07.20.07
journey…
Well I’ve started a journey. I desperately want to read through the Bible. The whole thing… not in just little sections but the whole thing. Well I started maybe a year ago and I thought that I would go through just a little at a time just jotting down my thoughts and notes about everything I read. But that was difficult for me to do and I constantly forgot about it. So Wednesday morning I sat down and just finished Genesis. Thursday morning I started Exodus and I continued in Exodus this morning. I find I’m reading much more of the story and understanding how all the little things I knew fit together in the big picture. I think I’m retaining more this way too. I like finding the passages that I’ve never read before too… there seems to always be one stuck in the midst of a story that somehow is always glanced over. Today’s glanced over passage is:
Exodus 4:24-26 “At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah (Moses’ wife) took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. ‘Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,’ she said. So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said ‘bridegroom of blood,’ referring to circumcision.)”
So yeah when I read that I said to myself “What the crap?” because it’s surrounded by verses telling of Moses going back to Egypt and God telling Aaron to go to Moses in the wilderness. And these 3 verses come in between.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary says God’s anger was out of the sin Moses comitted by not having his son circumcised.
So hear starts my journey of reading through the Bible.
07.09.07
back…
Well I can hardly believe that I just got back from Orlando today…
Happy Highlights:
Our kids smiling faces at The Magic Kingdom (despite their exhaustion)…
The first song of the conference “Rain Down” by Delirious
Seeing our kids really digging God this week…
Seeing our kids love worship with a passion…
Seeing my Sarah…
Meeting Mike…
Hearing Francis Chan speak…
Meeting Trace and Becca Bundy…
Starting each morning with “Wake Up” by The Swift
Seeing a room of 7500 youth sacrificially giving $114,000 to Project 132
http://www.life2007.org/project132/
Seeing friends from Jersey and having time to chill with them…
Finding PSU Football buddies…
Four of our girls committing to missions in their future…
Old Skool despite his grossness…
Coming home and driving through the hills of PA…
Not So Happy Highlights:
Starting the trip out sick…
Spending a full night on the bus (twice)…
The bus all around…
The hotel, without free internet or a continental breakfast…
The craziness of the schedule, not nearly enough time to do everything…
The rain every evening around dinner time…
Not enough 3-D for my $1 glasses…
I think my happy highlights outweigh the not so happy ones… all in all it was a great trip. The kids worked hard to get to Orlando, they deserved an awesome week and I think they got it! You can check out some of our groups pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9622555@N07/
03.30.07
day 5…
So I’ve been reading in Genesis lately. I’m awful with the Old Testament… so I’ve been trying to read through it and put down my questions. I was reading the other day about Isaac and my questions follow…
Did Isaac know that his dad, Abraham, had lied about his wife, Sarah, the same way Isaac does to Abimelech about his own wife Rebekah? If Abraham had told him about it I assume he would have told him the outcome and that hey I should of just told them she was my wife… wouldn’t Isaac have learned that? And if Abraham hadn’t told his son about those incidents how crazy is it that Isaac would repeat the steps of his father. Were these two men so fearful for there own lives that they had to lie about their wives? What about the possibilities of what would happen to Sarah or Rebekah? I feel like they were very selfish in their actions.
Now about Isaac and Rebekah favoring their sons… Isaac loves Esau and Rebekah loves Jacob. First of all Esau is so famished that he sells his birth right to Jacob… I hope that boy was on his last breath before death to have sold his birthright. Second… the blessing. Isaac has ONE blessing to bestow upon his son… his favorite… Esau. This is even though Esau has married two Hittite women that have brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah, still Isaac wants to bless Esau. Rebekah decides that Jacob should get the blessing so sends him in instead of Esau for it. Ok I know Isaacs eye sight was going bad so wouldn’t he trust his hearing a bit more? If the voice sounds like Jacob… then it’s probably Jacob! Wouldn’t hearing a different sons voice throw up a red flag to Isaac? And then as he blesses Jacob, Isaac never says a name, just “my son”.
I know all of this happened because the Lord wanted it to happen this way. But it just amazes me. The Lord told Rebekah that the older will serve the younger. It just amazes me the way it played out. I wonder how it would have worked without Rebekah and Jacob’s deception… was the deception needed or would God have worked things so that Jacob would have received the blessing anyway?
Just my thoughts… I’m not desperate for answers… I’m ok with not knowing answers… I was just pondering.
03.14.07
beautiful days…
I’m loving the weather right now. Is there anywhere in America that it stays in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s year round? because that’s where I want to be… but only for the weather. I’d rather be near friends and family though and have the more drastic weather then be in my perfect climate. Plus I do always love the first snowfall, the leaves on the ground during fall and the green green grass of spring and summer.
Thunderstorms are supposed to be rolling in this afternoon/evening which really excites me. I love thunderstorms. I love the color of the sky, the clouds, the lightning and the loud thunder rolling. One of my favorite memories of camp was from a Jr High camp in P-II at Hartman Center. I woke up in the middle of the night to a huge thunderstorm. Now mind you I was in an A frame which is basically a wooden tent in the shape of the capital letter A with 2 canvas flaps in the front and 2 canvas flaps in the back with probably 7 Jr High girls. The girls didn’t make a sound, I don’t even know if they woke up… but this thunderstorm was amazing. It sounded like someone had sheets of metal outside the a frame and were just shaking them for a constant 15 minutes. It was loud and powerful and just amazing. I loved it.
Thunderstorms remind me of the amazing power and might of God. He has all control and I feel so comforted during those storms because I know what He is capable of and I know how much He loves me. Isn’t it always comforting when you have the love and protection of someone big and strong. So that’s why I love thunderstorms, it’s a huge reminder for me of who God is.
