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.