Day 173: From Sovereign to Accepted Sovereignty: Daniel 1-4

King Nebuchadnezzar's journey serves as an illustration of what steps a non-believer goes through to come to accept God's sovereignty. At first ole' Nebby demands an impossible test to prove wisdom (Daniel must know both the dream and its meaning). He acknowledges afterwards that their God must be God of Gods, but he's still not willing to get rid of the other "gods" or allow God's sovereignty to work in his life. He still wants to be in control and sees the faith of Daniel's friends as ridiculous. Notice he refers to God as "their" god, existing, but belonging to someone else. One step up from Atheist, but still far from true faith. Next time Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, he turns again to Daniel but tells him the dream and only asks for the interpretation. He's no longer testing Daniel and his god and is seeking the wisdom he's seen proven before, but he still doesn't have a personal relationship with God. It's not until later when King Nebby is stripped of everything that he is made to see that God alone is worthy of praise and honor. Finally, at the end of chapter four, Nebuchadnezzar honors and praises God himself because he's been made a very real presence in his own life. He's now longer watching from the sidelines either in jest or intellectual admiration.

Day 171-172: Entrusting: 2 Timothy

Three times in two chapters, Paul uses the word "entrusted" in three different relationship settings. It causes me to ask myself the following questions (for which I have no answers):

1. What have I entrusted to God for Him to guard?
2. What has been entrusted to me that I should guard?
3. What should I entrust to others and how do I know that they are reliable and qualified to take care of that which I entrust?

Of all of these guardian relationships (me to God,God to me, me to others), the one I on first instinct find the most difficult is the third one. It is easy to acknowledge that when I don't entrust things to God, it is not because He has some weakness in Him but that I have an issue that I need to work on. But entrusting to other weak humans is a different story. In that circumstance, you do run the risk of having the person you've trusted let you down. Yet we are called to let them in on the work God has called us to do. And if we aren't doing all three of these things listed above well, are we doing any of them well?

Day 167-170: The Beauty of Being Sick: Hosea & John 5-9

In Hosea, God says when His people are in misery, "They will seek my face.", but in chapter 7 after they've been restored, they return to their sins. This pattern is repeated all throughout the old testament. In John 5, the lame and sick waiting at the pool of Betheseda get an encounter with Jesus and are healed. But if they had not been lame and sick, they wouldn't have had reason to be at the pool in the first place and would have missed out on meeting their Savior. In John 9 Jesus explains that the blind man he heals was made blind in the first place "so that the work of God may be displayed in his life." I know I long for a comfort and easy life free from trouble, but if I was granted that wish, would it really be good for me? It seems that perhaps instead of praying for God to deliver us from our difficulties, we should ask for more. If it is only when I'm hurting that I seek my Healer, may I always hurt.

Day 163-166: Jesus is My Brother: John 1-4 and Hebrews 1-7

I've never thought of Jesus as my brother before. High Priest (Heb. 4:14)? Yes. Son of God? Yes. But brother? That seems almost disrespectful. Yes, I know that I'm God's child and Jesus is God's son, but the direct connection between what that would mean for Jesus and me was never made (maybe I thought of myself as a half sister or a step sister). Yet Hebrews tells us that Jesus is not ashamed to call those of us who have received his salvation his brothers (and sisters). I know that for me, one of the best things about having siblings is that you have someone who can relate to you from a unique perspective the way no one else can. You have someone who understands the foundations upon which your personality was built because he/she was built upon those same foundations (and is probably also going through therapy to recover from said foundations!)Jesus has also experienced everything we have experienced and can therefore relate to us. We share the same Heavenly Father who has adopted us into the family. It makes me think about my relationship with God in a different light, for if he is willing to include us as one of his own children and Jesus Christ is willing to accept us as his sibling, how can you not be amazed and feel gloriously and graciously loved!

Day 162: The Past, Present and Future : Titus

It has been almost five months since I lasted posted here. Guess I now know the expiration date of my new year's resolution! I have been reading, but not always writing. Blame it on getting bogged down in Numbers and Leviticus (hard to come up with something new to say about chapters and chapters of rules about sheep or list of geneologies). Or just blame it on sheer laziness. But I'm back and will try to catch up on as much as possible before the new year rolls round.
In Titus, Paul reminds us of how we once were before the love of God appeared in our lives (foolish, disobedient, enslaved) while also reminding us of how we ought to live our lives now as examples to others still looking for God's love to appear. The past, the present, and the future all come together and each gives meaning to the other. It's easy for me to forget sometimes the difference in my life before God and after. It is also just as easy for me to forget that there are reasons to stay faithful that extend beyond just improving my own spiritual relationship. And most importantly of all, who we were and who we are now are nothing compared to who we will be in the future that God has planned for us!

Day 160-61: Leviticus 16-21: A New View of the Sabbath

In Leviticus, God gives Moses a command about the Sabbath (don't do any work on it), but more interestingly He also gives the reason why, revealing a truth about God that I needed to be reminded of. God says for the people to rest and not work on the Sabbath because on that day atonement was being made for them. God was at work cleansing them from sins and if they worked too, it would deny grace. The picture here of faith, not works is set in the midst of a long list of do's and don'ts that speak more of legalism than love, but nevertheless, God wants a visual reminder for the people that despite all that they do to try and please God, ultimately only God can cleanse them.
Do we sometimes deny God the opportunity to cleanse us because we'e too busy working for our own atonement?

Day 158&159: Col. 1-4: A Group Effort

It struck me while reading Colossians just how much of a group effort Christianity was considered in the early church. Paul writes letters telling them of how he and others are praying for them, how their struggles are his struggles, and he gives them instructions on how to live a holy life that seem to imply that all the members of the church will be holding each other accountable. We don't have much of that now. We seem to approach our faith as a very individual, personal act that shouldn't be interfered with by others. Paul compares our lives before Christ as being alienated from God (v. 21), but now after Christ we are brought together, united with God and fellow believers as the body of Christ. I wish I could experience the kind of 1st century church that Paul writes to today in the 21st century.