Psalm 119:9-11

Hey this is Josiah, so ive got sundays now.
basically, these verses are talking about this dude who is just admitting that its hard for him to stay pure in his life and hes asking God to help him continue to read the bible and pray so that he can stay strong in his faith and stay pure in his life. A lot of times I feel the same way as this guy when I'm hanging out with friends or something, I feel that its hard for me to be who God wants me to be especially if I havent been spending time with him. So I think these are some great verses.

Romans 12:1-2

I am going to pick this one up because there is no one else to yet.

This passage is about being a living sacrifice, to live by dying. weird. I actually find it much harder to live by dying that just dying for a cause because it requires dying daily (which is way more than most people have to die). I guess the thing that moves me most about this passage is that I will never know what God wants for my life until I have given my selfishness away. Until I am a sacrifice, I will never see God's will. The mind blower is that it makes perfect sense, because why would God tell me what He wants from me unless he knew I was going to do everything to make it happen? It does not benefit anyone for him to tell rebellious, selfish people about how the world should be.

I would also like to share an experience I just had. When I went up to Vancouver with Matt, we stopped by one of my relatives' houses. He was a pastor and it was an amazing time to get to learn from everything he had been through in his 70 years on the earth. He also gave me some genealogy stuff that he thought I would find interesting and told me to pass it on to my grandfather as well. So, my grandfather is in town this weekend and while we were hanging out at the football game I remembered about this packet of photocopied stuff. I came back to the house and read some of it afterwards. One of the pieces was a letter from my great grandfather (my grandpa's dad) to one of his grand kids about his mother and father. This is a letter that my grandfather has never yet seen but will see tomorrow when I give it to him.

The part of the letter that struck me was where my great grandfather was writing about looking for his mother's grave site. She had died when he was 12. His consolation for not being able to find it was that he had the hope that he would some day see her in heaven, the place "where there is no more parting." Then, I had the crushingly beautiful thought that he is likely there now, standing with his mother, whom he had been parted from for the last 70 years of his life.

I am praying that the letter has the same profound affect on my grandfather who left what faith he had a long time ago.

Joshua 1:8-9

Joshua 1:8-9

8 is saying hey don't forget about the bible never stop thinking about it and you will be successful maybe not on earth but in a heavenly way. then in 9 it is like Jesus is telling you what the crap are you doing be strong and courageous. don't be scared i will be with you.

just my thoughts

Psalm 19

David is reflecting on the glory of God in natural revelation and the glory of the law as God's special revelation, which alone meets man;s spirtual needs. O ya and pastor Rob prays Psalm 19:14 before he does his sermon every sunday.


Got to love the study bible.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

This verse is wild because Habakkuk (whoever he is) is actually experiencing this. He is living in a time when the Babylonians are destroying his home and crops and animals. The term "God my Savior" stands out to me because it would appear that God is not a very good savior if all of the plants and animals are dying and Israel is being over run by invaders. You would think he might say "God my Abandoner" or something of the like. Instead, Habakkuk is saying that God is giving him joy and strength and salvation.

I think his response is two fold. First, I think Habakkuk is probably saying that God has given him a peace (salvation) that stronger and more joyful than any circumstances. That is powerful because if you think about it, no circumstance on earth is perfect. Every moment on earth is flawed. People die. Grades get bad. Parents get divorced or lose a job. There is no end to it. Unless we cling to God and His grace, we will never know peace or joy or strength that lasts more than 10 minutes.

Secondly, I think Habakkuk sees that God has long term plans for the evil in this world. He will eventually take care of all evil, either on the cross on in destruction.

For me, I relate to this most in ministry. There have been a few people that I have invested a large amount of my heart and time and prayer into that I feel like have produced no fruit. When I think about that, the gospel does not seem to be effective. I want to continue to believe that God is a powerful savior even when I cannot see that at the time.

Sad to not see you guys tonight. I hope to see you next week.

I will take tuesday

I will take tuesday

Nvm ill take Thursday i dont want to be the first one.

I'll take wednesday. Explain to me what exactly we are supposed to do. Lol I bet no one wants the weekends.

i would like to have fridays.

Hey, just postin what day I want, I would love to take Monday if no one else minds.

First 31 days

Here is the plan for the first 31 days starting next Wednesday.

Wed: Habakkuk 3:17-19
Thu: Psalm 19
Fri: Joshua 1:8-9
Sat: Romans 12:1-2
Sun: Psalm 119:9-11
Mon: Matthew 7
Tues: Ephesians 5:1-21
Wed: Hebrews 11:1-28
Thu: Psalm 63:6-8
Fri: Nehemiah 9:5-8
Sat: Colossians 1:13; Ephesians 2:1-10
Sun: Psalm 37
Mon: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21
Tues: James 1:2-8
Wed: Philippians 4:6-13
Thur: 2 Timothy 2:1-10
Fri: Hebrews 12:1-3
Sat: John 14:1-15
Sun: Matthew 6:1-15
Mon: Acts 17:22-34
Tues: Philippians 3:7-11
Wed: Matthew 6:25-34
Thur: Proverbs 3:5-7
Fri: 2 Peter 1:4-8
Sat: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Sun: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Mon: Romans 12:9-21
Tues: Titus 2:11-14
Wed: Ephesians 6:13-20
Thur: Ephesians 2:1-10
Fri: Romans 8:31-3

until we come out on the other side

The goal of this blog is to dig into scripture and life and I hope that we dig deep. The goal is not to find one particular bit of truth or get to some end. I am certain that there is no bottom. However, I do believe there is something else on the other side of life. I hope that this blog can take us at least part of the way there.

I have invited some of my friends, the holy diggers, to join me in writing. Our plan is to have all contributors post once a week on what we are reading or on some event in life. Most of the posts will be somewhat anonymous, but hopefully not totally impersonal. I will be responsible for making posts on Wednesdays, the first of which will go up next week. The other posters can claim their own days. If we get more than 7 contributors, the extras can post weekly comments instead.

We are going to start with a 31 day march through different areas of scripture and then focus in on a book at a time. If we start to slack, feel free to call us out on it.

I hope that you enjoy reading along.