Well, in the past week, I've been experiencing a lot of things with God and I have a LOT to write about, so I'm going to split it up into several different posts so it's not too overwhelming. The first thing is this: We're now onto the second leg of our 1 Corinthians project. This week is all about kindness (but remember patience, too!). It's all about asking God to transform us and make us kind, so that we could learn a little more about learning to love other people the way that He does. If you have any cool stories about how God is helping you learn, we would love to hear them! It's really important to have a sense of community with other people when you're growing closer to God, because then you not only have Him to talk to, you can also talk to other people who are going through some of the same things as you. Also, it is SO encouraging to hear other people's stories of transformation. For me, it really reassures me beyond a shadow of a doubt that God's spirit is out there and moving among us.
Another thing that came out of this past week was my quest to read an entire gospel in one sitting. I actually have a funny story about how that happened: I picked an afternoon with lots of time, and just as I sat down to read, my dad came upstairs and told me that we needed to weed the yard. Let me first say that weeding and I aren't exactly friends. In other words, weeding sucks. But then I remembered that I have a Bible app on my iPod, and that it has a feature where you can listen to it like an audio book. Let me just put it this way, weeding gets a whole lot better while you're having the Gospel of Mark read to you by a guy with a really deep voice; not to mention the fact that there was some awesome background music going on. All joking aside, I think I found the solution to doing mindless work that I really don't want to do.
Also, hearing Mark read to me gave me a completely different take on the story. Because that's what it is... a story. When you're reading the Bible yourself, you have time to think, reflect and study what Jesus is saying, or Paul's idea of love, or even that Psalm that always helps you through troubled times. But having the Gospel read to me made it a whole lot more like a really awesome story. Well, after I finished weeding, I went back inside and picked up where my iPod had left off and finished the whole story of Jesus (according to Mark) in one sitting.
Now let's back up and talk about where I got this idea. Last week, I was sitting in church and my pastor started to tell the story about how a seminary student was challenged to read a Gospel cover to cover in one sitting, and about how the man immediately fell back in love with Jesus all over again. He had been so caught up in the study of the Bible and learning how to be a Pastor that Jesus had kind of left the equation. But one small step later, he was back in love. How cool is that? Well, I decided to try it-- which is the reason why I was reading Mark in the first place.
It was amazing. Jesus was so much more real to me than he ever had been, and I realized how genius He really is. I fell in love with the fact that he told parables to really relate to the people he was telling them to, but them left them with no explanation. When his disciples asked him what they meant, he seemed genuinely surprised. "You don't understand?!". It was really charming to me. :) Here are some of the other teachings that really affected me as I was reading.
The first was when Jairus sought Jesus out to ask Him to heal his dying daughter. Now this is cool, because Jairus was one of the head honchos in the synagogue, and he took a complete leap of faith and trusted this guy he had seen perform miracles, but was supposed to hate. Jesus went with Jairus immediately, but got stopped by a crowd. In the midst of the bumping and jostling, He felt a woman touch his cloak out of faith that it would heal her. He stopped te entire crowd and after asking who touched His cloak, told the woman that her faith had healed her. (Which is an amazing story in itself) Well, just after then, some of Jairus's men found him and told him that it was too late-- that his daughter had died, and moreover that he should stop bothering Jesus. To which Jesus simply replied,
"Don't be afraid; just believe" Mark 5:36
Wow, right? That's what I thought. If I could just live by this, I would be so much better off. Don't be afraid, just believe. 5 words and Jesus had left me speechless! The next little snippet was when Jesus was being questioned by the Pharisees, who were desperately trying to prove that Jesus wasn't really the son of God, just off his rocker. They told him if he was really the Son of God, He could provide a sign from heaven to prove it. Then Jesus said,
"Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it." Mark 8:12
This is really hit me. Now that we have Jesus, we don't need God to make it rain for 40 days to prove that He is there. We can just open up our Bibles and see that. Does that make sense? We have the same proof just like they do, it's just written down. So why are there still times that we ask God to move mountains, when all he wants us to do is sit down and read the Bible so that He can move our hearts? The last verse that I really appreciated was Mark 10:15:
"I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it."
I love this verse. Children are, almost by definition, innocent. They also love stories and fairytales. These fairytales, while magical and whimsical, are untrue--but children adore these stories of fairies and magic and flying. On the same token, they are just as prepared to believe that Peter Pan flew as they are to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. And with their innocence, they believe with a gusto that we as (doubtful and over-analytical) adults should envy. What if we could believe like they do? Without any doubt in our minds that Jesus is real and that He loves us more than we ever know. According to Jesus, if we do this, we will surely go to Heaven. More specifically, if we don't try our hardest to believe with the trusting innocence of a child, we won't have eternal life with our Maker. This convicts me and comforts me at the same time. I don't have to analyze. I don't have to think or reflect or study. I just have to love God like He loves me and give him the absolute, unwavering faith that He deserves and I will get to spend a beautiful eternity with Him. Isn't that awesome?!
What do you think? I'd love to hear from you!
God, watch over your children as we take the next step into learning how to love your sons ans daughters more like you do. Remind us that Jesus's story was real and amazing and that He really, truly gave his LIFE for us. Convict our hearts, God, and help us to love you with our lives. God, make our lives one big showcase for the beauty that is your artistry and love. Father, help us to believe, just believe. You are so amazing, Father. We love you!!
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