Loving the Word

I have never been much of a morning person.  Once I get up, I do love the freshness and newness and quietness of the morning... once I get up.  It's that whole "getting up" part that's the issue for me.  It takes at least 3 alarms and a few licks from Blazer to get me out of bed.  When I lived in Houston, I had to be at work super early, so getting up to spend time with the Lord was really difficult.  I finally got into somewhat of a routine that involved copious amounts of coffee, but it was hit or miss.  Now that I work from North Carolina, I am on Eastern time and my work is on Central time.  This means that essentially, my entire work day has shifted forward by one hour.  Instead of starting work at 7:30, I start at 8:30.  Instead of finishing at 5:30, I finish around 6:30.  This is totally fine with me, because it gives me a whole glorious hour in the morning to read and pray, and I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to do it.

Somehow I got myself into four Bible studies at one time, so it's a good thing I have 45 minutes to an hour each day to work through them.  I'm reading through the New Testament one chapter a day with Watermark Church.  I'm doing a study of Daniel with the "wives" club here.  I'm studying Jonah with a senior I'm discipling through CRU.  And I'm reading through the Old Testament on my own.  So on any given day, I'm reading the New Testament, the early Old Testament, and the prophetic books!  At first I thought it was going to be confusing, but it has been the biggest blessing!  For the last few months, God has just been opening my mind and drawing me in with his word and causing me to love it (and him) more and more each day. 

Working through different parts of the Bible at the same time has given me so much perspective on the people of God, the character of God, and the promises of God that we see fulfilled in scripture.  In my Daniel study, we're learning about what the "end times" might look like, and I see that there is so much deception and so many lies in the world that we are quick to believe.  I think what I love most about my daily time in the word is that it saturates me in truth.  Each day I see more and more of who God really is, and that helps me to see the world through the lens of truth.  I've started to make a concentrated effort to memorize scripture, and it has been a great experience which I'll post more about later.

I've never told the full story of how Brent & I met and fell in love, but I'll tell you part of it today.  We were friends in college, and I didn't like him that way until a ski trip we took with friends.  We drove to Colorado and back, so we had plenty of time to chat.  I clearly remember Brent and some of our other friends starting an impromptu game of Bible trivia.  Basically, this consisted of them lobbing questions at Brent and Brent knowing the answer to every single one.  I remember sitting there in silence because I sure didn't know the answers!  And I remember thinking that I wanted to know the Bible as well as Brent.  That's truly when I began to like him as more than a friend.  Well, fast forward to today:  Brent sill knows a lot more about the Bible than I do.  However, I'm slowly but surely catching up! :-) The more I read, the more I know, and the more in love with the Lord I become.  Brent is always there as a sounding board when I say things like, "Can you BELIEVE that Aaron was the one who made a golden idol for the people, after what God had just done for them??"  or "Wait, can we go through the genealogy in Genesis one more time?"  or "I should really know this, but not all the gospels were written by disciples, right?"  It felt good to be in church last week when our pastor mentioned that he was going to talk about the "sign of Jonah".  I leaned over and whispered excitedly... "That's in Matthew!  I know that! And I know exactly what it's referring to!"

Sitting with my coffee by the window each morning is the highlight of my day.  There is no TV on, no emails chiming on my computer, and no calls coming in.  It's quiet, and I need it.  If I miss a day for some reason, I feel it.  It puts my mind on the things of the Lord and helps me to focus for the rest of the day.  So yes, I've been quiet on the blog lately, but I think that partly reflects the quietness of my heart and my life lately, and I don't have much else to say except Praise the Lord!  For he is holy and sovereign and loving and just and his word is wonderful.  So that's what I wanted to say today.