“This restoration is personally applied by the work of the Holy Spirit to the
heart of an individual. It is a work that leads the individuals to respond in
faith, repent of their sin, and profess faith in Jesus Christ as the savior.”
(Cartwright et al., 2016)
This quote explains that it is the Holy Spirit along with God doing the
work to influence a better lifestyle. Responding in faith can be difficult
sometimes not knowing what the future holds, but trusting in the Lord and
the Holy Spirit can help to eliminate some of that burden. Since beginning
classes at Liberty University, the Holy Spirit has helped to make sure that
reading the Bible and sharing learnings with others has been a regular
occurrence. yy
“There are no random personalities, events, or circumstances. There are no
unexpected situations. None of the actions recorded in the Bible caught God
by surprise. Each word of Scripture is designed to move the plan forward
in a way that glorifies God and points to Christ.” (Cartwright et al., 2016)
This quote resonates with me because sometimes when things occur in my
life, I tend to get frustrated because the plans I thought I had were suddenly
completely derailed. I have learned that trusting in God and His plans instead
of fighting them is always the smarter way to go about things. God is
setting us up for the best possible life we could have here on earth, and
learning to go with the flow of His blessings has proved to set me up for
things I otherwise could not have done on my own.
“First Kings begins with the rule of King Solomon, the third and final king
to rule over an undivided kingdom of Israel. The first half of the book
describes Solomon’s reign. He is described as the wisest man to have ever
lived and yet made some very unwise decisions including polygamy and idol
worship.” (Cartwright et al., 2016)
This is something that I did not know about First Kings. In today’s time,
polygamy unfortunately has gained popularity and in my opinion is not right.
Marriage should be a sacred covenant and when polygamy is introduced, there
is not a commitment to just one person. I also find it interesting that idol
worshipping was not even given a second thought because God strictly forbids
it, unbeknownst apparently to the people of Israel. yy
“Each of the four Gospels covers essentially the same period of time. The
Gospels can be summarized as the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Each Gospel account is written from a different perspective
and at times records different material.” (Cartwright et al., 2016)
The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are some of my favorite books
of the Bible because it tells about the life of Jesus Christ. I also find it
interesting how all of the books are written from different perspectives because
it gives the reader so many different points of view about Jesus Christ and
what He did for us. I especially enjoyed Jesus Christ’s life story of
performing miracles and ministering the people.
“Revelation is also prophetic. In other words, parts of Revelation predict future
events. Although there is much debate about the details and timing of these
events, there is a fair amount of agreement on the prophetic nature of the
events.” (Cartwright et al., 2016)
The book of Revelation in my opinion is the scariest book in the Bible
because of how it tells of future events that will happen. Everyone has their
own opinion on how the world will end but reading the book of Revelation
scares me. We must repent and confess our sins in hopes of avoiding all
that comes with the book of Revelation.
“The Greek word for gospel (euangelion) means “good news.” The word is
not unique to the Bible. It was often used in ancient times to announce
military victories.” (Cartwright et al., 2016)
This is something that I was not aware of and find interesting because I
live on a military installation and had no idea that the word “gospel” was
used to announce military victories. The “good news” or gospel was used to
tell the life of Jesus Christ through the many perspectives of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. When we study these books, we get closer to God by
understanding the sacrifices He made for us.
“Given that the Psalms were written as poetry set to music, they engage the
emotions of the heart just as art has the capacity to do today. However,
they are also the Word of God, and therefore the truths they express are
vital. As a matter of fact, truths expressed while engaging the emotions can
have a deep effect on the heart and mind.” (Cartwright et al., 2016)
When reading the Bible, Psalms is one of my favorite books to read because
of how poetic and beautiful it is. When reading it, it almost sounds like a
song in your mind which would make sense why it was written as a poetry
set to music. When reading Psalms is it important to remember that the
emotions that are felt while reading, are how God feels about His people. yy
“The prophetic books can be challenging to understand. The best way to
understand them is to understand the prophets themselves. The prophets were
messengers of God, sent by God, with a message from God. The message
was not always doom and gloom, although we often associate the prophetic
books with bad news. Sometimes the prophetic pronouncements were blessings
rather than curses.” (Cartwright et al., 2016)
I resonate with this because I find that some of the Bible is very hard to
understand. I try to put myself in the shoes of the prophets to be able to
understand what is being said. God calls on us to study His word and make
sense of what it being said to be able to apply it to our own lives.
“Often people talk about the Bible as if it were a road map for life. They
envision the Bible providing crystal clear instructions on every detail about
everyday life. Many believe that Scripture is written solely for this practical
purpose of successfully navigating the rough terrain of life.” (Cartwright et al.,
2016)
This quote resonates with me because when I am having trouble in my life
and it seems as though my prayers are unanswered, it reminds me to trust.
Reading the Bible helps put into perspective that trusting in the Lord for
any problems we may be facing is important. Reading between the lines has
gotten me a substantial amount of answers that I was looking for. yy
“While we can identify admirable points of obedience in the lives of believers
in the Bible, these people are not mere role models. They are testimonies
to God’s redemptive plan to save the world through Jesus Christ. This is
the redemption that you and I need, rather than the positive and negative
examples of fallen human beings. Every human being in the Bible should
instead draw our attention to Christ.” (Cartwright et al., 2016.)
I believe that resonating with and having admiration for the lives of believers
in the Bible is important because even though they are not role models, they
give us an example of just how dedicated we should be as believers of
Christ. Reading the Bible brings us closer to God by showing all of the
sacrifices that were made on our behalf. These testimonies help us understand
the plan that God has for us, and the need to have trust in Him for every
aspect of our lives.
