“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteous, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

I have done a lot of thinking about this scripture lately. I want to be equipped for every good work and I don’t want to do bad works that my father doesn’t like either. I worry about being deceived by not knowing God’s true and perfect will for me. Many people I know skip around in the scriptures from Psalms, Proverbs, to the gospels, but there

is so much rich understanding throughout the Bible that I don’t want to miss.

I used to zip thru from beginning to end only picking up small truths along the way. Every time you read thru the same words you will get something new. It is such an exciting book and really does need to be pondered. I guess that is why God tells us to meditate on his words. This time through I decided to read thru very slowly, but try to really digest what I was reading.

Reading only a chapter or two a day. That was so easy as I went through stories of Noah, Abraham and his sons, Moses and the Israelites, and David, but there is a lot of other stuff too. What was it really saying to me in my life? I remember recently watching a movie about a mob king turned minister and his take on the Bible. He said there are some really messed up people in the Bible struggling to make it through this life from generation to generation.

Look at King David. He was messed up in affairs, murder, and fleeing for his life. Yet he was a man after God’s own heart. Someone to aspire to be like. One time I was deep in prayer and listening to God as to what he had for me to write about in one of my books.

I heard him say to me, “ I love you as much as I loved my son David.”, well that meant so much to me to be compared to David. But then David was far from perfect, having screwed up time and time again. But one thing he did know was how to come before God in repentance and say I really screwed up. Will you forgive me? He humbled himself in the sight of the Lord and received what I like to call, a do over.

All right God forget that it was wrong let me start all over. And God wants that. He knows we are living in an imperfect world and at times we will make mistakes. No one is without sin not even one. Only Jesus, who we should aspire to be like but probably won’t come close.

What about Numbers and all those incredibly difficult names to pronounce. I am getting pretty good at shortening and simplifying some of those names so I know who I’m talking about but able to pronounce them. Like Queen Esther’s husband Art.. For King Ahasuerus or Xerxes. So much easier to get through that chapter saying Art every time and not King Xerxes.

There are so many people mentioned in that chapter. Forget remembering who each one was and who they were related to. But God I his infinite goodness loves each and every one of us, generation after generation, just as much as David . Good or bad he will always see us as his dearly loved children. See all that we have potential to be.

That is very important to me because again I am not perfect but he thinks of me and smiles and that makes me smile too. He looks at you too and loves you just where you are. He will always remember you and your family line and the importance you will make in the world.

How about Moses and those cantankerous Israelites. They saw some of God’s greatest works but they still did not get it. They whined and complained something awful. And read some of those commandments he had for them. I have been reading in Leviticus lately and I am just glad He chose to put me where I am in history.

The grace of Jesus Christ is something I will never take for granted. The old law was so exact. So hard to keep. Because God is so Holy it really took a lot for his people to be Holy also. You can see how you would have to trust and revere God so much to keep those commands.

There were laid out rules for everything. We are not really told why for a lot of them but they are very specific. You would really have to love God and know him to remember all of them.

I want to be more like some of the great prophets and teachers of the past. Leading His sheep into all truth and love just like Jesus. I don’t want to miss anything that might help me be better at that.