Journaling

I've been going through the Gospel of John lately. And I love it.

Before I started reading it, I committed myself to journaling about the entire book. I'd write an entry about every passage I read through per day. And I'm really glad I did. I want to encourage you to journal in your own personal Bible study, because, in my opinion, you'll get so much out of it if you do.

It encourages you to take a closer look at a passage

This has been remarkable for me. I used to get up in the morning and read the Bible while I was half asleep, only to find out later as I wrote in my journal that I missed something or misread something initially. The Bible is a lot clearer about a lot of things than one may think. For example, in John 7:49, I initially read it like this. The Pharisees said:

"But this crowd does not know the law is accursed."

I was confused. But later on as I studied closer, I realized it actually said:

"But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."

See? That made a whole lot more sense. The Pharisees thought they were better than everyone else, so this quote is not surprising, if not startling. I knew they were arrogant, but yeah.

It causes you to see context

Again, this has been great. In John 8, Jesus is talking about his Father and the Pharisees' father. They are descended from Abraham. But Jesus is referring to their father a lot and saying that Abraham did not do the things they did. Later in the passage, he established that their father was, in fact, the devil. It's something that makes sense and is a no-brainer, but it's only when you take a look at the passage that you really see Jesus is referring to this the entire time.

It lets you dwell on Scripture

When you're writing down your thoughts, you tend to try to organize them. At least I do. Also, when I'm writing things down I remember them better and I understand it better. The Bible is clear, but memory and organization tools really help one to understand.

So, in your time in God's Word, I want to encourage you to journal. There's no right or wrong way to do it. You can write every day, multiple times a day, or once a week, whichever works best for you. And do this remembering that it's all about Jesus. Pray to God to reveal his truth to you and it will happen.

Peace!

October Idiot

God's been trying to humble me lately. And you know what? It's working.

I think the best story for this I can give is our money situation. Basically, because my dad was in the Navy, I get two years of school paid for and get paid as long as I'm a full-time student. It's a sweet deal when it works.

That's the thing though. Sarrah and I have been unemployed since two weeks before we got married. With this economy it's been exceptionally hard for her to find a job. I've been going to school and am so overwhelmed with homework that I don't feel like I could be a decent husband if I used the remainder of my time during the day working. I'd never see my wife.

Then the money took forever to actually come. One night I had essentially reached my limit. It hadn't helped that I had just listened to this Mark Driscoll sermon where he basically does everything in his power to make married men (and boyfriends living with their girlfriends) feel like crap. I felt like I wasn't doing a good job leading for one thing. I had brought us here to Olympia, far away from all our family and friends. I decided to go to school so soon after getting married. I felt like the reason we were going broke. I wound up ranting to a friend of mine about this.

The next day, the money came. It went to my parents' house as a check (it's supposed to be direct deposited into my bank account), but it was still good! Finally a result!

Then of course I found out it was my fault it took so long anyways because I had given them the wrong bank number and they had my parents' address on file, not mine. The money had been rejected by whatever other bank account there was and got sent there as a check. Wow, I fail.

Finally, after feeling incredibly stupid, I decided, "Whatever. I'm human. I'm imperfect."

I think God's been doing that lately. Trying to make me feel like an utter idiot...at least if I try to do something without Him, that is. And that really is a stupid thing to do, isn't it? "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" and whatnot.

So anyways, that's my update. It's funny how the money came the day after I go ranting about everything to someone. It's like God was saying, "You know, if you were just patient..."