Each weekend at NewSpring, we will dedicate a portion of the Worship Guide to the weekly readings, so be sure to take it home, slip it in your Bible and be ready to read this week!

Here’s a link to the reading plan at OneYearBibleOnline.com.

Download it and print it out for your convenience.

Mark and I were talking about Odyssey 08 today and how it’s really amazing that so many of you are reading the Bible through with us this year. If you didn’t get in on the ground floor on January 1, it’s never too late to start. Don’t burden yourself with catching up. Just start with today’s reading and come on the journey with all of us.

We are going to have a Q & A session on your Odyssey 08 readings on Wednesday, January 30. So come on to Powerlines and “Stump the Chumps.” There are going to be several of us up there ready to do our best. Just a little forewarning, though, we don’t have all the answers. It’s going to be fun.

Written by Mary Alice Hoover
Monday, 14 January 2008
Chelsea
I really enjoyed your comments :). I don’t really have an “answer” on your question number one, but here’s a couple more questions to add and a thought to consider. When Adam and Eve sinned, why did God ask “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9). When God confronted Cain, why did He ask, “Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9). Since the Bible says in Matthew 6:8, “your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”, why are we instructed to “pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” (Philippians 4:6)? Again, I don’t have the “answer,” but maybe since God created us for fellowship, He desires our interaction with Him, even though He has perfect knowledge. Maybe in answering His question and/or demonstrating our behavior “in person”, He can help us recognize what He already knows and we haven’t quite accepted or articulated.  … just a thought.
Mary Alice

Written by Lance Cummins
Monday, 14 January 2008

Here’s one from Chelsea. Really like the thoughts and I’d love to see some of your responses.
Something that sticks out to me is in Matthew 5:19…
“So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, hyou will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.”
That Definately sticks in my mind!
I also Love the passage right after that which says,
“But I warn you-unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” -I love that 

I also never knew wisdom was referred to as a ’she’.

I also think it’s awesome that in Genesis 14:21, the King of Sodom told Abram he could keep all the goods he recovered, but Abram wouldn’t take ’so much as a single thread or sandal thong.’ That’s awesome!

QUESTION #1:
Genesis 18:20-21
So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”  Huh? Why wouldn’t God Already know without having to go down to see? That’s makes no sense what so ever to me.
QUESTION #2:
Genesis 19:18-20
“Oh no, my Lord!” Lot begged. “You have been so gracious to me and saved my life, and you have shown such great kindness. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die. See, there is a small village nearby. Please let me go there instead; don’t you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved.”  ??
Where does Faith and Trust in God play in these verses?! First of all, Lot begged. ? Then, after thanking God for being so gracious, he said he couldnt go up to the Mountains because he would soon die after disaster caught up with him? That reminds me of the way I talk at times, until God reminds me to trust in Him…and not what I ‘think’ is going to happen, which is mostly based out of fear or selfish ambitions. I just don’t understand why he would question what God told him to do, and Then the angel agreeing to his request! I just don’t get it. And then what’s crazier to me is that Lot ended up going to the Mountains Anyway after the destruction because he was afraid of the people there! So, is this saying that God’s original plan would have been best anyway?
ONE of my Favorite verse is in Matthew 7:3, which says
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?”  Sometimes human nature along with blessings, can make us look better to ourselves than how we see others and causes us to question what is going on in another persons head and Why they might do or think something that ‘we’ would never, but the thing to remember is that we All do Something that God would have that Same exact thought over. It may not be…in our eyes…as bad as what someone else is doing, but it’s all equal in Christ’s eyes! (you all know this…but you asked for highlights and thoughts…right? 

Written by Lance Cummins
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Some of you have started asking some great questions, and some of you have pursued answers to those questions. One of the first that pops up when you’re reading Genesis is “Where did Cain’s wife come from?” There are going to be a bunch more and I think it’s helpful to open ourselves up for some discussion, and try to reason from the rest of the Bible what the potential answers could be. BTW, we’re going to do a Q & A at Powerlines on January 23 where several of us will try to field your questions that you’ve come up with in your readings for Odyssey 08.

Back to Cain…here’s what one NewSpringer had to say about Cain.

… Anyway, after Jeff and I asked the question about Cain’s wife, I pretty much couldn’t work the next day until I got some thoughts. After talking to my Mom, Dad, Cousin, and the Pastor from the church I grew up in, I got some great suggestions! We all came from Adam and Eve. They were the ONLY man and woman first created by God. Adam is called “the first man” (Corinthians 15:45,47) and Eve “the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20) so we KNOW there is no one else that God created along with them. Some explanations I had gotten was that Cain had to have married one of his sisters or nieces and that the gene pool wasn’t contaminated yet to cause deformities, mutations, ect. My cousin emailed me a chapter called “Who was Cain’s Wife” from a book I am trying to find out the name to. If anyone wants to read the chapter, email me ( sarksu@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and I will attach the PDF. I would have loved to copy and paste the entire chapter here, but it’s just too long. It is very very interesting! I never questioned this before Jeff brought it up the night we were reading together! I am going to trust that God will help me understand what He has written as we read our Bible this year. Happy Reading!! -Sarah-

Written by Lance Cummins
Wednesday, 09 January 2008
So, those of you reading through the Bible as a part of Odyssey 08, care to chime in with what your highlights have been so far? I’m always astounded about new things that I read as I go along, like in Genesis 18… Does anyone else find it very cool that apparently God himself was one of the three visitors to Abraham to tell him about the promise of a son? I guess I was just dozing as a kid when preachers would talk about this, but I always imagined Abraham looking in the sky and having that little dialog with God about sparing Sodom if he could find 40, no wait 30, no wait 20… Nope. It seems that Abraham was doing his bargaining face to face. And apparently, he knew that.

Or how about another cool factoid from the same story. So, God (one of the 3 men who visit Abraham) says to God (I’m guessing the other members of the trinity), “Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” Do what? Well, I talked with Mark about this and he said this is a, are you ready for this, CHRISTOPHANY. That means a time when Jesus showed up on earth, before he did it formally in Bethlehem.

Not to steal any thunder from McDonald’s, and I know they say they have this phrase trademarked, but, I’M LOVIN’ IT!

So, what little things blew you away?

Comments
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written by Jesse, January 12, 2008
And here I thought “Christophany” was what you named your child if you and your wife couldn’t decide between Christopher and Tiffany.

Actually, I’ve never heard of that word OR the fact that Jesus could have divinely shown up on earth before “His birth”. That’s rather incredible.

You can use this site to post your own comments about today’s reading in the One Year Bible. Take a look.
Click here to view today’s readings at newspring.org

Here are the comments exported from our previous site:
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written by Jeffrey & Sarah, January 02, 2008
We just finished reading the January 2nd lesson. We were wondering about Cain’s fate after he was banished to the land of Nod (wandering). Where did Cain’s wife come from? I’ve always wondered this. I was always taught that we all descend from Adam and Eve, but where did these other people come from? Cain’s son marries and has a son who then marry and so forth. Did God create other people like he did Adam and Eve and they were not written about?
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written by Angela, January 03, 2008
I have been thinking about the reading on day 1 in Matthew. I believe Pastor Mark mentioned during Holidaze the fact that Herod did not see the star that was guiding the Wise Men. Was this because God did not show it to him or because he heart was so hardened to God that he could not see it? It is much like today then also, all anyone needs to do is look around and they can see that God does exist just by looking at his beatufil creation. Many have hardened their hearts and choose not to see God (the star) and accept him.

Thoughts?
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written by Lance , January 08, 2008
Love the question about Cain’s wife. I’d love to hear some opinions. If anyone has some specific scriptures that may help with the explanation, that would be even better. I have some ideas, but I’d like to see some of you discuss it some.
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written by Mindy, January 10, 2008
I am having a problem seeing how all the readings for the day fit together. I am a recent follower in Christ and did not grow up with the bible. I wish someone would blog each day to discuss how they all go together.
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written by Lance Cummins, January 10, 2008
That’s really what this forum is for. I’d love for all of us who are involved to put our thoughts down and we can discuss. Instead of looking to a person to answer all of our questions, I think the process would be more helpful.

The goal of reading the Bible with daily readings from different sections is not because they tie together topically, it’s to give you an overview sampling of different things that God wants you to know.

Honestly there are going to be some sections as we plod through some of the first books of the Old Testament that will get a bit tedious. So, at that point, it’s nice to have a passage to read from the New Testament that maybe is easier to apply to your life.

The small portion from Proverbs is just to give you a daily opportunity to hear God’s wisdom on practical living.

My favorite thing is the chapter from Psalms each day. There is no more exciting way, in my opinion, to praise God than to use divinely inspired words.

Hope that sheds a little light.