Monday, January 17, 2011

In His Word

I have begun 2011 with a personal goal to read and STUDY the entire New Testament over the course of this year. I am going to do this at my pace because I want this study to be done with new eyes. I have read most all of the NT at one point or another but I want this time to be different, to have more purpose and to grasp a far greater understanding.

I obviously started with Matthew and I have spent the first two weeks of the year in the first 5 chapters alone! I am reading, re-reading and studying each passage as I go along and have been surprised at new things that I have discovered. (How many times have I read Matthew?) Isn't it amazing to see how God's Word is so constantly alive! How it spoke to me in previous readings is now so very different with the same words. Only God.

I use to blog pretty regularly and found that it became daunting because I was always trying to create a "message". I allowed my busy schedule in 2010 to supercede and so I simply quit. However, I read the passage below this morning and it struck me that this too is another avenue. Sure, I know that Christ wasn't speaking to blogging when He spoke this, but who am I to question how God will choose to use things? I reminded myself of a message I received about two years ago from a Christian brother whom I deeply respect that said "Brian, I didn't know you had a blog. I stumbled upon it and it blessed my socks off." I was pleased that God had used it. (And I had no clue anyone was reading it other than my wife!)

So here I go again. A new blog. But a very different blog than a year or two ago because I am becoming a very different man through God's grace.


"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven." Matthew 5:13-16