Sesame St Time (Leviticus)

When I jumped into this I knew I would need some kind of routine or the blogging would never happen. I'm definitely a routine kinda gal. I try to go with flow, but I find things just go more smoothly if I have a routine. So every morning, I let Rebecca watch Sesame St from 9-10am. I grab a cup of coffee and my Bible and sit down to post about what I learned during my study time the night before. I try to limit myself to that one hour, but I've been slipping into the first part of Dragon Tales. Hopefully today, I can get it done before Sesame St is over because I have so much to do.

Last night was dedicated to Leviticus. Wow! There's a book for you...not many juicy stories to get wrapped up in. Leviticus is basically a law book full of dos and don'ts. In the commentary, my Bible calls it a procedural manual for getting along with a holy and powerful God. I only had one verse from Leviticus in my notes...

Leviticus 19:18

¹⁸ " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

That's a tough one isn't it? Before accepting Christ into my life, I had three people that I was holding big grudges against. I would fume and seethe over the ways they crossed me. After a message about grace, I realized I could not ask for the forgiveness that Jesus offers and not be willing to forgive those who have wronged me. Over the following weeks, God worked on my heart and I was able to let those grudges go. Do you know who benefited from that? Not the people I forgave because they weren't aware of all the bitterness I was harboring against them. No, the person that benefited was me. Those grudges were a burden that I was carrying and it felt good to to let that burden go.

I don't want to come across as though I never struggle with this anymore. I still get my feelings hurt and then spend way too much time dwelling on that hurt. But now when that happens, I take that burden to the Lord and ask Him to help me show others the grace that He has so generously shown me.

Gotta go...Sesame St.'s over or as Rebecca would say Elmosover ;)

Exodus

I'm afraid I didn't get very far in my study time last night. I just could not keep my eyes open after getting up at 4am to go to the gym. In order to stay on track, I want to provide a couple of verses that our pastor gave us from the book of Exodus and the messages that God has for us in these verses...

Exodus 2:24-25

²⁴ God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

When we are in pain, when we are struggling, when we feel alone, whatever we are going through in life, God wants us to cry out to Him and He wants us to know that He hears us. We are never alone in our difficulties if we will just give them to Jesus.

Exodus 20:2-3

² "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³ "You shall have no other gods before ^a]">[a] me.

This one seems easy. Most of us don't think we worship other gods, but when we realize that other gods are anything that compete with our affection or divert our attention from the one true God, then most of us would be guilty of this. Great relationships with our spouses, children and friends are important, but they should not be put ahead of our relationship with our heavenly father. In our culture it is very easy to be distracted by making money, obtaining material possessions, achieving the perfect jeans size... I could go on and on. God's message in the verse above is: Do not let these things take your attention away from pursuing an intimate relationship with Him.

I struggle with this every day. I have a desire to be all things to all people, but what I need to be is what God wants me to be and in order to know what that is, my focus has to be on Him.

Genesis Cont'

Last night I crawled into bed with my Bible ready to, at the very least, read the rest of the verses in Genesis that our pastor gave us. I started with...


Genesis 3:15

¹⁵ And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring ^a]">[a] and hers;
he will crush ^b]">[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel."

In this verse God is speaking to the serpent. This is the first mention of the coming Messiah.

The next verse in my notes was the promise that God made to Abraham...

Genesis 12:2-3

² "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

³ I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."

but I never got there. I got wrapped up in other stories: Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, Rebekah and Leah. I started to feel guilty for getting off task, but then I remembered what our pastor said Sunday about hoping to get people to spend more time reading their Bibles...so far, so good. As I read these stories, I was thinking; "Wow...and I thought I was messed up." These people I was reading about had some major problems and flaws of character, but then I remembered something else I have learned: God used and still uses flawed people to do His work. I am encouraged when I read about men and women with struggles and weaknesses being used for God's purposes.

I did finally tear myself away from these intriguing stories and skip ahead to the verse where Joseph is talking to his brothers who sold him into slavery. He does not hold a grudge against his brothers because God used his misfortune to benefit many.

Genesis 50:20

²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

The message here is that God will use our trials and painful struggles for the good in our and other people's lives. So when we ask why do bad things happen to good people, we need to trust God and think of Joseph.

In the beginning...

Before I jump in here, I have to confess that I am making up the rules as I go along. In my previous post I said I would post about what I feel God is revealing to me when I study the verses that our pastor talks about. That is still the plan, but I also want to share key points that our pastor spells out for us so that any readers that don't go to our church may also benefit from his knowledge and understanding. I invite any readers that do go to HCC to leave a comment and share any key points that I miss because I will surely miss many and I believe we can all gain something from learning more about the messages that God has for us. So here we go...

Genesis 1:1

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Our church believes in creationism. If you don't, our pastor recommends the book, Darwin on Trial by Phillip Johnson, a law professor at UC-Berkeley. Have any of you read it? What did you think?

Genesis 1:31

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.


From these two verses we learn that God created our beautiful planet and it pleased him.

Genesis 1:27

²⁷ So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

God created us in his image and I think because this is so, we are able to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of our glorious planet. Think about it: When was the last time you saw a dog stopped in his tracks to admire a sunset, a field of wild flowers, a rainbow... Whenever I see a mass of blue morning glories, my natural reaction is to pray and thank God. I have had this reaction for years, even when I wasn't pursuing a relationship with my heavenly father. Where did that reaction come from? I think the above verses answer that question. So, I thank my loving God for creating this planet full of amazing beauty and wonders and for my ability to enjoy it.

I would love to know...what in God's creation stops you in your tracks and causes you to give praise?

This is so exciting!

Today at church our pastor began a 12 week series called TXT MSG. It will be a study of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation featuring particular messages, from each book, that God has for us. Being new to Bible study, I am really excited about this. Our pastor is so good at laying things out in a way that brings clarity and encourages application.

Abigail and I are doing a Bible study together and the other night we learned that God uses the Bible to speak to us. Through this amazing book, He encourages, comforts, instructs and makes promises to us. I can't wait to hear all that He has to say to me.

So this is my goal: I want to study the verses that our pastor speaks about and then post about any aha moments or things that God reveals to me personally. In order for this to work, I will have to push aside my perfectionist nature because time will not allow me to spend hours on each post. So bear with me if my upcoming posts seem even more random, unorganized or chaotic than normal. Still, I welcome any and all input. Let me know what you are thinking or what God is revealing to you when you read His word.

Finally, I want to leave you with this: During the month of April, in our Sunday school class, we have been teaching our preschoolers that Jesus loves them and wants to be their best friend forever. Today we learned that Jesus wants us to share this with everyone we know. So...

Jesus loves you and He wants to be your best friend forever!

Isn't that awesome?!?!?

Where is your heart?

At this time last year I was training for the Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon. I had just run my first half marathon 4 months ago in Dallas and was looking forward to the OKC Half. On the drive back to Amarillo, after the race, the girls that I run with and I were already talking about running it again in 2009. When it came time to start training again, I just could not get motivated. 10 mile training runs are hard for me when I am motivated, but they are excruciating when I'm not. I was having a conversation with my dad and I told him that my heart just wasn't in it. He asked what my heart is in.

Right now my heart is in being Abigail and Rebecca's mom. I am so painfully aware of just how fast they are growing up and I want to make the most of these precious years when they want to spend time with their mom/mommy.

My heart is also in developing my relationship with God. You see, we weren't created to just believe in God. He wants us to get to know Him, learn His ways and love what He loves. I feel like I have recently made some significant strides in that direction, but I still have a very long way to go. So I guess you could say that my heart is not in running long distances right now, but in walking...
walking with my God.