Eat and Speak

This morning our devotional was about raising support as a missionary, but extending love towards people who support us.  Prayer precedes giving.  I'm thankful that through our church I have seen this modeled through the missionaries we support.  Every time someone is home, they make sure they invest into us.  Sam gave a whole William Carey Seminar, even though he was just here a few days.  I'm so thankful for our church.

We learned more about biblical symbolism.  The purpose of symbolism is to reveal the glory of Christ.  They should also strengthen our theology, instead of changing it.  Andre mentioned something towards the end that he once spoke with someone who was a monk.  Andre asked him "what are you studying from the Bible"?  The man was confused by his question.  He answered in saying that he was not studying the Bible; he was reading the Bible for nourishment.  He said it was his daily bread.

 This really hit me.  It is easy to read the Bible to study and to learn more, and then feel when we learned enough (as if we ever could) the Bible could become boring.  Sometimes I read to find a verse that jumps out to me and inspires me, then I can learn it and then move on.  But we can't move on from nourishment.  We need it daily.  In Ezekiel 3, the Lord told him to eat His word.  Ezekiel said that he ate it and the taste was sweet like honey. I pray that I can say the same after reading God's word. 

I encourage you, the next time you feel you are not getting anything from reading, pray for the Lord to nourish you through His word.  God wants us to feed on His word, so we can grow then share that with others.  Ezekiel was told to eat, but then to go and speak to the people of Israel.  We need to eat and speak. 

Erline went after lunch to pick fruit (can't remember the name, but she had fun) while I stayed to help with the dishes, then I did our laundry [yeah I know, she's blessed to have me]   :)

Later on, we learned about the different roots of the Qur'an.  Basically, the Qur'an is not a pure book as Muslims speak of.  There are plenty of places that Muhammad derived his theology from, which includes gnostic sects, Jewish folk stories, Buddhism, etc.  In fact, he didn't write it.  It was written after he died.

Anyway, I'm not sure how to end this, since it is still sort of early here.  Thanks for reading, and thanks for helping us get here.  Until next time...

-Tony