Daily Reflections

I am revamping and reorganizing my blogs. In this blog I intend to write my reflections and thoughts associated with my devotion and Bible reading. I am reading throught the one year Bible (NLT version). I have tried to do this in the past, read through the Bible, but usually give up before I complete Genesis or January. In an attempt to push on to the finish, I have done two things. First, I am ripping the book apart. One of the excuses I used was that I couldn't carry the book with me everywhere—so I'm not. Right now I have torn out enough to get me through vacation. That small section tucks nicely in my purse. Having the section removed from the binding enables me to do the second more easily. Because the pages now lie completely flat, I can write notes, underline, and draw connecting arrows. I am responding to the text and seeing things that I haven't seen before. Doing this has made the reading so much more interesting...and that's why I've decided to share some of those questions and insights here. For example: I never noticed that Abram laughed when he got the news about Sarai having a baby so late in the game. So much had been made about Sarai laughing and her disbelief regarding the news. Preaching I heard over the years chastised her, but never mentioned that she laughed (according to the text) after Abe laughed. Why doesn't he ever “get in trouble”? Also from my reading about Sarai: She acknowledges that it was the Lord who decided she wouldn't have a child. Seems like solid insight, but with the very next breath she's scheming to find another way to find and heir for Abraham—and then wonders why the plan goes so terribly wrong. If you know in your heart that something is part of God's plan for you, why not accept and trust? Previous to that from my reading I noticed that Abe's dad was 70 when Abe was born. Now in my book, that tells me that Abe shouldn't have been fretting too much before that point about the empty womb issue. He had familial experience with late in life birthing. This and Sarai's scheming just reminded me of how impatient and untrusting we are as human beings. Not trusting God was got the whole thing started back in the Garden. Satan knew where to strike. We don't trust. We want control. So I will be putting reflections from my reading here. I'm not sure if I'll do that everyday, but I'm sure it will be often.