Bible Time
I have another confession to make: I have never read the Bible starting with Genesis 1:1 and reading in order until Revelation 22:21. I have participated in Disciples I and II, I have participated/lead Bible studies on just about every book of the Bible and I am positive I have read from every book doing the reading tracts that come with most new Bibles. But to say I read it all from beginning to end and in order-NO I have not.
When I laid out my spiritual preparation for becoming a missionary, and sought the council of my minister, Rev. Kanipe. I really looked at a lot of great Christian texts on being a missionary, the history of missionary work, the changes over time. There were two books I had the privileged of reading before I started the latest leg of my journey. One, Rev. Yon, gave me a copy of when he went to Seminary called Cross Cultural Servanthood. The second was one through a Bible Study lead by a friend called When Helping Hurts. When I was accepted to United Methodist IVM training, those two books were on the read before you get here list and I enjoyed them just as much the second time around. I strongly recommend both to anyone who wants to be involved in helping others because there is some eye opening information in both.
So why my confession at the beginning of this blog, it was something I was going to change during my time as a missionary. I set certain goals for myself as a person during my time here in Tanzania (and hopefully for the rest of my life). The first was that after one of my best friends told a room full of people he never heard me say a curse word, I felt I needed to live up to that. Since my days in the military I have made great progress but I still let one fly every now and then. But he did say it and I am trying to live up to that one now. Good news I am doing really well with that one as I did not teach myself any Swahili curse words. Next up was to get back to a strong walking routine because I knew I would have ample opportunity for that. For those that follow me on Facebook you probably know I doing well on that one too. I walk between 2 and 4 hours everyday just to get to places I need to be. I try to never use a mototaxi or pikipiki here in Singida or after I get to the site in Yulansoni. If I need to be somewhere, I walk it. Third was to eat better-I only do better at this one because of what I can get sometimes and I need to focus my own energies on this one a little better. Fourth and the most important, even though I am listing it last, is to read the Bible cover to cover in order the way God set it up. I am happy to report this is also been a successful so far. I currently finished with Joshua.
Now here is a comment that will probably get me in trouble, but reading the Bible this way has been similar to watching all three of the original Star Wars movies back to back. While in college we started semesters with a free movie night on campus. One year they did all three of the original Star Wars (the new ones were not out yet-age alert-also it was not common for someone to own that many movies for their VCR). There were some nuances I saw that night as one of 20 folks who made it through all three. Little things that don't always affect the overall story but were interesting all the same.
That has been happening as I read in order, things I normally overlooked have stood out. For instance I have always wondered about Matthew 8:21-22 where the man wants to bury his father before following Jesus, but Jesus says "let the dead bury their own dead." In Numbers 6:1-8 we are told that those who make a special vow of with the Lord should not go near a dead body, even that of their mother, father, brother or sister because he would become ceremonially unclean and break the vow. I cannot help but think this is connected because following Jesus would have been a special vow with the Lord.
While throughout Joshua, there is the constant theme of everyone in the land they are to inherit is to be put to the sword, man, woman and child-none left alive. Harsh! But God repeatedly tells them that their ways are detestable to him. If they remain, God knows their ways of worship will affect the Israelites. As we all know from Judges, Isaiah etc. that is what happens. Basically God knew it was like a cancer, if they left any of it then it would spread again.
Now to Joshua 24-where a newly famous verse from the movie Courageous comes from: "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24: 15) This was part of something much bigger: Joshua was giving the people a choice to follow the Lord, the God of their father Abraham, or to follow the stone and wood gods of the people they had just driven out of the land they inherited. The chose to follow God who led them out of Egypt and Who gave them victory after victory.
The choice is ours, it always has been. God does not force us to follow Him he gives us a choice. He even gave us a way to be reconciled to him despite the many times we fail to follow him and the many times we put something in between us and him and worship it more: sports, money, power, tv shows, and the list goes on and on-speaking from experience on several of them. During Lent many folks gave up something, but I know we have all heard a minister talk about adding something. I am thankful for my time to work on reading the Bible the way it was arranged and wished I had done this many years ago.
When I laid out my spiritual preparation for becoming a missionary, and sought the council of my minister, Rev. Kanipe. I really looked at a lot of great Christian texts on being a missionary, the history of missionary work, the changes over time. There were two books I had the privileged of reading before I started the latest leg of my journey. One, Rev. Yon, gave me a copy of when he went to Seminary called Cross Cultural Servanthood. The second was one through a Bible Study lead by a friend called When Helping Hurts. When I was accepted to United Methodist IVM training, those two books were on the read before you get here list and I enjoyed them just as much the second time around. I strongly recommend both to anyone who wants to be involved in helping others because there is some eye opening information in both.
So why my confession at the beginning of this blog, it was something I was going to change during my time as a missionary. I set certain goals for myself as a person during my time here in Tanzania (and hopefully for the rest of my life). The first was that after one of my best friends told a room full of people he never heard me say a curse word, I felt I needed to live up to that. Since my days in the military I have made great progress but I still let one fly every now and then. But he did say it and I am trying to live up to that one now. Good news I am doing really well with that one as I did not teach myself any Swahili curse words. Next up was to get back to a strong walking routine because I knew I would have ample opportunity for that. For those that follow me on Facebook you probably know I doing well on that one too. I walk between 2 and 4 hours everyday just to get to places I need to be. I try to never use a mototaxi or pikipiki here in Singida or after I get to the site in Yulansoni. If I need to be somewhere, I walk it. Third was to eat better-I only do better at this one because of what I can get sometimes and I need to focus my own energies on this one a little better. Fourth and the most important, even though I am listing it last, is to read the Bible cover to cover in order the way God set it up. I am happy to report this is also been a successful so far. I currently finished with Joshua.
Now here is a comment that will probably get me in trouble, but reading the Bible this way has been similar to watching all three of the original Star Wars movies back to back. While in college we started semesters with a free movie night on campus. One year they did all three of the original Star Wars (the new ones were not out yet-age alert-also it was not common for someone to own that many movies for their VCR). There were some nuances I saw that night as one of 20 folks who made it through all three. Little things that don't always affect the overall story but were interesting all the same.
That has been happening as I read in order, things I normally overlooked have stood out. For instance I have always wondered about Matthew 8:21-22 where the man wants to bury his father before following Jesus, but Jesus says "let the dead bury their own dead." In Numbers 6:1-8 we are told that those who make a special vow of with the Lord should not go near a dead body, even that of their mother, father, brother or sister because he would become ceremonially unclean and break the vow. I cannot help but think this is connected because following Jesus would have been a special vow with the Lord.
While throughout Joshua, there is the constant theme of everyone in the land they are to inherit is to be put to the sword, man, woman and child-none left alive. Harsh! But God repeatedly tells them that their ways are detestable to him. If they remain, God knows their ways of worship will affect the Israelites. As we all know from Judges, Isaiah etc. that is what happens. Basically God knew it was like a cancer, if they left any of it then it would spread again.
Now to Joshua 24-where a newly famous verse from the movie Courageous comes from: "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24: 15) This was part of something much bigger: Joshua was giving the people a choice to follow the Lord, the God of their father Abraham, or to follow the stone and wood gods of the people they had just driven out of the land they inherited. The chose to follow God who led them out of Egypt and Who gave them victory after victory.
The choice is ours, it always has been. God does not force us to follow Him he gives us a choice. He even gave us a way to be reconciled to him despite the many times we fail to follow him and the many times we put something in between us and him and worship it more: sports, money, power, tv shows, and the list goes on and on-speaking from experience on several of them. During Lent many folks gave up something, but I know we have all heard a minister talk about adding something. I am thankful for my time to work on reading the Bible the way it was arranged and wished I had done this many years ago.
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