Acts 15, Psalms 37:8-20, Numbers 9-11

In Numbers.. it kinda showed me how people can be treated with things but never really be fully satisfied. The people were all sent away from Egypt and was led by Moses out into a place probably much less suffering compared to while they were at Egypt but they ended up just complaining after a while because they were being fed just manna. But even then God would listen to the people and understand Moses as he would put in the complaints from the people, and then sends them Quail... He always listens whether we want to just say something or if we need to complain.

God is Love.

Today Pastor Ben's sermon had a pretty good impact on me when i was listening to him. i mean.. it wasn't really things that i didn't know, but it was good to have some good encouragement and reassurance... it was really good for me to learn these kinds of things like God not just taking crap from us... but he continues to love us under any circumstances... and we just need to look towards Him and we would be able to go on knowing that He has a plan for what we have ahead of us.

Acts 12, Psalm 36, Numbers 4

For the longest time growing up in the church i always wondered what it would be like to be able to see angels... i didn't actually know what it would be like but i remember thinking back at DTS there was one teacher that talked about being able to see spirits.. it is a gift from God.. God probably gives it only to people that are going to be able to handle it.
In Numbers... God is splitting up people into different clans and gives them all the duty to guard the Tabernacle. He divided them into the Gershonite Clan and the Merarite Clan and they both had duties to work on the Tabernacle.

Acts 11, Psalm 35:11-28, Numbers 2-3

Acts is starting to become very interesting because although these were people that were with Jesus and they've seen everything that Jesus did... they were stopped after Jesus died and rose and went to Heaven... The Holy Spirit that is in these verses is the same one that is with us today... therefore we are able to do all the things that Peter was doing back then...we just need the faith.

Acts 10:23-48, Psalms 35:1-10, Numbers 1.

I didn't even notice that last reading was the end of Leviticus... there were so many things that i kinda couldn't see relevant but i think it turned out pretty well going through and i did learn at least things about culture. Although the book name changed though it doesn't seem like there is a big jump it just seems to continue on with Moses and what he is doing with Aaron to lead the people.
Acts is starting to become inspiring and discouraging at the same time i think... it shows that we as believers of Christ have the same capabilities as Peter or John as long as we stay in touch with the Holy Spirit... but i feel many times we can doubt the things that the Holy Spirit can do...but it feels good to know that these things are happening because i've seen things like this happen... to be baptized by the Holy Spirit and seeing people that have never spoken in other languages start to speak in tongue... it's pretty crazy at first but seeing what happens... the only explanation is the Holy Spirit... people will be baffled by seeing these kinds of things because they don't know the Holy Spirit... but then... when i first saw people speaking in tongues i was kinda surprised too... and even speaking in tongues when i do it, it still is pretty crazy... it is a great tool to communicate with God but i would say it isn't always necessary to use... people can be creeped out by it and it could draw non believers away and keep them away.. but at the right times it can be pretty powerful.

Acts 10:1-22, Psalm 34, Leviticus 26-27

I find it kinda hard to be able to say much about these verses right now... but just some that stuck out to me were...
Leviticus 26:7 "Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand! All your enemies will fall beneath your sword."
Psalm 34:2-3 "I will boast only in the LORD; let all who are helpless take heart. Com, let us tell of the LORD's greatness; let us exalt his name together.
Acts 10:11-15 "He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.'
'No, Lord,' Peter declared. 'I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.'
But the voice spoke again: 'Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.'
I kinda have a hard time just trying to talk much about anything i've read so far... but sometimes the Bible can just have its way just by the words i guess.

Acts 9, Proverbs 5, Leviticus 24-25

Sometimes i feel like i need to be reminded that making mistakes doesn't necessarily end the world... Acts 9 is a good example because it showed a man, Saul... who arrested and killed Christians... now i'm not saying i'm not any better than him though because I sin too. The thing is that Jesus ends up reaching out to Saul, and He tells Saul that what he is doing is wrong. By reading the scripture it shows that not soon after Jesus reaches out to Saul, Saul ends up becoming Jesus' instrument to go spread the gospel... this passage was kinda refreshing because i thought about myself and was thinking of how many times i've failed at so many different things..and how sometimes i give up even before starting.. i always need strength from Jesus and need to ask him what i need to be doing...

Acts 11:19-26, 13:1-3

I feel that is awesome to learn more about what Christianity is... Going through Acts in the Bible now and going through it with Pastor Ben on Sundays is really helping me to understand a little bit more on what it means to be a follower of Christ I am still kinda feeling things that I still need to learn, but it may just be that I need to learn them with other people other than myself... A lot of times I feel like reading everyday and trying to get into my relationship with God... I know that is very important but today we learned about how we should be learning together and how we should share our problems with others... We all human... We all make mistakes...

Ephesians 6:1-4

Well.. i thought of this today cuz of an argument with my mom. it was such a stupid reason but i felt that it was still serious because it just got to me... it started at work... i was doing dishes and my dad had to go out for a delivery... and so he told me to help out my mom while he was out.. so my first mistake was that i just continued to do dishes instead of helping my mom, and i continued because i did peek out and assumed that my mom was able to handle things by herself because it seemed rather slow anyway
but my mom told me to do something and i figured that she just wanted me to do it because she didnt want to... i felt that she was just kinda ordering me around, and so it kinda just elevated to an argument because the things she was asking me to do were so simple and i figured that i could be doing something else to get other work done. i just felt that she was telling me to do things without even realizing what i was doing.. just sometimes i felt that me helping out was under appreciated...
meh.. just rambling.. i just felt that Ephesians 6:1-4 was good for me because i was able to realize that whatever my parents make me do.. i should just respect it and go on.

Acts 8, Psalm 33:12-22, Leviticus 21-23

Acts 8 mentions the miracles that Stephen, Peter and John were doing through the Holy Spirit, and as people saw it they were pretty amazed... and Simon saw this and thought he was able to get this through worldly ways... verse 20 explains that you can't buy the Holy Spirit... and that also meaning you can't buy your way into heaven...
it might just be me but as i am reading through Leviticus... things start to become redundant to me.
i'm not sure but maybe there is something important here that i might need to know but i just haven't found it yet.

Acts 7:54-60, Psalm 33:1-11, Leviticus 19-20

Not to dog on the people that set up this plan.. but i wish they had put Acts 6 and 7 together in one day... but reading chapter 7 and seeing what kind of man Stephen was... and him just calmly being able to give up his life... that deserves respect, he's definitely someone who i would want to talk with if i ever got the chance to... well i guess there would be a lot more... probably every person that was mentioned... while in heaven though if there is all of eternity to talk i guess it would be awesome to talk with anyone that was mentioned in the bible.
In Leviticus there is a pretty big set of rules that are just being said... it's kinda hard to be able to know what is still wrong, i mean most of them are pretty clear on why they are wrong, but with Jesus coming in the New Testament i'm sure these are the rules that the Pharisees use and try to enforce on the people... then Jesus shows what is right and wrong... so like i said in the last post it's still something to do with the things that are in the Bible that are timely or timeless... how we should look at them and follow them...

Acts: 7:1-53, Psalm 32, Leviticus 16-18

So... Acts had recapped on Genesis a little bit on Abraham and Joseph that continued to go onto Moses... it was pretty much a way to prove a point from Steven to the high priests...
The verses in Leviticus... uhm...not sure what else to say about them... there are so many things that were covered in these few chapters, but i still am not seeing much that are relevant to today's life... i see certain things that may be interesting to their culture as it was developing as they were delivered from Egypt... but when i got to chapter 18 i saw the laws about sex...and a lot of those made a lot of sense when going through them because they were pretty in line to what was going on today... what was wrong in God's eyes back then are pretty much still wrong in American society and my POV... i'm pretty sure chapter 18 would be considered one of those "Timeless Truths" of the Bible... things that should still be relevant to today in our society and what is wrong back then... for me though... there are so many things that i hear that can be debatable on things that are timeless truths in the Bible... 

Acts 6, Psalm 31:9-24, Leviticus 14-15

Acts 6 shows the forming of a church... it shows people being put into leadership positions chosen by the people and the apostles. Seeing that they had so many different things that only one person wouldn't be able to do... they were able to divide responsibilities within the group of people. As these people were chosen, they were able to perform miracles and signs through God's grace and power. Then people reacted almost just like they reacted when they had seen Jesus and had arrested Stephen.
In Psalms... i'm not sure how he does it but David always seems to look toward God... if he isn't saying something to God he is saying something good about God... even in his hardest moments and his best moments so far.. Psalms does go on for a long time too... so far in Genesis and Exodus no one else seems to have the faith that David did...

Acts 5, Proverbs 4:20-27, Leviticus 12-13

Gah... things have been kinda hard... even with reading the Bible... i think school's been stressing me out a little bit... need prayer anyone reading... please and thank you.
Acts 5 is the story of Ananias, Ben went over the story a few weeks back and just remembering it that we should be careful with our words and with our actions... i don't know about us just straight up dying for doing something wrong, but we should still be careful and know that we shouldn't fool around when it comes to the Holy Spirit.
Leviticus 13 talks about skin diseases, and i'm not sure how people dealt with these skin diseases before but it just seems weird to me(like a lot of other things in the Old Testament.) that they have priests would look at these diseases... unless back in the day the priests and doctors would be one in the same(which i assume it probably is now that i think of it.)
another thing i've noticed a little bit earlier today is that as i am reading the bible... my knowledge seems to increase but i still feel like i am not getting the wisdom that i should be... i might just need to pray more upon it while i read but i've noticed that most of the time i read the bible i am just reading... i do get some good application sometimes but i just pray that i can get more knowledge AND wisdom as i read because if i read the whole bible and don't ever apply it then what's the good in that?
if anyone does read this... yeah..just pray for me please.. thanks.

Acts 3, Psalm 30, Leviticus 7-8

So... we went over this chapter in church about a month ago.. went back into my notes that i took during the sermon that day... We went through what Peter and John did with a beggar that was on the streets that was sick. Peter and John were pretty straightforward in what they were doing and they did not hesitate in speaking to the beggar and healing him.
I am still finding the New Testament portions more applicable to my life than the Old Testament... not that the Old Testament is boring.. which i don't think it is but i just feel like i can learn way more from the things in the New Testament. Like it just seems that this part is the instructions on what to do and The Old Testament is kind of a history rather than pertaining to life now. But Psalms seems to help out a lot because i've seen so many things written by David and how he was suffering and telling God that he was suffering and then praising God when he did.
I do suppose that there are a lot of parts that I haven't yet been through to say that about the Old Testament right now... because there are many references in The New Testament about the prophets that spoke things..so maybe i'm just not completely seeing everything yet..

Acts 2:14-47, Psalm 28-29, Leviticus 4-6

I can't seem to say this enough but ideal like Acts is such an exciting book.. Because it can be almost directly to us... The Holy Spirit, and just getting the word from people that had actually experienced Jesus and knew what He was like. Although we haven't been able to see Him physically... We always know that we can pray in His name and know that He will answer for us... And as there were people not understanding what Christianity was back then... There are the same people now not seeming to understand what it means to have a relationship. But not gonna lie... When the people are confused in Acts 2 when they were speaking in other tongues I kinda had the same feeling when I first saw/heard it... It was kinda weird... But as Peter got up and was able to explain this to them I was thinking on how much Bible knowledge I actually lacked... I mean it isn't only Bible knowledge that will get us to heaven, but it is a great way to get in a closer relationship with God and to be able to speak and spread with others. Just to see that Peter was able to immediately quote Joel as this was happening... That kinda got to me... The diciples must have known a lot from the Old Testament. This passage seems to be great for all of us because it is a good foundation for missionaries... A great way to get the word of Jesus out to people and show that what theynare doing now in this passage is what we should be doing everyday... I seem to lack in this because I feel like I don't know who to spread to and am kinda shy doing it still... I feel if I have more knowledge of the Bible it might be better.. But still not sure.. Maybe that can be another way to get to know the bible more...

Acts 2:1-13, Psalm 27:7-14, Leviticus 1-3

So... I've gone through like 3 books already! wow kinda seems like a lot.
Ah.. Acts is starting to become so interesting.. We're going over it in church, and it covers the Holy Spirit! our way of actually communicating with God. chapter 2 immediately starts with people just being filled and then speaking in tongues... if i read this a couple years back i would be like what the... but after going through the past few years and reflecting on what i've seen... people praying in tongues and praying in tongues myself i feel like i know a little bit more on what was going on. it is pretty amazing to see this is the bible because it can still happen today... i remember when i heard about people speaking in tongues and i thought it was like meh... ok.. but then i heard it and was probably kinda distracted and was like uhhhhh... but then when i went to DTS and was learning about the Holy Spirit and how He fills in you and then that's what makes you speak in a different language... usually what only God can understand..

Acts:1. Proverbs 4:1-19, Exodus 39-40

So... we've been going through the book of Acts now in our sermons on Sunday from Pastor Ben. I feel like Acts is pretty awesome because it is at the time where the Holy Spirit takes place and starts to work through people in place of Jesus going to heaven. Jesus came down and taught to many different people, and trained the disciples... and those disciples trained others to know about God and share His word... and pretty much just comes to us now just by speaking to others and having these records.

Matthew 28, Psalm 27:1-6, Exodus 37-38

Jesus rises... i could say this is one of he most important? (but i've been realizing that most of the bible is important... so... i would say main stories of the bible) Jesus coming back to life... Seeing Jesus must have been pretty awesome... like i said before it was kinda awesome how Jesus had done so many different miracles and i still kinda wonder if people were just like.. "oh yeah.. Jesus i know Him... He raises people from the dead, and He raised from the dead Himself..." even if that's not all He does... maybe we are just to think like that... i mean... it says in the bible that He's done all of these things... and it is amazing, but God can always surprise us with things like this... it's awesome to know that whatever awesome thing we've seen it's pretty awesome to know that God has something even more awesome than that last awesome thing we saw... which is awesome...

Matthew 27:27-66, Psalm 25:16-2, 26:1-12, Exodus 34-36

Jesus dies for our sins... just hearing it so often can make it so simple... but reading about it makes it so real... and kinda heartbreaking because of what He went through... i mean... it wasn't just a simple execution that would have an instantaneous death, but He went to court and was humiliated and spat on and kicked and beat... and then mocked... and even going through all that He wouldn't even receive the little comfort that they were trying to give them... He was willing to take everything from them. just a random thought came to my head when i was reading this... after Jesus is on the cross and when He says "Father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing." and one of the criminals say that Jesus was innocent... i always thought that something happened to the other guy that scoffed at Jesus... i somehow thought that a crow came and ate one of his eyes... i don't know how i thought of that... might have been a movie.. but reading through the parts in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John it didn't say that.. or maybe i'm just missing it somewhere...  i'm not sure but these kinda things may not be relevant but it seems to kinda pester me for some reason... it is nice to see that God i s always giving us another chance though... even at the brink of death one of the criminals acknowledge Jesus as being innocent and ends up meeting with Jesus in heaven... i think that's pretty awesome.

Matthew 27:1-26, Psalm 25:1-15, Exodus 32-33

The trials and crucifixion of Jesus... it's kinda crazy on how Jesus was able to endure everything... from the verbal abuse to the physical abuse he had suffered... He also didn't show fear...
In Psalms... i feel like almost every time I read David seems to be always looking up towards God, most of the verses I always remember even through hard times he looks up toward God no matter what circumstances... I mean.. there are times when i knew i felt God's presence... and yes i know in the back of my mind that God is always there, but i still feel like i will always be less than David... he just seems to know more... i would like to see someone that would be able to have a relationship with God like David in Psalms did. and how that would work out, cuz i know there are a lot of times where i just need God but i don't look up to Him for some reason... yes the world was probably different back then, it being thousands of years ago... but since we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit maybe it should be different? maybe i'm just lacking recently...

Matthew 26:36-75, Psalm 24, Exodus 29-31

Jesus being betrayed in this chapter seems like it was pretty action packed... i'm not sure if this scene was in the Passion of the Christ... it's been a long time since i've seen that but just reading on it, it seems like it was pretty intense. Even when they were about to arrest Him, He tells everyone to stand down because He knew what He needed to do... and He even told them what He could do... which is pretty awesome for Him to be able to do such things but not because He knew what He had to do. in this part of the chapter Peter is confronted with the many people that were watching and he immediately tried to protect himself from probably being beaten and ends up denying Jesus...

Matthew 26:1-35, Proverbs 3:27-35, Exodus 27-28

Using the the Bible app on Ipad it had a feature to have someone read out loud.. it is pretty interesting to just listen to the Bible from someone else after reading it... i listened to the Matthew verse after reading it myself.
This verse is the Last Supper before Passover and Jesus getting the perfume in the alabaster jar and predicting his betrayal from Judas and Him being deserted by everyone... Peter tries and says that he would be faithful to Jesus and not betray him. But Jesus claimed that he would be denied by Peter three times.
In Exodus... I am not too sure about how these parts of the Tabernacle are relative to today... i mean... i guess it would be nice to learn about what it is and what was done for God in that time but i'm just not too sure what it can apply to today...

The Divine Conspiracy: Unwasted

Today in church we talked about hope. Just thinking about it... how i seem to lose hope many different times for different reasons, but right now thinking about it how Ben gave the sermon today it just seems like right when we lose hope we lose such an easy battle that we have won.
Satan hates hope... and he attacks it so we lose faith in God... and therefore can make things like churches fall... but we just gotta keep faith in God and we will be strengthened by Him.
all we have to do is just take one step... and then God will lead us to the next step... God didn't make evil... He is at war with it... God turns evil's best punch into salvation... makes the best out of the worst...
Although we fail, He doesn't... and we need to encourage one another and remind ourselves how awesome God is... we should not be afraid to take risks as long as we take them with God...
I need to figure out how to take better notes... haha...this is good stuff but might need to organize better.

Matthew 25:31-46, Psalm 23, Exodus 25-26

Matthew 25:1-30, Psalm 22:19-31, Exodus 23,24

The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids talks about being unprepared... It is kinda nice to read about these parables because Jesus can just exclaim to people to do this and that and say what is right and wrong, but he chooses to show people what is right and wrong by telling a story not pointing out people. Jesus has a great way to show that people are wrong but not actually lecturing about it.
The parable of the loaned money talks about a master and two servants who each receive money from the master. one working and getting more silver using what he had and the other just digging it up and not worrying about it and just returning it to his master. But the one that invested in something and doubled his earnings was praised by his master... thinking about that i just seem to realize that we are to try as hard as we can to be able to spread what we learn to others... instead of thinking of what we can do by ourselves learning alone and continuing to be alone... it is better to invite people into our lives and have fellowship with others and even talking about God with others. I still have a hard time with this because although i went to DTS and learned so much about God i still have something holding me back from spreading the word with others... i feel like i still don't know how to do it...

Matthew 24, Psalm 22:1-18, Exodus 20-22

The end of the world... Jesus talks about the future in chapter 24 of Matthew... Although it has been probably said for many years or even centuries now, but it just seems like there are so many of these signs that are appearing in the news... wars, famines, earthquakes in many parts of the world... persecution among Christians, hating each other, false prophets... it just so crazy how there are so many signs that have already passed... and probably more to pass in the future... Just not knowing can be kinda uncomfortable at times... but keeping a relationship with Jesus seems to be the only choice to get rid of it. Instead of being afraid of the end of the world... it would be better to keep the good relationship with God and be excited for it... i always just hope that i would get kinda old before everything goes away... i want to grow old and have a wife and children and grandchildren... maybe even grandchildren... but i guess without seeing that heaven would probably be even better wouldn't it?

Matthew 23:13-39, Psalm21, exodus 17-19

Jesus makes it pretty clear in this passage that just knowing scripture does not make you a better person, and it shows that Jesus can get very angry... So it kinda makes me think of how we should control our emotions but there are times where we do get angry...and i'm sure there are many more verses in the Bible where Jesus gets super angry. That's besides the point though... i've realized how yeah we do talk about how we ourselves can be considered the Pharisees because we say one thing and do another... so... these verses may be pointed at you or me or anyone else for that matter... because we all fall short and we are not perfect. But we are so blessed because we have this to remind us that we need to make sure we have the right focus...
Out of the Exodus verses, i feel like chapter 18 stuck out... Jethro (father in law of Moses) had some really wise advice for Moses... and that was just interesting because God was able to speak to Moses to speak to the people of Israel, but it didn't make Moses perfect. Jethro's plan to divide the people and make leaders of groups gave a lot of order to lead the people because Moses would have to deal with just a few people instead of thousands of people.

Matthew 23:1-12, Proverbs 3:13-26, Exodus 15-16

Living a Christian life seems like it isn't easy... Jesus explains in Matthew 23 that the Pharisees that were following Moses's law who were claimed "experts" don't actually follow what they were preaching to the people... they were trying to make everyone do the things that the were doing..
i just hope that i can find guidance from God to not do those kinds of things...
In Exodus, it showed how even after God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt they were unhappy with what they were dealing with at that point in time and they just forgot or didn't know that God was the one that set them free. they simply just did not listen to Moses. People today(including myself... probably a lot of times myself) have the same thing... Although God has freed us from something... we end up complaining about something else... and we can sometimes be so bitter and can't be satisfied with some of the things we have... kinda made me think of the TI song live your life haha... he says be thankful for what you do got instead of what you don't.. something along the lines...  i'm sure a lot of other people said that before him but that was the first that came to mind..

Acts 4:32-5:7

I was kinda freaked out while listening to this sermon today... although it may have been thousands of years ago... Ananias and Sapphira just straight up dying for what they did... not even someone else finding out and killing them but God just knowing what they did... but seeing these kinds of things... makes me realize (and Ben may have said it today in some shape or form but me not remembering off top of my head) how important it is to be honest with people... and to not hide things from anyone because it doesn't really help to hide things most of the time..
but seeing things like this.. it is awesome that God gives us free will (no... i won't try and do what Ananias did)... but being able to make our own choices in life and giving us the choice to be with Him willingly seems so much better than being forced or being puppets...
another thing that spoke a lot to me was the talk about love... to love someone is to be willing to sacrifice anything for them... kinda puts things into more perspective into loving others... i kinda think about what i am willing to sacrifice for my loved ones... or if people actually do realize if i love them or not... because sometimes it may be hard to show for some people or maybe hard to see for me sometimes... (not saying i don't love anyone or anyone doesn't love me) i just had some thoughts of what i may need to do to show it more....

1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:6

I love how there are different "timeless truths" in the Bible. Since that is a great way we are able to learn from it. Like this verse in Thessalonians Paul writes about the end times and when Jesus comes back at the end, and how it will come unexpectedly but we shouldn't be afraid as long as we are children of the day. Or just to believe in Christ and know that He is coming back to save us. We should be ready at all times... not just once a week or a couple times... I have been thinking about just reading daily... and how the Word has so many interesting things every single time i read but it is just kinda hard to see more application to daily life. i feel that i need to pray and see what else i need to know instead of just reading because there can be so much more to what the Bible has to say.

Matthew 21:23-46, Psalm 19, Exodus 9-11

Reading Exodus... i kinda think of how it would relate to us today... and it seems like we ourselves are a lot like Pharaoh... we at times have heavy hearts. We can listen to many different sermons and have many different people coming to us and saying we need to fix things, but at times we may seem like we can go on without them. Even with the miracles that are shown by Aaron and Moses, the Pharaoh seems to have his "magicians" to do the same thing or have a rational explanation for things. The Pharaoh saw many of the miracles, and he even saw the Plagues come in and as soon as they would stop it would say..."The LORD hardened Pharaohs heart..." it's still kinda hard to understand what this means... so what was God wanting to do with Pharaoh? i mean... he must have learned something from each one...
just confuses me...

Matthew 21:1-22, Psalm 18:37-50, exodus 6:13-30, 7-8

The Exodus story is pretty crazy haha It was actually making me think of the movies I had watched that we're portraying these stories... Even when I was reading the end of Genesis the story of Jacob... Sometimes thought of the cartoon, but then it is so ,uh more serious than those... It just seems so much more real when reading the books instead of watching how it could have been... Thinking about it again now... It seems like we can so much like the Phaoroh in Exodus... In our everyday lives we probably have many encounters Like Moses and Aaron and we can so easily just brush them off and think we can live life without God and just rely on our own doings... Also... We can be on the other side too... Moses and Aaron both were called by God to go do something, and they hesitate and wonder why they were chosen. I wonder though... We are all called to go out and be diciples of all nations by Jesus, but God does have a plan for all of us specifically too... Sometimes I just feel that I want something more specific...

Matthew 20, Psalm 18:30-36, Exodus 4-6:1-12

Both Matthew and Exodus are talking about work. Although Egyptians working as slaves and in Matthew they were hired farmers, both of the people end up complaining about something wrong. In Matthew the farmers that came first were in an agreement to work for a denarius(silver coin), but had other people come in later on and paid them the same amount leading up to the people that started earlier to complain. In Exodus, Pharaoh makes the Egyptians work for him almost endlessly, and as Moses came in to try and let them go with words the Pharaoh ends up giving the Israelites more work making them get their own straw for the bricks that they have to build, but not decreasing the amount. With that, the Israelites complained to Pharaoh and then to Moses and Aaron.
I realized after reading these passages it is hard for someone to actually be pleased with what they have. We all usually have to have something more... even if we have something pretty good. If we see things from other people and compare with others we end up not not being thankful for what we do have and wanting something more.
Wanting something more though can be either good or bad, just selfishness can get in the way and make it bad.

Matthew 19, proverbs 3:1-12, exodus 1-3

Eh... It's late... But yesterday was kind of a downer day for me... Not sure what was going on but I had some serious problem... I did run into some people at the mall though... After talking with them(they were some wrestling buddies I knew in hs) I realized that I am in a lot better position than other people... And that I am very blessed... It is late for Monday's entry, but I did feel at the end of the day that my day was a lot better than it was in the last few hours of it... It was the last day to hang out with Grant... He's moving to Korea and it was nice to spend time with him and pray for him on his journey to Korea for work... We'll miss him for sure...

Acts 4:1-17

Just some notes from today's sermon by Pastor Ben
He went through Acts chapters 3 and 4 and in the book it was about Peter and John going to the temple to have service like we would go to church on Sundays. A beggar coming toward them trying to get money, but Peter and John had something far greater than money for the beggar. He healed the man with the Holy Spirit! and even right after Peter started to preach the Gospel to the people surrounding him. It must have been pretty amazing for even Peter and John, and astounding for everyone else that witnessed it, but he was still able to keep cool and start speaking the Gospel to the people and he explained that it wasn't him doing the healing but in the name of Jesus Christ.
it is amazing to see them able to speak to people, but what is more amazing is that they are able to speak and not be afraid of anyone... almost right after this passage it says that they were arrested and put into jail in the morning, but even when that happened there were over 5000 people that became believers.

Matthew 17, Psalm 18:1-6, Genesis 45-47

I wonder what Jesus would say to the people that are living today if he was physically walking around.
Everyone seemed to rely on Jesus to do just about everything... and well yes now we really can't do much if Jesus didn't come and do what he did.. but Jesus multiple times said that we have such little faith... He is right in almost every way though... but i just wonder what it was that made Him so mad... it appeared that He was pretty agitated from what happened in 7:17... and he knew exactly what was going on
He tells us that if we just had faith of a mustard seed we would be able to move mountains...

Matthew 16, Psalm 7, Genesis 43-44

Joseph amazes me on what he does... i see that he cared a lot for his family although his brothers had done what they had done to him. Although he wept a lot he was able to still calm down and keep cool in front of his brothers.
in Matthew, Jesus renames Simon into Peter(the rock) and he is able to rely on Peter to build the church.
I just wonder what kind of man Peter was to be able to be called that by Jesus and was able to get such a great honor from Jesus like that.
But it still showed that Peter was still human because in the same chapter (although i don't know how much after this amount of time was when he was renamed to Peter) because he claimed that Jesus wouldn't die...

Matthew 15, Psalm 15-16, Genesis 41-42

The bible has such awesome stories... going through Joseph's story and just seeing how people can change... Joseph goes on and says that they are spies and ends up not trusting his brothers probably because of what they did to him back in the day. Joseph must have felt many different emotions seeing his brothers, and must have struggled to see them after that set of time that they had sold him off. I feel like i would have been angry with them for a long time..but he seemed to have had been much better than he could have been.

Matthew 14, Proverbs 2:12-22, Genesis 39-40

Jesus fed over 5000 thousand people using five loaves of bread and two fish...
Jesus just seems to amaze me every single time i read about Him... He truly has super powers ;)
i was pretty baffled on this story... just reading about all the miracles that Jesus did i wonder what the disciples' reactions were as He was doing them... i feel like maybe we can get used to it... but i bet the miracles each time were just so amazing one by one it would be hard to get used to...
In Genesis... reading about Joseph makes me think about my brothers and relationships with siblings... like my relationship with my two brothers...
We were all treated pretty differently by my parents, and it may have shown in various different ways. talked with my mom about it and we were treated very differently... but i'm sure we all have our different gifts in our own way... i just hope we can all understand that our parents love all of us equally... and care about us all the time.

The Divine Conspiracy: Inviting an Interruption

Pastor Ben preached on Acts today.
In Acts Paul talked about the Holy Spirit and it was just amazing to listen about the Holy Spirit and what He does in the past and what He has been doing in the present
just listening to what was said in Acts 2 and how people saw the Holy Spirit working in others... making people speak languages that they would have no other way of knowing...
Speaking to God directly in a language that only He can understand... it is an amazing gift to be able to do that... today kinda just got me more excited for what is going to happen when we continue to walk with the Holy Spirit...

Matthew 13:36-58, Psalm 14, Genesis 36-38

The story of Joseph makes me think of the cartoon movie about it that i watched a while back.
Joseph's brothers all felt very jealous towards him and that jealousy led them to selling him off into slavery.
to me it sounds kinda crazy for them to do that... i mean... having two older brothers i've had a pretty good amount of arguments and fights, and i may have said that i wish that they werent my brothers... but actually having them go away forever would been kinda harsh for me.
The Matthew passage tells 4 different parables. it starts talking about good weeds and bad weeds.. and how we should keep harvesting what we do and pick out the weeds in our lives.
the parable about the hidden treasure and the pearl merchant kinda seemed almost exactly the same to me... and now i am just wondering if Jesus was telling these one after the other or if they were both to different groups of people at a time... not sure if that would be very important or not though
i love how he used the parable of the fishing net because it makes things so clear... but still wonder if he had explained more things after that saying that these fishes were people like us.. or if people just figured those out by themselves.

Matthew 13.Psalm12-13.Genesis 34.35

I really enjoy Jesus' parables. Actually in this chapter the disciples asked Him about the parables and in the answer that He gave it kinda just seemed like that people have just stopped listening to others and just went their own way doing their own things.
it just seems that Jesus knew that speaking this way would attract more peoples' attention and more people would listen to stories rather than criticism.
To be quite honest Genesis is kind of a hard read for me... I do find the family ties interesting, but things were just so different in their areas and time compared to the present here.
Matthew 13:19-23 made me think of what kind of person i should be though.
to know what is good for me and to stay in relationship with God... to be able to not just hear God but to also take it in and make good use of it too.

Matthew 12:22-50, Psalm 11, Genesis 32-33

In this passage Jesus casts a demon out of a man and the Pharisees head to Jesus and talks about how He is doing this. The Pharisees automatically assume that Jesus is doing something wrong, and that instead of doing this in the name of God he is getting power from Satan. But Jesus knew what intentions the Pharisees had starts to speak to them and what they have been doing. They said that Jesus was pushing Satan away with Satan's own power, but Jesus asks them what they were doing to drive demons out... and what makes them so much better than anyone else for them to be able to do that.
Jesus also explains how we aren't ever in the middle... it is set two different sides. Either for or against Jesus.

Matthew 12: 1-21, psalm 10, genesis 31

After reading Matthew it just shows how much we as Christians can be so much like the Pharisees that were attacking Jesus... It can be so easy to start judging people and start pointing fingers at people doing something wrong.. But Jesus shows then that what they should really be doing is loving like God loves... Showing love instead of just following rules After reading this I went to psalm and it was about David talking about evil people in the world People that go on with their lives without God He seemed so angry with his words David was so concerned for the people so he prays for them... Sometimes I feel that I am blind to things like this... David prays for the people in the world that have been messed up and blinded by sin... And we are still blinded sometimes and so we need to stay with God because He forgives us for our sins and He is the one that will be there as long as we ask Him to.

Matthew 11, Proverbs 2:1-11, Genesis 27-30

Jesus explained that he is the one to be going to when we feel that we are weak. All we have to do is just repent and follow Him, He says that His yoke is easy and his burden is light.
God is always there... but i just sometimes don't see it and forget that He is always there to listen... something i want is always there i just don't reach for it.
I guess what i'm just wanting to say is that i just need constant reminders... God just remind me everyday that You're with me and You will help me through each day.

Matthew 10, Psalm 9, Genesis 26

I wonder what life had been for the disciples before they had met Jesus.
I also wonder if there was hesitation before they started actually following Jesus because Jesus told them that it would be a very bumpy ride.
Jesus explains that threats shouldn't be worried about and that although the world can persecute and destroy your physical being you can't be spiritually destroyed by anything in this world.
i wonder how things are different from when Jesus was alive(physically) and the disciples were following Him and how now that He's in heaven and how we have a spiritual relationship differs.
Also in Psalms it just shows that we always have an enemy, and the enemy is always trying to get at us. but as long as we trust in the Lord and fear the Lord knowing that we are just human and can't compare with Him.

Matthew 9, Psalm 8, Genesis 24-25

I've noticed Jesus in the passages so far is always sure of everything... It's pretty awesome to see actually. He also shows his miracles, but he doesn't do it necessarily to show off, but to make a point.  He says that he has come to call people that think they are righteous, but people that know that they are sinners. In the first encounter with Matthew he seems very blunt but Matthew does not seem to hesitate on following Him. I am just wondering what was going on with Matthew at the time, because he just made it look so simple just to drop everything and go. i'm kinda wondering if Matthew had seen what Jesus had done before Jesus asked him to follow or what was his decision based on because it can be so easy to just get back into the world and consider onto worldly things.
In Psalms, the verses that kinda stuck out the most were 4 and 5 of chapter 8. It says... "...what are people that you should think about them, mere mortals that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor."
although we have sinned, he puts us into a position that is higher than mostly everything else and giving authority to us. even how we keep failing He still gives us another chance...

Matthew 8, Psalm 7:6-17, Genesis 22-23

The centurion in Matthew 8 had shown great faith. with Jesus seeing this He immediately healed the servant that was sick. I was just thinking of how we can easily forget that we have authority in the name of Jesus Christ, but we just have to have faith. it's so easy to forget that with God we can do anything... I seem to do a lot of things by myself, but without God i wouldn't be able to do anything. Jesus says that we should just believe, but sometimes i feel like i just make everything so much harder than it already is and instead of just trusting in God i just start to struggle with everything.
i may just need to start laying things down... there are so many things that i feel that i just need to do by myself, but if i just lay it down i will be able to do anything just as long as i ask.
:/

Matthew 7, Psalm 6-7:1-5, genesis 19-21

I feel like going through verses like this helps me to get more details on what certain things are and i seem to understand them a little more going through them again.
But as i was going through these verses i feel like i understand a little bit more about how people are actually related and what is going on from the beginning.
I haven't really actually just read the bible front to back so going through it like this seems like it's been a good experience because i see relationships and i see how people branch off...
David in Psalms. it just shows how he is so faithful to God and trusts Him like no other, but it also shows how much he fears God, but still turns to Him through any type of agony.

Matthew 6, Proverbs 1:20-23, Genesis 16-18

Matthew 6 had me thinking about what we need to do and how we are supposed to show ourselves.
i know we shouldn't be showing off things that we can do... or things that we do to help people, but i also still feel that we should do things together too. I was just seeing how Jesus was talking about how this world is not eternal, and what we do here will be important but what is stored here won't matter to God when we get to heaven.
About Genesis, i was just wondering how different it was before Jesus came to earth. In Genesis 17 God shows Himself to Abraham and tells him that He is El-Shaddai 'God Almighty'
I was just wondering if God had gone to others and they just not listened to Him or if God just chose Abraham. Like Abraham was just able to stay in close relationship with God and obey God.
People like Noah and Abraham and Moses... They were human but they were still able to keep good relationship with Him.

past notes .

i've been thinking of the many different notes i've taken... and how i just been needing to get back into them
there are so many things i've written down/typed and i just don't ever get back into.
many things have been taken in at the time but i seemed to have lacked in actually applying a lot of it.
just taking notes and never going back to them won't ever help me
but just for today's sermon by Pastor Ben I got to learn that we should be open with our lives...
if we are to be a family through Christ we should not keep things from each other... we as humans have hard shells a lot of times and we imprison ourselves to sin.
If we were to just be able to share things with people and talk things out our relationships would be stronger with each other. Sin is at the root of every broken relationship, and we don't share things because we are imprisoned not to share.
The main points that stuck out to me were the two truths
1. Any sin hidden kept secret is going to destroy us.
2. The Holy Spirit is at work today to destroy these prisons... To unbind these shackles... To free us and pull open the would and heal the wound once and for all

Isaiah 49:13-26

During my DTS i did go through the book of Isaiah and i felt that it had a lot of crazy different things. there were a lot of times where it was kinda scary because there had been a lot anger and sadness when i was reading it.
but this passage definitely sticks out to me and it just shows how God is always there for us... we just don't seem to accept the fact all the time therefore we lose it.
many times i've seemed to have gotten lost and thought that everything just sucked... most of those times i actually didn't go back into the Bible and see what God feels when He sees me that way.
We are always told that He is there for us, but i feel like i seem to forget that too much...
:/ mehhh...

Matthew 5:33-48, Psalm 5, Genesis 12-15

Humility is something that kinda gets to me sometimes.
well at first Jesus talks about vows and how we should not make vows. He showed how that pretty much nothing we have is really ours so we should not vow to things because we don't have control We should just say either yes or no.
Revenge is something that i feel has been a problem in my life. Not sure about it now but thinking back i've wanted to probably beat people up for things they had done to me, but thinking about it now most of the time i'd probably be the one getting in trouble for it or i would have a really bitter heart afterwards. For us to be able to just turn our cheek and try to be humble about it would take a lot of faith out of me at least. He also talks about loving our enemies and to pray for those who persecute you. for me i would say that would be one of the hardest things to do.
Loving enemies would just not make sense to me... although it wouldn't just mean to be trampled over by them... but what would we have to do to show that we are able to love our enemies? Reading the Word would be so complicated for non-believers... with the knowledge of Jesus i have right now it makes a little bit of sense
I am just wondering how far to the extent we should take things.
i also just wonder how to use these parts of word, to compare our time and culture with the time that Jesus was saying these things and if Jesus was here right now would he say the same thing?

Matthew 5:1-32, Psalm 4, Genesis 10-11

The Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus talks a lot about what is in man's heart, and how we should control ourselves not only on the outer being but what we think about and have in our minds.
but Jesus also explained that as we follow Him we can be the light of the world.
I feel that if I was there listening to Jesus i probably would have taken many of His words literally... and most of it would have made sense, but things like if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off... those things would have really gotten to me.
Almost everyday i feel like my emotions will get to me, but i'm starting to realize that I don't ever really invite God into what I am feeling.
I feel that i just need to trust in the Lord more than i do right now. Like the tower of babel, i start to think i can do things by myself, people were thinking that if they worked together they would be able to reach high places by building a tower and making themselves greater.
but God totally owned them by confusing the language...
I also noticed again about how God speaks as "let us..." referring Himself as all three, i'm kinda excited to go through this year and learn more about Him, i still probably don't know much at all about God although growing up in church and even doing DTS, i know some things, but i know this year He will continue to show me more who He is and what He will do throughout this year and the rest of the future.

Matthew 4, Psalm 3, Genesis 9

The verse from Psalms had stuck out to me this time i was reading. David was talking about how he has so many enemies but he isn't afraid at all. He knew that God would be by his side at all times and be his shield. He said he wasn't afraid of ten thousand enemies, but he knew that God was with him even while he was sleeping. For me i easily forget how great God is, and i'm probably not the only one... we easily forget and try to do things on our own... but God is always there to help us out with anything just as long as we put our trust in Him...
Another note... i also thought of how great His forgiveness is. Today i was backing out and shattered my rear window... i was freaking out
i had to call my dad and tell him, but i was scared of what my dad would say.
my dad was calm about it, and he just said that i would have to take it to the shop, but it kinda showed me more about God's forgiveness, and how Jesus died for us so that he would be able to forgive everyone who just asked. We just need to face fear and ask God for our forgiveness... although sometimes it may seem like a really hard thing to do, He will ALWAYS forgive.
it was a poopy day, but now thinking about it God loves us. :)

Noah and David

it said in Genesis that Noah was the only righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time and he walked in close fellowship with God.
Reading the Bible has been an eye opener because just knowing of stories can start to make me think that I know more than I do. since we were kids growing up in church we get to know introductions of who people like Noah and David are but the small little details that are shown by reading show their character much more.
I don't mean to put anybody that preach the Word down, but even at the youth retreat Brian said so himself that we should learn to feed ourselves. We can't be spoon fed our whole lives or else we won't get to know God as much as we can.

New Year

This year I want to have a lot of change in my life. It has been a yeat since i left for hawaii and since i got home i've realized that being in a comfortable place has gotten me to get back into old habits and not focus on things that i should focus on.
One of the biggest things that I have not been able to get myself doing is daily Word.
Reading things for myself has been a lot different for me... It may have been more than once since I've read through the first few chapters of Genesis but I've started to see more things than I do usually...
In Genesis 4, God asks Cain "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?"
The first time i read through this today I may have overlooked it, but now going through I see that there are a lot of things in life that I have to do, not others...
Sam Cha even texted me about this daily devotional. I read the passages today but I haven't really gotten into reflection and thought too much about it until now.
Since it is a new year it is yet another chance for me to be able to grow spiritually and continue to learn more about life... With a new start I feel that I will be able to get to learn more about God and try and get more personal with Him, also get more closer with the friends and family I currently have and the many people I may meet during this year.
I will need a lot of butt kicking for me to do things I need to do but I know that God has put a lot of different people into my life to help me through this and I will need to continuously reach for God to get to know Him better.