Perspectives on Understanding

Dear Reader,

I'm sure you can offer questions that I couldn't possibly answer about why God does certain things or what some stories in the Bible mean for us now. But I think we too often give up when someone can't explain something to us. Whatever happened to good old fashioned gumption? Haha. Just because we are confused by something and seem to not have an answer doesn't mean that the answer doesn't exist. I well know what it is to want to ignore something if it doesn't make sense. Sometimes professors can't tell me what is actually happening during a chemical reaction or explain why a certain calculation happens to work to give us the right answer. That doesn't mean I'm supposed to just accept it and move on or ignore it and stop using it. The best professors will tell you, when no one seems to have an answer, that's when you don't give up. That's when you start looking, ask questions, find new resources. You can figure it out. The same is true with the Bible and God. If you don't understand something and friends, a preacher, no one can explain it to you. That's when you take a step back, tell God you don't understand but you want to. It may take days, months, even years to understand something or God may choose that you do not understand something. I won't lie to you. He may ask the unthinkable, that you take something on faith ;) But if you seek the truth, you will find truth and/or peace. Some of the greatest moments in my walk with God have been, not when I understood something I was struggling with, but when I found that I had gained peace about not knowing something. When I realized I didn't need to know that particular thing at that moment and it was okay. God is still perfect, with knowledge far beyond mine. I am still human, with an infinite amount to learn. And that's okay. As a matter of fact, that is wonderful. Even though I don't understand, I serve a God who does! And I keep seeking Him above all. Seeking His truth and His answers. Finding blessing in the very fact that He allows us to question Him. "Who am I, that I should try to answer God or even reason with Him?" Job 9:14. But Job goes ahead and has his words with God! God sets him straight in the end, but He let Job speak. We serve that same God. Just try to grasp the intensity of that...I don't think I am quite able to. It's one reason Life is such and Adventure!

Blessings <3

Treasures of the Old Testament

It has been nearly a year since I have posted a blog. What was intended to be a summer project each year ended up being only one summer. But seeing as how I'm a poor, struggling college kid I am hoping that there will  be some understanding offered up to me :) I have been trying to read through the Bible this year. Every time I attempt it, I can never get through the Old Testament. This year, however, God has granted me such grace and insight to some really beautiful verses in the Old Testament. Take, for example, Deuteronomy 4:7. It says, "What nation is there so great, who has a God so near to them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?" Our God is near to us in all that we do, He is involved in our life and concerned about our wants, needs, and desires. No other religion can claim that!

I do not know how well I will be able to keep up with it, but my plan is to share with you every so often some of the wonderful verses of the Old Testament. It is often said that the "God of the Old Testament" seems very different from the "God of the New Testament." But I can tell you that it is the same God who wrote each one! It is the same God who shows justice and wrath in the Old Testament who requires an ultimate sacrifice for humanity's sins in the New Testament. It is the same God who grants forgiveness and guidance in the Old Testament who offers His very own son for our forgiveness and supplies the Holy Spirit for our guidance in the New.