This week at Link Year, we had the privilege of getting to hear from Garrett Perkins. Garrett gave us an overview of the Bible in three days, sounds impossible, right. Nevertheless, he did it, not a very in-depth review of every book, however, it was still very informative. Garrett would start out every class by asking us what the purpose of the Bible is, to which we would respond with, "The proclamation and glorification of King Jesus Christ, and the salvation God offers through him." Repeatedly we would see how the stories of the Old Testament would prophecy or foreshadow about Jesus and how the New Testament proves how he is the Messiah. I could honestly go on and on about so many different things I learned this week, but I am going to limit it to 3.

1. What is the Bible not? What is the Bible?

First off, the Bible is not a collection of books, a book of quotes, a book of moral value, or a book about you or me (Luke 24:27, 44). The Bible is, however, one book written by one author, God, and we know this because in 2 Timothy 3:16 it says that all scripture is God-breathed. As aforementioned, the Bible has one common message in mind, to proclaim and glorify the name of King Jesus Christ, and the salvation God offers through Him. The Bible is also the most historically accurate book ever written. Before the Bible was printed, it was written down on manuscripts. There are 24,000 manuscripts of the Bible. To give you an example of just how accurate the Bible is the next highest number of manuscripts for a book is 1,000 for The Odyssey.

2. God's Grace Must Really be an Ocean

Throughout the Bible, we start to notice this pattern of sin, judgment, and grace. When mankind falls, it falls hard. Starting with the original fall of man, Adam and Eve eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, doing the ONE thing God told them not to do. Then we have Cain and Abel (Genesis 4), which shows individual decay when Cain kills Abel. Then we have the Genealogy of Death (Genesis 5), which is generational decay. We see global decay when God wipes out the earth in a flood but chooses Noah to save what is needed to repopulate the earth. We see blatant, open rebellion in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel and the people trying to build a tower to Heaven. Mankind keeps failing God repeatedly, and mind you this is only some sins in the first book of the Bible, BUT GOD loves them enough to punish them justly for their sins and then give them grace. He does the same thing with us today. We as a people continuously fail God by sinning, BUT GOD still loves us unconditionally and still calls us His. Think about it like this. Let's say the earth is anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 years old, so we'll go with 8,000 years. For roughly 8,000 years, which is 2,922,000 days, the Lord has continually time after time showed his children grace and love without fail every time they mess up and disobey Him. I don't know about you but that seems utterly impossible to me, but at the same time I am so unimaginably thankful for that grace because Lord knows I need it (haha;) ).

3. God Continuously Turns the Evil of the World into Glory for His Kingdom

Sometimes people, both Christians and non-believers alike, wonder why a perfect and powerful God could allow evil to exist in the world. Throughout the Bible and even today, there are countless examples of how God is glorified through the evils of this world. Take for example the Israelites who were God's chosen people. Egypt enslaved the Israelites for 400 years. As the Israelite population began to grow, Pharaoh began to worry that they would overtake the Egyptians, so he sent out a proclamation for every firstborn son of an Israelite to be killed. However, God preserved, chose, and pursued one son named Moses so that he could save God's people. Most of us know the story of Moses asking Pharaoh to let the Israelites go and Pharaoh saying no so God brought down upon Egypt the ten plagues (if not I would really encourage you to go read it in Exodus 1-18!!). After Pharaoh finally lets the Israelites go, they flee and get all the way to the Red Sea, where the Lord parts the freaking Red sea. Parts a sea, like what in the world?!? And then get this, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his troops after them and when the soldiers stepped into the Red sea, it closed back up on them, ultimately allowing the Israelites to escape slavery for good. What an amazing story of how God used the evil of the Pharaoh for His glory! This story not only shows God's glory, it also shows how faithful God is to those who believe in Him and obey Him. Even in my life today, I can see how the evil of this world is used to glorify Him. For example, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety in October of 2015. Don't get me wrong depression and anxiety is rough and it is a daily struggle of mine, but I am so thankful that God gave me this illness to struggle with! Sounds funny, right? I would have thought so too if you had told me that a year ago. I have found so much comfort and peace in the Lord through this struggle. I have found one verse that has been really helpful through this, Matthew 5:4, which says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Although I struggle with those illnesses, I AM SO STINKIN' BLESSED because the God of the universe, my God, my creator comforts me in those times of need. The Lord knows just when I need his comfort and peace too.

Thanks for reading my blog about what the Lord is teaching me! Hope you enjoyed reading it :)