Hello friends! It's been awhile! Hope you're finding some way to stay cool in all this heat!
Shortly after writing my last post, as I was making my way through the Chronicles, I was realizing that my love of reading the bible daily as well as my discipline to sticking to my scheduled reading was slipping. I took a step back and asked myself some questions in the hopes to figure out why this was happening. At the beginning of the summer, I was so excited! I couldn't wait to crack open my bible every day and see what God's word had to share with me that day but as the summer progressed, it became more like a chore than a joy. I quickly realized that I had become discouraged by trying to read the Old Testament. All the laws, records of the kings, and all the other historical information found in the Old Testament was cool to read and stuff but at this point in my faith, it's not what I needed to be reading. So, after talking to a couple of wonderful people who's opinions I highly respect, I decided to start reading the New Testament and within 3 days, I had finished the book of Matthew! I was so into it! The stories of Jesus performing miracles and all the parables that were held in those pages captivated me! It was so awesome! And with that... my drive has returned! I plan to some day get through the Old Testament (I made it almost through 2 Chronicles) but for now, the goal is to read the New Testament and soak up as much Jesus as I can before I head back to college in 5 weeks as well as reading Proverbs in preparation for a bible study I will be leading when I get back to school! So excited! (So if you have any tips or comments about Proverbs, comment them below!! I'd really appreciate it!)
So, as I was reading Matthew, so many different passages stood out to me with a variety of lessons in them! One passage that I have always loved is the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-9. "That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.He who has ears, let him hear.” I love this passage because it is so applicable to life every day! We can be any player in this parable on any given day... the sower, the seed, the birds, the thorns, etc. it differs in every situation. Put yourself in the position of the sower. When you are seeking things such as a relationship or friendship, you are sowing your seeds in the garden of your life. But where are you planting these seeds? Is it in a place where you are vulnerable to be taken advantage of and consumed by birds like the path? Are you sowing in a "temporary position" such as a relationship that you don't see going anywhere or a friendship that's based solely on your loneliness? Something "just to get you through"? That's like the rocky ground where there's little soil. You may thrive for a little while but eventually, something is going to come along that is going to destroy you quickly since your roots aren't very deep. How about the thorns? Are you in a restricting relationship? Job? Friendship? Something that doesn't allow you any room for change/creativity/growth? Something that sucks the life out of you and makes you feel as if you'll never see good news? If so, you are rooted among the thorns of your life and probably won't survive in that situation much longer. But sometimes are seeds do land on good, fertile soil and we are able to thrive. A Christ-centered relationship, a friendship where we are held accountable for our actions, or a job that we love and look forward to doing where we can glorify Him! Now that's where I want to plant my seeds. Don't just toss pieces of you into the wind and hope they land somewhere good. Deliberately plant them where you know they will thrive. But let's not forget about the other aspects of this parable... the birds, the thorns, and the sun. We can also be any of these players on a given day. Are you a bird who preys on vulnerable people? Or a thorn bush that strangles anyone who comes near it with your clingy or pessimistic attitude? Are you the sun who just likes to test people to see just how much they can take? Take a long, hard look at all the various aspects of your life. Figure out what part you play in all the relationships you're a part of and if the environments you're in are environments where you can grow and thrive and bear the fruits of the spirit!
Which one are you??
Personally, I was pretty convicted by this passage... I know some of my friendships aren't the best for me to be in and that some environments that I choose to place myself into aren't healthy. So I still need to do some soul searching and maybe do some weeding and transplanting in the garden of my life. How about you? What's your next move??
All while reading 1 & 2 Samuel, one thing stood out to me.
Fearlessness.
The majority of 1 & 2 Samuel is about David's story and may I just say... it is an amazing one. I knew bits and pieces of it from what I was taught in Sunday school but it was incredible to read his story from the beginning. David, king of Israel was a fearless king and led his people well.
For one reason...
He put his trust in God.
David's fearlessness is shown several times throughout 1 & 2 Samuel but one of the greatest examples was him taking on Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. Would you be willing to take on one of the greatest warriors in the land with only a slingshot and a few pebbles? Well...David was! He knew he could defeat Goliath because God was on his side and David trusted Him completely. I remember this story growing up from the ever popular Veggie Tales where Junior Asparagus (David) takes on the Giant Pickle (Goliath). If you've never seen it, here it is!
So, while reading 1 & 2 Samuel, what did I learn from David's incredible story you may ask??
We need to be fearless and put all of our trust in God. Hand our problems to Him because He alone can help us through them. I mean... c'mon... Jesus conquered death. Being fearless was explained to me really well this spring at church and the entire time I read 1 & 2 Samuel, it kept reminding me of Pastor Scott's (from Emmanuel Bible Chapel or ebc) teachings over the 5 week series "Fearless".
Pastor Scott did an awesome job of pointing out what we can learn from David and about being fearless in our faith and the last week of the series, he preached about David. The messages of the Fearless series have stuck with me since the day I first heard them and I truly think they are awesome life lessons. Reading through the Samuels really just reinforced the concepts I was taught and brought them to my attention again. It was just what I needed to be reminded of at this point in my life though! God works in awesome ways!
So... what exactly was I taught through the Fearless series? Let me enlighten you!
(Note: Quotes in purple are from the Fearless sermons. Also, links to all the original sermons are at the end of the post.)
The first week of the Fearless series talked about Gideon (Judges 6:1-16). Gideon was hiding from the Midianites and was not seen to be someone of greatness but God saw something different in him. God saw a warrior. He saw who He made Gideon to be, not how Gideon saw himself. "When God looks at you he sees who he made you to be, not who you think you are." We don't see ourselves the way God sees us and because of that, we aren't doing things we could (and maybe should) be doing. Fear tends to get in our way or things are deemed "out of our comfort zones". When God pushes us out of our comfort zone, our insecurities take over almost automatically." But we aren't called to be comfortable. We are called to be living fearlessly and I'll admit, it's something I struggle with. I like to be comfortable. I don't like doing things that are out of my comfort zone. But... because of that fear, I ask myself... what am I not doing? A few answers might be... I might miss out on an awesome friendship because I'm too afraid to initiate conversation with someone new. Or, someone may not get to experience the love of Christ because I was too afraid of rejection to invite them to church. How about....someone may miss an opportunity to gain fellowship and learn more about Christ because I was too afraid of "my image" being ruined to invite them to bible study at college. When I stopped and thought about it, I realized just how present fear is in my life. "So what are you doing (or not doing) because of fear?" I know what I'm using as my security blanket and chances are... there's something you're using too... we need to overcome those fears, release our security blankets, and "practice the moment-by-moment presence of God" (living each moment with God at our side) to cross the bridge from hiding (like Gideon) to living our lives as one big "God-thing" and being the people God sees us as.
The second week, we talked about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3) and how "faith that has been tested by fire is faith that can be trusted." There were plenty of times when David's faith was tested (the deaths of his children for starters) in the same way that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's faiths were tested. David still trusted God even through the dark moments of when his faith was tested and David's people trusted what he had to say because of his strong faith and reliance on God. David followed God's commands and Pastor Scott talked about how we need to "obey God’s commands rather than man’s expectations". If we obey man's expectations, a lot of times (especially in today's society) we aren't doing as God commanded us to do. For example, man's expectation of a relationship is that all couples are engaging in sexual activity or other acts along those lines while unmarried. But as Christians, we know that God commands us to not do engage in those behaviors. By obeying God's commands, we travel down the road to developing "no matter what" faith.To develop “no matter what” faith don’t just believe in God; Believe God. We can't just believe that God exists. We need to believe what He says and trust Him. David believed God and defeated Goliath and became one of the greatest kings Israel had seen. What can we become if develop we "no matter what" faith??
Week three of Fearless was my favorite. Benaiah. "There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two champions of Moab. Another time, on a snowy day, he chased a lion down into a pit and killed it. Once, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with it." (2 Samuel 23:20-21) Benaiah didn't fear the Egyptian warrior or the champions of Moab or the lion for that matter. He chased them. He was fearless. He hunted them down instead of letting them hunt him. Although this story of Benaiah isn't very long, there's an awesome message here. "God followers should be lion chasers. Chasing lions is not about the lion, it’s about turning your fear to faith. Lion chasers keep their eyes on God and understand that the real risk is in playing it safe." By trusting God and giving it all up to Him, those lions (or problems) that seem to be looming over us, about to consume us, can become the size of an alley cat. In Christ, we have been given grace which allows us to ultimately live recklessly for Him and live life on the safe side! So why play it safe and hide behind fear and live in our comfort zones? Let's go chase some lions! (I know. Easier said than done... ) But seriously, we have the freedom to fail! So why are we scared?? God doesn't ever give us anything we can't handle and He is with us through it all! Our God is a lion shrinking God and the greater our God, the smaller our lions become! Increasing our faith in Him is going against our need to increase security in our lives. The riskier our lives, the stronger our faith! "Normal people don't chase lions but they also die with regrets and don't rescue people with God's love." I don't know about you... but I think being normal is overrated! I'm ready to face my lions head on, are you?
Week four we talked about Jonathan (1 Samuel) and the power that a change of attitude has. When faced with a problem, do you typically approach it with "an attitude of scarcity" or with "an attitude of abundance"? "An attitude of scarcity happens when you feel like something that is available to you is more valuable than God’s best for you." (In other words, seeing things as not enough hours in the day or not enough of something else) Whereas, an attitude of abundance lives the truth that all we have is Christ and he is more than enough." (Seeing that we have more than we will ever need in Christ.) I know that I try to see things with an attitude of abundance most times but know fully well that some things I view with an attitude of scarcity. When we see things with an attitude of scarcity, we have more than what God has for us, we sacrifice what we say we are for other "more important" things, and think about what we don't have or what we want next. That's typically just a front, behind all that, there's something we are afraid of letting go of... and most times... that's control. We need to surrender control of our entire lives to Christ so we don't have to live with attitudes of scarcity anymore! We can live with attitudes of abundance. An attitude of abundance is possible for those that are in Christ. People with an attitude of abundance understand: that God is their unlimited supply, who they are in Christ and, God can do anything through you. People with an attitude of abundance pick risky fights and live recklessly selfless lives." I would much rather have my life lived that way. So that's what I'm striving for! To learn my identity in Christ, know that He is more than enough for me and live my life recklessly for Him! Resulting in fearlessness! So... what's your attitude for life? Is your attitude letting you be fearless??
Finally, week five. David defeats Goliath. The ultimate example of "no matter what" faith. David was a giant slayer. He killed Goliath with a slingshot when everyone else was afraid. We all have our own individual giants to face; whether daily, yearly, or once in a lifetime... we all have our giants that we believe we cannot overcome. Maybe it's not sharing our faith with others outside of Christ or maybe it's our relationship with food/others. Our giants may have just become a part of our daily lives that we've learned to deal with and have learned to work around but wouldn't it be better to conquer that giant instead of just working around it and building patterns around it to be comfortable?? God's will for us is to conquer our giants. First, we need to "hear the lie and call them out". Instead of hearing the lie of "I can't win against this giant" or "I just can't do that" or "It's just how it is" that we are being fed, and falling into a pattern to navigate around the giant to live, we need to change the pattern and "replace the lies with truth." But through it all, we need to remember that "giant slayers know it has to be about God, not them." When faced with a giant, we want to overcome it for God's sake, not our own, because it's standing in the way of our relationship with Him. When we conquer a giant, it's not our victory, it's God's. We don't deserve the congratulations, God does. Finally, while we are conquering our giants, we need to remember that "giant slayers keep their eye on God, not the giant." Instead of focusing on the size of our giant for the duration of our battle, we need to keep our eyes set on God and how much bigger He is. Compare the giant to God because the bigger our God, the smaller our giant. We will never slay our giants if we only focus on the giant. God has the power to deliver our giants into our hands. If we keep our sights on him, our problems will seem much smaller and we will overcome all that God wills us to!
So what did I get from all this?? Be fearless. Live recklessly for Christ! Become a lion chaser/giant slayer! Don't let fear stand in the way because fear keeps us from Christ! Develop "no matter what" faith in Him! God sees us as who he made us to be and not who we see ourselves as! He uses all people who believe in Him for His plans! We really can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. (Phillipians 4:13) This is not going to happen over night, but with conscious effort, we can all become fearless if we are in Christ.
I hope everyone's summers are going well! I've been getting a little busier as the days have passed and haven't read as much as I was supposed to :/ Playing catch-up this week! But anywho...
Judges. Another book with a lot of long (really hard to pronounce) names of people and cities. I've been enjoying learning the history of the world before what we are "allowed to be taught" in school. Judges (and the rest of the Old Testament) have really sparked some imaginative journeys back to that time and thinking about what it would've been like back then!
The time of Judges was a viscous cycle for Israel. The Israelites would do things that were evil in the sight of the Lord, then God would let Israel be conquered by a neighboring city, Israel would call out to God, and then He would send a judge (hence the name Judges :P) to deliver them. But throughout this all, they only called on God when they needed help. After God helped them, He was no longer important to them. They would even serve other gods at times when they weren't in need. When I was reading this, it reminded me a lot of my life up until a few months ago. While I was growing up, God was nothing more to me than someone I'd go to when I did something wrong or when I needed help (just like Israel in Judges). The people of Israel would rejoice and thank other gods for the good stuff in their life but would go to God when they needed help. He was their foul-weather friend. And after reading this, I realized just how much I don't want that to be me. I knew that I wanted to go to God in good times and in bad but now, I want to even more so! We don't want God to just be the shoulder we turn to cry on when times get tough or if we need comfort. Should we go to Him in those times? Absolutely! But we also need to thank Him for what He has provided for us and for what He has shown us. He should be our best friend! Know everything about us, someone we share everything with, someone we go to in good times and in bad! I know I'm striving to be God's BFF now!
One repeating theme of Judges brought me back to Junior High. From 7th-9th grade, my best friend and I read an awesome book series (little did we know at the time that it was Christian Literature for teen girls) called The Christy Miller Series. There are 12 books in the series and we fell in love with them! We must have read the whole series 5 or more times throughout high school. One part of the 2nd book has forever stayed with me and it's based upon 1 Corinthians 15:33 (Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”) In the book, a female student (nicknamed Katie Christian) is told to stand on a chair in the Sunday school class. Another student, (nicknamed Peter Pagan) is told to stand by the chair that Katie Christian is standing on but to stay on the ground. Katie is asked to try and pull Peter up to stand with her on the chair (get him to come to Christ) but she has no success. Then, Peter is asked to try and pull Katie down to his level (get her to fall away from Christ) and he succeeds. It's much easier to be brought down to someone who doesn't know Christ's level than it is to bring them to the same level as you in Christ. This is something I'm really really struggling with this summer and it was something Israel was struggling with in Judges. They were brought down to the level of those around them instead of them pulling those around them to Christ. So this idea has been ever present in my mind these past few days. It's really caused me to look at my relationships and ask myself... Who do you spend your time with? Are they a good influence on you? Has your relationship with God changed because you've hung out with them? If so, has it been a good change or a bad change? Definitely need to choose my company wisely and not let them pull me down! I need to stand strong, put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6), and live in the battlefield that is my life!
Ruth. Loyalty at its finest! Shows how sticking with someone till the end can pay off! Application? Stick with God till the end and he will reward us with an eternity in heaven! :) (I look forward to spending it with you all!)
I pray that God becomes your best friend and that you choose your company wisely! Don't let them bring you down! Their opinion doesn't matter anyway... God's is the only one that matters!
Deuteronomy honestly wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be! I was struggling through Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers so I'll admit, my attitude wasn't too great heading into Deuteronomy but I really enjoyed it! In my bible (ESV Study Bible... best purchase of my life btw!), it gives an introduction to each book of the bible and part of the intro for Deuteronomy made total sense to me! It related to something I put in my last post about application of the Old Testament laws. It says:
"The ethical application of OT law is a complex issue. There is no one rule that will cover the ethical application of all the laws in Deuteronomy; each law needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis. While many OT laws will not be kept by Christians to the letter, the laws embody important and abiding principles for Christian ethical behavior. Sometimes those OT principles are modified in the NT; often they are reinforced. For instance, the sacrificial system finds its fulfillment in the cross of Christ, but the principles of OT sacrifice are still instructive for Christians.As a further example, the laws that define sexual morality and the principles underlying those laws are unchanged in the NT. Indeed, Jesus shows the deeper intent of the laws on sexual matters in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:27–30). However, the laws in Deuteronomy on warfare are not repeated for the NT church because God’s people are no longer a nation and the land to be inherited is now heavenly (1 Pet. 1:4). Nonetheless, the principles of maintaining the holiness of God’s people and of God judging sin remain unchanged.It is important to recognize that there are different kinds of laws and rules in Deuteronomy. Many of the specific laws, especially those that detail penalties that judges are to impose, do not intend to spell out the ethical ideals for God’s people; their main function is to set the minimum standard of behavior needed to protect Israel’s theocracy. The “perfection” (Ps. 19:7) of these laws consists in the way they preserve the social fabric of the theocracy. The ethical ideals for God’s people ultimately come from the creation pattern (the “image of God”) and from the goal of community holiness. (See the note on Deut. 24:1–4 for an example.) In addition, Deuteronomy constantly addresses the “heart” of its audience: embracing this law, seeking the good of this people, is the right response to God’s grace and the embodiment of virtue."
And then, after reading this, everything seemed to make a little more sense! Why don't we have to sacrifice for sin, peace, offering, etc. anymore? Because the ultimate sacrifice was already give for us when God sacrificed His only son, Jesus, for our sins! Thank you God! Keeping that in mind while I read through Deuteronomy, I was thinking about them more individually and how I could apply them to my life on a day to day basis. One of the greatest laws that was given to Israel in Exodus but later renewed in Deuteronomy was the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20 & Deuteronomy 5).
Easy enough to follow right?? Yeahh... maybe not as easy as we may think. As I was thinking about it, I realized just how often I break God's rules... and that my friends, is not a fun feeling to have. Super convicting. As I thought about it more, I realized that I break #10 on probably a weekly if not daily basis. Wishing you had something that belongs to someone else? Yep. I'm sure we've all been guilty of it. Whether it's a phone, car, clothing, house, gaming system, book, etc., we've all wanted something that someone else had and we didn't. It's really hard in today's day and age to not be this way. We live in a society where you need to have the latest and greatest in order to function properly and if you don't look a certain way... you're told you're never going to succeed in life. It's hard but we need to just be completely happy with what we have and know that although what we have (or don't have) may describe us, it doesn't define us. Our identity is solely in Christ. That's something I'm really working on living :) My mentor keeps drilling it into my head every time I talk to her and I think it may finally be starting to sink in :P (Thanks girl!! You know who you are! Keep reminding me :P) Definitely going to be more conscious in my effort to be content where I am and with what I have! Phillipians 4:11 says,"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." <----- New words to live by! Feel free to let me know if you catch me not doing this!
Also while reading Deuteronomy, there appeared to be a reoccurring theme... Fear God. I can't even remember how many times I recall reading that throughout Deuteronomy. This struck me as weird though... I haven't ever felt myself "afraid of God" per say. Deuteronomy 6:1-2 says that fearing God is the greatest commandment.... hmmmmmm... gonna have to do some thinking about this one! (Feel free to leave your comments on this! I'd love to hear it!)
In Deuteronomy another reoccurring theme is shown and it's a good one to remember! God keeps all His promises. It's seen throughout the books prior to Deuteronomy but especially in Deuteronomy and Joshua. The Promised Land is finally given to Israel, all their enemies are given into their hands, they are blessed beyond their wildest dreams! And God continues to keep His promises to them despite the fact that the people of Israel are all sinners! How amazing is our God!? When I was thinking about this passage later on, I realized that we, as followers of Christ, have a Promised Land awaiting us in Heaven. Israel was promised: "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you." Deut. 8:7-10 and I believe that that is promised to us if we follow Christ. So, like Israel followed Moses and then Joshua and God's promise of the Promised Land was fulfilled even though they sinned, so will His promise of heaven be fulfilled for us even though we sin as long as we repent for our sins. Gotta love application!
One of the greatest things I came across in Deuteronomy was 21:23 "his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance." This reminded me of something I was taught during FOCUS (conference through DiscipleMakers Christian Fellowship at college). Joel Martin talked the first day about "The Blessedness of Communion" and one of his final points related right to this verse. It still baffles me to this day... It's said that every man who hangs on a tree (or is crucified) is cursed by God. Well.... wasn't Jesus hung on a tree? So he was cursed. Joel said that "He succeed and was cursed, and we fail and are blessed." How is that? That my friends, is God's love shown for us. It blows my mind that someone can die for a bunch of people that aren't even thought of yet and gets a curse put on him yet me... little old me who is a sinner beyond my own comprehension... is blessed. Woah. That's all I can really say... This song about sums up my feelings on the topic..
How Great is Our God-- Chris Tomlin
Looking into Joshua now, I enjoyed this book until they started tossing around a bunch of really hard to pronounce city names and telling of land boundaries and yeah... that's where it was a little dry and hard to read. But Joshua holds one of my favorite stories of the bible... The Battle of Jericho (Joshua 6) And I truly think there is no greater depiction of this than Veggie Tales with the french peas and the slushies... (favorite Veggie Tales EVER! Mom and I still watch it :P) If you haven't seen it... please go watch it! Here's the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyxeXj9bAHY But what makes that Veggie Tales so awesome is the memorable song from it... "Keep walking but you won't knock down our wall" (yep. now it's stuck in your head. You're welcome!)
Although this song is catchy and adorable, an awesome lesson is hidden between the lines. Why did Israel walk around Jericho? Because God told them to. And even though the citizens of Jericho may have thought that they were pretty stupid because of it, they did it anyway! So if God tells us to do something, no matter how silly it may be or how foolish we think (or others think) we may look doing it or how scared we may be, we need to "keep walking" or as Dory says "just keep swimming!". Because in the end, God's the only one we have to answer to so if He tells us to do it, then let's go do it! We just have to persevere and have faith that God knows what He's doing! If He brings us to it, then He will bring us through it! And when He brings us to a "battle" (evangelism, discipleship, etc.), "One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you." (Joshua 23:10). So when we are put in these situations, it's not us undertaking this, it's God. He's fighting this battle for us and ultimately, the battle has already been won for us! So what do we have to lose?? We are free to live recklessly for Him! And that my friends... is an awesome feeling :)
Finally, Psalm 4. I don't have too much to say on it but I really related to verse 7 of Psalm 4. I can't even begin to express how much happier I am now that I fully committed my life to following Christ a little over a month ago. The little things in life don't bug me like they used to and I don't go a day anymore without smiling. Yeah things are still tough sometimes but with Christ, I have "more joy in my heart" than I have ever had before! It's an amazing feeling :) ♥
So, what am I trying to say here? In the end.. I feel like this can all come down to... Who are you trying to please? Are you trying to live to please those around you? Yourself? Or the one who's opinion really matters?
Your identity is in Christ my friends, so live for Him! The battle has already been won for you! Living for Him bring about an awesome sense of freedom and a love for life that I can't even begin to express! The joy is literally overwhelming and an awesome plus... fellowship <3 Making some pretty awesome friends that will last more than a lifetime!
At this point in my journey (approximately 2 weeks), I have completed Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers! I have also read Psalms 1-3, Mark 1 and Revelation 1 & 2. I really have enjoyed reading through these books every night and all the while thinking about just what life must have been like back then and putting myself into various biblical persons' shoes. What would it have been like to be Adam, Noah, Moses, etc? Would I have handled the situations like they did? They were able to completely rely on God for every little thing knowing He was going to provide for them. They trusted every thing He said and obeyed His every command. I want to live like that. Putting my all into my relationship with God and knowing that in the end, His opinion of me is the only one that truly matters. Not my opinion, or my family's, my friend's, my mentor's, the random people I meet on the street.... His opinion and His alone. Throughout the first 4 books of the bible, that's what I have learned. I was talking to my mentor the other day about how to apply the Old Testament (especially these first books) to modern life. It's easier to apply books like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Proverbs, Psalms, and a lot of the New Testament to daily life but how can we apply something like the story of Joseph (Gen.37-50) or all the early laws given throughout Exodus & Leviticus? I've been thinking about this for a while know and today, it finally hit me. Like I said earlier, we need to live like the men of the early Old Testament did. They knew God would provide. Moses called upon God several times throughout his life whenever he was in doubt about what to do or needed help of some kind or just to praise Him for His wonderful deeds. God always provided for him. Why? Because Moses believed in Him and put all his trust in God. He fully relied on Him. That's one of the greatest applications we can get from the first 4 books of the bible. Fully rely on God or FROG for short!
While reading Leviticus (not gonna lie, it was quite a struggle to get through), I could only help but think "Do these rules still apply to me today?" Especially when it came to Leviticus 11:7... that says that we are not to eat pigs because they are unclean to us. No pig = no bacon/ham... two of my favorite foods. Flipping back through Leviticus and looking at all the rules listed, how could you remember them all!? We have the luxury of the bible to tell us but what would they have done back then? There are so many listed! Everything from "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18) to laws on cleansing lepers (Lev. 14:1-57). Honestly, I still haven't figured out how to interpret these laws to modern day and I could probably spend my entire life trying to figure it out! But throughout Leviticus, there was a common theme, in the presence of God, one must cleanse himself of his sins. Back then, this meant sacrificing animals/bread/drink but today, we don't have to go through that trouble since Christ died to take away our sin. All we need to do is confess them to God and he will forgive us. His grace and love are amazing! I can't even fully wrap my mind around it! He loves us so much that He gives us His amazing grace. Wow. Unfathomable...
So live like the Old Testament "biblical heroes", Fully Rely On God!
Now, I have also been reading through some other passages through which I have learned a lot!
Psalms
I have read through Psalms 1-3 and I think... Psalms is my favorite book of the bible. It's just so poetic and beautiful! I love it! I was thinking about Psalm 1, it brought me back to what I had been taught at a recent Christian conference. Joel Martin talked about Psalm 1 the first day of the conference. The main points he talked about concerning Psalm 1 are that we are created for, rooted by and saved by communion with God. He told us we need to be talking with Him on a daily basis. We were built to commune with God. That's when we are the happiest! When we are doing what we are made to be doing! (Psalm 1:2) When we find our communion in people, we are putting ourselves in danger. We need to befriend God and commune with Him! People will fail us, our heavenly father... won't. Like it says in verse 3, "He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." Jesus is our stream of water. If we root ourselves in the soil of His creek bed, we will not wither... we will be prosperous because we get all we need from Him just like this tree gets all the water it needs from the creek it's planted by. So plant wisely! Be prosperous and root yourselves in the creek bed of the Lord! Once we plant ourselves in the creek bed of the Lord, we are free to fail because we are saved by our communion with God. That's the beauty of the gospel! We tend to see ourselves as the heroes but in fact, we are the ones needing to be rescued! In short... commune with God! Befriend God, Plant Wisely and Stop Being the Hero! All while I was reading Psalm 2, all I could think of was today's political system and how we say our motto is "In God We Trust" but yet God has been removed from all aspects of our political and academic lives. This goes right along with the Psalm because it says in verses 10-12, "Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." God is warning all rulers to serve Him & take refuge in Him or else face His wrath. People are always saying how corrupt our government it because of who is in office. But... although I do agree that it does deal with who is serving in office to some extent but is it more because we have completely lost what the nation was founded on? We need to actually place our faith & trust in God as a nation instead of just saying it. (They're also trying to remove the motto In God We Trust from everything but... that's a whole different story!) In Psalm 3, David is saying about how God has continually saved him even though the odds are against him. In verse 3 where it said "But you, O Lord, are a shield about me" the image of a child safe in it's father's arms came to mind. This in turn sparked the thought/realization of how safe we are in God's arms (through His grace and love) on a daily basis even though temptation/sin are against us. We are His children and I know that personally, being such a new believer, I'm a baby in my faith. A baby safe in her father's arms. <3
Mark 1
In my bible (ESV Study Bible) it has a note at the
beginning about the general theme of the gospel of Mark. It says that the overall theme is “to present
and defend Jesus’ universal call to discipleship”. In other words, Jesus wants us all to be his
disciples and through Mark, this is shown and defended. As for this particular chapter, I think the
theme is showing how amazing Jesus is and how it was so easy for Him to gain
followers wherever He went. From this passage the timeless truths I gathered
were “the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” and that
Jesus really was who it was said He was.The main application for this passage is that we
need to repent and believe in the gospel and the power it holds in order to
reach the kingdom of heaven someday.It’s not enough to just be saved.We need to become disciples and spread the amazing word of the gospel
and truly believe it to some day spend time with our heavenly father.
I feel like I personally don’t spread the gospel
enough. Mainly because I
truly don’t know exactly what the gospel is.It’s something I’m currently researching and trying to figure out but I
haven’t really found anything yet.But I
know I need to spread God’s word more. In order to do this, I will really need to remember the Love, Know,
Speak, Do philosophy. We were talking
about it at the Christian conference I attended.In order to
effectively disciple people, we need to first love them.Then we need to get to know them.After we know them, then we can speak to them
about Jesus and after that, we can finally do something “religious”. It’s a really great thing that I never would've thought of but it makes so much sense!
Revelation 1 & 2
Revelation. The book of all books. One that many people shy away from reading because they (admittedly) are scared to read it. 3 of my friends and I have decided to tackle this book this summer and really see what it says about the second coming of Christ. We learned how Christ will be coming (Rev. 1:7) and what He will look like (Rev. 1:12-16). While discussing this with my friends, one of them pointed out how it seems that when Christ comes back, He will be coming back as all 3 parts of the Holy Trinity in one! "Like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. (Isn't this how we picture Jesus??) 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. (Isn't this how we picture God? A white haired grandfatherly figure??) His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength." (All the references to light and fire... Holy Spirit??) I think that's a pretty awesome observation on her part! I don't know when Christ will return but reading through Revelation has been giving me an idea of what to expect if it is in my lifetime!
Essentially, that's my journey through God's word for the past 2 weeks! Not all of my posts are going to be this long I promise!! :) Please leave your thoughts/comments!!
