WORD for your Friday

I LOVE my new Bible. I think I say that quite often. It is the Life Application Study Bible in the NASB version. I HIGHLY recommend it. I am more excited to read the Word than I have been in a few years. It has many amazing features including footnotes about historical context, footnotes about life application of verses, profiles of different people from each book, an overview of each book, and many more really useful tools. Warning: It is also a fatty version of the Bible.

It is literally like I'm reading the Bible for the first time again. Amazing. It is so good that my Bible scholar of a husband keeps trying to steal it from me. I have held firm though insisting he will have to get his own!

So, I thought I would share a couple of thoughts from my recent reading:

1. John 20:1 "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance."

We read elsewhere that Jesus basically was no longer governed by physical law when he suddenly appeared in a room where the disciples were hanging out. Why then, did he roll away the stone to the tomb? He did not need to do that to get out of the tomb. Jesus rolled away the stone, so the disciples could get into the tomb and see that He was risen. A lot of times, God does things in our lives a certain way, so WE can see His actions and recognize what He has done.

2. John 20:13-16 'They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).'

Mary did not expect to see Jesus. It was beyond her reasoning that He would be there and be alive. She was looking at her grief and not her God. How many times are we blinded to recognizing Jesus because we don't expect to see Him in our situation?


Shabaaam.