2011 saw me do something I hadn’t done probably since graduating from Pensacola Christian College in 1995: I read the Bible completely through. About 66 percent of the time I read daily and the other 33 percent I either didn’t read or had to catch up and read several days’ worth.

It obviously is better to read every day so you can focus on quality rather than quantity.

I’ve read of some Christians who read 20 chapters a day and others who read the Bible cover to cover in a month. Perhaps someday I’ll try that, but at this stage, the more I read, the far less I retain and comprehend. After all, the Bible’s not a Archie comic book. When you read in Romans about faith and salvation, each chapter seems like it should broken down over a week’s time…

Today, I finished reading the Book of Job as, in 2012, I’m reading the Bible chronologically. Fascinating book. Job was a godly man who lost everything, wrestled with the question “Why?” while his friends accused him of having unconfessed sin and pride. After all, God never punishes the righteous, does He?

Wrong.

I think of one godly friend, Terry, who while in his early 30s died of cancer. He left behind a wife and young daughter. I don’t know why and won’t know until eternity. Maybe this planet simply didn’t deserve him.

Job learns two things from a discussion with God: 1) Job isn’t not God and 2) Job is going to have to trust God. While the first two chapters indicate why Job went through what he did, nothing at the book’s end indicates Job knew why. It’s possible he did, but it’s also possible Job had to wait until heaven to find have his “Why?” question answered: Because God simply wanted to prove to Satan that humans serve God out of love for God and a desire to know Him rather than how much money and possessions He gives them…

A friend suggested I read Psalm 5 recently. It reminds me of that advice from PCC given to us from Pastor Jim Schettler about reading through a Psalm or Proverb every day. I figure through diligence you can read through both books twice in a single year. Granted, the Psalm 119 is long, but there are several Psalms that are shorter than I am (for the record, I’m about 5’8″).

Richard Zowie is a Christian writer who feels it’s best to be a Christian first and a writer second. Post comments here or e-mail them to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

Unless you count the euphoria of rising early for a vacation or Saturday mornings getting up to watch Bugs Bunny cartoons, I have never been a morning person. But yet mornings are really the best time to spend with God. Early mornings when nobody else is up.

So, I’ve reminded myself that by getting to bed at a decent hour, I will have an easier time getting up early to spend it with God.

Currently, all I have left until the end of the year is the Minor Prophets and Proverbs in the Old Testament and then Acts and Romans in the New Testament. It’s been a bumpy ride, but it’s looking like 2011 will be a year in which I read the Bible completely through cover to cover.

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

Eye hasn’t seen
Ear hasn’t heard
What awaits Christians in heaven
I agree with what Jack T. Chick once said:
“If God were to show us heaven
“Right now,
“Our minds couldn’t handle it.”
October is the big 3-0
For me
As a believer, but
Heaven remains an indecipherable enigma,
I can only imagine, indeed,
But our finite minds
Are unable to grasp
An infinite eternity.
It migraines my mind
To think about it.
Forever?
Never ending?
It’s a carousel of happiness
Perpetual spinning
Forever reaching up, getting further away
Beyond the distant universe below
A trillion years
Nothing but a
Brief, beginning blip.

9-3-2011 — The Dark Planet

The dark planet
Harbors only one type of resident.
The keeper of secrets.
Why the darkness?
How the darkness?
Is it better called
Hell? Planeta del infierno? 星球地狱? Планета ада? Hölle Planeten?
Home of the lake of fire?

9-7-2011 — A Wise Man

A wise man
Who doubts that moniker
Told me this about
The possibility of
Extraterrestrial life.
“If God wanted us to know,
“He would’ve mentioned something
“In the Bible.”
I asked him if he thought
The lake of fire
Existed on a planet
In a distant, squinting telescope-proof galaxy.
“Don’t know, don’t care,”
He said.
“All I know is, I won’t be there.”
My conclusion:
Thinking on these things
Is harmless
If it’s not at the expense of what’s important.

9-21-2011 — Revisiting Pascal’s Wager

Only the most obstinate
The princes and princesses of pride
The emperors and empresses of ego
Thoese secretly insecure, unsure
Who smugly cite
Pascal’s Wager
When asked,
“What if you’re wrong?”
It’s a simple question.
Does the answer scare you THAT much?
It would be easier to ask a procrastinating, overdrawn person
What their account balance is.

9-21-2011 — I’d Make a Lousy Atheist

I’d make a lousy atheist.
To eschew logic and common sense
To succomb to stubbornness
And insist
Unbelievably-complex organisms
Magically evolved
Instead of being designed.
I’d also have to believe
2 + 2 = 5
and
All politicians are honest.
Romans 1 tells us
Evidence for God’s existence
Is in surplus.

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

Even now, it is extremely difficult for me to listen to the song PYT (“Pretty Young Thing” and from his 1982 album Thriller) without laughing.

Jackson was talented, yes, but for many they cannot get past his alleged activities.

It’s a little funny when you consider that many classical composers, such as Mozart and Beethoven, lived less-than-pristine personal lives.

Then there’s David: psalmist, musician, adulterer and murderer. Of course, as we learn in Psalm 51, David was very sorrowful over his sin. Of course, it’s possible Jackson was very sorrowful over his alleged indiscretions (he reportedly settled out of court with a few accusers and was acquitted in one public trial). Eternity will tell.

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

…Whenever you don’t feel like reading your Bible or going to church, chances are excellent there is something about you that scares Satan to death…

…I believe the Lake of Fire exists on a planet in a distant galaxy. Perhaps that dark planet…

Astronomers estimate that this planet (seen here in an artist’s conception) is darker than coal and has a surface temperature of only 1,800 degrees.

…Speaking of astronomy, had Adam and Eve never sinned in the Garden of Eden, I suspect by now we’d be colonizing other planets, possibly even ones outside our solar system…

…I suspect God sees all the world’s events–from the Garden of Eden to the final battle at the end of the thousand-year millennial reign–happening all right now on some type of theological matrix. As I type, God is seeing Moses leading Israel through the Red Sea. He’s also seeing those who’ve taken the mark of the beast screaming at the scorching heat…

…I believe that if we as Christians were to see heaven right now, it would make almost no sense whatsoever. The finite trying to grasp the infinite?…

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

I was about two weeks behind at one point on my Old Testament reading, then got completely caught up both, and then the procrastination and sleep bugs hit and tonight I’ll have three day’s worth to read to catch up.

One thing I am looking to add is reading from the Psalms each night. Starting next year, I may even break it down further and, every day of the year, read a Psalm or Proverb. Psalm 119, of course, would be split up into about four days.

What is it that makes it so difficult to maintain consistency? We just get too busy in our own lives, perhaps. And, of course, the devil is always there to let us know of the many other things we could be doing with our time…surfing the internet, sleeping, eating, relaxing, watching TV, visiting social sites.

In an effort to get caught up on my reading, I “read” through the entire Book of Joshua. No, I don’t recommend that. The quantity versus quality approach to Bible reading never is successful. Spiritually, you feel far better when you relax, focus and read.

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

So far, I am about a week behind schedule.

Once I am caught up, I will compare the days again to make sure I’m caught up. Then I will be able to relax and focus on that day’s reading instead of having to read three days’ worth.

My excuse? There really isn’t one. You have to purpose to yourself to spend time with God every day.

My recommendation? Read each day. Preferably in the morning.

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

Was that the right decision?

No.

I did read the Bible and knocked out chunks both Testaments. Am still behind schedule but I know that if I stick to the schedule I have, I will be caught up by August. It can be done: I just have to do it. Period.

Have spoken to God a lot and have received lots of great advice from different people. Soon I will blog about an approach to witnessing that my friend Lyndee suggested. Some won’t like it, I know, but people have to realize that when you talk at the lost instead of to them or with them, you really won’t get anywhere.

I was very encouraged recently to learn of a schoolmate, Dionicio, is now a practicing Christian and is active in his church. Back in Beeville, I and others knew him as Chico, but he told me he prefers DCO these days. As I read his testimony on his Facebook page, it really made me think that God the Great Fisherman uses countless baits, lures, hooks, to bring people to Him. Some through a church sermon, some through hitting rock bottom, some through years of a good friendship with a Christian and some through God allowing them to believe He has chosen them and that they must come to Him.

So now, one of my ventures is to encourage others. Two friends, both of whom have been divorced twice, come to mind.

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

For those who don’t remember Sunday School or who aren’t familiar with the Bible, let me summarize: Job is probably the oldest book in the Old Testament. He was a righteous man who feared God and sacrificed regularly. Satan was convinced that Job’s allegiance to God was because God did nothing but bless Job. God allowed Satan first to kill Job’s children and then to strike Job with physical infirmities. In spite of all the heartache and fierce persecution, Job refused to renounce God and wondered aloud why he was going through such torment. His friends were convinced he had unconfessed sin in his life. God finally tells Job’s friends they were wrong in their assessment, and He tells Job that He (God) is in control and it’s not up to Job to question God’s ways.

While God allows Job to heal and become more prosperous than before (in both material possessions and children), one thing I found odd about this story: God never tells Job of the conversation that took place between Satan and God. It’s safe to assume Job knows by now, since he has been in heaven for about 4,500 years, he probably knows by now.

“Job must have been a remarkable guy if God saw fit to brag about him to Satan,” Tony said.

Tony didn’t know it at the time, but over the next few days he gave me a lot to think about.

God placed Job to the challenge because God knew Job would prevail.

It makes me think that such exchanges and challenges between God and Satan occur regularly. Perhaps Satan might say these things:

“Let me move this man’s wife to fall in love with someone else and ask for a divorce, and he will curse you!”

“Allow me to take away this man’s millions, and he will curse you!”

“Allow me to ruin this man’s career through false accusations, and he will curse you!”

And perhaps the toughest of all:

“Allow me to let this man to be falsely sent to prison, and for him to be brutalized and raped, and he will curse you!”

Whenever we go through trials in our life, whether it’s the ending of a marriage, the losing of wealth, reputation, the endurance of a mountain of physical and emotional pain, maybe it all happened because God bragged about us to Satan and is putting us through a trial to show Satan His sovereignty.

Yes, it’s unpleasant, but as the Book of Job dictates, God puts us through nothing we can’t handle. To backslide and quit the Christian walk is foolish. To commit suicide is even more foolish. Both only will result in one sad accomplishment: a life wasted that could’ve been spent being an enormous blessing of evangelization and encouragement.

If you feel like you are enduring what Job went through, don’t quit.

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.