LaRosa Johnson {dot} com

I’m in the midst of my journey to read through the Bible in a year. Within the past couple of weeks I’ve finished Exodus & Leviticus, and now I’m about halfway through Numbers. It’s been an exciting read thus far. I’ve been motivated to read and a lot of stuff that didn’t make sense before is being comprehended this time around.

With my recent reading, the Lord has really been rocking me. I’m seeing how the Israelites are being delivered & provided for time & time again by the Lord God, only to spit back in his face & complain. On more than one occasion God was ready to take out the Israelites because of their disobedience. Even people that you wouldn’t think would rise up against the Lord, like Miriam & Aaron, had their moments. It’s crazy, seriously! The Lord provides manna, but that’s not enough; no, they want more meat! The Israelites want to know why they’re stuck in the wilderness & left to die or killed by those in the Promised Land, when they “had it made” in Egypt, when they were really enslaved. Oh, and you can’t forget the Levites trying to rise up on Moses & Aaron, wanting to know why they’re in charge.

In all of this, the Lord was quick to want to just take the Israelites out completely, wiping them off the face of the earth, wanting to just start over with Moses. It can’t be said lightly enough that God’s anger toward them was fuming and He wasn’t playing around. If it weren’t for Moses praying for forgiveness, I don’t doubt that God would have done it.

What’s the lesson in this for me? God doesn’t take lightly to grumbling & complaining. Just looking at the Israelites & their attitude, God wasn’t very pleased. I can only think that He’s looking at me in the same light when I act in a similar manner. More than anything, this is serving as motivation for me to continue walking upright, while making sure that I keep my griping to a minimum. Instead of complaining, I need to learn to be more thankful for what the Lord has provided, as opposed to looking back to the past or wanting more than what He’s already providing.

Thanks for the lesson, Lord!

Last month I started the process of coming up with ideas for Trailblazin Ministries, and I came up with a few that I felt would really benefit those who visit the site. The problem? They required a big commitment on my end, a commitment that I couldn’t realistically give myself to. The biggest of the goals was to do a plan that would take the site’s visitors through the entirety of the Bible in two years, with daily lessons Monday through Friday.

I tossed the ideas back & forth in my mind constantly in the days leading up to the new year, all the way up until yesterday. It was at that time that I finally decided that I couldn’t do it. I already have a lot on my plate, and there’s no way that I could feasibly do all that I wanted to do without suffering in another area. Would my 1st Thessalonians study suffer? Would my time with family suffer? Would my training suffer? I realized that something was going to suffer if I went ahead with this plan; or, at the very least, I would get a month or two into this and end up quitting, which wouldn’t look good at all.

Now, I’m not committing myself to resolutions, but I do have plans for the new year. First and foremost, I want to read my Bible from Genesis to Revelation in this year. I personally don’t think it would be wise for me to have made it to the end of my training to be a pastor without first having read through the Bible at least once. I started a chronological reading plan back in November and already have a pretty good head start, so I look forward to seeing this one through. This is one of my biggest goals.

Next to that is being a better father & husband, which is my first ministry. I can’t possibly live up to my new position of deacon or a soon-to-be pastor if I can’t manage my household well. So, I want to try my hardest to have consistent family devotions (maybe at least 1-2x a week) and pray with Robin more. I also need to work harder at spending quality time with each child.

I also want to be more diligent in my ministry training at Austin Bible Church. I want to make sure that I’m learning Hebrew & Greek to the best of my ability, and learning all that I can in the ministry workshop courses. That also means being diligent in working through my 1st Thessalonians study so that I can be prepared to teach it to the congregation when the Lord allows us to meet in our new building.

Finally, I just want to continue doing what I’ve been doing with Trailblazin Ministries, even if it does remain small. I realize that what’s important right now is my training & I just have to keep TM running. Once my training is done, I’ll be better equipped and have the time to do more with the site, which will allow me to better reach the world at large with the truth of God’s Word.

Those are my goals for the year. They’re all realistic & obtainable. Nothing high & lofty, and stuff that I should be doing anyway. The best part of it all is that I don’t have to do it on my own, but I’ll have the help of God the Holy Spirit, who is able to accomplish all things. Amen.