A. Module 1: Week 1
Thread: How to Look at the Bible
Learning Log:
“God’s story details his plan…” “…Rescue, redeem, and restore.”
This quote was more of a learning concept for me. As a child raised in a
Pentecostal church, the Bible was never presented to me as God’s story that
details his plan of rescuing us, redeeming us, and restoring us. This gives me
a lot of hope and I look forward to reading the Bible more thoroughly,
understanding it better, and reading it as God’s detailed plan.
“The more we attempt to save ourselves the worst we make things...” “…
strong enough, smart enough and self-sufficient enough to fix the error of our
ways.”
This quote resonated with me because of the type of personality that I have.
I am strong headed and stubborn. It is the Taurus in me honestly. I am the
type of person that will not ask for help in any situation and unfortunately
that includes in my relationship with Jesus. There have been many times that
I have fallen short of living life the way that I should be and I have spoken
the exact words “every time I try to make things better it seems like things
get worse.” As soon as I read that it resonated with me that I have said the
same words, and then the follow up quote, “…strong enough, smart enough
and self-sufficient enough to fix the errors of our ways,” those two quotes
back-to-back, hit me like a freight train. My husband and I recently spoke
about how when our lives are falling apart it seems to always be when we’re
not taking or making time. By that, I mean we’re not going to church, we’re
not studying our Bible, we’re not saying our prayers. We aren’t making or
taking time to simply say “Thank you for waking me up.” Through all that
things just get worse. We talk, understand, and completely agree that it is
because we have stepped back from our faith. These two quotes just
resonate with me, because it is something that I have personally done, and I
have seen the repercussions of attempting to save myself with my strong
will.
“If you know the history of a person or event, you will have a better
understanding of that person or event.”
This quote resonates with me because of the connection that I have with so
many humans. This quote also helps explain why I have always been so
interested in learning the history of a person. I have multiple friends who
come to me daily for life advice they all call me their unpaid therapist. It is
satisfying to read something that I have thought for so long. My outlook on
life has always been to make your own judgments, know your own
knowledge, and love the unlovable. When we meet people, sometimes, we
don’t understand who they are because of their past. Drug abuse, physical
and mental abuse, and any form of sexual abuse can cause people to change
throughout life as a person, and if we don’t understand what they’ve came
through then we can never truly understand that person.
“Jesus’s miracles primarily served as a sign that he was who he claimed to
be.”
This quote resonated with me because of the miracles that I have seen in my
own personal life. During my brother-in-law’s deployment, he was involved in
an ATV accident during a visit home. He was flown to the nearest hospital
that was equipped to deal with his trauma. When we arrived at the hospital,
the doctors informed us that we would need to start making funeral
arrangements. I won’t go into the details of his trauma, but it was extensive,
and we were devastated. During our meeting with the doctor my mother
stopped everyone and said, “We believe in a God that can turn this around.”
Three weeks later, my brother-in-law walked out of the hospital on his own
two feet. Unfortunately, he was honorably discharged from the military, but
he is still serving as a federal police officer at our local VA. When we go
through trials and tribulations we are so quick to ask ourselves why rather
than remembering the miracles that Jesus performed while he was on this
earth.
“John 6:67 “You don’t want to go away too, do you?””
This quote resonated with me because of my consistent struggle with
friendships. There’s a new song out by Jelly Roll called “Best for me” and one
of the things that he says is “How can you love someone enough to let them
go?” I think that personally I’ve always felt alone in my friendships, and I
constantly wonder if my friends want to be friends with me, if my friends
want to be involved with my life. This quote is Jesus saying, “You don’t want
to go away too, do you.” That is something that humans struggle with every
day and that’s something that we probably never thought Jesus also
questioned.
“Like many of the Old Testament prophetic warnings, Revelation is not
merely a pronouncement of the end of the world. The doom of the end of the
world must be seen with a view of God’s offer of salvation.”
This quote, both resonates with me and opens a new learning concept. As a
Christian we understand that the end of the world is coming and that God
offers salvation but because we are going into the career path that we are
going into, we will be dealing with secular individuals. The learning concept
here is that as a life coach we have to be willing to speak of the salvation
that is offered to the clientele we will be working with as they may know the
end of the world is coming, but they may not know that God offers salvation.
“Psalms were sacred hymns of prayers.”
This quote is a new learning concept. I have read passages from Psalms, and
never put together that they were written in a style of poetry or prayers or
hymns. Reading the passage and exploring what psalms is really about made
me excited to take a deeper look into the book.
“Christ’s perfect life is the antidote for the weight of the law and commands
of God.”
This quote is a new learning concept for me. Something that I bring to my
husband’s attention all the time is that we were raised in churches that
constantly told us what not to do, but never told us what to do. That type of
mentality created two believers who questioned if we were asking for
forgiveness when we sinned and asking for help to move us past those sins
to live a better life. Reading this passage helped me understand that it’s not
about asking for forgiveness every evening before bed it’s about doing
what’s best and following God, and understanding that the perfection of his
life, and innocent crucifixion was the ultimate sacrifice for our salvation.
