Eight Days In

So the first week of the 90-day Bible-reading challenge has passed. It's a lot of reading in a short amount of time, but I find that this helps me focus on the major themes and the bigger picture. I'm not sure who all has joined me on this little adventure--if you haven't joined yet, why not now? You can always go back and catch up on the books/chapters you missed at the end.

So what caught your attention as you read this week? What surprised you? What did you like? What did you not like? These are the kinds of questions I was hoping to ask the people who joined me in reading, but I don't know who took me up on my challenge (except one). I guess that means I'll share this time. Maybe next week some other readers will come forward and share their own discoveries.

What impressed me as I finished Exodus was how God was fulfilling His part of the covenant with Abraham. Abraham was promised many descendants who would be slaves in Egypt for a time. Then God would bring them out of Egypt and back to the land that Abraham was living in at the time. So at the end of Exodus, we see God guiding hundreds of thousands of Abraham's descendants toward their Promised Land. He has been working for hundreds of years to keep His end of the bargain. And now in Exodus, we also see God instructing the people how to keep their end of the covenant.

There are lots of extra materials out there to explain what covenants are and how they operate. One that I have found extremely helpful is "The Blood Covenant" by E. W. Kenyon. It has an excellent illustration of a "modern" blood covenant, which sheds some light on the covenants in the Bible. I recommend reading it, although if you're pressed for time you may want to wait until the 90-day challenge is over.

That's all for now. Good success to all on week #2 of the challenge!

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."--Heb. 10:24 (NIV)