Staying in the Word

Good Afternoon Ladies,

I have been thinking about what we have been experiencing together over the past 7 weeks at the Bible study and how important it is for us to encourage each other to stay in the word of God. Until our next group Bible Study time together how can we encourage one another in our personal time with God to study and apply the Word of God to our living?

Here is my idea. Every Wednesday I will post on the blog for the sole purpose of staying connected regarding our personal scripture goals for November and December. If this is something that would resonate with you and keep you accountable then sign in on those days by writing the current passage you are studying and your name. If you want you can summarize in a sentence the thought that you'll most take with you. Much like what we did with the stairs graphic in the Psalms of Ascents.

Just for your information, you do not need to be a blog follower to post a comment. Being a blog follower simply means that you are advised by email when a new blog has been posted - saving you from having to check on your own.

I have decided to study the book of Zechariah. In doing so I read the book of Ezra to give context to the book of Zechariah and may be reading parts of Daniel and Esther as well. If I have time I will follow up with Haggai. They all overlap in ways.

After reading Ezra I felt that Israel likely sang Psalm 130. Verse 3 and 4 say;

If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O LORD, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

The Lord easily could have wiped out the Israelites because they were sinful and followed and adopted the ways of the people who took them captive. God didn't wipe them out. He found a man Ezra, who;

set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to practise it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel. Ezra 7:10

Through Ezra a remnant of Israel returned from their exile from Babylon to worship and re-establish themselves as God's people in Jerusalem. Together as a survived nation they acknowledged God's goodness and repented of their sins. The book ends with them making amends. Paying the consequences for their ways.

It is a hard place for the book to end. They can't keep everything. They can't have their cake and eat it too. After thinking a little longer, sometimes we realize that 'well, we didn't actually need the cake in the first place'. We realize that it is NOT a sad thing to have to give up what took us away from God. Those are the lies we have believed and followed and they never worked to make us more of what God intended for us to be. Instead they devalued us and made us feel more unfulfilled.

There are so many things that are mysterious to me about the ways of God. I know however, that God is my creator and that He knit me together in my mother's womb. He created me in His own image. So it is when we are striving to be like God that we are freed from what entangles and empties us.

OK, I realize that would NOT fit on a stair graphic. Here is my summary.

I pray that I will set my heart to study the Word of God, and to practise it.