Guiding down the river

Finishing up another semester with straight A’s makes me feel extremely elated and proud of myself. I do owe all praise and glory to God for helping me through the semester and my family for always being my support system. I must say my school and classmates really have become like family as well and we are all wading these educational waters together. After so long I am embarking on the final leg of my college journey and approaching the wide open ocean of opportunity. It seems like so far it has been a long treacherous journey down a rapid river and I can see the final leg at last.

This previous semester gave me a lot of new insights into teaching and allowed me seventy hours of student training under a mentor teacher in practicum. I also had ten more hours in reading diagnosis tutoring a fifth graders. My other two classes were Educational psychology and Social studies Methods which were very informative and helpful. Now next semester in the spring I have twelve weeks of student teaching to complete. I am excited and ready to get out there, make contacts, gain knowledge, and practice everything we have all been working toward so far.

My darling bride has been stuck at home for several weeks now getting over pneumonia in both lungs. She is understandably ready to get back to work hopefully soon and ready to regain strength and energy. I however have had the best Christmas present just being able to spend so much time with her, even though she has been sick.

Our oldest is doing wonderfully in third grade and is at the top of her class. The twins are growing too fast as well and I can hardly believe it watching how much they have grown. Every day is something new with my children. They are always teaching me as much as I am trying to teach them. I look forward to the coming Christmas season as we are in the middle of it now. I am eager to see all that is in store for our family. Trusting God to walk us through every step and guide us down the river of life. 

Called to Obey: Genesis 22:1-19

Called to Obey

                                                 David Bowlby

                                                Genesis 22:1-19

                                                     

One of the most important stories in the Old Testament is based on being obedient to God. We are called to obeying God’s will no matter it is.

Now the first point I am going to make is the worship. Abraham brought glory to God
by Believing God could do something great. Gen 22:5 - And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the donkey and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” By saying this he declares that God has something in mind and will provide a way to bring both of them back. Even if it means God brining Isaac back from the dead. Heb 11:17-19 - By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in as a type. In the way Abraham lived he brought Glory to God.

We pretty much all want to be like Jesus? Sure, we all do. of course. John 17:1 - These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

Many times in the gospels Jesus tells us He does only what He sees the Father doing
and was sent to bring glory to God. In what way did he bring this glory. By living a perfect and blameless life. Every moment before the cross, He lived a holy lifestyle.  Jesus worshipped the Father by the way He lived, just as Abraham worshiped God the way he acted and spoke.

Then there is us. Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” In the way Abraham and jesus lived, so we must live. What do you think of when i say worship?
What is the typical idea of worship? Singing and dancing around most likely. Worship is more then music and dancing around. It is the daily adoration and respect we show to a superior being. (God). But we don’t just worship God. People worship things and other people all the time by placing them above God in their adoration and respect. By giving them more value then God. We have to be careful in the way we live to glorify God by giving him all priority

Now we move onto my next point. The Willingness.
Gen 22:3 - And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

God has spoken, Abraham didn’t waste anytime, but got up early and went to obey God.  Later in verse 18.  “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” God tells us Abraham obeyed God's voice. He rose early to do the things which God called him to do. He didn’t know until he got to the place how long it would take him to get there it took him three days and in Abraham’s mind Isaac was dead from when the commandment came till later when God intervenes; three days. But I will leave that to you to think about.

Also we note that God said "Burnt Offering." Now a burnt offering we see in Leviticus
as a complete sacrifice this means God wanted Abraham to give Isaac completely
over to God. God calls Isaac the "son whom you love", your beloved son, your most precious possession. As far as God is concerned Isaac is the only son. Abraham had in the spirit and Abraham loved Isaac. The same word used for Abraham loving God is used in the love for Isaac but as this story shows we see how much more Abraham loved God.
By being what? Willing to give his only begotten son over to God completely wholly as a burnt offering.

We move into the New Testament. Matthew 26:39 - And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Jesus prayed for the Father's will to be done.
Knowing full well that He was going to be in for the most painful and dramatic moment in all history; the Cross. He is going to carry His cross up the mount and pay the price for our sins. Jesus was willing, Jesus was obedient. Philippians 2:8 - And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Now flash back to Isaac for a moment the word used to describe Isaac can be translated to mean young man meaning he wasn’t that little 10 year old we see on the flannel graphs in Sunday school. Isaac was old enough to carry the wood up the mount and there is no sign that Isaac resisted Abraham. Which would have been easy enough to do. Abraham was old and Isaac was willing to do what God wanted Him to do.

This brings me to the hard and difficult part of this. The call we have to be willing to obey God. 2 Corinthians 2:9 - For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.” The hard part of this message is when we see that we are also called to be obedient to God “Acts 5:29 - Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. This is not any easier then Abraham or Jesus. But the truth is there. For my illustration on this i think back to when i started this study. My girlfriend Holly, whom i love dearly, and i were talking about her future. Where she wants to go, or what she wants to do. Well its pretty hard to make these choices and as much as i want her to move out here sooner the better. We both had to realize we have to let Gods will be the way we follow.

We are called to obey God in all things. This may indeed waiting a few years before we live in the same state. It could mean anything; in Gods will! The point is: no matter what we must put God first in ever area of our lives He must be first. Whether it be school, careers, family, boyfriend, girlfriend, possessions, goals, dreams, and all other areas. If he says go to India for a month, then go. If he called me to sell my car and ride my bike to school, i would, well. "Its a 40 minute drive God." You get the picture?!

We have been over the Worship, and we have been over the Willingness. Now we are going to talk about: THE Way.

Abraham. Gen 22:8 - And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.” He knew God would provide a way. God provided the way for Abraham in response to the obedience. God also blesses Abraham as a result. Gen 22:17 - That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. Gen 22:18 - And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Because Abraham obeyed Gods voice. He had a three day journey were I’m sure he was tempted to just forget it. But did he listen to even himself those days? No. He obeyed God.

What about Jesus then. The response to Jesus giving Himself up is that Jesus was able to take all of our sins all of them... completely....burnt.....all....our sins past, present, future.... all our sins upon Himself and then He rose from the dead on the third day to give us a new life in Him. John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Abraham showed his love for God by giving up his most precious son, Isaac and God provided a ram in the place of Isaac. God tested His own love for us all by sacrificing His own son for us, His only begotten Son. After three days the Son rose again and later goes to the Father.
Now what about our needs? What about those. Philippians 4:19; “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches.” He will give us our needs. All of them. When we give to Him in obedience he will give us what we need.

We ask So what? Three things we need to remember. The first: We have to ask ourselves how obedient we really are? Are we giving completely as a burnt offering or not. The second, Are we willing to obey God and trust for his provision? Third: Like Abraham
we have been called to obey.

Anatomy of an Exam

We’ve all had those moments in life where we have been faced with the extreme pressure and daunting task of taking a major test. Tests are a part of life from the very beginning of our early preschool years. Our teachers have been giving us tests from the simple things like social skills to the abc’s to the more difficult tasks of higher critical thinking skills. They are simply unavoidable and probably going to be around for the rest of our lives as well. So how do we deal with the tests, the struggle, the stress, the aggravation of sitting down and approaching with any shred of confidence the very goliath before our eyes? Run!

Alright so maybe running is too strong a word and when first used it looks like I am saying to run away from the test, run from the problem. But no in truth we cannot run from the tests in school or the tests in life. All of these exams before us are placed there for an important reason, to examine our knowledge and increase our wisdom. So the first thing to do is stop being afraid of the tests in our lives, even the ones which could easily trample us underfoot. We should run into the battle, across the enemy lines and into the territory of possibly the unknown. Because the battle is where we learn and grow.

Today I approached another big test of my life, a real hurdle separating me from my life goal of becoming a teacher. Now while I will not know the results for another few weeks I thought it would be good to just get some of the destressing accomplished now. Because this particular test was taken once already in May of last year and not passed by a mere five points. So that was rather disappointing, as well as it would be even more so if today’s exam did not go well either. Time will tell. And time is something else to learn from.

In life exams take time to accomplish. Today’s particular test was a four hour exam which included multiple choice options and written portions. They were simple enough questions all regarding my knowledge of teaching and appropriate practices in the classroom. I am not sure I agree that this simple test really says I am able to be a teacher, I leave that to the Lord really and the strong desire I have to meet the goal itself. When I reached the written essay portion I froze in a panic at first because it occurred to me that this is extremely difficult to write without having proper time and maybe a good spell check along with me. But in the real world and life our tests often have to be even quicker, leaving us very little time to have the best answers when faced with difficult moments. Preparation is everything.

Preparing for the unknown is difficult. Even with study guides and booklets on the subjects being studied it can still be scary once approaching the test. I read many books on marriage before getting married and again books on parenting before having kids, but none of them really made me the perfect husband or father. Neither do passing some state required tests make me an excellent teacher. I will be an excellent teacher because that is what God has called me to be. But it is going to take time and I will be learning from the experiences I have going forward. What astounds me the most about test taking is how completely stressful it is and how much can be learned more from our reactions to the test then the actual tests themselves.