Taking risks & Tutoring

Oh man, each of these Lead Diligently qualities are contrary to the way I've been brought up... including taking risks. There's been little need for me to assert myself when I can do the bare minimum to get me by. However, I know how Jesus works and he requires nothing less than the best. I can't think of any moments in which I've taken initiative in the Christian or Biblical context, but I can definitely tell the difference between the man 3 years ago compared to today. The Lord has revealed through the cross that taking risks are painful, scary, and rewarding. Though Jesus was so kind in doing the unthinkable, He still can't make our decisions for us. The risk for Jesus is that there is no guarantee that He can receive love from us.

As I've been tutoring my student, she has been improving quite a bit. Recently she was showing me that she was trying to read 2 Kings in the Bible but couldn't understand it for very long (the Hebrew or ancient names completely threw her off). Her goal is to be able to read the Psalms and Proverbs. So far we've read Psalms 1 and 2, in which I was feeling the Spirit on them as I had to read slowing =) One of the challenges I've faced with my student is when I ask her to summarize 1 or 2 verses. She doesn't interpret the passage for what it means, but she makes it say whatever she wants to make it say. So 1 of 2 things are happening: 1) It's hard for her to read context, therefore she can't grasp the storyline of the passage or 2) That's how she's been taught to understand the Bible. All that to say, I'm hoping to pull away from the Psalms and get into the narrative story of Jesus so that she reads the context and interprets the Bible with simple understanding.