The Seven Streams Method

Daniel 7 Today we venture back into the Exile Stream in the book of Daniel. We've seen lion, dreams, and fires, oh my! What is in store for today's chapter? We are reading from the New Century Version. 7streamsmethod.com You can keep up with Serena and her itinerary: @serenatravis on Twitter & Instagram

Download Daniel 5 We are in the Exile Stream and back in the book of Daniel. We are reading from the New King James Version this week. Last week, King Nebuchadnezzar lived like a beast eating grass for 7 years and was humbled. What will we encounter today in Daniel's story? 7streamsmethod.com

  Daniel 4 We are in the Exile Stream reading from the book of Daniel. We continue reading from The Message translation. Last week, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego survived the fiery furnace. What could King Nebuchadnezzar be up to this week? 7streamsmethod.com This atmosphere sound has been released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License.   List of audio files used: Woodpecker Adult by by BenBoncan - www.freesound.org +) Deer call by By Dobroide - www.freesound.org +) Distant forest ambience by By Dobroide - www.freesound.org +) Nightengale Call by By Reinsamba - www.freesound.org +) Nightingale Song1 by by Reinsamba - www.freesound.org +) Fairytale (Harp & Chimes) by Slaking_97 +) wind blow in the trees by www.soundsnap.com *) Wind blows in leaves by www.soundsnap.com *) +) Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License *) Soundsnap.com license

Isaiah 15-20 Welcome to the beginning of month 2 of the Seven Streams Bible Reading Method. We are in Prophetic Stream today continuing in the book of Isaiah. We are reading from The Message this week. We're reading chapters 15-20 today. 7streamsmethod.com 5Q18qnwWES3Im2x5qWIF

Joshua 16-20 We are reading from the New American Standard Bible this week. Today we are in the Nation Stream and continue the division of the land among the tribes of Israel. Here is a very helpful map as we navigate all the geographical terms in today's reading. The map is from BibleStudy.org. And here is a map with even more of the cities identified. At the end of this episode, Serena shares several historical tidbits which were found at bibletimeline.net. 7streamsmethod.com

Genesis 13-17 Today we start in a different translation - the New American Standard Bible. As the name indicates, this is a newer version of something translated before - the American Standard Version of 1901. The NASB was published in 1995 and updated the English to be more modern and smooth out some of the challenging vocabulary. We are in The World Stream as we continue the story of Abram.

Genesis 9-12 We return to The World Stream and this means we are using a new translation today – the New Living Translation. This version was first published in 1996 and is more of a thought-for-thought translation. Last week we left off when Noah had gotten off the ark and had made an altar to the Lord. God has a few things to say and then the human race rebuilds from the slopes of Mt. Ararat.

Acts 3:1-5:15 This is our final day for this week to read from the Modern English Version. We will use a different translation starting tomorrow. Today we are back in the Church Stream in the book of Acts. We left off last week with Peter's sermon after Pentecost and the believers living together in community. The excitement is picking up in the stream – it's almost like white-water rafting today! 7streamsmethod.com Holy Spirit, we thank you for coming not only to comfort us but to lead us in every possible way. We are amazed at the work accomplished with Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate. A life with you is not dull and boring. We thank you for transforming lives. We are in awe of the story of Ananias and Sapphira. You know our secrets and you cannot be deceived. Amen. In the first part of our story today, Peter and John are going to pray. A man was waiting at the gate. Don't you love how the gate is called Beautiful? I wonder what it looked like. He waited there every day. He didn't even know another kind of life. He must have made enough from begging to get by because he was brought to the same place every day for 40 something years. Every day was the same year after year. And then one day something was different. It probably started like every other day - he went about his normal routine got dropped off at the temple. And it's possible that Peter and John had seen him before, but this day was different for them too. They had received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and they really saw this man who was lame and his plight. With all boldness Peter commands him to rise up and walk and he did. He didn't have money to give to him but he gave him the ability to go out and work. That's the difference between welfare and farewell. We desire for our fellow man to farewell. So again a crowd assembles because it's pretty amazing to see a man who's been lame and now he's walking and Peter again gives an impromptu sermon. And watch the number of Believers continue to grow and the number of men grew to about 5,000. Evidently the leaders of the day were afraid of losing control because when they saw the power of Christ working through these men and seeing so many people believe they took action. The leaders but Peter and John in jail. They were soon released and Peter again with boldness declares the power of Jesus and gives another sermon -- short but very pointed and very effective. But it appears to have fallen on deaf ears. So the Sanhedrin releases them and commands them not to speak Jesus' name. But how could they not speak about Jesus? He was not only their friend but He was the Messiah who had performed miracles namely rising from the dead. Finally we arrive at a story that made puzzle some people and that is of Ananias and Sapphira. Why would Ananias and Sapphira have to die for lying? Surely most people have lied at least once in their life. I have lied. And I knew it was wrong and I've repented of lying. But I think if you are saying that you've never lied in your life, well, maybe that's a lie! Remember Aiken from earlier this week? He had hidden some of the treasures that they had gotten out of Jericho. And when the Israelites went up against Ai they were defeated initially because Aiken lied. So how did he lie? He lied by omission as did Ananias and Sapphira. Aiken's lie wasn't a spoken line but it was a hidden lie. He had hidden treasure he wants isn't supposed to have and that affected all of Israel. Similarly Ananias and Sapphira's lie of omission affected the apostolic church and God called them out. And that brings us to the thread for this week - lies and corruption. In Genesis, the corruption of mankind Before the Flood incites to God to wipe them out. In Joshua, Aiken and his family are stoned and killed for lying. Bildad suspects Job of lying about his righteousness. Isaiah cries out to the Lord about his unclean lips. And Daniel - Nebuchadnezzar suspect that his wise men will speak lying words to interpret his dream. In Matthew, the Devil tempt Jesus with lies and - Finally we read the lies of Ananias and Sapphira. Lies bring death to relationship and this certainly applies to our relationship with God. I know that I need to take time with God to confess my sins of commission, the things that I do, and the sins of omission, the things that I don't do, and I hope that you take time to talk to Him too. 7streamsmethod.com is the home port for this podcast. You can connect to The Seven Streams also on IPDB and iTunes. On a positive note, we've been reading about healing for the past couple of days and we have a resource that covers the healings of the Old Testament and New Testament. It's a book that my husband wrote called Healing Power Voice Activated. He was fascinated with the healings in the Bible and he wrote about them. So his book is available at livingstonespublications.com. Tomorrow we return to the World Stream in Genesis and utilize a different translation. Know that you are loved by our Gracious Father. Until then I'm first mate Serena sailing with you down The Seven Streams.

Matthew 4-5 Reading from the Modern English Version Today we are cruising through two chapters of the book of Matthew. Last week we read through the genealogy of Abraham to Jesus, through His birth, and ended with His baptism. 7streamsmethod.com

Daniel 2:1-23 We are reading from the Modern English Version this week. Today's voyage will take us to the book of Daniel in the Exile stream. Last week Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ate their vegetable diet instead of the meat and wine at the king's table. Daniel and his friends are living out the prophecy that we have been reading in Isaiah. They are in the land of the Babylonians. But God is not done with Israel. He is still looking for hearts and minds who are willing to listen to Him. And that is what Daniel does. 7streamsmethod.com

Download Isaiah 4-7 We are actually starting in Isaiah 3:18 so that we can start today's reading in context. We are continuing down the Prophetic Stream in the Modern English Version. 7streamsmethod.com  

Job 6-10 We continue in the Wisdom Stream in the book of Job. Job replies to Eliphaz as we continue the first cycle of speeches. 7streamsmethod.com  

Download Joshua 7-10 We are back in The Nation stream and continuing the story of Joshua after Jericho. We are reading from the Modern English Version this week.

Genesis 5-8 We are reading about Noah, the ark and the flood today from The World stream. We are using the Modern English Version this week.

Acts 1-2 Today we start the 7th stream: The Church. We read about Pentecost and the Early Church. Reading from the NIV. 7streamsmethod.com | @serenatravis | Donate Holy Spirit, we are overwhelmed with how you showed up on the scene and you show up today in a major way. You definitely are there. We see you in the Old Testament but now we see you fully in the story of Pentecost. And we just ask that you would continue to reveal to us the hidden nuggets that you have in scripture and help us to make these links and connect these threads as we are sailing through the scriptures this year. We thank you for saving us. We thank you for being with us and making it all possible through Jesus. Amen. In the beginning of this we see that there is the baptism by fire that they were talking about that being baptized by the Holy Spirit. And we talked about this just yesterday because John baptized Him [Jesus] with water. So back in Acts 1:5 - "for John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." So let's talk about the timing of Pentecost. There's 40 days between the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus and then there is another 50 days after that that is the time of the Pentecost. Now Pentecost took time during the Feast of First Fruits or the Feast of Harvest and it so happened that that would be the time that there will be all these people that would be coming into Jerusalem. And so it was by no accident that Jesus coordinated with the Holy Spirit to have this take place right at this time because they knew there would be all these people that would be in Jerusalem. Pentecost is one of the most amazing aspects of what we experience in the church today because this literally is the baptism of the church. So out of this event is the church age. It's the time of the Gospel era. And what you see here is the reverse of what happened at Babel. Now we haven't gotten to the story yet either. But in the story of Babel - that is when the languages were divided from one into many - it was fractured in to many. But in this one moment, you see that everybody who came to Jerusalem heard this message in their own language so it was like reverse of Babel. And that is amazing because that right there signifies that this message that they had wasn't just for people who spoke their dialect - their Galilean dialect - of Hebrew or Aramaic or whatever they were speaking it was for the whole world. And then second, the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit does so many things for us first of all and I couldn't go into all of them today - there's so many. But the Holy Spirit reveals the message of Salvation to us. The Holy Spirit gives us knowledge just as it gave them the knowledge to speak in languages in tongues and the Holy Spirit gives courage. I mean Peter was a courageous guy but not only did stand up courageously and speak but you can see that in what he was saying he was recalling prophetic messages from the Old Testament. And so he had the courage and then the knowledge of what he was supposed to say just freely flowed from him. I don't think he had time to grab a papyrus or something and write down a few notes. He just got up and spoke. So I think it's an amazing thing when a person is surrender to what the Holy Spirit wants them to do that they are able to do exactly what they should do at the exact right time. And then Peter succinctly sums it up in chapter 2 verse 38, "repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the Forgiveness of your sins." The Gospel message is so simple and so many people were at it. So if you remember earlier in the reading today we saw that Peter stood up among the Believers chapter 1 verse 15 saying that there was a group numbering about 120. So it was a relatively small group. And then when you get done with Peter's message you see that it grew to 3000. That's significant growth! And that is by the divine timing of the Holy Spirit. So isn't it amazing to read the very beginning of it? At Pentecost? I think so. So we've completed the first week. We have gone through each stream. We have launched each stream. And for this next week I won't be describing about each book because I've already done that. So I'll just be launching right into the reading and taking it from there. And we'll be going into a new translation tomorrow. Now one thing that I promised to do was to find a Common Thread through all the streams. So the common thing that we see amongst the streams, and I alluded to this yesterday, is that we see something that's really good and is going along great and then gets derailed. The creation and then the fall. The nation goes into Jericho and next week we're going to see that they disobey and Ai, they fall to Ai. Minor fall but still a fall nonetheless. And in wisdom, Job has a great wonderful family, home, everything and then he everything is taken away from him. We see in Isaiah that he has been given a position of being a prophetic authority and and yet he's bringing out all of this condemnation against the nation of Israel. And then the Exile - well that's a whole lot of peril. Everybody is under scrutiny it during that time. And even though God is preserving them it's a tenuous situation. And then you have in Matthew the savior is born and immediately his life is in peril. And then here the church. Pentecost came everything had a great beginning. Peter had a great sermon and not long after this in the most serious in the coming weeks - his life is in danger. And really this week for me was an issue of obedience versus Disobedience because we see the consequences of disobedience and also the consequences of obedience. And I know that that it's an important thing to the Lord. To obey is better than sacrifice. As I have mentioned before there are bookmarks that are available to go along with The Seven Streams and those are available at SevenStreamsMethod.com. And we have them in digital format you can get those by signing up for a newsletter and you can print them out on your own printer and use them however you wish to use them. Or you can order the book marks that we had printed up and we will send them to you in the mail. So that's all for today that's all for this week. We've completed the initial voyage down each stream. Thank you so much for joining me and being a part of this. Until tomorrow, I'm Serena, sailing with you down The Seven Streams.