The Structure of the Plan.

You’ll find this devotional laid out in 52 weeks.

This is so you can start at any point in the year.

We all start our journey of faith in Jesus at different points.  Some meet Jesus early in life, and others towards the end of their life, and the really twisted part is that none of us ever really know how short life really is anyway.  Am I towards the end of my journey even now?  I don’t know!  But what I know is that the calendar year, with months like “January, February, March” in my culture isn’t even compatible with other cultures that use the Julian calendar, the Chinese calendar, or Orthodox or Jewish calendar.  But it’s pretty accepted that there are 52 weeks in the year.  Most HR managers structure benefits for their employees based on a 52-week calendar year.  So I’ve designed this devotional to reflect that!  Also, if you miss a few weeks because you’re on vacation and you leave it behind,  you can pick up where you left off without feeling the guilt of being behind according to the name of a month on whichever calendar you use! My ADHD mind doesn’t function really well when I feel like I’ve fallen behind, sometimes I even want to quit outright.  I have a lot of devotional books I’ve set down halfway through, can’t even remember why, and it takes years before I pick them back up.  This is a more interactive model, and I don’t want you to lose interest or momentum for any reason! And while you’re doing it, you’ll also find interactive online resources that compliment that week, or day, like a song link, a printable resource, a recipe, or something else that will keep you interested!  Who doesn’t like a freebie or a nice reward along the way! 

Each week has a theme! 

These themes are designed to point us back towards intentionally cultivating a life in Christ.  They’re witty and thought-provoking, at least I hope that they are, I guess that depends on your sense of humour.

Each theme builds on a previous theme.

Each day there’s a primary focus.

There will sometimes be a little bit of variation from the daily theme, but it will always try to tie back into the point of the day.

This way each week will get through a major section, so we’ll be looking throughout the whole Bible, not just focusing on the New Testament or the Old Testament, or only doing devotionals in one certain section. Just like you don’t go to the gym and only work out your biceps, or your legs, every day for a month or two, or your body gets out of balance. Can you imagine a personal trainer who only ever worked out their abs and biceps?  Would you ever want to take their advice? Probably not. So this devotional is to daily walk through a different portion, but each specific day of the week we’ll revisit a certain area. This isn’t exactly designed to get us to a “Whole Bible in a Year” accomplishment… there are a lot of really great books that do exactly that.  But if you’ll just journey with me, you’ll get a basic, well-rounded journey throughout the whole Bible, and feel prepared to walk through this world ready to bear the fruit of the Spirit, make more copies of your cultivated faith in others, and grow deeper in your understanding of the whole story of the good gardener who embodied the Word of God.

The plan: 

Monday - Intentional - Letters & Falsies

Who has a hard time starting the week intentionally?  Just like in any work week, the Christian life is proved by results (faith without works is dead), so gotta watch out for time wasters, setting our hearts and minds on the things that really set us out towards righteousness, encourage us properly, and warn us of the mistakes we could make.

Tuesday - Emotional - Psalms and Proverbs and Arts

We’ve started out ok, but things can get real, really fast. The Psalms and Proverbs and books of poems and laments and artistic things in the Bible remind us that we’re part of a vast human experience in our relationship with God.  The words of these authors ground us in a larger scope of human history, expressed emotionally, and show us that there is a proper way of processing our feelings through wisdom, experience, and the lens of ancient divine perspective.

Wednesday - Social - Corinthians and Letters

Oh, the dreaded hump day… the middle of the week can see us getting weary in our walk.  So many churches have mid-week services to pray and seek healing.  In the context of the church, and how the body of Christ ought to function, we find how we ultimately belong.  It’s not just the postmodern rhetoric of “church family” but the collective expression of us all being part of the Body of Christ, and the Bride of Christ at the same time.  Adam was made out of dirt, water and the breath of God, and Jesus came to be God with us, in human form, a body just like ours… but He didn’t come to the earth and then wind up like like we do - “ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” He redeemed that.  Eve was taken out of the side of Adam, as his bride - and the church being the Bride of Christ is the beautiful allegory that we are taken from the pierced side of Christ and are raised to new life and declared beautiful and that it is good - we are the “helper suitable to Him” in the expression of what the church truly is. As the church evangelizes and makes converts, just like the seed of Eve would crush the head of the serpent, the disciples that the church raises up will crush the serpent, that devil that seeks to deceive the world, the church can remove the serpent from its midst in the authority of the covenant relationship and by invoking the presence of that relationship by calling on the name of the living Jesus Christ, because when we call on Him, HE SHOWS UP. Because we bear the mark of His authority, every power in heaven and on earth answers to the authority of the church, whether they recognize it or not.  There are spiritual repercussions and consequences for everything we do in this life because what we do in the gardens of our lives is evident to the world around us.

Thursday - Mental - Commentaries

We read the Bible, and God speaks to us.  Our understandings are limited though and we need to learn.  Just like any job, any schooling, we need continuing education. We build on our understanding by standing on the shoulders of previous generations, and scholars that have searched the original texts, in their original languages. There is so much we can learn from reading books and texts, called commentaries, which comment on the biblical text in such a way that gets us thinking beyond our own experience, our own church’s expression of worship, and our own culture’s history of how we relate to God through the Bible.

Friday - Conventional - Old Testament and Pentateuch

… what is generally held to be acceptable at the expense of individuality, following traditional forms and genres - aids morality and dictates behaviour

…Being well grounded in the OT helps us not succumb totally to the postmodern mindset that all truth is relative and that truth is not absolute.  This is so important for our culture!

Saturday - Physical - Gospels

For so many people, Saturdays are the day to spend as a family, getting physical with sports, or hobbies. We get active and busy on Saturdays with things that we consider fun.  Is it too much of a stretch to think that God becoming one of us was fun for Him?  The story of the gospels, that Jesus, Emmanuel - “God with us” enjoys being with us, is physical. His parables are so practical, yet they often had such a deeper hidden meaning that even His closest followers didn’t understand, and had to ask clarifying questions.

Sunday - Spiritual - Revelation and Prophets

Having a day to meet with other Christians in a community is so important.  Meeting online just won’t cut it, because we are called to gather in prayer, laying hands on each other to pray and share testimonies of how God is at work in our midst.  This is how our faith grows, and we add to our number of believers!  It wasn’t on a bunch of individuals that the Holy Spirit fell for the first time!  It wasn’t at night in the secret quiet places of reflection that the church grew in number. The personal relationship with God is important, but that’s not where growth happens.  We keep each other accountable, we refine each other in the use of the gifts God gives to us, and we encourage each other by not leaving a wayward sheep wandering alone.  We fan each other’s flames into a bonfire, as we wait for Christ’s return!