Jen Russum

Digging Deep: It Is Your Very Life

October 13, 2014

{via} I know I often take the Bible for granted. I wake up every morning and take out my leather-bound copy of God's Word. All sixty-six books are there, telling me the story of God's love for me from start to finish. Telling of the redemption He offers me through His Son, Jesus Christ. Every passage, every verse is written in English, labeled and numbered, so I can navigate the pages with ease. There are carefully researched footnotes at the bottom of every page to clarify and explain any section I don't understand. I am blessed. I don't have to wait in sin and darkness until an obedient and faithful missionary comes to my land with the hope of the gospel. I don't have to pray fervently in hope that someone, someday will translate the Bible into my language. I don't have to strive to discern God's word through dreams, visions and signs as I wait for His written word to reach my culture. I can read my Bible every day. At home if I please. Or at a coffee shop. Or at school. I can even take my Bible to work with me. I can read it anywhere without fear that someone will take it away or persecute me for my faith. The Lord has given me a gift. The gift of His Word. Am I delighting in it? Thanking Him for it? Treasuring it? Obeying it? Sharing it? Or am I taking for granted something for which so many have labored, suffered, or even died? Something that many long for but do not possess. Something that might not always be protected and accessible for me. Am I storing up God's Word in my heart, so I might always possess that which is my life and never fades? For it is no empty word for you, but your very life... Deuteronomy 32:47 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8 Read the rest of the Digging Deep series here... ... Read more

Digging Deep: It Matters

October 11, 2014

To give myself a little rest and grace during this writing series, I've decided to re-post a few of my older Bible study posts on the weekends. Since readership over the weekends is much lower anyway, it makes sense to slow down my writing schedule and save the more hearty posts for the weekdays. Additionally, this will allow any new readers to see the older posts that brought this series to fruition, and it will help me get all my Bible study posts in one place as they will all be linked to this series. * * * * * The longer I live and the older I get, the longer I am sanctified by the Spirit and see more of this crazy messed up world we live in and struggle and rejoice and wonder and suffer and sin like any other human being, the more I am convinced of one thing. God's Word matters. It really matters. Like, a lot. I don't even have words to describe how important God's Word is in my own life and heart, so I am going to use some of His... God's Word is... true. eternal. unchanging. unfailing. unbreakable. living. active. powerful. always good. And this is what His Word does... it created the universe {Heb. 11:3} it causes us to be born again {I Peter 1:23} it increases and multiplies {Acts 12:24} it builds us up {Acts 20:32} it teaches us {Col. 3:16} it corrects and rebukes sin {2 Tim. 2:16} it discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart {Heb. 4:12} it gives us certainty of our salvation {I John 2:5} it upholds the universe {Heb. 1:3} Hold it. Right there. The Word of God upholds the universe. The Word of God is Christ in the flesh. The Word... the Bible that I {and most likely you} am privileged to own and read and keep at an arm's length at all times and to pull up as an app on my phone... that Word... was breathed out by the living God. So what about you? Do you read it or does your Bible sit dusty on your shelf? Do you thank God for it - His written gift of grace to you? Do you pray for those who don't have it? For those children growing up in Bible-less homes and for the natives living in other countries who have never seen or heard Scripture in their own language? Because I too often forget to pray those prayers... But mostly, sister, do you love the Bible and the author of those true, eternal, unfailing words? Do you read it and praise the writer? Do you read it and obey it? Do you let it wreck you and rock you as you face your own sin and selfishness? Do you let it comfort you and give you peace and hope when you are hurting and dismayed? Do you let it guide you and correct you when your mind is filled with angry thoughts and do you let the Word seal your lips with silence when you are tempted to speak out in bitterness or impatience? I say all these things, not to condemn you, but to you encourage you. Because I am sure our stories must overlap a bit. I am a girl who used to read her Bible "enough" or when she "had the time" or "more than other people do." And I went on with my haughty little life, doing things the way I wanted to and teaching a Bible study once a week and reading my Bible for a few minutes before I fell asleep each night... most nights... some nights... And it took 25 years for God's Word to rock me and wreck me and change me. It took 25 years to learn to rise early and meet with the Lord, sometimes before dawn, to cherish His Words, an undeserved gift to me. It took 25 years before God's Word became a part of who I was at the core. Before His Word would come to my mind in my moments of temptation, of selfishness, of impatience, and unrighteousness and gently rebuke me and correct me or prevent me from sinning. But you know what? God's Word did all those things - corrected me and humbled me and gave me hope... because that is what God's Word does. Every time. He has promised it. So what about you? Are you in? Do you want to be wrecked and redeemed all at once? Do you want to take God up on His promises and make His Word the foundation of all you think and say and do? Don't let it get dusty, girl... Read the rest of the Digging Deep series here... ... Read more

Digging Deep: Make a Plan

October 10, 2014

Reading through the entire Bible is no small feat. It will take time and it will take discipline. Thankfully, the Father ordains time and His Spirit gives us self-control, so in Christ we have access to both time and discipline. What I mean is... YOU, yes you, can read through the whole Bible. Most full-Bible reading plans are spread out over the course of a year. Some stretch it to two. If you do a year-long plan expect to read roughly 3-4 chapters a day. That might sound like a lot, but it really only takes about 15-20 minutes. In fact, some estimates say the average reader could finish the entire Bible in a year by reading 12.5 minutes per day. I know you have 12.5 minutes somewhere in your day to read God's Word broadly. You will probably never finish your goal of reading through the Bible without a plan. Reading it cover to cover is tough, especially if it's your first time through the whole book. Most humans have more success in completing large projects when focusing on small, clear tasks each day, and that's exactly what the following Bible plans provide - small, achievable daily goals to help you do one great, fruitful, glorious thing - read ALL of God's story. {via} Two Year Bible Reading Plan - This is nice because you read the whole Bible, but it's spread out over two years instead of crammed into one. There are also "catch up days" built into the schedule in case you get behind. M'Cheyne Plan - The M'Cheyne reading plan goes through the whole Bible once and the New Testament and Psalms twice in a one year schedule. {M'Cheyne was a Scottish pastor in the mid 1800s who came up with a Bible reading plan for his congregation that has since become the most-used plan in history.} Basically it's 3-4 chapters a day from different places in the Bible. D.A. Carson wrote two devotional books to go along with the plan that have been transferred to the For the Love of God Blog. Slackers and Shirkers - This is a super easy Bible reading plan. Basically, it just breaks up the year into days of the week, and then under each day there is check box with a few passages of Scripture next to it. You read for the first Sunday, check it off, and when the next Sunday rolls around, you do the next reading and check it off. Then it does the same for each day of the week. And each day of the week is a specific genre, so Sundays might be the Pentateuch and Mondays might be the Epistles and so on. Here a pastor explains why he likes it. Checklist - This plan basically allows you go at your own pace. You can make up any reading plan you want, and this checklist has every book of the Bible listed with its number of chapters. You just cross them out as you go. My only concern with this plan is that it's so open-ended it might be hard to stay on track. But then again, the freedom is nice and it will make it easy to honor the Bible instead of idolizing the schedule! ESV Study Bible - There are bunch of plans that go along with the ESV Study Bible, which is my favorite Bible. Chronological Bible - The first time I ever read through the whole Bible, I used the Chronological Bible. It puts all the chapters of the Bible into their {most likely}chronological order instead of the order in which they are traditionally published. For example, when you read about Saul trying to kill David in the wilderness, you also read the Psalms that David wrote during that time as he cried out to God. The only difficult thing about this Bible is that you don't get to the New Testament until September {if you start in January}, but the awesome thing is that you will read the Old Testament with new eyes and gain so much understanding of the Gospel throughout history. YouVersion - Do you have YouVersion on your iPhone? {Search "Bible" in the app store and it will be the first one to pop up. It will say "LifeChurch.tv" on it.} This app provides many different reading plans that you can conveniently read on your phone. Read the rest of the Digging Deep series here... ... Read more