2007 Bible Reading Schedule

"Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens." Ps. 119:89

I'd like to take a moment to recommend an excellent Bible reading schedule for 2007. It's Robert Murray M'Cheyne's schedule. I really enjoyed using it this last year and highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in reading through the Bible in a year. Here are some highlights:

• Read through the Old Testament once in the year.
• Read through the New Testament twice in the year.
  
• Read through the Psalms twice in the year.
  
• Read from four different places at one time. I especially like this feature. Rather just start in Genesis at the beginning of the year and read through to the end of the Bible, M'Cheyne's schedule has you reading from Genesis, Ezra, Matthew and Acts. This way you are constantly reading various parts of the Bible throughout the year.
• Also, the schedule is divided into two sections: private and family. You don't have to use this feature, but it makes it convenient to use the schedule for family and private devotions or to split your Bible reading into two times (for example, morning and night).

Dr. Mark Minnick of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC has put together a nice one-page "edition" of M'Cheyne's schedule. A .pdf version of this schedule can be found here. This can be printed on both sides of a sheet of paper and folded in half and conveniently kept in your Bible.

Also, I'd like to recommend an excellent companion to M'Cheyne's schedule - For the Love of God by D.A. Carson (my favorite Bible scholar). Carson's daily readings follow M'Cheyen's schedule and help the reader to understand and apply the Bible as well as to follow and understand the Bible's "story-line." Carson has also written a second volume of For the Love of God.

Here are two excellent online resources related to M'Cheyne's reading schedule.

• You can receive the daily devotional from For the Love of God via e-mail. Sign up here.
  
• You can hear M'Cheyne's daily scripture reading from the English Standard Version online here. Note: This should not replace actually reading the Bible, but can be an excellent supplement to your own devotional time.
  

Christmas Blessings

God is truly good. In our last post we mentioned that we were having problems with our transmission. Two mechanics diagnosed it as "terminally ill." Originally we had planned to try to make it back to Texas where we would buy another vehicle. It has over 190,000 miles and we did not feel that it would be worth it to have a new or rebuilt transmission installed so we were just going to do our best to make it back to Texas/Mexico. But those plans changed when some friends offered to pay to have a used transmission installed here in PA. So that is what we will do, Lord willing.

On Friday I had the unique privilege of preaching in a Russian church in Denver, PA. I have, of course, spoken through a Spanish translator before, but this was my first time to do so through a Russian translator. I was also able to share a little bit about our work in Mexico. We very much enjoyed the experience and the opportunity share God's word.

Long overdue update

It's been a while since our last post. Here are some highlights of what we've been up to:

• On November 18th we were privileged to go on an all-day outing with the university's dorm students to a camp about an hour south of Monterrey. Ruth and I both spoke to the students. We count it a great privilege to get to know the students better and interact with them on a personal level.
• We celebrated Thanksgiving with a number of our "gringo" friends. We are very thankful for the team of dedicated colleagues that God has given us at UCLA.
• The first week of December we finished our normal classes for the semester in the theology program. We finished out the semester with a modular class taught by Jim West, retired missionary to Spain.
  
• On December 6th we left Monterrey for Pennsylvania to visit Ruth's parents and some of our supporting churches. It has been over three years since we visited many of our supporting churches and two-and-a-half years since we've been to Ruth's family's home. After two weeks in PA we will be returning to Texas to spend New Year's day with my parents. Lord willing we will be returning to Monterrey after the new year for the beginning of the spring semester.

Here's some prayer requests:

• Please pray for our students as they go home for the Christmas vacation.
  
• Please pray for our travel safety as we return to Monterrey. We are having some problems with the transmission on our van. Please pray that we will be able to make the 2,000 mile trip back to Mexico safely without any problems. Also, please pray that God will give us wisdom as we look for a new vehicle.
  
• Please pray for us as we begin the new semester. Each semester poses new challenges and undoubtedly this one will be no different.

SPECIAL OFFER!!! Free round-trip visit to the Christian University of the Américas!

Well, let's say a "virtual visit." If you have "Google Earth" installed on your computer and would like to see where we are located, you can click here to visit the Christian University of the Americas (via the Google Earth Community).

If you don't have Google Earth installed on your computer and would like to, click here. Google earth is a free program that you can download to your computer (broadband required). From your own desktop you can view high-resolution satellite photos of almost any place on earth. You can even find your own house, church, or favorite missionary!

If you don't want to download Google Earth, here's a screen shot of what you'd see if you did:



















If you're considering downloading Google Earth, here's another sample that may whet your appetite - a Google Earth view of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. (click on it to see a larger version):