The Old Testament ended on a high point of the Israelites turning back to God, listening to his Word and trying to obey. Then came a 400-year break in God’s Word to us.
We know the Israelites continued on with their lives during that time.
They were waiting….
expecting the Messiah to show up.
How long were they going to have to wait?
I’m blogging through the Chronological Bible which means the Bible is re-organized so it resembles the actual timeline that things happened. I just finished the Old Testament and now I’m moving on to the New Testament.
It’s October. So 3/4 of the Bible is the Old Testament. If three-quarters of what God wants to reveal to us is in the Old Testament, then I’m very glad I read and study the Old Testament every year. After spending 3/4 of the year reading the Old Testament, I have a better understanding of how badly the world needed Jesus. My anticipation of the coming Messiah rises as I read over and over again of the Israelites turning away from God, getting lost in idol worship, paying the consequences and repenting. Then they get their spiritual act together – but just for a short time until they start wandering again.
Oh, how badly they needed a Savior!
It was hard to wait.
You and I live under the New Covenant with God. The Messiah has come. There is no more waiting. Jesus was sent to earth to offer free salvation to everyone who would put their faith in him. And it’s really clear right now that our culture needs saving just as badly as the Israelites did.
The last 1/4 of the Bible is so much easier to read than the Old Testament because Jesus’ love, grace, truth and light shines out of the New Testament. Jesus is our role-model for how God wants us to live our lives here on earth.
A smile spreads across my face as I begin to read the New Testament for the 11th time.
No more waiting. The Messiah has come. This is the really good stuff.
When ‘The Chosen’ series came out, I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch it because I usually don’t like the movie if I’ve read the book. And I’m reading this book – the Bible- for the 11th time.
So I started streaming it with critical eyes and my hand ready to turn it off if it was wrong and not representing my Father well. The first episode was about Mary who was possessed by many demons. I don’t know about you, but Satan turns my stomach. The Evil One is so real to me that it was very hard to watch Mary struggle with the demons on the screen. The characters in the show were trying to help her and I kept saying in my head with my stomach churning while watching this, “When is Jesus going to show up?”
I just finished reading the Old Testament in the Chronological Bible for the 11th time. It ended at a time that the Israelites had turned back to God and recommitted to following him. But the last 10 months of reading have been full of stories of people turning their back on God, disobeying him, and worshipping weird, worthless idols. The Old Testament ends with the faithful people saying, “When is the Messiah going to show up?”
Then I look up from my Bible and see the world around me. What a mess! Evil is revered and rampant. Important values are disappearing daily. Ignoring God and his truth is at an all time high – even in our churches. It would be easy to look around and say, “When is Jesus going to show up?”
The good news for us is that Jesus has already ‘showed up’. Over 2 thousand years ago he came to earth and sacrificed his life so we can have a personal relationship with God that starts here and continues on into eternity in heaven. After Jesus died for us and raised himself back to life before going back to heaven, he send his Spirit here to live inside all those who put their faith in him.
Jesus is here. His Spirit is alive here.
As I write that, I feel such a relief! Because when Jesus showed up for Mary in the “The Chosen”, he sent all the demons away and she transformed in a beautiful, happy woman who committed her life to serving Jesus. Jesus made all the difference.
Knowing Jesus is here gives me relief as I finish reading the Old Testament which is filled with stories of the Israelite’s lack of faith and hundreds of years of wavering commitment. When we choose to put our faith in him, his Spirit can help us remain faithful and committed. Jesus makes all the difference.
I even feel relieved when I look around at all the issues in our current culture. Jesus is here. He is in control. He gives me peace and love and fills my empty spaces in a world that is a ‘train wreck’.
Jesus makes all the difference today and every day.
I can’t imagine it – God being silent for 400 years.
That’s the amount of time between the Old Testament and the New Testament. So it is said that God was silent.
But was he? Really?
It’s hard for me to imagine that my Father God who loves us and cares for us so diligently each day would be quiet for 400 years. I think it’s very possible that he was speaking and interacting with people at that time but none of it was meant to become part of his revelation to us so it was not included in the Bible.
When I think about how much I need God each day and knowing that there were faithful people during that time as well, it doesn’t make sense that he was actually silent for 400 years. It doesn’t sound like something he would do.
But we know that there were 400 years between the two parts of the Bible. For some reason, God put in a significant break before he begins the account of his greatest Gift of all time – salvation through his son, Jesus Christ.
Mark’s account starts with, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the son of God”. (1:1)
John’s account starts, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (1:1)
The Light of the World was arriving – we would never be the same.
it’s the big equalizer among all of us. You have 24 hours in a day and I have 24 hours in a day.
So the ‘I don’t have time for God’ excuse just doesn’t fly. We all have 24 hours and some of us find regular time with God.
Yes, I know all of our situations are different – work schedules, kid’s schedules, and all kinds of commitments fill our calendars. That’s where the challenge comes – how we choose to fill our calendars. Because it’s a choice.
I am now in a very blessed time of my life in relation to time because I am retired. I retired 5 years ago and my new schedule is pretty incredible. My calendar is mainly filled with things I want to do but I don’t have to do. I have a lot of time for God.
But this was not true of my life before retirement. I worked for 34 1/2 years straight for Corporate Jack in the Box. I was married with a 9 month-old child when I started working for Jack and had another baby 4 years later. I traveled a lot and got promoted regularly gaining more and more responsibility.
With a husband who worked fulltime, 2 kids, a house, a dog and a 60-hour workweek, you can imagine my life. And right in the middle of all of that, God challenged me to put him first. I had been running on empty for quite awhile, not happy when I realized that this is how the rest of my life could be. So when I realized that God was offering me the only way I was going to find joy and purpose in the middle of this crazy time in my life, I accepted the challenge.
And I began to reorganize my priorities. I changed my focus from my career onto my relationship with God. I started using my time differently – I stopped working 60 hours a week. I cut down to 40 or 45 hours a week, always used all of my vacation days to spend with my family and asked God to take care of the next raise or promotion. Interesting – I performed better when I worked less and I ended up with a career that blessed my family instead of taking away from my family.
My week was still packed with work, kids, sports, work travel, and more. There wasn’t much I could do about that. So I revamped my weekends. I stopped planning anything on Saturday night that would make us too tired to get up for church on Sunday. I took cleaning totally off my list by hiring a service to clean my house twice a month and trained my kids to they clean it the other weeks. I started doing my laundry, shopping and errands on Saturday, leaving Sunday open for worship and time with my spiritual family in the morning. Sunday afternoon and evening became a great time to spend with my kids and husband, study the Bible and also meet with Bible study small groups. Sunday became God and family day – all day.
I admit, it was hard for me to find my personal time with God during the week. I have never been a ‘get up at 4 am to read my Bible type of person’. It just doesn’t work for me – I’m a ‘get up at 4 am and go right to work’ person. I’m also not a ‘read a devotional every day’ type person. I don’t get much from that, I want to dig deeper.
So in the middle of the busiest time of my life, I would try to find an hour or two here or there during the week with God, knowing that I was going to dedicate Sunday to him. I believe God honored my desire to spend time with him because, somehow, I would often find myself spending two or three precious hours with him on Saturday as well.
I find it interesting to read when Nehemiah confronts the leaders in Jerusalem about ‘neglecting God’. They had stopped supporting the Levites so the Levites had to go get jobs and were unable to serve in the temple. Everyone had started working on the Sabbath – selling all sorts of produce and merchandise inside the walls of Jerusalem.
This could not go on so Nehemiah shut the gates to Jerusalem when Sabbath started and they stayed closed until the Sabbath ended. He put guards on the gates and told everyone to start bringing their tithes to the temple again and start supporting the Levites so they could go back to their temple duties.
He shut the gates.
I feel like that is what I needed to do to find significant time to spend with God. I had to shut the gates on all the other things that me and my family could do on Sundays. I had to shut the gates to the things my family could do that would keep us out late or up late on Saturday. I had to reorganize Saturdays to make room for God in my weekends. Looking back, I feel like this re-prioritizing was a blessing for my entire family because it slowed down our Sundays and we had more time to hang out with each other.
And I saw God multiply my time on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturdays I could get all of my errands and chores done AND play in the pool, have friends over and have fun. On Sundays I had time for God – worship and service in church, small group Bible studies, time with my family AND extra time to read and study God’s word which eventually led to reading the entire Bible every year and writing this blog.
When the path right in front of me looks like its straight up hill.
When the issue confronting me is big
and confusing
and scary
and heart-breaking.
When I am threatened on all sides by more problems, more sadness, more darkness.
What am I supposed to do?
Have you been there?
Have you felt the weight of too many responsibilities and so much conflict?
When Nehemiah found himself in this type of situation, he turned to God and prayed “Now strengthen my hands.”(6:9)
Nehemiah had groups of powerful people plotting against him as he led the Jews in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. His enemies were trying to frighten the Jews so they would stop working on the wall. But God answered Nehemiah’s prayers and the wall was eventually finished.
Is there something in your life that looks like its impossible to accomplish? Impossible to fix?
Give it to God. Ask him to strengthen your hands and then trust that he is answering. He may use you like he did Nehemiah to actually orchestrate the answer. Or he may want your strong hands to be folded in prayer before him, admitting your dependence on him and remaining faithful while he works all things out for your good.
When we want to accomplish something big, it takes a team. One person can only do what one person can get done.
I have discovered when a group of people join energy and brainpower to tackle a goal together, their efforts are multiplied and good things happen. I’ve seen big successes roll in when a team of people are engaged, committed to working together and helping each other achieve a goal.
And when God is involved I have seen a supernatural factor come into play that is truly astounding to witness. Projects turn out much better than planned. Blessings pile up. We see our faith growing as, together, we experience the power of God in our lives.
Has this happened to you? I’ve experienced this many times and its exciting every time it happens.
I find the historical account of Nehemiah leading the Israelites in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem to be very motivating. The Jews were being attacked regularly by their enemies who didn’t want them to complete the wall. They were very discouraged.
We’ve all been there.
Nehemiah refused to stop building. He knew that he had been sent back to Jerusalem to lead this project so he couldn’t stop. He organized the men into teams, “From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bow and armor. Nehemiah 4:16. They protected their brothers with everything they had.
Working together,
protecting each other,
they accomplished the goal of rebuilding the wall.
They could not have done it without each other.
Our Spiritual family is like this. We need each other. Each one of us needs to identify our spiritual gifts in order to build each other up and fulfill our purpose of reaching others for Christ. We watch each other’s backs – loving and forgiving each other in supernatural ways.
And we love those who don’t know Jesus yet…
while our Spiritual family supports us and cheers us on.
I would normally tell you from experience that it’s not a good idea to test God. You won’t like consequences. God wants us to have faith in him and trust him, not test him.
With one exception.
There is one place in the Bible where God says, “Test me”.
He knows all the issues we have with money – it quickly becomes our god, we always want more and we’re willing to sacrifice our families to get it, we have trouble giving generously, we get in such deep debt that we think we can’t give. Just to name a few.
God says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Malachi 3:10.
I have attended a couple of different churches who sponsor a 90 day challenge for giving to God. People tithe for 90 days – no cheating because nothing is hidden from God – and they watch God move in their finances. If they don’t see God move, they get their money back.
Nobody has ever asked for their money back because God always moves. I love it! Test him!
And you will find out what those of us that have committed to tithing have found out – the refunds, checks for overpayment and unexpected credit to our accounts start rolling in. Regular stories like this –
I had a dental claim paid by my insurance a couple of years ago and the medical assistant looked at me with surprise when she handed me back a check for $900. She told that insurance NEVER covers this part of the procedure but they did for me. Thank you, God!
The air conditioner in our home recently started making a very loud and worrying noise. Our house is 15 years old and the air conditioner is original to the house so you know what we thought – time for a new air conditioner. Nope! It was fixed for the cost of a service call. I always give God the credit for anything like this that happens to us because I know he’s watching over us.
You would hear these kinds of stories from anyone who has committed to tithe. God is faithful and we can count on him to respond when we are generous givers. I believe God moves in how often our cars break down and how quickly appliances stop working. If we are stingy with God, we don’t need to be surprised when we spend that money anyway on repairs and unexpected bills.
God is a good Father and he wants to teach us the right way to handle our money. Test him!
Through the years, my husband and I have donated two of our older cars to charity because we know God will bless us more for that than what we could sell them for. We donated a 2 year-old refrigerator to a church mission for the same reason. God knows.
When you and I faithfully tithe, we are putting our finances under the umbrella of God’s blessing. When we do that, he not only blesses our finances, he pours other blessings into our lives as well. These are things that money can’t buy – like joy, love and purpose. And more.
So much more pours out that it fills us up and starts to spill over to the people around us. The windows of heaven open up for us when we get our money in line with God. The more we give, the more we have. That’s God’s math. We cannot outgive God.
If you don’t have any of these stories, go ahead and test God! I know what will happen.
Thank you for your faithfulness with our finances, Abba Father.
I have discovered that many of my ‘why?’ questions are not answered immediately. God’s answer comes later. In some cases, many years later.
I have learned to recognize God’s movement in all of my why’s. God is a huge planner. He is the master orchestrator of the past, present and future for all of his children.
Why am I going through a tough time today? Often I realize much later that the first tough experience trained me for an even tougher trial that was coming my way. I learned lessons in the first struggle which helped me be more successful in navigating the next difficult situation in my life.
God prepared me.
As I read God’s Word, I see God’s preparation as a consistent thread in his epic love story. In the book of Esther, Esther asked Mordecai to gather together all the Jews of Susa to fast with her for 3 days as she prepared for her audience with the king. She was going to reveal the fact that she was a Jew and ask him to save her people. At that time in history, you were putting your life in danger by going to the king when he had not invited you. If the king didn’t want to see her, he could have her killed.
As the story unfolds, we see that over those 3 days of fasting God helped Esther develop a strategy for delivering her message. She set the stage first so that the king was ready to grant her plea for mercy for her and her people.
Preparation.
I know it’s a big part of why God let’s difficult things happen in my life –
and your’s. Each step of the way, God guides us and teaches us what we will need to know for the next step, training us so we are ready to complete the purpose he has for us here.
Real friends are people who care about us, easily forgive us and want the best for us. They are the people in our lives who cheer us on in the good times and listen well with extra tissues ready during the bad times.
I am fortunate enough to have several real friends in my life.
These friends love me enough to speak up if I’m getting off track. They hold me accountable for behavior that is not good for me. They subtly (and not so subtly) ask questions about my choices when my behavior is not going to help me reach the goals they know I want to achieve. They love me enough to speak truth into my life at the right time.
These friends also have shared this journey of faith with me. They have walked beside me as, together, we experience the transforming power of God in our lives. They continue to encourage me as God molds me into the person he created me to be and they celebrate with me when I find victory in my life through my relationship with God.
They help bring me to Jesus.
This is just like the four men who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus. Their friend couldn’t move, so his four friends carried him around on a mat. They heard that this man, Jesus, was healing people – even paralyzed people – so they were determined to get their friend to Jesus.
You might think they would have been discouraged when they arrived and saw the huge crowd of people around the house that Jesus was in. They didn’t care – this was their friend and this was going to happen….today…..right now.
So they carried their friend on his mat up to the top of the house and dug a hole in the roof right over Jesus’ head. Then they lowered the mat down in front of Jesus.
Seeing the faith of his friends, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ” Stand up, pick up your mat and go home.”
“And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat and walked through the stunned onlookers.” (Mark 2: 11-12)
Jesus honored the faith of this man’s friends and healed him by the touch of his hand.
I know I have friends who need to get to Jesus.
Do you?
Are we good enough friends to help them get close enough to be touched by our Savior?
Come with me on a Journey through the Bible 