Good morning, and Happy Sunday to you near and far! I was able to surprise my bride yesterday with a big chocolate cake! You see, while she was in the hospital last week, her six-year cancer survivor celebration day passed with little fanfare. So yesterday, without her having any idea why I was making a cake, I frosted it, and then put six candles on and brought it out and took pictures as she blew them out. She was so confused, and then I told her why there were six candles, and we celebrated, still getting to be together through God’s blessing her with surviving breast cancer six years ago on August 26th! What a great God we serve! He is so loving and gracious to us, even though we do not deserve it! Well, we'd better get to why we are here, Deuteronomy 13!   How many times in life has someone led you astray? Yes, as a child, that is not your fault. But as adults, we have blame if we allow it. God takes those who choose to lead others astray very seriously, bu...

  Hello everyone, it is Saturday morning as I write to you, and the sky is very dark and overcast. We have rain forecast for The Little Hundred Acre Wood, but I doubt the validity of that! Rain in August here is very rare indeed! Madeline is recovering well, although, as we were warned, it is going to be a slow journey back to full steam! I took her out to lunch yesterday at one of her favorite places. Then she stayed in the truck while I picked up a small basket of groceries, and that is all she had in her tank. We headed back home for rest. The whole trip was maybe 2 hours tops. All this slowing down sure frustrates my darling bride!   Speaking of frustrated, we are reading/listening to Deuteronomy 12 for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge. I hope you will join us by clicking the link below! We will be reading why God was so frustrated with the original inhabitants of the lands that He was giving to His people, as they ended their forty years in the wilderness after He made it po...

  Good morning and happy Friday to all of you near and far! I was up early with the Holy Spirit knocking on my heart’s door. There is so much I am thankful for this morning. I was excited to start my prayers, but as with any man, I also have things bothering me I needed to discuss with God and ask for direction and strength! Last night I had to be in front of a small crowd with a mike in my hand. It is not where I am most comfortable, but God has a way of keeping me out of my comfort zone, probably because we seem to grow the most when in uncomfortable situations! I lean in heavily on the Holy Spirit in such times. Yes, I prepare, but I also count on the HS to at the very least guide me.   That meeting last night was for our Re/Generation program at our church. I think almost everyone can benefit from this eleven-month course on drawing closer to God and asking Him to reveal our areas of struggle that are impeding our relationships in life! It is a great way to begin to see yo...

    Good morning, I hope this week is going well for all of you! I feel so blessed that Madeline was able to go home after going into septic shock from diverticulitis (that she had never had before). I am so glad I listened to the voice in my head to take her myself to the ER instead of waiting for an ambulance. I will admit to driving way too fast that morning, but again, somehow I knew time was of the essence! So I wanted to take this paragraph to thank God for her survival and to thank all of you for the prayers that we felt all through her treatments. So, as I praise God and thank all of you, this should be the last mention of this subject.   Now, let's get to The Daily Bible Challenge. We are in chapter 10 of Deuteronomy this morning. It is a great read to start the day. It is again kind of a CliffsNotes for Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. But there are also some interesting tidbits in here that are not in the original text, or I somehow missed them. Such as, there w...

        Good morning, no, it is a GREAT morning! I am so blessed, my wife is home from the hospital and doing well, resting for a few days to make a full recovery. Your prayers were greatly appreciated, and dare I say they moved God into healing action for Madeline! She was heading for gallbladder removal surgery. They were sure it had to be removed, but God seems to have healed that completely, as their further scans revealed no issues there whatsoever! Praise the Lord! God doesn’t always heal here on earth, but sometimes He does. Madeline is still recovering from the Diverticulitis, but with the antibiotics, she will be fine in no time! She was on a huge dose of IV antibiotics for many days, and that worked well to get her safe and then home! Once again, thank you for all your prayers!   Now, let's get to Deuteronomy 9 for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge as we read the whole Bible one or two chapters at a time! I really love this chapter and the style of wr...

   Life’s journey with God is not always a smooth ride; sometimes it is a rough ride indeed! As the one Madeline and I are on right now, but our faith in Jesus brings us the strength to keep moving forward in the journey! But Today’s Daily Bible Challenge is all about a time of great wealth for God’s people in Deuteronomy 8. Moses does add a warning at the end, but for the most part, there is nothing but milk and honey in this chapter! Click the link below and listen for yourself to the great promises God has for His people!   Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=5&c=8

  My bride is still in the hospital, and it was a very serious infection, but after days of IV antibiotics, she is doing much better. It turns out it was Diverticulitis gone septic and gallbladder infection, and stones. So we have some tough recovery ahead. Please forgive the tardiness of today's Bible Challenge. I am not quite sure how I will post tomorrow’s. But if I can’t, please just go to Deuteronomy 8 on Blue Letter Bible’s site ( blueletterbible.org )!   Today’s Daily Bible Challenge is Deuteronomy 7, and it is a great, detailed read/listen. It is just my kind of read! The content has some concerning facts that are tough for today’s cultural norms. Nonetheless, they are commands from God and are to be respected. Click the link below and listen for yourself! Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=5&c=7

   Good morning, my daughter stayed with my bride last night. I got my first real sleep in about 48 hours and feel like I can be the husband I need to be now, as our adult kids will all be returning home today. I am not going to sugarcoat this: Madeline was in a life-threatening situation and was in septic shock when I took her to the ER on Friday morning. But she was stable when I left last night, and is doing well and is out of ICU needs. I thank you for all the prayers. We have felt the power of our God, Jesus, the Christ, working through your prayers for us! Madeline will need many weeks of recovery, according to the doctors, unless God wants her healed sooner! But if not, she has great support from friends and family. We trust in God with all our strength, as Moses was instructing his people to do in Deuteronomy 6, for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge!  Moses made it so crystal clear and easy to follow in this chapter. I think we could learn so much about how to live li...

  Good morning, I am making this very short as I need to return to Madeline’s bedside in the hospital. She has been in the ER or the hospital since 8 am yesterday. It would seem that she has Diverticulitis, and it has gone septic; she is on massive antibiotics and is doing much better this morning. Well enough that she told me to return home and care for the animals, and pick up some things for her. So, I thought I would take this time to request prayer for my bride of 38 years! But even she told me I needed to go post The Daily Bible Challenge, so here I am!     Today, we are in chapter 5 of Deuteronomy, and it is a beautifully written review of the Ten Commandments and the times right before and after they were given by God. Click the link and listen for yourself as we read the whole Bible one chapter at a time!   Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=5&c=5

     Good Friday morning. I will keep this short, as Chapter 4 of Deuteronomy is just over a seven-minute read. This is a great chapter from Moses reviewing the commands of God for the people of Israel just before they depart from his leadership and ford the Jordan River. Moses is being a great leader, not focused on his impending death, but focused on the mission for his people. He is warning them not to fall back on their familiar sinful ways when they go forward without him!     New here? We call this The Daily Bible Challenge, where we read/listen to the whole Bible cover to cover, one chapter at a time. Why, you ask? So we can stop listening to gossip about God and start listening to God about God! Click the link below, and a pop-up audiobook will read this chapter to you word for word, directly from the NASB 95 version, brought to us by the good folks at Blue Letter Bible!     Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.o...

  Supernatural bragging from Moses, if it were someone else, this would seem like a school kid bragging about beating someone up on the playground. But because it is Moses, he has learned so much and has great humility now in his old age! He gives all the glory to God for these many wars and the conquered people and cities. Moses also writes about his great disappointment. You see, he led these people all the way from Egypt for forty years through the wilderness and would not be allowed to cross over into the promised land. It was his punishment for some pretty big failures along the way. He was allowed to see the promised land from afar, just not enter it!   Could you keep your faith and love of God if He denied you such a thing? We Americans tend to see God as a Genie in a bottle waiting to grant our every desire and whim. Yet we are really here to serve Him, not Him us! Yes, He is like a Father and is happy to grant us good things, but there is also discipline, as Moses fin...

  Good morning from The Little Hundred Acre Wood. We are due for rain today, and I look forward to lower temperatures, as we were over 100 degrees yesterday. But it was our usual dry heat that was more tolerable! The hounds are only out for short times and are getting restless, but it is the dog days of summer!   We are in Deuteronomy 2 for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge. It is a great read/listen! We will hear many names from the old families of the past. Esau and Lot are two examples of people to whom God gave vast areas of land. These lands were not available for our sojourners in the wilderness. Some rulers even refused to allow them to pass through or get food or water for money!   There is so much we seem to discount in the Bible because it is a religious text, but it is at least somewhat of a history book. In fact, more and more history in the Bible is being proven correct as we find more and more in archaeology! But don’t take my word for it, go dig in for yourself...

  Good Tuesday morning, I hope this letter finds you and yours well! We are entering into one of my favorite books of the Old Testament for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge. Deuteronomy is a clear historical account of the previous chapters. It is much easier to understand, well, at least for me. Let us know how it is for you. We welcome your input via PM/DM. It is so well-written and clear, whereas other accounts have been more difficult to read.   I hope you will consider joining us in The Daily Bible Challenge. There may not be a better place to start in the Old Testament than Deuteronomy! Although I would prefer everyone had Genesis under their belt, too. Click the link below to start your personal journey through the whole Bible one chapter at a time. PS, it is an audiobook, so how much easier could it be?   Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=5&c=1

  Good Monday morning, it’s going to be a glorious day, and I hope you are wide-eyed and ready to take on whatever challenges come your way today! We had a great meal and fellowship last night at a large local ranch. The company was fantastic with kids running around everywhere! This was all part of our Thousand Tables of Hospitality theme at our church. Showing love to those we don’t know in our church and then in our community. God put a couple on my heart during yesterday morning's sermon, so we are planning to invite them over for dinner on the deck as the weather starts to cool a bit more in the evenings. We love how our church is always working to get us to go outside our comfort zone. We find that God really works often when you are willing to do that for His glory!      Well, I could ramble all morning about that ranch and that group of six families and all those great kids. But we are here for The Daily Bible Challenge in the final chapter of Numbers. Chapte...

                           This is Grok's idea of the Blood Avenger   Good Sunday morning and Happy Sabbath to the American Church! We have a very interesting read/listen for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge in chapter 35 of Numbers! We will listen to God’s plan for murderers. Yes, the death penalty is biblical, but it is a lot more hands-on than today’s system. We will learn of the Avenger of Blood, no, it's not from Marvel, it is a real Biblical term. I love these details explaining the laws for murder versus unintentional death in this chapter. To learn more, you might want to ask a few questions on the Got Questions webpage. That’s what I did about the blood avenger, but I am not here to spoon-feed you; I want to challenge you to dig in for yourself! But I do like to tell you about good places to look for the answers, like the tools tab on Blue Letter Bible’s pages.   We will also learn just how well God pr...

  Good Saturday morning to all of you! There will be some changes starting soon for The Daily Bible Challenge, namely, it will have its own profile/home page. I should have done this years ago; after all, it is not my ministry, but God’s!   I look forward to the possibility of other writers/teachers submitting posts, so I am not writing everything. Someday, I will be gathered to my people and want this Daily Bible Challenge to continue after my death, hopefully far into the future!   What will this change look like from your perspective? Right now no change at all. But slowly in the future months, it will stop being posted by me and will start coming from The Daily Bible Challenge profile.   What can you do to help? Please follow and like the new profile so it can spread the challenge far and wide, as the algorithms tend to have bias against religious pages! When you start seeing it posted not under my name, share it as often as you feel led. Eventually, I will be b...

      Good Friday morning, I have hinted that I have been ill, well, it was over a week of something like COVID, but I am on the mend this morning, finally! My posts have not been the usual; in fact, one morning, I was so sick I brought up an old writing from the distant past and reused it. Sorry if it seemed familiar if you are a long-time reader of The Daily Bible Challenge. As I have written in the past, until I die or God tells me differently, the Daily Bible Challenge is going to get posted 365 days a year!     Today, we are in chapter 33 of Numbers with only a few days left before we finish this book! Today is almost a cheat sheet for Exodus and Numbers, with little if any review of Leviticus. This chapter would allow you to draw a map of their travels with all this detail. There is also a bit about the reason for the wars along the way. It is a great read to gain an understanding of some of the hardest concepts in the Old Testament, mainly...

  Good morning. For today’s Daily Bible Challenge, we are in Chapter 32 of the book of Numbers this morning. Many folks struggle with this facet of God, as we hear about the battles and territory taken from its current inhabitants. I admit it is hard for me too, but I accept that this is God’s territory and I should just accept it. I can dig in all I want, but in the end, I have not been able to understand all of it. Some things you just have to have faith and trust that God is too big for us to fully understand from our mere human perspective.   But thankfully, He made the Gospel (New Testament, Good News) straightforward and easy to understand! Remember the thief on the cross next to Jesus made it into heaven with only faith, no works, no fruit, no baptism, no sacraments, no magic little prayer. Real faith is enough to get into heaven, but a life more than worth living, full of joy, comes from those other things, so don’t overlook them. Real JOY comes from a life under the A...

  As I watch the gentle rain fall over the Little Hundred Acre Wood from my little corner office. I had just been outside running the hounds through the wood and could smell that soft, unmistakable scent of rain on the breeze. Now settled into my chair, I began to ponder how the world we function in is so sensitive to change, and yet God made it all for us to tend to for Him. Yet He still makes sure it all serves us, because we are so dependent on His works. We have air to breathe because of all the plants and trees, yet they need us to continue expelling carbon dioxide, along with all the other animals, for them to live.    There are so many symbiotic relationships that it is overwhelming to count them all. There is so much going on in our environment that people take for granted, so much balance, and yet such excess capacity for extra pollution (man-made CO2). God’s creation has always made so much more sense to me than the scientific theories of creation. It seems to m...

     Good morning and welcome to The Daily Bible Challenge, where we read the whole Bible cover to cover one chapter at a time. Today, we are in chapter 30 of Numbers, and it is tough news for men, it requires us to make our yeses yes and our nos NO! We are held responsible for all of our words, no outs, even for a bad day!   Now, some of our female readers will get really mad over some of God’s words here, but if you think about it, you are getting an out on days of harsh words. Your husband or father will be held responsible for your outbursts of anger or any oaths made out of foolish youth or spite. I know in the American culture such things are considered wrong, but it is my opinion that God, as the designer of all of us, knew what He was doing here! But please don’t take my word for it, after all, I am just some stranger on the internet! Click the link yourself and dig into these things that bug you! Learn enough about God to understand Him more. After all, He ...

    Good Morning! Perhaps it's the lack of sleep, but I was lost as I read/listened to Numbers 29 for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge. There were so many sacrifices mentioned, I was losing track of the days and the huge numbers of bulls, rams, and lambs. The name of this festival was not made clear, but on further research, it is actually the Feast of Booths in the seventh month. I had always thought of this festival as a family fun time, but for the Levites, I guess it was very hard work for many days! Click the link below and read/listen for yourself, and join us in The Daily Bible Challenge! We welcome your questions and comments via DM/PM. All porn will be blocked!   Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=4&c=29

  Good morning and Happy Sabbath to the American Church! I have not shared much publicly, but I have been sick with something like COVID for the last four days. I took a home test for COVID-19 and the flu, but it was negative. So maybe bad bronchitis? I am much better this morning, but to not spread this junk, we will be staying home for our worship today. If you are going to lift up a prayer for me, please make it for my darling bride, Madeline, to not catch this!   Now, let's get to The Daily Bible Challenge in chapter 28 of the book of Numbers. As I was reading/listening to it early this morning, I couldn’t help but ponder how little we Americans know about sacrifice! Think of just how many animals we are talking about in this chapter. If you are not sensitive to the needs of animals, then just think of the expense that every member of the sojourners in this chapter had to sacrifice by giving up their animals. Animals are expensive and hard work! I also found myself ponderi...

       Good Saturday morning to all of you. I am under the weather, so this will be short. Today’s Daily Bible Challenge is Numbers 27, and it is less than a 4-minute read/listen. Could you imagine God telling you exactly when you would die? Moses hears this news in this chapter. He also hears that he will not get to pass into the promised land with all the people he has brought to this point. But as an older man, he has wisdom and expresses no anger at God, though I am sure he must have been disappointed. Or maybe he was just tired and ready to go to heaven. Click the link below to join The Daily Bible Challenge, no personal data requested, and no fees to pay, just an audiobook provided daily from Blue Letter Bible.   Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=4&c=27

   Numbers 26 is titled Census of a New Generation. In the reading for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge, this chapter is full of generational detail, which goes on and on. Think of how many thousands of people of all ages and sexes there are in this group of sojourners, and then what it would take to take down the Tabernacle and transport all its structures and the special items from within to moving out to a new region. You see, they are now beginning to conquer the Promised Land, but through all of this, God knew exactly when and where they would end up. Please notice how there are still two important names still alive in this Census; the rest have passed away due to their transgressions against God!     Just this census is quite an undertaking, and then to keep it mysterious, there is this cloud by day and a cloud of fire by night that leads them to their next dwelling place (Exodus). I hope you will click the Bible Picture below and let the audiobook read you t...

  Where do we start on this fine Thursday morning? I am in turmoil as I read this less than three-minute chapter. Sometimes I try to imagine putting myself right into the storyline/account of the action, and sometimes I try to imagine what it would be like today if such a day were lived out in front of my eyes.   Imagine you are at church and a son of the high priest took a spear and killed two people, a man and a woman, because they sinned against God. This is one of those times when our cultural differences make it very hard to put it all into a modern-day setting! But that is the way it happened, and his actions stopped or checked the wrath of God!   I hope this is not your first day of reading/listening to the Bible. I don’t want you to turn away in fear or anger! I want you to trust in the Lord that all this will be made clear in time and trust that He knows what He is doing! He does not have to live by our earthly standards or American culture. At times, accepting H...

  Good morning, what a chapter we have for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge! We are in chapter 24 of Numbers, and we are still listening in on Balak and Balaam’s conversations as Balaam reveals the future to Balak and others. Just imagine you are the president of a large country going into a territorial war, and you go to seek the advice of a well-known Preacher, Priest, or Rabbi, and you are told your enemy is God’s chosen and you will be utterly destroyed! Where do you go from there? If you believe in this God, you should be terrified, but if you are the typical leader, your ego won’t let you hear the message. I can’t even imagine what Balak must have been going through as he left this third and final attempt to get Balaam to curse Israel for him! It seems like this would be a good time to take some personal time in prayer and do some serious inward contemplation! What would you do in this situation? Rage at Balaam, and maybe even put him to death?   BTW, you are that President...

  Good morning and welcome to The Daily Bible Challenge, where we read/listen to the whole Bible one chapter at a time. We do this to become some of the statistical few that have done so (even within proclaimed Christians)! Not out of vanity, but to stop listening to gossip about God and start listening to God about God! The pop-up audiobook we use is provided by Blue Letter Bible and is the NASB95 version. It is a great translation into modern English. It was translated directly from the Greek and Hebrew languages from the old texts to modern English. We are not here to teach you as much as encourage you to read it for yourself. God did not design us to have a middleman between us and Jesus; you can go directly to Him and have a relationship with Him. Before Jesus (in the Old Testament), we had middlemen, Prophets like Balaam, Moses, and Aaron.   We welcome your comments and questions via direct messaging and still answer everyone directly. This ministry is entirely free, and...

  As I watch the storm coming in, mostly passing to the east, but we did get a small amount of rain for a few moments. I am pondering this day of doctor’s appointments for me and pet care for all the cats and dogs. If you are new here, we refer to them as hounds and lions, and they live with us here on The Little Hundred Acre Wood. I am also cogitating on what happened to our clothes washer yesterday, but don’t get me started on the planned obsolescence of today’s appliances, cars, and other products. It is today’s kind of war, an economic war, and we are losing, in my opinion. I am also pondering what God has for us in Today’s Daily Bible Challenge as we read/listen to chapter 22 of Numbers.   The wars have started, and there are grumblings and rumors flying about in the towns and territories around our sojourners traveling under the protection of God. The next two chapters are a bit of a puzzle as we hear of Balaam, the son of Beor. You see, Balaam was not a false prophet...

  Good morning, we had a cool front come through yesterday, and it is only 75 degrees as I write this letter to all of you at 4:30 in the morning. Our high for the day is only 92, far better than the 103 we had this past week! Texas summers tend to be a reminder of what Hell might feel like. Someday, we hope to escape to Colorado for the summers!   Well, I guess I am grumbling and should get my attitude straight. Much like God’s people in the book of Numbers, chapter 22, for this morning’s Daily Bible Challenge, we are never satisfied, it would seem. There is something very different in today’s chapter as we start to read about all the wars as God starts to deliver the promised land into the hands of His people through wars and skirmishes. There will be many more over the next few chapters as they become conquerors, completely wiping out whole cities and their population as commanded by God.   This is a facet of God that many Christians become very uncomfortable with, esp...

 Good Saturday morning, I hope you have great plans for your weekend! We have a big lunch out with friends today, but first, I have my accountability breakfast meeting with five brothers in Christ. I look forward to both of these meetups. There was a lot of work for me yesterday, and most of it was complete before the heat rolled in. We were teased that there might be a storm and some rain, but it never materialised.  Today’s Daily Bible Challenge is chapter 20 of Numbers. Someone dies before entering the promised land due to their sins against God. He won’t be the last either; there is at least one more important death we will read about in the next week or so. I don’t think this or the other death was like being cast into hell, just a denial of the reward due to choosing to rebel against God. In other words, they still went to heaven, they just didn’t enjoy the earthly rewards for their long journey.    I know I have been both rewarded and corrected by God in th...

    Good morning and Happy Friday to each of you! I am headed out early this morning to try and complete some work before the heat comes in. My truck (Eeyore the 2nd) is still loaded from yesterday, so it will be a fast start! It is simple work, but on a ladder from the bed of my truck. However, sometimes church work involves painting, screws, and signs. But at least I get to talk with yall about God before I head out!   We are in the book of Numbers, chapter 19, for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge, and we read/hear about a red cow, or Red Heifer, and why it is so important back then and again today in Israel. Why today? Because the red heifers are needed now for Israel to purify to start making the new Temple/Tabernacle. The spotless red heifers have been arranged and delivered to Israel from right here in Texas. There is even a book about it on Amazon, Hunt for the Red Heifers. I know the author and his story about this experience, and it should be a great read!   As...