It was colder than I wanted it to be this morning. Much colder. As I walked into McD’s to meet a group of friends one of them asked, “How are you doing?” In one breath I said, “It’s a bit chilly this morning.” In the next I ordered a large ICED coffee. When will I learn?
But I’m not writing today to discuss the weather. Not at all.
As I met with this group of friends one thing seemed apparent. We all realized our lives are hectic. We all realized our lives are complex. We all realized we need to spend more time with God.
So, today I want to present you with a challenge. It’s something that will better prepare you for your hectic life. It’s something that will help you deal with the complexities in life. It’s something that will help you spend more time with God.
Here’s the challenge: Over the next two weeks, read the gospel of Matthew. That’s twenty-eight chapters in just fourteen days. So let’s just call it the 28/14 challenge. But this is only part of the challenge, there’s a little more to it.
Take the opportunity as you read a couple of chapters each day to ask yourself three important questions. Answering these three questions will help the text sink in. Answering these three questions will help you better know God and His will for your life.
- What does the text say about God?
- What does the text say about me?
- What is God inviting me to do?
That’s the 28/14 challenge.
Two chapters a day.
Three questions a day.
Fourteen days.
Will you join me in the challenge?
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This is part one in a series on the 28/14 Challenge. I won’t post my thoughts each day of the challenge, but additional posts are provided at the links below.
The 28/14 Challenge: day 1 (Matthew 1-2)
The 28/14 Challenge: day 4 (Matthew 7-8)
The 28/14 Challenge: day 6 (Matthew 11-12)
The 28/14 Challenge: day 11 (Matthew 21-22)
Questions or comments? Feel free to let me know in the comment section below.
south ridge blog 
I was wondering where to go after John. Thanks for the direction.
I will take this 28/14 challenge! I will let you know what God reveales to me. Looking forward to hearing his voice through the gospel.
So I usually read with some kind of apologetic slant. Sometimes I ask myself “what would a scoffer say about this?” In the first few chapters, there a lot of instances where it says something like, “this was done to fulfill the prophecy.” I worry about that wording (from an apologetic viewpoint only, of course). I’m curious if anyone has encountered the argument that prophecy was fulfilled because the people knew the prophecy, and how it can be defended.
Good question, Eric.
I did some study this week on the probably of Jesus fulfilling OT prophecies. The short story is, for one person to fulfill just 8 OT prophecies has the odds highly against them. The odds are 1:10^17. (I’ll be sharing more on that Sunday) 🙂
My short answer to your question is that there were some prophecies that people would have known, but would not have considered Messianic. Isaiah’s “virgin birth” prophecy, for example, doesn’t use the word “virgin” in the Old Testament. It simply says “young maiden”, and it was fulfilled in the life of Isaiah. Through the Holy Spirit, Matthew included this as a prophecy of Jesus – but it most likely wasn’t taught in the Synagogues as a Messianic Prophecy.
Personally, I think most of the prophecies mentioned by Matthew are mentioned for the same reason. They were there and the people may have known them, but he picked ones that went against what the people were expecting from a Messiah. They were expecting a king in the line of David to rid themselves of Roman rule. The prophecies they often focused on were kingly/warrior ones. The prophecies Matthew points out are different, showing that God had a different plan than the people had thought.
Not sure if this helps… but it’s my (short) thoughts on the subject. 🙂