”Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ”whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6,8)

”Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (Bible 1.cor 13:8)

”Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (matt 22,37)

I guess perseverance is a key word here. It doesn´t always give us goose bumps of joy when we read the Bible. That doesn´t mean its less important those times. The fish-soup on Monday is by no means of less importance than the Christmas dinner. I guess its a part of this individualistic culture that we´re in that makes us seek whatever feels good. The Bible therefore easily get neglected because we quit when it doesn´t feel good anymore.

From psalm 1 we get to know that those who meditate on the law(the word of God) day and night, will be like a tree planted by streams of whater. It gives its fruit in the right time. 2.timothy also along those lines says it helps us being equipped for all good works.
Its a sword against temptations, and a source of truth and comfort when lies sneaks into our minds.

I added more verses about it below the movie. Also there is a very good text about this at the yourney deeper website! Its worth taking a look at.

You have probably seen “Narnia”. You remember the part when Lucy goes into the wardrobe? I heard someone compare it to opening the Bible. In the beginning it might feel like you just meet these old dusty jackets. Not very exciting. But suddenly this whole world opens up in front of you; the land of Narnia. I heard about someone that had read through the whole Bible more than 50 times, and every time finding new treasures. Its certainly true that its like a treasure cave

Your word I have treasured in my heart,
That I may not sin against You. (psalm 119,11)

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.  (Josh 1,8)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2tim 3,16-17)

Thank you God for your word. Please open our eyes to see your word for what it actually is. Amen

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt 5,46-48)

Reflecting over this, it gave me:
- One great challenge
- One great encouragement

The Challenge: To spread extreme love into the world.
There would really be hope for world peace if we were able to follow these words of Jesus, to love not only those who love us but even our enemies!
A first step could be to act out the same kind of love towards those we don´t know so well or those who often are disliked, as we would toward our good friends.
Some people really do this. They would talk with you as if they were your friend even though you don´t know them. Like the verses we read, they greet also you, and not only their friends. They also do this toward those who are maybe less popular. Thats the kind of person I want to be. A good challenge to pursue.

The encouragement: Jesus love for you!
as your heavenly Father is perfect (v.48).
The heavenly Fathers perfectness, we see through the Life of Jesus Christ.

Jesus and the Father
- “I and the Father are one” (Joh 10:30)
- Those that have seen Jesus, have seen the Father
- He does nothing exept what He see the Father do (Joh 5,19)This is the encouragement…

That Jesus fully lived out this love we read about. It has great consequences for us today!

Jesus uniq and extreme love toward …

– His enemies. While hanging on the cross saying: “Father forgive them…”!
- Outcasts of the society. Caring for those looked down upon, even though that made people look down also upon Him.
- Me
- You
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5,8) The greatest act of love possible to do.

Now a funny thing!
I desided to blog about this some days ago and today I got the time to do it. Before I started to write, I took a look at the blog I linked to earlier, and this guy wrote about the exact same words of Jesus today! So I encourage you to also read the short 27.April blogpost at Yourney Deeper.  :-)

⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
⁴⁴But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
⁴⁶If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that?
⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (matt 5,43-48)

Lets stay close to Jesus so we can be shaped by him, and become more like him.

Be blessed!

I was reading psalm 8 today. It made me feel very thankful for all the beautiful things God has created. What is also beautiful is that it is given to us so we can enjoy it!

Compared to the whole universe and everything created, we are nothing. In this big perspective we are just a microscopic part of it all, and yet He cares about us! And more than care, he loves us! And he more than loves us (as we usually today think of the word “love”), he died for us! For you! for me!

One thing is that we are small. I was also reflecting about my own life as I read this. I am a sinner saved by grace. I have sinned against God recently. But even more recently, after that I can testify about God´s great guidance, in other words his care! That´s just amazing to me!
My head knowledge says that God always forgives. My feelings however is more human like. After giving a great insult to someone, I don´t expect any love back for a while. But here I see his wonderful guidance right after I have sinned against him. So my experience tells me God is different. He is love!

Psalm 8
For the director of music. According to gittith ^[a].
A psalm of David.

¹ O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.

² From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise ^[b]
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.

³ When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

⁵ You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings ^[c]
and crowned him with glory and honor.

⁶ You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:

⁷ all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,

⁸ the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

I was reading in the book of Job this other day. We get to know that Job was a blameless and upright man and that he was rich. Suddenly a great tragedy happened to him. All his belongings were destroyed and all of his children died. He lost everything! Verses 20-21 really amazed me. How could he praise God in such a situation? I think the key is he understood that his belongings were not really his. ”The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away”. The successful life was all by grace. Because of this understanding, he was not so detached to the things that he would become angry with God for the loss. Instead he could say “may the name of the Lord be praised”. A beautiful….

A beautiful sentence here is how he threw himself to the ground and praised God in the midst of all this suffering. While reading this I was asking myself the question; what do I do when things in life goes against me? The first thing I do is not to give thanks to God. So another question: Am I then more detached to the things than what is healthy and right? Is it more important to me than it should be? Am I a slave to what I should be free from? Am I a slave to something that Jesus Christ paid a high price, his own blood to free me from? Listen to this:
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and raised again. 2.kor 5,15. If we really live for someone else than for our self, our possessions will not be that important for us.

I think there is really freedom in seeing that everything we own; our material things, our gifts and our lives are God’s. We are just his stewards. Freedom from ourselves, freedom from unnecessary disappointments, worries and bitterness when we understand that we don’t really deserve what we have. It’s all by God’s grace. Freedom to be the person who focus on the positive things. Freedom to be grateful.
Of course Job was extremely sad because of what happened. But I’m thinking like this. If he could give God thanks in such a horrible situation, then normally he would probably be the most jolly and positive person you’ve ever met. A man that always looked to the positive things and did not cry when he lost a few animals. Don´t you just love to hang around those kind of people?
With the rich man in NT, it was totally opposite. When Jesus asked him to sell all he owed, he got very sad and went away. His belongings were too important for him.

It’s so easy to ask God, ”why” when we experience bad things. But how often do we ask ”why” when we experience all kinds of good things? Instead we take it for granted, and think we deserve it. And the more we think we deserve, the more disappointments we meet, and the less positive and grateful we stay.

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ef 5,19b-20)

May God help us to stay positive and thankful.
Thank you Father for you mercy upon us!

I can not say I’m much different from these Israelites. Lately I have found it hard to focus on God and use time in his word and in prayer, even though I have experienced how good it is to do that just as the Israelites had experienced God´s action. What I have prayed the most about is ”help to stay in your word and to pray”. I’m now inspired again to do so. I believe its his answer.
I stumbled over this website of an anglical priest who´s vision is to spread the word of God all over facebook. He has the facebookgroup ”the Bible” which is updated every day with a bible verse and some thoughts. The group has TWO MILLION followers, can you imagine?! This guy is also following a Bible reading plan and writes a blog with his thoughts on every days passage. Cool priest!

So I was inspired myself to start following this plan which is found here, even though its not January 1th, you can actually do that  When following a plan one does not have to use alot of time and stress to find out what to read all the time. Again I am experiencing how rich and wonderful his word is and how much it means to my life. How powerful it is!

I might use more than a year on completing this plan. Its better to read it slower and thoughtfully/prayerfully than rushing through to keep up with the plan just to find out you read for 10minutes and have no idea what you just read. I´ve done that enough.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked (…) But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. (Psalm 1,1-3)

Its my prayer that you yourself dear reader is inspired by this. Why don´t you join me for some seconds in prayer and ask:

-       That you will help us Father to stay in your word, to be disciplined in this.
-       Help us to give all our worries too you, and take time for prayer and your word even when we have alot to do.
-       Thank you for your faithfullness, and for your word that is sharper than any twoedged sword! Amen.

Be blessed!