NEW TESTAMENT ENCOURAGEMENT

Our pastor encouraged us to read through the New Testament last fall. He called it ‘NT-Ninety’ or the New Testament in Ninety Days. Although I’ve done lots of Bible Studies, I had not read through the Bible in a long time, so my husband and I read several chapters a day according to the plan. Besides the benefits of understanding the basic flow of the Bible, what we did not expect was how our lives were daily enriched in big and small ways. It was amazing how issues we studied and discussed that morning came up during our day. Somehow I don’t think that was coincidental. We felt the presence of Jesus in a fresh new way as we studied his everyday life and were especially challenged as we saw his graciousness in encouraging encounters with friend and foe. The people either loved Jesus or in the case of the religious leaders, wanted to destroy him. He lived out in the flesh what encouragement embodies and is the perfect example for us to follow.