HEBREWS. Wow, what a book. It was a blessing for sure to be taught verse by verse by a very knowledgable teacher at the institute this past week. There is so much depth in the book of Hebrews, but I just want to share a little bit about what has stood out to me this past week.

One, the book majorly talks about how Jesus is our High Priest. The High Priests in the Old Testament would make sacrifices on behalf of the people to cover their sins. Throughout the OT we see so much about sacrifices of unblemished animals because from the beginning it is made clear that “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.” (Hebrews 9:22). In the Old Testament, then, how did people receive salvation? Before Jesus came… It says throughout the OT and throughout Hebrews 11 that they had faith and it was credited to them as righteousness. So, they were saved by grace through faith. That sound familiar? We are saved by grace through faith in what Christ has done – His death and resurrection. The people of the OT were saved by grace through faith in what God would do through Christ. Coooooool. God wasn’t just waiting around wondering how it was all gonna work out. He had a perfect plan from the beginning and it happened all according to His timing.

But throughout the OT, these righteous people still had to make sacrifices for their sins – they sacrificed spotless animals to make propitiation for their sins. This was in obedience to God, in faith. But several years later, Jesus came to earth, taking on flesh and blood, being made in the likeness of man. He bore the penalty for our sin, taking it upon Himself, to shed His own perfect blood and be the propitiation for our sins. WoW. That’s incredible. That’s the Gospel. But we gotta preach it to ourselves every day. It doesn’t get any less powerful or less beautiful. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, by nature children of wrath deserving of death, yet at the proper time God made us alive to God in Christ Jesus. Read Ephesians 2 bc it’s fiyaaaaaa. If we are in Christ, this is our status — we were DEAD, now we’re ALIVE.

So Christ came to earth in His full deity to experience full humanity for us. He came to die and rise again – to defeat sin and death and offer us life eternal. But, He even came just to get it. To experience life as we know it. So, y’all, we don’t have some God who is distant and far off. He is personal and right there with us in our pain and sorrows and struggles. He gets the little things and the big things and everything in between. He cares, He sympathizes with our weaknesses. That right there humbles me, encourages me, and just stirs my affections for the God of the universe who was revealed in the life of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He wants relationship with us. Do we really get what that means? He wants us to come to Him, to sit at His feet and to love Him because we really get His love for us.

I wanna get it. And being here in Branson, MO at the Kanakuk Institute, I’m really starting to understand more and more on a deeper and deeper level. It is pretty stinkin sweet. But there is so much more to learn, more to grow in, more to understand. That’s the thing. We’ll never arrive at understanding everything and being perfect… we always have more to learn, more to be refined in. There’s beauty in that – in the wealth of the Gospel. Not some earthly materialistic thing, but this wellspring of life that keeps on giving and never runs dry. Where does my treasure lie? I find myself over and over again, consciously or more often, subconsciously, treasuring so many other things above God and His Word. Good things can distract us and keep us from the BEST thing. Know what I’m sayin? It’s rough. We have to constantly be honest with ourselves and ask what do I value most? God or His good gifts? Do we pursue the source of joy or just its result? If we pursue happiness itself, it’ll always slip our grasp; but if we pursue the source of all joy we have all we need.

My fav passage of Scripture, well, one of them, comes from Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” That is a picture of what the Christian life should look like. It’s a charge to believers, an encouragement to us.

I love to run. If you know me you know this fasho. Well, a couple months ago I started getting shin splints because I was running with old shoes. Felt the pain, but avoided it and pushed through it without acknowledging the problem. So flash forward a couple weeks and I tried to rest a little bit to heal the shin splints. Didn’t wait long enough though, and felt the pain again right when I tried to run. HUH. BUMMER. Literally so distraught. But it kinda gives me a visual for this passage. When we allow sin in our life to go unchecked or distractions/encumbrances/hindrances to persist in our life, we suffer. The longer we let it hang on, the more detrimental it is for us. There is always pain in dealing with sin or hang-ups in our life, but the longer we avoid them the more pain they cause us in the long run. Huh, pun intended.

My shin splints came on because of a fault in my running of the race so to speak. Now, I have an injury which causes me to not be able to run for a whole 4 weeks…….shooooot are you kidding? Yeah wish I was. So when we allow that sin or those hindrances to hang on, the result is that they cause us to be ineffective and steal our joy of running the race. I LOVE to run, but right now I don’t get to enjoy it and I’m not an effective runner, obviously, because I have to stay off of my shins for 4 weeks. Our sin doesn’t disqualify us from the race but it does make us ineffective for the time being and causes us to miss out on the joy to be experienced in running. 

Well, God is using the little trials in my own life to reveal more of His heart and His Word to me and I’m just soaking it up. I’ll admit my attitude isn’t always spot on. Ha. But I’m so thankful for those times that the Lord stops me in my tracks to say, “Hey, I love ya and I care more about your heart and your relationship with Me than your comfort.” Huh, my “wisdom” pales in comparison. Good thing we have Hebrews to give us some awesome insight into life and the deeper things of God.

Just another typical week in Branson—Mind. Blown.

I’m pretty stinkin  long-winded, so if you actually have read this far, I thank you.

Over and out,

Swhite

For a lot of us, so much of the doctrine we hold to as believers is just something we grew up being taught and never really thought twice about. So when the questions come at us for the first time, it can be pretty tough to know what to do. Something that falls under this category is the doctrine of the Trinity – God in three persons. To be honest, I’ve always understood it to be really confusing but just let it be something that my mind could never fully grasp.

When I deal with hard concepts of Christianity like this, I usually just think to myself, don’t harp on the questions, cling to what I know to be true and can understand more easily, like God sent Jesus to this earth to live perfectly and die on the cross for my sins then rise from the grave to conquer sin and death… That’s essentially the Gospel, but it doesn’t just make every other aspect of Christian doctrine unimportant. I still don’t think we should spend all our time on confusing things and question everything all the time in a fruitless effort to understand the depths of God and His Gospel. He is God, which means He is far above all I can imagine and, therefore, cannot ever be fully grasped by my finite, human intellect and reason. However, part of loving God and pursuing Him comes in digging into a deeper knowledge of His Word and who He is.

This week at the ‘Tute, we specifically focused on the doctrine of the Trinity and had a speaker come in for a few days to go in depth into trinitarianism with us. I thought, oh okay, so this guy is gonna help clear up the Trinity for us. Pretty confusing concept. Can’t wait for everything to start to make more sense. Huh. Funny. That’s not at all how that went down. More accurately, he made me more unsure of everything I thought made sense, made me ask more questions only to leave them pretty much unanswered, and just challenged me altogether. Honestly, it was really good. We so often want the answers given to us. We want all our questions to be cleared up. We want to walk away without any doubts or skepticism, to be fully convinced of all the things we believe to be true.

The fact is that being without any doubts or skepticism and fully convinced of something omits the faith factor. And we know that we are called in Scripture to have faith in God. We are told that to be Christians, we must place our faith in Christ – Paul says over and over again that we are saved by grace through faith. There is so much comfort and assurance in that truth alone. I’m so thankful for that. And there is just so much comfort in the fact that I know I can never fully understand and grasp a God outside of my understanding and grasp… He is far greater than I. His thoughts are above mine. His ways are above mine. He is outside of time as I know it. He is outside of my own reality. I can’t put Him in a box. DUH. But somehow I have to be reminded of that so much. And let me tell ya, God is faithful to do that. He is faithful, period.

Okay so I’m supposed to be talking about the Trinity and instead I’m just talking about God while kind of glossing over all the confusion of three persons in one. Well here we go… I’ll try to bring some clarity to the explanation of the Trinity based on what I’ve learned this week. God is triune. He is three persons in one – God the Father, Christ the Son, the Holy Spirit. These three persons are not separate but One. We see different functions from one person to the other but no distinction or shift in character. For example, God is constant and unchanging; He is just and holy and merciful and gracious and slow to anger, abounding in love. God is good. God the Father and Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit are one but the Father is not the Son or the Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son. All three persons are eternal – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God as in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are not separated.

But, in John 1 we see that the Word (Christ the Son) became flesh and dwelt among us. Christ was born to us and given the name, Jesus, that is to be highly exalted. When Jesus ascended into heaven after His death and resurrection (John 14), He told the disciples that God would send us His Helper to come and dwell within us – the Holy Spirit.

God the Father offers us redemption through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus and seals us for that redemption with the Holy Spirit of promise. In 2 Corinthians 13:14, Paul addresses believers within the context of the Trinity, which explains how the three persons function in the life of the church – we have grace through Jesus, love through God the Father, and fellowship through the Holy Spirit.

There is no simple formula to the Trinity. The best way I’ve ever personally seen it explained is in a book that we got to read over Christmas break, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. (Also, I’ll just throw in that I would highly recommend reading this book – it’s an awesome personal testimony of a former muslim’s thorough process of converting to Christianity – convicting and enlightening into knowledge of how to confront Islam knowledgeably rather than in ignorance). In his book, Nabeel Qureshi explains, “So the Bible teaches that God is one being and three persons. This is not a contradiction, because ‘being’ and ‘person’ are two different things. Your being is that which makes you what you are, your person is that which makes you who you are. For instance, I am one being, a human being, and one person, Nabeel Qureshi. Yahweh is one being, God, with three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. Complex? Yes. Unique? Yes. Nonsensical? No.”

He further explains with a metaphor from the science world, about atomic structures and stuff that makes sense when he intelligently explains it, but ya gotta read it, people, because I’m not a science gal so I won’t do it justice. Anyway, so much insight into who God is this past few weeks – reading the book and hearing our speaker. It is so exciting to confront tough concepts and be unafraid to ask the hard questions, to really dig deep and go in without preconceived notions, to just allow God to speak and reveal Himself. Because at the end of the day, our God tells us in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

What a stinkin promise. I cling to that so much in my life. Our God is not a God of confusion. He doesn’t desire to confuse us; He desires for us to know Him. But not without effort. We don’t put in effort for salvation; but we do put in effort for sanctification. If ya wanna grow in your relationship with the Lord, put in time in His Word, in prayer, in communion with Him – asking Him to make His presence known, to reveal Himself in Scripture, to reveal His character in your life. I struggle with that so much if I’m honest because I can be so selfish with my time but there is truly no greater joy than knowing and being known by the One True God.

Let my heart’s desire be to live like Jesus by walking in the Spirit to glorify God.

This past week at KI, we went in detail through the history of the church starting with Peter. We got to see how the church grew, was persecuted, expanded, split into denominations, and how it has impacted the culture and been affected by the culture also. The church has grown the most during times of persecution because persecution is always a purifying and strengthening factor. When Martin Luther saw error in the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, he sought to find the truth that scripture explicitly taught and apply it. By his faithfulness to the pursuit of absolute truth, the Protestant reformation began and truth was uncovered. For many, it was the first time they got to know what the Bible actually said rather than what the priests propagated. Luther committed to translate the Bible from Latin into German so that people could read it for themselves rather than depend on the clergy to relay it to them. This was a watershed moment for the church.

Through our study of the church’s complicated history, I was made overwhelmingly aware of the severity of importance of one’s interpretation, application, and handling of truth. As the church, we should understand how great the responsibility we have in doing this. Scripture is the basis of our faith; everything we believe hinges on it’s accuracy and validity. Its words contain life and the very breath of God. I am motivated to study Scripture with this knowledge, understanding that what I say and do should always be a product of what I believe. This is essential because other people are influenced by the interpretation and application of Scripture; they only will judge by what they see – we have an important role as believers to handle the truth accurately.

This past week at the ‘Tute we had the privilege of hearing from Kerby Anderson on the topic of Apologetics. He shared about lots of different world religions to shed light on their core beliefs and how we can accurately confront those beliefs that contradict Scripture. It’s so important, especially in our world today, to be adequately informed of religions and belief systems that are outside of Christianity so that we can defend our faith. It’s one thing to believe in something, but to know why you believe it is something deeper.

I really enjoyed gaining insight into our society and how it functions in relation to belief and faith. Over the years, the way that truth is viewed in society has shifted from absolute to relative – “what’s true for you may not be what’s true for me.” That’s not possible because for truth to exist, it must be absolutely true or it cannot be true at all.

Our culture, specifically the millennial generation, is narcissistic and addicted to media. We live in a culture of the here and now and, as a whole, have lost Christian values to the “changing of times and tradition.” Faith and belief are not a matter of preference, though. We are held accountable to the Truth no matter what our culture says. God’s Word is the only absolute truth and can be proven by archaeology, manuscripts, and other outside sources.

In light of all of the in-depth apologetic information Kerby has provided for us, I will seek to deepen my understanding of other common world religions like Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I want to be better prepared to have conversations with people who believe in other faiths and religions that miss the Truth. I want to have more of a heart for the nations and consistently intercede on behalf of the people across the world who haven’t accepted the Truth of God’s Word.

This week, we had a speaker, James Skinner, come in and talk to us about the Kingdom Era in the Bible. It’s a whole lot of content – all of the first and seconds in the Old Testament: 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles. He broke them down for us and helped us understand the stories throughout these books. It’s so awesome to see God’s heart for His people by reading the records of the Kings of Israel.

Throughout the stories of the kingdom era, it’s evident that God accomplishes His sovereign will regardless of who is in power and within His timing. Saul was the first king to lead the Israelites and he had no heart for the Lord. God told His people that they did not need a king but they were stubborn and God eventually allowed them to have their way – Saul. The people looked at the outward appearance when appointing their king. Saul was just what they wanted and thought they needed, a strong, haughty and proud warrior. He was in deed all of those things but he did not seek the Lord’s counsel in what he did.

Eventually, God called Samuel, a prophet, to go to the house of Jesse where he would meet the man who was to be the next king of Israel. Jesse had many sons, all of which were good-looking, strong men who seemed to be what the people would want in a king. But, the Lord does not look at outward appearance; He looks at the heart. It was His will that David, the youngest son of Jesse, the little shepherd boy, would be chosen as the next king of Israel. So Samuel anointed him as the Lord commanded him.

We know so much about David. David would defeat Goliath when no one else would even dare to face him. While the bigger, stronger soldiers were covered head to toe in armor standing on the sidelines cowering in fear, David had the courage and unwavering faith in God to step onto the battlefield without any armor to protect Him and only a slingshot and a few stones in hand. He was confident in the Lord and sure that God would be faithful to deliver the Israelites from the hands of the Philistines. He defeated Goliath and celebrated the Lord’s victory, bringing glory to His name and not taking the credit for himself. In this story, we see David’s faith, his humility, his willingness to be obedient to God in the face of fear and not depend on anything but His strength (no armor or other people).

David also would have to flee from Saul for years as Saul tried time and time again to kill him. But David cried out to God every time he found himself persecuted and finding refuge in the cave. He didn’t give up on the Lord, remembering His promise to make him king of His people. Though he experienced fear and utter discouragement time and time again, he persevered by God’s grace and was faithful to the Lord.

David was loyal to his dearest friend and the son of Saul, Jonathan. He loved him well. And from Jonathan, we see a Christ-like love for David – “laying one’s life down for his friend.” For David to become king, Jonathan had to die because he would be next in line for the throne as Saul’s son. But he knew that God intended for David to be king and he was supportive of David even though he knew the result would be his own death. David and Jonathan made sacrifices for each other and exemplified godly friendship. After Jonathan’s death, David would keep his promise to take care of his family by bringing Jonathan’s lame son Mephibosheth into his kingdom, giving him a place at his table forever and taking care of him all the days of his life. This was Saul’s grandson – he restored unto him all the land that was once Saul’s and got his servants to take care of the land to provide for Mephibosheth. David let go of any bitterness he had toward Saul and not only forgave him but chose to bless his family to the fullest.

We all know that though David was such an incredible man of God, actually what the Bible calls “a man after God’s own heart,” he was very sinful, too. He committed the notorious sins of adultery and murder. He saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof and slept with her. When she became pregnant, he then put her husband Uriah on the front lines so he would die in an effort to hide his sin with Bathsheba. Wow. Horrific sin. Murder to cover up adultery. And this was a man after God’s own heart?? I think that’s the coolest part. This broken and messed up sinner was a man after God’s own heart. You see, he got consequences for his sin. His son from Bathsheba died and there was utter chaos and violence in his household following. But, David cried out to the Lord and mourned his sin. He absolutely grieved over his sin, not just over the consequences. He understood the depths of his sin and how it grieved the heart of God and he wanted nothing more than for God to redeem him. Throughout the Psalms we see and hear the heart of David, the broken, imperfect heart of David that breaks for the sin of his own heart and rejoices in the God of his salvation. God was at the center of his life and the sum of the life of David was to glory in God and make much of Him.

Just with the life of David, there is so much to be learned. In his triumph and in his iniquity, we see a humble man that just wants the heart of God. He is so real and raw. The Psalms were his prayers, his confessions, his worship. He didn’t just talk to God; he meditated on His Word and sat in His presence. He had a habit of pouring out his heart to the King of Kings and allowing the King of Kings to cleanse his heart, mold it, make it a heart after His own. To have a heart like David’s is to have a heart that wants what God wants. It’s not perfect but it’s the most beautiful picture of God’s grace and mercy alive in the heart of man.

David’s son Solomon would rule after him, then the kingdom would divide with Solomon’s son Rehoboam. After 120 years of a united kingdom with Saul, David, and Solomon, the kingdom would be divided for 400 years. Throughout all the kingdom era, the theme is that God is sovereign. He is in control. He is not surprised by anything; nothing takes Him off guard. God’s will will be accomplished. His plan will prevail. His timing is perfect. We don’t always get it. A lot of times I find myself wanting God to speed things up or get me out of a season of life into the next one. But He wants me to just be still, have patience and trust Him. Like not the whole, “Yeah, God is in control.” Duh, we all know that. But do we really believe it? Does our life follow that statement? If I believe in God and fully trust in His timing, what is my life gonna look like? Pretty sure it wouldn’t look quite like it does now. I wouldn’t be so worried about the things I can’t control. I’d be focused on how I can walk with the Lord today rather than how I can try to change my situation. Rest in the Lord’s timing and just rest in Him. If we don’t do that, we’re missing out on so much joy and peace that Christ sacrificed Himself for us to live in.

This week at the Institute, we had a speaker, Blake Holmes, come in and give us a detailed overview of all the prophetical books of the Old Testament. He took us through the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi, in chronological order. It was incredible to get a quick but in-depth overview of each book, looking at the author and what his name meant, the audience and time, the purpose of the prophet’s message, the images used to convey the message, key verses and phrases, and the overall outline of the book. All of those things together gave me so much insight into books of the Bible that I otherwise have never really studied in much detail.

Let’s be real. When I’m having a quiet time or studying my Bible, the prophetical books are never really the ones I go for. If we’re honest, I’d say most of us tend to stick with the New Testament or the poetical books of the Old Testament. But, there’s so much more to the Bible than just those books. The prophets didn’t just prophesy about future things, although God did use them for that very purpose from time to time and often used them to warn of His impending judgment. However, a lot of the time God chose to use prophets primarily to communicate truth, the unpopular truth of God that the people rejected 9 times out of 10. The prophets had the toughest job in their day – they had to go to wicked people who were rebelling and wallowing in their sin to preach the truth of God’s Word that they knew would most likely be ignored or rejected.

It’s so frustrating to see how God chose prophet after prophet to go to the pagans and offer them the opportunity for repentance and forgiveness yet see how they rejected it over and over. Like what was wrong with these people? How could they be so set in their ways to reject so much fair warning and continue to mock God without proper fear of His judgment and wrath? Y’all, the same is true today. America is in the place that many of these pagan nations were. Our nation as a whole is living in wickedness and rebellion against the truth of God’s Word without fear of judgment. Our God is a God of unfailing love and mercy, but that does not undermine the fact that He is also holy and just.

It’s depressing to think about the state of our nation and world today honestly, but there is so much comfort we can find as believers. First of all, no matter what the state of our nation is and what’s going on in the world, God is sovereign over all and He is returning one day to build His new kingdom and reign forever. Along that same thought, we can find comfort in the fact that Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, which really puts “President of the United States of America” into perspective. When we go to vote in November and find that our only two options are a reality and not just our worst nightmare, we can rest in knowing that God is not surprised and His will is done regardless of who’s in the White House.

What else can I learn from the prophets? How can I inform my actions in view of what I’ve studied this week? I can be encouraged to be willing to be used by God to communicate Truth in a society that wants to reject it and run in the opposite direction. God doesn’t call us to change people; He just calls us to be obedient. When we are obedient to fulfill our role in proclaiming the gospel and well-representing Christ, the Holy Spirit will do His role to compel, convict, and change hearts.

Lastly, if you feel like reading on, I’ll share a quick list of take-aways from each of the prophets:

Obadiah – I am my brother’s keeper – I’m not called to be indifferent to the suffering of others; I’m called to stand up against injustice.

Joel – God disciplines His children. When I disobey my Heavenly Father, I can expect Him to discipline me.

Jonah – God wants us to have the same heart for the lost that He does – to show compassion, mercy, and patience, and to take every opportunity to preach the gospel.

Amos – Don’t be consumed with materialism and miss out on the needs of others – seek out ways to minister to the least of these.

Hosea – We are an unfaithful bride to Christ over and over again but He never fails to pursue us. None of us can be the exception to God’s grace; from that grace we experience, we should extend grace to others.

Isaiah – God accomplishes His purposes no matter what control man thinks he has.

Micah – Humility is so important. God is not most interested in what we can do and what people think of us; He is all about the heart.

Nahum – God, in His justice and holiness, cannot turn a blind eye to sin; however, He warns us of judgment and offers us the chance for repentance and forgiveness. The Lord’s justice doesn’t undermine His love, and vice versa.

Zephaniah – We cannot get away with sin and rebellion; rather, we must have humility in understanding the sovereignty of God. We must not belittle the judgment of God.

Jeremiah – In ministry, we must not fail to recognize the distinction between our role and God’s – God asks us to be faithful to Him and He is the One who touches hearts and transforms lives. Our success is in our faithfulness and obedience, not in numbers; we don’t always get to see the fruit. The goal in ministry is not to be big, but to be biblical.

Habakkuk – We cannot allow our circumstances to determine our theology.

Ezekiel – It’s up to us, the church, to be watchmen and communicate the gospel.

Haggai – We shouldn’t allow our priorities to get jumbled and forget God as our first and foremost priority in life.

Zechariah – We don’t have to have the task of doing everything in our own strength – the Lord asks us to depend upon Him in all things.

Malachi – We are to be good stewards of all God entrusts to us – our time, money, and resources.

This study has been so exciting for me and has really helped me to further dive into the Old Testament prophets with a much better understanding of how to properly interpret them. I hope this similarly encourages you and gets you pumped about Scripture, because God’s got a whole lotta good stuff in there for us to read and apply to our lives! Habakkuk is just as relevant as Romans – both are equally God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). We just have to know the context so we can understand it and correctly discern what God’s saying. But that only comes through reading and studying. So, let’s get to it.

During our first week here, we had a campus job draft where we all got assigned our campus job for the year. So each week, we put in hours on the island doing our respective jobs, which range from cleaning bathrooms to trash take-out to office work. I chose to be on the good ole maintenance team. There are a whole bunch of us assigned to maintenance but there is so much to be done around campus each day, so it feels productive.

“And since we have a great High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;” -Hebrews 10:21-23
The eternal perspective is key to our daily pursuit of Jesus. As Christians, we are the bride of Christ. The bride loves the groom because the groom first loved, first pursued, the bride. Christ has pursued us and loved us forever. Literally. That’s hard to wrap my mind around, which is great because why would I want to fully understand everything about my God? It’s kind of great to know I’ll never be able to fully grasp everything about the Lord while on this earth, because I can spend my whole life abiding in Him yet constantly getting to experience more and more facets of His character and His Kingdom with each new day, hopefully looking more like Him, too.

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