📖 The Church has issues - so do you

I. There is a long prayer in Nehemiah 9 where the leaders of Israel are praying and retelling the history of God’s faithfulness. The prayer can be summarized by the pattern of God being faithful and Israel not. And yet, whenever they returned to God, he always met them with mercy.

That is not only Israel’s story. It is our story. And it shows something essential about who God is:

God’s mercy can never be exhausted.

We may think, “I do not deserve God’s grace.” And yes, that is 100% true. At the same time, He freely gives it. His well never runs dry.

Sometimes we place our own limits on God and think, “If someone treated me the way I have treated God, I would not keep forgiving.” But that is the point. We are not God. And he does not act the way that we do.

So no matter where you have been or what you have done, remember this:

You can always turn back to Him. His mercy never runs out.

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II. Commit to a local church.

Even if that church has issues.

You also have issues. We all have issues. Of course a church full of people with issues has issues.

If you find a church with no issues, do not join it because you will bring your issues with you.

There is no perfect church because there are no perfect people.

Jesus died for his imperfect Church.

Commit to a local church.

The order of the Old Testament in most Christian Bibles is different from the order of the books in the Hebrew Bible. Both contain the same books, but they are arranged for different purposes.

The Hebrew Bible has three major sections: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. This structure highlights Israel’s story from creation to kingdom, to exile, and ends with the people still waiting for God’s restoration. The final book is Chronicles, which closes by looking forward to a future work of God.

Our English Old Testament follows a different order that groups books by type: history, poetry, and prophecy. This makes it easier to read certain genres together, but it ends the Old Testament with the prophets, creating a natural bridge to the coming of Jesus.

Same books, same exact content, just a different order. Both point forward to the fulfillment found in Christ.

The King James Version was not the first English Bible.

Many people assume the King James Version was the first English Bible, but it actually came much later. The first full English translation was made by John Wycliffe in the 1380s, copied by hand before the printing press existed.

The first printed English New Testament came from William Tyndale in 1526. When the King James Version was released in 1611, it was shaped by more than two centuries of English translation work.

The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins

A book about financial planning and how to build wealth. While the primary principles are not necessarily new or groundbreaking, the author does a good job of practically walking you through how to invest and build wealth over the long haul.

I enjoyed the first half of the book. The second half of the book became quite technical at times, and very broad, and therefore many times not relevant to a specific person’s situation.

Nothing wrong with getting technical for those who want to understand better, and nothing wrong with hitting the different stages of wealth building that people might find themselves in. The problem is that only certain portions of the second half of the book will be relevant to any individual reader, and thus it loses steam.

Also, he advocates for saving 50%(!) of your income in your early working years. This is not a realistic approach for the vast majority of readers.

The first half of the book I enjoyed; the second half was interesting but became a drag and hard to follow at times.

7/10

P.S. Jellyfish have never felt more confident…