I have finally made it to the New Testament! When I started this journey back in June I had no idea the strong effect it would have on my life. Sure I knew I would become more knowledgeable in the rich history of the bible, and where my faith comes from, but I can see God speaking to me through his word, and more – I wake up and crave Jesus, and the word of God every day now! James 4:8 explains this so succinctly, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” 

I look forward to this section; hearing the promise of the future, and following after Gods heart!

Oh how many times I have said things that have just fell on deaf ears.? Spoke to my daughter, “don’t do that – you’ll get hurt”, “Don’t do that – you’ll make a mess”, or even in the bigger scheme of ‘real life’ politics etc when people warned of things such as the AIG financial collapse – warnings fell on deaf ears.

So we come to Jeremiah. Oh how he preached and lamented to his people of the wrath of God. Turn away from your sins or the wrath of God will be upon you…. and his people, just looked at him, and said, “yeah – yeah whatever you say”…. and turned and went on their merry way.

Are things so different today? You have people on the street corners with their huge signs saying “repent and turn from God, or you’re going to Hell”, and people look and say – yeah and go on their merry way. We even have this amazing thing called the church, which I think is a better approach than the sign holding folks, and people still say – yeah whatever you say and turn on their merry way.

We have things like MTV leading our society in what is hip and cool. We have social media, and instant connectedness that prevents an escape from the mold that society wants us to fit into. So its no wonder that the Good news  falls on deaf ears.

Of course one of the verses I often lean on to is Jeremiah 29:11.
“For I know the plans I have for you, ” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.

Whenever life gets tough I just repeat this promise over and over again.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”
~ Colossians 3:23 NIV84

I work full time in customer service, and in this particular line of work I’m in; we can’t always give the customer what they want, and like anyone that works in customer service you have the good customers, and then there are the bad customers!
You know the type. Demanding, crabby, taking out all of their days stresses on you the employee because you’ve told them no. They’re the type that will barge in to your comfortable work environment, hand on hips and acting like Miss or Mr. Bossy Pants! (or on the phone you can imagine them strutting around their kitchen in this manner)

I just finished reading the book Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst in between reading Greater & this book, and I’ve discovered that sometimes – these “crabby pants customers” are not taking out their frustrations on me the worker… but rather extending their frustrations throughout the rest of their own life, and projecting it on me when I can’t give them what they want. Because isn’t it easy to “blow up” at strangers?

Regardless though – its my job as christian to show the rest of the world love and respect in imitation of how Christ loved.  Even if I don’t answer the phone, “Hello my name is Lindsey and I’m a Christian, how may I act like Christ for you today?”

Though I do have a human boss, ultimately I’m working for God the father who created all of us equally, and while it is so much easier to project love and a cheerful attitude with those customers who are kind to me I must remind myself that I always must treat everyone with the same level of courtesy.

Take e-mails for an example. Its so quick and easy to just go through my day and respond to myriad e-mails with the same generic and quick response, especially when I’ve rattled off the same answer a hundred times already that day, but how much better do you feel when you get an e-mail from a company that seems genuine, and real and kind…

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”
~ Colossians 3:23 NIV84

Reminding myself daily that I work for the Father, and that maybe… just maybe the customer really needs to be made to feel special this day. Perhaps a very cheerful sound of my voice, and a perpetual smile on my face is just what they need even if they don’t extend the same courtesy to me!

Would I stand up for what is solely right? Even if it could cost me everything?

A lot can be learned from Queen Esther. An evil and arrogant man named Haman wanted to kill all of the jews in much of the same way that Hitler did. One of the primary jews that Haman was after –  caught the eye of Queen Esther in his dispare (knowing what Haman wanted to do to him and his people). When she asked what the matter he explained to her Haman’s plans.

Knowing she had nothing to loose (since she was also a jew, and certainly would ensue the same fate as the others) Esther said she would go to the queen as a chance to save her people. As queen she still didn’t have a lot of rights in her day, so when she went to the King to ask him to save her  there were no guarantees.

She came up with a plan to ask the king to save Mordecai and the jews. During the time leading up to it Esther and her people fasted and prayed to the Lord. Then the time came.

God the father was working behind the scenes to prepare the kings heart – who had learned that Mordecai had once saved King Xerxes, and as Haman was walking in to the kings court to ask that Mordecai be impailed on a pole, just as he wanted to do to Mordeecai.

Queen Esther’s example shows me to be brave when talking about my own faith – especially now, when we don’t have to fear in America being persecuted, or killed for our faith. There should be no excuses….  for Jesus says, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in Heaven” – Matthew 10:32-33.

Well i’ve arrived and finished up Isaiah. I’ve somewhat abandoned my chronological reading plan, because I only had it marked down on You Version and didn’t want to rely on my phone for reading the bible.  I love opening my bible up (paper) and pouring into it with a pencil and writing notes, and adding flags to the side of it for easy reference.

When looking up chronological plans to print out I noticed discrepancies between them, so i’ll finish the rest of the bible straight through.

So. Back to Isaiah. My first major prophetic book of the bible, and it was FULL of amazing insight. I loved the yoking of Isaiah, and the gospels and the look ahead. Up until now things for the Israelites have seemed pretty dismal. They sin – God gets angry, but they hadn’t heard of Isaiah 9:6-7, “For a child is born to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen.”(NLT)

What great news! We also see (maybe for the first time) the great throne of God in Isaiah 6:1-8. He was sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and his robe filled the whole temple. Around him, flaming creatures were standing, each of which had six wings, and its body with two, and used the other two for flying. They were calling out to each other: “Holy, Holy, Holy! Is the Lord God Almighty”. (TEV)

We see again in Revelation and elsewhere throughout the bible that these creatures, and angels continually sing this out,  “Holy, Holy, Holy! Is the Lord God Almighty”. If they’re doing it, certainly shouldn’t I as a mere human? Praise God more?

We also see here that God is the ultimate and only God in Isaiah 45:9. In my TEV version it goes like this, “Does a clay pot dare argue with its maker, a pot that is like all the others? Does the clay ask the potter what he is doing? Doe s the pot complain that its maker has no skill? Do we dare say to our parents, why did you make me like this?” Gulp. Now go look up Chapter 45:18-19.  I’m not giving you a freebie. Go. Look it up.

And my very favorite verse of the whole entire bible is in Isaiah 43:4 “Thats how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade all the creation just for you.”

How do you not fall to your knees from that kind of love?

As I wind down my journey through the book “Greater” to I feel myself standing as if peering out into the horizon on the Grand Canyon.

I’ve been told I can do greater, and I believe I can, but now what? I have a few things in mind, like turning my [very small] photography business/hobby into a non-profit, but as I read the closing chapter and pastor Steven Furtick prayed over us I realized I need to just start being greater where I am.

At home, in my relationships (as a wife and a mother, and friend), at work, and anywhere else the wind blows me.

I’m not going to settle anymore for being standard, or for merely “trying” to be a good Christian. But actively pursuing to be more like Christ. I’ll pour out my heart little by little with God holding my hand every step of the way.

Here are my goals  for greater  for 2013.

1.) Spending more [quality] time with my husband. Instead of merely passing the time watching shows, or at worse spending time in separate rooms, actively planning dates, even free dates when money is tight. We’ve been together (mostly) for over 12 years, and married for almost 7. Its easy to get comfortable and not have that flirty passion you had in the beginning  but reminding oneself to turn off the Pinterest, put down the knitting, and spend time with the hubs and pursue him more like I did in the beginning!

2.) Making more memories for with my daughter. As an only child its really up to me (and dad) to shower our daughter with companionship. Yes – she has companions at school, but allowing her to watch the iPad after school, or at night alone, instead of building a fort with her, and watching a movie together etc is something I need to focus on more. Its too easy to be tired from a day at work, and running errands, and to just want time for myself, but there is a wee one who needs me, and there will come a time  likely in six short years [as a teen] when she will tell me she needs me no more. I want to treasure these precious days while I still have them!

3. Finish the bible by June. Whether I stick with the chronological plan, or read the rest straight through – I  need to finish it. And continue reading christian books that can help build my knowledge to support my goals in #4.

4. Unashamed Impact. On Twitter and Facebook I’m committed to sharing the word of God, and re-tweeting to a bunch of strangers all things Christ, but in the real world I find myself trying to be too politically correct. This year with Gods courage I’ll stand up for what I really believe in, and find opportunities- that if I paused and looked a little harder- are being poured out all over to share the love of Christ everywhere I go.

Here is to 2013 and the Greater things to come!

I’ve been blogging an awful lot through the bible study Greater, which if you or your group hasn’t picked up a copy – I strongly suggest you pick this book up!

But – I wanted to catch you up to what I’ve been doing with my journey of reading through the entire bible in 365 days. As you know I started last June, and although I’ve missed some days – i’ve worked very hard on following chasing christ through the bible to see how His Story has been interwoven through the old testament, and how it points to our savior.

Of course I’ve picked up some nuggets for myself along the way – because after all… isn’t that what the bible is about? It is the Story of God, and I believe a handbook for humans to show us how to do life. Its been a little tricky to blog through because this chronological plan because it jumps around so much, but I recently read through Jonah & Micah ~ two of my very favorites, and I just started Hosea!

Hosea – oh boy! At first sight i’m reading through the sad fall of Israel and how they’ve turned their back on the Lord, when after all they’ve done the Lord still reaches out and says, I love you. I have a copy of the Mom’s Devotional Bible, and I love how it has paraphrased Hosea and motherhood; that no matter what your children do, its important as moms to show them a steady love!