The 12

Bible trivia time!

Can you name the 12 original disciples and then can you name the replacement disciple?

My roommate and I were up at Mugwalls reading, when my mind started going off trying to name the 12 disciples. I quickly realized that I could get to 8, but only after some serious thinking and that was it. My roommate got to 11, I am not bitter, he might be younger than me but he can be pretty knowledgeable when he wants to.

But that's not the point, the point is I felt convicted for not knowing the Word I love and desire to follow.

This is not an unhealthy conviction, and by unhealthy I mean a selfish desire to know all of Scripture so that I might look smart or people would come to me for answers. Just a confession, I have thought that at times especially when I am selfish.

And this is also not about the 12 disciples in particular, rather this is about Scripture in general. That I need to know it, meditate on it, and live it out daily. I know that I will never fully know all of Scripture and I will continually be learning about the traits of God and my interaction with Him until the day I die, but my desire is to know the Word in such a way that I might be able to spot false doctrine the instant I here it, and not only that but to honor and worship Him in the way He has laid out for me.

It is kinda funny how God uses a simple example of naming the disciples to teach me about knowing the Bible better. The fact that I don't know all of them at a given moment, tells me I have a long way to go.

I never want to think that I know the Bible so well that I no longer need to study it.

Along the same note a new movie is out called "The Book of Eli", which is a pretty amazing movie. One of the best moments in the movie for me was when Eli realized that for 30 years he had been reading the Bible and trying to keep it safe, but that he had forgotten to put what he read in to practice.

Bingo!

I got to play Bingo tonight with some friends from church and some retired folk at Esperanza Senior Living and I have to say it was a great time.

There is something about being in my 70's, 80's, or perhaps even 90's that I can't wait to experience. As I got to talk to some of them I realized that they have been through a lot of stuff. A man named Frank served in World War 2, lived in Australia, taught at Cornell, and was also a professor of Mechanical Engineering for 40 years at Texas A&M! Now that is amazing.

I just can't wait to be that age, hopefully I will be sitting on a porch somewhere widdling a piece of wood in a rocking chair.

On my way home though I had another thought come in to my head.

How does a person that is placed in a retirement home worship God with a body of believers? I mean they aren't able to drive and some are bed ridden. How are they worshiping and living for God? I mean there is no such thing as the lone ranger Christian, so what is going on? Are there hundreds, maybe thousands, of retired people who confessed Christ all there life and are now suffering spiritually because they can no longer be with a body of believers that can spur them on and encourage them? I am so thankful for the people around me that encourage me. So perhaps it is on us as believers not to forget these people, but yet take time to go spend time with them and talk about Christ with them.

I want to ask them what it looks like living for Christ at the age of 93, because I can't wait to do it.

What are we called to when it comes to discipline

Why hello, it has been sometime since I last wrote. It is not because I haven't had things to write about more over it is because I have been unwilling to write and actually think about some of this stuff. But tonight I couldn't fall to slothfulness any longer, God really hit me with some good truths in a book I am reading called "Discipline of Grace".

I have no idea where I got the idea that following and obeying God was something that was easy to do, because it is by no means easy. As I continue to grow and understand more about the nature of God and our role as men and women in relationship with God (purely because of the grace of God revealing these things to me not anything on my own) I realize there is a lot to take in. There is both a role of God and a role of man in this relationship, we must fight the temptation to think that God does everything and we just sit back and relax, or in opposition, that we have to do everything, which would mean we would be trying to merit favor before Him. A great quote from "Discipline of Grace" Jerry Bridges, says " We need to learn this scriptural principle that the Holy Spirit works in us to enable us to live lives pleasing to God. He does not do the work for us; rather, He enables us to do the work. We often use the expression " Let the Lord live His life through me." I am personally uncomfortable with this expression because it suggests a passivity on our part. He does not live His life through me. Rather, as I depend on Him, He enables me to live a life pleasing to Him."

So as I start to really think about God living His live through me I find it strange that I could believe that, I mean He is infinite and I am created to His image, He doesn't need me to live through. How can that even be honoring to Him? It is like use desiring to live our lives through machines or avatars, after awhile it gets boring forcing something to do what you want. I mean what is more honoring, having God force us to honor Him or us disciplining ourselves to look more like Christ each and everyday such as Paul calls Timothy to in 1 Timothy 4:7.

So there are two ways of thinking that would not be profitable, thinking we have to live this life on our own without God giving us strength, wisdom, and the ability to pursue Him through Christ, and the idea that God will do everything no matter what we do. I think Psalm 119:33-35 best explains what I am trying to say. "Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments for I delight in it." Here we see that it takes both of us to live a life that glorifies the Lord. The Psalmist ask for God to teach him that he might hold onto and obey what God has commanded, and in the next verse he asks for wisdom that he might once again obey and uphold the Law. We must be disciplined and pray for the ability to honor God, for He is the one that enables us to live a life that is pleasing to Him. It is impossible for us to live a life that pleases Him unless first God reveals Himself to us. Then through reading His word, prayer, and meditation we may become disciplined, yet only because He enables and we respond.