the latest?

What do you mean you're the latest? That's sounds more like your's truly :(

My apologies, guys. Caught up in the business of life (although I guess that isn't really much of an excuse). Anyway, I'm currently struggling my way through Leviticus - man all the numbers and laws are driving me insane! Couldn't we have started in the New Testament somewhere and proceeded accordingly? *lol*

All this aside, I'm currently studying Colossians - it's a fantastic although often ignored book. This is recommended reading, people. My friend Sven and I spent more than an hour just going through the first chapter! I'll share some thoughts ...

I guess that to me, studying the Bible is about finding out what God wanted to say to the people at that time and in that context, and then lifting out the principles and applying them to our time, today. I find that Bible-text-hopping, while being useful to prove theology, takes a lot away from simply reading the Bible and application, plus it's fairly easy to take stuff out of context that way. But I'm just starting out on this, people. So don't shoot me down.

In Colossians, Paul was writing to the "saints and faithful brethern in Christ" - to assure them that while he understood that they wanted to do what was right, they were being influenced by a group of people who claimed to have been receiving visions from angels, saying that Christ was a great teacher but not God, and that one still needed to obey specific laws in order to be saved.

But ...

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation ... All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."

"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His Love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

"Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."

Powerful words eh?

Let's not forget that Christ should be central in our lives.

KAREN:GENESIS

I realised that i'm the slowest to blog!! apologies!!!

Well about Genesis i've a number of observations that i found really quite interesting.

1) Every living creature that God made were VEGETARIANS!!

1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have given] every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Teehee.. THE ORIGINAL DIET. MEATLESS. Lions and tigers were all veggie eating!

2)Before sin animals were not afraid of us!

9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth [upon] the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

3) The garden of Eden was not the whole earth!

2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

4) The Earth that God create in the beginning was without rain!

2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and [there was] not a man to till the ground.
2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

No need for farmers! God takes care of every living thing!

NB. Although there was no rain, there were rivers and springs. (gen 2.10)

5) First rain only at the flood!

7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
7:12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

6) Abraham actually bargained with God for the sake of the people in the city and God let Him bargain! (Gen 18:22-33)

Explaination:
God knew well the measure of Sodom's guilt; but He expressed
Himself after the manner of men, that the justice of His dealings might be understood. Before bringing judgment upon the transgressors He would go Himself, to institute an examination of their course; if they had not passed the limits of divine mercy, He would still grant them space for repentance.

Patriachs And Prophets, Pg 139

God is so nice and understanding.

7)Why was it wise for Issac to not bless Esau also.

27:34 And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, [even] me also, O my father.
27:35 And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety, and hathtaken away thy blessing.
27:36 And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and,behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
27:38 And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, [even] me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

But Isaac didn't/couldn't withdraw his blessing from Jacob.

WHY?!

the inside story...

Hebrews 12:16 Lest there [be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

THANKS GUYS FOR THE SUPPORT GROUP IN OUR WALK WITH GOD THROUGH READING THE BIBLE! NOW WE HAVE A CLEARER GLIMPSE OF GOD'S CHARACTER.

Book of Numbers
numbers.. what an interesting name for a biblical book..
isnt it more suited for lets say.. a maths study guide..
ok anyway the book Numbers came about due to the 2 census of the Isrealites taken
as usual i have no idea how we can gain from the numbers of ppl in different tribes which is explicitly stated in various chapters
Numbers 11:1-2
1 Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the LORD, the fire was quenched
i wonder how difficult the people then was as it displeased the LORD so much that he caused fire to burn among them.. what made the LORD burn them.. i have to figure it out
further on in numbers.. the people continued to complain and time and time again it was Moses who interceded for them..
we can see how loving Moses was to the Lord's people
the people were stubborn and did not learn from their mistakes..
this is something we can learn from bible history..
to keep an open mind.. NEVER to reject our good Lord and learn from our past mistakes and not keep carrying our mistakes and sins
while i was reading through all the ceremonial laws.. i was thinking why would a loving God punish its people with cruelty..is it because their disobedience? or why were people being stoned..
i have yet to seek an answer but i believe many of my frens have the answer.. (:
interesting to note is Numbers 6:24-26 which is what we sing as congregational response in balestier church
24 " ' "The LORD bless you and keep you;
25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." '
ok.. this aside.. i find it very interesting to note that the presence of the Lord is so obvious in the past(eg.manna from heaven, Lord's presence as a cloud in day and fire in night above the tabernacle)
and the people still sin and not repent..even after the Lord punished them with plagues and all..they took the forgiveness for granted and continued to do against God's will
in the context of the modern world.. even though God is not as "obvious" amongst us..in many of us who believe the existence of our Lord.. many of us still sin time after time and not repent with knowledge of our mistakes..
sometimes we really have to think about what would we do if the Saviour stood beside us..
would we think and act the way we act now?
guess we have to start using this as a way to live our lives..
thats pretty much what ive learned from Numbers (:

Book of Leviticus
from leviticus 1-10. its almost all about the ceremonial laws which i cannot find any application in life today
there comes leviticus 11.. perhaps a chapter most sda members would be familiar.. clean and unclean meat.it defines which meat we are allowed to eat and which we're not
leviticus 23:3 again reminds us to keep the sabbath holy..
The Sabbath 3 ‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings
again this is one of the "boring" books in the bible due to the many many information about all the offerings ppl made last time which we dun have to go through now thanks to our messiah Jesus Christ.. (:
perhaps i have to listen to some sermons and talks regarding these books and gain more from these books..
oh well.. hope one day i can understand why all these materials are included in the Bible

Exodus

Exodus

In exodus 2 a very important man in the bible is born- Moses

next in exodus 3 the Lord called out to Moses in a burning bush.. He called Moses to bring the children of Isreal out of Egypt.Moses then approached the Pharaoh and performed miracles..however time and time again the Pharaoh did not do as he promised which caused plagues to infect whole of Egypt.

This part of exodus showed that our Lord God is able to protect us no matter what and we should keep faith in him and keep our eyes upon him in whatever we do

The most amazing miracle done is probably the crossing of the Red Sea..its somewhat become a classic scene in biblical scenes.Pharaoh's foolishness led tot he death of his ppl.

In Exodus 16.. the Lord decided to rain bread from heaven(Manna) for the congregation.. imagine if we were at the scene.. we can see how real God is.. and these ppl even upon seeing God's greatness.. some of them still have complaints against him..its quite puzzling that the ppl are so demanding from someone so good to them.

Exodus 20 is probably the most important part of exodus, The Ten Commandments

after this part most of it are probably not that enlightening to me for it is about ceremonial laws which we do not have to follow after Jesus came down to die for us.I was thinking that everyword in the Bible is there for a reason.. but i cant help but ask why is the exact measurements listed and every minor detailed recorded down in several chapts of Exodus and Numbers..why such details are required for us..the measurements of the lampstands ark n garments for the priest just makes me think about its existence in the Bible

sadly to say i didnt gain that much from bible as from other books i read previously.. perhaps i have not read that in depth or something..

questions:how do u define work..( as in on a sabbath) how is spending money work, playing games work

why are there such minor n explicit details about the many things in the past which i see no importance in knowing

probably be posting Leviticus tmr.. hope this blog can be revived (: