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...