Around the Bible in 90 Days

By Diane Antunes

With its foundation set on the solid Biblical viewpoint, this book will open your eyes to living a life of deep meaning which can add value to anyone's life. Beginning with a brief account of my own journey, this book will provide a general summary of the entire Bible while highlighting many lessons that can be applied to our lives so that we may have, enjoy and share a life overflowing with increasing peace and joy. While no one will be perfect this side of Heaven, we can learn timeless lessons from the Saints of the Bible on how to obtain real and lasting progress towards being the loving and content persons our hearts truly desire to be. The key is grounding our lives on God's Word and becoming sensitive to His constant guidance and instruction. We become whatever we take in, so as we learn to meditate on the Bible, we will become more and more like its Author, the Prince of Peace. Then no matter what life throws at us, we will be able to be victorious in Christ!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098302399

Book preview

Around the Bible in 90 Days

Copyright © 2020 Diane Antunes

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Print ISBN 978-1-09830-238-2

eBook ISBN 978-1-09830-239-9

Diane Antunes

Spread the News Ministries LLC

www.spreadthenewsministires.com

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

This book is dedicated to my Angel Pie, Rebecca, whose mission was to teach me how to love deeply and live joyfully. She is still bringing me and others into a deep relationship with Christ as her memory lives on. Because of this, her life continues to be a success. May we all leave such a legacy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One: My Journey

Chapter Two: Living Life By Obedience or Bright Ideas?

Chapter Three: Children Are Not Always Perfect, But God Always Is!

Chapter Four: Persevere to Take Hold of Your Birthright

Chapter Five: Your Story Will Work Out

Chapter Six: Glimpses of God’s Grace

Chapter Seven: Our Daily Bread

Chapter Eight: Love Gives

Chapter Nine: A Heart That Flows

Chapter Ten: Be Holy

Chapter Eleven: Pray Without Ceasing

Chapter Twelve: God Separates the Grumbler from the Grumble

Chapter Thirteen: Father Really Knows Best

Chapter Fourteen: Stop and Take Inventory

Chapter Fifteen: Remember the Lord

Chapter Sixteen: The Choices We Make, Make Us

Chapter Seventeen: Do You Correctly Hear My Words?

Chapter Eighteen: Only One Way

Chapter Nineteen: Focus On the Good

Chapter Twenty: God Has a Plan We Can Trust

Chapter Twenty-one: God Is Speaking to You

Chapter Twenty-two: Mercy Me!

Chapter Twenty-three: See Something, Admit Something

Chapter Twenty-four: Important Choices

Chapter Twenty-five: His Righteous Children

Chapter Twenty-six: Those Around Us Influence Us

Chapter Twenty-seven: Make Up Your Mind

Chapter Twenty-eight: Doing the Unexpected

Chapter Twenty-nine: Bring It to God

Chapter Thirty: We Share With Christ

Chapter Thirty-one: Be Your Best You

Chapter Thirty-two: Start Something

Chapter Thirty-three: All Blessings Come From the Lord

Chapter Thirty-four: Believe It to See It

Chapter Thirty-five: Lost and Found

Chapter Thirty-six: Let God Have Control

Chapter Thirty-seven: Do Your Part

Chapter Thirty-eight: God’s Hand

Chapter Thirty-nine: Remain Faithful

Chapter Forty: Only God Knows

Chapter Forty-one: God Amazes Me

Chapter Forty-two: When Fear Is a Good Thing

Chapter Forty-three: Sacrifice of Praise

Chapter Forty-four: The Center of Our Focus

Chapter Forty-five: It’s About Time

Chapter Forty-six: God’s Holy Word Is Everything

Chapter Forty-seven: Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom

Chapter Forty-eight: Seeds of Wisdom

Chapter Forty-nine: Speak Life

Chapter Fifty: Every Season Is a Time to Be Content

Chapter Fifty-one: Answer God’s Questions

Chapter Fifty-two: Judgment Is an Act of Love

Chapter Fifty-three: Mercy Me!

Chapter Fifty-four: The Only One

Chapter Fifty-five: Glory In the Cross

Chapter Fifty-six: Cut It Out

Chapter Fifty-seven: Who Is In Control?!

Chapter Fifty-eight: How Bout We Just Say Ok

Chapter Fifty-nine: Discovering God’s Perfect Will

Chapter Sixty: Our Father Speaks

Chapter Sixty-one: Find Your Love Language

Chapter Sixty-two: Four Viewpoints Are Better Than One

Chapter Sixty-three: God Loves Wicked People Too

Chapter Sixty-four: Jesus Is Our Good Shepherd

Chapter Sixty-five: All One But Not All the Same

Chapter Sixty-six: Don’t Compromise and You’ll Be Promoted

Chapter Sixty-seven: Fill Up On God’s Love

Chapter Sixty-eight: Part of His Plan

Chapter Sixty-nine: Love Your Enemy

Chapter Seventy: How Long Lord?

Chapter Seventy-one: Becoming Holy

Chapter Seventy-two: Not An Option

Chapter Seventy-three: Living Ready

Chapter Seventy-four: I Can’t Even Help It

Chapter Seventy-five: Silence Speaks Volumes

Chapter Seventy-six: Through Different Eyes

Chapter Seventy-seven: Love and Fear

Chapter Seventy-eight: Trials Are Opportunities

Chapter Seventy-nine: God’s Timing is Perfect

Chapter Eighty: Hopeful Expectation

Chapter Eighty-one: Find Your Walking Buddy

Chapter Eighty-two: You Are Wanted

Chapter Eighty-three: Sweet Hope

Chapter Eighty-four: It’s All About Love

Chapter Eighty-five: Believing is Vital

Chapter Eighty-six: WHO Are You?

Chapter Eighty-seven: The Important Things

Chapter Eighty-eight: For Our Own Good

Chapter Eighty-nine: Suffer for Good

Chapter Ninety: The Whole Bible

Chapter Ninety-one: The End Is the Beginning

Chapter Ninety-two: Final Words

Appendix

Acknowledgments

Note: I used a Bible Plan from a fabulous and free Bible app called YouVersion, (icon pictured above). The plan was created by Ted Cooper and provided by Bible Gateway simply entitled Bible in 90 Days. (picture and description of plan above)

I could not more highly recommend this YouVersion app for you to download and use daily, as I already do. There you will find many versions of the Bible, as well as the Bible in several different languages. I believe they profess to have 1500 different versions! The app also has many helpful study aids that will enhance your time in God’s Word. This includes, but is not limited to, the ability to read one version of the Bible side-by-side with another version, listening to audio recordings by various readers, watching different Bible related videos and a search feature to quickly find Bible verses on any topic. In addition there are countless Bible reading plans that you can use to delve into God’s Word, like the one I used above as the basis for this book. The more ways we choose to invest our time with God, the deeper our relationship with Him will be and the more abundant our lives will be too. Enjoy and be blessed! Around the Bible in 90 Days

Introduction

It is my hope that you will use this book as an appetizer, opening up your own deep hunger to know God, the Bible and His individual and unique Plan for your life. While it might seem a bit daunting to read the entire Bible in 90 days, you will see it is certainly possible. Several years ago I took up this challenge and wrote a daily blog sharing a lesson or two that I gleaned as I read the day’s portion of the Bible. I was greatly impressed by how cohesive the whole Story is, how it flows seamlessly, and the way God’s Plan for Salvation is so much more apparent when reading the Bible in such a short time span. But even if you do not take on this challenge to read the whole Bible in 90 days, it is my prayer that you are able to learn something you can apply to your own life from the lessons that came to me as I read.

The structure of each chapter is simply the reading assignment for each day, a brief summary of those readings, and lastly, the article entry relating to the reading. While this book is not necessarily a devotional where you read one chapter per day, it can be used this way if you desire. Also, you can choose to quickly read only the summaries from each chapter to get a full view about the entire Bible. Or you can read through, taking note of the lessons you can immediately implement into your own life so that you may have, enjoy and share the Abundant Life more and more. You will see my closing (Won’t you join me?) at the end of each chapter is an invitation to begin, or continue to deepen, your own journey with God, learning to trust Him in all situations and to choose to experience the Abundant Life He desires each of us to live. I challenge you to fall in love with God’s Word in a way you may never have before. God’s Word is my highest source of Hope, my greatest source of Joy, my sole source of Life, and I pray it will become yours as well. My Friends, thank you for inviting me into your hearts and minds as I share my thoughts about this amazing Holy Bible.

May God bless you in every way and may you be more and more aware of each and every blessing. Amen.

Chapter One:

My Journey

Before you begin on this journey through the best selling Book ever known, let me give you a brief background of my own journey so you will know where I am coming from as you read this book.

Like many people, I had a good life...or it should have been good, that is. I had good parents who did their best to provide for my needs as I grew up. I went to college and achieved a degree in a highly respected field as a pharmacist. Soon after, I met and married the man of my dreams, Joe, and we had two beautiful children, Rebecca, my Angel Pie, and Joshua, a great joy in my life. We had a lovely home and travelled several times a year to exotic places. On the surface, we had attained the American Dream...but deep within me, there was a hole I could not explain. Something (or as I later learned, Someone) was missing from my life, but I could not put my finger on what was lacking in my good life. And so, sadly, much of my time was spent in a state of hovering sadness. Nothing in my life, not family not possessions, not travel…nothing fulfilled me for very long. This emptiness seemed to expand with each passing year.

Fast forward to my daughter’s fifth birthday where we found ourselves thrown into every parent’s worse nightmare. Having been perfectly healthy those first five years, it was shocking to us when she began having these headaches that increased in frequency and intensity. After several doctors and many tests, Beckie was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer which manifested in a plum sized tumor at the base of her brain and cancer seedlings that had spread throughout her spine and all around her brain. But as a pharmacist, I still felt like we had control over the situation, and so, we pursued medications and therapies that gave us hope she would be fine. Sadly, this proved to be only false hope. After two months of one surgery after another and beginning both chemotherapy and radiation, my Angel Pie fell into what would be her first coma. As the medical professionals all threw their hands up in surrender and advised us there was nothing else they could do, my knees finally hit the ground and my eyes lifted up to the One and only true source of Hope.

It was there, in her Pediatric Intensive Care room as she slipped away into that coma that I first sensed His Presence. I felt a peace that surpasses understanding fall upon me and, the One I had been missing all my life, had found me. For the first time, deep in my spirit, I heard a Voice I instinctively knew belonged to Jesus telling me, She’s going to be alright, she’s going to be alright over and over and over again. His Presence surrounded and embraced me in such a profound way that I surrendered my life to Him right there and then. Immediately I knew something inside of me had changed. I began saying things like, I am born again, without really understanding what I was saying. All I do know is that I finally realized my life was not my own. The best way to describe what I experienced is that it seemed like I had a light switch, somewhere deep inside of me, that I realized had been on the Off position all my life without me knowing it. Suddenly, and powerfully, it turned to the On setting, and by the Grace of God, it has been there ever since. I was a new person in Christ and, on that most scary and dark day, He became my Life and my Light. Only with God can something so horrific become something so glorious.

This is certainly not to say that life has been smooth with no problems since then. NO! Quite the contrary, life began having challenges I had never experienced before. For example, Beckie continued having one, what I call, horrendous miracle after the other for seven and a half years. Horrendous because they were all horrible. She was at death’s door with each episode. But miracles because, as a pharmacist, I knew she should never have lived through one of them, much less survive all those years. Yet God in His great Mercy, would pull her out and bring her back home to live another day. She did have countless struggles. Towards the end of her trial, she was being fed by a gastrointestinal tube, was breathing through a tracheostomy in her neck, was not able to talk or move her body about anymore and was either bound to a wheelchair or bed. No, life after becoming born again was not easy-peasy, but apart from God, it would have been impossible.

Throughout those years, I began having an insatiable hunger for God’s Word. I devoured the Bible that first year and began studying it and learning how to apply what I learned into my daily life. Scriptures gave me insight, peace and a resilient power whose source was out of this world. Jesus became my Savior and Lord of my life and my priceless Counselor and Comforter. The Light of the world guided and prompted and encouraged me to deepen my Faith and grow spiritually in His Love and Grace. Again, don’t misunderstand what I am saying. Life was certainly not unrealistically filled with only good things. I was challenged in my growth. Some days I held on tight to God and things went well. Other days I felt completely lost and in darkness again. For those of us who have travelled with the Lord for some time, I don’t have to tell you this light switch within us that I spoke about above, has a dimmer switch on it, right? When all seemed to be fine with my Angel Pie, I would move on with life, turning away from the Lord just enough to have my inner light dim. But as I would sense the disconnect, and as Beckie would have another crisis, I would come right back to my God and the light would beam strongly once again. This is part of the Christian walk, yes? But as I usually say, even when nothing changed with the situation, everything changed as I turned back to God. I would once again move away from darkness to light and sense that peace and joy and confidence in Christ that kept me moving forward. This peace would keep me calm and focused so I could make the necessary choices to help Beckie. That joy would be the strength I needed to face whatever was happening. Jesus really does make all the difference.

After those seven and a half years of amazing agony- amazing because I saw God’s Grace in full display through Beckie, agonizing because, as you can imagine, it was pure heartbreak watching my daughter fade away- the Lord brought Beckie Home. She passed away on December 21, 2007. While my heart continues to miss her every day, I know where she is...and by God’s Grace I have assurance that, when my time is done here, I will hold her forevermore and nothing will ever separate us, ever again. I know that I know this because none of us get to go to Heaven on our own dime. The doors of Eternity have been opened to Beckie and myself (and you too) by the life saving work of Jesus, our Lord, up on that Cross. Jesus paid the price for all this world’s sin. All we have to do is receive it- to use the Faith God has given us to simply trust Him and what He has already done on our behalf. As Jesus had promised, now in the arms of Christ, Beckie is alright. She is ALL right- whole and complete for all time. My Angel Pie is with Jesus right now, waiting for our eternal reunion....but in the meantime, I am going to spread the news with every breath in my lungs to everyone willing to listen.

In the end, this is my witness: even though I did not get what I wanted- of course, my heart longed to have my Baby Girl here with me, healthy and strong- yet I am still standing on the Rock. I still know God is real. I still know God really loves me. And I still know God has a really good Plan for my life, here and then forevermore. I trust Him. Even when I don’t understand His Ways, I choose to trust Him. Even when my heart cries, I still choose to trust Him. And this, my Friends, is what God is searching the earth for: children who will place their Faith in Him and in Him alone. God is not looking for perfection- as He has told me many times, He already found Perfection in His One and Only Begotten Son. But God is looking for progress. Children who will believe and continue to seek Him, continue to deepen this amazing relationship with the Creator of all that is seen and unseen. Progress. Growing by Faith in the Love and Grace of God. This has been my journey for the past 19 plus years and I pray it will continue until Jesus comes to bring me Home. Now with one foot in Heaven with my Angel Pie, who I treasure so highly, and one foot firmly planted in this world with my son, Joshua, who I am so proud to call mine, I continue to experience such complete peace in the midst of chaos and deep joy even in sorrow which is absolutely priceless. I call this the Abundant Life (based on John 10:10) and I would not trade it for all the riches of this world.

Birthed from all of my experiences with God throughout Beckie’s trials, and grounded on this amazing relationship He has been nurturing in my heart all these years, came Spread the News Ministries. It is my heart’s desire to help others know God and know Him more deeply so they can have, enjoy and share the Abundant Life. To commune with Him more closely and to be able to have this precious peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit which is the Kingdom of God. (see Ro 14:17) Whether I am teaching classes, speaking at workshops or sitting down one on one with a client, I sense His Presence guiding me to be a blessing to others and to continue to set the captives free. The Truth is what sets us free, my Friends, and the truth is, even when life is not good, God most definitely still is.

Life is a journey filled with challenges and tests. Yet, by God’s Grace, I continue to discover new and exciting ways to conquer every trial and climb every mountain with peace and joy intact. Would you like to know how? Then won’t you join me on this pilgrimage towards spiritual growth in Jesus Christ?

Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think...

<>< Peace, Diane

Chapter Two:

Living Life By Obedience or Bright Ideas?

Reading: Gen 1-16

Summary:

We open up where every great story should: In the beginning.… Yet with this most amazing Book called the Bible, right here in the beginning, we clearly see Who the story is about, In the beginning God.… We next are told what this whole story is going to be about, In the beginning God created…. You see, my Friends, the Bible is all about God and how He created everything from nothing, how He created human beings in His Image and how, when we humans went astray, He paid the penalty for our disobedience. But I am getting ahead of myself….

So much happens in these first 16 chapters! Immediately after the descriptions of Creation, we are introduced to the first two humans, Adam and Eve, and already, we can see the imperfect, childish nature of humans. They (as well as each of us in turn) decided they knew better than God, and in disobeying God’s one simple command, they brought sin and death into the good world God had created. By God’s Mercy, He banished them from the Garden of Eden. Mercy?! you ask? Yes, so that they would not now, in their sinful state, have an opportunity to eat from the Tree of Life and remain in that condition forevermore. Do not forget that God had planted TWO trees in the Garden of Eden. The first was called the Tree of Life, and God never restricted them from enjoying its fruit. It is the second, The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that God did not want them to ingest. After giving them the entire world to enjoy and to care for, Adam and Eve chose to focus on the one thing God kept from them. God never wanted them (or us) to intimately know evil. But after choosing to do things their way instead of God’s, suffering, sin and separation from God entered into their Paradise. They did not understand why they could not indulge in that second tree and their childish curiosity, their ungrateful attitudes and distrusting hearts got the better of them. One of the lessons here is: God’s Plan for each of us may include things we do not fully understand, but we can be sure it is all for OUR best.

Next, we read about Cain and Abel and see how sin and death begins to multiply. Cain becomes the first murderer on earth and chooses to live a life outside of God’s Goodness. Evil begins to spread with such intensity that, in just 10 generations, the whole world had become so wicked it caused God to start again with the only righteous person He could find, Noah. After the Flood though, human nature proved to still be self-centered. Years later, humans attempt to band together and make a name for themselves, trying to be greater than God. This once again, causes God to move for humanity’s good and He separates humans by confusing their language (think babbling, thus Tower of Babel). This confusion and division causes them to spread throughout the earth forming smaller, more humble communities.

It is in chapter 12 that we are introduced to the great Abraham, or Abram as he is still called at this point. We read about his awe-inspiring Faith, his deep wisdom and self-less-ness, as well as some rather questionable decisions he makes about his wife, Sarai. Well, as they say, No one is perfect! But, my Friends, this is one of the details that makes the Bible so authentic: it never sugar coats reality. The Truth is we are all broken in one way or another, but God can still use us for His Glory and in His Story, which is exactly what He is still doing through Abraham today. This Father of Faith still displays a heart sold out for God and he still teaches us to get back up when we mess up and keep following after God. His life remains a wonderful example of someone who loves God despite his faults. May we seek to do the same.

Lesson: (note: this was first written on 1-4-16, thus the Happy New Year!)

Hi Friends,

Happy New Year! I resolved many years ago to read through God’s beautiful Word once every year until Jesus comes to take me Home. But as I was praying about the reading plan for the New Year, I felt led to go in a different direction. So how about this for a New Year’s resolution: I have embarked on a journey to read the whole Bible in 90 days! Perhaps this is too ambitious a path for you, but I do hope you will join me daily for the next couple of months to hear a lesson or two God is showing me about the day’s reading. Shall we start today?

Day 1: Genesis 1-16 Living Life By Obedience or Bright Ideas?

As I read our first day’s installment, two themes jumped out at me: obeying God and the consequences of not obeying Him. In the beginning, we read about the creation of our world, climaxing with humanity, and how God proclaimed that it was all good. Adam gets a mate and there is love and peace on earth...that is until chapter 3! Here we begin to see how children behave. One of the things that drives me crazy is when young children, (ok people at any age really), are being corrected and they claim, I know! My answer is always the same, Well if you knew, why did you do the wrong thing anyway?! We humans all do this though, don’t we? We claim to know all sorts of things and yet, by our actions, we show that we know very little. For example, I know I should eat right and exercise, but… (fill in your excuse here). What I have come to realize is that, no matter how old I get, I am still a child who needs to continue to learn and the only way I can do this properly is by obeying God.

We are all children and, because we do not know everything, we humans assume a lot. Instead of turning in trust to God, we turn away from Him as we come up with these bright ideas based on our limited understanding. In chapter 3, we learn about the first of these I know moments when Eve, who sincerely wanted to be like God, decides to do the only thing that was forbidden. In chapter 16, we hear Sarai, who desperately wanted a child, come up with the bright idea to give her servant to her husband, Abram, so they can have a surrogate child through her. Least you testosterone counterparts out there begin to point any fingers at us women, please note these ladies’ husbands agreed to these bright ideas… and without any argument, I might add. Adam was with Eve when she plucked that fruit and Abram quickly consented to sleep with Hagar. You see, bright ideas often involve more than one person before it all goes haywire. Whenever we step out on our own, with our own plan, havoc ensues. Just take a look around at our troubled world to see the results of I know! But praise God He has not given up on us yet, and never will.

So what’s the true lesson here? Obey God. Before we jump out and do whatever we, by ourselves, have decided is a bright idea, we must learn to pass it by God first. Yes, I am talking about prayer. But praying was never meant to be a monologue. We must exercise patience as we wait to hear what God has to say on the matter. To do this, we must learn to hear His Voice in order to get His direction. And to do this, we must read His Word in order to recognize His ways and really know what to do next. We clearly see the success in obeying God with those chapters in between these bright ideas. Noah’s obedience saves humanity from total earthly destruction. Abram’s obedience becomes the foundation for the eternal salvation of humanity. Obedience brings God’s saving grace.

Obey God. God will not give us the details of the entire plan for our personal lives simply because we won’t fully understand the last step until we go through every step in between. Never forget we are children of God. We don’t know everything. But we have the ability to learn though, as we obey. One lesson builds upon the prior lesson and we come to understand life as we move through life seeking Him. This is what the Bible calls walking in Faith. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but we know the One Who holds tomorrow in His loving hands. Trust Him. Obey Him. Knowing obedience is a challenge is the first step. But here’s the Good News: you are not alone. The God Who created us desires nothing less than to have an intimate, personal relationship with you. He will help you obey...if you let Him. Here’s the only bright idea we will ever need: decide today to let Him help you. The more I do, the more peace and joy I have. Do you want that too? Then won’t you join me?

Chapter Three:

Children Are Not Always Perfect, But God Always Is!

Reading: Gen 17- 28:1-19

Summary:

We continue with the intriguing story of Abram. Here God reminds Abram of the covenant they entered into back in chapter 12. God confirms this promise to bless him and make him a blessing- to give him children as countless as the stars in the heavens and grains of sand in the desert. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham meaning father of many nations, as well as his wife’s name from Sarai to Sarah. Whenever you see a name change in the Bible, it signifies a great mission God has for that person, and that is certainly true about these two great saints! God then commands Abraham and all his future male descendants to display on their bodies a sign of this covenant, the circumcision. Now that might sound strange to our modern ears, but the reality is we each need to cut away our Flesh and to live by our spirit instead. This was supposed to be an outward sign of their inward relationship with God. The message was, I no longer live for myself, but to honor and glorify God, my Creator. Again, it is supposed to be…but ahhh, we all are imperfect children, aren’t we?!

We then get a glimpse into the compassionate heart of Abraham as he pleads for his family and those living in Sodom. Next we are witnesses to the miraculous conception and birth of the promised child, Isaac. It is in chapter 22 that we clearly know that Abraham trusts God with all he had, even this one son who he had been praying for for the last 25 years! God tests Abraham by asking him to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham believes in the Faithfulness of God so deeply that he figures, even if Isaac dies, God will resurrect him somehow. (see Heb 11:19) I hope you know how the story ends. God provides the Sacrificial Offering…this, of course, points us to Jesus, the Lamb of God, Who is later sacrificed for each one of us.

We then move on to the story of Issac. He meets and marries Rebekah and they have twin sons, Esau and Jacob. It is interesting to see how, sometimes, the sins of the father pass on to the children. Isaac seems to make the same foolhardy choice about his wife that his Dad, Abraham, had made about Sarah. Yet God proved Faithful in each of those situations…you’ll read more about this below. We read about the tension between Isaac’s sons. Even in the womb, these two brothers fought with each other, so we should not be surprised at what comes next. Jacob, which means deceiver, tricks his older brother, Esau, to give up his birthright and then steals Isaac’s blessing too. Again, this may sound puzzling to us, but the birthright and blessing was a big deal! (You will read a little more about this in the next chapter.) As firstborn, Esau should have control of the family estate, but because he was an impulsive, worldly person, he loses both these privileges to his slick brother, Jacob. Good old Jacob must then run for his life because Esau is angrier than a person who has lost all his fortune to a crook…because that’s what just happened! We leave this reading with Jacob’s journey towards his Mom’s family in a far away land….what we need to remember is we live in a sowing and reaping world. No one can really escape the things they have done…more on that with the next summary.

Lesson:

Hi Friends,

Say this with me out