Judges!

Yes! I am in the book of Judges! I started reading it today during studay hall at pep. It was good! I only read the first three chapters but I really learned about God and his love!

So what is happening is God tells Judah to fight the Canaanites and they do, and he hands the ladn over to them just as he promised. Alright, I don't want to tell you every little thing because you should read it yourself (hint hint ;D) but what I wanted to share with you is all through the first few chapters (and more, but I haven't gotten too far yet).

If you ever read Judges, you will notice that over and over again, the Israelites ditched Jesus completley and go to worship idols!

Judges 2:12-13 says, "They quit following the LORD, the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt. They began to worship the gods of the people who lived around them, and that made the LORD angry. The Israelites quit following the LORD and worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth."

That is just one example of them leaving god for some idols. So God punishes them for their sin, and then they Israelites come crying back to God and since he loves them SO much, he helps them.

Verse 18 of chapter 2 says, "When their enemies hurt them, the Israelites cried for help. So the LORD felt sorry for them and sent judges to save them from their enemies. The LORD was with those judges all their lives."

Here, God is showing us that he loves and and will be with us no matter how much we mess up. The thing that really got to me was how many times Israel sinned and turned away from God, and then how quick God was to accept them back when they ran back.
God loves us more than I could ever try to explain, or anyone. He will always forgive us, not matter what we have done or how often we do it. Sure, we will have to accept consequences when we sin, but you have to understand that God punishes us for our good.
How else are we suppose to learn that sinning is wrong?

Anyways, this was really scattered and I don't even think I said it right, but just read Judges and any other part of the Bible that you can, and you will see how many times God's people just totally forget about how great he is, and worship someone else, and also how many times God forgives them. It's really really fantastic!

Always Remember!

Joshua 1:8 - "Always remember what is written in the Book of Teachings. Study it day and night to be sure to obey everything that is written here. If you do this, you will be wise and successful in everything."

Think that going to church and praying is enough? Think again! To thrive in your relationship with Christ you GOTTA dive into His Word! It guides you and helps you in your walk with Jesus. It's his love letter to us and tells us how to live! (:

Here, it says study it day and night so you will remember it and obey it. How do you think those spiritual people can qoute verses of the top of their head? By reading them over and over, and putting them to heart. If you don't spend time reading God's word, you won't thrive, you can't possibly put all your heart into something that you aren't giving any time to!

I know it's hard to study it day and night, or even once a day, but it should be on the top of your list, because if you make time for this, God will provide the time for the other things that are keeping you from your quiet time.

Trust me, I've made excuses over and over again, even recently over the last few days, and then I open and read it and this is what God tells me! Haha. It's really funny, but God cares about me and he is telling me that I need to read it everyday, steadily, instead of reading a ton of chapters once or twice a week.

Pray about it to God, ask Him any question you have, he's your friend, father, protector, healer, comforter and so much more, read the Bible and you will experience a life you never knew! Or, I guess if you already read it then you do know it but, you can always grow (:

Just Do It!

Easier said then done.
But the funny thing about the Bible is, is that it's so clear! Seriously, it flat out tells you what to do. Another funny thing is, is that those flat out things are so difficult for us to do.
I have been reading in Deuteronomy lately and one of the many amazing verses says,

"The LORD your God is testing you, to find out if you love him with your whole being. Serve only the LORD your God. Respect him, keep his commands, and obey him. Serve him and be loyal to him." -Deuteronomy 13:3b-4.

That is a perfect example. It clearly says that God tests us sometimes, and that we need to serve him, to respect and obey him, but day after day we sin and break his rules.
Why is it so hard, why can't we just do what our Creator wants?

Well, we have a sin nature, we are never going to be perfect, and the fact is, we can't obey him, at all. We can't even keep one law that he has set for us, it's impossible.
But that is the beauty of it really. Since we as humans are incapable of obeying and following him, he sent his son to save us, to help us.
Through his son we can lean on him and depend on him to help us take every step in life, and then, when we completely trust him, we can follow God.

Yes, it's very hard, but with God and the love he has for us, we can do it with his help, we just have to accept him, and follow him and trust him enough with our lives.