, but never stop listening (or reading) the Bible!
Reflection challenge question: What is one or two things you learned this week from listening to the Bible that you can put into practice in your life today? 
Don’t forget, you can subscribe to our show wherever you are podcasting to get notifications to remind you on Monday that the show has been posted! Subscribing, rating, reviewing and sharing our show also helps to organically grow our channel and make it easier for people to find us! Thanks for listening and we look forward to being back with you next week.
 

Day 170: Two Truths We Hold in Tandem: God is Slow to Anger and God will Not Allow Evil To Endure

Today we read Isaiah 34-38. A paradox is two seemingly contrasting ideas that are both true a the same time. That is something to reflect on in this part of the story.  God is slow to anger and abounding in love AND God will not allow evil to endure. Evil not only exists "out there" but inside our human hearts. The story uses words like shake, purge, and other things to create imagery of transformation. I think back to the beginning of the story in Genesis 1 where God hovered over the deep abyss or deep waters of void and then ordered creation from it. Yahweh can make something from nothing and transform anything, including darkness into ordered creation. In our story, we know that requires atonement through the ultimate redemption of Jesus, restoration of our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who is a gift to help us Shema into a kingdom of priests a community of Shalom. 
 
Credits
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 169: Don’t Put Your Trust in the Empire

Today we read Isaiah 29-33.
 
Credits
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 168: A Tale of Two Cities

Today we read Isaiah 24-28
Credits
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 167: To Repent is to Return to God

Today we read Isaiah 22-23 and Zephaniah 1-3. We read that repentance is not just saying, "I'm sorry," and moving forward. We read about two important concepts of justice for God's character and people. These are important to the concept of repentance and returning to God. This is an act of returning to who we really are to our real home our truest design. Some might think of themselves as broken and Christian history often gives a distorted at worst or incomplete more charitably version of who we are and what repentance means. If our design and the truest form of humanity begins in Genesis 1 and 2 and does not start in Genesis 3, we are being called to return to God's story, His design which includes Mishpat a Hebrew word for restorative justice which deals with order and may require retributive or distributive action or responses by God. Justice can also require Tzedakah a charitable, prodigal generous lifting up, to make right (eous), to right side. If we are to build a kingdom of Shalom where we identify in our connected sense of humanity, designed by God, then yes, we have paths, yes, God gave each of us a unique portion of His power and authority, called to use that image-bearing gift to be name-bearers, ambassadors, a kingdom of priests. From what we read, like we've read before and will read again, being put in the fire, in the lion's den, in the storm, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, is unavoidable, but we have Him and remember that even in calamity and disaster God will use those to purify to purge, He is with us in these moments, these seasons too, and we can be strengthen, renewed, restored, we can remember who God is, the story, and who we really are, whose we really are, and who we are meant to be in a kingdom of Shalom with no end, in a story that is still unfolding today. 
Credits
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 166: The Moment We Are In Does not Change the Mission We Are On

Today we read Isaiah 20-21 and Habakkuk 1-3. Today we learn more from a prophet of God in the Babylonian exile, Habakkuk who initially brings a complaint to God regarding what seemed to him like injustice. God responds but Habakkuk didn't accept the answer so he told God he would wait in the watch tower at the rampart. Bold. God responds again in a lengthy treatise which seems to capture the line of judgment against both Babylon and the Israelites in their empire-building idolatrous and unjust ways. God describes how the righteous rely on their faith and we read Habakkuk's heart change in his prayer. Even when facing calamity, the Babylonian take-over, he speaks of waiting patiently in awe of God's mercy. He puts His faith above fear and frustration. As the new Dean of the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, Dr. Ed Stezer says, "The moment we are in (no matter how frustrating or fear-evoking) does not change the mission we are on." 
Resources
Mary Solomon and Bret Billings (2018). Habakkuk — Watchtower, Episode 58.  https://www.bemadiscipleship.com/58 
https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/habakkuk/ 
Credits
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Week 32: Review & Reflection Challenge

This is the weekend review and reflection challenge. We'll be back on Monday! If you need to catch up, the weekend gives you the chance to do that. Remember, you can start whenever, pause whenever, but never stop listening (or reading) the Bible!
Reflection challenge question: What is one or two things you learned this week from listening to the Bible that you can put into practice in your life today? 
Don’t forget, you can subscribe to our show wherever you are podcasting to get notifications to remind you on Monday that the show has been posted! Subscribing, rating, reviewing and sharing our show also helps to organically grow our channel and make it easier for people to find us! Thanks for listening and we look forward to being back with you next week.
 

Day 165: Downfall of the Empire Kingdom and the Refuge of the Remnant Shalom Kingdom

Today we read Isaiah 18-19, Nahum 1-3, and Proverbs 10:25-32.
Credits
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.