Week 2 with Mike Aleckson

I apologize in advance for the terrible intro but I’ll be honest, I have no idea how to do this nonsense with a “blog.” So that’s going to be my intro… moving on.

This week we had Mike Aleckson come speak to us. He was a business man who felt called by the Lord to go into full time ministry and now works at Compassion International. He also spent some time working at KIVU, which is pretty cool because I went there back in the day.

Anyways, he has spent the week with us going over a historical timeline of the Bible. It’s crazy because he used to teach as a college course over this material and he was attempting to take a whole semesters worth of material and package it into three days. It’s a bit like drinking from a fire hydrant but it has been awesome! I love history already and for the first time in years I get to listen to the history of the Bible from someone who actually believes in the inerrancy of God’s word.

This whole week I have learned a lot but here are 5 things that really stood out to me this week,

1)      We discussed the Messianic Expectation starting in Isaiah, Daniel, and all the way through the Jews time of exile. I think that sometimes it’s hard for me to understand how the Jews of Jesus time couldn’t see that he was their Messiah. I can only imagine that for hundreds of years being told that I would one day have a savior who was going to be like King David then seeing some peaceful man would be hard to change that mentality. I think this knowledge will help me to speak one of my good friend who is Jewish and be able to better articulate why Jesus was the Messiah and understand why he doesn’t believe that.

2)      We spent some time talking about Matthew 5:48 which says “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I’ll be honest this was a verse again that was hard for me because I know that I can never be perfect, I mean impossible right? We learned the original Greek word in this verse for “perfect” is “teleion” which means to strive and work towards your goal that you were created for, to become more like God. Not that I feel like this means I don’t have to strive to be “perfect” but I need to strive to become more like the Lord and because of that I will be closer to His unattainable perfection.

3)      Another really awesome thing was that we talked about how our “psyche” is our dealing with our soul, which includes both our logic and emotions; these 2 things are therefore deeply connected. The reason I think it’s cool, is because in our JBU health course we had just read an article about basically the same thing. I know that I need to take better care of my body and spirit and I can do that by working in the other area. That last statement may not have made a ton of sense but basically the more rested I am the better decisions I will make, the better I can focus on spending time with the Lord reading his Word and praying. Inversely I know that when my life is right with God my physical abilities have always exploded and have been the times I’ve bee most successful in my career.

4)      Also this is something I knew beforehand but it was just a reaffirmation of my thoughts. In the Abrahamic covenant God tells Abram about he will make a great nation from his seed and they will be his people and be blessed etc. Also the Lord says that He will bless those who bless his people and curse those who curse them. I think that America is on a knifes edge, we have always been Israel’s greatest advocate and I believe that our nation has been blessed because of this. Those in leadership of our nation do not respect Israel and would see America no longer support Gods people. It’s scary to think about losing the Lords blessing on our nation and I will continue to try and get people, especially Christians to understand why we need someone to lead our nation who will support Israel.  

5)      One of the last things that we spoke about was heaven and how when the Lord returns and creates a new heaven and earth, will he destroy everything or will he keep those things which are honoring and good to Him? Because if so wouldn’t we want to live our lives in a way that what we pour ourselves into won’t be turned ash at the Lords coming. I know that I don’t and wherever I end up working or doing with my life, I will do all I can to honor the Lord with it, so that he can use it in His new kingdom.

Sorry if my points all seem boring and long winded, I love all the old stuff, meaning of words and the way history progresses and then looking at how I fit into it. I can’t begin to explain how grateful I am to have the chance to come to Link Year and be blessed by others teaching. I look forward to seeing how the Lord shapes and fits me into His eternal plan.