October 19, 2017

Greetings My Friend,

When I was a new believer of Jesus, Junior taught me to read the entire Bible through starting from Genesis to Revelation. The first year or two as I read through the whole Bible I began to feel that the Bible was a love letter from God. In the last few years I have started to see that the OT seems to relate to my life before meeting Jesus. When God called Abraham to go from Ur to the land of Canaan, God was starting a relationship with Abraham and his descendants and this relationship was taking them from the natural world to the spiritual world because God is Spirit. The fall of Adam and Eve broke that close relationship, the longer humans lived the further from God they became. Junior and I were talking recently about the reason why we read both Testaments and it came to us that in the OT we learn discipline, to trust and obey God not man. We see all the times Israel followed God and things went well and times they walked away from God then life for them became difficult. God would warn the Israelite's time and time again finally they had to be brought back in line and the wrath of God was on them. To our eyes and ears today it sounds like God was nothing but wrath when you read about all the Israelite's endured, from being slaves of the Egyptians, to being deported to Babaylon. We don't seem to notice the years that Israel followed God how well their lives went. In the wilderness for 40 years the people of Israel did not worry about food or water, their clothes did not wear out etc. Also God showed His mighty power with the 10 plagues of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, had water come out of a rock and so many more miracles but the people forgot the minute a new trial came along. The people even sinned in the desert by making a golden calf when Moses took too long coming off of the mountain. I tell myself over and over, " I would have remembered to trust God", except when I dig deep into my heart, I would have forgotten the things God did for me as well. I do it even now, which irritate's me. A few years into my faith journey I started to see that the OT is much like my life before Jesus came into my heart. I believed in God, but did not believe God which meant that a few times as I drew a bit closer to Him, I would "hear" him only to get caught up in another life struggle and try to figure out how to do life on my own. Much like God taught Abraham to trust Him when he went from one country to another and kept telling Sara to tell the kings that he was her brother, because they sort of were sister and brother. Up until God had Moses lead Israel out of Egypt and gave the 10 commandments people were allowed to marry their sister's and brother's . God was teaching His people about discipline and pointing them toward their spiritual nature. Our God is a loving God and a God who discipline's those He loves. Today's Christian's seem to think God does not call us into account for our sins, He will and we see this in Revelation, along with some of Jesus' teachings like " Depart from me for I never knew you." Heaven is not an automatic in, it is easier to get into hell than heaven. The basic lesson I take from the whole Bible is to "Love God with all your strength, with all your mind and with all your heart. The second is love your neighbor as yourself." I focus on "with all your heart," each day I get up, choose to follow God again that day. I start my day in the Word, not a devotional but the actual Word of God. I ask the Holy Spirit to open my heart to God's voice and to teach me the lesson God wants me to learn. The more I enter into this relationship the more I can do a heart check to see if I am closer to God or further from Him. If I don't feel His presence in my heart then I need to pray asking God to point out the sin I have in me and then I ask God to help me walk away from that sin. A side note, when I don't feel God is close in my heart, I am the one who walked away, God has not left me. These heart checks help me stay close to God and frankly I know that I know that I am walking with God, I am saved and I won't hear "Depart from me I never knew you", instead I will hear, "Well done my faithful servant." May God bless you and keep you, make His face shine on you. Love Janet