Long Winded, round about plug for LHCB Classes

I'd been kind of irritated at God with the current reading plan He's had me doing. Basically, I thought I was just reading the Bible again and making few "Observations", "Interpretations" or "Applications". But I thought I was drinking milk & getting the meat. This started a couple of years ago when God told me to read through the Bible, again. Why read just read through the Bible for the 2nd year in a row?

"For I knew how stubborn you were;the sinews of your neck were iron, your forehead was bronze. " Isaiah 48:4 (McTranslation: Kyle you are stiff necked and hard headed!
I think this verse was added just for me!)

The first year I trudged through the reading, irritated because I had already read through the Bible a year or so earlier. Accordingly, it took me two years to read through the Bible, complaining, dragging my feet and questioning all the way....

"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil." Provers 3:7

Then my spirits were renewed as I finished in March. Finally, now I can do what I want to do and then the word came for me to read through it again. Argh.....FINE! I guess I figured if this was my fate I better get happy about it! So this year I approached it differently and have read quickly, joyfully & sought him!

15 Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt.And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me." Hosea 5:15

Then in September I took "Living in the Book" led by Rusty B. and all of a sudden it was so clear to me that I was just reading the year before. I learned a lot but I was not applying it to my heart (I was busy having a pity party). Then Hendricks talked about reading quickly and learning to 'observe', 'interpret' and 'apply' quickly. I didn't have to spend a month in a book that I should be able to spend moments in the book and make learn to see volumes.Then to top it off Now I felt armed to read quickly and to "Observe","Interpret" & "Apply" quickly and aided by the handy dandy bookmark Rusty gave us, I have been again renewed.

"He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught." Isaiah 50:4b

A year or so ago Jenn B. (Rusty's wife) commented on one of my posts that the Bible is a rich tapestry and I remember thinking: "Oh she is so right!" Clearly, I'd seen the connections and my study Bible had like a 100 annotations for each scripture that detailed how this passage was connected to that passage etc... But about a year ago I got a new Bible a Comparative Study Bible that just has translations and is not a Study Bible So I have to go through my self and make my own connections.

This is another thing mentioned in the Hendricks study. Making the connections, interpreting scripture against scripture. Which I have done previously using the notes but now it just flashes into my head.



This morning while reading Hosea 5 the Lord pointed out to me that he was speaking of the sons of Jacob (tribes of Israel). So I went back to Genesis and found in Chapter 46 the genealogy (that is one of the reasons all these crazy genealogies are important, it's not just some crazy tongue twister God has decided to put into the Bible to thwart us! lol)

Now I am thinking about Jacob and his family and specifically Ephraim. What went wrong with him. Why is Ephraim in such deep trouble? My mind was racing which son is he the dude that slept with one of Jacob's wife? Did he mastermind the sell of Joseph??? As I went back to review I noted that he was the second person to get his elder brother's birthright and that Jacob said he too would grow into many nations. (Jacob & Esau and now Ephraim and Manasseh). Then this choice reminded me of Abraham and his sons and his choices. Wow, look at the long term effects of simple decisions how me must guard our hearts and our minds! How cool is that....This was all in less than 5 minutes. Now don't get me wrong I do not think I am some super Bible scholar and Butch is not going to be calling me for a consult on the next sermon. I'm most likely light years behind everyone else, but I'm happy to catch up as long as its toward God!

All I am doing is reading His word daily, obeying God's instruction to me to read through His word and not tarry and with the help of Living by the Book I am armed and ready to interpret, observe and apply on the fly! My friend, Pat Nordstrom, much missed as she's once told me that she read through the Bible every year.There was always a verse on her lips and a piece of wisdom coming out of her mouth. I remember thinking I couldn't do that and get into the meat of the word at the same time, it would take too much time. Little did I know that 4 years later I would understand He was speaking to me through her.

Now, my mind is always looking for connections to Bible Characters, verses etc... I pray for Wayne to be like Joseph & Daniel ("highly esteemed")not just to be a good worker, to not let the girls "feet rush into sin", I desire the "instructed tongue that sustains the weary"....most importantly I am seeking His face.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

So that was a really long winded way to say ...Be sure to sign up for the classes you haven't yet taken...its all part of "...the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

REJOICE!