In just shy of 12 hours, 2016 will be history, and 2017 will be upon us!
Each year, it seems, I try to make a few New Years Resolutions, and try even harder to stick to them! In 2015, one of my resolutions was to get into my Bible more and more often. I created my own idea on how to accomplish this. Before 2015 began, I had been out shopping with some family members and we were at a large mall that has one of those kiosks in the middle of the mall that sells calendars. I found an adorable daily planner that I loved and decided to buy it. I knew I wanted to get more into my Bible, so for the next couple weeks, I looked through several websites and came up with multiple lists of Bible verses that are encouraged to be read and memorized. I compiled those lists together and came up with a grand list of (what I thought was) 365 verses. I then took each of those verses, put them each on a piece of paper, put the pieces of paper in a box, and shook it with all my might! I then went through and picked one piece of paper at a time, and at the bottom of each day in my planner, I wrote down one of my verses. (I should probably inform everyone now that I tend to be a little OCD about things. I like order and I strive when work is repetitive and can be easily caught on to. To some this task probably seems tedious, but I managed to get in my "zone" and had a great time doing it.)
If that weren't enough, I didn't want to just READ the Bible...I wanted to reflect on it! So, I then took all of my pieces of paper, put them in the order they come in the Bible, pulled out a 3-ring binder and a huge handful of loose leaf notebook paper, and carefully penned the address of each verse, in order, at the top of each page.
My plan was that each day, I would look up the verse for the day listed, then turn to that verse's page in the binder. I would try to write down the verse (some were just too long and I didn't feel like taking up that much space and dealing with hand cramping). And then I would make some kind of comment on it. Some days the comment was simply "This is something I really need to remember!" Sometimes the comment connected something I had recently heard at church. Sometimes the comment was surrounded by music notes and would include lyrics to a hymn I remember from growing up. For a little while, I had read in a Bible study that it's a good idea to sometimes personalize verses and write them out as if God is talking to you. That worked for a little while...but there are some verses from the Old Testament that you'd probably be glad that God has NOT told you!
I did this throughout the year. Some days I was good and kept up daily. Some days I got a few weeks behind and had to go back and catch up. But it was a really interesting way to get into the Word a bit more. Before 2015 had ended, I had noticed that some of the verses were just very good and would be better to be memorized...or at least in a place to remember them regularly. I began going back through my binder, and put a star next to some of the verses. I began condensing the list down to only 100 starred verses. I had intended to write them on notecards and other pieces of paper to keep around and be a reference for myself. However, about halfway through writing them down on a set of notecards, I realized that this set of notecards would be the perfect gift for a friend who had a birthday coming up. I finished the cards and gave them to her as a birthday gift in February. Talk about a labor of love as a gift!!
In 2016, after being slightly worn out from my mass amount of prep for my 2015 resolution, I took the "easy" way out, and I decided my resolution was going to be to read through the entire Bible in a year. Easily accomplished, as I have a Bible app on my phone and on my tablet, which also has numerous studies programmed in. I have been working through this study, many times falling behind. However, it has been very interesting to read through the entire Bible. There were so many things in the Old Testament that I had either forgotten about or had never read before. I also learned that reading the book of Leviticus while eating lunch at work is NOT a smart idea. I don't normally lose my appetite from reading gruesome things, but trying to read about animal sacrifices and where to pour the blood of the animal and how to chop and dice the animal for the sacrifice...just didn't really go well while trying to enjoy my lunch.
So now, 2017 is upon us. I know, that as a Christian, and as a human, that if I don't make SOME kind of plans for this coming year, I'll probably be sitting around bored. So, I've made a new resolution. And...just like my 2015 resolution...it's pretty in-depth.
Over the Christmas season, our church has been doing a series called "Rethink Christmas". For both the Sunday before Christmas, as well as Christmas Eve, the pastor really worked on explaining the concept of "peace" that the angels proclaimed in Luke 2:14. All throughout the Christmas story, we hear about the angels saying "Peace on Earth". Many people have their own definitions about what this "peace" is. To sum up a 45-ish minute sermon, this "peace" is NOT a peace from circumstances, it's NOT an international peace, and it's NOT even a weird "peace" that is only discovered during the holiday season. (I mean, seriously, I didn't even do my Christmas shopping until 3 days before Christmas...not much peace there!). Rather, the peace the angels proclaimed is a peace that can only be felt and discovered in a personal relationship with God. I personally have a relationship with God...but are all of my circumstances perfect? Nope. Is there remarkable peace in my city, state, country, or even continent? Nope. Did I get some amazing peace during Christmas? Nope. The peace that I have...is a peace that only God can give. An intimate peace that only exists with him. Like, when I was having a really rough day and started reading through my 365 day plan. Instantly, I felt better. The verses that I was reading had absolutely nothing to do with my current situation. Yet, I still felt peaceful. That peace...was due to being in the presence of God. THAT is the peace the angels were proclaiming.
So...I wonder...what other words in the Bible do we misunderstand? I have another blog called Past. Present. Future. and this entire blog is called Bethany's Missions. Back in 2010, I took the trip of a lifetime to a small village in Thailand to visit orphans that my church supports. Since that trip, it has been my dream and goal to someday work on some kind of certification in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I worked on that goal for a little bit a couple years ago...I enrolled in a masters degree program. I had to drop out after only 3 classes due to financial troubles. However, I thoroughly enjoyed what I was learning. Most of what I was learning was English linguistics (basically...the study of words). I love words. I love to study words.
So...I decided that this year, I am going to embark on a word study. I have gone through the concordance of my NIV Bible, and have worked to discover 365 words. Knowing I needed some resources, I ordered a HUGE Bible dictionary and concordance from Amazon. My plan is to take a word and a verse reference from the NIV, cross-reference it to the King James Version (which is what the dictionary is based out of), look up the word in question, and then go back to the good old Webster's dictionary for more information. I don't know exactly yet how this will work out. I'm planning on blogging about some of what I find. In a perfect world, I'd blog every day. However, life still exists. It may be just a once-a-week deal, or I may just decide to only blog when I remember.
But...to get some excitement, I decided to do an example of this word study idea. The reason for this particular study came from a conversation I had with a friend a month or so ago. She was going through a very stressful time, and, trying to be a good Biblical friend, I sent her a couple verses. Jeremiah 29:11 was one of those verses. We ended up having a brief conversation that often times, Jeremiah 29:11 is highly taken out of context. Most of Jeremiah 29 is God giving instructions to the "surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon" (Jer. 29:1 NIV). However, if you look at verse 10 of Jeremiah 29, you find something important. The verse says: "This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place."" (Jer. 29:10 NIV). Did you catch that?? Seventy years!! 70!! Not just today. Not just tomorrow...70 years!!
I feel like that word "plan" is a bit more intense than what we think.
In the NIV, Jeremiah 29:11 says this:
"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."
Pop over to the KJV, the same verse says this:
"For I know the THOUGHTS that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end"
Hmm...PLANS and THOUGHTS. In my mind...two very different words. I have THOUGHTS to eat healthy. But...if I don't make PLANS to eat healthy, I'll probably not do any good. I have THOUGHTS to pray more and read my Bible more, but I don't always make PLANS to do that. I sometimes have THOUGHTS to seek nasty revenge on people that hurt me, but to be honest...I don't normally make PLANS to seek that revenge.
Let's take a look at where this word "thought" from the KJV comes from. According to my massive "New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible", the word for "thoughts" comes from a Hebrew word: machashabah or machashebeth (please note...there are several accent mark notations that I don't know how to type on my English keyboard). From Hebrew, this word is defined as "a contrivance; a texture, machine, or intention; plan (whether bad, a plot; or good, advice). Thought, purpose, work.
Intention...I like that word.
Let's go back to good old Webster's Dictionary and look some of this up.
Plan: "a scheme for making, doing, or arranging something."
Thought: "the act or process of thinking; the power of reasoning; an idea or concept; attention, consideration; mental concentration."
Intention: "determination to act in a specified way; anything intended, purpose."
When I think of the PLANS God has for me, I don't give Him enough credit (oh...so He knows if I'm going to eat lunch, what I'm going to eat, and how many pounds I'll be gaining from that choice). When I even think of the THOUGHTS God has of me, I don't give Him enough credit (aww...He loves me...it's Valentines Day every day with God!) But that word intention. God doesn't just have plans and thoughts. He has "determination to act in a SPECIFIED way." He doesn't just know IF I'll get married some day. He already knows who the lucky guy is, when we'll first meet, HOW we'll first meet, when we'll first fall in love, when he will get down on one knee. God already knows if my niece will be my flower girl, my bridesmaid, or my maid of honor. God's been planning my wedding well before my mom or I began planning it. Same goes for friends, health, jobs, careers...EVERYTHING. He doesn't just have some of it planned out. He has it ALL planned out.
It goes far beyond just having a psychic power to know what I'm going to be eating for dinner tonight or even what kind of New Years Eve festivities I may (or may not) be participating in tonight.
Stay tuned in 2017 to get more of these studies!!
