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2 Kings 4-5

2 Kings 5 9-19 9So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. 10But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.” 11But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! 12Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage. 13But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’” 14So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven tim...
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Numbers 14-15

In today's reading, the people of Israel are reacting to the news of the land that Moses had sent spies out to. It says that they would rather pack up and go back to Egypt. They were so angy that they were going to stone Aaron and Moses. The only way that this stops is that God's presence falls down. God is furious with them - He tells Moses that He is willing to smite (kill) them all and start a great nation that is greater and mighter. God was willing to kill His chosen nation because they refused to believe that He was greater that what they saw in front of them. If it wasn't for Moses, one more time, pleading with God to save the nation. Moses practically tells God that it would be a bad PR move to get rid of them because then the Egyptians would hear about it. Man! For me, this just lets me know that when God gives a command we have to listen. When He is commanding us we MUST obey. This chapter also shows me the inportance of a good leader for God's peo...
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Numbers 8-10

In Numbers 8 they are talking about consecrating the priest. They would have to shave all over but the more interesting thing to me is that the Bible says "and present the Levites before the Lord; and the sons of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites." Numbers 8:10. Imagine we are talking about a whole nation praying over you before you go before the Lord to present the offering for their sins. Imagine if a church prayed for the pastor before he went before the Lord so pray for them. That whole scene had to be powerful! I also found it interesting that the priests were only allowed to serve till they were 50. I think that was partly because being a priest was a lot of physical labor and the work would have been hard for them.  They were still allowed to assist but wouldn't be doing the work themselves. I mean if that isn't an anaolgy for how the church should work today. But I digress.  In chapter 9, they talk about how to observe the Passover. One b...
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Honest Self Assessment

One of the hardest things for me as a Christian has been reading the Bible. I am not a reader to begin with. I know that reading the Bible is one of the most important was of connecting with Him every day but still a struggle for me. I am doing this blog partly as reminder/accountability for me to read every day. As you can see that this still doesn't happen all the time. I hope that you will continue this journey with me as I try to improve myself through the Word. Sorry if I am not here everyday. But as I continue to press on, I know I will get better.
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Numbers 5-7

  In today's reading,  God went into more detail with Moses about people who needed to be separated because they were unclean. They didn't just just have to be away but they needed to be outside of the camp. For women, every month they had to spend at least 8 days away from their family. Maybe that was a blessing for them. Another thing to note was that when a man was jealous of his wife or thought she was cheating, she would have to go thru this whole procedure with the priest to prove that she wasn't cheating. But I never saw anything if the woman thought he husband was cheating. Now I know that it is different times, but man that seemed like a lot to go through. The Nazarite vow was also very serious. It meant sacrificing a few animals and setting your self apart and not becoming unclean. It was to the point where even if your mother, father, sister, etc. died, you were not allowed to go see them until your vow had been complete.  The rest of the reading discussed givi...
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Numbers 1-4

Today I started Numbers. This is a book that I am always afraid to read. Just a long list of names. But when I was reading today I was paying a little more attention to the numbers of the people. Any time you think about a tribe in the desert you think about just a few people but after reading this you realize that there were about 603,000 men 20 years or older. Just to put that in perspective. Washington DC a city that is 10 sq. miles. With a population of 695,000 people. 603,000 was just the population of the older men. It is insane to think that it was the job of just one man to try to control these many people. I also notice how every tribe had a different job in taking care of and in taking apart the tabernacle. To think that God's presence was so strong there that if you didnt take care in taking down his tabernacle, that could lead to death. There is so much in that to unpack. I am hoping to look at Numbers differently this time and try to get as much out of it a...
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Leviticus 24-27

  Today I read the last few chapters in Leviticus. A few things stuck out to me. One is how we should be treating people who have borrowed money from us or who are indebted to us. The Bible tells us to take them in and sustain them but not at an interest. We were always meant, as a community, to take care of each other - so we can thrive together.  The year of Jubilee was fascinating to me. You never really owned anything. Every 50 years you would have to retire everything back, all land and slaves that were Jewish. Now I don't think that the year of Jubilee was ever observed, not sure why, but it was just interesting to see the concept.  Leviticus was eye-opening. To see all that they had to do at the time just so that they could be in God's presence. I think one of the biggest takeaways from this is that I need to make sure that my heart and life are right with him if I'm wanting to enter in. I know that we no longer live under old testament law but I think if I want to...
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