It's That Time Again...

The turn of another year. New beginnings, and all that stuff. Sigh.

I think I've said before that it's a bit odd that we put such significance on our particular custom of naming days and months and years. After all, January 1 is just a day after December 31, just like any other single-day change from day to day. But we give it such significance.

This is another such time, and I've embarked on another attempt at reading the Bible through this year. I have often started and seldom finished these endeavors in the past. The only time I seem to succeed is when I'm part of a group all doing the same thing.

I recently heard a sermon on the notion of having a "y'all theology." It's how the life of faith was intended to be lived. Many of the you's in the Bible are actually plural, but our individualistic minds hear them as singular. Our language limits our ability to understand. "You" should really be translated as "y'all" for clarity.

So, y'all need join me on this project. I'm on bible.com doing the plan called, "Reading God's Story: One-Year Chronological Plan." Send me (rbhawkins) a friend request and we'll do it together!

Beginnings - Genesis 1:1-3:24

A lot of people set out in January to read through the Bible. Many get bogged down in February or March and never finish. I have done the same thing on several occasions with mixed results, sometimes finishing, sometimes not. This year you'll all get to see how far I get!

Genesis is of course about beginning. The thing that strikes me today is how pleasant everything was in Eden to start with. God created everything just right, carefully making it all work together as it should. What a contrast to our world where little if anything seems to work together. It's easy to blame Adam for messing things up, or blame Eve for leading him astray, or blame the serpent for tempting them...and they do blame each other this way. The truth is, we can't have true freedom without accepting the consequences of our own mistakes, and the mistakes of others. Without the ability to sin, the choice to love God is missing also. God really did create everything just as he intended.