It’s New Year’s Eve! Time to think about how we’re going to read the Bible in 2026.

As a Navigator missionary, I send out a year-end letter in early December. For years now, I have included a Bible reading plan, one of which was The Navigators 5x5x5 New Testament Reading Plan. You read one chapter/day, Monday through Friday, and cover the 260 chapters in the New Testament in 52 weeks.

Back in 2022, June and I had the idea that it might be fun to do the whole Bible that way. 5 days/week, one chapter/day, for five years.

• In 2022 we were reading from the New Testament plan.
• So in 2023, we released the Pentateuch: Genesis through Deuteronomy.
• 2024 took us through the History Books: Joshua – Esther.
• And this year, 2025, we read the Poetry books: Job – Song of Solomon.

We were right: it was fun! Going through the text only one chapter at a time, I saw things I had skipped over before. So now we come to Year 5, The Prophets: Isaiah – Malachi, and we’ll be done!

One lesson is that it’s amazing what you can do in small steps if you just stay with it. Sure, it’s not as cool as “reading the Bible through in a year,” but we’re getting it done. (By the way, The Navigators have a plan for “in a year” that’s the most conducive to success that I’ve seen. The first page explains how it works.)

Back to our reading the Prophets this year. The question is when to start since it’s a Monday – Friday plan, and New Year’s Day is on a Thursday. Do we start Monday, December 29, or Monday, January 5? I have elected the 5th. If we start then, we’ll finish on Friday, January 1, 2027.

Join me! The blog won’t be entirely based on the readings, but some of it will, and I always give you a chance to read a chapter for yourself before I publish my thoughts. I’ll meet you here Monday, January 5, with a few thoughts on Isaiah 1.

Blessed is the one who listens to me (Wisdom), watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 8.34, 35, ESV)

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. (Revelation 1.3, NKJV)

We celebrated Christmas Eve with our oldest son, Mark, and his daughter Kesley. Matt and family were supposed to join, but his kids were sick. So with just the four of us, we went to Christmas Eve at First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs, at 3p, had Chinese take-out, and then watched “a Christmas movie.” Which one?

We discussed some options and landed on The Santa Clause with Tim Allen (1994). June and I had never seen it. You can read the synopsis at the link…or see it for yourself. It’s an entertaining take on Santa Claus, who is real, of course, and who really does have an underground headquarters manned by elves at the North Pole. (The movie title is “Clause” – the “e” is added because it’s about a clause in a contract: a “Santa Clause.”)

The Tim Allen character, a single dad, becomes Santa Claus, and after he and his 8-year-old son, Charlie, deliver presents, the reindeer take him to the North Pole. Explaining all this leads to teachable exchanges. Here’s one with Charlie and his psychiatrist step-father:

• Psychiatrist: “I’ve never seen Santa Claus!”
• Charlie: “Have you ever seen a million dollars?”
• Psychiatrist: “No.”
• Charlie: “Just because you haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

I’ve written about this truth before, with respect to the power of the Holy Spirit and falling iguanas. Really! Look it up.

Here’s another, a lesson from a North Pole elf:

It’s not “seeing is believing,” it’s “believing is seeing.”

We see this in the contrast between Zechariah’s response and Mary’s response to the Angel Gabriel’s message. Zechariah is waiting for evidence.

And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” (Luke 1.18, ESV)

Zechariah is saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Mary believes right away.

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1.38, ESV)

My friend Mike Metzger said the same thing the elf said:

They say seeing is believing, but it’s truer that believing is seeing. – Mike Metzger, A Personal Note, February 7, 2021.

So, teachable moments from a silly Christmas movie (and a lesson that there are always teachable moments around – see, for example, Proverbs 24.30 – 34).

It’s still the Christmas season, a good time to think about a man who gets a few verses of coverage: Simeon.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2.25 – 32, ESV)

He goes on to give a brief prophecy. (Luke 2.34, 35)

Simeon is the subject of the first blog I wrote when I decided to blog every day, January 6, 2019. I reprise that blog now (with minor revisions).

“My spiritual life isn’t what it should be.” My friend had just written to ask if he might have a special gift for prayer, but then he quickly undermined it with the old standard, “I can’t be called to great things…my spiritual life isn’t what it should be.” And the answer to that is:

So what? Do the next right thing.

Paul said in Philippians 3, “Forgetting those things which are behind…”

I was just reading about Simeon in Luke 2, and his spiritual life was what it should be! The text says he was:

• Righteous and devout
• In touch with the Holy Spirit
• A believer in the imminent appearing of “The Consolation of Israel”

A wonderful list. HOWEVER, if he doesn’t respond to the Spirit THAT DAY and go to the temple, he misses Jesus. What if he had been in the middle of doing something important? Or unimportant for that matter. What if he thought, “I’ve been a good guy for a really long time, isn’t it OK if I take a day off?”

Simeon’s responsibility, my friend’s responsibility, your and my responsibility is to do the next right thing: pray, spend time in the Word, meet a neighbor’s need, encourage someone, write the blog(!), serve your spouse,…. My friend Fisher DeBerry, former coach of the Air Force Academy Football team, had a sign in his office: “You’re only as good as your last play.”

Do the next right thing. The alleged quality of your past spiritual life, good or bad, is irrelevant.

I’ve written about Indifference before, most recently, on July 17. I needed to review and practice the concept this week…

Monday, December 22, we had to rehome our dog, Benji, after he lived with us just 14 months. I wrote about Benji in An Everyday Answer to Prayer on October 26, 2024. So here we are, a dog that was an answer to prayer, that we have really loved and enjoyed (most of the time!), committed a major doggy error which left me no choice but to rehome him. (I don’t want to publish the details.)

I’m not given to crying, but I teared up at the drop of a hat for the 48 hours between the incident and surrendering him to the shelter from whence he came. What to do? June said right before we went to bed 24 hours after the incident and the decision had been made, “I have decided not to let this get me down.” Ten minutes later I was reading about Jesuit leadership principles in Heroic Leadership by Chris Downey and this story was on the first page of that night’s reading:

A colleague once asked [Ignatius] Loyola [founder of the Jesuits] how long he would need to recover if the pope was ever to disband the Jesuits. Loyola’s response surely shocked his questioner, and it quickly found its way into Jesuit lore: “If I recollected myself in prayer for a quarter of an hour, I would be happy, and even happier than before.”

Perhaps there was a smidgen of posturing in his answer. Loyola had built what was rapidly becoming the world’s most influential and successful religious organization. Could he see it dismantled and then stroll away whistling after a mere fifteen minutes in prayer?

Posturing or not, Loyola was sending an unambiguous message grounded in the lessons of the [Ignatian Spiritual] Exercises. Jesuits achieved what we today would call ingenuity—a mix of adaptability, daring, speed, and good judgment—only by first cultivating the attitude he called “indifference.” – Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership, pages 117, 118.

If Ignatius of Loyola could give up his ministry and be happy, surely I could give up a dog! June and I are cultivating an attitude of indifference. We are allowing ourselves to be “unattached” to whether Benji stayed or left. I’m not quite sure all that’s involved, but when it comes to a dog, there are positives…

• Dogs in general are good companions, and Benji was no exception. He took naps with me. He sat with me when I worked (often while writing a blog!). He slept with us.
• Dogs express “emotion:” great joy when you come home after an absence, for example. Benji would run all over the house after grabbing Giraffe, his favorite toy. When June came home, he would hear the garage door (I wouldn’t) and bark excitedly until I opened the door to the garage, and he would greet her at the car’s door.
• Dogs can travel with you and take delight in new surroundings.

…and negatives:

• Dogs are a lot of trouble. They can’t be left unattended for long periods. They have to be walked periodically, regardless of weather.
• Benji barked at the slightest noise. He got better, but he could still disturb the peace with no notice.
• Benji hated other dogs, so I couldn’t visit with neighbors who were also walking their dogs.
• Benji didn’t like children (and we have eight grandchildren, three of whom are younger than 10).
• Benji didn’t like visitors or houseguests. It always took time for him to adjust.

So indifference in this case is really easy: there are positives and negatives. It would have been nice if he could have stayed, but it’s liberating that he’s gone. And we take joy in being liberated!

The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. – Job, recorded in Job 1.21, ESV

I have written recently that Luke’s objective in his Gospel is “an orderly account” of real history. Dave Wyrtzen in his December 16 “Daily Devo,” writes that there are some who doubt Luke’s accuracy. Here is Dave’s take. (This sort of thing is way out of my wheelhouse. I just take the scripture as it comes. But I’m thankful for folks who can engage the naysayers.) I share without comment:

Before we move to the angelic announcement to the shepherds, we need to address what is considered by some critical scholars as the biggest, historical blunder in Luke’s Gospel. Luke claims Jesus was born before the death of Herod the Great, and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem because Joseph had to travel  there in response to an Empire wide decree by Caesar Augustus. To destroy historical reliability, Luke links this decree with the governorship of Quirinius and Roman history says he initiated a census in A.D. 6. 

If a young student is taking an Introduction to the New Testament class in his or her first year of university, a religion professor may begin to try and “correct’ naïve Sunday school beliefs about the reliability of the Bible. The argument can be summarized like this:

·      Nothing is known from other sources of a general-empire wide census in the time of Augustus.

·      A Roman census would not have required Joseph to go to Bethlehem but would have taxed him based on his residency.

·      Josephus  knows of a Quirinian census in A.D. 6 but nothing before. (Josephus, Antiquities)

·      The Roman records are complete for this period near the end of Herod’s death and in 4.5 BC and there is no record that Quirinius was governor in Syria or that he carried out a registration. (Tacitus, Annals; Josephus, Antiquities)

Therefore, Luke and the Bible get the history wrong.

Before the student throws away Dr. Luke’s historical accuracy and his or her childhood faith they should consider:

·      We do know that Augustus initiated three other registrations in Syria, Gaul, and Spain in Luke’s time frame; therefore, it is probable that he could have initiated one for Palestine. 

·      Romans could be sensitive to local customs explaining why the Jewish pattern of family land ownership, not residency, was followed for the registration. 

·      Our Roman records of what happened in 4/5 BC and Quirinius’ governorship are not complete. We do know that he was recognized by Augustus as a powerful general. Quirinius won great victories in Galatia in the final years of Herod, and    Augustus could have viewed his general in the East as the more powerful authority in the area.

In his introduction Luke stressed that he would be accurate. Why do scholars accept so readily what Tacitus or Josephus write and then so quickly reject the accuracy of the biblical writer? It’s wiser to give an author the benefit of the doubt. Do we know more about this history than Luke who actually lived in this time and told us he was interacting with eyewitnesses of these events (Luke 1:1-4)?

I want to encourage college students to raise their hand and in humility and respect ask, “I thought that we needed to be open to the views of others and respect them. Why are we so quick to think Luke is not telling us the truth in this case when he made truth-telling one of his major purposes? Are the sources we are using to contradict him as accurate as he is? How do we know?” Try it! You might find out that your World Religion prof is a believer and will relish the opportunity that you opened for them to discuss reasons for their own faith in the text and in Jesus.

LORD, thanks that we can do careful research and know that when all the facts are in, truth will be on the side of your revealed Word. Use this devotional to protect students who might be in danger of losing confidence in the Bible. Help them to not just accept what is the accepted line but instead to do fair, honest scholarship, and most importantly to read your Word carefully  themselves. I pray that your Spirit will grab their hearts. 

As always, we have beliefs and doubts, and like Billy Graham, we need to believe our beliefs and doubt our doubts rather than the other way around.

For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? (Romans 3.3, NKJV)

We shared on Christmas Eve that the heavenly choir that appeared to the shepherds wasn’t singing. They were rapping. (Text: “saying”) I closed with the observation was that God likes all kinds of music.

Fittingly, Psalm 150 closes with a confirmation of that fact. It begins:

Praise the LORD! (By the way, each of psalms 146 – 150 starts AND ends with “Praise the Lord!”)

• Praise God in his sanctuary;
• praise him in his mighty heavens!
• Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness. (Psalm 150.1, 2, ESV)

There are Christian traditions that insist on no musical instruments in their worship services. I applaud the quality of their singing! I also decry services where the sound coming from the stage (organ or praise band, doesn’t matter) is so loud that you can’t hear the congregation singing. This blog describes a positive example and links to John Piper’s essay on the importance of singing.

That said, Psalm 150 affirms (and confirms) that God likes all kinds of instruments in worship:

• Praise him with trumpet sound;
• praise him with lute and harp!
• Praise him with tambourine and dance;
• praise him with strings and pipe!
• Praise him with sounding cymbals;
• praise him with loud clashing cymbals! (Psalm 150.3 – 5)

Musical instruments go back to the beginning…

His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. (Genesis 4.21, ESV)

…and continue to the end…

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5.8 – 10, ESV, emphasis mine)

…and in-between, singing…

Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, (Ephesians 5.18, 19, ESV)

…singing with instruments and dancing!

Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly! Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King! Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! (Psalm 149.1 – 3, ESV)

A fitting close to our journey through the Wisdom books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 150.6, ESV)

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron… (Revelation 12.1 – 5, ESV)

It’s becoming an annual tradition to include “An Act of War,” written by Tim Lewis, the son of longtime friends Bruce and Elena Lewis, among the Christmas Ewellogies. You can read the lyrics below with or without Tim’s excellent recording. The lyrics line up perfectly with excerpts of Eugene Peterson’s meditations on Revelation. I present Tim’s song without further comment:

Stanza 1

We sing about a silent night, When everything was calm and bright, And the Holy Child Was lying in the manger.

The shepherds share the angel’s joy, And come to see the baby boy And in this happy glow, We miss the danger.

For fallen priests and wrathful kings Are threatened by the light He brings Ruthless men Who claim to be divine.

For centuries they’ve killed His prophets, But now in keeping with His promise The Son of God Has stepped across the line.

Refrain

And it was an act of war, A beachhead in the night Upon earth’s darkened shores, A glimmer of the light.

As the drums of Heaven pound With the heart of the Father, That the lost ones shall be found And restored as sons and daughters.

And the kings, they draw their swords, As the ancient dragon roars, And the battle begins on a stable floor. In Bethlehem – It was an act of war!

Stanza 2

And this is how love fought to save us, Not to conquer and re-enslave us, He reaches for the hearts And not the crowns of earth.

For swords and soldiers cannot mend us, His light must kindle deep within us, So God’s own Son Lies in the arms of a peasant girl.

And who are we that He should love rebels in the graves we’ve dug? In shame we’ve turned away from Him And closed the door.

But now the very God whom we’ve defied Has sent His Son to testify That ruined hearts Are still worth fighting for!

Refrain

And it was an act of war, A beachhead in the night Upon earth’s darkened shores, A glimmer of the light.

As the drums of Heaven pound With the heart of the Father, That the lost ones shall be found And restored as sons and daughters.

And the kings, they draw their swords, As the ancient dragon roars, And the battle begins on a stable floor. In Bethlehem – It was an act of war!

Stanza 3

And as He grew, He fought the lies, Exposed the hypocrite’s disguise, And showed the mercy of the Father To the poor He taught.

Many saw His light, but they loved the darkness, His words exposing where their heart was, Yet He gave His life, a sacrifice To win the lost.

And the battle fought on Christmas Day Still rages in our world today, The light still shines –  The darkness shall not overcome.

So light your lamp, and do not fear To spread His light to captives here; We follow His example ‘Till the battle’s done!

Final Refrain

And it was an act of war, A beachhead in the night Upon earth’s darkened shores, A glimmer of the light.

As the drums of Heaven pound With the heart of the Father, That the lost ones shall be found And restored as sons and daughters.

Amazing love, how can it be That You would go to war for me, And give Your life to set me free In spite of my hostility.

Now my heart is sworn To the Savior born In Bethlehem – It was an act of war!

“Act of War” lyrics and music are copyright© 2019 by Tim Lewis. Please share this song and video, but don’t remove the copyright info.

Here’s a snippet of Eugene Peterson’s meditation on Revelation 12:

It is St. John’s Spirit-appointed task to supplement the work of St. Matthew and St. Luke so that the nativity cannot be sentimentalized into coziness, nor domesticated into drabness, nor commercialized into worldliness…It is St. John’s genius to take Jesus in a manger, attended by shepherds and wise men and put him in the cosmos attacked by a dragon. The consequence to our faith is that we are fortified against intimidation. Our response to the nativity cannot be reduced to shutting the door against a wintry world, drinking hot chocolate and singing Christmas carols. Rather, we are ready to walk out the door with, as one Psalmist put it, high praises of God in our throats and two-edged swords in our hands. (Psalm 149.6)

PS I wrote on October 24, 2025 (20251024) that there was one more date with two-four-digit perfect squares. Did you figure out that it’s today? 20251225. 2025 = 45-squared; 1225 = 35-squared, and 1225 is also a “triangle number:” it’s the sum of the integers from 1 to 49.

I saw it just last week: an emailed devotional entitled “The Angels’ Song” with this opening:

The third song of Advent is short and sweet, a one-liner, but arguably with the best production value—multitudes of angels appearing all at once, singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (v. 14).

The same day(!) (December 18, 2025), I received another emailed devotional. This one from Dave Wyrtzen in which he clarifies:

When the Christmas carol declares “Sing choirs of angels!” many picture beautiful blondes with flowing manes and white robes. Actually, Luke uses a military term when he describes the sudden appearance of a host of angels to the shepherds after one of them announced Jesus’ birth. Look at the text carefully. Luke doesn’t say that they sang.

“And this will be the sign for you. You will find the baby wrapped up and lying in a food trough. Suddenly, with the angel, there was a multitude of the heavenly army praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the Highest, and peace upon earth among those in His favor.’” Luke 2:12-15

Note that it stresses that the choir of angels spoke, and actually, the Greek is quite rhythmical. This is a heavenly, first century rap by a choir of angels. And one thing is clear. Whether we sing or rap, God deserves all our praise for the gift he gave, and his favor rests only upon those who humbly open their hearts to his gift of his one and only Son. – Dave Wyrtzen, Truth Encounter, Daily Devo, December 18, 2025

It’s not a big deal, but it is a reminder that God uses all kinds of music. We’ll see that in our meditation after Christmas in the last psalm.

Happy Christmas Eve!

As we approach Christmas, we’re reminding ourselves that Jesus invaded planet earth (the Christmas blog is coming!) to establish a Kingdom.

John the Baptist made that concept clear from the beginning:

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3.1, 2, ESV)

And Jesus himself echoed it:

Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4.13 – 17, ESV)

John declares, in words that are familiar to us if we’ve listened to Handel’s Messiah, Hallelujah Chorus:

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11.15, ESV)

As we approach Christmas Day, which I will present (spoiler alert!) as an invasion – an act of war – it’s useful to remember that Jesus came to set up a Kingdom. We noticed in Saturday’s blog on Psalm 145 that the prophet Daniel’s word to Nebuchadnezzar was clear:

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. (Daniel 2.44, ESV)

God clarifies the vision to Daniel, and he reports in chapter 7:

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7.13, 14, ESV)

And that is precisely what the angel Gabriel told Mary:

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1.30 – 33, ESV)

It is a Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. Stay tuned.