Well yesterday I went to bed at 8:15 pm and was asleep by 9:00!!  I was not feeling well to say the least, I think I am battling a sinus infection.  Therefore, I did not get my post up on Monday so officially it is Mandy’s Tuesday

Last week was my week to teach at Study and Share and I was excited about the things the Lord encouraged and challenged me with on prayer.  Below you will find the audio file of my lesson that you may listen to if you wish.

To download, click here, to listen streaming just click on the play button below.

Today we honor and celebrate Grampy, aka Mandy’s Dad, who is turning 60…although he says he is turning 16(celsius)

Enjoy the video and celebrate Grampy with us!

Mark 12.28-34

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

So much in this small passage! And it’s not simply good things, but things that are “important”, “most important”, “greatest”, and “more important”. I noticed a lot of grand words like “all”, “most”, “no other” and nothing greater. Of course running in the background of my mind is the work of Scot McKnight in Jesus Creed, having taken a class with him and heard much about how this is crucial to the life of a follower of Christ. The beauty of this interaction is that Jesus reaches to Deuteronomy and Leviticus and brings them forward to his current day in such a way that silences all other questions… “from then on no one dared ask him any more questions” (v.34). Did they not dare ask him questions because of his answer or his indictment to the teacher/scribe?

With all this however, the phrase and concept that occupied most of my thoughts is, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.” Jesus makes a statement of preposition in relation to the kingdom of God. I thought through other prepositions and wonder if they can describe how people are existing in relation to the kingdom of God…in, around, near, away from, part of, far from, out of, above, under, etc. It seems then, to be “not far from” the kingdom is to understand that love is the greatest commandment…so possibly to be in the kingdom of God is to move from understanding the wisdom to living it out, actually acting and thinking in the way of loving God and loving others. Moving from a understanding and knowledge concept into a being and living mode. This all led my heart to 1 Corinthians 13.13 “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”

So I asked the question, “who is far from the kingdom of God?” Possibly those who think that offerings and sacrifices are most important, or those who think that obeying the law is most important, or those who value human wisdom and philosophy as the highest pursuit, or those who keep records of wrongs done to them…I think I could go on and on with listing the pursuits of humankind OTHER than love. Of course this demands a GOD understanding of love rather than a humanistic understanding of love, a commitment to God and others beyond all self-interests and human wisdom.

As I explained last week my thoughts have been on prayer recently since Johnny Miller is preaching a series on prayer at Calvary Church and we are studying it as well in Study and Share (the Ladies Bible study). Tomorrow I will be teaching and it has been exciting to learn and be encouraged this week in the things I have read and pondered. I will wait to share these items and the podcast of the lesson until next week.

Today I decided to carve out a good amount of time and pray and while doing so I began to thank the Lord for His precious gifts to me. My thoughts turned to His word and what a joy it is to read and study. I am overwhelmed by the gift of getting to go to Columbia International University and study there! It was there that I was able to grasp a better understanding of the Bible, both in the entire story line and in it’s individual parts. Now I do not consider myself to be an expert!! I just rejoice in the chance to study more about the Bible, to be able to feel comfortable with it as if it were a good treasured old friend who I love to sit and talk with. Now it is not really the Bible I am doing this with but it’s author! And so in the gift of studying the Bible I found the true gift of getting to know God better. Through his revealed word He shows himself and offers me and you the opportunity to soak Him in.

In Jeremiah 15:16 it reads “Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and a delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.” For Jeremiah, God’s word was a joy and a delight, he equates them with food; amazing! The Bible is like a refreshing cold Coke with jump start caffeine on a hot day, a warm cup of coffee to get you going in the morning, a needed cup of hot tea to sooth a soar throat and a required dose of penicillin to get rid of an infection. What a treasure, and what a thing to be thankful for. So join me this week in thanking the Lord for His word; which draws us in and leads us straight to Him. May He be our joy and delight!