Bible Verse Wednesday

Hello Blog Friends!!

On Wednesdays for the month of May I will be posting Bible Verses. I want to take the focus off of me or anything else of this world, and put the focus back on the Word.

Today I am sharing Psalm 51:10. This is a cry of my heart many days. I mess up, I fall. It never fails: I wake up for morning devotions and beg for forgiveness.

"Create in me a pure heart, O Father! Renew a steadfast spirit within me, get me through this day with my eyes on you!"

SELAH. 

 

Your Fairy Tale Life

Hello Blogging Community!

Thanks for stopping by today! I won't mind if you turn and run away because today I am writing a post with a ton of Bible verses attached that you will have to look them up yourselves!! I want to ensure you open your Bible at least once today. Or your handy dandy Bible app :)

I have a Prince Charming who finds me absolutely enthralling (Ps 45:11, Song of Songs 4). My Prince is Mighty and Strong (Zeph 3:17) and He protects me from all enemies (Ps 32:7). He even rides a great white horse and gallops forth commanding a great army (Rev 19:11-14).

The best part?? I don't have to sit in my tower waiting for Him to rescue me; He already DID! ( John 19:30, John 3:16, Romans 5:8)

I even get to wear an everlasting gown that would shame Cinderella (Ps 45:13-14).

My happily ever after is coming and I will live in a castle of gold and rare gems (Rev 21:9-21) and we will live together forever (Rev 21:3-4)

***

So you CAN live happily ever after! This is my story. This is your story. Don't you want to share this Love Story with the world? I need to remember this myself on a daily basis! 

Any verses you would love to add??

1 Peter 4:9 Failure

Hello Bloggy McBloggers,


A few posts back now I shared that I had taken a spiritual gifts assessment with my husband and we discovered that hospitality was pretty high for the both of us. While conducting a Biblical study on hospitality, I stumbled upon one of the more 'popular' hospitality Bible verses:

"Offer hospitality to one another with out grumbling"

1 Peter 4:9

Let me confess that I was instantly convicted:

Just a week before taking the test, I had my 14 year old sister-in-law staying at our house. Her parents are going through a crazy, drawn-out divorce and the stress was really getting to her. Hubby and I offered to let her live at our place for as long as she needed. I really didn't mind, I knew I wouldn't be home much anyways because I was swamped under work and cheerleading and she is perfectly capable of using the Netflix remote. 

Little did I know the stress I was inviting into my life. Because she was here, so was her father. He was doing what a good dad should and checking up on her and caring for her. However, a lot of the divorce stress was thus brought into our home. Our house was now a center hub of the latest drama and constant goings and comings of me, Hubby, SIL, and FIL. 

Add in 30 hours a week, plus cheerleading, for a 7 months pregnant lady= uncool. 

I had started to feel like the live-in maid....well the live-in-maid who couldn't keep up with the housework! When we weren't carting SIL to and from tennis or talking things over with her dad, Hubby kept us on a pretty busy social schedule as well. Any night we actually didn't have something going on, I just wanted to crash downstairs with the Hubby, SIL included, and watch Psych on Netflix. I think I got to do that twice....boo. 

Needless to say, I was burning out. And FAST. Being so exhausted and busy hardly left me time, space, or energy to spend the proper time with the Lord. It was incredibly easy for bitterness to creep into my heart. In fact, I practically invited the bitterness to come waltzing in! I was angry, hurt, lonely (in the midst of all that, really?!), feeling unloved, and uncared for. I tried to push on wards as best I could, but the bitterness was lodged in my heart, and eventually found its way out through my mouth. I imagine I made life even more difficult for my poor Hubby as I started complaining about his family members. I just remember wanting help and someone to listen to me, but expecting that from Hubby was incredibly selfish at that time. I should have turned to God; only He can handle our emotional burdens. 

After about 2 weeks, the sister-in-law had to move back home due to some more craziness. However, my bitterness did not move out with her. It stayed wedged deeply in my heart. I knew that by complaining I wasn't making anything better and that I was becoming a really gross person, but I couldn't stop. I felt I need to get it all out of me and that complaining would some how relieve my emotions. When has that ever worked for anyone??

 And then I read 1 Peter 4:9 and realized I had failed miserably before the Lord. I had been given my first opportunity at true hospitality and fallen short. Tripped on the way to the starting line up. Was this a difficult first opportunity? I'm sure. But the verse doesn't say "Practice hospitality when you feel like it" or "Practice hospitality when it is convenient for you". There is a reason Peter tells us to practice hospitality without grumbling, because he knows that grumbling comes from a bitter heart. He wants us to offer hospitality to others because we love them and are overflowing with the love of Christ. 

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins"

1 Peter 4:8

Because I failed to stay close to the Lord during this time, I am still fighting the battle of bitterness. The walls protecting my heart were damaged, and now I have to laboriously repair them, brick by brick. 

I urge you, do not grumble about being hospitable, but instead turn to the Lord your God, seek His love, and let it in turn flow out of you to others, even strangers. 

"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some people have entertained angels without knowing it"

Hebrews 13:2

A Tidbit from the Message

Hello Bloggy,

Today I wanted to share a passage from the Message with you, from Luke chapter 12

"Don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. ...Has anyone ever by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can't even do that, why fuss at all?...What I am trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you  know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don't be afraid of missing out. You're my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself."


Doesn't that make you feel foolish about trying to fit into the the latest fad?? I know I usually don't like the latest trends but that doesn't mean that I don't fuss over my clothes, or more likely just my general outer appearance. But only people who don't know God should fuss over these things!! Yikes!

Understand however, I believe there is a difference between fussing over your appearance and looking like a slob. Especially as a wife I understand the importance of dressing up and looking good for the Hubby. But clothes shouldn't be a giant focus in our lives! They should be a background noise.

"Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." (1 Peter 3:4 NIV)

Can you see the difference? When we place our focus on our clothing, hair, makeup, and trying to keep up with Hollywood fashions, we act as if we don't know God!! But by allowing our inner selves shine through, we find great worth in God's sight! He is pleased with us!! How amazing!! And how simple!!

That's what I want, to please God. I want to go forward from this day and not fuss over my clothing. Let it be simple background noise. I want to have an unfading beauty! I want people to wonder where it comes from so that I may point to God and not Hollywood, or myself.

Try it with me.

James 1:27

I wanted to share a quick thought with you, Bloggy, about James 1:27. Here is the verse:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. 

Now don't think I am trying to downplay the importance of the beginning part of the verse or any such thing, but I have found it interesting how often the second part of the verse is overlooked. 'To keep oneself from being polluted by the world'. 

This has really hit me. First, through a friend telling me about a dream she had recently that involved a shopping mall and her trying to resist buying stuff while me and some other friends dove right into the racks and got lost. 

Oops. Its true. I love to shop when I get the opportunity. 

But I am also reading the book called 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. For seven months she focused on seven areas of her life; food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending, and stress. For example, with clothing, for 31 days she only wore seven articles of clothing and documented how she felt and what she discovered. This book is really forcing me to look at my own life and how I might be becoming polluted by the world. I don't have that many items of clothing, but I do use them to hide behind, and a lot of what I have I hardly wear. I waste too much food and take so much of it for granted. I went a week without Facebook once, but email and Netflix?? Yikes!! 

I don't know where 7 will lead me or where James will lead me, but I know Jesus WILL lead me (pull me, or even drag me) to where I need to be. I want more and more possessions, but I also want more and more quality time in my life. I don't think I can have both. 

The result?? I still have no idea. 

But I hope you will at least stop to consider the second half of this verse. Stop and think about how immersed you are in this world, and how the Church is immersed in this world. And try to think of at least one, itsy bitsy thing to do about it. 

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:...to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Bible Verse!

“So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your
everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and
walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing
what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't
become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without
even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed
from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and
quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging
you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you,
develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1,2 MSG