Natethoughts

4 points to fulfill God’s plan for YOU!

    Have you ever wanted God to plainly lay out his perfect plan for you in writing? He totally has!  Jeremiah 29:5-8 says:

“Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”

I have condensed these commands to  4 easy to apply points:

1. Be Handy; build your own house! No more living in apartments or lame buildings built by someone else!

2. Be Healthy; plant and eat your own produce! No more eating burgers and pizza, yuck!

3. Be Happy; get married and multiply! No more excuses people, get hitched and get busy!

4. Be Helpy; work for the peace of the city you live in! No more moving around, settle down, get a job and contribute, yes!

If we follow these 4 easy steps we can all lead the Handy, Healthy, Happy and Helpy lives that God has planned for us! Amen!

        If this mini-sermon seems a little off to you, it should. There are several question you should be asking your self such as: What do the verses before and after this say? Who was this passage written to? What is the overall context? Unfortunately  we often interpret the Bible without asking these questions and apply it to our lives. We take a verse out of context and try to make it conform to our pre-determined idea of what it should mean, neglecting to acknowledge the story surrounding the passage and who it was written to, and most important of all, who the Bible is about, God. 

              Why is context so important when interpreting the Bible? Suppose I was telling you a joke and went right to the punch line and never explained any of the details, would it be funny? Would it even make sense? Probably not, the joke would not have served its purpose. What if you were watching a movie and the guy running the projector  started it in the middle leaving out all  backstory of the main character? You may still enjoy the film, you may even draw your own conclusions about the main character, but you would not understand the plot line of the movie the way the director intended it to be understood. So why is it that we do this with the holy word of God? As Christians we are to stand on the word of God as our solid rock, unshakeable and immovable, and yet, we treat it much like sand, ever shifting easily molded in to any shape we choose and we wonder why we cant stand  when the waves crash in, could it be we are building our faith on sand merely believing it is the rock?