The Year in Review.

Well, I am done. Thousands of pages, chapters, verses. Sixty-six books. Two testaments. One Bible. And what an amazing year it's been. This year has been full of transitions, great joys, and difficult trials. It included engagment, a wedding, the first six months of marriage, quitting a job, moving to a new state, starting graduate school, finding a new church, and making new friends. Thankfully, God and His promises sustained me through all of these many changes and uncertainties.

I can honestly say that never before have my day-to-day life and the Word of God been so beautifully intertwined. I have always known the Bible fairly well, but this year the Bible truly changed me. It influenced my attitudes, my decisions, my actions. It made me swallow my pride and say "I'm sorry," it made me pick up a rag and bottle of sanitizer and clean dirty public bathrooms for the glory of God, it made me take a deep breath of patience when Micah was frustrating me, it made me reach out and say "hi" to a neighbor when I just wanted to be alone. I was not perfect this year by any means. I was far from perfect, and I had God's word to remind me of my sin, my depravity, my awful flesh. But I also had God's word to convict me and to remind me of the power I have in Christ to say "no" to sin. I have the Holy Spirit, who empowers me to live by God's word. And God's Word teaches me to repent, to serve, to be patient and self-controlled, and to love my neighbor. I love God more and I love His Word more after spending this year studying scripture. I long to be changed by His Word more and more as I continue my life on this earth.

So what's next? The strangest thing about reading through the Bible in a year is that you don't really know what to do when you get done. I look forward to slowing down the pace of my reading. I am excited to spend time meditating on one or two chapters of the Bible a day, instead of studying three or more chapters at a time. I have also been convicted that I need to improve other areas of spiritual discipline in my life - namely prayer, which I have really been neglecting since the move this summer. I am excited to delve into deeper, longer times of prayer, to listen to some sermons, to read some theological books, to think of more ways I can be Christ to my new community here in Arizona. But I am also excited to read more of the Bible... I delight in the fact that God's character is so full of goodness, holiness, and power that there will always be more for me to learn from reading His Word.

Reflection #6 - Reading Revelation

I actually just finished Revelation (and my year-long journey through the Bible) on Saturday, but because of the busyness of the Christmas season, I haven’t been able to blog during this past week. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on Revelation and what I learned when reading it, before I take a step back and reflect on the whole past year and what lies ahead for this new year.


The main thing I have learned in reading Revelation is that I know hardly anything about the end times… no one does. Even those things I thought I understood, such as the conversion of a great number of Jews in the last days (Rev. 7), cannot necessarily be taken literally. Some scholars believe that a large number of ethnic Jews will be converted in the final days; others believe the Jews symbolically represent the church in general, since all Christians are adopted sons and daughters of Israel.

The ESV Bible editors often offer the different viewpoints on controversial verses and passages in the Bible. For example, they will explain viewpoints A, B, and C and then say that both A and B are possible, while C is not because it contradicts another area of scripture. Sometimes they even say one viewpoint is most likely and why. But the notes in Revelation do not offer such insight. The commentators explain the different historical schools and how they interpret Revelation, but they can’t say which school is right, because no one really knows God’s timeline between now and the end of history. God reveals to us what He want us to know and He keeps hidden those things that are best kept undisclosed, such as when God tells John not to reveal what the seven thunders say in Revelation 10. The ESV commentary says it best: "Christ's church must live by faith amid the unrevealed mysteries of God's purposes."
However, there are a number of things we do know from Revelation that can comfort us despite what we don’t know:

• God is the good creator and sustainer of the universe. "Worthy are you, Our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." (Rev. 4:11)

• Jesus is victorious over sin and death. "Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war... From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations... He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almightly. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." (Rev.19:11, 15-16)
• Jesus is the slain lamb who washes us clean. "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." (Rev. 5:9-10)

• God hears and responds to the prayers of his saints. "And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth." (Rev. 8:3-5)

• Suffering for God now results in glory later. "And they have conquered him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death... Also I saw those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." (Rev. 12:11, 20:4)

• Heaven will be amazing. "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Rev. 21:3-4)

Don’t shy away from reading Revelation because it’s difficult to interpret. I suggest you read it with a quality Study Bible or commentary, but definitely read it because it’s full of so many great promises from God. Instead of worrying about what I don’t know about the future, I know I have a God that I can trust now and always, who has sealed my salvation and my future in Christ.

Eagerly Awaiting Him

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

- Hebrews 9:27-28

I've been meditating on this verse for the past week. I love the last part (not that I don't love the first part about Christ offering his life for us). Christ will appear again to save those who eagerly wait for him. As this year long journey through the Bible draws to a close, I can honestly say that I await Christ more eagerly than I ever have before. As we know Christ more, we love him more, and the more we love someone the more we long to see them and enjoy their company. Although I commune with Christ daily, I eagerly wait for the day I will see him face to face.

A Favorite Verse

Yesterday, I got to read one of my favorite passages in the Bible - Titus 2:11-14. This passage has been such an encouragement to me over the past three years or so, and it was read at our wedding this past summer. It's such a beautiful, concise example of what it truly means to live a gospel life. I've always gotten so much out these four short verses of the Bible, but the ESV editors give it even more meaning.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

~Titus 2:11-14~

Grace - "One cannot truly claim to be a recipient of saving grace without also being a pupil of 'training grace'." This is one of the biggest changes in my life in recent years. I have always claimed to know God's saving grace, but only recently have I come under his "training grace" - where my life daily reflects my love of Him above all other things. This verse is all about what life actually looks like in the day to day for those who have been touched by God's gospel of grace - Jesus Christ.

Eager expectation - The Greek for the term "waiting" in this verse is "prosdechomai" and it carries the connotation of eagerness. As I get to know my great God and Savior Jesus more and more, I eagerly wait for the day I will see his face and know Him more than I do now.

Holiness - "To forsake Godliness is to despise the sacrifice of Christ." The purpose of Christ's sacrifice was to make his people holy, so that we can appear before our Father in heaven. If I don't strive to be holy and obedient to Christ, I am despising what he did for me on the cross. Because Christ died, I have His Spirit, and therefore I have the ability to say "NO" to ungodliness and "yes" to righteousness.

A Prized Possession - Does it ever strike you as amazing that God loves us? I mean, He actually treasures us, even though we are defiant, needy, dirty failures. God wants us to be his possession, and the connotation in the Greek is a "prized, treasured possession." God enjoys His people. God enjoys me and loves me and values me. It humbles me each and every day.

Zealous for good works - Because of Christ's example of service and ultimate sacrifice for us, we should be doing good works for others. There is no excuse not to live a life of service. My life is completely lacking in this area. I cannot believe how little I serve when I have a servant God who gave everything for me. This quote from the ESV editors is convicting: "There is no room for claiming to be redeemed while providing no evidence of practical transformation." You should be able to see my redemption in the good works I do every day. I have so much to learn...but I have a God who has already saved me and keeps me in training day after day.



Pleasing to God

How crazy is it that we can please God? That the God of the universe, who created us, and whom we have failed time and time again, can still take pleasure in us? That we can actually behave in ways that bring him joy?

I think that's what so much of this journey through the Bible this year has been about for me. How can I everyday acknowlege my own sin, my shortcomings, be transparent about my failures before God and before man, and still strive to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord? It seems like a strange juxtaposition, yet the Bible makes it clear that those who are in Christ CAN live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. Because Christ's righteousness has been given to us, and through the power of the Holy Spirit to fight the sinful tendancies of our flesh, we can bring God pleasure with the way we live our lives in this fallen world.

As he encourages believers, Paul's epistles nearly always touch on this idea of living to please the Lord. II Corinthians 5:9 says: "So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him." Paul also commends the Philippians on their thoughtful gift to him (they sent him money during his imprisonment in Rome), calling it "a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God" (Phil. 4:18). And Paul tells the church at Colasse to "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God" (Col. 1:10).

So whether in life or death, with the gifts I give, with the works I do, in my devotion to learning God's word, my aim is to please the Lord. And because of Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God advocating on my behalf, my life, though imperfect in so many ways, is genuinely pleasing to the absolutely holy and perfect God who made me and loves me.