God in the Bible

3-8-2021

I know. I know. What? God in the Bible? No way! Heehee...

Hear me out. This post takes a look at how I intentionally looked for God every day of the past week while I had my Bible. The Bible talks about God a lot. We can find our heaven moments in common Christian places like worship songs, going to church, and reading the Bible.

These heaven moments I jot down are encouraging you to look for God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and anything pure or noble. Some of them are obvious finds. However, you're only going to find God in the common Christian disciplines if you do them. If you're not worshipping, going to church, praying, or reading your Bible, you will be missing out on some great God encounters.

I love the B-i-b-l-e. Yes, that's the book for me! It records wondrous things God has done and will do. It quotes actual words that Jesus spoke. Also, how the Bible was written and put together is its own heaven moment. It's full of drama and action. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's alive and active. It points to Jesus. It's a heaven moment full of heaven moments.

Here's what God showed me day-by-day:

Sunday - I have a Bible of the New Testament books in which each book of the Bible is a physically separate book. Every other page in this Bible is blank for taking notes or drawing pictures. I knew our sermon would be about Luke 21:5-38, so I brought that part of my Bible with me to church. I felt like a 1st-century Christian by having a copy of Luke's letter to Theophilus in my bag. How crazy would it be to have random parts of the Bible before they were all collected together? This heaven moment makes me grateful for having complete access to all of scripture in many versions and languages.

Monday - We bought a new Bible this week. It's the ESV Archaeological Bible, and I skimmed through it today. It contains a lot of fascinating discoveries that prove places and people in the Bible over and over! History has never been my best subject because the dates and proper nouns always get mixed up in my mind, but I certainly find the stories interesting.

God knows all that happened, all that will happen, and how much each person/group currently knows. We're stuck in this time, seeing information being confirmed in the Bible through archaeological finds. God knows what really happened. God knows when our Bible would be proven to our time period. God knows how future generations will view the dirt of the past and the remains from our time. I found an intellectual heaven moment today.

Tuesday - In my Bible today, I came across the passage in Philippians that says, "To live is Christ, to die is gain." Even without the persecution Paul was facing, our minds should still be focused on Christ in this way. We are living to give God glory and share the gospel. We also think about our hope in Christ, meaning death is being immediately in God's presence in heaven. What a perfect heaven moment!

Wednesday - At Cubbies with the four-year-olds tonight, our Bible truth was about Zacchaeus. It reminds me of when the Royals won the World Series, and our city had a huge parade to celebrate. My oldest child was four and went to the parade with his daddy. They had to walk a long way to the parade route, stand there waiting for it to begin, and weave through the crowd for a good spot. It was exciting to celebrate, see the famous players, and take pictures of the trophy they won.

My son had a Zacchaeus size problem: being short. Thankfully, my son could sit on his father's shoulders and get a nice view of everything similar to Zacchaeus climbing a tree to be able to see. They had a great time, and my son still remembers going to the parade years later! I imagine that he might not have a clear memory if he hadn't been able to see everything.

That's the kind of excitement I think Zacchaeus had on that special day. The Savior of the world was passing by, and he had the opportunity to be in the right place at the right time to meet Him. The anticipation of seeing Jesus is my heaven moment.

Thursday - A parenting book I'm reading says, "Since the fall of the human race, we've been alternately telling ourselves that we are good, that if we try hard enough we'll be good enough, or that being good is an impossibility so we should just give up and have fun. After all, nobody's perfect!"

We read in Galatians 2:16 "Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified."

We'll never be good enough. That's good news! We can stop trying harder or giving up because life's about resting in God's peace. I love God so I ask Him to change my heart, to help me want to obey Him. Then my obedience is not out of duty but out of love. Today I'm enjoying the heaven moment of God's grace.

Friday - I'm reading about the beginning of our time in Genesis. Creation reveals God's awesomeness. I'm seeing heaven in the creation of heaven. That's a fun one!

Saturday - More Genesis today! I'm reading in chapter 2, and the water is catching my attention. Adam came from dry dust mixed with water forming a moldable clay. "But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8

Then the scriptures explain the four rivers that flow from the garden of Eden, which mix with earth and go out into the world. I think this might be a hyperlink to the Great Commission which references heaven/earth, going into all the world, and baptizing with water. "And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

These connections between scriptures are a heaven moment for me! (And now I need to do more research on this as I know Genesis has many, many hyperlinks.)

Sunday - Our sermon at church was about the Last Supper. I appreciated learning that it was not the final supper because another supper is yet to come. The future supper is predicted in Revelation 19: 9 "And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

My last heaven moment of the week is daydreaming about a big feast with my Lord!