Good morning, it seems we are past any demonic attacks here this morning on The Little Hundred Acre Wood. No illness, no skunks, just a peaceful scene with dogs asleep at my feet and the cat asleep on the bookshelf just behind me! Oh, and some great Costa Rican coffee to wake me up so I can write to all of you! I cherish cool, calm mornings like this as I pray and read God’s word, and try to talk you into clicking the link below to listen to the Bible for yourselves!  Before Jesus filled my heart with the Holy Spirit, I would not have cared if you read it or not. I was a callous soul, with no regard for others except for what I could get out of you! I was an addict of multiple persuasions, all the while trying to fill that empty, lonely hole in my heart. I tried to fill that hole with lots of wealth, porn, sex, drugs, and alcohol, and even religion, many of those at the same time, but nothing satisfied my insatiable drive to feel complete and have meaning in life!  Well,...

   Good morning, it's Monday again. Will you make it a great day or be distracted by the day that too many of us dread? Please don’t focus on such trivial things when there is so much good yet to do today! You can be the change in your life; the decision is easy, but I will admit the work is hard. Deciding to start a new life that is full of JOY instead of dread is exciting. If you hate your job, find a new, better one. If you dread your family, then here is where it gets very hard. If they are not violent, then you need to be the change, love unconditionally as Christ loves us! Love is more than an emotion; it is a decision. We pick ourselves back up and decide daily to love again! Learn what you can about conflict resolution, and if they won’t reconcile, then learn what it takes to be positive in trials.   Just this morning, we had more spiritual warfare before six in the morning; it has been very harsh and often lately. Today, satan tried to use a skunk to dissuade me ...

  It is a bit late on Sunday morning as I write this letter to all of you. Some call this God’s day in the Christian church. I am not a fan of that tradition. I think every day is God’s day, and we should live with that in mind. We as Americans seem to think every day is our day, even the Sabbath and “God’s Day” Sunday! Madeline and I are trying hard to learn how to make every day God’s day as a condition of our hearts! If your heart is fixed on glorifying God daily, it is harder to find yourself tricked into sin. It is easier to love on those we meet if God comes first, others second, and ourselves third!   So, how does making every day God’s day work? Well, for us, it means praying before our feet hit the ground each morning! It is amazing how this can set the tone for the day! Then I take care of the inside animals then our coffee. After the mandatory tumbler of Costa Rican Coffee is in my hand, I head into the little corner office looking out over The Little Hundred Acre W...

       Good Saturday morning to each of you! I am preparing to go serve at the monthly food drive/distribution just south of Glen Rose, TX. I love this ministry and have done it every month I can for years. I missed the last one because of Madeline’s hospitalisation. We usually have the same group of volunteers, and we have all kind of become a family! I am not much help there due to my bad back, but I try the best I can! We may have hundreds of cars pull through for groceries, or we may have just thirty or so; we never know! Serving like this and seeing people who pick up food for several families that are shut in is such an uplifting experience. Somehow God uses service like this to bless the servers as much as the receivers! There is something very grounding in mission work like this. Every car is prayed over if they say yes to the request. But everyone is prayed over at the beginning, whether they grant us permission or not! We want everyone to see tis as God’s ...

       We made it to Friday! I hope you have a great day planned! We may have done too much yesterday with the unseasonably cool weather and may make today more of a day of rest, or a little fun! But we are here for The Daily Bible Challenge, not a report on our comings and goings. So let’s get to Joshua 4 and read/listen to how Joshua starts to lead his people into the promised land, all the while, finding ways to honor God in what He has done for them!    I pondered how nice it might be to make an altar of twelve large stones at the entrance to The Little Hundred Acre Wood! He has blessed us so well, I should naturally want to do such things, but such grand gestures don’t come easy in this busy world!     I just spent 30 minutes arguing with AI again to create an image of this altar of 12 stones. AI is still so frustrating to use; even with very detailed prompts/instructions, it would keep creating images that had way more than 1...

  Good Thursday morning, everyone! The other day, I sent out a correction, and here is the part I left out of the image sent back then. This is the second time God parted the waters for these people to cross into a new land. This time, they are not fleeing as freed slaves; this time, they are warriors. There is so much new material coming in the next few weeks! It is a great time to join us in The Daily Bible Challenge!   God chose Joshua to take over for Moses, but now He will exalt Joshua to make sure the people will respect and follow him into this next adventure in the Promised Land! So buckle up for some great reading with some amazing miracles!   Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=6&c=3

  Good Wednesday morning, I need to make a correction on yesterday’s post, so please bear with me and accept my apology as I correct my actions! It may seem like a small mistake to some of you; maybe you didn’t even notice. But the image I had Grok create left out a miracle of God that has great significance.    A dear friend who is a Pastor pointed out my error, and I thanked him for the correction of my oversight! So, here goes: the people in the image were walking through the water, and in my sleepiness, I forgot that God parted the waters here at the Jordan the same way He parted the Red Sea! This miracle brought fear into the hearts of the people of the land, preparing them for the complete victory God’s people would have over them. It also reminded this new generation of Jews what God did for their ancestors forty years before, and now He has shown His power to them also! I am not a perfect teacher, but when corrected out of love, the way my friend did, I will follo...

  Good morning, we had a newbie at Men’s Bible Study last night, he has rededicated his life to Christ after the Kirk incident, and is digging in with men to mentor him! I think Charlie's death is truly being used by God for an awakening in this country. I have heard so many stories like this over the last few weeks! I have compared this to Stephen being martyred and how it caused the Gospel to spread farther and deeper so rapidly in Biblical times. There are Martyrs daily around the world, but Charlie’s seems to strike a nerve, or like me, right to the heart! I guess I am still grieving for a friend I never met in person. There was something about how he treated people with such respect, especially in conflict! We all could use some Charlie in our hearts and minds!   Well, today I want to tell you about another man who lived some three thousand years ago. His name was Joshua, and he inherited a huge role as leader of these nomads after Moses’ death. Joshua will make mistakes,...

  Good Monday morning, I hope you have a great week planned! My cat is so happy we are back home; she was very excited to jump on my lap as my keyboard pillow this morning. Yes, I type in a crazy position to write The Daily Bible Challenge each morning with a small cat in my lap, asleep under the keyboard, and a dog asleep on the floor on each side of my chair. I am sure it is quite a sight, but this is our alone time with God, so no one sees but Him. Do you make TDBC part of your alone time with God? I pray while still in bed, then make the coffee and feed the hounds and cats, then head to this little home office to write these letters to all of you. I don’t do this because I am lonely; I am a Bivocational Pastor and work at a small church campus with other Pastors and staff. I stay quite busy with behind-the-scenes ministry. I do this because I want to challenge as many people as possible to read the word of God!   There are Bibles in almost every home in the USA, probably m...

  Good Sunday morning, we will be traveling back to The Little Hundred Acre Wood today, just in time to head to church for our responsibilities there. The wedding we came to Houston for went so very well, and so did the reception. While we were at the reception, we got a call from our son in Cypress that our beloved granddog was hurt, but ok. She managed to dislocate her hip playing wild and crazy like a goldendoodle does! So, it was a late night around here as she went into the Animal ER. We hope she will be fine soon, but there will be more work ahead for her as they couldn’t get things back in the correct position at the ER.   Well, we are here for The Daily Bible Challenge, so let's get to chapter 33 of Deuteronomy, where we pick up on the blessing over the people of Israel by Moses as he prepares for his death. Could you imagine knowing your time of death because God told you so? Well, there is something very important here in the study of this culture: before someone di...

       Good Saturday morning, we are in Cypress, TX, this morning, and my granddog Maxie is at my feet as I am writing to you! She is a younger Goldendoodle and is full of fun and more energy than the law allows! I actually wore her out playing some yesterday, I am told that is a change, apparently she is the Everready Bunny! It is hard to imagine how these animals remember someone from so long ago. Madeline sees her often, but for me, it is at best once a year! H-town, well, really, Cypress is quiet this time of the morning. Our drive was full of great Texas landscapes, rolling hills covered in grasslands, oak trees, and, of course, cattle, lots of cattle! We also had more conversation than we have had in months. I love that about road trips!   Our son James has The Little Hundred Acre Wood covered for us while we are gone, and with the security cameras we have an eye on the place too while away, I love some technologies! Never would have even dreamed any of t...

  I write this note to all of you as Madeline and I prepare to head out for a couple of days for a wedding in Houston. We cherish this young bride and look forward to seeing what God does in their life as the two become one! She is such a loving spirit and a great teacher. Oh, if you are new here, The Daily Bible Challenge will still be posted from H-town, rain or shine, 365!   Our chapter (31 of Deuteronomy) is about Moses’ Birthday at 120 years old, and he is still alert and writing everything God has given him for the people. It is not a typical birthday celebration as he prepares to turn over the leadership to Joshua in preparations for his own God foretold impending death. Moses stayed so faithful to his calling, even in the face of great personal loss.   The prophecy in the middle of this chapter is a tough read. It must have been tough on Moses to know that these people would betray God again and again after his own death!   Click the link to read/listen to it...

  Good morning, friends and foes, I hope this letter finds you well. We are having a productive week here on the Little Hundred Acre Wood. If you are new, maybe I should all caps the LITTLE in the name of our land! It is only one hundred acres in a child's eye, like the wood in Christopher Robin’s tales of old! Things are going well around here, and we look forward to the fall to get things back in order around here. I have had work every morning this week and have work again today. Madeline has had a busier schedule than last week, but is pacing herself well to keep moving toward full recovery from her recent hospitalization.   I look forward to being at our Re/Gen group tonight at StoneWater Church. We have a couple of guys traveling this week, but it will still be a great class as we finalize our study on Amends. It has been an amazing journey with these men as they have drawn closer to God and a clearer understanding of their need for Him! We are even seeing a few leaders ...

      Good morning, I hope you are ready for your Wednesday, but not before your daily dose of God’s word! Here at The Daily Bible Challenge, we have a mission, and that is to talk with you about reading your Bible. We make it very easy to do by providing a link to an audiobook of the Bible in easy modern-day English. Just click the link below and listen to one chapter a day with us!     I try not to teach much of anything, but only give you enough insight to be curious enough to read it for yourself! Yes, some days are more of a challenge, like yesterday’s! Today’s chapter is Deuteronomy 29 and is only about a 4-minute read/listen. Context is very important to understanding the Bible. So in that light, this was written to the Jewish people, well, technically the twelve tribes of Israel (Israel the person). Therefore, this covenant is not with us Gentiles but with those 12 tribes. Our covenant is with Jesus as our Lord and Savior. There have b...

  Good morning, this will be short today, because chapter 28 of Deuteronomy is ten minutes long and it is far more important than any of my words. I will not sugarcoat this; it is three minutes of easy, then seven minutes of very tough words! But please remember, keep this all in context, Moses is speaking to the Jewish people, not the Gentiles. Not that we can escape the wrath of God by not being Jewish! Just that this warning is very much for them. As I read, I pondered if some of the Jewish people had already endured some of these curses. Lord, please come back soon, I don’t think I could bear seeing all these things come to pass! Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=5&c=28

      Good Monday morning, I hope you have a great day planned at work or wherever you spend your time! I have a small job this morning and again the next few days for a separate customer. It will be good to get out of the house after all the illnesses we have had this summer! We look forward to fall and the cooler temps it sometimes brings to North Texas. Yes, I said sometimes, there are years here where it only lowers into the high nineties until November. But the nineties are better than August’s 109 and above! We have a partly cloudy sky that God will probably use to create another amazing sunrise as I look out my little office windows over The Little Hundred Acre Wood. With all the illnesses we have had, the Wood needs a big cleanup with the weeds overtaking much of the land. Maybe I will be able to clean it all up soon, before Thanksgiving arrives in just ten or so weeks now. Well, I am rambling again.    Let’s get to The Daily Bible Challenge ...

  Whenever a preacher talks about the Tithe (giving 10% to the church), even just in passing, some only hear those words and turn off their listening in angry rebellion. More people leave the church over this subject than almost anything else I have ever heard as a complaint. Our church mentions money one or maybe two times a year, and still, I have heard complaints that all they ever talk about is money. I think God talks about it more than maybe any other topic in the Bible. I think He does this because where our treasure is, that is also where our heart is. Meaning that lots of us have money as our idol or lower case “g” god.   So I can almost hear the comments starting now: “All Austin ever writes about is money!” Well, because you cannot even give to this blog/ministry, maybe you need to ask yourself if you are listening to satan’s lies or actually listening to what you are reading/listening to? I don’t want your money, and in all reality, I don’t think God does either! I...

        Some of you still think I make things up to tease you into reading the Bible, but this stuff is really there! In Today’s Daily Bible Challenge (Deuteronomy chapter 25), there is mention of a woman taking a hold of a man’s testicles in her husband’s fight! I am not making this up! By the way, this is strictly forbidden and has a nasty punishment!   Now, if this makes you not want to read the Bible, please understand this is the Old Testament and are Moses’ laws and God’s laws altogether. These laws were a framework on which to create a template to make a society function in a group of fallen men and women!   There is also something in here that would terrify members of the bar, basically to discourage false lawsuits, the loser would get 40 lashes. Could you imagine what that would do to today’s court system? Now, before some of you go misquoting me somewhere, I am not condoning beatings for all losing parties in lawsuits, but any false lawsuits ...

 We are in Deuteronomy 24 for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge, and the big idea I would like to focus on in this chapter is how we are to make it possible for the poor and the immigrants to provide for themselves. It is written that we will always have the poor. Are we to shun them and make their situation worse? No, we are to provide for them in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and provide for themselves. Being homeless can literally happen to almost anyone, through a series of bad situations all lining up in a row. If you could only see how many people are just a car breakdown away from not being able to pay rent or buy food for their families! Yes, they may have made some bad choices along the way, but beating them down will not help them regain their self-esteem and confidence to pick themselves up and dust themselves off to try again!  So, where is this in chapter 24, you ask? 24:19-22 tells us how to leave a harvest available for the poor. If they don’t ge...

  God bless all of us as we awake to 9/11/s remembrances, but also to mourn as a nation, as yesterday we lost one of the greatest men of our time here on earth, Charlie Kirk! If his wife sees this post, I hope she understands the depth of my compliment to her late husband as I compare him to Stephen of the Bible! To be completely transparent, this is not an original idea. I am not sure who posted this comparison first, but it isn’t me! Here is some background from the Bible on Stephen, and in a way, Charlie! Acts 6:9-10 NASB95 - But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, [including] both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.   Verse 10 is my sincere compliment to Charlie Kirk! He was a great and peaceful warrior of Christ! His God imparted wisdom was way beyond his years! Yes, my heart is broken like so many other...

  We are reading/listening to Deuteronomy 23 for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge. It is an interesting compilation of laws, some of which are very confusing to me. Others are fascinating. What an interesting culture this must have been. The opening lines put to rest what God thinks about certain things that are happening these days. I find it intriguing that they were not allowed to charge interest on a loan to a person within their faith but were allowed to charge it to foreigners! If you are reading along in the text, the footnote for dogs is also very interesting from the point of view of current cultural views on such things.   I hope all that was vague enough not to give it away, but also make you want to find out for yourself! After all, that is why I am here, writing to all of you! Like I wrote yesterday, what I write here is not what is important; the link to the Bible chapter is my calling/mission!   Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/p...

 Good Tuesday morning to all of you! I wanted to tell yall something, this post is not an ego trip, I write only to try to convince you to click the link below to listen to the Bible! I will go to just about any means to tempt you, entice you, beg you to start reading the Bible! Why, you ask, because if you don’t have a relationship with Jesus the Christ, you will perish in a terrible death! But if you learn about God and His Son, Jesus the Christ, and start a new life in Him, you will have eternity with God. You will also have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you if you begin this new life! In that there will be much JOY regardless of your circumstances.  So some of you are still asking what’s in this for Austin? Nothing, this is a free ministry, you don’t ever need to give me a dime! All I ask of you is that you read this anthology called the Bible! Did you know it contains 66 different books from forty authors? Did you know it contains the secrets to a life full of Joy and overc...

 Good Monday morning, please forgive the brevity of this post. I could not sleep last night. I may have gotten 3 hours of sleep at most. I was not tormented by anything; I just couldn’t even begin to sleep! This never happens to me, I mean, never! I am usually asleep in five minutes or less, regardless of what is going on in life.  In this state of mind, it was a tough read/listen for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge as we read Deuteronomy 21. I really struggled with what I read; you probably will too! It is not an easy chapter to listen to, with our cultural differences. Any questions or comments today will probably not be answered until tomorrow, so I can properly ponder and research with a clear mind!  Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=5&c=21

  Sometimes we get conflicted about the Bible, and we think, 'Doesn't this contradict that section?' Today I was feeling that way as I read, but then Moses straightened out my misunderstanding as I read further. It is important to read in context instead of just a verse here or over there! Pulling one or two verses out of context can lead you astray, as there is no context when that is done. Yes, sometimes it does back up your thought or message, but other times it may be absolute heresy! You may have had no intention of committing heresy, but by pulling out one verse, it is easy to do! For instance, if we pulled verse 17 out of context, it would make us all mass murderers; those are instructions for the Jewish people coming into the promised land, not instructions for Gentiles living a half world away!   So, where are we going here from chapter 20 of Deuteronomy for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge? Well, we have read the instructions from previous chapters that they were to...

  Good Saturday morning, we have a busy day ahead. Madeline is feeling much better now and might go to the grocery store. Our loving church family has been delivering meals every single day since we got home from the hospital! It may seem like impossible odds, but my diverticulitis has flared up for the first time in many years! (That is what Madeline went to the hospital for, if you didn’t know.) Crazzy right?   Crazy times here on The Little Hundred Acre Wood! I am missing a men's breakfast this morning due to my illness, ARGH! I really wanted to go to this one! A neighbor and church friend is coming today to install all of the front-end parts and new shocks on Eeyore, my little antique truck. I would normally do this myself, but this has been a bad year for our health, and I need it done soon to protect the new tires that I installed a couple of months ago. The truck has been sitting still for weeks now, with all that has been going on in our lives! I hope to finish the flo...

       Good Friday morning, I hope this letter finds you and yours well! We are in Deuteronomy 18 for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge. Here we read of how we are to compensate the Priests of the Levitical order. I would imagine that at least part of these rules would also include how Christian Pastors are to be treated.   Some Pastors would not like this at all, and others would probably be quite happy with it! We also have direct instructions on avoiding witchcraft and those who call up the dead! There is also a reminder of why God wanted the inhabitants of the promised land eliminated, as they were sacrificing their children by fire! But please don’t take my word for it, click the link below and listen for yourself! If you dig into God’s word, He will bless your efforts! I like to call it an otherworldly ROI (return on investment)!   Talk with you soon! https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=5&c=18

    If only we could follow this example given to us for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge in Deuteronomy 17. We are given an outline for how to run our laws and courts, and some of it reminds me of how the USA was originally set up! Yes, it is a government led by the Religious Leaders, but if you look at it more closely, it is not far from our own in principle. We see that the death penalty is set up by God and is not to be taken lightly! We see that these punishments are to put enough fear in the tempted that they will choose not to break the law!     Yes, there is so much to learn from the Old Testament and the New, if we would only read about it and learn where we have gone astray! But for me, and I hope someday for you, the Old Testament will begin to show you the prophecy that Jesus is the Messiah and our deliverer. That even in Isaiah, we will hear all about Jesus some seven hundred years before He was born. It is truly unmistakable that it is Jesus wh...

  Sometimes I get restless writing to all of you! I wonder how many will finally accept the challenge and how many will start and fall away as soon as they hear something from God that they don't like! We, with the help of blueletterbible.org make it so easy that a child can do it. Just click the daily link, and it is read to you word for word from the NASB95 version of the Bible. We are here to challenge you to read your whole Bible one or sometimes two chapters at a time.   Why, so that you might stop listening to gossip about God and start listening to God about God! You see, so many of the people you listen to about God have never even read the Bible themselves! God left these writings for you to get to know Him. The more you invest in your relationship with God, the more He will bless that investment with an otherworldly ROI! No, I am not talking about earthly riches, although that is also possible for some. I am talking about a meaning for your life that drives you when...

  Good Tuesday morning, we are in Deuteronomy 15 this morning for Today’s Daily Bible Challenge. What a difference following this chapter would make in this world! So the year of Jubilee is every seven years. There is so much to learn from this concept of the Jewish people and law. Where to begin, let’s see, you really can’t sell your land, it belongs to you and then your future heirs. It may be called selling, but you are only selling the use, like a lease. The price you charge is only what the land can produce in the time left before the year of Jubilee. In the seventh year, your land comes back to you. I love the part of this chapter that says there should be no poor, but it makes allowances for there being poor. I guess this is to make up for the expected bad decisions that people seem to always make!   We also see the concept of a bond servant, someone who is bound to you to work to pay back a debt, but decides to stay as your servant after the debt is fully paid. But if ...