The Challenge Is Coming!

Woodbury Community Church, located at 2975 Pioneer Drive in Woodbury, MN is excited about The Challenge, a churchwide initiative to read through the Bible in a year.

In a recent sermon, Pastor Brian Schulenburg said, ". . . when God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, 400 years prior (to speaking to Mary and Joseph through the angel Gabriel) He said the following in Jeremiah 9:23-24:

23 This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.

I believe that when God saw Mary and Joseph living righteous lives in a very wicked city, that he took delight in them! He looked for a righteous man and woman, and found extraordinary faith in them.

So, Christmas is just a few days away, and New Year’s Day comes a week later. How about this? How about if we commit to being people who know and understand God?

That happens when we spend time with him. The Challenge is something that we are encouraging our entire congregation to be a part of this year. It’s a challenge to read through the entire Bible in 2010. Why are we so passionate about this? Because when we spend time with God in His word, we begin to know and understand Him. We understand what pleases Him. We understand what breaks His heart. And, if we’ll let Him, God will change us, and mold us, and shape us through the process."

The Challenge 2010 Blog is a site where anyone who wants to join us in The Challenge can come to be encouraged along the way. We'll post the daily readings on this blog, along with a devotional based upon that days Bible reading. We want to encourage you to add your own comments to each day's blog post. It's a way to be encourage as we together take The Challenge. There are already over 40 people from Woodbury Community Church who have committed to take The Challenge. Why not join us? It's going to be a great adventure. Look for the first devotional post on January 1, 2010. Until then, start getting in the habit of spending time alone with God each day.

We will be using the daily reading plan that is in the ESV Study Bible. You can access the plan online by clicking here.