Mining

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. There has been so much that I have been learning that I honestly didn't know where to start...here is just a little tidbit that I thought I would pass along :).
Shaun and I have been soaking up the word of God. just SOAKING! You know it's amazing what it says. I heard someone say recently that the Bible is pretty grey or doesn't have much to say about a lot of things...I have found that statement to be incorrect. The more I study the Bible (and believe me I'm just starting) the more I realize that the Bible has a lot to say about most things and very adamantly.
You know though to find those things you have to be willing to dig and search and KNOW the word of God. I heard this analogy recently. "The word of God is a treasure to be mined." When you are miner you get scraped knuckles. You work hard every day and you don't find treasure every day...if you did it wouldn't be treasure. But you keep working and digging through the dirt and blasting through the rocks...then when you do find the treasure it is precious.
Memorizing the word of God is powerful. You know why? There are 2 words used for the "Word" in the New Testament. One is Logos and the other is Rema. Logos is the already written word that you have memorized and it is inscribed on your heart...when you have been drink the word. Once it is inscribed on your heart it brews in your soul so awhile and that is when Rema happens. Rema brings the word alive ...it's the voice of the Lord speaking to you after you have the Logos in you...drinking the word. I have experienced this over and over throughout my life. You know when you read a passage of scripture and you know when God says "this is for you right now". Paul (the apostle in the Bible) he quoted so much of the Torah. Do you know why? He had the whole Torah memorized. By the time a rabbinical student was 12 years old they had ALL 39 books of the Torah memorized...MEMORIZED! You know Peter the Disciple...the fisherman that I've always thought of a probably a bit uneducated?...how many he had memorized...he was a non-rabbinical student as a child and he had 1/2 that number memorized. There is much to be said about that.
Psalm 119:11 says, " I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."
in the Message it says, " I've banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won't sin myself bankrupt. "

Deut 6:5-9 says this, " Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!
6-9 Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates. "

Another thing that I have been learning is that before I say "I believe..." (as believe means conversation over this is my conclusion) I need to see what the whole word of God says about something. Not just one or two passages...the WHOLE word. Paul summed up his life in Acts 20 the last in the last verse (Acts 20:27) "For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. ". I am learning to have a systematic theology on the complex subjects that God talks to us about. It will take me at least 20-30 years to come to the place where I can say ..."I believe..." If I do not do that I have unbiblical assumptions and am not a student of the word of God and there are consequences for that.
I HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN!!! I am looking forward to it...there is no other pursuit more worth pursuing

Mining, Tama