Corona Devo 3194
I've been scrapbooking this week: want to see?
But, not exactly traditional scrapbooking--with pictures...we have been Scriptural-scrapbooking and spiritual-scrapbooking this week.
If traditional scrapbooking is pasting pictures and momentos together on a page, then Scriptural and spiritual scrapbooking is piecing together Bible reading (and application) with our life events, and pasting them onto our hearts.
Want to see?
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One day, on the drive to a soccer practice with a car-full of kids, we had one of the young adults read Zechariah Chapter 1, and we then discussed (together!) God's desire for us to return to Him, and to turn from our evil ways and our evil practices.
There will always be those who are not turning to God, but (one day at a time!), can we read God's Word and obey God's Word and be among those who DO what it says?
“The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. (3) Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. (4) Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. (5) Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever? (6) But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors?
“Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’” ~Zechariah 1:1-6
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One evening, as we stooped to select rocks to skip across a park creek, we thought and chatted about David collecting his stones, and what God was able to accomplish with a heart dependent on Him.
(45) David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (46) This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. (47) All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
(48) As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. (49) Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
(50) So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. ~I Samuel 17:40, 45-50
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Another day, we read about Nehemiah, and the desire that God had placed in his heart to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, which had been in ruins for a long time.
Nehemiah went to work on it, and many joined in his (God-ordained) efforts. But there were some who pestered/bothered/harassed/antagonized/and impeded Nehemiah's work...just because.
Don't we (sometimes) face the same pests in our daily and life-efforts to serve God? People who pester and weigh-us-down and seek to red-tape God's efforts?
But Nehemiah persevered. He was not side-tracked by the nay-sayers, and (to their frustration), Nehemiah completed the rebuilding of the wall by staying focused on the work, and on God.
We can complete our efforts for the Lord by doing the same.
When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites....
(17) Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” (18) I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.
They (the people) replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.
(19) But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”
(20) I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.” ~Nehemiah 2:10, 17-20
When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, (2) and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?”
(3) Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”
(4) Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. (5) Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
(6) So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. ~Nehemiah 4:1-6
When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it...
(8) I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”
(9) They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”
But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” ~Nehemiah 6:1-2, 8-9
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We've been Scripture-scrapbooking this week! And as we have read the Bible, we have been discussing how its accounts from yesterday (two-thousand years ago), apply to our lives today. And we are seeing that what happens in the Bible doesn't stay in the Bible...it parallels exactly what we encounter, and enjoy, and suffer in our today's.
And that's why we have to read and apply and reread and "make a scrapbook" out of God's Word and our life-applications to it: so that we remember what the Bible says and how it applies to us. (This is God's idea...not mine.)
~~~
If traditional scrapbooking is pasting pictures and momentos together on a page, then Scriptural and spiritual scrapbooking is piecing together Bible reading (and application) with our life events, and pasting them on our hearts.
Your pages will be different creations/realizations/experiences than mine, but all of our life-pages will be a mosaic of God's Word and how it is shaping our lives and and our faith.
sarah
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