Thank you!

Thank you for reading along with us in 2014!

If you didn’t read the Bible in a year, it’s ok. I doubt that God is so concerned if this line item gets checked off. I think more than that, he wants to tell you about himself and about how much he loves you. His book is full of wisdom, encouragement, and life-changing words. And when you start to see it from that point of view, it’s a book you’ll never want to put down.

Next year (that’s tomorrow!), we’ll be starting over with a reading plan that has a chronological influence and runs Monday through Friday–both the plan and approach are new to the blog. We’re excited to see how this plan shows us God’s word in a new way.

Join us?

(Say yes!)

Happy New Year from all of us at 66 Books in a Year,

Courtney (66books365)

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Malachi 1-4, Revelation 22

He’s coming! He’s coming soon!

Is it any wonder that the end of the Old and New Testament are connected with an announcement of the coming of Christ?

Malachi 4:5-6 – “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

Revelation 22:12 – “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

It may seem odd that Malachi references the coming of Elijah, an esteemed prophet by the Hebrew people, for future days. A commentary in my bible clarifies this contradiction—Jesus refers to John as the second coming of Elijah in Matthew 17:10 in at the Transfiguration. The beginning, middle, and end of the Word of God point to the person of Jesus Christ.

Henri Nouwen was once asked by a dear friend to summarize all of his findings in the spiritual life for the secular world. A word for the skeptical, the religiously disenchanted. But for the searching. Nouwen, in a word:

“Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the ‘Beloved.” Being the beloved expresses the core truth of our existence…

I am putting this so directly and so simply because, though the experience of being the Beloved has never been completely absent from my life, I never claimed it as my core truth. I kept running from it in large or small circles, always looking for someone or something able to convince me of my Belovedness. It was as if I kept refusing to hear the voice that speaks from the very depth of my being and says: ‘You are my Beloved, on you my favor rest.’”

What did the coming of Christ foretell? That He loves us and came us to save us from our sin. What does the second coming of Christ imply? That He loves us and wants to be with us eternally. He loves us.

The Bible, from beginning to end, is a love story. What have I gained this year, looking back? Some new friendships. A new look at old passages, a deeper understanding of some Greek words perhaps. But the most profound truth, that has permeated every word of every verse of every chapter:

Jesus loves me.

This I know.