Challenge. . from God and Katy

Last week, I was on the phone with my friend, Katy (yes, I talk on the phone with my internet friends too. . .see, I told you they were more!). She brought up a statistic. . .ok, I admit that I can't remember the exact statistic now! But, the gist of it was, "Christians spend more time reading ABOUT the Bible or ABOUT God than actually reading HIS WORD." For this reason, she and her husband have a comprehensive Bible reading plan. Their rule is, you can't read anything else until that reading is done. This really convicted me. I am in 2 Bible studies and in the middle of reading 3 other books. Add to that, my email, yahoogroup and blogging time and reading is definitely something I do a lot of. . .but, not from God's word. Oh, that hurt!

Then, this week in "Living Free" by Beth Moore (the study my Friday morning girls are going through) she talked about Believing God. We can't really BELIEVE God (not believe IN God, but believe He is who He says He is) without soaking in the scripture. This is where we draw our strength, see more of God's character and where His double edged sword of His word pierces our heart and changes us. And STILL, I wasn't spending time in it! How dumb am I?

So, we decided to start a Bible Reading Challenge as a group. Because many of our girls didn't grow up in church and thus, are looking to increase their knowledge of God's word, we decided on a 2 month, key stories and concepts plan. Found HERE. From there, we may move to a chronological reading or a key people reading and then move to the read the Bible through in a year plan. Join us, if you'd like! And, to my yahoogroup friends or email friends. . if I email you in the morning.. .be sure to ask, "Have you read your Bible yet today?"

Back to Believing God. . . .today, my reading was from Job. Oh my, what he went through. 2 things stuck out to me today. First, in Job 1:20 right after hearing the news that his possessions were gone and ALL of his children were dead, "At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. THEN, he fell to the ground in worship. . . " Immediately, he moved to believing God for who He is. THEN, not 3 months later after emerging from his funk. . .THEN. Oh Lord, I want to be the kind of servant who responds in kind. I want to believe you here today in the little things so that when tragedy hits, I respond in worship IMMEDIATELY. This is not just a crazy man from the Bible, people. This is how each and every one of us CAN respond to hard things. I just read, THIS BLOG, last night. It is a family writing whose 3 year old adopted daughter was just diagnosed with leukemia. They responded as Job.. . "THEN", worshiping His maker.

The other amazing thing that jumped out was in Job 42:12-17, "The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had. . . .(a list of his new possessions and 10 more children). . .After this, Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children in the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years." You see, his tragedy didn't define him. He moved on. Here was a man who at one point asked God, why did you even let me live to see this earth?" In God's prompting of reminding Job just how awesome He is, Job responded in humble obedience. A willing clay in His potter's hands. He chose to worship in the midst, to change and then to be redeemed. He never could have known what the rest of his life held, but he chose to worship THEN and God showed Himself more than faithful!