Live in His Word

Lately, I've been really diving into the Old Testament and something that's been standing out to me is when God reveals himself as Yahweh in Exodus. In Exodus 3, God tells Moses "I am that I am" and in verses 14-15, He says "I Am Who I Am" in Hebrew, 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh. This wordplay is like God is saying that the one who promises to be with Moses is also the one who sends him. Later, God shortens this to simply "I Am," which is translated as Yahweh in some versions. God tells Moses that this is the name he wants to be known by forever. Yahweh represents God's character and reminds us that He is a personal God. In chapter 6, Yahweh speaks to Moses again and gives him 7 "I will" statements. These statements were specific to the Israelites at that time, but since Yahweh's name is forever, we can also learn about His character and apply it to our own lives. The 7 "I am" statements are: I will bring you out of ...

As we read through the New Testament it is so easy to look at the Pharisees and judge how manipulative and self-righteous they were. It seems like all they did was follow Jesus around trying to trap and discredit him. I read about them and think of how angry they must have always felt and how sad their lives must have been. As quick and easy as it is to judge them I can look around at our world today and realize that there are so many similarities- especially in the Church. God's goal was for the Jews then, and the Christians now, to focus on Him and have a right relationship with Him. As Christians, our focus should never be so set on being right that we forget to be righteous. The Pharisees were so focused on proving that they were right and Jesus was wrong that their focus was completely off of the God they claimed to serve and completely on themselves. They no longer cared what the truth was, they only cared about their interpretation of the truth, and they would do, believe, a...

  We read about the parable of a hidden treasure and a pearl of great value. Where the people sold everything they had to buy the treasure. In my study on these parables, I read two different interpretations that I found interesting. The most common interpretation discussed is that these parables do not mean that we can buy our way into heaven. It is that the treasure is the Kingdom of Heaven and the value is so great that it is worth more than any earthly thing. Everything else that we could have fades in comparison to that treasure and we should be willing to give up everything for the Kingdom of Heaven. The second interpretation was that we are the treasure. Jesus sees us and our value and He gave up everything He had to save us and purchase us with His blood. He gave up everything even to the point of His own life because he found us valuable and worthy. Both are very thought-provoking! To think of ourselves as a treasure worth Jesus giving His life for. It causes me to pause ...

  Do you ever feel like you are unimportant? Worthless? That everyone else has a much greater calling than you do? In Acts, we read how the church was growing so large that the apostles could no longer handle everything that needed doing. They ended up having 7 others come alongside them to help them so that they could contribute to studying and preaching. The people who joined them were in charge of making sure things ran smoothly and that everyone was getting their needs met. It could seem like the apostles' job was the most important, but as I read this I realize that wasn't the case. Acts 6:7 starts with the word "so". That tells us that what is coming next is the effect of what happened before. It says, "so God's message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased...". We all have a part to play. There is not a single gift that God has given you that is wasted in the body of Christ. You NEED to use your gift to help increase the b...

  God is in control. I hear people say that all the time. I know that it is meant to make us feel better, but the way it is used sometimes makes me cringe a little. People say it so flippantly I wonder if they really stop to think about it and if they really mean it when they say it, and what it implies to people who want to believe in God, but aren't sure if they do. I want to challenge us to dig a little deeper into this thought of God being in control by asking a few questions. Is God in control of your life? REALLY in control? Is He in control of everything you do? Do you have free will, or does he make you do the things He wants you to do? Is God in control of everything you watch on t.v.? Would you be watching everything you watch if you thought of the fact that God sees you and is in control? Would He have turned it to that show? Is He in control of everything you put in your mouth? (ouch, just stepped on my own toes). Is He in control of everything that comes OUT of your mo...

 Today is not a normal blog post for me, but this is what is on my heart. Today is September 11th.  So many people today are talking about how they want to remember what it was like on September 12th. The day people drew together. The day people put differences aside and remembered what was important. Why did we do this? We were hurting, fearful, facing the unknown. So what did we do? We put aside our differences and were there for each other. We had a common "enemy" so we banded together. I can't help but think of life right now. So many are so desperately hurting. So many are facing so much unknown. Facing doubts and fears. And what are we doing? We are making each other the enemy. Instead of banding together we are biting, hating, devouring each other. Why? Because we are convinced we are right. We feel it is more important that we are right and everyone knows it than to listen to each other, and understand the pain that each person is dealing with. What kind of world ...

  Being present is very difficult in the world we live in. We may be physically present, but so often we are not emotionally or mentally present wherever we are. We get so busy trying to accomplish everything we think we have to do, that we are always thinking of the next thing. Or we might be overwhelmed and stressed so we check out and play with our devices. To be present we have to be intentional. When we are so busy it is also easy to forget to be present in the presence of God. We say we want God’s presence, but we need to stop and really ask ourselves if this is true. I have heard the statement many times, “Are you seeking God’s presents or His presence?” When it comes to God’s presence, we so often want what we think He should give us more than we want Him. We want our needs met, we want our sicknesses healed, we want freedom from bondage, we want to escape hell- but do we really want Him for who He is? Do we want Him as a genie who grants our wishes, or do we want Him as ou...

  Facebook memories can be such an interesting thing. It can help you to see things that have been important to you over time.  So many of my memories that have popped up from the last several years have been about wisdom. Verses about wisdom, talking about my desire for wisdom, etc. The older I have gotten and the more I have been around various people, the more I have realized how much I do not know. I want wisdom to know how to handle the situations we are facing, how to handle the people I encounter- and disagree with at times and to know how to be the best me I can be. The book of James has much to say about wisdom. In chapter 1 verse 5 it says that if we need wisdom we should ask our generous God. He wants to give us wisdom. All too often we think that whatever our point of view is or what we believe is what wisdom is. We assume because we are Christians we must be right.  We believe that we know it all and we don’t have anything to learn, and if we do have somethin...

This week I have been working on teaching my students to be more proactive than reactive. I try and explain to them the importance of controlling themselves and their reactions to others. I talk to them about making sure they stop and think about what they should say and do before they act. It is funny how when you are teaching something, that seems to be an area that you begin to struggle even more. Over the last year and a half, I have found myself wanting to react so many times. When I see people say and do things I want to give my opinion and try and get people to understand why I am right. I want to join in the reactive conversations that cause hurt and pain to others as people vehemently declare their rightness and everyone else's wrongness. I have never in my life seen a time when people are so vicious and just downright rude to each other. It also breaks my heart when I see people try and use scriptures to back up their opinion, but use them completely out of context and th...

So many days life seems absolutely overwhelming. We often think after our current season of life it will get easier. Whether it is raising babies, stressful jobs, money issues, worries about health and COVID, or maybe it is all of them at once- life can feel overwhelming. When we think of being overwhelmed we often think of it in a negative way. We equate being overwhelmed with feeling like everything is too much to handle. I find myself here more often than I would like to admit. But in Isaiah 61:10 we see being overwhelmed in a different light. Isaiah says, “I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God!” The verse goes on to use imagery from a wedding to describe this feeling of overwhelming joy. When I go to a wedding I always love when the bride comes in, but I have a tendency to look at the groom while most everyone else is looking at the bride. One of my favorite parts of a wedding is to see the groom's reaction when he sees his beloved coming down the aisle. I love watchin...

 So often we try and make following God more difficult than it is. We think His ways are so mysterious and get frustrated when we don't know exactly what to do. This verse helps us to stop and look at what God wants from us. We are to do what is right. The Hebrew also translates what is just, what is proper or fitting. We can always look at the Bible and see things that we know are right or wrong. If it is gossiping it is wrong. Coveting- wrong. Sleeping with someone else's spouse- wrong. When we are trying to figure out what God wants we can be assured He wants us to do things that are right. Our conscience helps us to know if something is right, although it is possible to sear our conscience and convince it that what we want is what is right. Always go back to the Word.  We can also know that God wants us to love and show mercy. Mercy is lovingkindness, goodness, and pity. I think this is one that many Christians are getting wrong today. We are quick to say what we think is ...

  I shared a picture of something I wrote on a Facebook Group. It was a rather quick thing, I didn’t think much about it. I wrote down a quote on a sticky note from a speaker that really stuck out to me and put it on my board in front of me. I thought the quote was really good, so I took the picture and posted it. As of right now, it has almost 200 likes, which thoroughly surprised me (although it was a good quote). The funny thing is the more people that liked it the more I looked at the picture and was frustrated with myself that I didn’t write it cuter. I mean I love to write things in a cute way, and this I just wrote quickly and in black ink, not in my best handwriting, just put it on the paper. So I did this thing to try and encourage others and ended up being insecure because strangers, who don’t even know me, will see sloppy handwriting. So much of the time we do and say things because we want to be seen, we want to be known, and we want to be loved- yet more often than not...

  “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8 We have spent the last several weeks reminding ourselves that we need to be intentional in what we are thinking about. We have talked about fixing our minds- that we have to be active in this. No one is going to do it for us. We are thinking of things that are actually true, thinking correctly about ourselves, thinking of ways to treat others correctly, thinking on things lovely, and things that are of good report. This week we will focus on the last two words- excellent and worthy of praise.   I put these two words together because they are put together in a separate sentence in the Biblical text and because in a lot of ways they are connected. The word for excellent is arete, which means virtue or praise. The Strong’s Concordance definition sa...

Have you ever been around a person who is just negative ALL THE TIME? Everything they say to you is about how bad something is. They are quick to tell you all the things wrong with this world and everyone around you. Is this person you? Are you constantly telling yourself everything wrong with you, with those around you, focused on the difficult circumstances and events in your life? Philippians 4 tells us that we are to think about things that are of good report or some translations say worthy of praise.  I don’t know about you, but when I look at my thought life, unfortunately all too often my thoughts are not worthy of praise. They are more than likely about how annoyed I am, how tired I am, how much I have to get done this week, etc. As I scroll through Facebook, I find myself getting frustrated with people and wanting to let them know. I let myself dwell on things that are not of good report. This isn’t what God wants for us. What does he want? A good report. When we look at t...

  I love to be surrounded by lovely things. I think as women we tend to want to surround ourselves with things that we see as lovely. I had a friend who could see the lovely in everything. She would write and tell me how lovely the sky was that morning. She would witness the birth of a baby animal and see it as lovely. We all find things that we see as lovely, and they may not all be the same things. If you haven’t guessed by now, our word that we are focusing on this week is lovely. In the Aramaic translation, it says precious. So we are to be thinking thoughts that are lovely and precious. All of the things I mentioned are things that we see around us and things we might think are precious or lovely. Did you know that God thinks of thoughts that are precious and lovely too? In Psalm 139 we find what God thinks about as precious, and you know what he is thinking about? Us!   Psalm 139:13-19 says, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my m...