A Bible Journal Odyssey!

Okay, so as you can tell by the title it's getting to be that time of year again. I absoultely love spring, especially for those few short weeks where it is cool and breezy and the dogwood trees are budding and in bloom, absolutely breathtaking in my opinion. I got my letter from U Of M in the mail today, I got all excited to see what it said but turned out they only need my transcript to finish the application. Kind of a buzzkill but it's all good. One of my favorite things about Genesis is the creation of mankind and more specifically how it is plan. God says "Let us make mankind in our image." This is a very important verse for me as it shows that the holy trinity were alive and in full effect. That inside each of us is an aspect of every facet of the God head. Our bodies earthly and reminicent of Christ, the son of God. Our spirits that make every one of us unique with the power to be faithful and blessed by God, and the intelligence of our creator, a blessing onto us. There are so many more aspects to it than that, however I still find it absolutely amazing to read when it says our in the bible referencing the holy trinity. I just enjoy the small details there I suppose.
I love how everything in the old testament including the creation of the universe, earth and life is done in a process. It really shows that God works over time to create something beautiful. Sometimes the most beautiful and amazing things in ones life won't occur until later down the road. Sometimes it takes sadness and struggles to get there, however once you get there you can appreciate it all that much more. I really feel that way about Dayna, granted our relationship hasn't been perfect, most of my relationships in the past were rather difficult as was ours at one point. However with Gods blessing we have made it through the trying times in our lives and are very in love and happy and very blessed by God. I've always had a strong feeling in my heart for her that she was the one God set aside for me and it remains to this day I and I quite simply could not be happier. And with that I am off to dream of her and thank God for her. And with that I bid you all good night.

So over the past few days I feel that I have really learned a lot about myself as a person and a lot about growing as a christian and what it really takes to truly grow. This is something I used to struggle with a lot as when I would make an attempt to lead and carry myself out of the quicksand of backsliding I always found myself sinking right back in eventually. I guess you could say that I never really managed to get myself completely out of the quicksand, merely back to the top again only to sink back down. I really feel devoutly lately that I have been seeing the reasons why and it reflecting in my daily life that in order to lead one must truly be able to follow. This may not make very much sense for many but for me it makes perfect sense. I used to be very stubborn in my ways and never really willing to break merely bend at certain points. Lately I have found that by following and doing the things that I know the lord intends for me that my life is much more fuller, more complete, and I am still able to do the things that I enjoy as well as leading a good life in Christ and being a responsible person. As a result my time is thusly very amplified in nature, I have time to balance school work, work, and my own free time as well as bible study, something I thought that I may never be able to actually successfully accomplish and most deffinitely an answered prayer. I feel like by placing God first in my life no matter what I may be doing and being thankful for God always by recognizing how God works in the little things in life that I am better able to fully appreciate God in my christian walk which is absolutely wonderful. It also allows me to carry the holy spirit with me whatever I may be doing and I am sure that yes there are going to be times when I am down, and there have been at certain points, but I have newfound confidence in the ability to carry through. One really amazing moment in my life tonight that I was really greatful for and I felt really reflected how much God has blessed me for following is my test tonight in my Managerial Accounting class. A rather difficult class to say the very least. At any rate on my test I got a perfect score of 13 out of 10 which included all of the bonus problems that are much more difficult than the ones on the test. I just felt very blessed and that I could see God working behind it. Anyways though, enough about my day, more reading to do. Otherwise I'll be on sentance four of the first chapter by the end of the week. I went into reading and read verse two which really puzzled me upon reading it as honestly, unless you look into it it won't make very much sense whatsoever. Part of it states "While a wind from God swept over the waters". Now this doesn't make very much sense considering there is no mention of water being created at the time. It was simply a blank empty universe at that point as neither light nor dark existed. After doing some reading I began to understand what was being said here. Mother ducks, for example, when protecting their youngs eggs while they hatch outstretch their wings ever so widely around their new brood, while doing this they tend to flutter a bit. The fluttering is done to keep the temperature just right for the new ducklings. This example itself is merely a metaphor for the beauty and care that went into the creation of our universe as we know it. God ensuring the cosmos would be just right and perfectly suited for our creation. It really makes me ponder the creation and gain newfound respect for it. We all know how the rest of the story goes. God created light, dark, earth water, vegetation, life, the universe as we know it today. However, one really never looks at the sheer intricacies and details involved. The variables of the cell structures that if even minisculy off would throw our existance into a state of chaos. I find it so incredibly difficult to believe that often times people cannot believe in there being a creator. Atheist for example, I cannot understand, how can one witness a sunrise and not see the love and care of it's existence. The loving light it shows upon our world every day. To see the stars twinkling in the evening sky and realize how unfathomable it is for us to truly comprehend everything that goes into their existance. Even when you think about simple things like your favorite food. Have you ever really sat down and thought, wow, I wonder what it is chemically, scientifically if you will, that went into the creation of this food that gives it it's distinct flavor. For many it may be a little bit scary to ponder the details behind everything in their lives. For me I find it to be a lessing to be able to look at everything in aww as though I am a born again child realizing the world for the first time. Alas though, my time is up, I am off to sleep and will probably wake up at around 6 AM. I may go into work early and make some three potatoe cakes since it is food day, who knows. Until next time, God bless and goodnight.

As I am writing this I am rather tired as I am running behind on bedtime by nearly fourty minutes so I may have to keep this rather short and sweet tonight. I just felt that I was truly being called to write other things for him. So I really find nothing wrong with doing God's work even if it interferes a bit with my bible study as God obviously knows what is best for me in the first place. I love how in the beginning everything was covered in darkness. For me this is very representative of sin as a whole. Everyone in the beginning of life is covered in the darkness of sin that only God can bring the light in to cleanse them and make them whole. Shiny and new beings in the name of our lord. I know that for me personally before turning to God my life was really meaningless in direction at the time. I really didnt feel like I had any real direction concerning the creation of my own life. Now a mere couple of years down the road I am working on my college degree whilest saving for moving and starting a new life together with a woman I love incredibly dearly and am blessed to have in my life. Granted this path has had many ups and downs along the way but ultimately I know God has blessed this path and this is what has been destined and chosen for me and I feel so incredibly fortunate to be able to follow God's plan for me. My new life created by Christ,which leaves me very excited for what the future holds. That is it for tonight but tomorrow night I will try and get out of the first paragraph of Genesis Chapter 1, hehe, I know, baby steps, baby steps. Goodnight and god bless.

For the few that do read my live journal you have probably noticed by now that I have completely cleared out my live journal for probably the hundredth time now. For some this probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me to completely start over fresh but for me personally it is very important. I myself want a new beginning in my relationship with Christ, a new foundation to lay my Christian relationship on and thusly I felt as though to really do that I had to start from scratch. There will be a slight difference in the posting format this time as I will be adding in things about my every day life as well as my bible study to provide a nice mix of reading material that I would hope to truly be inspiring. I've decided that a lot of things in my life need to change as I need to remain more focused on Christ and being a strong Christian male that is also a capable leader. A vast overhaul of my life and my spiritual life catered to God's desires for me as a man. The list is a fairly long one but I will definitely be bringing a few things on it up over the course of this bible odyssey if you will. An odyssey you can now expect to be updated daily and if it isn't please hunt me down. Hehe, the idea being I don't want to be hunted down in the first place I suppose, but anyways, onto my bible study. I of course love chapter one because I feel that it really allows for in depth thought into God and his design. Not only for the universe but for our personal lives, my own included. In the beginning the earth was a formless void but are we as people very much better in a spiritual sense before we turn to God? Inside all of us there is always going to be a formless void that only God knows how to fill. I personally look at the times when I have been my absolute happiest, the most great and blessed moments of my life. The time when I have ever been truly and ultimately happy the way Christ's love intends is when I've come home from church with my radio on and just singing praise and being silly and cheerful, feeling uplifted from service in the lord. These are the times that are absolutely precious to me as they are filling a void only God can fill. No other person on this earth no matter how much I may love them will ever be able to do that, nor will I be able to for another person. That is why Christ is so extremely crucial in relationships. One has to understand that another earthly person can only bring them earthly happiness; abundant life is a gift only from God. The process of creation itself is a rather marvelous one when you think about it, bringing about of the universe with all of its miraculous beauty, all of the intelligence and omnipotence it would truly take to create such a wonder. The intricate detail of things beyond our comprehension that only grows greater as we learn more as a society. To me it is simply undeniable that there is a creator for that very reason alone. Alas, however, I am on a strict time schedule anymore which includes my bible study as I am doing it right before bedtime and that time seems to have appeared out of thin air, I always lose track of time when writing these. I may not be able to get a chapter a day done but the sheer amount of thought and reflection on my life that doing it for increments of time will allow without reading constraints allows me to freely write as I read without hurrying to fit everything in and thusly portray a more accurate message that I feel God has displayed for me. I am also working on a prayer list so if anyone has any prayer request feel free to leave them in my comment on each post. I'll always be sure to check them nightly. Until next time, God Bless. -Ben