"do not be afraid."

a awoke with a jolt this morning.  our bedroom wall is about 7 feet from the trunk of an enormous oak tree and its large branches are overhead. often on windy nights and mornings, the acorns dropping on the roof provide cadence to other sounds of the house and road beside. this morning, something loud landed on the roof (a fallen branch? or any random thud that God intentioned to wake me with).  i am confident that this awakening was not accidental because immediately, in my mind's eye, i had a glimpse of something i read yesterday and the imagery and His voice with it...and it was early and i've learned in recent years to rest in early morning sleep rather than running into the day...but i just couldn't allow myself to drift back because of the picture in my head.

it was JESUS.  and He was saying and rereading His Words in my mind and thought from revelation 1:17:  "do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and i have the keys of death and of hades."  

when i walked into the living room to sit down with bible and computer, i had my phone in hand so that i could silence the alarm when it would ring and just glanced at it to check the time. the screen that popped up was from the app store. random. i know i was the last person with my phone last night and am confident this was not my last activity. and i don't remember the words on the screen but only images of death and then another... a game with a sort of evolving dragon. NOT a game that would have normally been listed under the "kid learning" search, the last in my search field.

i am posed this morning and listening in quiet. He is confronting my fear.

i have known from my youth of the spiritual battles raging around me.  i have known first peter 5:8 ...with keen awareness that satan has every intention of...without relent...going after me and my husband and my home and my children. and i have thought that everything that is dear and precious is game to him.  and in this day and in this culture, i perceive his craft in introducing vices and evil when we're not even paying attention. when our guard is down.  and when we are not even curious or  looking for it.

so this image of Jesus as victorious is blowing my mind this morning.  and it has these years. but today it is vivid and real and significant to allay fear.  He has the keys of death and of hades!  He confronted death...and is "alive forevermore"!!!!!!!!!!!!   and He speaks in revelation (words in red)...to john and to us and it says, He placed His right hand on john...with the comfort of "do not be afraid."  He spoke, "do not be afraid."  and the rest is comfort.  the words of revelation: comfort.  "do not be afraid" (rev. 1:17).

i imagine this morning as my house is waking up (little peeps waking and needing)...as i walk with them and live life with them and try to figure out how to parent them and to keep them from evil...i think...that Jesus has confronted death and evil and hell and that He has already won.  and He is concerned about my fear.  and in the opening chapter of revelation, He speaks comfort and asserts His victory over death and in His declaration, the declaration of WHO HE IS...the "first and the last, and the living One...." i know He is mine. my Protector and the Protector of my children.  and i hear Him as He spoke to john and to me in this... "do not be afraid."

january 25.

hi, friends! i'm ready to post a plan! thank you sooo much for your interest and for reading. ;) i love you!

i will be finishing up the new testament in my reading this weekend and writing about revelation into next week.  scott did a short series in the fall on revelation, and i want to kind of summarize his study and thoughts he shared with the youth at our church before picking up with blogging here.

so...the first week of february, i would like to pick up where i left off last year.  looking back, my last draft (not yet posted) was on second samuel. kings and chronicles. so, i will pick up there.  i'm excited about blogging through psalms and then through the prophets (i had skipped to the NT following song of solomon in the late fall with plan to come back to these books with more time to study :) ).  so, the 2012 plan has morphed into a two-year deal, but i am excited!

if you are wanting to start a bible study in genesis, please please feel free to go back to the posts starting last january and peruse these as you come to them.  if you are just seeing this for the first time, i want to share just a quick word of explanation...

it helps me to write.  somehow, thoughts and ideas process themselves in me as i write them down, and this is how i started blogging.  i have studied the bible using texts and lectures through liberty university's online seminary and completed a program of study in december...but it feels like i'm still just getting started...! so...i'm sharing here with the hope that God will help us each to know Him more through His Word.

please please feel free to post thoughts in response. i'm sooooo interested in how God is speaking to you as you study as well.  you are loved!

soli Deo gloria.

2012. 2013....!!

first words here in more than a couple months, i'm not sure how to start exactly.  except as i've spoken with some of you, my heart has overflowed encouragement....

2012 ended so quickly! where did it go?!!  i got fairly close to completion, friends. but ended the year with unturned pages.  but thank you thank you thank you, friends (those i've spoken with) for your transparency and willingness to share the same.  so i'm pondering a reading plan for this year. i definitely don't want to start over yet because there's so much left unwrittenabout ;) from last year.  but i wanted to put a note in here that this is one of the funnest (not a word ;) ) things i've ever done and want to write on and on and on forever....

so...before i decide on a plan, i want to share with you a sermon that my pastor preached just prior to the new year. www.firstwesleyan.org um...go to media then video or audio sermon on i think 12/30/12? entitled devotional guilt. it's just a little more than 30 min but sooo worth your time if you've ever struggled with feeling overwhelmed then discouraged because of un-kept commitments concerning bible study.  i am on the same page as pastor rick when it comes to steering far far away from legalism when it comes to spiritual practices. i just want to know Jesus more. and more and more.

sooooo i'm going to give this a few days and do some more reading, and then determine where to start and what to write. ;)

i will be back soooooon. ;)

oh...i have to share this.  a sweet sweet friend gave a monetary gift to our children and...we decided with them to buy them each small bibles with the unexpected extra Christmas blessing. so... a day or two ago, i found my four-yr-old sitting on the couch pretending to read his bible and these words were his pretend readings (his four-yr-old theology!), simple but sooooo innocent and wonderful: "you. are. my friend." (pointer finger pretend-following the written words). "I love you.... you...are my friend."  ahhhhhhh. i want to read His Word like this. this child-faith. with this heart.

can't wait to start blogging again, friends! you are loved!!!