My Journey Through The Message

I was a lil hesitant about Numbers, it’s not my favorite. So many rules and smiting…anyways, I’m in Numbers 16 right now. ugh!

So…I had kind of a hard time with Exodus. So many don’t and if you do you gonna die. I think I had trouble with it because I’m most comfortable with the image that God is love, God is grace-full, God is compassionate. There was very little of that in Exodus and the little I read of Leviticus indicates that it won’t get any better.

I’m challenged to ask God to allow me to accept who he is. All of him. I don’t think is ok, at all. But there is a reason that God put a book of rules in the Bible, and I pray that he reveal what he wants me to learn from this. 

Thanks Lord for loving me even when I don’t get it sometimes.

I only read one chapter today. Which works out fine, cause I left a 9 day buffer just in case days like this happen.

Here’s part of what I read:

I’m singing my heart out to God—what a victory! 
      He pitched horse and rider into the sea. 
   God is my strength, God is my song, 
      and, yes! God is my salvation. 
   This is the kind of God I have 
      and I’m telling the world! 
   This is the God of my father— 
      I’m spreading the news far and wide! 
   God is a fighter, 
      pure God, through and through. 
   Pharaoh’s chariots and army 
      he dumped in the sea, 
   The elite of his officers 
      he drowned in the Red Sea. 
   Wild ocean waters poured over them; 
      they sank like a rock in the deep blue sea. 
   Your strong right hand, God, shimmers with power

The reason I stopped today’s reading was because there was something career related that I had been putting off. Mostly because of fear. God’s been telling me just get started and stop being scared. But I’ve found myself being frozen with fear. As soon as I read chapter 15 (the song the Israelites sang after crossing the Red Sea) I knew I had to get up and stop being afraid. It’s amazing how much I got down on the energy I found in this song and God’s shimmery right hand.

Genesis finished off pretty nicely. The reading for today went by really quickly because I happen to love the Joseph story. (I also love how God throws in the story of Tamar posing as a prostitute to sleep with her father-in-law. You know, for good measure). 

But what really struck me was how Joseph was kind of a tool. He was a spoiled brat as a kid and he kept playing little vindictive games with his brothers when they came to Egypt. If I were in his shoes, I’d probably want to get revenge as well. I wonder if he planned it out in advance or if in the moment he got an idea for revenge, and just went with it. Whatever the case, I like that he was far from perfect. It spoke to the fact that God will protect his own even when they’re not perfect. What redeemed Joseph was that he was a very hard worker and he always gave the glory to God (i.e. when he was telling the meaning of dreams or when he was explaining to his brothers how God kept him safe)

Here’s what I learned:

• You can always come back from the lowest of the low. 
• Jesus loves the little spoiled brats.
• Always give God the glory.

After I read my Bible, it took me about two and a half hours to get out of bed this morning. I kept telling myself, it’s Sunday, it’s ok to stay in bed forever on a Sunday. But with so much to accomplish, I knew that the real reason I wasn’t getting out of bed was because I just didn’t want to face what I had to do during the day. 

God’s message about being afraid is pretty clear in Genesis. Don’t. A lot easier said then done, yes, but (being that I was pretty much paralyzed with fear) it gave me hope this morning knowing that God continually tells his people not to be afraid.

Abraham. Hagar. Isaac and countless others all got the same message: God is big. God has a plan. Whatever mountain you’re facing right now is surmountable. Don’t. Be. Afraid.

Ok, Lord… I believe.

Here’s what I learned: 

• Don’t be afraid.
• Don’t be afraid.
• Don’t be afraid.

I breezed through Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah’s nudity (I had forgotten that part!), the tower of Babel, and all those funny names like Nimrod and Diklah. 

But Abram caught my attention. This guy adopted his nephew, made a fortune in Egypt (by kinda pimping his wife), he beat a bunch of Kings in a war. 

Chapter 15 was the kicker. God came to Abram in a vision just to say, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be great.”

Then Abram pretty much tells God that His (God’s) rewards are worthless because he (Abram) has no heir to give them to. 

God reminds him of the promise He made two chapters ago to make Abram a great nation. God even takes him outside to count the stars just to drive the point home that when He promises something, no matter how unlikely or improbable it may seem, He always always always comes through.

I love verse 6, “And he believed! Believed God! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.”

Here’s what I learned:

• I don’t have to be afraid. God is my shield.
• I should appreciate the blessings I have now, even if there are still things I desire from God.
• God will go has gone to great lengths to tell me He loves me.
• When God promises something, he’ll come through. It’s apparent improbability is not my concern, God will handle that. 
• I just have to believe. Believe God. 

Ever since I was a teenager I’ve wanted to read through the Bible from cover to cover, in its entirety. For years I would start with Genesis 1 on January 1st, only to get lost somewhere in Leviticus.

As I was contemplating how quickly 2010 has gone by, I once again lamented the fact that another year had almost gone by and I hadn’t even tried to accomplish my goal of reading the Bible cover to cover. 

Recently, however, I remembered that my friend’s husband, had one time challenged himself to read the entire Bible in one month using Eugene Peterson’s The Message. He succeeded.

As of right now there are 83 days left until January 1st 2011. My goal is to read about 14-16 chapters of the Bible per day until January 1, 2011. 

If I miss a day, that’s ok. I’ll just keep going. But I really want to know what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to be a friend of God. I might as well listen to what He has to say. 

Plus… look at my pretty pink Bible!