Interpretation of the Bible

First Week


Matthew:


To be honest, I found it a little difficult to follow. I usually don't read books of the bible all the way through from start to finish, without asking questions and puzzling over them for a while. I understand though, sometimes its good to do an overview, then go back after ward and really dive into it for yourself. 
I liked my group, we are a steady paced reading machine! 
As for what I learned, nothing, just kidding. I found that there was a lot of interesting parables that Jesus told, that are a direct comparison to Jesus dying on the cross and the disciples didn't pick up on it. For example, in Matthew 21:33-40 he speaks about the Parable of the Tenants, I haven't noticed that parable before. It's very powerful, the fact that Jesus knew we,(people) would betray him and he speaks time and time again this story leading up to his crucifixion and yet they are puzzled. 
In verse 38-40, " But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come let's kill him and take his inheritance.' So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 
It's incredible what Jesus is implying here; that his own people killed him and the owner, (God) gives us grace and ultimate forgiveness for crucifying his son. It says, " when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" all of us would think he would ruin them kill them. If you read further, to what the disciples reply it says, verse 41, " He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, " and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." 
Wow, is all I can say, what an awesome God we have.What does God do He gives us love and freedom to love Him. Wow, God is truly amazing! 




Ephesians and Philippians:

In Ephesians there are several accounts of spiritual warfare, the times that stuck out to me were in Ephesians 3:14-21. The verses to describe the feeling behind this passage of spiritual warefare in my opinion are 14-17, " For this reason I kneel before the Father, for whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may  strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. " 

I mean just wow, how powerful is that? Its not talking about battling evil spirits, but I feel when He talks about strengthening us through his power of Spirit that is talking about spiritual warfare and having Christ dwell within us, to strengthen us for warfare, to be strong in spirit! I believe the theme of Ephesians is to write to the people, the Ephesians(haha) instructions on how to live Godly lives, it is written to the church and saints of Ephesus. It talks about being made alive in Christ, how wives, husbands, children are supposed to act, its a letter to instruct the people on how to live a Godly life, its a guideline to this.

Philippians was written in a similar fashion. It was written as a letter to the people of Philippi as a guideline how to live there lives and instructions from God, through Paul and Timothy. I believe the closest I got to figuring out what the key verse is Philippians is 4:8, " Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things." It outlines the theme for me I think of what Paul is trying to get across to the people of Phillippi, to act and do whatever is noble and true. 

I would just like to say I quite enjoyed reading these chapters, quite inspirational! I love bible reading, I especially loved going over them a second time. I didn't think there would be much use in plowing through a whole chapter in the bible straight through without pause, but it gave an overview of the theme of the book and more of a clear story line, which I then went back and read again which highlighted the key points of the books. I don't think I could ever get tired of reading the books!

Romans:

For Romans the three weaknesses of the church I got were judgement 14:13, sexual immorality/carnal sin 1:24, and idols/other Gods 1:25. For the strengths of the church that was a little harder I got the giftings of the church 12:6, spirtual fervor 12:11, and the goodness that the church has and is capable of displaying that Paul reminds them of in 15:14-16. This book is jam packed with goodness, as is the whole book!

Exodus:

My Egypt where I came out of is the situation, where I let my brain and my thoughts have control of my life, just over analyzing. I had some interesting conversations and situations with family members as a child that kind of messed with my head; which made me paranoid and have no peace.

My Promised land is where I am going now, where I am continuing to go from here on, continuing to move forward always getting better. The Promised land is where I am with my walk with God, when I feel close to Him, where I have the discipline to serve him daily. 

Why did the magicians fail, hmmmmm, well either God knew that Pharaoh’s heart could be hardened when the magicians succeeded and after a certain point Pharaoh’s heart would remain hardened after all of the plaques even when the magicians failed. Or, that there is a certain power in darkness, that God allows to succeed as the magicians did, but at a certain point darkness is no match for God’s glory and God wouldn’t let darkness succeed after so long. For whatever reasons God had in His puzzle piece scheme of the world and everyone in it. Perhaps, He was testing the Israelites, on what they believed, God almighty or magicians who manipulate dark arts. The fact that the magicians succeeded at first with their best dark arts, and God allowed this, then the Israelites got to see but a taste of God’s infinite power and it far surpassed the magicians dark arts. 

Daniel:


So, for Daniel we were asked what or how is the book of Daniel a good example for the trials of outreach or what kind of comparison to outreach could it be.
I think its amazing that Daniel continued to worship God, even after he was thrown into the lions den. Even the fact that he was willing to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar's dreams exactly how God relayed them, even though they were detrimental to the King. Daniel's life was on the line almost in doing so. Daniel just displayed an incredible amount of character to pursue God no matter the costs and this is the attitude we should display on outreach. This is a textbook christian answer, but its my answer, so, there we go.

Jonah:

I believe the reason that Jonah, didn't want to go to Ninevah, was because Ninevah was Israel's enemy and they hated the Israelites. So, it was a strain to go and help the very people that were riddled with all kinds of evil and probably had committed crimes to the Jewish people. I might be a little angry too.
The reason that Jonah is different from all the other books, is because its an account of Jonah's life, instead of a word of the Lord that came through a prophet instructing the people what to do.