Read Bible With Me: John, ESV

I’m aiming to upload reading through the entire Bible at some point. I’ve finally finished recording Romans and 1 Corinthians so Paul’s longer epistles is now complete, along with all the New Testament epistles!

I’m now into recording the Gospels and Acts, but given my upload speed it’ll probably take a long time before I’ll be done with them. I’m starting with John since it’s the gospel I’m most familiar with, then we’ll see how it goes. It’s been almost 3 years since I started. You can literally see me getting older as I record more of these videos haha. Thanks for reading with me!

The full playlist is here:

Individual books/chapters are below:

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Faith: YouTube Bible Reading Update 2022

The last time I wrote a reading update post was May of last year. I’ve now finally finished reading through all the epistles in the New Testament.

A project that I began over two years ago is finally partially complete. I am still aiming to upload reading the Bible in full, but for now I want to celebrate this milestone. It’s taken far longer than I’d anticipated or hoped it would, but we’re finally here.

What’s next? I hope to move on to the gospels and then the Old Testament. I’ll start with John, then Mark, then Matthew and finally Luke-Acts. Not in chronological order, but in order of the gospel I’m probably most familiar with, then the shortest, then Matthew because Luke-Acts was originally one book and it doesn’t make sense to split them.

Not gonna lie, I’d forgotten my original plan and thought I’d read Revelation as well but it looks like I haven’t. That works out perfectly though – I should leave the final (and one of my favourite) book until the end. If you’re interested, feel free to read with me!

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Faith: YouTube Bible Reading Update

This week I was finally able to get more Bible reading recorded. I’m so glad, because it’s something that I’d wanted to do for a while but had been put on the back burner due to more pressing tasks in life (I’ll write more on that in another post some time. I’ve also been meaning to blog, but that’s been even more difficult to make time for).

I’ve now finished reading through all the shorter epistles, and they can be found here. Whew! I had originally planned to read Hebrews through Revelation directly, but Revelation is the last book of the Bible (as well as being one of my favourite books) so when I got there, I realised I wanted to read it last.

My plan now is to go back and finish reading Paul’s longer epistles (Romans & 1 Corinthians), then read through the gospels, then go back through the Old Testament, and finally finish with Revelation.

Speaking of which, I’ve already started Romans and have updated both my blog post and my relevant YouTube playlist. I just realised that it’s already been over a year since I started doing this! I haven’t been as consistent as I’d like to, but I am plodding away slowly.

It’s been a bit strange for me in my devotionals because I am unintentionally skipping around the Bible so much in my reading these days that I don’t really know where to do my devos from anymore. We’re studying through Ephesians in Friday fellowship, 2 Corinthians in my family Bible study on Saturday mornings (we recently finished Revelation), Colossians as our Sunday series, and Jacky and I were also previously studying through Galatians with a couple of sisters locally.

On top of that, I’m slowly working my way through reading recordings. For most of these recordings, I will read through the book or passage multiple times to become more familiar with them; to better understand the flow so that I’d be able to better express the contained notions and emotions in my reading, and hopefully also make fewer errors when I finally come to record it.

Most of the time, the passages I’m reading don’t align with the passages I’m studying… so… it’s been a bit strange. As I write this, I realise that following a devo plan would probably be of great benefit to me, so that I can still do all of these other studies whilst ensuring I do not neglect my own personal time with God.

Ah, I’ve really missed blogging. I love being able to write to help me process my thoughts. Please do bear with me, because I do just write whatever comes to mind, and a lot of the time my many thoughts are a jumbled mess. Writing helps me reflect and organise my thoughts so that I can process them. Often times, it helps inspire solutions to problems I’m dealing with. It’s great for me, but I can see how for anyone reading it can get confusing haha.

I was also very encouraged when a non-believer friend of mine messaged me to say she really enjoyed listening to me read Bible, even though she doesn’t believe. While my desire is that she will come to know the love of Jesus, simply knowing that a non-Christian is willing to listen to me read Bible fills me with great joy. (I know God’s Word is attractive to those He wishes to call, and is alone enough to convict and bring whomever He chooses to repentance as He desires.) Shoutout and much love to her if she’s reading this <3

On an unrelated but also slightly related note, a stranger messaged me on Discord saying that I was the one of the reasons she decided to go ahead and do a Chloe Ting challenge! Yay! That just made me so happy. Actually when she first reached out I thought she got the wrong person because nobody outside of my friend circle had ever reached out to say I’d had an influence in their decision before. Then when we realised she did actually mean me, I was blown away.

So, if you’re someone who actually cares about my life in some way, shape or form, thank you for reading / watching. I really appreciate it!

SDG,

Crystina

February Resolution: Check In #4

Image credit: Pexels.com

It’s telling that I haven’t posted this update until a week after it was due. For March, so far, I haven’t done a daily reading challenge. For the final week of February, I ended up reading only 3x again, on Monday, Thursday and Friday.

I’d been feeling ‘off’ for a bit now but that feeling really heightened starting a few weeks ago, to the extent that I became practically paralysed from doing many things. I knew something was wrong but it wasn’t until on Friday night, by God’s grace, Jacky and I really spoke about it that I began to realise what was happening.

Jacky was able to bear my burdens and pray for me, and I was able to confess my sins to him and trust in God’s promises delivered through the words of James:

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 5:16, ESV

It had been such a long time since I’d suffered a spiritual attack that I’d really started to let my guard down. I was almost feeling guilty about not having had one, since they tend to come on fast and strong whenever I’m trying to work unto the Lord. The absence of them almost made me feel like I was doing something wrong.

Almost. Thankfully, I know that biblically that is just simply not true, but the thought has crossed my mind a few times. I am not feeling relieved that it turns out I have been spiritually attacked, but I am thankful that Jacky and I have prayed about it together and I feel like an oppressive weight has been lifted from me.

I thank God for still working in me during this time, and for granting me victory over these recent attacks. I thank God that it’s not due to my merit or power or ability, but it was all His. It relieves me of a burden I’d never be able to bear, a truth from which I derive much comfort, but it also means that all glory rightly belongs to Him.

God is awesome.

SDG,

Crystina

Reflections: “That’s Not Very Christian Of You.”

Someone said this to me yesterday. To be honest, I was a bit shocked. I wasn’t sure how to respond, and in my heart my first thought was, “That’s really harsh.” I felt like if someone wanted to attack me where it really hurt, that’s something they would say. I felt defensive, and even like that was a below-the-belt comment.

However, upon further reflection, I don’t believe that comment was unmerited. Perhaps it was said in jest as I would consider us to be friends, but even such an offhand comment comes from a deeper place, so at the very least I should conclude that I must have inadvertently hurt them.

The background is that I joked that a male celebrity/public figure looked “…different” in a recent photo. As in, he clearly had put on some weight, and as a result was accused of fat-shaming. Initially my thoughts were that, could I not even make such an observation without being shamed for the comment? The last time I saw a photo of him, he looked significantly slimmer.

However, my joke clearly did not come from a place of love, and even if I wished to argue that I was worried for his health, that isn’t really the thought that I had. To be fair, a major part of me was just thinking that he must have been eating really well, so good for him. Heck, I was even a little envious that he had the means to just jet off to any country and eat the best of foods at any given time.

But I can see how the circumstances under which I said it, coupled with the arguably judgemental tone I said it in, were all inappropriate and should have been kept to myself. In fact, I shouldn’t have thought like that in the first place. Shortly after, I apologised in a way that I hope came across sincerely. But today I am taking the time today to reflect on myself, my words and actions.

“That’s not very Christian of you” – this stung and cut me deeply. However, she’s not wrong.

Christian means to be “like Christ”. Have I been acting very Christian lately? Have I been thinking very Christian lately? I know that God will use whomever He pleases to convict me, why shouldn’t this be an act of His, working along with the Spirit to remind me of who I am/ought to be? I have sinned. It is appropriate for me to ask God, too, for forgiveness.

I have been toiling unto God’s Kingdom, but have I been reflecting Christ in my words and actions? How’s my relationship with Christ these days? How much devotional time have I had? Yes, I have done Bible reading. Yes, I have prayed. Yes, I have had plenty of Bible study. But if I consider how much quiet time I have had, it’s not nearly enough.

So let me make that a priority again, so that my heart can be in the right place. I thank God for His unconditional grace, endless mercy and forgiveness through Jesus. I thank God that He doesn’t count my sins against me, but, in love, sanctifies me to grow.

Because of Jesus, I am a sinner saved by grace. Because of Jesus, my unrighteousness is accounted to him, and his righteousness is counted to me. Because of Jesus, I am unashamed. But unashamed does not and should not mean unapologetic.

“That’s not very Christian of you” is a wake-up call. Wake up, Christian, and start being Christ-ian.

SDG,

Crystina