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U OF I UBF, USA

 

July 9, 2013

 

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." (Ps. 23:1)

 

Thank God for giving me an opportunity to read the whole Bible this summer. When I got up in the morning, I started with reading two to three Psalms. Then I spent 9 A.M. to 12 noon or sometimes longer, trying to cover average 40 pages of ESV study Bible per day. When I sat down and started reading, hundreds of other concerns came to my mind every time. So I prayed that God may help me to focus on listening to his word. Reading the introduction to each book of the Bible helped me to have objective view of the word of God as well as subjective response to it. When I heard and believe the word of God, I could have great peace, God’s peace in my heart and my mind and soul was brightened with new vision with the Lord of my heart. It  gave me new strength everyday to serve his will. The word of God also moved my heart to tears. It was tears of thanksgiving and hope, repentance and joy. In the afternoon and evening, I could meet a few students to share the word of God with them. God’s word even gave me strength to cook meals for my son and gardening at my frontyard. When I shared the word of God with others and make my Bible reading and practice to be communal, it gave me double strength and joy.

Though there are 66 books written in different times, there is one clear theme flowing throughout the entire Bible that is God’s world salvation work and history. That convinces me that the author of the Bible is God himself working through the Holy Spirit in each one who wrote the book. The living and eternal God  is actively loving us and leading us with his goodness and mercy, justice and righteousness, steadfast love and faithfulness, in times of good and prosperous time and often times of suffering and hardship in our lives. The main theme can be described as  the lost paradise and the regained paradise. It starts  as God’s perfect creation in Genesis and ends as a beautiful and perfect kingdom of God in Revelation. God made the perfect world. Men sinned and lost the perfect life. God planned to send the Savior of the world and promised again and again.  He fulfilled it by sending his Son Jesus Christ.

 

Through Jesus’ coming to the world and through his death and resurrection God solved man’s sin problem. Whoever believes in him will be saved. At the end of human history, when the Lord Jesus comes again, there will be sure final victory over all evil by the blood of the Lamb Jesus and the testimonies of the saints.  Holy and Almighty God reigns forever and ever. The paradise, the kingdom of God will be fully restored through Jesus the Lamb.The image of God will be fully restored in men through the fruit of the Spirit. What a great hope and vision!

 

The Bible shows the power and character of God that remembers the promises,  punishes sin,  and forgives the penitent. God works through the people, his children. He calls and raises the leaders who can help other people to walk in his ways. The key of Jesus’ discipleship was his personal trust and love relationship with his disciples. Jesus called his disciples and was with them and sent them out to the whole world with his gospel of salvation. God wants to have a covenant relationship with his people. God who is holy, righteous and almighty wants to dwell in us. One of the most repeated words is “I am your God and you are my people.” He washes and cleanses us through the blood of Jesus and dwells in us and among us. The covenant relationship is like the marriage covenant by loving him and obeying his commandments. God wants to be with us and us with him. He wants us to raise his people for his sake who can trust in him, obey him and love him and his people. Men completely failed due to unbelief and infidelity due to idol-worship. The Savior, Jesus came to fulfill God's promise and established the new covenant relationship with him by faith in him. Through his death and resurrection,  God punished sin and forgave mankind. Men’s sinful nature can be transformed into divine nature. The ransomed and sanctified people enter the kingdom of God and lives in his presence forever.

 

The Bible greatly concerns about the fruit of our life. The Bible talks about the righteous and the wicked. The Lord hears the cry of the righteous who have the fear of God. But the wicked will perish. Jesus talked about the parable of sower: “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:20) Hardened heart, rocky and thorny soils should be cultivated to become the good soil and to bear good fruit of God’s word. Galatians 5:22 says the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It says that the flesh reaps corruption and the Spirit reap eternal life. So we must not sow to the flesh but sow to the Spirit. Hebrews 12:11 says that we yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness through God’s loving discipline. We fight against our own sinful nature and share God’s holiness. Therefore we must run the race of faith, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfector of faith. James 3:17 talks about the wisdom from above: pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. We must ask God for wisdom and have good conduct. He teaches us to submit to God, resist the devil and draw near to God.

The Bible applied to the time when father Abraham lived and when St.Paul lived. Now it applies to the time we live. I noticed that it took about 300 years to evangelize Rome beginning with apostle Paul. It is about 4 generations. The mustard seed like gospel grew to be the giant tree. I need to have such vision and plant the seed of the gospel in the hearts of young people around me. God’s world salvation work can not be done in one or two generation. It keeps going throughout the generations. We are here at this point with historical mission to be the part of his saving work by his grace. We are running the race which the final victory is promised in Jesus.  Personally as a mother, a guardian and a missionary, my life purpose should be one with God's salvation work and history with grace of Jesus. As we bear the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy and peace of God in our hearts, God will use us for his kingdom come and his will be done forever and save all people on earth throughout the generations.

 

Mary Cowen