Bible Overview Daily Readings

Would you like to get an overview of the whole Bible broken down into daily readings?

Each week on the Riverside website I'll post a new Reading Schedule on the front page with 7 daily readings from the Bible. Beginning June 1st we'll start with Genesis and continue with each book of the Bible in order until we finish Revelation. Our goal is to complete the survey by the start of Advent at the end of November.

Please remember that this is a survey. Our daily readings will only skim the surface of the treasures that are available in each book of the Bible. These readings are intended to give you a taste of the Story of God and His people. Hopefully they will whet your appetite for more. Please feel free to read more than the verses and chapters we've listed.

Be sure to check the Riverside website each week for the new Reading Schedule! While you're there, sign up to receive our Prayer Updates via email.

As A Puppy Watches His Master's Hand

To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.

Psalm 123 (ESV)

Whenever I read Psalm 123 I can’t help but think of our miniature dachshund, Luther. Two things will cause Luther to fix his eyes on my hands with laser beam focus: a toy to fetch and a treat to eat. When we play fetch, Luther never takes his eyes off of my hands until they launch the rope or ball. Then he runs full speed in the direction my hand moves to toss the toy. When Luther knows that I have a treat, he locks my hand in his sights, waiting for the good stuff to be delivered. As a puppy’s eyes are fixed on his master’s hand, anticipating a command or even a cookie, so I long to look to the hand of my Master, to receive His bidding as well as His blessing.

Like Luther, I want my eyes riveted on my Master’s hands, waiting to move in the direction He gestures, waiting for morsels of mercy to fall. I want to be a servant who watches and waits for his Master’s every move and mercy. I want to be ready to serve Him, accomplishing whatever He wills for me to do. But I also stand ready to receive mercy from His hand whenever He is pleased to give it. I must watch and wait for His hand to point me toward His will, to send me out to accomplish some task or pursue some relationship that will further the advancement of His Kingdom. But I desperately need His mercy in order to move.

I must anxiously look to Jesus’ nail-pierced hands for the undeserved kindness that provides the resources, both spiritual and physical, that I will need to accomplish His mission. I need to look to Jesus, who has lived and died in my place, has been raised to new life, and is now seated next to His Father “enthroned in the heavens.” From there He is subduing enemies who scorned Him with arrogant contempt and even now are harassing me. United with Christ by faith, I am seated with Him there in the heavenlies. Thanks be to God! Holy Spirit, fasten my eyes on Christ, on His nail-pierced hands, that I might run at His command and receive mercy for the mission.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Have mercy upon us!

It's always Spring when you're planted in Scripture

I found the following sentence on a piece of paper in my nine-year-old daughter's handwriting on the floor in her room the other day.

"Even through the rain, snow, and ice, we can still blossom in God's Word." - Abi Davis, 3-12-08

"Did you write this," I asked. "Yes." "These are your own words," I continued. "You didn't get this from someone else?" "No, I didn't. Why?" "Wow, Abi. I love this. This is so true. And so poetic," I beamed. Turns out she wrote it on a day when snow was falling outside her window while she was reading her Bible on her bed.

Has your heart for God and others grown cold lately? Plant yourself in the Word of God and watch the fruit of love begin to blossom in you.

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away" (Psalm 1:1-4 ESV).

Refreshed Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I often feel caught between a rock and a hard place. In fact, some weeks it seems that I merely step from one rock to another hard place, wondering when the tough times will pass so that I can experience those "times of refreshment from the Lord" (Acts 3:20). But God promises to refresh me in and from those places. Strange. I don't know that I've often expected refreshment in, and especially not from, hard circumstances, difficult relationships, or the agony of waiting.

A couple of days ago I was feeling caught in one of those "rock and hard place" days. I came back to the office after lunch, feeling the anxiety building up inside, and was reminded to pray my midday Psalm. The scheduled Psalm was 114 which highlights the power of God as it was displayed through the wilderness wanderings of His people after the Exodus. Talk about some hard places! The Psalm concludes with these verses: "Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water" (vv. 7-8).

The psalmist is most likely alluding to those moments when God's people found themselves on "thirsty ground where there was no water" (Deuteronomy 8:15). The people complained to Moses, Moses cried out to God, and God provided fresh water from the side of a rock (Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:2-13). As I meditated on these verses the Spirit seemed to be saying, "You don't have to wait until the hard times are past to find refreshment. I can satisfy your thirsty heart from the rock and in the hard place. When I am present in those places (and I Am), you can find refreshment for your soul." I was then reminded that just the week before He had me meditating on Exodus 17:1-7, the time God told Moses to strike the rock and watch the water flow. God told Moses in verse 6, "Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." The key to the rock providing water was not the pounding of Moses' staff but the presence of the Standing God.

Not even a moment after the Spirit opened my eyes to see that wonderful truth, He turned my heart toward Christ. I envisioned Him on the cross, standing on that nail in His feet, pouring out His life for me. I thought about the soldier's spear that made blood and water flow from the side of the Rock of my Salvation (John 19:34). I was filled with new confidence and comfort that my God was present in the hard places in my life, and that He indeed is the One who "turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water."

James 1:2-3 ESV

Our family is using the "Fighter Verses" Memory Verse System from Bethlehem Baptist Church in order to hide God's Word in our hearts (Psalm 119:11). We've found that the best and quickest way to memorize verses of Scripture is to set them to a tune.

This week's verse was James 1:2-3. We sing it to the tune of "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness" (you can hear this tune at http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/j/t/jtbloodr.htm). Try it yourself:

Count it all joy my brothers when you
Meet trials of various kinds
For you know that the testing of
Your faith produces steadfastness.