Monday SHINE.....
Reading Plan for the week of 10/1-10/5:
- Monday 10/1: Matthew 1
- Tuesday 10/2: Matthew 2
- Wednesday 10/3: Matthew 3
- Thursday 10/4: Matthew 4
- Friday 10/5: Matthew 5
Happy Monday, SHINE girls! We have an exciting fresh start coming this week! As you can see, we are starting the book of Matthew! Yay!
We will spend pretty much all of October in Matthew since it has 28 chapters. This will give us a whole lot to soak up this month, girls. Treasures upon treasures are found in Matthew.
A little history of our author: Matthew was one of the 12 disciples, remember? He was the tax collector who left his work to follow Jesus. In the following gospels, Mark and Luke, he is referred to by his other name, "Levi."
Matthew is filled with stories of the life of our Jesus. What could be more exciting for us to be reading??
This is one of the books of the Bible that many of us have either read ourselves or heard many stories about a few times in our lives. Right? It may be very familiar to some of you.
As I read Chapter One today, I prayed that the Lord would reveal fresh Truth to me in the reading. Something that would stand out to me, something new.
He did.
When I got to the end of the short first chapter, I came to this verse:
v. 22 "All of this took place to bring about what the Lord had said would happen. He had said through the prophet, 23 “The virgin is going to have a baby. She will give birth to a son. And he will be called Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14) The name Immanuel means “God with us.”
Okay, did you catch that last sentence? Kind of hard to miss since I highlighted it.
"God with us."
Hello? Does that make you want to jump up and down or WHAT?!
Girls, we don't need an angel to appear to us to tell us what to do or what's going on...we have God with us...at all times!
THIS is what sets us apart from others. We don't worship a far-off distant God. We worship a God that is WITH us. Always.
I love how the Lord just pointed that right out with His big, handsome fingers. He KNEW I needed to be reminded of this.
As we go through our days, as we push through difficult times, we have God with us. Not sure about you, but I needed to hear this today. I needed to hear that no matter how I feel, or how bleak things seem, I have the Lord God Almighty standing right in front of me, right beside me, right behind me, right underneath me, and right inside of me. Always.
Oh goodness, what a way to start our day.
His Word is powerful, girls. He reminds us over and over of His consistency, His protection, and His love for us in this book that we are reading daily.
October is going to be like opening up a beautiful basket of fruit and sitting down on your grandmothers quilt to enjoy it.
Matthew, is that fruit for us, girls. It's good, it's refreshing, it's savory, and it's comforting.
Are you ready to bite into this goodness? Me too!
opening up my picnic basket,
jill
