The Beginning

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!! 

God Bless you all!

 <3 Danielle