Wait for the Lord

This is bit from the Psalm passage today which I really liked: Psalm 27:13-14

"I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

Other interesting bits...

Mark 2:17 - "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

I loved Andy's comments on day 48, so wanted to repost the first section here:

Sometimes it’s easy to read these words and think what God’s really interested in is punishing people – after all there are lots of punishments listed. But that’s missing the point – it’s like watching a football match and thinking the point of it is the red and yellow cards. The point of the rules of football aren’t to send people off, they are to let people play. The point of God’s law was never to punish people it was to protect people. It was to make sure that they loved each other, valued the life of another person, cared for the poor and so on. Ultimately it was to create an amazing loving community.

Commented by Lydia: "You are for me" by Kari Jobe



Posted by Kat: "No Reason to Hide" by Hillsong

Interesting Things Commented

Posted by Jenny

A man goes to the hairdressers, and is having his hair cut.

The barber says "I don’t believe in God – if there is a God why is there so much suffering so much disaster? How, if God exists – does He allow this to happen?"

The man getting his hair cut did not want to get into a long discussion-cum-argument – so he paid for his hair cut and left.

Out side on the street he passed a tramp, his hair was over grown, he really looked in need of having his hair cut. The man who had just had his hair cut went back into the barbers, and said "You can’t be a barber, I have just passed a man who needs to have his hair cut – his hair is a mess he really needs it doing . You can’t be a barber if that man is out there, and needs his hair cutting.”

The barber said “If only that man would come to me, I would sort him out – but he needs to come to me first.”

Posted by hepsibah2kingsandisiah

A man was suddenly caught in a flood. He knew God could save him. He climbed onto the roof of his house and waited for God to come. Suddenly he heard a speed boat come, and it danced nervously on the ferocious flood in front of him. ‘Climb aboard, for you will be saved!!’ yelled the driver. ‘No, it’s alright, God will save me!’ the man replied. So the boat drove off.

The flood rose higher and higher and still God did not appear. Suddenly, a helicopter zoomed overhead and hovered above the man. ‘Climb up the ladder, for you will be saved!!’ cried the pilot. ‘No, it’s alright, God will save me!!’ the man replied. So the helicopter flew off.

The flood rose higher and higher still, and God did not come…

The next day, the man reached heaven. When he saw God he said, ‘ Lord, why didn’t you save me?!’
‘For goodness sake! I sent a boat AND a helicopter!’

Posted by Elissa

The man whispered,
“Please – God, speak to me!”
and suddenly a soft breeze gently rustled the leaves.

Louder, the man beseeched,
“Please – God, speak to me!”
and then a meadowlark began to sing.

Then the man groaned,
“Please – God, speak to me!”
and then a little girl giggled nearby.

Then the man yelled,
“Please – God, speak to me!”
and thunder rumbled in the distance.

Then the man screamed,
“Please – God, let me see you!”
and then the sunset glowed
magnificently with lavender and pink.

Then the man shouted,
“God show me a miracle!”
and then a newborn baby began to cry.

In final despair – the man begged,
“Touch me God, and let me know you are here.”

Then God reach down from heaven and
touched the man ever so softly –

Then the man brushed the butterfly from
his arm and shuffled dejectedly away.

A few Proverbs...

Proverbs 3:25-26 - "Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared."

Proverbs 4:18 - "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day."

Proverbs 4:23 - "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."

Great Psalms Passages

Psalm 18:19 - "He rescued me because he delighted in me"

Psalm 18:28 - "You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light"

Psalm 19:1 - "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."

Psalm 20:4-5 - "May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God."

Psalm 22:30-31 - "Future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn - for he has done it."

Psalm 24:1-2 - "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters."

Favourite bits from the Matthew passages

Matt 21:22 - "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer"

Matt 25:14-46 - The Parable of the Talents
I find this parable really interesting and quite challenging - good read...

Matt 28:18-20
"Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.'"

Thoughts on Exodus

I love the story of Moses, it's really great :). I like how God puts up with Moses' constant complaints that he can't do it, and helps him out through Aaron.

Exodus 13:2 - "The Lord is my strength and my song"

Exodus 18:13-27 - Sensible advice from Moses' father in law, delegating authority, I like this :)

I like that God lays the laws down very clearly and practically through Moses.
These laws still apply to us, and we can see what God wants through them - however because of Jesus dying on the cross for us, we do not have to suffer the punishments that we deserve for our sins.

In yesterday and today's passages, there have been specific descriptions of how God wanted the people to build the tabernacle, and what the priestly garments and so on were meant to look like. I really like these passages because they remind us that God is a creator and designer, and is interested in things on a smaller scale as well as the creation of the world. Being friends with lots of fashion students, I quite like thinking about how God cares about fashion, and fashion with a purpose (donning the priests with dignity and honour). It's just rather cool...

Very Brief Thoughts on Job

I found Job quite a hard book to read, it's definitely one I need to reread to understand more properly.

'Bildad the Shuite' - just reminds me of all of the 'shortest man in the bible' jokes.

I love it when God shows up at the end of Job and makes it clear who's right and wrong!

My favourite part is Job 38:4-39:30, some of the verses are really beautiful :)

Massive Catch Up!

Well, for the last couple of days I've been doing a major BIOY catch up, and today I finally actually caught up! (very proud of myself)
I've actually really enjoyed reading all of the passages, though it's been quite intense reading a bunch of them at a time.

Anywho, I'm going to do a few posts updating some of my thoughts on the passages from the last few weeks...

Decreasing Posts...

I've now realised that there's no way I'll manage to blog a BIOY post every day - not now that I've started uni again and I need to do lots of work as well as sort out a million things for Christian Union! I've got to the stage where I beat myself up about not managing to blog all the time, and that's not good. I'll still try to post some things once in a while, so hopefully they'll be more interesting, rather than me just trying to find something to post for the day!

Will see if I have some time at the weekend to do a post or two from this week and last week. Hope everyone's still enjoying BIOY!
Hope to post more soon!

Day 29 - BIOY

Some of my thoughts on Job

Job's friends were really unhelpful! I read a comment on another day about this, they really didn't understand the complexities of God in the way that Job did - he understood that you cannot fully comprehend God, until we're in heaven we're not going to understand everything that God does. We really do find it hard to see the bigger picture, because we don't get to see all the pieces.

I think we really have to be careful about what we say to others, and whether we're actually saying something that is right. Also, we need to be careful who we surround ourselves with - who we listen to, particularly when we are in times of trouble.

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

I must say, I did struggle with this a little at first, because when you first read it, you think 'Well, the ones who worked longer were right! It was unfair!', but then I remembered that they were only promised 1 denarius in the first place, so really it wasn't.

I find it hard because of verse 16 where it says "So the last will be first, and the first will be last". In this context it really does seem unfair and unjust, but when upon re-reading the story, I realised that the landowner was not really putting the later workers first, but instead just making them equal to the earlier ones.

I have no problem thinking about this in terms of God's grace - he is gracious to we who do not deserve it. His grace and mercy mean that it doesn't matter how bad we've sinned, or how long we've been Christians, because as long as we come to him, and believe in Christ, we will all have eternal life.

I liked this comment:

Posted by Emma
God is big enough to deal with our rants and I know that sometimes I need to rant at someone and the one person I know will understand completely is him. So yes, if you need to rant, go to God – always :) x

Day 28 - BIOY

Well, today the blog post itself was about 'the rich man' and how we are all 'rich' really, we have everything we need, and more in many cases - not everyone in the world has that. We need to remember that it is difficult for us to enter the kingdom of God when we value this too highly...

Some really interesting comments:

Posted by Kim
I think its also about using what we have for God. So it’s like God says “give me all your riches – car, house, money, job etc. but then he says here you can keep them, but as long as you use them to further my kingdom and use them for my glory. So if someone needs food – we use “God’s money” to buy it for them, if someone needs a ride we used “God’s car” to give them a lift, if someone needs a place to stay we use “God’s house” to help them out etc. In that way they are ours no longer and we don’t hold onto them like our precious pocessions or ‘idols’ – they are God’s.

Posted by Sarah
I love how Jesus doesn’t just tell the rich man to follow the 10 commandments, he shows him how. When I was reading what Jesus said today, I was thinking ‘hold on a minute, that’s only 7 commandments he’s mentioned there’. But then I realised the 3 he left out are summed up in what he asks the man to do.

We are not to take the Lord’s name in vain- I normally just think of that as swearing, but maybe it’s also a heart thing: this man believed he was holy and righteous in front of God, when actually he was pretty far from it- and needed a little more respect.

We are not to covet our neighbours’… [fill in the gap here] and most of all we are not to have any other gods than God. I don’t see any way the rich man could act out these two commandments better than by giving all he had to the poor and following Jesus.

Talk about a challenge!

And one about Job - posted by Tim
Job is a tricky book to read, but in this morning’s reading there was one of my favourite verses in the book. Job is struggling with his pain and suffering, his friends don’t understand him and are giving him a hard time, Job feels that God doesn’t understand him either. Then in Job 9:33, he says this “If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both.” In a dispute an arbitrator understands both parties and will do his best to bring them together. Job longs for such a person who will understand him and who understands God, and can bring both together. He was longing for JESUS! In a life that sometimes is confusing and we feel people, and even God, don’t understand us, Jesus came into our world, he understands us and now is the perfect go-between!

A verse I liked: Job 9:10

'He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted'

Day 27 - BIOY

Why did God 'suggest' Job to Satan?

Response posted by JonLegacy
God can seem pretty harsh in this story, almost like he starts the whole thing by bragging about how good Job is, but there is another way of reading it, by looking at Job 1;8 and 2;3 differently. When Satan turns up before God, God asks him “where have you been?” and the Accuser replies “Just looking around the Earth”. One of the root words for ‘Satan’, the ‘Accuser’ is ‘S’ut’, the ‘roving eye’ – Satan has been looking for someone to tempt or accuse or destroy, and he has found Job. Knowing Satan’s heart already God says with resignation “Have you really set your heart on my servant Job? There is no-one like him etc…”, and then Satan accuses God of mollycoddling Job, calling Job’s faith into question in the heavenly court, and so the matter has to be proved – it is Satan looking to destroy Job that starts the story, and not God setting Job up as a target. Our enemy hates us, and looks to destroy us, especially those who choose to live in the love of God that he rejected – we are all targets, “but shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

What's a eunuch?

Posted by BornToBeWild
Eunuchs were castrated men, generally given important positions because their castration made them supposedly more trustworthy. And you’re right that they wouldn’t have been married, for obvious reasons. =P

An interesting quote commented:

Posted by CP
‘Looking back, I have learned that the wilderness is as much a part of the landscape of faith.
Every bit essential as the mountain top. On the mountain top we are overwhelmed by Gods presence.
In the wilderness we are overwhelmed by his absence.
Both places should bring us to our knees.
The one in utter awe, the other in utter dependence.’

- David Drecky

And a song...

Someone posted the lyrics to this song, so I thought I'd add the video here - hadn't heard it before today, but I rather like it.

Day 26 - BIOY

Teehee, Andy dressed as Mike...

Why was Satan with the angels, coming to talk to God?

A suggestion from the blog:

Posted by Calum
When Job was written, the name ‘Satan’ was not seen as the devil or anything like that. That’s a much later development in Judeo-Christian theology. Here, whoever Satan is is just portrayed as a particularly cunning member of the heavenly court.

Some comments I found interesting:

Posted by Mummy Snuggs
There is an old saying, which I think may be of Jewish origin, “God never gives you a problem you can’t handle”. And today’s reading from Job seems to agree, as God knew that Satan was going to give someone a load of grief and cause a load of trouble, and he knew that Job, being “upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” would be able to bear the suffering that was coming. As a little girl I thought God, for some reason, had to let Satan put a certain amount of suffering in the world at any one time, so if something bad was happening to me, it made someone else’s suffering less. And as I grew up, I chose to look at it this way – if God is allowing me to have this much trouble in my life, he must think I am strong enough to deal with it, he won’t let it get too much for me so long as I lean on him, and this much aggravation must mean he thinks I’m awesome! People who appear to have trouble free lives are that way because God knows they couldn’t handle real problems.

So don’t envy those who seem to have almost ‘blessed’ lives, pray for them to grow stronger so they can join with the rest of us, showing Satan that faith in the Lord can overcome what ever troubles the Lord allows him to put on us.

Posted by Fiona
I got my pastor really worried when I was becoming a Christian at 23, because the first book I read was Job. He asked ‘why?’ and said I should rather read John. “Well,” I said, “If I’m going to get into this thing, I need to know how bad it can get.”

Some Matt Redman songs I remembered when reading these passages...

Job 1:21 - "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be saved."

Reminded me of: 'Blessed be your name'



Psalm 16:8 - "I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken."

Reminded me of: ' We shall not be shaken'

Day 25 - BIOY

Favourite bit from today's readings: Matthew 17:20

"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Something I'd never noticed before!

Bit of a random miracle in Matt:17:27 - and interesting way to get tax money ('so that we may not offend them').

"Go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours."

Promises of God - Phillipians 4:19

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

My favourite promise: Jeremiah 29:11

"'For I know 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.'"

Day 24 - BIOY

What's all this 'put your hand under my thigh' business, when making a promise?

It was a way of swearing by the family line.
One person mentioned that 'under the thigh' is a euphemism for the genitals (and another said "I was so hoping no one was going to mention that!").
Also they had the idea that it may also be to do with Joseph wrestling God - "because when the ‘man’ wrestles with Israel he ‘touches him in the socket of the hip, and it was wrenched’ – its another euphemism… the angel hits him below the belt! God fights dirty with Jacob to show him what it feels like to be on the receiving end of dirty tricks…"

I don't understand, was Elijah actually John the Baptist?

No, Jesus was linking them by referring to them in that way.

Response posted by Calum
One of the last prophets in the Old Testament (Malachi 4.5) talked about Elijah coming to prepare people for the ‘great day of the LORD’, suggesting that after that, only the Messiah would be left to come. By linking John the Baptist to Elijah (I don’t think there’s enough in the passages to say whether it was literally Elijah, or whether Elijah stood as a symbol which John the Baptist fulfilled), Jesus is suggesting that John the Baptist was the prophet after whom only the Messiah would come – and so implicitly claims to be the Messiah through the passage.

Why would Joseph have 'bought' the people in return for giving them food? Surely slavery isn't the way...

Joseph was in charge of Egypt's resources, and couldn't just give away the grain for free. However, he did not use these 'bought' people in a way that would mean they were in horrible conditions or anything like that. Instead, they had land to farm, and were to give a fifth of their harvest to Pharoah - in this way, he still served Pharoah, and made profit for him, but he also save the lives of the people, and allowed them to live well despite their poor circumstances.

Really good bit: Proverbs 3:1-2

"Keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity."

And of course: Proverbs 3:5

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"

I also liked how one person mentioned that the 'and' is significant - suggesting that we can trust in the Lord with all our heart's and still lean on our own understanding. It is an interesting idea, and we should strive to follow this passage...

Day 23 - BIOY

Sorry, I've been really busy with CU stuff so haven't managed to blog about BIOY recently - trying to do a major catch up today...

Joseph - Signpost to Jesus

Andy was talking about how there were many parallels between the lives of Joseph and Jesus:

• When he was young, Joseph had dreams of being a ruler, and there were hints of this in his early life - There were also many signs in Jesus' early life, including the magi.
• Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver, and Jesus for 30, this was the price of a slave (by Jesus time it had gone up)
• They were both tempted - by Mrs Potiphar and Satan - and both stood their ground so as not to disobey God and ruin what he had for them.
• They were both falsely accused and unjustly sentenced.
• During their sentences, both were with 2 other men, and spoke words of life to 1 of them.
• They both had hugely significant elevations - Joseph went from prisoner to prince, Jesus went from dead to being at the right hand of God.
• After becoming in a position of power, they both did not kill/punish those who did wrong to them, but instead forgave them.

This shows that Jesus coming was never a mistake, it was always the plan, and there were signs of this throughout history.

Amused...

Lots of people had made references to Joseph, the musical. I've only seen it once, but it was excellent

Really liked: Genesis 45:24

"Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, 'don't quarrel on the way!'"

Day 22 - BIOY

Main thing from today?

Well, the main thing I kind of noticed from today, was that people were being pushed to show things - e.g. Joseph pushes his brothers/tests them, to see if their hearts have actually changed, and it is clear that they have because Judah pleads with Joseph to take him instead of Benjamin. Also, Jesus seems to test the Canaanite woman by ignoring her, saying that he just came for the Israelites and comparing Canaanites with dogs - it seems very un-Jesus-like, but this pushes her to show her strong faith by still pursuing healing for her daughter, and her faith gives her the outcome she desires.

A joke posted today that made me giggle!

Home visit

A new pastor was visiting in the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door.
Therefore, he took out a business card and wrote ‘Revelation 3:20′ on the back of it and stuck it in the door.

When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, ‘Genesis 3:10.’
Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock.’
Genesis 3:10 reads, ‘I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked.’

Day 21 - BIOY

The main message I got from Crofty's video:

God can do amazing things where you are right now, even when you're so used to 'how things work' there and it just seems rather unlikely.
This reminded me of the whole 'dream big' thing - it's not at all a bad thing to dream big, and to pray big prayers.
We need to be radical Christians, and begin to understand God's nature more - expect him to do great things! :)

A comment I really liked (about the Matthew passage):

Posted by Charlie C:
The Pharisees were preoccupied with washing the hands (verse 2), yet they missed out on the most important thing – the cleansing of the heart. They were obsessed with ‘correct’ religious ritual, yet they sent Christ to the Cross. They honoured God with their words, yet in their hearts they were far from Him (verse 8). We must pray for the cleansing of the heart: ‘Purify my heart, Cleanse me from within And make me holy. Purify my heart, Cleanse me from my sin, Deep within’ (Songs of Fellowship, 475).

Day 20 - BIOY

Something I liked from the Genesis passage:

Joseph was very straight-forward and truthful. He didn't just tell people what they wanted to hear, but what was right. He did not claim to be some amazing guy who could interpret dreams, but instead told others straight off that it was God.

A good comment, that reflects what I was thinking about!

Posted by Nathan
It just really struck me how long Joseph was left in prison. At the start of chapter 41 we read that another “2 years passed”. I think that once we really understand the time scale we realise that in our lives God isn’t going to necessarily act straight away. But he waits and waits until the time is right for us and for him. For us today I think that’s really difficult where everything is just being done quicker and quicker whilst God is still the same and he just wants us to be patient with him and just wait!

Something I found interesting from the Matthew passage:

Jesus withdrew to a solitary place after he was told of John's execution - even he wanted some time alone! But unlike how we might act, when this plan was thwarted by people coming to see him, he did not get angry and tell them to leave him alone, but instead was full of compassion and spent time with them, talking and healing etc.

Compassion for others is important, and I really liked this example of it - even when it inconvenienced him and meant he didn't get to do what he planned, Jesus didn't just force himself to be civil, he actually had compassion and lovingly spending time with the people.

Just reading Andy's post - he also mentions this, and expands - saying:
Even when Jesus had an excuse to get rid of the people (so they could go eat) he didn't, instead he, himself fed them.