Trying again...

So as my blog says, I am anything but constant though I am trying. So with my move to Dallas, life change and all that, I've decided to start blogging again. Hopefully this will be a way for people to check in on me, at least those who want to know. 

In beginning this new life step I've also take. On a challenge to read the Bible in 30 days. Gonna do the best I can and hope to have things finished a little after school starts. 

As the reading plan goes, which can be found here http://www.teachtochangelives.com/30dayplan/, I'm on day three and on into Leviticus. I don't have too much to report right now, but one thing did stick out to me, okay a couple. First of all I had forgotten that Israel means struggle with God. I think that struck me because for so long my relationship with God has been a struggle; me like Jacob, struggling against him. Of course the name is very apropos for the Israelites as well, so not much has changed in thousands of years. Despite all that struggling, God desperately loves us and still wants a relationship with us. I'm gonna focus on that for a while instead of the struggling. Sounds a lot better to me. 

As for the other things, I don't know this main piece seems the most important. Lets stick to that, shall we?  

Day 56: Jeremiah 23:9-33

So this is not the Bible in 90 days, but I'm continuing through.  Maybe my next go round will be 90 days.  I'm going to read through the Message next as I'm sticking to my wee NIV right now.

I don't know how anyone can say that the God in the Old Testament is a God of wrath.  They haven't read Jeremiah.  Don't get me wrong, he is wrathful here, but there is so much compassion, so much aching and longing, so much mercy.

I love God.  I do.  He is just, no doubt, but he is also soooooo good.

He rages against the false prophets, but doesn't he have a right?  Hello, they've helped contribute to His people's failings and lostness.  He rages against Israel and Judah and the nations (aka the world), but again, these are a people who have turned against him and sought their own measure of justice and right.  They have killed and murdered in their own names and caused needless sufferings.  My goodness, life is so much better if you seek God first - something I have to learn over and over and over.  Yes, God foretells and brings about wrath and judgment and justice, BUT he is full of love and mercy.  Why?

He does not abandon His people, the Israelites.  Throughout these chapters, God says again and again, "I will be there God and they will be my people."  If that is not a loving, caring, longing father/parent, I don't know what is.  He gives them truth - this punishment will come, but he also gives them hope - lives, marry, learn, grow because I'm bringing you back!

Not only will Israel be his people, but all nations will be blessed because of them.  God will fulfill his promise to David and to the Levites (God is so COOL!), check out Jeremiah 33:17-18.

I leave you with these words from Jeremiah 29:10-14.  Take them to heart dear ones.

This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

Day 55: Jeremiah 11-23

Jeremiah has a rough deal.  I like Jeremiah, always have because I feel his pain.  I understand his humiliation and struggle and - dare I say it - even doubt.  God pushes and pushes and pushes Jeremiah.  "Jeremiah, buy a linen belt...."  "Jeremiah, go down to the potter's house..."  "Jeremiah, ..."

"O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; 

you overpowered me and prevailed.  

I am ridiculed all day long; 

everyone mocks me.  

Whenever I speak, I cry out

proclaiming violence and destruction.

So the word of the LORD has brought me 

insult and reproach all day long.

But if I say, 'I will not mention him

or speak his name,'

his word is in my heart like a fire,

a fire shut up in my bones.

I am weary of holding it in; 

indeed, I cannot."

Jeremiah 20:7-9

I like Jeremiah, because he tells it how it is.  I have been reluctant, even resentful as Jeremiah is at times.  You may find me too harsh, but READ Jeremiah.  He is clear.  This, this calling God has given him, it is by no means easy.  It is indeed a struggle.  He curses the day he was born, wishing that he had never been born!  If that's not struggling, I don't know what is.  Jeremiah is honest, and what is more, this is all in God's word.  Life is not all puppy dogs and roses.  God knows that.  He gives us hope.  God is just and merciful.  God knows this is and would be a struggle for Jeremiah, but it was still a calling that had to be carried out.  Jeremiah puts things in perspective.  If this was that hard for Jeremiah, how do you think God felt?  Sure he was angry and right to be so, but don't you think that God, who is loving and just, would also be aching for his people.  He has been the whole time.

Jeremiah's heart was breaking and he was tired and anxious and done.  So was God.

You may feel that is too much personification for the Almighty, but I think that makes Him all the more approachable.  What He asked Jeremiah to do - it was no easy thing.  What He was doing Himself - it was no easy thing.  He had to do this thing because of His character, but there is hope.

"So then, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when people will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' Then they will live in their own land."

Jeremiah 23:7-8

So then, in the meantime, to quote one of my favorite singer/songwriters of all time, Sara Groves, "Jeremiah, tell me about the fire.  I wanna know, I wanna know more now..."  I want to know what it is like to have God's spirit and presence so press you, that you must speak it out.  I have known that before.  I want to know it again - with all the blessings and all the pain.

Day 54: Jeremiah 1-10

Well friends, I must say that I really don't think I've read the Bible before at all.  I have read it, but I don't know where my mind was.  I'm definitely reading it now, comprehending it and marveling at it - at God's Word.

Jeremiah - again I feel lucky to have the background that I do having read about the kings not too long ago.  Even if I didn't, the book gives some background, but the context carries more meaning when you actually understand the history to which it refers.

If you ever feel ill equipped for ministry, read Jeremiah 1.  If God calls you, he calls you and he gives you what you need to do his will.  So don't worry.  It is a scary thing, but as trite as it may sound, God is bigger than our fears and he will carry us through.

I love the voice of God in Jeremiah, or the voice Jeremiah lends to God.  The Scriptures were written by human authors and God used their own unique styles and voices for his good work.  So either way, I love the language and the content.  Like Isaiah, there is a great deal of metaphor and description and darn good poetry.  The main imagery here in these chapters, God calling to his bride, his unfaithful bride.  The theme is pretty clear and it repeats throughout these chapters.  There is a clear yearning here, God is calling his people to come back to him.  He pleads with them, "Just repent.  Show me with your heart that you desire to truly follow me and not prostitute yourselves to the desires and gods of these other nations." 

"Oh, my anguish, my anguish!  I writhe in pain.  Oh, the agony of my heart!  My people are fools; they do not know me.  They are senseless children; they have no understanding.  They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good."  Jeremiah 4:19,22.

What has been true and clear up until this point (and will continue on) God desires a transformed and faithful heart.  He does not desire lip service or routine.  He wants the real deal and doesn't He deserve it?  Without it and because of there great unfaithfulness, prostitution really, God exacts judgment.  In His judgment He is just.  You can see that so clearly here in Jeremiah.  There is judgment for all nations, but there is also hope.  Just as it is clear that if Israel/Judah were to repent they would be saved, so to would it be for those of other nations.  God is just and merciful.

May I remember that and may this be my prayer:

"'but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the LORD."

Jeremiah 9:24

Day 52-53: What I've learned from Isaiah

So it's taken me about a month to get back into things.  I must admit I've been plagued by a bit of passivity lately, thank you Joyce Meyer.  On the other hand, I've faced a lot of stress lately, getting sick consistently, starting a new job and trying to ignore God.  All three of these things will keep you very busy, if you let them.  The new job is going well.  I'm an investigator for CPS now, but I still have other things to look into, like Linguistics...  I'm trying to figure out this health thing, thankfully my insurance contracts with Mayo Clinic, Woo hoo!  Ignoring God, well that's just stupid and stubborn.  I get that way sometimes, but according to Isaiah, I'm not the only one with that problem.

Isaiah is a beautiful book and reading the Bible as I am, from start to finish, I find it is easier to engage.  I understand what's happening in Israel and Judah because I read that background in Kings and Chronicles, etc.  So reading what Isaiah has to say makes more sense in light of that.

God is understandable in this book and maybe it's because of the poetry and voice that comes out here in Isaiah, that indeed Isaiah uses, inspired by God himself.  I would like to make a brief comment on the theory/ies posited that Isaiah is written by multiple authors and that there is more than one Isaiah.  I think this really is a compilation of one man's prophesies/writings.  Why?  If one were to gather all my writings together, over my lifetime, they would be much like Isaiah's.  They wouldn't all be in order, they'd be different genres and voices and rather eclectic.  That's the way I am and I think we all are.  I say why not?  Why couldn't it be one man?  It makes sense to me.

Back to what God is saying.  I love God.  He is God, holy and wonderful and terrifying, but he is also loving and good and all of these things saturate Isaiah.  God has a heart, not only for Israel and Judah, but for all the nations.  Really there is no difference between Israel and the other nations, except that God chose them to be his people and bring his salvation to the world through them.  I mean look at their track record, they really were no better than any other nation (they should have known better, being God's people, but that is another matter).  If you don't think the God in the Old Testament is merciful, read Isaiah.  If you don't think is merciful AND just, read Isaiah.  If you don't think God is feminine as well as masculine, read Isaiah.

I never really cared much for Isaiah, before, but reading it now and reading it in light of all that has gone before, well it makes so much more sense.  It makes more sense and I am still amazed.  I am still amazed by God.  Isn't that how it should be?  In spite of everything God calls to his people, he pours his mercy and judgment on them and at the same time says, I am bringing hope, not just for you, but for all peoples now and peoples to come.  Thank you God!  Thank you my LORD and my life!  Thank you and forgive me for taking you for granted.

Tomorrow: Jeremiah.  Now: sleep.

Day 49-50: Isaiah 1-28

We've made it to fifty!  I may eventually catch up to where I'm really supposed to be.  I know I said no playing catch up, but it is not out of necessity, it is just something I may be able to do in the future.  For now it really only seems feasible that I am able to do the required reading for the day.  It's not that I am wasting my time, just using it wisely in all aspects of worshiping God and bringing honor to him.  Sometimes it's about building others up and sometimes it's about receiving that building up.  Ah community!  I would be done reading the Bible if I locked myself up and just read it, but that is not what God has intended for me, for you, for any of us.

Moving forward, Isaiah...  We've met him before back in Kings and Chronicles.  He is Isaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah (1:1).  Check back too and you'll see.  So Isaiah is prophesying toward the end of the Northern kingdom as they are overtaken by the Assyrians and also toward the end of the Southern kingdom (Judah).  He doesn't quite see the demise of Judah, he does of Israel (the northern kingdom), but not his own home.  Still his words about that matter are pretty clear: the end is coming for both because of the unfaithfulness of the Israelites.  A worse fate awaits for the nations that will enslave the Israelites, but the nation will be scattered nonetheless, with only a remnant remaining.

There is a lot of hope in Isaiah.  Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of disaster and warning and judgment as well, but there is always hope and it is an eternal hope as well.

Chapter 1 of Isaiah, as I've been saying all along, it does not matter how you worship the LORD or if you prescribe to the letter of worship, unless your heart is in it also.  That is essentially what chapter 1 says and then in chapter 2 we move to the last days and how there is hope for the future, for all nations as all will come to the "mountain of the LORD."  Pretty cool.  God is a God of this earth and loves all peoples.  Surely, he chose the Isrealites for his people, but his desire is that all nations know Him.  I love God!

Isaiah is chalk full of "Messianic passages."  It's true, chapter 7 talks about the virgin birth; chapter 9 carries that famous line, "For unto us a child is born,... And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  Chapter 11 speaks of the root that will come from Jesse and the Spirit of the LORD will rest upon him.  Things pointing to Christ and yet unbeknownst to Isaiah or the Israelites and something they would never see or experience, but we have the benefit of full knowledge, which makes all the more wonderful.  I imagine that the people in Isaiah's day, the ones who perhaps listened to him, wondered what does this mean?  I imagine there was some immediate fulfillment to these prophecies, but did they have any idea of what the ultimate fulfillment of these prophesies would be?  I feel sorry for them that they missed out.  I am sorry for myself as well, that I take this knowledge for granted.

So throughout Isaiah, we have God being completely just and completely holy.  Isaiah 6, his call to follow the LORD.  Isaiah is found in awe of the holy, holy holy, LORD God and rightly responds that he is unworthy.  God's response is pure grace, he makes Isaiah clean and uses this man for His will.  Isaiah is open and willing.  God that my heart would be as open and willing as his.  "Here am I.  Send me!"

God calls his people and the nations into account.  He calls the Israelites into account, but assures them that he will not completely destroy them.  There will be a remnant.  They will return and truly follow the LORD (Is. 10).  It is through this remnant that all nations will be blessed.  All people will come and call on the LORD because of this (Is. 11, 14, 19, 25).  There will be a lot of grief first though, and people will be called into account, the Israelites as well as the other nations, but God is faithful.  The future he is forecasting is scary and bleak, but ultimately there is rejoicing; there is peace and hope.

Isaiah is beautiful and poetic and there is a lot there, just in the power of God and his broadcasting his plans for his people and the nations.  I encourage you as you read Isaiah to have an open mind and be willing to allow God to speak to you.  At times he is harsh, as he is here in Isaiah, but it is often wrapped in love and in hope, as it is here in Isaiah.  Remain open to him and remember that He does not desire words or meaningless sacrifices.  He desires our hearts, that is our firm and committed devotion to Him.  It is no small thing to ask, but we can be girded up by the faith of those who have gone before us.  The faith of people like Isaiah and the remnant, who faced uncertainty, far greater than our own.  They had but a glimpse of Jesus and we have seen all that he was and has done.  We are far better off, but at times I find that my faith is far less.  O God, help my unbelief!

Day 48: Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs

If your heart is heavy with the things of life.  If you are feeling worn down and sorrowful, Ecclesiastes is a book that you may find appealing.  What is the saying, misery loves company?  Well it's true.  I have often found solace in this book and as bleak as it can be, it has brought much perspective to me over the years.  Don't be angry with the author of Ecclesiastes, whether it's Solomon or someone else.  We have all been or are going to be in this place at some point in our lives, that is we will if we have some modicum of self reflection within us.  And that self reflection; being in that place is okay.  If it weren't, why would it be in the Bible.  Okay, let's just say now, God made a mistake.  This downer of a book was never meant to be a part of His Word.  Don't be silly.  It's here for a reason and its reason is good.

Common themes again persist throughout Ecclesiates, riches are meaningless, toil is meaningless, wisdom is meaningless, all living things reach the same end - death.  It's bleak, I know, but there are glimpses of hope and perspective throughout.  Chapter 3:1-15 has long been a favorite of mine, despite it's overall poetic nature, it again assures us that at whatever point in life we are, it is okay.  It is okay to grieve, it is okay to dance; it is okay to be quiet and it is okay to speak; it is okay to love and it is okay to hate.  There is a time for everything.  God has ordained it, let it be.  Live life for "He has made everything beautiful in its time (11)."  I find comfort in that.

Friendship is important.  That is another key theme in Ecclesiastes, a message of hope amidst despair.  Ecc 4:9-12, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: if one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!  Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.  But how can one keep warm alone?  Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."  Friendship is important and, well, it keeps us together.  There are benefits to both parties, and yes the lying down together thing speaks to friendship because think of a time, different than our own, when that wasn't so taboo.  It's something that would be done for survival, lack of space, yadda yadda yadda.  We were not created to be alone, we were made to be in community.

Stand in awe of God (chapter 5).  He is in heaven and we are on earth.  It gives you some perspective.  When you are talking to the Almighty Creator, don't babble on as the pagans do (Jesus' words), let your words be few (Ecc).  God is Creator and we are the unrighteous sinner.  "There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins (Ecc 7:20)."  It gives me perspective.  It reminds me that I do not do as I ought and that I stand before the one and Holy God.  I should be humbled and I should be in awe.  He deserves no less.  We cannot understand God fully, but we can seek to serve him and live our lives as best we can (Ch 11-12).  "Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man..  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." (12:13-14)

You can be irritated by the author of Ecclesiastes because he seems so stuck on the meaninglessness of things and has no hope for redemption, but remember, we can look back at things with eyes wide open because we have the fullness of revelation and the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ.  How much more, we should read this book in light of that.  There is hope and just as there is that, all this other stuff is true too.  Let us bring light and hope into the lives of others.  God, let me.

Song of Songs or Song of Solomon
Solomon potentially had a lot of writings here in the Bible.  I don't really have much to say about this book, except that it is an excellent bit of poetry and you can feel the emotions of each of the people within it.  I think what strikes me most about this book is the intimacy of this book and I don't mean sex.  What abounds throughout is how well the lover and the beloved know each other and how they long for each other.  It is a mutual love and a deep love and one that comes from open and ready hearts.  When that doesn't occur, that is the downfall of relationships.  It may only be from one party, but that's all it takes.  I've seen that too often in my life.  "Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires."  That's important.  Don't chase after something you are not ready for.  If you do, you must be willing to accept it as it is, with all your heart.  God may I truly be open to hear and see and receive you and may I also be willing to be open to give and bleed and let go all of me.

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.  It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.  Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.  If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned." Song of Songs 8:6-7