Haha I just realized how behind I am and I think Gloria / Joann is actually on track. Well, maybe I'll try to catch up on my plane from Bordeaux-Paris this Friday. :)
Matthew 2:1-12, Acts 2:1-21, Genesis 5-8, Psalms 3
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I never felt this before because I've read about Noah's ark a million times but for the first time I felt like I want to know how to experience God's anger. Or maybe more accurately that I realize that the anger we have sometimes originated from the God whose image we were created in. That I would be angry at those doing evil and not condone it lightly. But how? That remains to be seen.
When I read Psalms 3, I felt very soothed and that I know why people need religion so much sometimes: it felt very traditional and comforting, that there is always God to watch out for me against my enemies.
Wow when I read Acts, about how everyone suddenly heard the other speak in their own language during the Day of Pentecoast,I felt reaffirmed once again. Yesterday I had watched Babel and it was disturbing and good at the same time, because for me the message I had was that people are ultimately the same, that when we are all reduced to the core of ourselves, without anything or anyone familiar to help us, then we all act the same way: in utter desperation. And thus this passage is just an utter contrast where people come together and speak each other's tongue! And not to mention the phrase from prophet Joel.
P.S. Gloria, thanks for putting your prayer request up, it is good to remember that we should request for others to pray for us and our families so we can keep each other accountable and abreast of what we are up to! :)
I didn't get a lot out of this reading, but Lynni, your first comment is very interesting. I think in the past I was pretty uptight about stuff, like, I would get very uncomfortable when people cursed a lot, but now I think I'm kinda numb to things, maybe because I was away from God for a long time and things stopped bothering me. But now I feel like I can't judge people but at the same time I shouldn't be okay with seeing people sin continually/intentionally? Or like if i have a friend who is homosexual, should I respect his/her decision? is it supposed to bother me? I don't know where I'm going with this...
but also for the Matthew reading, when studying it in the past, I was really humbled by the way the Magi worshipped. The Magi were pretty important people but they traveled far and bowed down and worshipped and brought expensive gifts to Jesus. A great example of worship-giving their best and their best effort and time..really humbling themselves before God.
Lynni, what you had said about how on track Gloria and I probably are is incredibly challenging to me. So, two things. On the one hand, God definitely wants to cultivate spiritual disciplines (and discipline in general) in us so that we can better and further experience Him. Thus, laziness in our devotionals is not glorifying to Him. On the other hand, my big tendency is to get so caught up in structure and in Bible reading plans, that I sort of just congratulate myself when I realize I am entirely on track and I forget to actually experience God in the midst of the structure. Both are thus equally dangerous!
Haha Joann, those words "spiritual discipline" have been on my mind and in my prayers a lot these days. I definitely suffer from a lot of laziness in devotionals and prayer. I know that I want my second semester to be very different than my first, so the fact that I'm finding it hard to keep up kind of scares me since the second semester is only a few days away. I guess it's also important to keep in mind that God is the one who gives us the strength and discipline to do our daily devotionals, especially for me~ I'm so lazy I don't think I can be disciplined at all without God's supernatural power :P. I'm really hoping to experience God in a different, more structured and disciplined setting.
I also noticed that in Genesis 8:20, the first thing that Noah does after he gets off the boat is offer up burnt sacrifices to the Lord. I also want to live a life of continual praise and worship to the point where it takes precedence over everything else.
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