Guardian Isaiah 27:3-4
Cornerstone Isaiah 28:16
Perfect planner Ephesians 3:14-21
Forever faithful 2 Timothy 2:11-13
Funny & Ironic 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
Powerful love 1 Corinthians 13
Redeemer 1 Corinthians 15:10
Champion Isaiah 51:12-16
Mercy & Grace Titus 3:4-7
Lover of my soul 1 Peter 3:3-5
Pacient Isaiah 53:6
Provider 1 Chronicles 29:11-12
Glorious creator Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 1:20
Truth Romans 3:4
Sacrifice Isaiah 53:5
Hope & Future Jeremiah 29:11-13
Unstoppable Acts 5:35-39
Last year in Bible study, Laurie, one of my Bible study leaders, told us this story.
Her pastor asked: “why do people fall asleep when they read their Bibles?” Most responses were because it is boring but he disagreed with that because of this verse:
Psalm 23 A psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.
2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.
3 He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.
4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me
5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.
6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
How do we restore our strength? By resting and sleeping, the pastor explained that God uses his words to relax us and restore us. God knows exactly what we need and he is willing to do whatever it takes to give us that. Whether it is sleeping or reading his word, he always refills us in just the right way.
Sometimes we get so carried away in our everyday lives that we run our selves down and forget how important it is to daily meet with God. It isn’t a mood or a scheduling issue, it’s a choice. Some days it is easy for us to run to God because things are hard or confusing. But other times we are just too busy, or so we think. We ultimately choose with whom and with which activities we fill our time with and it’s the same way with God. We have to choose to listen, or talk to him or read, whether or not we feel like it. God will show up for you if you are willing to give him even the smallest part of your day, I have to choose daily to give God control and recognize that his plan for my life is WAY better than anything I could ever dream of. Some days (most) I don’t feel like doing that…I argue with him and try to negotiate with him, telling him, well if I give you this part then will you give me that other thing? But it doesn’t work that way. We have to take time out of our daily lives to make time for God. When we stop doing it our lives start to fall apart…taking time with God wont make everything wonderful as far as our situations but it will make a difference in how we respond to it and feel about our lives…
Ecclesiastes 7:13
Do not question the way God does things for who can straighten what he has made crooked.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do and he will direct your path.
1 Corinthians 1:9
God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what He says, and he is the on who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his son, Jesus.
I love this verse because it is our reassurance that God is faithful and that we are in this relationship with him because he chose us not because we are we are fabulous or deserve it but simply because he loves us and wants to get to know us. And it’s not only a relationship but specifically a friendship, its a two way thing. We can’t just live our lives however we want to and expect God to do his stuff…We have to put forth some effort as well, we cant just say we are Christians and not live it as well. Being a true Christian is more than just claiming the title, its gaining the title in exchange for giving our lives completely to God, allowing him to do what he said he would do, even if it is painful or hard at the time.
I am struggling right now with planning my life the way that I see it and want it to be but if I would just step back and let God have control he could create something so much greater than my finite imagination could ever come up with…I don’t mean to, it just happens and obviously it’s something that i need to work on. I need to give God my life totally so that he can help me work on the things that are wrong in my life…Last night at Cru (Campus Crusades for Christ) the speaker compared the picture of our lives to that of a picture drawn by a two year old. As an observer to this picture we have no idea what it is acutally representing unless we go to the artist or “author” of the picture. Once asked, the child will be able to describe with vivid accuracy exactly what is in the picture and what each seemingly meaningless squiggly line is there for. It is the same way with our lives and the picture that God has drawn for each of us. We will never know what our picture is telling us unless we go to the author and crator, who like that child can tell us exactly what we are made for, how to get to that point where we are fulfilling our purpose and how to enjoy each step and adventure.
2 Timothy 2:11- 13
This is a true saying:
If we die with him, we will also live with him.
If we endure hardship, we will reign with him.
If we deny him, he will deny us.
If we are unfaithful, he REMAINS faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
I actually found this on someone elses page and thought that is was kinda cool.
The word sincere comes from the Latin word sine cera, which means “without wax.” The phrase comes from a practice where people would hide the cracks in cheap pottery with wax in order to pass the pottery off as being worth more than it actually was. Quality products were often stamped with the words sine cera to show it had not been doctored, that is was in fact authentic.
La mia vita, il mio amore
My life, my love
Ahh the joys of beginning a new year, well school year anyways. I am living on the same floor as last year just down the hall from my old room and my old roomie. My new roommates name is Ryan and she is from Louisiana, here through an exchange program. This summer has definatly been one of hard learned, but necessary, lessons which I am excited to put into practice! I am still involved in Cru and my old bible study from last year and a new one that my roomie Emily is leading. I am also still hangin out with middle schoolers, I have 7th grade girls this year and its a blast! I love getting to hang with them and hear what they are thinking, its hard to believe that I was that age at one point. lol And altough there are many things that I get to keep doing…A lot has changed since even just last week! I am going to declare Spanish as a major in the next few weeks. I am trying to take a class on line this summer in order to get it out of the way for next year so that i can graduate on time. i have been trying to find a minor to go along with Spanish but i have not yet decided if that is what i am going to do or if i am going to just take it “easy” for the next few years and just be available for opportunities that arise. if i cant take the spanish class on line from OC or SPSCC then i may be going to Nica for language school this summer. There is also an internship in Mexico that i am looking at. it is 2 months long and you basically go down and live there and organize trips from the states to the city that we would be living in. it is called Global Adventures in Oaxaca, Mexico. There are a variety of activities that the interns get to be involved in, but the main job is to organize and facilitate a missions trip! I am looking at this because i think that it is what i want to do once i graduate so i will keep looking at that for the next few years, maybe between Jr and sr years or right after graduation! I cant believe that things are finally coming together for me! I have most definatly been learning a whole lot through this whole process, give God an inch and he will take a mile!
Last week in youth group we began a series called “dear Lord please make me…” The first topic was living life passionately. Then oddly enough the following sermon in “big church” was similar, “living life as if we only had one month to live”. and a similar topic in Cru as well. obviously this has gotten me thinking, it is a huge call and challenge to live like there is no tomorrow because in all reality, no matter how depressing that is for some of us, we really have no idea how long we will be here or how many chances we will get to make a difference so we had better use what we are given each day to the fullest.
the passage that we used for youth group was Genesis 24, the story of Rebekah and Isaac. Abraham sends one of his servants to a neighboring land to search for a wife for his son Isaac. when the servant arrived at a well he began to pray, “This is my request. I will ask one of them for a drink. If she says, ‘Yes, certianly, and I will water your camels , too!’ Let her be the one you have appointed for Isaac’s wife.” (Gen. 24:14)
He is looking for someone with not only a servants heart but one who lives to give more than the best they have. as Christians, and even nonbelievers, there is something that we are passionate about, we surpass all expectations, improbabilities and normalicy in persuit of achieving a certian goal or level, whether it be in sports, academics, art, music or anyother activity. For Christians God does not want to be just something that we fill in our free time with, he wants to to be our everything, the main event. This style of living should be one of the ways that we are visibly different from those around us, living life with passion and what we choose to expend our energies on. When others are just skating by they should be wondering why we go above and beyond what is expected. another point that i have heard quite a bit about the last few weeks is those who just go through the motions, not living passionately but just following the directions and getting through the day. that is when christianity simply becomes a “religion” and not a relationship or friendship.
Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”
“‘Please give me a drink.’ ‘Certianly,’ she said, and she quickly lowered her jug for him to drink. when he had finished, she said, ‘I’ll draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough!’ So she quickly emptied the jug into the watering trough and ran down to the well again. She kept carrying water to the camels until they had finished drinking.” (Gen. 24:18-20)
Rebekah offered to water his camels without being asked, she showed a servants heart, one that is truly following God, not just going through the “religious” motions. One who is truly following and in love with Jesus is willing to sacrifice for what needs to be done. Another interesting point was the emphasis on the fact that she did these things quickly, both in carrying the water and in her quickness in offering to water his camels (earlier in the text it mentions that he had 10 camels, thats a lot of water), she did it without hesitation, she did not stop to measure the cost of this decision.
“Work like it depends on you, pray like it depends on God.”
“then atlast when the camels had finished drinking, he gave her a gold ring for her nose and two large gold bracelets for her wrists…” (Gen. 24:22)
she brought him home with her, upon his request, so that he would have a place to stay and he made his intentions known to her family immediatly…
“Here is Rebekah; take her and go. Yes, let her be the wife of your masters son, as the Lord has directed.” (Gen 24:51)
Often times when an opportunity presents itself we miss out on it because we hesitate or are too afraid to step out in faith. sometimes we have to pray for direction but then we are not proactive and miss on an extrordinary chance because we are waiting for God to “show up” and lead us exactly where he wants us to go but often times, until we show some faith in Him, God will not act until we do. If someone wants to get something accomplished or improve a skill, they do not sit and think about getting better, but instead we must actively persue our goals.
Rebekah never hesitated in this story but continued to give, living and “and-then-some” life, for which she was richly blessed.
In an island country where wives were purchased, the normal asking price was four cows; five or six if the woman was especially beautiful. But Johnny Lingo paid eight cows for a skinny, hesitant, shy woman who walked with her shoulders hunched and her head down. Everyone in the village was amazed.
Several months after the wedding Johnny’s bride had transformed into a beautiful, poised, and confident woman. Johnny explained, “What matters most is what a woman thinks of herself. I wanted an eight-cow wife, and when I paid that for her, and treated her that way, she discovered she was worth more than any other woman in the islands.”
For the last few weeks in my Bible study we have been talking about boys (giggle) about what it means to be a Godly submissive wife and what that looks like. At first most are turned off by the word “submissive” but without it relationships would not work. Also God did not intend for women to be weak and passive in their role, but to be strong and confident, it should be a position that demands respect without having to ask for it.
