365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 277

The words ‘delight’ and ‘fear’ in the same sentence can be confusing if you do not understand the nature of God’s word and the fact that it has been translated from another language. When you are confused by a word or words in scripture, it is always good to do a little research. I just google ‘definition of (word) in the bible’ and will start searching and reading what I can find and ask God to lead me to understanding. Delight has two different meanings in the Old Testament and another different meaning in the New Testament. Since I am studying from Isaiah, I am looking at the Old Testament meanings. Here is what I found:

The Old Testament. Two of the most common Hebrew terms for delight are hepes [,pej], "to bend towards, to be inclined towards [an object or person], " and rasa [h'x'r], "to delight or take pleasure in."

The next word I looked at was actually the phrase “fear of the Lord”. I already understand that it is not the kind of shaking in your boots, going to pee my pants kind of fear of something frightening but a healthy respect for the power, wisdom, will and awesomeness of God. It was interesting to read a 2 minute article on this topic and confirm my understanding is on point. Read that article here: http://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/throughout-bible-we-are-told-fear-god-what-does-me/

The Bible is a complex compilation of God’s word and took hundreds of years to get to the point where we have it today. So always take into consideration that a word or phrase that isn’t familiar or you just don’t get, is probably because of this and God wants you to just dig a little deeper and ask for help in understanding.

Isaiah 11:3 …and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

 

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 154

I love how God works. I learn about certain things and than they are reinforced with a sermon at church. I liked how Pastor Graham explained how we often perceive ourselves negatively but what God thinks is we are wonderful. We have to take that negative sketch of ourselves daily and toss it in the trash and hold up the beautiful sketch that God created. Our perceptions of how others will react to us is determined by our temperament; about who God created within each of us. If we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit filling us each day, than we can see each person as a child of God. When we see others and ourselves through God’s eyes, our behavior will become that which God intended for us. Moses questioned God and his calling for him but God saw Moses for who he really was and who he would become. Moses perception of himself was negative but God only saw the inner man and knew he would lead the Israelites out of Egypt and to the promised land. Did Moses know he would become the greatest figure in all of the Old Testament? No, but God knows the plans he has for us and when we trust in him he will take us through them no matter how equipped we are for them.

Exodus 3:8-12 So I have come down to rescue them up out of the land of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, “I will be with you.”

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 277

I have been reading a book called Faith of Our Fathers. It is a book in a series on stories about the Kings of the Old Testament. This book is about Manasseh. From my reading of the bible, I knew from the get-go as I began this book that Manasseh was a king who did evil in the eyes of the Lord. I found the two entries in the bible about Manasseh and was first off glad to see the writers thus far have followed what is in the bible but the amazing part is all the story around what's in the bible. Now this is fictional so they made it up, but it really makes you think of how bad or evil a person is but what is the story behind all that sin. What got them to that place? In this case, the writers make him out to be envious and jealous of his boyhood friend and family and even though he grew up learning the Torah the seeds of this envy and jealousy had been in him and all it took was the right corrupt person to enter his life that played up to this part of him and led him away from God and to so much sin. It makes me think of how careful we need to be when it comes to the people we meet and the things they say to us. We have to call on wisdom and discernment from God to help us on our journey and make sure are path is straight to God. Wisdom, discernment and clear guidance on what my next step in life is has been my goal. Despite the pros and cons that I am putting together of the various carreer avenues I can take, I want to take the one God wants me to take. What is he calling me to? Have you wondered what next? Only God knows what is the best and right place for us to go. Seek and you will find.

2 Chronicles 33: 1-2 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fify-fve years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelistes.