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.