Hey there! My name is Mac and I’m a Christian with plenty of flaws. I like to smoke occasionally even though I quit smoking three years ago. (Don’t tell Mom.) I make inappropriate jokes. I habitually speak before I think, and I’m not the best natural listener. And those are just the things I’m willing to admit publicly. It gets worse when you really get to know me. Just ask my friends Todd, Doug or Antoinette…they’ll tell you. (Probably a little too eagerly.)
Another flaw I have is that I find it hard to simply sit down and read the Bible. I know it’s an important book, and the foundational basis of everything I believe. And I do check it out from time to time. But on the whole, I tend to avoid reading it as much as I avoided girls in 9th grade. Which is to say, the majority of the time…and I highly doubt my Bible is going to be the one to approach me like Sara Deary finally did freshman year.
So, I’m taking it upon myself to read the entire Bible in one year. I’m telling myself I’m looking forward to it because a lot of what I have read has been pretty crazy. And I like crazy. It makes for great stories. Especially if it’s true! So starts a year of reading the Bible cover to cover for the first time and trying to deal with everything I find inside.
For the record I’m using a New Living Translation of The One Year Chronological Bible for this project and will read from Nov. 25, 2011 through Nov. 25, 2012.
I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I do. Check out my introductory post for a little more insight into this whole deal. Thanks for stopping by.
Also, I do international mission work from time to time (yup, not only a Christian who isn’t the greatest Bible reader, but a missionary to boot.) If you’re interested in reading about some of the work I do with The World Race, check out my mission-based blog. A Guy Tangled Up In God’s Love.
One Crazy Bible 
Mac.
Good luck with your new quest. I have never taken it on myself, but it does sound appealing!
also
Best of luck to your next missionary trip/ Let’s try to catch up before you go (if you haven’t departed Jax yet?
Tony
CORE~Team 5
Hi Mac, I’m intrigued by your blog, by your style and humor, and by the fact that you’re still a Christian.
“Tangled up in God’s love” I get, but how does that square with genocide that puts Robocop and Monty Python to shame? Why didn’t God just relocate men, women and children (or give them the desire to relocate themselves), instead of massacring them?
When you get to the New Testament, I hope you’ll consider Jesus in the historical context of 200 years of uprisings against the idolatrous, pig-eating, uncircumcised Romans. When you read Jesus’ reference to “the greatest Commandment”, I hope you will appreciate the importance of the Shema (“Hear, O israel…”) in Jewish life, prayers, mazuzah, etc.
I view Jesus as something like a Jewish Osama Bin Laden. Christianity didn’t exist before St Paul.
My own blog (http://robinhl.com) explores this. I am agnostic concerning the creation of the Universe, but an atheist for all practical purposes.
I love this blog!! New ways to look at the Word 🙂 I just nominated you for the Versatile Blogger award: http://365photosbyjeremy.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/day-119-28-april-2012-sun-and-sand/ Keep up the good work!!
Not sure why I feel compelled to write this. Rarely do I comment on random blogs. Maybe because I’ve been working on lesson planning for hours and it helped me to choose a topic for the last lesson in my upcoming series. Who knows. Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you to keep exploring the scriptures and fighting the good fight in the down-to-earth, real, transparent way you portray in your writings. (Obviously I’m speculating that these attitudes carry over into your real life and the way you interact with others, but I digress.) It is always refreshing to come across a Christian who is devoted to following Jesus and also understands that it’s messy. The Bible is crazy. Our lives should be too! We’re not called to look at anything through one lens or to limit our interactions with people to those which make us fit the clean, unscathed, church-going mold. I appreciate your insights and willingness to share them in fresh and quirky ways. I’ll be praying for you and the readers of your blog, as ya’ll continue to explore the scriptures and act them out in you life. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for checking out the blog and writing that message. I’ve sort of let this blog slip away, though I keep thinking about getting back to it. Knowing that people are still coming across it and reading it, that really helps build some motivation to keep writing. Thank you for taking the time to write and encourage me!
Hi Mac! In doing research for my Sunday School lesson on Job, I ran across your blog and read your bio. I felt compelled to throw a comment in here that, unless I screw it up, will be an encouragement to you. So that you know where I’m coming from, you’re dealing with a 52 year old man who has been striving to follow after Christ since the age of seven. I’m a long time adult Sunday School teacher, church deacon, music leader, blah, blah, blah, blah. In 45 years, I’ve done most everything a person can do in a Bible believing Christian church. So what does that make me? A believer who still struggles with sin and failure, slowly growing in my faith and seeing that the closer I get to God, the more I realize I have a looooong way to go. And I sometimes pick my nose too.
Don’t get me wrong. The realization that I’m still just a sinner saved by grace is both humbling and my great source of joy! Knowing that God still desires me, loves me and wants to use me, despite the fact that He knows better than I do, the depths of my natural depravity is a powerful motivator and source of great happiness. I can get past my failures because I know that a Holy God has dealt with them through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ.
I said all that to say this. Keep reading the Word, dude. (That’s right. Some old guy just called you a ‘dude’.) I am in my 14th consecutive year of reading through the entire Bible. And now you’re doing the math in your head and figuring out that I went 31 years without a consistent plan of Bible consumption. Yep, that’s about right. Before that, my daily time in the Word was hit and miss. In those 31 years I might have read the whole Bible once in fits and starts, bits and pieces. Over the past 14 years my wife and I have settled on a consistent plan (this year using the NKJV Chronological One Year Bible) of reading the Bible through every year. As a result, I have never felt more encouraged and strengthened in the faith. Every year I see something new. Make no mistake, some days it’s dry as dust, some days it’s so-so, but some days I get the joy of seeing a new revelation that changes they way I view this life!
Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you on your quest. Thank you for serving on the front lines of the faith in your missions work. I admire you and thoroughly enjoyed your take on Job 41. I will probably steal, uh…er…quote a couple of your observations. Thanks for sharing, May God bless and encourage you in your desire to know Him better, day by day.