There are only 28 chapters of Matthew and there are 31 days so that gives us 3 extra days to read this book. Matthew is the very first book of the New Testament. It was written by Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector and he was one of Jesus 12 disciples.
Taken from my Life Application Study Bible, Tyndale Publisher, the New Living Translation (NLT), as you read this Gospel, listen to Matthew's clear message: Jesus is the Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Celebrate his victory over evil and death, and make Jesus the Lord of your life.
Please feel free to share your thoughts with us as we go forward. If you have thoughts of Amy or a verse that spoke to you, please go ahead. Because this is not a private blog, I am screening the comments and will tolerate only corrections, and positive comments.
Matthew starts with a genealogy going from Abraham to King David up to Jesus. I know it is tempting to skip these verses or even this entire chapter. However, take the time to read through the names. There might be a few more names that you recognize. If you have time, you may want to go back and learn a little bit more about some of the people in which you don't recognize.
We did a study a few years back at my church and during that time, we learned again about Ruth. Ruth was not of Jewish descent but she did marry two Jewish men and she was a wonderful, strong, courageous woman (can we think of someone else who was a strong woman in our lives :)). Also, it is possible that next month we will be reading the book of Ruth so we will get to know more about Ruth then. I mention Ruth also because we can be reminded that we are ALL children of God. Can you find others who were not of original Jewish heritage? As you read through the Geneology, are there people that are mentioned that you don't know anything about? Go to bluebible.com and see if they have anything written about that person.
If you have some extra time and would like to learn more about some of the people named, here are some passages listed. For more on Tamar, see Genesis 38:29-30; for more on Rahab see Joshua 2 and 6:22, 23; and for Rehoboam see 2 Chronicles Chapters 10 - 12. Was there a name that you saw that you would like to read more about look it up in your Bible or go to bluebible.com. Leave a comment with the verses so we can learn more too.
Verses 1 - 16 strings many names and lives together leading us to our Messiah.
Can you imagine being 16 years of age or younger and having an angel visit you? Sometimes with all the commercialism that surrounds us leading up to and around the Christmas season, I think we can forget about how truly amazing and perplexing that time was for Mary and Joseph. Imagine being visited by one of God's angels no less to announce that you are going to have a child and even more so THE child, the long awaited for MESSIAH.
God Bless you and Happy Reading. Smile; we are now in 2013!
See you tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment