Tag Archives: god

Writing Prompts

Bible Study

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

I can answer this one very easily.

The practice of reading, and learning what I just read about is the one thing I’ve recently done to improve my life.

In fact, I can say with honesty now that I am hungry for the Word of God. I would not feel complete if I didn’t start my day with Bible study. I truly feel that I am not only talking the talk but walking the walk, so to say. I not only read the words, I study them. They are explained to me in detailed lessons so I’m retaining the meaning and have a new understanding.

The only thing left is to find ways to serve. I can pray for others, and loved ones, but I am not active in fellowship with the church except to attend so far. Since I am not a member, nor can I become one at this moment in time, I will have to serve Him in other ways. I count my sharing of the message weekly on my blog, but is that enough? It is a work in progress. Living on the road presents it’s own unique challenges that I will have to work through. Maybe I can find or start Bible study groups at the various RV resorts we go to.

I believe that prayer works, I have seen the proof in some interactions within my family unit.

So those are the ways that daily Bible Study has begun to improve my life. I’m an organized person, and function all together better when things are organized. You know, a place for everything and everything in its place. Morning Bible study has its place at the very beginning of my day and I’m learning, albeit slowly, how to pray so I can have a closer relationship with God.

Yesterday, I had to be at an appointment very early in the morning, so when I got home was when I had to do my study. You just fit it in when and where you can if your normal time gets interrupted. Personal prayer time with God is whenever I can find quiet moments throughout the day.

I want the same for everyone. I want to shout it from the mountain tops that the only way to gain salvation is through a personal relationship with God. If only this message could reach every person on Earth, it would truly save the world.

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Writing Prompts

The Sunday Message

Have you ever found yourself in what you considered an impossible situation? Well, that’s what today’s message is all about.

Making the Impossible Possible

This is the story of the Feeding of the 5,000.

In John 6: 1-15 we learned that at one time, Jesus and His disciples were presented with a problem. They had gathered quite a following, and needed to be fed. The disciples were exhausted themselves, yet Jesus told them to feed all of these people.

They didn’t know what to do, and they hadn’t yet put their full faith in the Lord, even after all the miracles they had already witnessed, so they fretted, and worried about it, and asked Jesus how they were supposed to do it and He told them to sit and rest. Andrew showed Jesus a boy with a small amount of food, which was nice, but he knew it wouldn’t feed everybody, so he told Jesus that it still wasn’t a solution.

Then money was suggested by Phillip, even though they had none, so that wouldn’t work either. What were they to do? Well, they were supposed to turn it to Jesus, after telling Him, “We know this is an impossible situation, but we are putting our faith in you that you will help us solve it.” So when Jesus told them to sit and rest, he was showing them that He was about to take care of it and He knew they were also hungry and exhausted.

The miracle he then performed was to turn that three loaves of bread and two fish into so much food, that everyone ate their fill and even had leftovers, which Jesus told them to gather up so nothing would go to waste. This is the only miracle that’s found in all four gospels.

The message that I get from this lesson and so many more is that you cannot do anything on your own. You must have faith in God that He will somehow provide. You thank Him for what you do have and trust him to help you find a solution for what you don’t.

Thank you for being here to listen to my interpretation of the Sunday Message! I appreciate each and every one of you, have a blessed Sunday and a great week!

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Writing Prompts

A-Z Challenge Theology

T is for Theology, or the study of the nature of God and religious truth including rational inquiry into religious questions.

In Wikipedia, the first thing it says before diving into the explanation is, “Not to be confused with Religious studies.” Boy, now I really appreciate that.

You might have guessed this is where I’d be going today, however-when I opened the lesson today on How to Study the Bible, I did not realize what I’d be getting!

For one, it’s a two day -hour long each session, taught by a Jewish professor, who is hard at first to understand until you listen for a while.

Second, it’s not easy to follow, since I wasn’t planning on becoming a professor myself! In other words, I’ve bitten off way more than I can chew -at least in a couple of sittings. I could barely even take notes because it wasn’t clear-cut conversation the way I’m used to it being.

Now that isn’t to say I’m giving up, I just realize now the need for Bible study classes since interpreting the Bible with all of its symbols, chasms of time, doctrines, and literal vs symbolic meaning would take me years and a library of books to understand.

An interesting point the professor made today was how shelves of books that were written concerning the timing of The Rapture are now all out of date, because, quite simply, The Rapture is not a dateable event!

What I thought I’d be learning was more of a guide on how to read the Bible, not how to study it. And since I won’t be here ( at least in Texas) long enough to get involved in a real classroom setting, I will have to look for a way to do online study.

I think what would suit me more is something like a daily devotional along with related verses plus Bible study, which is much different than say, rising, saying a prayer, and trying to read a passage or a chapter from the Bible. After all, I’m not going to seminary or college, I just want to learn more about the Bible and a proper way to read/ study it.

David has a chronological Bible. Maybe that is more like what I’m looking for?

I will listen to the second hour tomorrow, because now that I’ve been introduced and rather enjoy the professor’s sense of humor, I’m going to follow through.

The four points I learned about today would take an entire new post just to try and explain. Simply put though, he talked about these four things:

The Golden Rule of Interpretation

The Law of Double Referance

The Law of Recurrence

The Law of Context

I’ve decided that studying the Bible is a lot like peeling an onion. There’s a lot of layers there!

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Writing Prompts

The Sunday Message

Growing Your Faith in a World That Hates It

Today’s message was given at BCBC by Cody Montandon today. I’ve never seen this pastor deliver the message but I enjoyed it very much.

He started out by having us remember what it was like in school, wanting to hang out with the cool kids, or the popular crowd. We may or may not have liked the popular kids, but we wanted to be in that crowd.

He said, in today’s world, Jesus is not the cool kid. Have you ever noticed when you attempt to bring His name up in conversation, the room gets awkward?

Loving Jesus means that:

  1. The World is Going to Hate You. Yep, sorry, but it’s true. You will not be the popular kid in the crowd. Satan is trying to take over the world, and unfortunately, he is the cool kid. Don’t think so? Bring up Jesus at your next gathering and see what happens. But what does that mean? It means that loving Jesus and spreading His word is hard and it’s work. However:
  2. But Leaving the World is Not an Option. Because God still has plans for you and me. We can’t just sit around and wait to see what happens. Our job is to make sure we glorify God by spreading the message far and wide that the only way to Him is through Jesus. We need to pray every day that He reveals our purpose. God loves you even when you don’t yet know Him. And even when it’s hard:
  3. We are Called to be Faithful Anyway. We need to study his word and pray daily. But that’s not all. If the Bible doesn’t change you, it is worthless! We can study and becomes scholars but if we don’t glorify Him by sharing what we’ve learned with others in some way, we are not doing our job. In other words, we don’t get a ticket to heaven just because we know the Bible. We have to live like God wants us to. This is hard. It’s work. But if we practice daily and make it part of our lives, it will get easier. Lastly:
  4. A Faithful Life is Built Upon, and Maintained Through the Word of God. Once we are saved and accept Jesus we have justification to evangelize to others. Then we spread the truth of the gospel, giving us sanctification. “The sum of your word is truth.” Studying the word and spreading it to others provides the glorification of God.

The pastor said to attack your plan like you do when you are on a diet. The first day is the hardest. Making the decision to open your Bible and read for five minutes. Then daily, journal what you are praying for and how your prayers were answered. Then get others involved so you are kept accountable. And it grows and grows from there.

I need to do this more myself and I understand how hard it is when say, your partner or your friends aren’t exactly on the same page. That is the hard part of the work, and I struggle like everyone else in doing this. Be patient with me as I grow and learn.

Thanks for being here, thanks for reading and hopefully, you understand what I’m trying to convey.

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