A good morning in the study

Not every day is the same. Different days come with different ups and downs. There are distinct challenges and opportunities each time we awake with breath and life in our bodies. 

Some days praying is a challenge and a struggle. Some days praying is seemingly effortless and pours forth as easily as water from a pitcher. Some days reading scripture is confusing, and our heads fill with questions and our hearts are overshadowed by consternation. Some days reading scripture is illuminating and our heads make connections which we previously had never seen before bringing delight, joy, encouragement, and thanksgiving into our hearts. 

Today is a day where some things in my study seem to be coming together. It's a joy to see so many wondrous things overlapping and revealing the beauty, majesty, and elegance of God's Word. Here are a few examples: 

1) As a church we just started a 4 week series on 1 Peter discussing serving in the church. Yesterday we read from 1 Peter 1:13-16, focusing on how God's grace starts the Christian life (justification), sustains the Christian life (Sanctification), and is the final hope of the Christian's future (glorification). We then considered God's expectations and empowerment of his people to "be holy" in light of God's grace. Today as I looked at my notes and began my outline for next week things already have begun to take shape for Sunday. 

2) I took a few minutes to consider our next week's Bible Overview class. This is a brief time of study where we take a look at one book of the Bible and ask some introductory questions. Yesterday we started with Matthew, and next week we will look at Mark. As a church we've been encouraging families to read through the book of Mark with a chapter each day. It's been great to see today throughout Mark how gracious Jesus is while also uncompromising in his own conduct. Often in the book of Mark Jesus encounters evil spirits or demons (phrasing changes based on the encounter). And yet each time Jesus displays he is the "Strong Man" (Mark 3:27, Luke 11:21) who overcomes the present evil powers. The reality of wicked forces in the gospels isn't a source of terror for the Christian, because our God triumphs over evil in every encounter. Today it was highlighted for me how Jesus was full of grace and also perfectly lived according to God's standard. 

3) Taking a break (or so I thought) from looking at Mark, I looked at our study notes for our church's women's Bible study for tomorrow. We are studying through women of the New Testament. Each week we've been studying either an individual woman's story as recorded in the New Testament, or groups of women who share something in common. We've studied the women named at the end of Paul's letter to the Romans, and we've studied Mary the mother of Jesus. Tomorrow we are studying women who were healed by Jesus as recorded in the gospels. I was surprised to continually find so many gospel accounts of women being healed in Mark! 

• Jesus heals Simon Peter's mother very early on in Mark (1:29-31). 
• A few chapters later we read of a leader from a local synagogue (Jairus) seeks for Jesus to heal his daughter (5:21-24). 
• While on the way to Jairus' daughter, Jesus encounters and heals a woman who suffered bleeding for 12 years (5:25-34).
• Jesus then carries on and brings life to Jarius' daughter who was dead (5:35-43). 
• While near Tyre (an ancient port city on the Mediterranean) Jesus meets a Greek woman from Phoenicia whose daughter is demon possessed. After a brief conversation, Jesus heals the daughter (7:24-30)

4) Peter says to "set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming." (1 Peter 1:13b). Today in study has been great. Seeing in Mark how Jesus is active, patient, and authoritative in each story underlines the Grace of God in Christ. Christ in his first coming was such a relief and joy. The hope that I have regarding eternity is to dwell in the presence of this gracious, perfect, unblemished God forever. The hope that I have regarding the present is that Christ has sent his Holy Spirit. Evil does not have claim or reign over the people of God. 

It's an understatement to say that its "pretty cool" to see God's grace, power, and promises on display in such a fashion and in so many different places. 

Not every day do things flow so smoothly from one study, one topic, one task, to another. Yet today has been a good day in that regard and I thank God for it.