John

The Gospel of John was written by John the apostle. In it, he refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved". I've always taken this to be sort of self-serving, marking himself as particularly special. And while he is special - all God's children are - it doesn't seem very modest for him to say so of himself. But at church yesterday our pastor presented a different view of this that I'd never considered.
When John calls himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved", rather than boasting in himself, maybe he's actually boasting in Christ. Instead of saying "Look how much Jesus loved ME", it's more like "Look how MUCH Jesus LOVED me". You see the difference? It is a description of something he received, something that changed him. The love of Christ transformed him from a rough fisherman to a tenderhearted man who would lean back on Jesus' chest, to love Him as his father and brother and friend. Into a man who would have the quiet loyalty to follow Jesus everywhere. Into a man who would lovingly tend flocks of young believers.
And so I've come to really like John's title for himself. Aren't we all, in our own unique ways, the disciple whom Jesus loved? The disciple whom Jesus accepted, rescued, forgave, transformed, had patience with, had mercy on, gave grace to, was faithful to, taught us all the good we know, comforted, blessed beyond our wildest hopes - in short, loved.
We all have our own story.

Paraphrasing!

I thought I might try to put Psalm 63 into my own words, make it a bit more personal. And I wanted to be a little silly =P

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh God, You are my God;
I'll get up early before school to seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Called Southern California.
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
I will sing my heart out to You.
Thus I will bless You while I still have breath in my lungs;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.

My soul shall be satisfied as with fried chicken,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

When I remember You while I'm lying awake in bed,
I try to meditate on You and talk to You, though I always fall asleep.
Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
My soul follows close behind You, like a daughter following her Dad;
Your right hand upholds me, like a kind, strong Father.

But those who seek to destroy this light in me,
Shall go to h-e-double hockey stick.
They shall fall by the shot gun;
They shall be a portion for coyotes.

But the king shall rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him shall glory;
But the mouth of those who speak lies shall have a sock stuffed in.
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Made it up as I went =P If only King David could see me now...

Rainbows - Just who are they a sign for?

"And God said 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.' " - Genesis 9:12-16

     As I was reading this, it hit me that as much as it sounds this way from the wording of it, the rainbow couldn't really be a reminder to God not to destroy all flesh with a flood again. As if He needed to leave Himself some sort of sticky note:

Hey God,

Don't forget to not flood the 

earth again when you make it 

rain this time.

-God

     Because the thing is, if that were the purpose, the rainbow would appear before the storm, wouldn't it? You put reminders before, not after. No, the purpose of the rainbow it to remind us of God's promise, and to demonstrate that He's already been faithful - if we're around to see the rainbow after the storm, we know He's already remembered and acted according to His promise.
     Have you ever caught yourself being surprised after God was faithful to you? How does it feel to be reminded?
     I know I've caught myself being surprised when I realize God's answered one of my prayers, or when He shows me tender love and mercy when I totally don't deserve it. I feel silly for being surprised =P God is faithful, after all. But as a human I've been taught to believe in (and practice) conditional love. So when I don't behave in a way that deserves a loving, faithful response, I don't really expect it, though sometimes I dare to hope for it. When God acts on my behalf this way, I feel very humbled, thankful, very loved, and very in love with Him. God is good.

The Root of Our Problems

Just gonna write insights God gives me in my daily devotions on this blog. I wanna get through the whole Bible, for real this time! (I've tried sooo many times to read through the whole Bible =P) Every bit of Scripture is inspired by God, and I want to read through the whole thing and see what He has to say to me.

I read Genesis Chapter 7 today, along with the notes in the NKJV study bible. It's about Noah and the Flood. The state of the world at that point was absolutely heartbreaking -

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." -Genesis 6:5

I mean, gee whiz! Every single thought was evil - no one even accidentally have a nice thought, ever! It's so different from what God had hoped for, who He had made humans to be. Humans took His image and dragged it through the mud. So God moved to the next part of the story - He started over.

"So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive." -Genesis 7:23

He showed such grace on humanity to start over with what was already spoiled with sin. I don't understand why He did it. Even though Noah was righteous in God's eyes, he and his family carried a sinful nature that we would all inherit -

"...Then the Lord said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done." Genesis 8:21

What struck me was that God starting over knowing things would degenerate again; isn't it the same when a Christian repents? Even though we are starting over, our sin lovingly blotted out by God, our sin nature is still there. The root of the problem has yet to be resolved. But we have a hope, a confident expectation -

"Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." -2 Peter 3:13

When God comes and makes everything new at the end of the age, He'll take away our sin nature and we can have perfect fellowship with God in righteousness. A more complete new beginning than the Flood brought. I'm really, really looking forward to it. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Amen : )