In the last year an a half I have been on a faith adventure. I reached a point in my life where I thought leaning on others testimonies was no longer going to work for me and so I began the journey to find my own. It has definitely been quite the adventure and it is not yet over.
In September of 2018 I decided to read the bible from the beginning to the end. Such a feat that I thought for sure that I would not succeed in doing for a long time. At first it took a while to get through Genesis. I honestly don't remember how much I read the first few weeks. I am sure I picked it up from time to time and just read a verse or two and then set it back down. I wasn't going to rush through the book by all means. I didn't have any intention of really finishing it and thought it may be years down the road before I ever finished. Soon I found myself reading all the time. I don't remember which part of the bible made me want to keep reading, but the excitement grew at some point. There were nights that I couldn't put the bible down. It was so full of amazing things and I didn't know a lot of them. I got to a point in the bible in December that I knew I could finish it by New Years Day. I got excited to finish it, but then one day I got caught up in a story and I had to really study it. I got a little behind because of it and knew I would be cutting it close to that day. I ended up finishing on January 1st 2019! I had reached my goal (thus be it a few hours later than I had hoped) but I did it! And wow did I learn a lot!
I won't go over everything I learned, but some things that I would like to discuss.
Do you know what we have in our possession? The light that comes from this book is amazing!
Number 1. GOD IS LOVE
This should be a given if you are already religious and believe at all that god is real.
I imagine God creating Adam and Eve and thinking, this is gonna be great! I will create these people and they will have an amazing life and I will give them everything they need to live and to love and to be happy. Just one thing, can't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve was deceived and partook of the fruit which ended up sending them into the lone and dreary world where we would now have to till the ground and deal with trials and weeds and all things that are sometimes really hard to deal with in this life.
Is God sending us away from his presence Love? Absolutely. We would have to endure through many trials in this life. The world, though beautiful to the human eye, is now full of briars and weeds. God removed direct contact through him and man and required man to come to him through prayer. Women would now have to endure through hard labor and child birth. It was a trial, though hard, that brought about beauty. Cain and Abel were born, Cain rebelled and killed his brother, was cast out and he rebelled against god and brought people with him. He corrupted many and the world began to be full of evil.
2. EVEN GOD WANTED TO QUIT
Some time passed and God was angry and he began to regret making the earth and the humans and the life. He was ready to give up and destroy the world, the humans, his creation, right then and there. Even God our creator was ready to quit because of the evil that had come from the heart of man and was spreading all over his creation. He believed that evil was so prevalent that there was no hope and he was so done. However, Noah plead with God to preserve him and his family. God found favor with Noah and allowed this to happen. You know this story. The point is, God wanted to Quit. He wanted to erase any evidence that this world had been created and he was ashamed of the evil that had come, but he found love in the heart of Noah and he decided to give the world a second chance. (thank goodness!)
3. PROPHETS ARE NOT INFALLIBLE AND THEY ARE HUMAN
Where do I even start with this? Man is not infallible. Prophets are also not infallible. They make mistakes and some have even led the people away from God. Many prophets had moments where they made some terrible decisions. One of my favorite stories in the bible is about David. He did so many amazing things in his life, but there was one time he slept with Uriah's wife and got her pregnant, but instead of dealing with it, he decided to put Uriah on the front line and have him be in the line of fire at war so he would die. He did. Then after the mourning process was over, he took Uriah's wife to be his own. Jonah, ran from God when God asked him to go to Ninevah. Instead he went to Tarshish, Swallowed by a big fish and lived in it's belly for 3 days before he was finally like, Yeah, okay, I will go to Ninevah. There are so many stories of good men of God who made some pretty serious mistakes, God never stopped loving them. He encouraged them to repent and return to him. He welcomed them back with open arms and allowed their sins to be forgiven. There were also prophets who did everything to please God. Job lost everything, literally EVERYTHING and no matter how much he lost, he still gave all glory to God. Jeremiah wept for his people constantly. He begged and pleaded with them to come to God and he wept a lot because they chose not to. He never stopped following God even when his people did. Love all the stories in the bible. So many amazing and wonderful ones to read about.
4. APOSTLES ARE NOT INFALLIBLE EVEN IN HIS PRESENCE
Christ came as promised and as he grew older and the 12 apostles came along, it is clear that even they in his presence were doubters. They doubted many times in his presence. They feared, they doubted, they fought against him. Peter walked on water and fell in to the water because he doubted. The 12 doubted when the storm was raging. They fell asleep several times when Christ asked them to stay awake and be there. Peter cut off the ear of the guard and was rebuked when he did so. Peter also denied Christ. They were not perfect. They made mistakes.
5. CHRIST IS THE RISEN LORD
Christ is the most amazing Gift we have been given. He was born and he taught many great things. He performed many great miracles on the earth. We see so many examples in the bible, The rulers daughter, Lazarus, Elisha, and several others were raised from the dead. He healed the sick, he made the blind see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk. The woman in the crowd with an issue of blood for 12 years had enough faith to be healed just by touching his cloak was completely healed when she did so. How extremely wonderful that Christ was able to walk among the people and show them love in person. What an amazing act of love. After walking with the people and performing miracles, he knew he would have to perform the ultimate sacrifice. He bled in the garden, he went through the torture from the guards, and he was nailed to a cross and hung to die for us. 3 days later he rose again from the tomb. He appeared to many and testified of the goodness of God and then he ascended to heaven.
6.THIS IS MY TESTIMONY (at this time)
He came to save us from our destruction. He is the Lord. He is the Savior. He is the King. He is the almighty God, The Father. He prayed for us in the garden and bled from every pore, he died for us, and He is Risen! He has ended our misery for eternity and given us a promise of Amazing things! He knows who we are. He hears our prayers. I know that he is. This is the most important thing I can testify of.
7.GOD IS LOVE
Yes, that is the first one. And the last. Just as our Savior is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Revelation 22:13)
There are so many things that I have learned from reading the bible every day. There are so many loving and wonderful stories in the bible and I only scratched the surface of what is inside. I truly have enjoyed having a closeness to Christ I have never experienced in all my life. This experience has changed my life completely. I highly encourage you all to read it. To find time to spend in the scriptures with God daily. There are many amazing things to learn from the bible. I have since started studying the bible more closely and am really finding some amazing things in it. Join me. I promise as you read and study every day, that Christ will be in your heart and you will be so happy. If you have other scripture you believe in, then by all means please read them, but do it intentionally and with the goal of coming close to Christ on a level that you have no idea is possible. I have a lot to learn still and I would love to see you all join me in this journey to Christ.
May you all feel the Love of God and
I hope you all have a great day.
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