Jesus is the Same in the Old and New Testaments

My husband and I teach K-5th Sunday School once a month at our church.  You might think that's a pretty simple class to teach, but let me tell you, those kids ask and answer some really deep questions.

One week, as we were discussing the Old and New Testaments, a child asked why Jesus isn't mentioned in the Old Testament.  Before I could even answer, and even YOUNGER child responded that He was.  He couldn't explain how, but how impressive that he knew about Jesus in the OT!  I tried to explain a little bit, but had a little trouble expressing what I wanted to say to these kids.

It's been several months now, and our Children's Ministry coordinator just introduced us to a great book, the Believe Storybook.  I LOVE it and it helps tie together Old and New...it helps us to remember that God's love for us is eternal, from Genesis to Revelation...it will help us to see the cohesive story God has revealed through His Holy Spirit to us in His Word.  I highly encourage you to find a copy.  It has helped me just in the few days we've had it to pull together the old and the new.

I am reading through Professor Grant Horner's Bible reading plan.  Each day, you read a chapter in the Gospels, one in the Pentateuch, one in the History books, one in the Wisdom books, one Proverb, one Psalm, one chapter of a Prophet, one chapter of Acts, and one in each of two Epistles.  Seems a little random, but as you read and read and read, you see more and more of God and you are able to interpret Scripture in terms of the rest of Scripture.

ANYWAY, this is my example from the other day:

I was reading Exodus 16, where the Israelites grumble because they haven't any food.  Of course, God provides for them - exactly what they need, even on the Sabbath, when they weren't supposed to pick up the manna.  Can we think of a time when Jesus provided for someone's needs?  There's the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand.  How about when He met someone's needs even on the Sabbath?  How about the guy who was healed on the Sabbath?

Want to try another one?  I love it!  Isn't it great to see that God really is the same yesterday, today, and forever??

2 Chronicles 11 speaks of the splitting of the kingdom and how Levites left "pasturelands and property" to serve the LORD in the proper way.  First of all, would I be willing to do that?  But, back to the issue at hand, in Matthew 19:29, Jesus says, "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."  Isn't that amazing?

Exodus 17 - the Israelites fought against the Amaleks, and as long as Moses' hands were raised, they were winning, but if not....Aaron and Hur helped him and were united in purpose.  Jesus prays in John 17 that believers would be united and one as He and the Father are one.

I am excited to see more clearly the link between the Old and New Testaments, and it's really due to the Believe Storybook.  Such a blessing!  I hope you can see the link as well!

Japanese beetles and the Supreme Court decision

I haven't posted in a while.  Not because anything has been wrong, but just because life has been a little busy and I'm having trouble seeing God working through things around me.  Of course, He is, I'm just not doing well seeing it.

When the Supreme Court decided that same-sex "marriage" must be the law of the land, I was not surprised.  I was not impressed, of course, but you'd have to be a fool to have been surprised at the ruling.

This year, the Japanese beetles in my garden have been atrocious.  We have a policy of paying $0.05 per "bad" bug that the children kill in the garden.  Tomato hornworms are $0.25, though, because of the size.  Anyway...over the course of a week, my second son made $100!!!  We finally had to drop the price because, as my dad said, you could have bought a LOT of green beans (which is what they were eating) with that money.

One day, I went out to look...and kill...I had my cup of soapy water, and I just tapped them from above, and they'd drop into the cup and drown.  As I stared at the piles of beetles (some grouped by eights and tens!), I thought, "they're so consumed with sex, they fail to see the impending doom coming upon them."

Seems apropos for this time in our country, doesn't it?  People are so concerned about having sex with whomever and whatever and how many of them, they're missing the real point - the end will come.  Everyone's knees will bow.  We will all confess that Christ is Lord.

Of course, that could flip to apply to Christians too....we're so worried about the sex sin that we fail to preach the Gospel to everyone - including ourselves.