October 14, 2017

Greetings My Friend,

For me, I read both the OT and NT studying and learning much from both, sometimes I even see how both Testaments help me understand God on a deeper level. Each year as I read through the Bible I begin to see even how Revelation's is being taught in the OT, this year my study has me reading Ezekiel and Revelation at the same time and I am amazed how the OT lines up with the NT perfectly. I even see how today's Christian's have followed the same path as the Israelite's did in the OT, Ezekiel states "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed the difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." God is upset that the priests aren't even doing the things Moses taught them, they aren't even teaching what Moses taught them. I see that many Pastor's and Minister's today are not teaching God's whole Word, love and judgement. We all know that God loves us, wants our best and basically God is a warm fuzzy God. What we do not understand is that God is also a God of judgement and He teaches us those things He will judge, many teachers of the Word of God teach God won't call us into account. When I get to Revelation I read, "And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up; and it shall make thy bell bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey." I reread that last line a few times and pondered it, what I am learning is that the Word of God is sweet as honey but it can be bitter if we choose to live, teach against the Word. After thinking on this I came to the conclusion I also need to know God's Word fully, read it daily, study it for myself with no Bible study aid other than the study Bible. I ask the Holy Spirit to help me learn God's truth by helping me to "hear" God's voice as I read and study it. In so doing I begin to see the similarities between the OT and the NT., that Jesus and the Apostle's taught from the OT and that we as Christian's are following the same pitfall's the Jewish people of old fell into. I even see for me anyway how my life has followed much the same path that those in the OT walked. God took Abraham and began teaching Him to follow although Abraham had to learn to trust God, right from the start of the Jewish nation I see my steps of learning to walk with God much the same. Later we were given the 10 commandments and I honestly have broken them myself, even though I have not murdered people, I have murdered their self esteem with very unkind and cruel words. I also believe the only way I can begin to follow the 10 commandments is with the Holy Spirit's guidance and the 10 commandment's are as relevant today as they were when Moses gave them. Recently I was speaking with a fairly new believer who thought only the NT was necessary to get into heaven, and it could be although I found the OT helpful in teaching about how to know that you know Jesus when He returns. I wanted to use the pass over illustration in the OT of how I will know Jesus and not choose a false Jesus to follow when He returns. God will have a mark on the believers then they will be taken up. I have once again decided that I will study both the NT and OT again next year because it makes sense to me, if God wrote the whole Word of God then I need to read the whole Word of God. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet