I currently have 7 children. They range in age from a baby to a 13 year old. Only one of them has been enrolled in school since they moved because of spring break and other issues. In other words they were home all day today. I am borderline insane right now. If this blog does not mesh together or make sense. I will blame it on that. For those of you who were reading the "journaling" I was doing. I haven't stopped, I just haven't been typing them up. When you read through the gospels...some of it is repetitive..actually most of it is. I didn't want to blog the same stuff over and over. If I have some great epiphany, I will relay it.
I have been struggling with connecting the OT and the NT. Very confused over the differences in the wrathful God of the OT and my loving Jesus of the NT. I know why the switch happened...because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, but it still can all be hard to wrap your head around. Slavery, women held at a low standard, death and murder in mass amounts....that is hard to grasp. So I started asking God to show me the connection. I discussed it with my trusty accountability partner who just happened to be struggling with some of it too. She began questioning God on the matter. We both believe that God wants us to ask Him tough questions. If you want to know God intimately, you have to find out what He feels about certain things and why He feels that way. He slowly started revealing things to me. I do not understand it all nor can I put it all together in a nice neat package. I am still confused on issues and will still ask Him about them until He chooses to reveal them to me. That may be this side of Heaven, but it may not be. I am okay with either but I won't stop searching for the answers. I believe in God's sovereignty but I do not believe that is supposed to be my excuse to not ask him "Why?" I get tickled when I hear people say that Job never questioned God when he faced his multiple tragedies. Have you read the book of Job? I have several times. In it he asks God that if he has sinned to please show him, but he personally cannot think of where he sinned to cause it all and does not understand it. He doesn't blame God, but I believe he questions him and wants things to be revealed to him all through the book. Just my take on it. I do not think God gets mad when we question Him. I think He is probably tickled that we care enough to want open dialogue with Him. Anywho...back to the answers I have gotten. The first one came in my study of Nehemiah by Kelly Minter. In Nehemiah chapter 3 they are listing who all worked on rebuilding the wall. Verse 12 drops a bomb when it says that Shallum, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired, he and his DAUGHTERS. The commentary in her study says that many believe that many women worked on the rebuilding of the wall. His daughters were listed because he had no sons. Did ya'll get that? Old testament. And the women were allowed to pick up hammers right beside the men. They got to be active in something that was important to them, their families, and their God. Then Kelly leads you on back into the the beginning of the OT, in to Numbers chapter 27. In this passage, a man died without any sons and the land was going to be given to male relatives instead of his daughters. They went before Moses(props to these women for having the guts to try and change something that they did not believe was right!) and asked him to allow the daughters to get the land if they promised to keep it in the family. AND GOD TOOK THEIR SIDE! He said that they were right, and that they should be given the land. God was showing me that he valued women even in the OT.
Another connection this week has been with the Passover. Ya'll, the Passover makes me wish I was Jewish. I wish we celebrate in almost to the splendor that we do Easter. The miracle that was Passover and the symbolism in it makes me want to shout. I watched The Bible series(some people want to complain about the 'details' being messed up...I am just praising Jesus that a cable network put this out there for MILLIONS to see. I doubt God is mad at the fact that it wasn't perfectly scriptural, I bet He will go right ahead and start working on those seeds that were planted) and the scenes of Moses before Pharaoh, the plagues, and finally those scenes of the Passover...oh my...it moved me so. I wanted to be Jewish so bad after watching that just so I could celebrate that miracle. We as Christians don't tend to put a lot of significance on Passover. About that time in my Nehemiah study(like 2 days to be exact) Kelly lead us to look at our connection with the Israelites who were rebuilding the wall in Nehemiah. She took us to Isaiah 43:1-7 and then pointed out that through the death of Christ we are now considered the chosen people and are spiritually speaking a part of Israel. And yall, when I realized that God had let me see that on TV and then read this part I got flat out excited. God is so good. He will put things together right like it should be in His own time. I now have this whole new connection with the Jews. It took all I had to not try to throw a Passover party. I wish I had Jewish friends. That is the OT and the NT coming together in beautiful glory.
I am still struggling with some ideals. I think that is good. I will never have full understanding this side of Heaven and I okay to just continue learning as He leads. When God does reveal things to you it is just so much fun. Gets me teary-eyed, wanting to shout, and if I could holy dance I probably would! My challenge to you is to cry out to Him. Ask him those tough questions that you don't understand but want to oh so badly. He is the God who hears and He still communicates with His children. I am proof of that.
I have been struggling with connecting the OT and the NT. Very confused over the differences in the wrathful God of the OT and my loving Jesus of the NT. I know why the switch happened...because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, but it still can all be hard to wrap your head around. Slavery, women held at a low standard, death and murder in mass amounts....that is hard to grasp. So I started asking God to show me the connection. I discussed it with my trusty accountability partner who just happened to be struggling with some of it too. She began questioning God on the matter. We both believe that God wants us to ask Him tough questions. If you want to know God intimately, you have to find out what He feels about certain things and why He feels that way. He slowly started revealing things to me. I do not understand it all nor can I put it all together in a nice neat package. I am still confused on issues and will still ask Him about them until He chooses to reveal them to me. That may be this side of Heaven, but it may not be. I am okay with either but I won't stop searching for the answers. I believe in God's sovereignty but I do not believe that is supposed to be my excuse to not ask him "Why?" I get tickled when I hear people say that Job never questioned God when he faced his multiple tragedies. Have you read the book of Job? I have several times. In it he asks God that if he has sinned to please show him, but he personally cannot think of where he sinned to cause it all and does not understand it. He doesn't blame God, but I believe he questions him and wants things to be revealed to him all through the book. Just my take on it. I do not think God gets mad when we question Him. I think He is probably tickled that we care enough to want open dialogue with Him. Anywho...back to the answers I have gotten. The first one came in my study of Nehemiah by Kelly Minter. In Nehemiah chapter 3 they are listing who all worked on rebuilding the wall. Verse 12 drops a bomb when it says that Shallum, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired, he and his DAUGHTERS. The commentary in her study says that many believe that many women worked on the rebuilding of the wall. His daughters were listed because he had no sons. Did ya'll get that? Old testament. And the women were allowed to pick up hammers right beside the men. They got to be active in something that was important to them, their families, and their God. Then Kelly leads you on back into the the beginning of the OT, in to Numbers chapter 27. In this passage, a man died without any sons and the land was going to be given to male relatives instead of his daughters. They went before Moses(props to these women for having the guts to try and change something that they did not believe was right!) and asked him to allow the daughters to get the land if they promised to keep it in the family. AND GOD TOOK THEIR SIDE! He said that they were right, and that they should be given the land. God was showing me that he valued women even in the OT.
Another connection this week has been with the Passover. Ya'll, the Passover makes me wish I was Jewish. I wish we celebrate in almost to the splendor that we do Easter. The miracle that was Passover and the symbolism in it makes me want to shout. I watched The Bible series(some people want to complain about the 'details' being messed up...I am just praising Jesus that a cable network put this out there for MILLIONS to see. I doubt God is mad at the fact that it wasn't perfectly scriptural, I bet He will go right ahead and start working on those seeds that were planted) and the scenes of Moses before Pharaoh, the plagues, and finally those scenes of the Passover...oh my...it moved me so. I wanted to be Jewish so bad after watching that just so I could celebrate that miracle. We as Christians don't tend to put a lot of significance on Passover. About that time in my Nehemiah study(like 2 days to be exact) Kelly lead us to look at our connection with the Israelites who were rebuilding the wall in Nehemiah. She took us to Isaiah 43:1-7 and then pointed out that through the death of Christ we are now considered the chosen people and are spiritually speaking a part of Israel. And yall, when I realized that God had let me see that on TV and then read this part I got flat out excited. God is so good. He will put things together right like it should be in His own time. I now have this whole new connection with the Jews. It took all I had to not try to throw a Passover party. I wish I had Jewish friends. That is the OT and the NT coming together in beautiful glory.
I am still struggling with some ideals. I think that is good. I will never have full understanding this side of Heaven and I okay to just continue learning as He leads. When God does reveal things to you it is just so much fun. Gets me teary-eyed, wanting to shout, and if I could holy dance I probably would! My challenge to you is to cry out to Him. Ask him those tough questions that you don't understand but want to oh so badly. He is the God who hears and He still communicates with His children. I am proof of that.
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