I Ams 4 Healthy Diet

To feast upon the things of God requires some study and diligence on our part. Jesus gives us spiritual food that endures for eternity through reading or listening to things such as the Word, daily meditation upon titles like "My Utmost for His Highest" "Jesus Calling" "Come Away My Beloved" "God Calling". Authors such as Henri Nouwen, A.W.Tozer, Elizabeth Elliot and countless others, lead us to deeper understanding of our God and His will and His ways.


Bible study need not be tedious. Below is a chart to help you conquer some small goals. You can read the Book of Psalms in one month if you follow this chart. Miss a day? Just skip it and I bet if you keep using the chart for a few months you will hit every Psalm. Psalm 119 is broken into 22 sections based upon the Hebrew alphabet. I always found it hard to conquer in one sitting. Using the chart below you can read one section per day and be done in a little over 3 weeks! Proverbs is even easier to digest. Thirty-one chapters makes it a one a day challenge, too.

Day	PSALMS	Psalm 119	Day	PSALMS	Psalm 119
1	1-4	1-8	16	75-79	129-136
2	5-9	9-16	17	80-84	137-144
3	10-14	17-24	18	85-89	145-152
4	15-19	25-32	19	90-94	153-160
5	20-24	33-40	20	95-99	161-168
6	25-30	41-48	21	100-104	169-176
7	30-34	49-56	22	105-109
8	35-39	57-64	23	110-114
9	40-44	65-72	24	115-119
10	45-49	73-80	25	120-124
11	50-54	81-88	26	125-129
12	55-59	89-96	27	130-134
13	60-64	97-104	28	135-139
14	65-69	105-112	29	140-144
15	70-74	113-120	30	145-150
16	75-79	121-128

I Ams Chapter 2 Bread

Chapter 2 in Connelly's book is based on John 6:25-51. Verse 27 reads "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal."So for this lesson we arranged for fresh bread to be coming out of the oven just as the adults were arriving for the study. Have you smelled fresh bread baking lately? Oh what a fragrance!

The Lord says he is BETTER than any fresh bread you ever had. His food endures for eternity! He promises He will give us this bread. And the people repeat the phrase that the woman in John 4 used.

"They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."  Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

What is the best bread you have ever eaten from the hand of the Lord?

I Ams 3 Chapter 2 Spiritual Diet "J"

Chapter 2 in Connelly's book is based on John 6:25-51. Verse 27 reads "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal."

His food endures for eternity! He promises He will give us this bread. And the people repeat the phrase that the woman in John 4 used.

"They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."  Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Never hungry. Never thirsty. How does Jesus propose to do that?  By teaching us to feed and drink upon Him. Not just communion, mind you, though that is important beyond my ability to describe.

Connelly tells us that Jesus is talking about our daily spiritual diet. He asks, "How would you describe your daily spiritual diet: healthy and nourishing, junk food, starvation, level, same old reheated food? Explain the results of this diet in your spiritual life as a whole." YIKES the room got suddenly quiet until a few brave souls spoke up during our group.

Do you realize that junk food or one day off per week is now incorporated in many diet plans to relieve any feelings of deprivation? God will not hate you if you sample junk food. So what might your spiritual diet have in it that would be counted as junk food?

I Ams 2

So Connelly's first chapter in "I Am" is based on John 4:1-26. My favorite part of that passage is John 4:13-14 (NRSV)

Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."

We were privileged to visit Niagara Falls again last year. Here are some photos to ponder along with the promises of Jesus!

rivers flowing

spring of water gushing up to eternal life

In my belly, Lord, even mine?

"Those who drink of the water I will give them ..."

"...will never be thirsty."

Remove any obstacles in Your way, Lord.

Flow through me.

Gushing up, Lord, to eternal life.

Have Your own way, Jesus.

Have Your own way in me.

The I Ams 1

Okay, it has been almost a year? since I posted. Well, now I am overflowing with ideas to share and hopefully enrich your walk, so here goes. We started a new Bible study by Douglas Connelly entitled "I Am: Discovering Who Jesus Is" and each lesson I come up with more ideas than we could possibly use in one session. I figured why not share those ideas?
This book does not cover all the I Ams of Jesus, but he gets the study and discussion going. The first week I was reminded of an old Christian song by Aaron Jeoffrey entitled "He Is." I hope you will follow along and perhaps discover some insights to strengthen your relationship with the Great I Am. Humbly yours, Molly D.