Hope for the New Year

It’s January 1. Time to set some new goals or to affirm the good things you are doing. One thing I am going to do is read through the New Testament in 2009. Did you know that there are 260 chapters in the New Testament? Did you also know that there are 260 “week days” in a year (52 weeks X 5 days/week)? If you read one chapter out of the New Testament each week day morning, you will read the entire New Testament in a year. (This method gives you the weekends to catch up if you get behind…)

Let’s do that together! I know from experience that God’s Word will change your life!

I’ve decided to help you get started by reflecting on the 28 chapters of Matthew for the first 28 week days of the year. Let’s get started with Matthew chapter 1.

As I read through the genealogy of Jesus Christ something struck me. There were five women mentioned in Christ’s genealogy. This is striking because in Matthew’s time, women were not considered as important as men in peoples’ ancestry. (Luke, a more progressive writer than Matthew for his time, did not even mention Christ’s mother in the genealogy of Christ he wrote in Luke 3!)

Who were the women Matthew mentioned?

• Tamar
• Rahab
• Ruth
• Uriah’s wife
• Mary

As I look at this list, I am struck even more by the question, why these women? Why did God select these women to be a part of the lineage of his Christ, and why did he mention these particularly by name? OK, I understand Mary. She was highly regarded and was chosen to bear the Messiah. But the others? They have “questionable” pasts. Three were “foreigners,” brought into the kingdom by marriage. Two engaged in prostitution. One had an extra-marital affair with the king while her husband was away at war. Not exactly the kind of people you brag about from your past.

This passage reveals at least two truths:

1. No matter how bad I think I may be, I am not beyond the reach of God and his family.
2. To “bring about the Kingdom” we need to reach outside the Kingdom and present a bride to Christ from among those bypassed by conventional wisdom. He will “sanctify” his bride!

May God help us live those two truths in 2009!

(By the way, there are 949 chapters in the Old Testament. If you read two per week day you will finish in less than 2 years. To finish in one year you would need to read 3 ½ or 4 chapters per week day.)