Time with God

So the past months, reading the Bible and spending time with the Lord has gotten put on a back burner.  This is not a good idea, as feasting on His Word is so important.  As the new year is beginning, I really desire to make a better effort to be in the Word and to spend time with Him.  But as I am making this commitment, I have to ask myself, "Why?"  Why do we spend time with the Lord? 

Does it make him love us any more than He already does?  No.

When we spend time with him does it mean he must bless us with a wonderful day, free of frustrations and full of great surprises?!  No, although I sometimes like to think it does.

Does spending time with him make us better than others?  No, for Romans 3:12 says, "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (italics mine)

So why do we do it then?

Growing up, I really felt like if I didn't spend time with God, He wouldn't love me anymore.  I felt that by spending time with Him, I was upholding 'my end of the deal.'  But I now know that there is no 'my end of the deal.'  When Christ came and paid the price for our sins, God took away the law.  Are we required to make sacrifices and offerings as the Israelites were?  Can only priests meet with God (and only one time a year) as it was before Christ?  No!  We now have full access to God, and he doesn't require ANYTHING of us, except that we put our faith in Him.

"We cannot truly live without the Bible because true life comes to us through the Christ revealed across its pages."

Trent Hunter

I couldn't have said it better myself.  (And here is the link to his entire post: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/01/01/bible-eater-a-plan-for-feeding-on-christ-in-2012/ )

Grace and peace,

Kelli

God's grace, even in the Beginning

Genesis 3:22-24: "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever -' therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." (ESV)

I am always amazed at how the Lord can take a scripture which I have read so many times and teach me something new. Upon reading these verses, I was confused as to why God did not want the man to eat of the tree of life. I thought it was possibly a punishment, just as pain in childbirth and having to work the ground for food are both punishments God gave to Adam and to Eve for eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is far from a punishment, however!

Adam and Eve, as well as all of mankind, deserve to eat of the tree of life. After doing a little research, I found that upon eating from it, Adam and Eve would have lived forever - forever in their sin; forever apart from God. Never would they be able to commune with him in Heaven or on Earth. They would have forever been bound up by their sin and would never have been able to be free. But Praise the Lord for his grace and mercy!

Thank you Lord that you did not allow Adam and Eve to remain in the garden and eat of the tree of life. Even in the midst of our failure, you give us grace. What a loving God you are!

Grace and peace.
Kelli