Reaching the end

Well, it really is an incredible feeling to look back on the journey and realize that I completed it. It shouldn't be such a big deal that I finished a book, but it is a rather important book and I am glad that I documented some of the journey here.

Now I will be moving on to a devotional book where you read through the Bible in one year. I will continue to post here- I expect the reading to be a bit more intense. We'll see if I can keep up!

Revelation II- the sequel

I read Revelation 21 today and it talked about the new city or world for those whose names are written in the book of life will live.
The same sort of 'measurement' is done as for the temple in Ezekiel (i think it was). This seems to be a thing that God does. He measures out for us in Earthly standards heavenly things. He knows we can't really comprehend heavenly things too well and so he puts things in terms that we can understand. I don't think he really cares how many cubits things are. But maybe it's important, who knows?
Also he talks about the gems in the walls.
He makes the city out of things that are precious to us.
Or are these gems precious to us because they are precious to him?

The book of Revelation seems to have more questions than answers, but that's a lot like life so it's not so bad.

Revelation

I am now working my way through Revelation and think that this 'project' will be done by the end of the year. It has taken me about 3 years to read through the Bible one chapter at a time. I may be ambitious but I am looking at trying to read through the whole Bible in one year in 2011. I bought a Bible in a year devotional book. We'll see how it goes!

The book of Revelation is a particularly tricky one. I read it and try to see application to my life today, which is difficult. What I see is that God is a great and creative God!

1 Peter

I found reading 1 Peter that there seemed to be a lot of "Command" verses. I think this is good for instructing us on what to do to put our faith in action, or as Dr. Phil says "To put verbs in your sentences"

1 Peter 1
13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.

1 Peter 2
1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority:
16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

1 Peter 3
3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

In a nutshell to love and respect others.

Mercy triumphs

James 2 has 2 interesting bits back to back.

First:
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
That's a pretty high standard!

And then:
12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

I love that mercy triumphs over judgment.

25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.


As Rahab was a prostitute I'm guessing that she wasn't keeping the whole law. But she was considered righteous because of her actions at one small point in time.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Angels

Reading the first 2 chapters of Hebrews, there is a LOT of talk about angels. About Jesus in relation to angels. About humans and in relation to angels. About heaven in relation to God. It seems a strikingly different book than the previous books attributed to Paul. I am not sure what the common consensus on who the writer of Hebrews is now but it does seem so different from the other books that if the author is Paul it must have been Paul writing after some big revelation that made everything look different!

House

2 Tim 2:20In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

The Message interprets this passage as:

20-21In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.

But when I read it, I interpreted that our life is like a house. We tend to keep a lot of stuff in our house and some of it is good for us and some of it isn't. Some of us hoard piles of 'stuff' in our lives. Sometimes we need to do some cleaning out!

The spirit clearly says

I Timothy 4 starts with "The spirit clearly says". If found this interesting as it doesn't indicate if the spirit clearly spoke to one person or how the spirit spoke, just that the spirit was clear. A lot of times things do not always look like they are clear- it is more murky as to what might be correct in a given situation. However, I think the Spirit desires to speak clearly to us.

overseer

In my Bible in 1 Timothy 3, it speaks of an 'overseer'. I think in today's terms that would be a pastor. But I think the term overseer is cool. Instead of calling his 'pastor Al', I may now call him 'overseer Al'. And see if I can keep a straight face :)

Paul also refers to the Church as "God's household" which is a good picture of it, really.

Context

1 Timothy 2 is a short chapter but full of difficult writings.

8I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.

9I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

So, Paul's hope for men is a spiritual one but for women is a physical one.
Is this because women were more spiritually advanced? lol.
Maybe men have more trouble with the spiritual things, and women with the material ones?

And then we come to:
11A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
Are women more easy to deceive?
This was our downfall!
Why does God gift some women as orators if they are to be silent?
There is obviously a lot of disputed territory here. I am still trying to grasp why Paul appends this to the front of the chapter that indicates that Jesus wants everyone to be saved. Would Jesus want women to speak if it mean that that goal was met?
I know many people have disagreements over this and so I am certainly not expecting any resolution here, just stuff to think about.

Ignorance is bliss

1 Timothy 1:13Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
Paul says that he was shown mercy because the motivation for his actions was not so bad. He thought he was doing the right thing when he did it (killing Christians). Can people who deliberately do bad things still be shown mercy? Does bad motivation overrule God's mercy?

Idle

2 Thessalonians 3:6In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching[a] you received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you,...11We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies.
Me thinks Paul may have had some type A personality. I can relate.
So if we take from this that God wants us to keep busy, what does this mean?
I don't think it's that God doesn't want us to be reflective as passages I've read in the last week talk about how important it is to think of heavenly things not earthly things = God does want us to reflect on Him.
But he also wants us to be productive and do useful things.
As a pose to talking behind others' backs, which likely is not constructive or edifying.
This may be encouragement to keep our focus on the positive.

Encourage your hearts

2 Thessalonians 2:16May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
We should always look to encourage others' hearts and pray for God to encourage and strengthen us and others.

Quiet life

1 Thessalonians 4:11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
A quiet life. I am not sure the exams office qualifies as a quiet life! I try to live without too much drama though.

In my Bible, a note it made at the start of the book was that 1 Thessalonians said that 1 Thess was about "eschatology" (the return of Jesus) but I didn't really read it that way, I thought the book was more about how to live now and about encouragement.

prayer from 1 Thess.

1 Thessalonians 3:12May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Stand firm

Colossians 4:12Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
I like that prayer "that you may stand firm in all the will of God". This implies that the will of God must not be so difficult to determine, if we are to stand firm in it. (Though it sometimes seems not so clear) But that's what I pray for myself that I will stand firm in all the will of God and for others that they will as well.

I liked reading Colossians- it gave me prayer inspirations.

Earthly nature

Yesterday I read:
Colossians 3:5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
Verse 6 is the kicker-if we put our time and out energy on worldly things instead of heavenly things then we encourage the wrath of God to come. I don't think we want that! I wonder how much our current society encourages the wrath of God and if they know or care that they are doing this.

After pondering this yesterday, this evening I went to a service where the speaker talked about blessings (as it is Thanksgiving). He covered what the world considers blessings- like wealth, a good career, nice house, car, etc. and how that compares with what God considers blessings- righteousness being credited to us for what Jesus did, the blessing of truth clearing our mind, blessing of wisdom, blessings that come from obedience.

fullness

I'm in Colossians now. I notice a theme in Paul's prayers - that he prays for fullness in Christ for others. He uses different words that that. Each of his prayers a little different, but the main directive for all his prayers seem to be that others would be full of Christ. I like that directive of prayer.

2 Corinthians

There are some great excerpts that I remember from the book of 2 Corinthians but I've found reading it as a whole a different treat. It shows a lot more about Paul (the author). He seems to be really opening up in the writing. Really raw. The main point of the letter seems to be about being straight. Being straight up with God and with others. Not making thing more complicated than they need to be. I like that he tells them what he is happy with and what he is afraid of.

The verses that interested me the most on this reading were:

2 Corinthians 3: 7Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
It seems to be saying- what God did in the past was great- but what he is doing now is even better.


2 Corinthians 12: 9 He(The Lord) said to me(Paul), "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I delight in weakness too- maybe because I have a lot of them! lol. It shows that God does not look at the world like society does. Weakness is not generally embraced. But God embraces it.

When unbelievers come to Church

1 Corinthians 14:24 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"

When someone who does not know God comes to Church they should have some revelation about God that makes him or her look at their own life and worship God.

Love builds up

1 Corinthians 8 talks about the 'issue' of eating food sacrificed to idols.
The issue is not so much of one now as I certainly can't recall anyone offering me food sacrificed to an idol in my whole life.
But how the issue was handled.
I think the key is in Paul saying "Love builds up" (vs. 1)
That the issues aren't so much of the deal but that we move in love to build up others.
That we are considerate of other's feelings and beliefs and to realize that the most important thing is connecting the person to God.
For example, all Churches have their own unique features and don't worship God in the same way. It is not our place to say which is better, but that we encourage people to connect to God in the best way that they can. And as they connect to God more, they will grow more and maybe how they do things will change. But change comes organically. The Holy Spirit never forces you to do things.

Time is short

1 Corinthians 7:29What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; 30those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
The time is short- it has to be God's work that gets priority in our lives.

Expel

1 Cor 5 deals with a difficult situation in the Corinthian Church.
1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. 2And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?
So I assume from this that there was an individual sleeping with his step-mother. (If he had been sleeping with his mother I assume the passage would have said that rather than 'his father's wife')
I don't understand the 2And you are proud! bit as I can't think what they would be proud of in this situation.
Maybe they knew of the sin and the guy continued in a position of leadership?
Paul said to put him out of the congregation and 5hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature[a] may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
Hand the dude over to Satan? That's pretty harsh!
I assume because the guy was not repentant. Aren't we supposed to try to bring our brother's to repentance first? But it seems this Church had not done anything. And maybe there were some reasons for that. Maybe the father had married a really young wife. Maybe she was younger than the son? Maybe the Church had rationalized it and Paul objected to that?
I might think that the first step would be pray with him, confront him, work with him. But Paul does not deal with him that way- hand him over to Satan!
Was this a cultural thing or is this something that the Church should have in practice today? Because I think the Church today would probably focus more on the redemption of the sinner. But maybe Paul is telling us not to be so soft. To call sin a sin and draw the line in the sand. To say it's not acceptable and go hand yourself over to Satan!

Paul does indicate that the unsaved should not be treated this way. I guess because they don't have Jesus to guide them.

Just your brothers. Turn them over to Satan.

Corinthians

Today I start 1 Corinthians!
The intro to it in my Bible says:
In spite of the Corinthians' immaturity and resistance to the Holy Spirit, out of Paul's struggle with them came two of the greatest chapters in the Bible (13 and 15)

Beautiful things can come out of difficult times. This seems particularly relevant these days.

Romans

Romans 12:6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
I am finding Romans such a beautifully written book that I'm finding it a bit hard to write much about it.
In Romans 12 it encourages you to use your gift. It seems unquestioning that everyone has a gift and should know what it is. You do tend to figure these things out as you grow. I like to organize and have a great job that lets me do that. I don't know if that counts in Paul's list.
The only gift that seems to come with a qualifier is prophesy that can only be used in proportion to the faith of the person with the gift. I assume this refers to their faith in God, though maybe faith in themselves. I find it hard to distinguish what is God and what is me, maybe that is what takes the faith.
It is interesting that it is qualified like that. Grace gives us the gift but it is dependent on us. I think all the gifts really are though. Grace may give the gift of encouraging or serving but as you grow in the gift I would think grace would give you more as you mature to perform your gift even better.

Luke

I finished reading Acts and did some online reading about Luke and I was STARTLED to read that he wasn't one of the 12 apostles. I had read the opening of Luke about how he did research and all and I just thought he meant that he did research on top of his own experiences. I did not know that he was a Gentile. It's not important in the grand scheme of it all I suppose but I was just suprised that I missed this for years and years!

At the end of Acts Paul finally makes it to Rome. This flows nicely into the next book which is Paul's letter to the Romans. This is good really as you can see the journey that Paul made and all he went through to get to Rome. It gives more credibility to the letter he writes to the Romans (though I don't technically know when it was written- maybe it was written before his trip to get there)

Truth doesn't come from a crowd

In Acts 21 there is another riot with Paul. Apparently Paul brings the riots. And the commander of the Roman army comes in and tries to figure out what was going on- why the crowd was beating up Paul. So he asks the crowd. But the Bible says he can't get "the truth" out of them. Probably you can never get truth out of a crowd!

riot

Acts 19 shows a bit about mob mentality. A crowd can get worked up and not know what they are worked up about! Spiritual works in a crowd are probably more heightened/obvious whether for good or for evil.

Spirit of Jesus

Acts 16:7 When they (Paul & co.) came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

Acts 16 has some interesting stuff going on as well. You have Paul being stopped from entering an area by the Spirit of Jesus. That is pretty powerful direction, don't you think? They were headed in one direction but it was not the direction that Jesus wanted them to go in. So they were obedient to the spirit of Jesus and turned. Which is good. Yes? But then they end up in another location where some really bad stuff goes down.

You see there was a girl with an evil spirit of divination and she went around after the company shouting at them for DAYS. For DAYS. And finally, Paul snapped and cast the spirit out of her. Good. Yes?

Well it got Paul flogged. And that ain't pretty.

So what do we learn from this?
-Jesus can and will direct us if we are heading in the wrong direction
-don't cast spirits out of people who don't want the spirit cast out of them
-sometimes there are really annoying things in life that you must just bear. Be patient.

Disagreement

In Acts 15 Paul and Barnabas have a disagreement.
We're human, disagreements happen.
Paul and Barnabas both loved Christ but disagreed about a person to take on their trip.
Interestingly, this also happened to a friend of mine who was going on a missions trip. There was a guy who some of the team felt did not have the right spirit to go and some of the team thought that taking him on the trip would be good for the guys' spiritual life. What they had to look at was the benefits for the individual versus the detriment for the group if he continued on the same path.
And everyone is not going to agree on the benfit/ detriment ratio.

"Disagreements are going to occur," says Dr. Phil. "The question is, do you go into it with a spirit of looking for resolution or do you go into it with a spirit of getting even, vengeance, control?

Paul and Barnabas decided to take different trips. As the writer of Acts (given as Luke) seems to go with Paul I guess we don't find out what happens with Barnabas. Would be interesting to know though.

One and not the other

Acts 12 has an interesting contrast. James and Peter run into trouble with persecution. James gets killed about one sentence in but Peter gets most of a chapter about his miraculous deliverance! Kind of lop-sided!

Looking better

Acts 5 has the story about a couple who sold some property and brought some of the money to the apostles. The problem seems to have been that they SAID that it was all the money from the sale but it was not. Now, it was their land and I don't think they were obligated to give all the money (Peter seems to indicate this when he speaks with Ananias) if they wanted to give some to the apostles and keep some to buy an RV that would have been ok. But to say they had given it all, that was the problem. Of course it doesn't strike me as the sort of problem that one should be stricken dead over. But the point seems to have been taken- God expects truthfulness.

11Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Peter

I have now started reading Acts. It is really impressive to look at the transformation of Peter from the gospels to Acts. Whatever was holding him back in the gospels was shattered with the resurrection!

Cut

John 15:2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Note here that no matter what you are going to be cut. That's a rather gloomy thought. But we want to be cut to grow up to be who Jesus wants us to be. We don't want to be cut off!

Born blind

Now I am in the book of John. In John 9 the entire chapter is dedicated to a guy who was born blind whom Jesus heals. What I love about the story is the born-blind guy is so willing to take on the Pharisees:

24A second time they (Pharisees)summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."

25He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

26Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

27He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"

Now THAT'S going to make a Pharisee bent on taking Jesus down real happy!

But seriously, it is a good representation of what happens when Jesus heals us (maybe not from physical blindness). We gain an understanding about Him that we didn't have before. We sometimes have to take on doubters of what is going on. And then Jesus is around to make sure we are ok.
This can also be applied to spiritual blindness.

You may want to be quiet

So Jesus is ripping a strip off the Pharisees in Luke 11, talking about how they care more about the outward appearance than the inward person.
When He finishes, a person who was not in the Pharisee group, says this:

Luke11:45One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also."

Apparently, what Jesus is saying is hitting home! Which is a good thing, I think. However, bringing this up at this time might not have been a great idea. As Jesus proceeds to go on just as long about the "experts in the law" and what they are missing. I bet after that the guy might not have been so happy that he spoke up.

However, knowing the truth is the important thing. Even if you have to hear it in not such a nice way, so I guess that was expedient.

Jesus in this passage shows that He answers questions directly- if we ask questions we have to expect that we might not like the answer.

Determined

Luke 9:38A man in the crowd called out, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. 40I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not."
Before when I read this story, I focused on the lesson that I thought Jesus was trying to teach through it. But today when reading it, I looked at the man and the determination that he showed. He took his child to the disciples but they could not drive out the problem. He could have given up, looked at it as his destiny. Looked at his situation as hopeless. But he did not. He believed there was something to this Jesus. Something healing. Like Leia says is star wars "You are my only hope".

Centurion's faith

Luke 7:3The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, "This man deserves to have you do this, 5because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." 6So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you.

The centurion seems to have been an interesting character. Obviously a good community minded man who has made lots of loyal friends and very kind as he even cares about his servant so much. Humble too. Jesus was amazed by the guy.

Lonely places

Luke 5:16But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
At least praying in lonely places is quiet!

juxtapose

At the start of Mark 14 there is an interesting juxtapose about money. I noted in Matthew how you have the woman pouring perfume and Judas next to each other as extravagant love and extravagant deceit- but in Mark I notices that they are also threaded together by money. That the perfume in said to have cost a lot. And Jesus had a price as well (for Judas).

taking it personal

In reading Mark 15, I found I was taking it personal. You can read the facts of the story or you can feel the story. I think I am seeing the difference in how to read it.

Mark

I am now working through Mark. I'm finding Mark a lot more fast paced than Matthew was. More of a focus on what Jesus did. It can be read quickly as you go from event to event but I find the conscious need to slow it down- to really take in what was happening. This isn't always easy.

Mark 4:36Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat.
How else do you take Jesus, other than "just as he is"?

Mark 6:4Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." 5He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6And he was amazed at their lack of faith.

The people's faith affected Jesus' ability to work. If this was true for Jesus, it is likely also true for us today.

Mark 6:20 When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.

Liked to listen, not to commit.

There appear to be different approaches people have with Jesus and healing
-some think Jesus is probably willing to heal, but not sure if He is able
-some think Jesus is able, but unsure if He is willing.
Jesus was the same everywhere He went but how people saw Him had to do with their own personal filter. How we come to Jesus now has roots in who we are now and how we got there. Hopefully, as we grow our filter improves and we come to Jesus in a healthier way each time.

Mark 11:11Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
For all the times I've heard about Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers in the temple and driving out those who were selling merchandise- I had never seen this snippet from the day before.
The day before is palm sunday where he goes through the city on a donkey and the people shout his praise. At the end of the day he goes to the temple and observes what is going on.
Jesus doesn't have a sudden fit when he arrives at the temple the next day. He knew what he was going to do going in there in the morning. His anger was controlled and directed and planned, not a sudden fit.


Mark 11:13Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.
And then we have the poor fig tree. It's not the season for figs but Jesus expects to find some. Jesus has very high standards for us, that sometimes we can't understand and it doesn't seem to be the right time for us. But it might be the right time for Him.

Mark 13:18Pray that this will not take place in winter
In this Jesus is talking about the end of the age and this little line is in a big speech. When I read it before I thought, well of course you don't want the end of the age to happen in winter as it is cold and snowy and I don't like winter at the best of times, so I thought I guess Jesus doesn't want the end of the age to happen in winter either. I don't want anything to happen in winter myself! But now that I think about it, it can't be referring to physical winter as there would always be SOMEWHERE in the world that it is winter. So, it must be referring to something else, but what?

backtrack

When I read Matthew 26 (before Matthew 27 but I only remembered to write it now) I thought it was interesting how verses 6-13 where the woman shows extravagant love in anointing Jesus with oil backs against verses 14-16 where Judas shows extravagant deceit in agreeing to betray Jesus.
Since I have been looking at decision making processes, I thought these two examples were interesting. The woman took the oil and what did she think - did she think about the cost? did she think about what others thought of her? did she think at all? I'm guessing either no - she was someone who made decisions based on feelings OR she was someone who felt the prompting of God and just did it even though her mind may have been telling her it didn't make sense. I am not someone who makes decisions based on feelings. Sometimes I wish I did. But I hope to override my brain and be obedient to God as much as I can.
I can see better what was going on with Judas. I can see that he may have really thought that he was doing the best thing. He was logically analyzing what was going on and it didn't make sense what Jesus was doing. In fact it still doesn't make sense, but then God is so much bigger than our little human brains. I guess Judas didn't grasp the sacredness of what was going on.
Don't let us miss Your sacred touch.

Decisions in Matthew 27

1Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death.
18For he (Pilate) knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.
emphasis mine

This indicates that the decision making that went into Jesus being crucified was based on envy. Was Jesus too good? Too popular? Too true? Too threatening?

One part of Matthew 27 that I don't remember reading before:

51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
Verse 51 I was familiar with but 52 and 53, not so much and I'm not sure why- this is kindof a big deal if you have a bunch of holy people raised from the dead. I think that's a VERY big deal!

Matthew

The last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind. I have enjoyed the consistency of reading a chapter of the Bible every night before I sleep. On April 11, I started new- the New Testament that is.
In Matthew 23:35 Jesus refers to "Zechariah son of Berekiah". I hadn't noticed that before and wondered which Zechariah we were talking about (there are a few in the Bible!). I found this link.

Yesterday I read Matthew 25 where Jesus tells a couple of parables- the parable of the 10 virgins- the parable of the talents. I wasn't looking so much at what the people in the parables did but at their motivation and their hearts. The 'foolish' vigins did not bring enough oil for their journey. This can show lack of foresight and lack of understanding but it also shows how selfish it is to be only focused on the here and now. There are times when we need to be, but we can't loose sight of the big picture, of the important things to focus on.
In the parable of the talents, the servant that gets chastised is the one who made his decision based on fear.
God looks at our hearts

Army of the Lord

I am now at Joel 2. Even though I have a crazy number of jobs, I still keep up with my Bible reading even though I don't have as much time to write about it here!

Joel 2 talks about an army at the start. At one point he seems to call it the 'army of the Lord' but is seems a bit scary really. In some readings they say that it is about locusts. Are we the army of the Lord referred to here? Are we locusts? Is there something we should learn from locusts? lol.

Zeke

I finished Ezekiel.
My favorite chapter has always been 37 that has the valley of dry bones and God brings them back to life

13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

Ezekiel ends with a description of a temple and many measurements of all the details of the temple. And then the river that flows out from under it and Ezekiel goes deeper and deeper- it is a river of life. God measures things out then comes to bring LIFE.

Ezekiel ends with

"And the name of the city from that time on will be:
The LORD is There ."

And where the LORD is, there is life.