I've read several books by this author and loved most of them. I'm really excited to see what this new one has to offer. My favorite by her is Secrets She Kept. Check out my review here.
I have been meditating on Deuteronomy 6:5 this week:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
I've known this verse since I was a little girl. I never really thought about it being anything spectacular. Of course I love God. I am a Christian. That's what Christians do.
Last night I dug a little deeper. My study Bible commentary says the heart, soul, and strength are our intellect, will, emotions, and our physical being. Everything I am needs to love God. Everything that makes me who I am needs to love God. Not just my mind if I'm tired, and not just my body if I'm thinking about something else. I need to love Him with all my being. This takes concentration and discipline. It takes time. It also takes reading the next verse:
"And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you."
Wholehearted commitment. That's what it looks like.
I have been reading the book of Galatians this month. I have been looking for something new to do for my Bible reading and decided to do what John MacArthur suggests, which is read an entire book of the Bible for an entire month. I decided to read my way through the General Electric Power Company books (that's Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians). I read it through a couple of times without really stopping and doing any real studying. Then I read it through in my study Bible a few times, reading the notes, and writing down what I found interesting. Now I am reading it in several different versions. There is a lot packed in this little book, including: the fruit of the Spirit, Paul telling off Peter, the verse about being crucified with Christ, and the comparison between Hagar and Sarah.
The central theme of the book is righteousness by faith, not the law. This is something I am so thankful for. I don't have to live under the rules and regulations of the Old Testament. I don't have to live under the rules and regulations of some person who thinks the are God's mouth piece, and can tell people what to do. I live in the freedom of the grace of God under the blood of Christ.
My favorite verse in Galatians is 3:26-27: "For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes." I love that picture of coming up out of the water after baptism all clean and ready for a new life.
If you are interested in learning more about who God is and what he is like, I would recommend reading On Who is God: A Book You'll Actually Read by Mark Driscoll. It's very short, but really packed with information. There are several books in this series, but this is the only one I have read. If you read it, let me know what you think.
I got a great reminder of who God is recently in my devotions. I enjoyed relearning His attributes and seeing how big he is. Here are a few of God's personality traits and the scriptures where they can be found.
God is the Creator ~ Gen. 1:1, Ps. 1:27
God is eternal ~ Ps. 90:2
God is everywhere ~ Jer. 23:24
God is almighty ~ Dan. 4:35
God is all-knowing ~ Luke 12:7, Gen 16:13
Just a few mind boggling things to think about. I will share the rest of the list later. Feel free to share any othe attributes and/or scripture you think of in the comments.
Russty asked me to do something for him this morning. It was a simple task. Look in the box under the bed that has all the CD's in and find a particular song. I knew the song and what CD it was so it was a fairly easy task. What I didn't know was that I would be thrown into a fit of 90's nostalgia that would have me creating playlists and looking up artist web sites all morning. I remembered being a twenty year old bride and leaving home for the first time, becoming a mom, and fumbling through a faith that was finally my own and not just something I believed because I was raised to believe it.
Move in Me by Michael W Smith is a song that reflects my faith journey. I couldn't find a good video of it, but the lyrics are amazing by themselves. The song is on the album My Utmost For His Highest which you can download here, and the lyrics are below.
I am only human
Struggling to find
Confidence in all that I believe
You are only holy
You are love defined
And you have said to ask and I'll recieve
So I have come to pray
That you will come and fill
The hunger here inside me to grow
Stronger in the faith
There's a longing and a need
To have you ever closer
Come fill me
Cause when you move in me
It's like a symphony
The timeless melody
That soothes my soul
Though silent I can tell
That you're alive and well
Cause I can feel you move
In me
What they try to tell me
Is that your love is false
And faith is just a way
I choose to feel
And that there was no meaning
To You upon the cross
And I should reach for something that is real
And when those words are said
The questions in me start
And I don't have any answers
Until I stop thinking with my head
And start listening to my heart
And there I find my assurance
I tell them
