Father Abraham had many sons

and apparently a lot of [spiritual] daughters too. I am one of them. I guess I never realized the theological, no, biblical, meaning behind that song. This week in the Believing God study I have been reminded of Abraham and his faith. Interestingly enough, he comes up in The Inheritance. Both studies I am doing are simultaneous but independent of one another. Abraham's story speaks to me. Not that I am a Hebrew man who lived before Christ who was obeying the Lord by almost sacrificing his son, for whom he had waited so long. However, we have a common thread.

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

-Hebrews 11:8

I have felt like this past year God has been dealing with me on obedience. I say "dealing" because it's been Him revealing what I need to do and me being my stubborn former Little self and pouting like a girl. Sometimes over the past year He's basically had to put up a brick wall where there was none so I'd smack into something. And every time that's happened it's been an actual barrier to whatever harebrained situation I had gotten myself into.

So, with obedience being the theme of spring of last year to this spring, I have begun to understand firsthand that obedience begets blessing. And big obedience begets big blessing. Abraham was obedient and while he didn't come into his land of inheritance while he was alive on planet Earth, he will surely see the descendants of his obedient life in heaven.

I have to say that I want to live that kind of life. I want to be obedient. It may not always be pretty, or easy, or comfortable for me or those around me, but the blessing and righteousness that come from it far outweigh whatever earthly obstacle there seems to be.

When I look back through everything I have been through, I see it's all prepared me for this very time in my life. Now, with all that I'm going through now, I can only wonder about what is to come in the future. Sometimes it makes me a little scared. I guess I'd rather be scared and in God's will than comfortable and completely oblivious.

Becoming more like Christ - bodies and minds

This is the ever-present question of our existence: How do we become more like Christ? Is it by our actions? Our attitudes? Romans 12:1-2 provides a perfect explanation of how to become more like Him.

"I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (NASB)

These two verses outline two things that must come under submission to the Lord - our bodies and our minds. How does it say we can offer our bodies/minds as a sacrifice? By the mercies of God. It's obviously not of our own effort because look what that did (Garden of Eden). The greatest thing is that HE does the transforming, the renewing, WE are the ones who bring it to Him in the first place. If you ever feel far from Him, just remember He's thisclose. Just one word away.. "Just one word and I am free" (Michael Gungor Band, "Giving It All").

I'm not sure what the verb tense is in the Greek, but take a look at "renewing" in English. That, my dear grammarians [because I know you're all dorks like me], is a present participle. Not a past participle, but present. It's a constant thing, what is happening right now. You can't just lay it down at the cross once and expect it to be over and done with. I think this is why people have a hard time when they first become Christians; I know I did. I thought that my old desires would just go away, I would feel happy and elated every single day of my life. The fact is, it's a constant sacrifice. He tells us to pick up our cross daily (Luke 9:23, NIV). The beauty of it though is that Jesus paid it once.. once was enough. That one act of obedience and sacrifice has brought us out of our misery.. and our bodies and minds can be transformed.

Why are people afraid of the will of God? Beth Moore talks about this in both studies I'm doing right now, Believing God and The Inheritance. We're afraid of what God will have to take from us in order to live a life fully in Him. The fact is, people, that He. Is. A. GIVER! Life will not be boring, will not be stale, will not be drudgery. Anybody got a hanky to wave on that one?

"...prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (v. 2)

It is safe, then, to assume that in Philippians 4:8 we can renew our minds by thinking on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellence, worthy of praise... Hmm. Let's think for a second. If we did this, we'd be thinking on the very character of God Himself! What a novel idea.


So, what other thoughts do you have on becoming more like Christ?

The gift of nerdery and essentials for study.

I have been really digging into some of Beth Moore's studies, including Breaking Free (pivotal study!), Loving Well, and currently I'm doing The Inheritance and Believing God. She is an amazing teacher with the gift of explaining things that maybe sometimes are cloudy to us. Her studies are grounded in nothing else but Scripture, pure and true. There is no compromise.

If anyone knows me well, they know that I love to study. Yes, I'm a nerd. I loved college for the learning portion of it, for the feeling that my brain is expanding with knowledge. Recently the realization came upon me that I can be a student of the Bible. I'm not sure about grad school right now as we are moving soon and I don't want to take out loans for it, and studying the Bible doesn't cost a whole lot of money.

These are a few essentials I've found for good solid Bible study:

• A good Bible. Duh. I've been using the NIV Life Application Study Bible for ten years now. It's been instrumental in my understanding of certain passages of Scripture. Soon I will be getting the Hebrew/Greek Key Word Study Bible (NAS). I have a degree in Spanish and a penchant for language and etymology so this will be wonderful.

• A notebook.

• Various commentaries and Biblical reference books. This is in progress.
  

• Good teachers and mentors. These for me would include pastors, people like Beth Moore who aren't afraid to teach the Bible and not some doctrine someone came up with two hundred years ago, mentors who are honest and have spent a good chunk of their lives investing in other people and who know Scripture like the back of their hand.

• Worship music. It helps me focus. Personally I like Hillsong, Michael Gungor Band, Hillsong, David Crowder Band, and some more Hillsong. Oh and maybe some Desperation Band and Travis Cottrell.

• A good cup of coffee. Thankfully one of my sisters Emily works at Starbucks and gives me a random pound of coffee here and there. Don't forget the sugar and half-and-half. Speaking of which, this cup is about empty. We can't have that.

• A long drive to work (+ good cup of coffee), or any long ride by yourself in the car. A lot of my personal epiphanies have come somewhere between Peoria and Varna on routes 29 and 17, and before that I-74 and I had a very close relationship. We were pretty much married [I was in Pekin, Aaron in Champaign].

What I have found to work for me is getting up earlier than I would like to in the morning, you know, putting down the natural [wo]man and letting the spirit [wo]man do the talking. Um, this definitely doesn't happen every morning. But most. Sometimes my brain just works better in the evening. I have also really benefited from using guides. The Bible is a really big book and it can be daunting just to think of where to start. I also like guided studies because of the insight one can gain from other teachers/fellow studiers of the Bible.

So there you have it. I think we're ready now, now that you know quite a lot about me. Hopefully these two entires capture the essence of the type of person I am: nerd who is in wonder of God and his spoken Word.