In the U.S., that has been the call in politics. But, as I look at the numbers on my Dashboard for myBibleJournal, I find it hard to change. 237 posts before this one, in 63 categories and 194 comments (without spam, I might add). That is really cool and I am humbled by it. This all came about because of my desire to read the Bible, the support of my friends and home team and the opportunity to reach others. I accomplished my goal and it is time to reach for another.

With that being said, I am excited to start a new chapter in assisting others in their read of the Bible. As I start this year, I introduce: Bible 09.com. Why the change?

1. I am clearing myBibleJournal.com for a more ambitious way of reaching people for Jesus. I think that it is a great domain that can be used for an even higher purpose. I have been researching the software and I believe that it can be a great place for others to grow.
2. I truly believe, along with others (find out more by clicking here, here, here and here ) that this is the year that we need to be reading the Bible.
3. I am changing servers. This is boring computer stuff to most people. So, nuff said…
4. Technology has changed. I think that the new blog is better looking, easier to read and more fun to look at!
5. It’s God at work. I don’t know what else to say…

So I hope that you might change your feeds or bookmarks to http://bible09.com/ and follow the next phase of my reading. As always, I thank you so much for joining me in this journey and it is my continual prayer that this helps you in your read. Read on…

By the way, I can’t believe it, but there were 26,197 spam comments that came in as well. I don’t wish that you could see the content of those! Join me now at Bible09.com.

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Sorry, I had to use the title to get the Barry Manilow song in your head, but I DID IT! Cover to cover, I read the Bible in a year. Well, it took me a little over two years to actually do it and I started over at the beginning of the year and did it in less than a year, but I did it. My Bible and I did it. We made it. WOW, it is pretty cool.

It is all pretty summed up for me in the last day of reading of Revelation:

“Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book.” Revelation 22:7 (NLT)

What’s next. To read it again. It’s funny and I am embarrassed to say it, but when I first starting reading the Bible, I did it almost as a “bucket-list” type thing. To say that I had read the entire Bible. And I am excited about the accomplishment, but it did something to me. This has begun a lifelong habit of reading the Word and applying it. So now I start the new year with a telephone book sized Study Bible that I got for Christmas to dive in even deeper. I am fired up and I am excited about sharing in the next year with tools to help my friends do the same.

7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward. Psalm 19:7-11 (ESV)

Thank you again for joining me on the journey. We’ve only just begun (yet another cheezy 70′s song reference). Get ready because we are only getting started! Here we go…

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Man, what an awesome day it has been! I got to spend the whole day with my family, we served together pouring love into babies in the nursery at church while their parents attended service and then we got to attend that service which was just plain amazing. Everybody that served in it was just radiating their love for the Lord.

But, a highlight of my day was to spend time with my friend Ryan. He is the son of a woman that works with my wife and fortunately, they got to attend church with us and along with his dad, we got to eat dinner together. You see, Ryan is special in that he has Down’s Syndrome, along with many other ailments. That is not what makes him special though. He is special in the fact that he just is so full of love and hope. When you are with him, he makes YOU feel special. The joy that comes out of the guy is just contagious and it was a special gift to me this Christmas and I will never forget it.

In thinking about dinner with our family and Ryan’s family, it reminded me of how much God loves us. Like Ryan, he makes us all special. He loves us all so much that He gave us His Son. I think we get so wrapped up in the Nativity story on this day that it is easy to forget:

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. – Ephesians 1:4 (NLT)

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16 (NLT)

I feel like when we celebrate this time of year, we tend to focus on the fact that Jesus just erases our sins, but it is so much bigger than that. God came to experience what we deal with because He loves us so much! Really, if you were God, would you put yourself through that? I would have to say that I would probably not, but He did and I am just so thankful that Jesus came this day because God loves us. There is nothing more awesome than that. Simply amazing. Merry Christmas.

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As I sat down to write tonight, I was going to post about something somewhat different, but as will happen, I got to checking my RSS feeds and Twitter before writing and I saw something that I felt I needed to say.

You see, I was going to write about how excited I am to be finishing reading the entire Bible in just 9 days (I read ahead today) and how encouraging it is to have such little pages at the end as it was intimidating to have so little in the front to start out. It’s like seeing the finish line and just wanting to sprint there. It is so exciting.

But, then I read the posts from Gary Lamb and Perry Noble, two guys are doing some pretty remarkable things down in the southeast and are pretty avid bloggers. It was in these posts that I saw the influence of my friend Greg Rohlinger. It is because of him and his initiative with our church to travel “Route 66″ (the 66 books of the Bible. Very clever) that I am able to write this tonight.

The thing is, Greg just brings it. And not just to me, not just to our church body, but to others on the other side of the country to help show the glory of God to those that have not seen it. I just had to take a moment to share my thanks for Greg with others. With blogging, folks come from all over the world to check in. It is my prayer that you can have somebody in your life that inspires you like Greg has in mine. Chances are, he could be helping them! Thanks buddy.

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Man, today was busy, but quite nice actually. I got a couple of books about blogging and it got me fired up. I am excited to see what God has in store for me in 2009. I actually got in the zone and was working on some business ideas, but I took a break to do my daily read. It was in Micah that I was reminded of how I need to run my business (and life!):

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 (NLT)

I am working on multiple projects, some where I am going to find myself in debate with others. This verse is going to help me when I get passionate about my viewpoint to remember that it is Him that I must answer, not those on the other side. It was awesome to see when I was getting worked up about what I do. Thanks God for showing me that tonight.

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When I began this blog, it was to keep me on my Bible reading with the help of friends who would stop by to read and comment on what I was reading. It was with the following verse that this was established:

But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love. Jude 1:20-21 (NLT)

It has truly been a blessing to write about what I am getting out of the Bible and sharing it with others. And I want to share this blessing with others, but I am a bit stuck. Last night, Carrie was checking out the site and she said, “I love to read it, but I just don’t want to comment.” Without her knowing it, she kind of blew my plan out of the water. But, this was a good thing.

I come to you now. In expanding this site, what do you think would be most helpful to you? Here is what I have come up with so far:

1. Make it a community site, like Facebook or MySpace. You would have a profile and your own blog to join the conversation. This is where I have been leaning, but I am not sure enough people would want to add another profile and password to their lives. Some people just don’t want to write, but they love to read. I totally get it.
2. Make it a magazine site, with others writers other than me to share their observations as we go through the next year reading through the Bible.
3. Keep the way it is.

The bottom line is this:  I feel God is leading me to add more voices and visions from the Word here. The Bible speaks to everybody in different ways to different people. If everybody saw it the same way, we would all go to same church! But we don’t and I love that everybody gets it differently. Let’s discuss, debate and revel in the Word of God. That is the vision for the site and I want to do it in a way that reaches the most people.

So, what do you think? I am ready to start a movement to get everybody reading in 2009 and I want to provide the tools to help everybody continue through the year, but I need your help. Comment below and let me know and let’s see how many people we can get to read the Good News this year. Thanks.

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My friend Greg and a group from our church are currently on a trip to tour the Holy Land. I have been helping him out with some of the pictures and I have to tell you, it has been fascinating following his travelogue. So, if you would like to experience the trip along with them, click here to catch all the details. It is a blast. I can’t wait to hear about it when they get back. Enjoy.

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As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I am working on making some changes to the site and as I had experimented with in the past, it moves this blog to another location. If for some reason you get here and this blog has gone away, you can find it at http://matt.mybiblejournal.com. This probably won’t happen for a few days at the earliest, but I just wanted to give you the heads up. Thanks again for checking in.

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Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is over and we begin looking to the new year, it is time for me to reflect and nothing struck me more in my reading recently than this verse:

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad – for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. 1 Peter 4:12-13 (NLT)

I put emphasis on “strange”, because there have been a number for instances this year that were totally weird and timed out with some signifigant spiritual events. Before I share I must disclaim that: 1) I am blessed to have my health and that of the family. We are great. 2) I am not complaining and am joyful in these experiences. 3) We are blessed to have problems like this, but you still need to break out the Maylox bottle anyhow. 4) If this is “sharing in Christ’s suffering”, I am totally getting off easy. Nothing compares to that!

A number of things happened to me over the last year that have been crazy. They include:

• We had a blow out on the freeway coming home from California. Happens all the time, right? We were racing home to serve at church at the time! Funny how that happens! Evil has its ways. The girls still made in time to serve. YAY GOD!
• The day before I was to leave to go to High School Church camp our air conditioning went out. Oh yeah, it was 105 degrees outside. Thank you God for such wonderful parents who could come help out financially and emotionally. They are a true blessing to our family.
• I got laid off from a job that I loved. A blessing in disguise, but still a hard pill to swallow at the time.
• My laptop fried recently. Just as I am getting ready to take this website to a God-sized vision. Again, it’s mysterious timing to me.

I have to reiterate, I am not trying to whine and complain about these things, which is why it took me so long to actually write about them. That is the last thing that I want to do. I just found it interesting how this came about when I am getting ready to read through the entire Bible, from start to finish, for the first time and I am more connected to the Church body than ever before. It has been so exciting to connect with the Living Word online and off and this verse from 1 Peter really kind of summed it up. Like it says, strange…

So there you have it, major spiritual growth. I know there is more on the way and I can’t wait. Thanks for taking the journey with me.

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A blog post, perhaps? I know it has been a while since I got on here. And there is good reason. God has been working on me hardcore and the blog has not been part of His plan. But, now it is. BIG TIME! There are going to be some HUGE changes to this site that are God-sized and I am so excited to get them online. It will come very shortly and I can’t wait to share.

As a very small clue, I share something from my reading today:

Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. 1 Peter 3:8 (NLT)

I know that is not saying much and I am very sorry for the tease, but I can tell you that more news will come very shortly. Thanks for being there for me.

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