"Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good, maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph." (Amos 5:14)
So anyway I will start my first ever bible study in two weeks but until then it's just been me reading and studying by myself. Well more reading...and often focusing on the blurbs of each book thanks to my Spiritual Renewal Bible that so excellently gives overviews to decipher and make sense of all that difficult language and complex ideas to get a "big picture understanding"... I find you can easily get overwhelmed and bogged down by the difficult archaic language or metaphorical concepts if you are trying to understand solely by your human efforts and not enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to correct interpretation understanding.
So anyway, although I DID try to start reading the bible from page 1 and I did manage Genesis, Exodus etc...then maybe I got lazy to read in order. Lately I admit I have found it more effective to haphazardly read by books or especially where God leads me, I find this method a more fruitful experience...because it tends to highlight themes that are directly applicable to my life at the time...and people say the bible is irrelevant and out of date just because it is 2000 years old??! Not so! (In my experience)...if anything I find it such a magical book that holds the answers to every kind of situation or predicament that life throws at us and is the ultimate wise counsel :)
So anyway God led me to the above quoted passage. To be honest I never even knew a book called Amos existed!!! So it was pretty interesting to find out there was this tiny book under the name of Amos hidden in the bible... So anyway when I read the blurb that deciphers what the book is about, it's full of great themes and I am not sure why I have never ever heard it mentioned or referenced to know that it even existed...
So just to recap because I bet many others were also not aware of this book of Amos....a brief synopsis...
"God called Amos, a shepherd from Tekoa, to awaken his people from their spiritual sleep. Sadly, their sinful behaviour was worse than some of their pagan neighbours! Amos warned them of the painful consequences that would follow their sinful behviour..."(from Spiritual Renewal Bible, NIV, 1998).
The Key themes listed are:
Complacency Leads To A Downfall
We Are Created for Relationship
God Honors Upright Hearts
Spiritual Renewal Begins with Surrender
So anyway, very interesting to me, anyway :) Now that I have whet your appetite if you are interested you can go and read it for yourself, perhaps with the help of some study bible...Anyway I am always very pleased when I discover something completely new...Amos! Have you read it?
Blessings in Christ,
Zoe
Saturday 9 February 2013
Saturday 2 February 2013
"Won-Der-Ful God I Look To You..."
I heard the post title's lyrics in a a song today and in fact while I write this post, the album cycle repeated so I hear them right now again! :)
In another song I also heard "Your Ways are Higher".
Two very good things to always keep in mind to live an effective Christian life!
So anyway, because of travel and the terrible weather I haven't been to My church in 3 weeks...that is a very loooong time and I definitely feel the lack! :( So, - unsurprisingly- I noticed I had been further from God than usual and I had been very influenced by people with their human mindsets and their ways of the world. I know this because I was lacking the usual peace and content and confidence that comes with being close to God. I was feeling anxious and my human logical mindset was running riot with worries about the future! I also had been turning to talk to people for advice rather than Seeking His Face first and His all knowing wisdom! I think after having been in a place where the presence of God was so strong, I had become complacent or at least relatively slack in my usual spiritual routines of quite a lot of time spent in prayer and communing with God as well as plenty of reading Christian books /or the bible...probably I am also still tired and under the weather from insufficient rest since being back.
So anyway it is not surprising that I felt some kind of oppression whether you want to call it spiritual attack or succumbing to the heavy energy of a human mindset such as fear, doubt, anxiety...and my vision just felt mired and cloudy with ANGST in general, a common affliction of an overactive human mind...
So all the negative feelings and thoughts crept in as my lack of faith/doubt had made a chink in my Ephesians armour...and my shield of FAITH was not up to deflecting all the arrows!
Whenever that happens it is always a good wake up call that you've drifted too far away and need to draw near to Him again...
Being able to wholely and solely Trust in and Obey God requires constant conscientious personal effort and commitment- walking totally In Faith can be very daunting and logic defying or at least unintuitive and unnatural to the human mindset...
So anyway yesterday afternoon in my lack of peace I was crying out to God over and over in my mind for direction, guidance, and to TELL ME, SHOW ME what to do next...
He answered :)
Circumstances in my tangible existence all worked together a la God's Perfect Engineering to SHOW me very clearly! And I was awestruck -as usual - especially whenever it happens so responsively and tangibly and clearly, but I have since had a little time to digest my excitement :)
In my blessed experience, PRAYER or calling on God is quite magical...it is almost like in the Ali Baba story where when you say "Open Sesame" a magical doorway you didn't even see existing in front of you opens a new unknown pathway of adventure before you :)
And that is why Prayer is SO POWERFUL and SO Important...because it is our link with God and how we can access his infinite source of wisdom and power.
When we call out, God hears...sometimes he responds favourably and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes the response is delayed. It's all according to His perfect wisdom and timing and will....but definitely he HEARS us when we cry out to him: I am sure of that!!!
May this post find you near to Him as well :)
Zoe
In another song I also heard "Your Ways are Higher".
Two very good things to always keep in mind to live an effective Christian life!
So anyway, because of travel and the terrible weather I haven't been to My church in 3 weeks...that is a very loooong time and I definitely feel the lack! :( So, - unsurprisingly- I noticed I had been further from God than usual and I had been very influenced by people with their human mindsets and their ways of the world. I know this because I was lacking the usual peace and content and confidence that comes with being close to God. I was feeling anxious and my human logical mindset was running riot with worries about the future! I also had been turning to talk to people for advice rather than Seeking His Face first and His all knowing wisdom! I think after having been in a place where the presence of God was so strong, I had become complacent or at least relatively slack in my usual spiritual routines of quite a lot of time spent in prayer and communing with God as well as plenty of reading Christian books /or the bible...probably I am also still tired and under the weather from insufficient rest since being back.
So anyway it is not surprising that I felt some kind of oppression whether you want to call it spiritual attack or succumbing to the heavy energy of a human mindset such as fear, doubt, anxiety...and my vision just felt mired and cloudy with ANGST in general, a common affliction of an overactive human mind...
So all the negative feelings and thoughts crept in as my lack of faith/doubt had made a chink in my Ephesians armour...and my shield of FAITH was not up to deflecting all the arrows!
Whenever that happens it is always a good wake up call that you've drifted too far away and need to draw near to Him again...
Being able to wholely and solely Trust in and Obey God requires constant conscientious personal effort and commitment- walking totally In Faith can be very daunting and logic defying or at least unintuitive and unnatural to the human mindset...
So anyway yesterday afternoon in my lack of peace I was crying out to God over and over in my mind for direction, guidance, and to TELL ME, SHOW ME what to do next...
He answered :)
Circumstances in my tangible existence all worked together a la God's Perfect Engineering to SHOW me very clearly! And I was awestruck -as usual - especially whenever it happens so responsively and tangibly and clearly, but I have since had a little time to digest my excitement :)
In my blessed experience, PRAYER or calling on God is quite magical...it is almost like in the Ali Baba story where when you say "Open Sesame" a magical doorway you didn't even see existing in front of you opens a new unknown pathway of adventure before you :)
And that is why Prayer is SO POWERFUL and SO Important...because it is our link with God and how we can access his infinite source of wisdom and power.
When we call out, God hears...sometimes he responds favourably and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes the response is delayed. It's all according to His perfect wisdom and timing and will....but definitely he HEARS us when we cry out to him: I am sure of that!!!
May this post find you near to Him as well :)
Zoe
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