Bible in 90 Days: Week 11 Check-In

This week begins our 11th week of reading through the Bible in 90 days.  We are reading through the Gospels now.  This is strange when reading through chronologically because each account is repeated over and over again.  It is difficult reading in one way because I'm reading the same passage over and over in different words.  But, in another sense, it is interesting to see how the Gospels fit together and what different authors said about the same event.

I'm caught up in my reading except for one day's reading.  Somehow last week, I inadvertently split up Thursday, so I'm a day behind.  I plan to catch up today and also read today's reading.  Today is day 71, so in less than 20 days, we will be through the Bible in 90 days again!

There Are A Lot of Reasons to Give Up But There Are Greater Reasons to Finish Strong by Sheri Rose Shepherd

	There Are a Lot of Reasons to Give Up, but There Are Greater Reasons to Finish Strong  The Grand Finale
	By Sheri Rose Shepherd Bestselling Author and Bible Life Coach
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	When you have dedicated your life to loving, encouraging, praying for, and pouring yourself into your husband, only to watch him, in a moment of weakness, destroy the foundation you worked so hard to build, you may feel as if your entire world has been wiped out. If this describes you, I invite you to read a real-life love story that I believe will give you the passion you may need to persevere under any and every trial. It will also give you a true picture of what love looks like when lived out with a legacy perspective. I call this story "The Grand Finale." John and Marie were college sweethearts who dreamed of furthering God's Kingdom together. During the first decade of their ministry, God blessed them with a growing church, two beautiful children, and a strong and loving marriage. Because of their commitment to God and each other, they became one of the most respected couples in the community. Their marriage was a beacon of hope to other young couples who wondered what marriage could be. John loved the ministry, and he loved the life God had given him. He was passionate about the call of God on his life, and he truly loved his wife. One day as John was busy working at the church, a young lady burst through the door of the church office. She was crying hysterically, and John came out of his office to see what he might do to help. As she struggled to catch her breath, she told John about her desperate attempts to escape from her abusive husband. She was sure he would kill her if he found her, but she didn't feel safe going to the police because they had failed to help her in the past. John quickly called Marie and asked her to take the young lady to a safe place. After Marie helped this distraught young mom gather her kids and some clothes, she brought them home to spend the night with her and John. In a matter of days, Marie and John's love for this young woman led her to become a Christian. After spending a few weeks in their home, she seemed like a new person. She was hungry for God and at peace. John and Marie felt great, knowing they had made such an impact on this young woman and her kids. When this woman and her children were still staying in John and Marie's home several weeks later, many of his good friends and family approached John and recommended that the woman find housing with another single mom. He was blinded, saying, "Marie is really helping her. I can't ask her to leave now; she may fall away from the Lord." John's good intentions without wisdom and his unwillingness to heed the warnings of others left him unguarded against the enemy's attack. One night when Marie was out leading a Bible study, John was home alone with this woman. She had fallen for Marie's husband and was determined to have him for herself. Tragically, Marie walked into her home to find John and the young woman in their bed together. Everything John and Marie had built was destroyed. Unable to handle his guilt, John felt like such a failure that he left his marriage, his children, and his church to marry this young, attractive woman. Two years into his new marriage, however, he was diagnosed with acute leukemia and given only ten weeks to live. His second wife, who was still in her early twenties, decided she did not want to take care of a dying man. After emptying his bank account, she left him alone to die. He had no family and no loving church body to rally around him. In fact, he had nothing to show for his years of hard work and dedication to ministry. As tragic as this story is, the ending is proof of God's amazing grace. Marie decided that when John died, he should be free of guilt and shame. She went to his bedside, not gloating with condemnation, but offering to care for and forgive him. Her kids seemed almost angry at her for loving her ex-husband after all he had done. Her friends from church asked her why she was helping him. However, Marie wanted her children and church to remember, not how John had left them, but how she took care of him, never leaving his bedside until he drew his last breath. On the day John died, his children and members from his church gathered around his bedside with Marie. They held hands and shared memories of how John had touched others' lives when he was walking with God. Marie got a greater gift. By her sacrifice, she began the healing in her own heart and in her children's hearts. Today they can all live free of regret and anger because they said a final good-bye to their father in a setting of God's glorious love. Marie finished strong in spite of the devastation, and she gave John and their kids an amazing final gift: she gave him her forgiveness and the opportunity to finish what he had started, even if it had to take place on his deathbed after their marriage had ended. If you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you. (1 Peter 4:19) For more teaching from the Your Heart's Desire book and Bible study, visitwww.biblelifecoaching.com. Watch the trailer:

Desiring a "Happily Ever After" by Sheri Rose Shepherd

And now, with no further ado, the first marriage article by Sheri Rose Shepherd:

	Desiring a "Happily Ever After" Fighting the Temptation to Give Up on Love and Marriage
	By Sheri Rose Shepherd Bestselling Author and Bible Life Coach
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	I don't know where you stand today with the man you love or loved—or if you are single, divorced, separated, or widowed. I can tell you, though, that if you've been hurt, you can be sure Your heavenly Father knows how hard it is to love and forgive the one who caused you pain. Yet regardless of the relational devastation you face, no one can keep you from finishing strong for God's glory! I was raised in a non-Christian home. My parents have each been married and divorced to three different people. As part of several blended families, all I understood about marriage when I was growing up was "unhappily ever after." But then I became a Christian at twenty-four and married my husband, Steve, just a few years later. Because of my love for God and my husband, I honestly didn't think anything could shake my own marriage or faith. In the summer of 2007, however, my happily ever after was wiped out and my faith was tested. The family foundation I had worked so hard to build and protect was almost destroyed, along with my ministry, in that season of my life. I truly believed that God had forsaken me. I had just finished writing my book for mothers about raising sons to become godly husbands. As I excitedly ran upstairs to e-mail the manuscript to the publisher, I suddenly felt as if something dark hovered over me. My passion for the book's message was drowned out by the fear of an attack from the enemy that could come against me and my family if I stepped on his territory . . . young men and their future marriages. I called the publisher and said I'd need to wait and pray for courage before submitting the manuscript. I went to my son, Jake, who was eighteen years old and a senior in high school at the time, and asked him if he had any plans of rebelling against his faith once he graduated from high school. I told him I was willing to give him freedom to find his own faith in Christ, but I didn't want to put out a book about raising boys if my own son was going to walk away from the Lord. He reassured me that he was strong in his faith and that he felt I should publish the book. I decided to take the chance to make a difference and sent in the manuscript. The book began climbing the charts, and everything seemed to be going well. I even began speaking with my son at conferences for mothers of boys. Then three months into my book tour, my fear of attack hit. My husband had taken a job that we had both prayed for. This job appeared to be a blessing; however, his new position required him to violate some of the boundaries we had put in place to protect our marriage, and we ended up separated. There I was in the public eye of ministry, fighting to save future marriages, and somehow my own marriage was falling apart. My son was devastated by the division between me and his dad. It was too hard for him to deal with all his confusion, pain, and anger, so he took a break from his faith and began using drugs and alcohol to comfort himself. I had always known to run to God for cover when there was a great attack, but now I felt like He had left me alone on the battlefield to fight for myself. It appeared that all I had believed about God and all my effort to build a strong foundation for my own family had been shattered. My pain, my shame, and my life were an embarrassment. I felt as if I were battling an out-of-control fire that would burn up everything I loved and lived for. Every night I would cry myself to sleep as I struggled to understand why God had not protected me while I was attempting to accomplish something for His glory. One night I could not take it anymore, so I fell to my knees and told God I either wanted Him to fix my family or I wanted to quit the ministry. Then I felt the Lord asking me a bigger question: Was My life, given on a cross for you, not enough for you to finish strong even if it means surrendering the life you wanted? For the first time I realized that my heart's true desire was to feel loved and secure, and yet no man on earth could love me the way my Lord does. In that moment of crisis I found the true meaning of following Christ. God had not forsaken me, but He did want to free me from depending on others to give me my happily ever after. That night I gave my heart's deepest desire to God and chose to follow Him at any cost. In exchange, He gave me something so much better; He gave me peace that was more powerful than my circumstances. My faith was no longer in people; it was in Christ alone. Although nothing outwardly had changed yet, I had been changed. Today, Steve and I have celebrated twenty-five years of marriage, and our son serves God with His whole heart. He and his bride have given us our first grandbaby girl. However, to be honest, restoring our marriage was excruciatingly painful and more difficult than either of us expected. As hard as this trial was, it taught me a valuable lesson: our Lord is the God of comfort and the author of a new beginning. He can and will rebuild a beautiful life out of any broken heart willing to make a change. He will use one sacrificial choice; one act of forgiveness; one sincere, repentant heart; and one woman who is willing to step out in faith and start rebuilding with His love for His glory. I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2) For more teaching from the Your Heart's Desire book and Bible study, visitwww.biblelifecoaching.com. Watch the trailer:

Marriage Help and a Guest Author!

I know so many people lately- either in my real life or from online groups- who are hurting in their marriages. I've seen marriages fail.  I've seen families hurt.  I know this is a real problem.

I want to make my marriage strong.  I want to have good communication and to be the wife God wants me to be.  I often post links to other marriage blogs I read, and recently I went through the whole Revive Your Marriage challenge in September.

I have the opportunity coming up to review a new book and Bible study by Sheri Rose Shepherd titled Your Heart's Desire.  Leading up to that, I am going to be able to post eight articles by Sheri that come from this study.  Tomorrow will begin those posts.  I hope you are able to read them and to check out Sheri's book and Bible study published by Tyndale.  Let me know what you think.

Bible in 90 Days: Week 10 Rally

It is hard to believe that we are over 2/3 of the way through reading through the Bible in 90 days this session.  I've enjoyed reading chronologically this time.  This is the time when many readers may feel discouraged.  If they are behind, catching up seems hard at this point.  It's also reading through the prophets- major and minor, and this is some heavy reading.  Amy at Mom's Toolbox has written a post to rally our reading community.  You can read it and be encouraged here.

Revive Your Marriage- Final Week

This week's challenge is: Revive Your Sex Life

Perhaps they've saved the best for last.

I'm going to be a little frank here.  Many women, Christian women especially, think sex is a dirty word.  And we underestimate the importance that sex has for our men.

I was that wife at the beginning of our marriage.  And we had some rough times, times that I made unnecessarily rough, because of my attitude about sex.

Thankfully God worked in our marriage and both of us changed some wrong attitudes.  So here we are today.  And while I can't tell you we always have this sex life thing worked out, I can say it is much better than it was then.  And I can tell you how good it is to have that relationship, that intimacy, that trust with my husband.

I can't talk about this subject nearly as well as the Revive Your Marriage bloggers, so I challenge you to read their posts this week and to seriously search your heart about this in your marriage.  Are you loving your husband in this way?  Are you treating sex as something valuable and important and a blessing to your husband, or is it just a dirty word?

Meanwhile, I'll be off to work on this week's challenge.  It sounds like fun.

Week 7 of Through the Bible in 90 Days and Why Keep Reading

This is week 7 of reading through the Bible in 90 days.  At this point, many get discouraged.  If you're behind, you feel as if you're too far to catch up. Some people decide at this point that this just isn't for them.  They are too busy, or they don't like reading through the Bible so quickly.

There are many reasons to quit at this point.  And I know this reading program may not be for everyone.  But, here's why I like this program and how I've been blessed by it:

Why I Read Through the Bible in 90 Days

I’ve been a Christian for a very long time.  In fact I can’t really remember a time that I wasn’t a Christian.  And from the time I was a very little girl, I was taught in church, and in Christian school, and by my parents that I should read the Bible.  

When I was older, I even understood the concept of a “spiritual discipline.”  And so I read.  When I was younger, I read devotional books.  By the time I was in high school, I used a “through the Bible in a year” program each year.  In fact, I dutifully recorded how many times I had read through the Bible.  As if those tally marks could somehow show others how truly spiritual I was.

When children entered my life, I would get behind on reading through the Bible.  But, I’m a really fast reader.  So, it didn’t matter if I was five days or a week behind; I could easily catch up in an hour or less of reading.

And so my Bible reading was in spurts: some reading here, some reading there.  And some of the time (most of the time if I’m honest), I just wanted to finish, so I could check off another tally mark.  There were some deep and spiritual times of reading my Bible, but there were also some dry and dusty times.


In 2009 I saw that our church had some materials out in the narthex about reading through the Bible in 90 days.  I glanced through them but thought, “Oh, this is just another church fad.  And, besides, this program looks awfully legalistic.  These people are just out to make money.  Why do I need yet another Bible?”

At the end of that year, I happened to run across a blog hosting a read through the Bible in 90 days program.  I almost dismissed it.  But, the pressure of the blogosphere drew me in.  I just couldn’t miss out on what all these other bloggers were doing.  So, I signed up, printed off a reading chart (‘cause I sure wasn’t paying for that Bible, right?), and started reading for my first time in January of 2010.

It is not an exaggeration to say that I was amazed.  Yes, I had read through the Bible before, but this was different.
1. I couldn’t skip days because there was too much catch up work.  Even a reader like myself has a time reading 30-40 chapters in one day.
2. Reading through the Bible in community with others was incredible.  Even though we only checked in once a week, I knew there were others- many others- reading through the same books at the same time.  And I was motivated to stay on track because of the accountability.
3. The best thing for me was seeing the “big picture” of the Bible.  All my life I’d heard Bible stories and taken Bible classes.  But reading straight through quickly gave the picture of the Bible as a novel, a whole book with a whole story.  I didn’t spend months making it from the Kings to the Prophets; so I knew what the Prophets were talking about.  They made so much more sense.
4. And because I had this big picture view, I was thirsty for the Word and touched by it much more consistently. I will admit that there were still dry times and times that I just read to check it off my list.  But, those times were few and far between.

After I had read through the Bible in 90 days three times and mentored a group twice, my daughter, then 12, decided to read.  She saw my enthusiasm and wanted to be a part.  I wasn’t sure she would keep up.  She’s a very, very fast reader; but I thought she might lose interest.  She’s a teenager!  But she made it her first time and then a second time at the first of this year.  In fact, we are later starting this session, and she has been badgering me to get something going, so she could read through again with a group.



God’s Word is powerful.  It is alive and is a blessing to us when we read it.   Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  I’m very glad I joined in with that first group to read through the Bible in 90 days, and I am looking forward to reading again.