Ponderful...

I am reading Paul's letters right now in my chronological Bible. Have you ever thought about all that Paul wrote? He has most of December dedicated to him! And his writings are amazing. I wish people still wrote as honest as he does. There was very little worry of being politically correct, he just laid it out there plain for the churches to read. Anyway, the other night something lept off the page at me.


Phil 1:17-18 "The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,"

WOW! I used to be the first person to point out poor motives. And I still struggle daily with the concept of judging the motives of others. I continually have to remind myself that being God's child does not make me "Holy Ghost Junior" and He alone can judge a man's actions because He alone can see the man's heart. I have pure argued with God about whether someone is serving Him out of the right intent. Hello????? 1) Why argue with God? 2) Why think after you have read the Bible 3 times...which means you have read the 1 Samuel passage where God tells Samuel that man looks at the outward appearance of man but that God sees the man's heart at least 3 times...would you think you are a better judge of intention than God? And 3) now that I re-read Philippians for the 4th time I see so clearly...that IT DOES NOT MATTER as long as the Word of God is proclaimed correctly. What an awesome revelation for me! I know it is elementary to most of you, but to me it was like finding out AFTER I had broken three vents when I crawled under the house with the kids to "close the vents under the house" that there was a slidey thing on the outside to open and close the vents! Wow! Who knew?

So again I receive affirmation from God that reading the Bible in a year can be very effective. He will speak to you in remote little passages if you are seeking Him. Some people say that you can't get anything from reading the Bible this way...and to that I NOW say....does it matter? Does the motive really matter? Isn't having some one's face in the Word ok regardless of what gets them there?

So here comes the end of year challenge...start with me Jan 1. Read the Bible in 2011. It takes only 15 minutes a day and you will be blessed. I am using the old reading plan that I first got started with again next year. It is an excel file and I would love to have you read with me. Contact me if you want a copy.

And the definition of ponderful in case you are pondering is...something very interesting and odd that needs to be pondered about.

Ponder it ladies! Love ya!