Beginnings of Biblical Success

Good Morning, Afternoon or Evening!

This is Mr. Matt!

Today I wanted to give you an update on some fun things that I have been doing with my family, how I am able to do those fun things, and I want to start unpacking over the next few sessions what I have been learning about when it comes to success, scripture reading, praying, and an interesting concept of reaping what you sow in the Bible!

With that being said! I am coming to you today after making a great breakfast and enjoying it while watching Shawn the Sheep next to our fireplace in a freshly vacuumed and swiffered (not sure if that is a word) home! I have worked out, I have cooked some breakfast casserole for the week. Made some lunch which was fancy grilled cheese on… wait for it… homemade bread and Kirk is down for a nap! Joy is at the most three weeks away from being able to hold our daughter Kinley, and we are still working hard on the last minute things to get her room and the home ready for game-time when she is here! I got to read some more of James and have also been reading more of Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley and Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Played guitar. Played games. Had dinners and lunches with Joy’s family (who is next door and we are essentially quarantined together. It is actually going really well.). Chewie is bathed, going to be shaved and trimmed and happy as well. All in all, we are doing really well!

All of these fun things though are due to first of all without a shadow of a doubt through and from the Lord and an absolute blessing to be where we are. Second, it took Joy and I a phenomenal amount of physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, and social effort to get to where we are and to be set up how we are as well. We are absolutely by no means perfect and we have had many, many intentional (thats when people really care about the little things in life. Its the ‘life is a game of inches not a game of big plays’ mentality) conversations with one another and friends and the Lord on how to be wiser and act more and more like the way the Lord intends for us to act and love. And third, Joy and I have had absolutely wonderful people in our life that have prayed for us, looked after us, and helped us on our way so that we could have the potential to be… ‘successful’ when we were older.

I put successful in quotes, because this brings me to some of Joy and I’s thoughts during the COVID-19 crisis. What does success look like? How do you prepare for it? Can you obtain it? Can you lose it once you figure out what it is? Is success good? Can it be bad? Could it even be evil? If you are successful, should you feel bad about it since other people might not have it? Is that even an ok thing to think? Who do I ask these questions to? If I get an answer, is it the right one? Is it selfish of me to want success?

These are some of the questions that we have been thinking, specifically me, and when you start to ask questions, as a Christian (in Church History the earliest Christians called themselves people of The Way. I really like that, especially after watching The Mandalorian… The also called the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus The Event, which I think is a neat thing to do) anyway, as a Christian, you should also turn to the Lord for answers and his Word first and foremost. Here is where I want to start!

The Following Passage is from the Holman Christian Standard Bible

Psalm 119: 97-104 (Mem)

97 “How I love Your instruction!

It is my meditation all day long.

98 Your commands make me wiser

than my enemies,

for they are always with me.

99 I have more insight than all my teachers

because your decrees are

my meditation.

100 I understand more

than the elders

because I obey your precepts.

101 I have kept my feet

from every evil path

to follow Your word.

102 I have not turned

from Your judgements,

for You Yourself have

instructed me.

103 How sweet Your word is

to my taste -

sweeter than honey in my mouth.

104 I gain understanding

from Your precepts;

therefore I hate every false way.”

-> People can teach you, and that is good! But passages like this, it is clear that when the Lord and His word teaches you, it is better. Thus, successful wisdom is God given Biblical wisdom from the Lords word from Him to specifically… you. If you want to know what success in God’s eyes looks like then… ask! But in anything from the Lord, you need to be reading and talking to Him and beginning to try to understand the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your life and the Lords.

Here is a picture of the wall in my daughters room my wife and I have been working on! Keep up the good fight and we will continue to explore this subject!

Mr. Matt