Philippians 4

4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.
5 Let your moderation (gentleness) be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be anxious about nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7 (KJV & NKJV)


We know verse four pretty well, as well as verse six. How often do we follow their injunctions, though? I've been pretty anxious about things recently... I haven't spent enough time letting my requests, desires, and concerns be made known to God, and I certainly haven't been rejoicing in all this. Paul and Silas sang while they were in prison - how were they able to do this? Because they knew that they were being held in God's hands and no matter what trials they endured it would all be to His glory and for their ultimate good. I don't think God would have opened the gates of the prison with an earthquake if Paul and Silas had been quaking in fear, and not trusting in God.


Also, I am to be known for my gentleness (v. 5), rather than for harshness or callousness. I can do this because the Lord is always at hand, and he will change my heart if I but ask.


I need to spend less time worrying, and more time praying and giving thanks to God for His blessings and His care for me. Only then will God work mightily in my behalf. He can't answer the prayer never prayed.


And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep my heart and mind through Christ Jesus.

Prayer

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

Truth in Christ and through Christ is measureless. The student of Scripture looks, as it were, into a fountain that deepens and broadens as he gazes into its depths. Not in this life shall we comprehend the mystery of God's love in giving His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The work of our Redeemer on this earth is and ever will be a subject that will put to the stretch our highest imagination. Man may tax every mental power in the endeavor to fathom this mystery, but his mind will become faint and weary. The most diligent searcher will see before him a boundless, shoreless sea.
The truth as it is in Jesus can be experienced, but never explained. Its height and breadth and depth pass our knowledge. We may task our imagination to the utmost, and then we shall see only dimly the outlines of a love that is unexplainable, that is as high as heaven, but that stooped to the earth to stamp the image of God on all mankind. COL 128, 129


I want to know more about God's love, to be rooted and grounded in it... and to be filled with it so I can have His love for everyone around me, because my love is imperfect and selfish.

Deut. 6

⁴Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

 ⁵And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

 ⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

 ⁷And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

 ⁸And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

 ⁹And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

We must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness - that is seek to allow Christ to live in us and be our Righteousness - and then everything else will be taken care of. (Matt. 6:33)

Deuteronomy!

I've finally gotten to Deuteronomy!
Ali and I have been reading on our own, so as to catch up a bit, since reading out loud is somewhat slower, and we both have to have time to do it. I must say, I think Deuteronomy will be a bit easier to get through than Leviticus and Numbers...

Behind

We're behind. Majorly behind. It's terrible, awful, irresponsible. But, can you blame us? We're university students trying to keep up with our studies and homework and also attempting to read through the Bible in a year. And we're stuck in Numbers. I have to say, I'm getting very tired of Moses' writing style. Repetitions anyone? In my opinion, Moses could have seriously edited down his writing for more conciseness. He definitely could have used a couple English classes like Expository Writing and Creative Writing. But things could be worse. We could still be back in Leviticus. That's where we started getting stuck. Somehow we managed to finish that book and move on to the fourth book of law, and for that I am truly grateful. Anyway, here's the thing. Jonathan and I are on Numbers 13 (supposed to be read for Feb. 28) when we should be reading Deuteronomy 30 for today. So we might try a new tactic. On days that we can't manage to find time to read the chapters together, we'll read them separately and then blog about what we found surprising or interesting or uplifting, etc. We need to update this blog more often anyway. So that's our current plan for staying on track when we're too busy to read together out loud. We'll let you know how it's working in a week or two.

State of the Dead discovery

Job still isn't my favourite book but I am getting more out of it than the last time I read it. In today's reading (Job 14-16) I discovered that the book of Job talks about death as a sleep (Job 14: 10-12). I never realized that before. I still wish that Job had been written more as a story and less as poetic dialogue, petitions, and prayers but I'm doing my best to try to gain something from each reading.

Have to do a better Job

It's only the fourth day of our reading-the-Bible-in-a-year resolution and I've already messed up. Last night I opened my Bible to Genesis 12 and read the four chapters I thought I was supposed to read for January 4 plus an extra one because I got to the part about Hagar and Ishmael and couldn't just stop without reading that chapter, too. I didn't actually go check to make sure it was the right reading for the day, but just started where Jonathan and I had left off the day before and read five chapters, which I assumed was more than the allotted reading for the day. I was feeling pretty good about how well I have kept up with this project so far and mentioned to Jonathan this evening that I'd even done a little extra reading in Genesis last night. "Ali, the reading for yesterday was the first five chapters of Job," he set me straight. "Job? Already? Man, here I thought I was ahead and now I find out that not only am I behind by a day's reading, but I already have to start the book of Job?" I questioned, watching him nod as I finished my mini-rant.

I've read Job once. Several years ago, likely when I was still in high school, I read the book in one sitting when I decided to read through several books of the Bible on a Sabbath afternoon. I wasn't impressed with much of the book after the first two chapters. This time around I'm going to try to keep a more open mind so I can learn from Job's conversations with God and the dialogue between Job and his three friends. Besides Job was included in the Bible so that must mean there's something (probably a lot of things) I can gain from my second time reading through the book.