bible in a year: week 7

This year a goal has been set to read the entirety of God's word and there is a host of women joining in on the journey.  Failure is always an option as we are each imperfect people but it is never a reason to give up!  Whether each day is done without fail, catch ups are needed, or some have to stop for a variety of reasons, each word read, no matter how many, will lead us to grow in wisdom, grace, and fellowship with both us and our creator.

It took less than a day of reading to get a deeper understanding of why one can study the bible for a lifetime and still glean new things.  In truth a lifetime is not enough.  As Saint Augustine said, "The bible is shallow enough for a child not to drown, yet deep enough for an elephant to swim.  Each verse opens up a new thought, a new question, a new understanding of what God has done and sometimes a confusion of why He is doing it.  In moments of questions research is good but there are times where I need to submit to His authority remembering what A.W. Tozer said in his book Pursuit of God, "God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty.  The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, "O Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience.  Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints."

I got behind a couple days this week and had to spend a good amount of time on Saturday getting caught up.  But behind or not, I am loving what I am learning through out this year.  The habit to dig into and familiarize myself with this story in its entirety.  This one story that weaves itself in and out of each individual book.  It holds a beauty that nothing will ever come close to comparing to.

Genesis 45-50, Exodus 1

Brothers making peace, Father and Son reunited.  Forgiveness.  This story was just all the things!  When Joseph, overcome by emotion, can no longer hold in the truth and yells out so loudly that it was heard outside, "I AM JOSEPH" I felt the emotion.  Weeping on his brother Benjamin's shoulder and then again on his Father's.  Y'all.

Joseph knew his purpose, the reason God had allowed and orchestrated the difficulties of his earlier life.  He was sent ahead of them to preserve life.  He tells them when he reveals his identity and then again after the death of their father.  "You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result--the survival of many"  He pioneered this area to preserve the life of God's people, to place them in an area where they can grow and prosper. and they did.

The 12 tribes of Israel.  The sons of Jacob.  Continuing to carry on the promise made to Abraham years ago.  More numerous than the stars.  

But then comes Exodus.  And even though Joseph was told by Jacob that God would bring them out of Egypt and then Joseph told his brothers that God would bring them out of Egypt, I doubt any of them would realize how that story would play out.  God doesn't just easily bring them out of Egypt.  First they prosper, then they are enslaved.  Struggle comes before deliverance.  Is it so we glorify God all the more when deliverance comes?

Mark 15-16, Luke 1-4

Mark closes out his gospel with the death and resurrection and then Luke begins to tell the story himself in a letter to Theophilus, a fact I had never realized until this week.  Two things from the end of Mark that stood out to me were both about women in the narrative of Jesus.  The woman who anointed him with perfume, the woman they looked down upon for "wasting" such expensive perfume, was lifted up by Jesus when he said, "Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her."  She was remembered for her dedication to her Lord, she was remembered by her fruit.  Again, after the resurrection, he appears to Mary Magdalene, a woman who loved and followed him devotedly.  Mark describes her as a woman out of whom he drove out seven demons.  Did I know this before?  She not only knew of His power, but had experienced that power and devoted herself to Him since.  

I don't know if we should read into the female/male aspects of these situations or not, but I do love the dedication of these women, their love for Jesus, and their commitment to being near him no matter the situation.

Job 11-17

Alright, full disclosure, Job confuses the heck out of me.  Not Job the person, Job the book.  I'm trying to hang in there, I'm getting the jist, but I know there is TONS I am missing.  If anyone knows of any book, study, sermon series, anything that might help shed some light on this I would love to know about it.

However, one thing I did fully understand was a simple sentence Job uttered to his friend.  A sentence I have been tempted to say to others many times in life.  "If only you would shut up and let that be your wisdom."  Sometimes shutting up is the best thing you can do.  If you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all.  There is a reason this phrase is uttered by everyone everywhere.  

Words can bring the most comfort in the midst of the darkest times, but they can also be a hammer that drives the nails in deeper.  Watch your words, don't say them just for the sake of saying them.  Sometimes, wisdom comes from silence, and just standing closely by.

Romans 15-16, 1 Corinthians 1-5

Paul can straight write a closing paragraph.  "Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept silent for long age but now revealed and made known"...  He gives you strength through the gospel, this mystery that His people had been waiting for for so long that has now been revealed through Christ.  To Him, and his amazingly sovereign, encompassing plan, to Him be the glory.

And now Paul begins the next letter, this time to the Corinthians, urging them to be united under the one true Gospel, reminding them that we are all under Jesus, not the one who happens to be telling you about him.  How often we honor the messenger instead of the One his message is about.  It's difficult at times because people we can understand and much of God is a mystery, but we are managers of that beautiful mystery, those plans that God has ordained and omnisciently pieced together.  Honor Him, not others.  Learn that we can not add to what has been said, "NOTHING beyond what is written."

But you have to look carefully at what is written.  Though the Word can be applied to many parts of your life, there is only one Truth that can be extracted from it.  I learned this week that I might have been told, taught, or thought, I'm not sure which, a meaning from scripture that wasn't exactly right.  

In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, Paul says, (my paraphrasing) I wrote to you to not associate with sexually immoral, greedy, idolatress people BUT I did not mean immoral people of the world (non-believers); otherwise you would have to leave the world (because there are so many you wouldn't be able to do anything or go anywhere).  I actually wrote to not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister who is doing these things.

We are warned to stay away from the "bad" kids, "bad" people of the world.  Yes, there is a need to be careful and show wisdom, but we can not cocoon ourselves from the world, we are to enter into the world and show Truth.  THIS is being like Jesus.