Treasure-mapping The Bible

I'd like to start today's post with a little game I like to call "recite that verse." The object is to--you guessed it!--recite verses of The Bible from memory. Shall we?

Annnnddd...GO!

-John 3:16

-Jeremiah 29:11

-Romans 8:28

-Phillipians 4:13

-Proverbs 3:5

...How'd you do? Chances are, you recognized at least one of those verses. And I don't think it's a coincidence.

Something dawned on me yesterday. I'm beginning to notice a trend in Christian behavior. Now, I haven't done a thorough investigation on the issue, and I'm certainly no scholar, but it seems to me that people like parts of the Bible that say positive things. In particular, positive things geared toward ourselves.

Biblegateway.com listed the 100 most read bible verses on their website, and each of the five above were within the Top 10.

I'm not saying we shouldn't like those verses. Christ died on a cross so our hope could be restored. That is certainly something to celebrate. We should be ecstatic that there is promise in our future.

BUT...

As much as we delight in His promises, we should tremble under His commands.

I've noticed that many of us (and I am including myself) only like to quote the good stuff. We like to read about healing when we're sick, about hope when we're hopeless, about faith when we're doubtful, about plans to prosper when we feel defeated...

And suddenly--it's the strangest phenomenon--when all is well, we forget to keep reading.

I wonder how many people read Proverbs 13:3 or Proverbs 20:19 before they spread juicy gossip, or Exodus 20:12 before they tell their parents where to shove it.

If I had to guess, I'd say the only people quoting those verses on their Facebooks are the ones who are the subject of those verses--as in, you ARE the one being gossiped about or you ARE the parent who is not being honored.

Cases of the offender quoting those verses are very rare, I bet.

There's a logical explanation for all of this: WE ARE SELFISH!

It's human nature. We were born sinful. The desires of our hearts are naturally wicked. That's why we love to remind ourselves of all the wonderful things in our future, but hate to be bothered with what we have to do to achieve those things.

But here's the deal: If you want the reward, you have to work for it.

God didn't call us to be complacent, self-righteous takers. He called us to be passionate, selfless givers. And the only way we can spread truth into the world is to KNOW the truth.

Christianity is not a self-serving religion. The rewards of being a Christian outweigh any gift you could give yourself, but that is a side note. Christianity is not about YOU. It's about HIM. It's about honoring the sacrifice that was made for us.

So read all of the beautiful, uplifting scripture. God intended on it to be in The Bible just as much as the rest of it. He loves us. He wants us to be overjoyed in His promises. He wants us to know that He has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. But he also wants us to know the rest of it.

The Bible is The Bible for a reason, in its entirety. God's offering warning and commands so that we may have knowledge to advance in His kingdom. We're foolish to only read the "good stuff" because we are missing the parts that tell us how to achieve it.

So don't just read a verse today. Read a paragraph. Better yet, read a page or two.

Test Him

In Malachi 3:10, God challenges us. He tells us to test Him and see if He doesn't throw open the flood gates of heaven. Although that particular verse is about tithing, I think it applies to every area of our lives. If we would turn "that" area of our lives (whatever "that" area is for you), He would blow our minds. The question is, are we going to let Him?

After reading this verse last week, I read a devotional story in which this statement was made: "Nobody asks to be tested unless they know they'll pass."

I was floored by how much was revealed to me through scripture and devotion that day.

Yesterday at church, a guest pastor preached on Joshua and his prayer to make the sun stand still. It got me thinking "do we realize that we serve the very same God who made the sun stand still?" If we do, how do we justify the box we keep Him in?

I don't know about you, but I've never prayed for something that HUGE. Sure, I've prayed for healing, I've prayed for other's salvation, and, in a sense, that's all the same as God making the sun stand still. But do you trust Him to do all the things you WISH you could do for Him?

Ask yourself, "what would I do if I knew I could not fail?"

Whatever your answer, that should be your sun stand still prayer to God. Test Him. Give Him a chance to do something so mighty nobody will be able to deny it was the work of God, even the non-believers.

I'm not talking about magic tricks here. Like, if you would sprout wings and fly across the earth if you knew you couldn't fail, I'm not quite sure how that would glorify God. But ask ANYTHING according to His will, and He will do it. So why don't you test Him?

Give Him a worthy challenge. Prove how mighty you believe He is by giving Him a challenge so big you will have to rely on Him because you couldn't possibly achieve it on your own.

Do you believe you serve the God who made the sun stand still? Then prove it.

"God is God, and God is good."

www.newspring.cc/stories/zacsmith.
Zac Smith has since passed away.
Thanks for the reminder that God is still good, even in hard times.

i'm the spoiled child

Today is the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year, and that fact, along with the perfect amount of chill in the air to start the month off right, has made me feel invincible today.

I absolutely LOVE fall! I love the colors, the events, the weather...in heaven, I'm gonna keep my thermostat set to "fall" all year long! :)

It isn't just about fall though. October is the beginning of the holiday season. I know some of you don't consider Halloween one of the "major holidays" (I do, by the way), but you're going to be side-swiped by the holidays in November and December if you don't start prepping for them now.

Trust me--it happens to me every year.

Anyway, we've been doing this series at church called "The Blessed Life," which I really had no interest in originally. Call me selfish, but I wanted something that was applicable to ME, and given that I'm new in the career world and make entry level pay, I didn't really think I was in a position to live the blessed life financially, which was the primary emphasis of the series.

Thankfully, I started leading a small group that, coincidentally, began meeting after church during this series. If our group wasn't meeting on Sundays, I can honestly say I probably would not have even given this series a chance because it's just so far from where I am. If I wasn't LEADING the group, I'd probably have just bailed on church and the group during this series. (Allow me to digress to say I highly recommend joining a group for accountability purposes if your church offers them, or if you know someone who does).

I wish I could go into all the ways this series opened my eyes, but I don't think you all have 4 days to read this blog continuously, so I'll save that for my next post.

I'll say this though. I had a huge eye-opener during this series. It was like God was telling me to stop complaining about things if I wasn't going to use the resources He'd given me to change things.

That might not make sense to you, since you probably don't quite know what I was "complaining" about in my prayers, so I'll explain it this way: In school, most of us were given text books. We also had class time in which we were able to take notes while someone who had devoted years to learning the stuff taught it to us. We had classmates who were better in certain subjects than we were, and, if we chose, we could study with them. But, come test day, if you never cracked a book, took a note, or studied at home, you couldn't just raise your hand and ask the teacher for all the answers. If you did that, they'd probably say you deserved to fail because you had not utilized any of the resources that had been given to you.

Now, do you see the analogy I'm going for here? God gives us so many resources--The Bible being the biggie. We also have pastors and sermons, fellow Christians, prayer....

Okay, so back to the story...

Actually, before I get back to the story, I should also add that I'm not really "broke." I mean, I am not where I want to be financially, but I complain too much for what I have. I live alone in a brand new 2-story apartment and, by the grace of God, I've been paying for it without ever missing a meal. Furthermore, I've paid rent, had food on the table, AND I've never had to turn down a friend for dinner or a movie...AND I haven't robbed God to do it (meaning, I've still tithed).

I don't say any of that to brag. Just the opposite, actually. I say it to express how much of a spoiled brat I can be sometimes. I don't think I'm alone in that (although I certainly won't call you a brat!) So, as I complain in the next sentence or two, don't take it to heart. I am not in danger of being thrown out on the streets. I'm just a prime example of one of God's "spoiled children.

Ok, now, back to business...

Long story short, I ask God often to take control of my finances. When He gives me some very direct blessings, like, say, this financial series at church, I try to blow it off. Thankfully, I wasn't able to this time for the reasons I mentioned above. Last week was the end of the series, and everyone had the opportunity to sign up for a financial learning class that would take place later that week and be taught by a professional financial counselor.

My church offers these occassionally, and I never go because I don't have money to save or invest or do any of the things I assume they talk about. This time, though, I felt that pressure again from God--that "use your resources or stop complaining" pressure. So, I signed up, and I went (and it was free, by the way).

As it turned out, the guy become a financial advisor after years of living the life I'm living now and finally saying he'd had enough. Surprisingly, he gave extremely applicable advice because he understood my/their situation. (It was a seminar, so I wasn't the only one there). Secondly, he was no longer in that situation, so he obviously knew something we didn't. Lastly, he said financial counseling was what God called him to do, so how can you argue with that?

I have some really important learning experiences to share that have come from "The Blessed Life" series and from the Financial Learning Experience, but that's all for another time. My point of saying all of that is to say this: if you want the reward, you have to do the work.

Don't ask God to bless you when you haven't used the resources to receive it.

Oh, and that whole thing about the holidays approaching earlier, that's a little warning for all you financially unhappy people like me. The financial counselor gave great advice on how NOT to go break financing the holidays. He said "Plan for them to happen every year." Who knew? :)

Happy weekend, and thanks for reading my terribly inconsistent posts!