First Blog Post Ever?!!

Okay so here it is. This is the first blog I have ever posted. I hope it doesn't suck. My name is Jason, I am a Christ follower, A husband to a beautiful wife, a father of two great kids, and a total screw up. I am hoping by doing a blog I can be a help to others, share my thoughts on life, and express myself. So here it is:



Today I did something I have never done before. I am trying to get more and more into God's word 'cuz I think it helps to grow you as a person and as a Christian. Lately at church (crossing-church.com) we have done this thing called the EZ313. Basically, it gives you daily bible readings and you take the verse or phrase that most talked to you and write it down, what you observe about it, apply it to your life, and ask God to help you do what it says. (SOAP, Scripture Observation Application Prayer) This has been an amazing help to my daily bible reading. But one of the things that was talked about at the last series at church (Eat This Book) was how the bible was written down by scribes. So I took a chapter of the bible and wrote it all out by hand. I was amazed at how much more the Word stuck out and how much more I got out of it by reading it and writing it. I was also amazed by how long it took just to do one chapter, and how many times I had to look back and forth from bible to paper. It totally gave me a new appreciation for how much work it was for the people who were scribes and had to do all this by hand on an animal skin to get copies of the bible before the printing press. Amazing.



So, the chapter I chose to start in was Matthew chapter 5. I figured to start in the Beatitudes would be kind of cool, and shorter than doing a whole book of the bible which was my original plan.



A couple of things that really stuck out for me were:

• 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.' If your desire is to do what is right, you will be satisfied. Righteousness is doing what God asks you to do.


• 'Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' When you strive to do what is right, you will face opposition, people will make fun of you, they will hate you, and some of your days will suck. But, the kingdom of heaven is yours!! This is really cool because often times I lose sight of what is most important, being a Christ follower is not always tulips and daisies and all things nice. Persecution is not fun, but the reward for doing what God wants us to do is so much greater than the pain we suffer here.

These were just a couple of the things that stuck out, there were many more, the whole chapter really spoke to me. It gave me a new perspective when I paid attention to each word and phrase as I wrote it down. Really cool!! Give it a try I think it will change how you view God's word.