Its all about the details

Leviticus 9:7 – 10:20, Mark 4:26 - 5:20, Psalm 37:30-40, Proverbs 10:6-7 

Something New:

While I was reading another familiar story today, where Jesus calms the sea I noticed detail that I hadn’t before.  I noticed that the writer (in this case Mark) goes to the effort to really set the scene he tells you that Jesus is asleep with his head on a cushion.  I the grand scheme of things I don’t the cushion sentence is really needed, but it is a bit of detail that just helps the story that little bit more real and I like it.

Something I don’t understand:

Why the God is so venge full in the Old Testament.  The wrath of God is seen all the time, with people being ‘smited’ left, right and centre. But this God just seems so different from the God I know from New Testament times and from my own life now.  I guess the only explanation is the effect of sin.  Sin really does keep us away from God and while it is there God can never just show his love because he also needs to be justice.  All I can say is thank goodness that Jesus died on the cross so that to God I look blameless.

 

“Even the wind and waves obey him! Mark 4:41b”  

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Seeds and Side Notes

Leviticus 7:28 – 9:6, Mark 3:31 - 4:25, Psalm 37:12-29, Proverbs 10:5  

Something New:

The Parable of the seeds is one that I have read a number of times, you know the one about the farmer who plants seeds on all kinds of different soils, and all fail to survive except the ones that fall on the God soil.  These seeds are a metaphor for people who hear the word of God and take hold of it and then produce Godly fruit.  While I was reading it two things dawned on me:

The seeds in the good soil produce a harvest, it may only be small or it could be massive but it is still a harvest.

And… Just because you fall in good soil doesn’t mean that you stay in good soil.  It is possible to let the weeds in other gardens strangle you or for you to pull your roots up and therefore to wither and die.  It is also possible that if a seed in good soil isn’t watered or doesn’t get the nutrients it needs it will also die.  I guess what I am trying to say is that just because a seed falls in good soil, or just because we hear God’s word and listen and take hold it doesn’t mean that or future is guaranteed, we still need to be watered and feed and to do that we need to stay in the word and pray.   

Something I don’t understand:

While I understand the answer that Jesus gives in Mark 3:33ish I am not sure why he answers it that way.  So guy comes up to him and says isn’t that your mother and brother and he says…anyone who does God’s will is my brother, sister or mother.  I just don’t understand why he doesn’t say yes they are but… I think that it is weird that he just blows them off and I am not sure why he does it. 

Something else:

I find it interesting that Jesus mentions as almost a side note that the harder we listen the more understanding we get.  Even though he says it at the end and its kind of common sense I never thought of is applying to the bible, but it does.  The closer we look in and the more eager we are to learn the more God will reveal to us…makes sense but its still pretty cool.

“The Lord directs the steps of the godly.  He delights in every detail of their lives. ²⁴Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds their hand. Psalm 37:23-24”  

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Free from Sin

Leviticus 6:1 - 7:27, Mark 3:7-30, Psalm 37:1-11, Proverbs 10:3-4

I was going to try and set a standard format for my blog, I was kind of hoping to go with a “something new, something I don’t understand and something funny” kind of approach, but it turns out that not going to work, well not all the time anyway.  So for the first little while I will just have to play around a little until I find my grove...

Something New:
Ok, well it’s not really a new idea, but while I was reading Leviticus I was reminded by how lucky I am that my sins are just forgiven. Today’s Leviticus reading was all about the offerings that had to made to cleanse sin, it gives every detail about what needs to be done to repay the debt with people and then how to prepare an offering that is pleasing to God so that you can be forgiven by him as well and I tell you what I am soooo very glad that we don’t have to do that anymore. I am so blessed to live in “AD” time, where all I need is to believe in Jesus and my sins are forgiven.

Sometimes I worry that I will sin or do something dumb and that I will forget to ask for forgiveness and that the sin will be held against me, but its not like that at all! Jesus is much bigger than that and he has already forgiven me once and for all so now all I need to do is keep living free in Him because I am not bound by sin and intense forgiveness rituals.  I am Free 

Something I don’t understand:
Having said that, there is a verse from the Mark reading (conveniently also about sin) that I don’t get and its this one:
“but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences. Mark 3:29”
I don’t know what this sin is or what makes it worse than the rest, but I would like to know because it is a pretty scary thought that there is something that you can do that is unforgivable even by God.

Something else:
Today I was lucky enough to be fill in Junior Soldier Sergeant this morning and we were looking at Doctrine 4, so I just thought I would chuck it in here as a bit of a bonus…

“We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the divine and human natures are united. So that he is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.”

Verse of the Day
“The Lord will not let the godly go hungry, but he refuses to satisfy the craving of the wicked. Proverbs 10:3”

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Back to the Begining...

So here’s the thing…often I have come back to this blog and looked at it longingly wishing that it were something more…I guess I got tired of amusingly whinging about things so I have decided like so many other people to make use my blog to keep me accountable to my own devotions

The theory is that if I have to post something every day and someone out there might actually check I need to keep doing it…so with the help of my new mac and my bible of course I am going to give it a crack….

At the moment I am trying to read the bible in a year (but its going pretty badly, hence the call for backup) so basically my blog will be just something about what I have read during the day…there might be a common format, I am not really sure yet...but I guess we will find out…

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