Join us as we explore the emotional journey of moving, faith, and purpose with Alan J. Huth. Drawing from his personal journal entries, Alan shares introspective moments of change, challenges, and spiritual growth, emphasizing the importance of seeking God’s guidance and prioritizing His work. Discover how the Ezra Project aims to connect God’s people with His Word, fostering a community of 21st century ‘Ezras’ dedicated to studying, living, and teaching the law of the Lord.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
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Today we are in Mark chapter 11. We are beginning Passion Week with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem by Jesus. We will listen to Mark 11 from our guest reader Tom Siekmeyer. Tom taught English for 31 years in the Littleton public school system here in a suburb of Denver, Colorado. Tom also edits all of our Ad Bible transcripts. So let’s listen to our guest reader Tom Siekmeyer on Mark chapter 11.
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Mark chapter 11. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? Say, The Lord has need of it, and will send it back here immediately. and when they went away and found a colt tied at the door outside in the street and they untied it and some of those standing there said to them what are you doing untying the colt and they told them what jesus had said and they let them go and they brought the colt to jesus and threw their cloaks on it and he sat on it and many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest! And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, And his disciples heard it. And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. and he was teaching them and saying to them is it not written my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations but you have made it a den of robbers and the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching and when evening came they went out of the city as they passed by in the morning they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots And Peter remembered and said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered. And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it. And it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him. And they said to him, By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them? Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question. Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me. And they discussed it with one another saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him? But shall we say from man? They were afraid of the people for they all held that John really was a prophet and So they answered Jesus, We do not know. And Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
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In 1986, I was moving from Denver, Colorado to Nashville on a job change. And I’ve already confessed in previous podcasts that I did not read for about three days during this transition. So I will share my journal entries, though, just for the days that I didn’t read until we catch up once again. On this day, when I should have been reading Mark 11, I wrote, We are right on schedule with the packing and moving. Terry has done a great job. We will be all packed up so we went out to eat, to a movie, and went to my brother’s house. Can you imagine being so caught up that the night before you’re actually moving everything you own, you just go out to dinner and to a movie? The next day I wrote, movers loaded the truck and pulled out about 2 p.m. It’s strange to see everything we own on the back of a truck. The house is empty. It’s a heartbreaker to leave. We did so much to this house. The closing was at 3 p.m. And I made a note that was my last day in Denver. The next day, we were on the move, on our way to Nashville, and it was actually Good Friday, and I’ll pick up where I was reading tomorrow. In 1996, I read Mark 11 in two different days, splitting the chapter in two. So on the first day, I wrote, Religion with no power produces no fruit, and Jesus opposed it at the temple and at the fig tree. The next day, before I finished Mark 11, I had some consternation. I had some challenges in my life and I’m going to share some of that with you. I wrote in my journal, my heart is heavy over my current employment. I have hit a wall of boredom and lack of direction. And I was thinking about opportunities to serve God. And I listed a bunch of them there. And I wrote in my journal, I want to follow what Jesus is doing around me. I can’t do all these things. So I wrote the priorities I would like to do serving the Lord. And then I wrote a couple of questions. Lord, where are you working around me? What are your priorities? Or are there others? There are times in your own life where you might have hit the wall or you’re bored with what your current situation is. And like me, maybe you just want to seek the Lord today and say, what’s next, Lord? Where are you working around me? What are the priorities you have for my life? So I wrote down my action step that day. I wrote, spend two days a week from five to six in the morning on the Ezra Project. The Lord will lead. Now friends, this is 1996. I didn’t start the Ezra Project till 2002. But you could see, it was in my heart. I wanted to do something like this. I just didn’t know what it was for another six years. So pursuing the Lord, pursuing His priorities in our lives, oftentimes takes great patience. After writing my thoughts and then praying, I finished Mark 11. I wrote these things. Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them. And I wrote, thank you, Lord, for this confirmation. I have prayed in faith for the Ezra Project. I believe it is time to act on my faith. Again, 1996. The Ezra Project did not begin until 2002. In 2006, I was reading the Old Testament and the New Testament on each day, so I split Mark 11 into two days. On the first half of Mark 11, I wrote, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey as people shout, Hosanna, which means save. He curses a fig tree without fruit and cleanses the temple. An interesting start to a holy week. I finished Mark 11 the next day writing, Jesus said, have faith in God. All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they will be granted to you. And I wrote a note about my prayer that day. Do I pray believing? My faith is in a God who can answer every prayer. There is no other. Here in chapter 11, Jesus cleanses the temple. This passage in scripture always amazes me. When we think of Jesus, we see him as love. We see him as a healer. We see him with compassion for everyone around him. We don’t necessarily see him like this. Verse 15 says, And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. Put yourself in the temple there for a moment. This Jesus who just walked into the city of Jerusalem in a procession with people shouting, “‘Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father! Hosanna!’ This Jesus is now basically violent in the temple, the house of God. He’s flipping tables over and throwing chairs around. He’s blocking the passage to the door so people can’t enter.” This is not the passive Jesus that we often think about. In this scene, he is more like the God of the Old Testament. Yet the scripture tells us, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So Lord, help me have a balanced view of you. Yes, you are loving, you are kind, you are compassionate, but you also are a jealous God. You want our love and our obedience. Yes, thank you for being a God of love, compassion, and mercy, but also thank you for being a righteous God, a God who will judge. Find me pleasing in your sight. In your name we pray. Amen. I hope you are enjoying our journey through the gospel of Mark. Our prayer in the Ezra Project is that you spread the word. You not only consume the word by listening to Add Bible, but you spread it. You tell others about Add Bible. Many of your friends, many members in your family, many members of your church are so busy they don’t spend time daily in the word. Turn them on to Add Bible so they too can enjoy a portion of scripture each and every day. May God bless you as you spread the word. Amen. Our radio programming is set for 2025. We will cover 44 of the 66 books of the Bible using the Ezra Project day by day through the Bible 11 book series. We start at January 1 with the writings of the Old Testament historical books beginning with Job. We will cover seven more historical books until spring when we jump into the New Testament writings of Mark, Peter, James, Jude, and Hebrews. By summer, we will go back to the Old Testament writings of all 13 of the minor prophets. We’ll finish 2025 with the writings of Paul. Maybe you don’t want to follow the AdBible radio programming in your daily quiet time. Okay, I offer you an alternative plan. Read the Bible chronologically starting any day you want. The Bible is not organized the way things occurred. You can order an Ezra Project Chronological Bible Reading Journal and experience an amazing journey through the Bible in the order things actually occurred. The first time I read the Bible chronologically, it was an aha experience. While reading Kings and Chronicles, I read the prophets who were alive at the time. In the New Testament, you read about a miracle or a parable by all four gospel writers on the same day. It was a very educational and inspiring way to read the Bible. One user said this about our chronological Bible reading journal. Some years ago, I used a couple of spiral notebooks for my journaling. I’ve attached pictures of the book, the first edition of the Ezra Project Bible Reading Chronological Journal. That was the picture he sent. I live in Phoenix now, and I cannot find any place that has this type of journal. I’ve used many types of journals recently, but this seems to work the best for my needs. Please let me know if these are still available. Yes, they are. In fact, it is our number one best-selling product of all time. Visit azureproject.net and order a chronological Bible reading journal today and start your chronological journey through the Bible. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder why we call this the Ezra Project, AdBible, connecting God’s people to God’s Word. It came out of Nehemiah chapter 8 when Ezra, the priest and scribe, brought the Word of God back to the people. And so he got up and read the Bible to people in Nehemiah chapter 8 that had been without the Word of God for 130 years. And as he did, the people began to weep and worship. So we also in the Ezra Project realize that people are not reading the Bible as much as they like or as much as they could or should. So thus the Ezra Project, connecting God’s people to God’s Word. We hope to create 21st century Ezras, just like Ezra was as he described himself in Ezra 7.10. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. And so what we want to create today is 21st century Ezra’s. People who will simply read God’s word, do it, and share it with others. That’s why we call this the Ezra Project. I know you’re going to enjoy it. And want to share it with others.
