1 John 1:9

Join the GROW linkup with Faith at Faith, Fun, and The Fergusons!! This past week we spent time meditating on 1 John 1:9. 

Way back in the day we looked at 2 John 1:9, so now we jump ahead exactly one chapter to 1 John 1:9!
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (NLT)

So lovely people, this week has happened. Things have happened. And so I present to you some bullet points :)

• What God calls us to do: confess. Simply confess. If we don't confess, He can't forgive. Confessing means we feel bad, contrite, about our actions. We understand we did wrong and want to change. Actually admitting and coming to terms with our wrong (aka sin), softens our hearts and we are ready to receive God's gift of forgiveness. If we don't acknowledge our wrongdoing, well...why should we be forgiven?? We obviously don't feel bad and we don't want the change. 

• Well, why do we need forgiveness?? Ooo buddy is that an important conversation. I can only offer a short reply here: Sin separates us from God (Eph 2:12) and leads to punishment (Matt. 25:41). Forgiveness leads us back to holiness (aka GOD) and eternal life (Romans 6:23, Titus 3:7). And if God is Love (1 John 4:16), that is where I want to be! Loving and being loved for all eternity?? Sign me up!! And isn't that how that famous quote goes: "The greatest thing in life is to love and be loved.." My answer: more JESUS

• God is faithful and just==can I get an AMEN??! Interesting that it is tied to our confessions and forgiveness here. I think it relates to Philippians 1:6 which says "For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." See my co-relation there? No? Well, God sees our sin and he can't stand sin. God wants us to be holy, just like he is the very Holy (1 Peter 1:16). He wants to perfect us, He wants us to be our best, but like I alluded to in bullet point #1, we have to be willing. God is faithful to not leave us where we are at. And thank God (thanks God!) that that is the Gospel Truth!

How did you like my bullet points? :) But I hope that both you and I can drive this point home. All we have to do is admit we did something wrong/bad/sinful. That's probably the easiest part, right?? To realize we aren't perfect and made a mistake? Okay, well not always. But it IS pretty important. If we want to grow and have a booming relationship with God, we need to start with confession. 

Do make a point to confess regularly? I know it is an area I need work in! Even more important, do you believe the truth of Philippians 1:6??

Matthew 6:14-15

Join the GROW linkup with Faith at Faith, Fun, and The Fergusons!! This past week we spent time meditating on Matthew 6:14-15.

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (NIV)

These verses are pretty hefty! Both verses seem to carry a "If, Then" statement. If you forgive others, then God will forgive you. However, I don't think Jesus was laying down a conditional statement. He wasn't trying to hold something over our head and make us work for it. The Bible makes it very clear that we never have to work for our redemption (Eph. 2:8-9). We only need to accept Jesus as our Savior, and then we get to approach God's throne boldly knowing we are a Child of God (Heb 4:16). Rather, I think that if we aren't forgiving others two things will result:

1. We will have a hard time receiving and understanding God's forgiveness for our own sins. If we live with hard, hurting hearts, what will make us believe we ourselves are truly forgiven? Instead we feel like we have to work for forgiveness, to make up for our wrong, until we see ourselves as 'even' again. This is not God's intention! Jesus came to Earth as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), to be slain and take our sins upon himself. If I may be so bold to say, in not forgiving, we are reserving judgment that should be God's alone (Ecc 12:14) and thus setting ourselves up to be equal to God. *gulp!!* Instead, we should humble ourselves and accept the Lord's free gifts!! Let us rejoice in being made clean in the blood of the Lamb! (a reminder to all that I preach to me before anyone else).

2. By not forgiving others we are committing sin! Jesus tells us specifically to forgive others (Matt 18:21-22) over and over. So by not forgiving others we are committing a sin that drives us farther away from God! eep! Cyclical. Having a hard heart creates a wedge between ourselves and God. What a bummer. Ultimately, when we sin, we are only hurting ourselves. The reason God warns us away from certain things is because they are harmful to us. --->that alone could be a whole different topic!

Major Takeaway: God tells us to forgive others to save us from a hard heart that will ultimately hurt us more than it will hurt the one we are angry at.

I am not downplaying anyone's hurts or trying to make it sound like it is easy to forgive. If anyone can hold a grudge, it is me! Half the time I don't realize I'm holding a grudge until I lash out :( But here, in these two short passages God tells us, me, how important it is to forgive, and receive forgiveness. I shared some brief, and very heavy, stuff today. Forgiveness is an important and vast topic. I am merely looking at a snippet in these two verses.

Before I sign off...take a peek at the verses right before Matthew 6:14-15....it is the Lord's Prayer! I think it says something that immediately after teaching the apostles to pray, Jesus tells them to forgive. But that my friends is another thought for another day :)

Have you linked up with GROW yet?? I'm jumping back in full force and can't wait to read all the wonderful posts talking about forgiveness. If you have any tips or resources on forgiving, share them below! We could all use help in this area! :)

Psalm 19:14

Join the GROW linkup with Faith at Faith, Fun, and The Fergusons!! This past week we spent time meditating on Psalm 19:14
May the words of my mouth
    and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer (NLT)

Last week we looked at how our tongues can misbehave and 'ruin everything'. This week is the complete opposite side of the coin. Our words do have heavy power over our lives, but they can bring good and blessings just as well as curses and hurt. After feeling the conviction of misusing my words, it is relieving to turn around and find a positive way to use them instead.

In this verse we are reminded that our words are like an offering to the Lord. We want our words to be pleasing to the Lord. This should be a daily prayer! "May the words of my mouth be pleasing to you today, God. Let me speak sweet, soft words the encourage and uplift." Ugh. How many days do we regret something that we have said? How many days do we find ourselves wishing we would have whispered this prayer before getting out of bed? 

Doing this for my family, is hard. Let's face it family can get on your nerves like no one else. It can be incredibly easy to snap at them when they day is loud and hectic and the house is chaos. Speaking pleasing words for my own sake, doing it for a challenge or just doing it on my own, would be even worse. I wouldn't even last one day. But our motivation is this: "..be pleasing to YOU, O Lord.." My motivation for speaking soft words instead of sharp words in the moment of chaos, is to please the Lord. When we can do that we are truly emanating Jesus, because only by the grace of God is it possible. Choosing kindness in a heated moment is contrary to our human nature. It is not natural, it's supernatural. 

Is this still a challenge? Heck yes! But once I look at it as a way to please the Lord, I am much more willing. Our heart's cry should be to pursue holiness and please the Lord; to hear God say "Well done, faithful child" when we reach our earthly end. If by choosing my words more carefully can make God smile down on me, I know I must do my best, I must take it seriously. 

Again in this verse, we see the mouth and heart connected. What comes out of our hearts will lead to our mouths so both must be pleasing to God. We can only speak these pleasing words, if we place pleasing words in our hearts. Spending time in God's Word is essential. This one, simple, profound fact is what is at the root of all our word verses. Tongues flowing with honey is simply not.possible. without first planting the Word of God in your heart. 

Conclusion? We've already learned that our tongue can easily ruin our lives. Now we see how what we say can bring a smile to God's face. Quite obviously, the tongue is something we really must quick a tight bridle on! The importance of these verses is hitting me smack in the face and I know this is something I need to pray for stat. Psalm 19:14 is going to become my morning mantra. I pray it becomes yours as well. 

Thanks for stopping by friends! Do you pray over your word choices? Will you start now? 

Proverbs 13:3

This week's GROW verse was Proverbs 13:3 "Those who guard their lips preserve their lives,

    but those who speak rashly will come to ruin." (NIV). This week, I really enjoyed a mash up of NIV and NLT verses. I will add the whole NLT here:" Those who control their tongue will have a long life;
    opening your mouth can ruin everything."

Zech Mash Up Translation: Those who guard their lips preserve their lives; opening your mouth can ruin everything.

This month as GROW focuses on the words of our hearts, I am feeling particularly convicted. I don't want to admit to myself, much less a lovely group of women, how awful my tongue is. There is no guard on my tongue. I get angry, I try to bite my tongue, but it builds up inside and end up spewing even worse. I need a guard, and that guard is the Living Word of God, so this month I am challenging myself to listen. To not shy away. To not avoid. God may convict, but He does not condemn! 

What is the importance of guarding my lips?? It preserves my life!!! This doesn't mean that if I speak a harsh word I will keel over on the spot. I am sure we have all referenced Luke 6:45 at least once "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." (NIV).

When I speak harshly, I am displaying what is really in my heart. If my heart is really full enough of anger to speak harshly, I do not have enough Jesus love in my heart. If I do not have enough Jesus love in my heart, I am sinning, sinning, sinning and thus slowly dying, dying, dying. The Word of God brings life! Yet if I do not have that stored in my heart I am not truly living. I guess that makes me some sort of zombie!!

So guarding my lips preserves my life, both here on earth as I work to keep my lips and thus heart clean, and in the afterlife, 'storing up treasures in heaven'. THAT seems rather important. 

The second part of the Zech Mash Up Translation seems pretty apparent to me. "Opening your mouth can ruin everything". Everything. Everything. Your children, stung by harsh words. Your friendships, over in a blink. Your marriage, slowly corroded by bitterness. Your walk with God, losing life with anger instead of gaining life through storing up the Word. Everything in your life will be touched and affected, unless you can guard your mouth. 

If this week's GROW verse doesn't show us the importance of watching what we say, I don't know how we will ever get the message. Watching what we say will be hard at first, sometimes we may literally need to put our hand over our mouth to keep from saying what comes up. But by replacing those words with His Words.....slowly, but ever surely, we will get there. Our first response will one day be soft, gentle, God-filled words. And they will bring life.

Anyone else further along the path on this than me?? Share your tips, helpful verses, or other thoughts below! Meet you there!

Hebrews 10:24-25

Hello, all my lovely GROW friends! I missed you all last week! I got pretty sick and didn't do much of anything Internet related for the whole week. Even still I am under the weather. I am also trying to draft this post with Hubby and Baby Girl hanging on me, so please bear with any incoherent thoughts. This will also probably be short! But, I didn't want to miss out on another GROW linkup, especially in light of this week's verse!!

The verse this week was Hebrews 10:24-25: "Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near." 

Uff-da! Is it just me or are these verses just heavy?!

Verse 24 is just fantastic. I feel like it should be the motto of my life. Let us think of ways to motivate one another. Okay. Let's get real, friends. How can I motivate you to acts of good works?? In which ways can I help you in acts of love?? God didn't want us to just say "Ah, what a mighty good verse. We should do that" and part ways.

Let's get practical. 

I feel that the GROW link-ers are pretty close. Each week we spend our time contemplating the same verse, looking at it from all angles, growing close to God, and sharing our thoughts and insights with each other. GROW is one way to motivate each other. But who is willing to take it the next step? Our GROW posts motivate us to think about God and grow in our walk, but how can we motivate each other to acts of love and good works? This is where God really wants to take us.

I am dying to read everyone else's posts on this verse!!

Verse 25 is just as involved. We cannot neglect meeting with each other. It's why I am here, writing brief thoughts to share with you. I didn't want to neglect meeting with you again. The importance of meeting with other Christian friends hides in the last bit "especially now that they day of his return is drawing near".

I think we all know how much of a struggle this life can be. Motherhood is tough. The world is changing so fast. Our children will be growing up in a world where videos like Miley Cyrus' latest is the norm. We need to be meeting together and encouraging one another. As the day of God's return draws near, it is going to get worse. As Christians, we will have nothing but each other to turn to on this earth, to look to for parenting help, homemaking help, work place help, educational advice... But if we become wrapped up in our own little busy worlds, if we neglect our time together, we miss all of that, and we miss community that God intends for us.

We need to stick together, we need to be a team, we need to be community. Not where we just check in, get something for ourselves, but where we check in, connect, spend time, pray, and pour into others.

This verse motivates me! I hope it motivates you as well :)

How can we get practical?  Share some ways I can help motivate you to acts of love and good works!! 

Colossians 3:16

Time for another fantastic GROW Tuesday! I added my GROW graphic late this time around, just yesterday. I have to admit: I am very disorganized this week. I usually write out my posts the weekend before the week starts, but I didn't get a chance to do that this time. I had a busy, albeit fun, weekend full of family, food, and friends. So I am BEHIND! It is why I am writing and posting this post so late. I also probably won't be able to read the other great blogs until tonight or tomorrow. Maybe as a result this will be a short post?? :DD

Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." 

First, I got hung up on the words 'dwell' and 'richly'. What does it mean to dwell richly?? Dwell means to 'retain for a time' 'to keep attention directed' or 'to speak or write insistently'. Wow. Already I could add layers of meaning to this verse. But still I continued...

Webster says richly is defined as: -in a rich manner -in full measure or similar to AMPLY: -generous or more than adequate -generously sufficient to satisfy a requirement or need. 

And right there, I found myself inundated with meaning. No need to go further into the verse, I am stuck here. So let's be stuck together.

Zech Translation of Colossians 3:16a "Let the Word of God remain in you, keeping your attention focused, speaking and writing continuously of it until it becomes sufficient to satisfy your God sized hole."  

This small part of Colossians 3:16 feels like a cumulation of 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 John 1:9. First, we learned what scripture was useful for, then we hammered home the importance of learning Scripture, and now I feel we are looking at what to do with the God-breathed Word.

What do we do with it? We remain in it. That means we stay, we park, we don't move from. This is exactly what GROW is all about. One verse a week and we set up camp and we remain. As a group and individually we keep our attention on this verse until God speaks life into us. Goosebumps here folks.

Then we speak and write continuously. When the Word is etched on our hearts, it will overflow out of us, we won't be able to stop speaking and writing about God. We will tell our friends about what we have learned, we will tell Facebook and Twitter, we will gush about God to our families. Then our hands will itch for the pen and fresh, blank page and we will write. We will write our verses back out to God, simultaneously writing them onto our hearts, burying them in our minds. Our relationship with God will GROW (see what I did there?) and our lives will never be the same. Soon our fingers will take the words to our blogs and online journals and the world will glimpse our learning words. Hopefully it inspires, hopefully they are interested and the Living Lord takes root in their hearts as well.

Praise the Wonders of God!!

Before I run off and sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God, I better explain the last thing we can do with 3:16a. We let it become sufficient in our lives. I never liked the word sufficient much. It just doesn't sound strong enough. So forgive me as I use 'more than enough' in place of 'sufficient'. As we write and speak and share and GROW ;) we let the Word have a home in our hearts. And those God shaped holes I touched on last week, are filled. Instead of searching for ...just stuff we search for only God. We begin to realize and see how He is more than enough for our lives, our problems, our joys.

I am beginning to see how the Word is more than enough for my life.

Before I close: I am stressing about life right now. I coach cheerleading and the school season kicks off next week with practices during baby's naptime and football games during baby's bedtime. Hubby works at night and can't watch her for me. I need to keep the job to pay for tickets to my lovely friend's wedding in February. I am not sure what to do, I am not sure how it is all going to work out. I have been stressin', avoidin', bitin' my nails.......but maybe. just maybe. I can let the Word be more than enough in my life. So if you have a moment, a second, would you pray? Would you pray that I can learn to let the Word of God be more than enough in my life? Thank you dear friends :)

Thank you for stopping by friends. I do so hope you join us for the GROW linkup if you haven't yet. Start this week and add your thoughts about Colossians 3:16 to the Facebook group or link up next week with a fresh verse!! See you there!

2 John 1:9

Time for another GROW Tuesday! This week's verse was 2 John 1:9. I am going to be open and upfront: I struggled more this week than last. I read the verse several times made my little verse graphic, but I just wasn't connecting with it. Then I finally got the bright idea to read the verse in another translation :) The NLT version opened up my eyes a bit more; I felt like I could finally focus.

NLT: "Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son."

Zech translation :)) Anyone who wanders away, distracted by earthly things from the God-breathed Word, has no relationship with God, and is in a hell. BUT! But if we abide and obey the God-breathed Word, we are loved and known by Father and Son.

Two words or phrases stuck out to me this week. The first is 'wanders'. To me, wanders means gradual distraction. When I wander about the house, I feel aimless, unattached, easily distracted by shiny things. Webster defines wander as "to move about without a fixed course, aim, or goal". Other synonyms it gives are ramble, meander, stray, err.

I understand this completely.

I've laid out my pens, my journal, my Bible, my Bible Study. I got my HelloMornings spotify playlist going in the background. Baby is asleep. Ah. Time to connect with God. Before I get started though, I should check my email one last time so it won't distract me later. Wow, someone mentioned me on Twitter, better find out who otherwise it will bug me. Oh that was sweet of her, I better Tweet back. Yay! She is on! AND I was supposed to Facebook my other coach back......which reminds me I better message the captains about bows....I have to find my etsy link for that list.....wow, look at this bow, or THIS bow! It'd be PERFECT! I better message all of them right now...

Ok, ok. I am sure you get the point. This happens to me just about every time I sit down to study God's Word. I have to forcibly remove myself from these things and make time for them AFTER. But perhaps wander isn't just about the small things, perhaps it is about the big things as well. Perhaps we tell ourselves, this time our walk with God will be different, purposeful. But then again, just like all the other times, LIFE gets in the way. Jobs, kids, husbands, cleaning, planning. Next thing we know, we look around and we are so. far. from. God. 

John said we aren't just far from God, but that we have no relationship with God! This would be horrific. Relationship is the second word that stuck out to me as I read through this verse. I don't think I have to explain or define this word. It is something we all innately crave, relationships with others. We want to be known, we want to be loved, we want to be truly known and loved anyways. Why do you think so many women sign up for HelloMornings, Good Morning Girls, book clubs, MOPS, and mom's groups? But the relationship we truly crave and can only ever fill that hole in us, is God. I preach to me first here.

And John tells us that if we wander, meander, ramble aimlessly from the Word...we will not have relationship!! Are you scared yet?? I can't imagine not having a relationship with my husband, or daughter, but then I think about the Creator of the Universe and how badly I do need Him. I never want to be away from Him! But the great news?? We don't have to lose this relationship at all! We can make a choice!!

And here is where it finally gets practical: We need to be reading the WORD! 2 John 1:9 tells us that if we remain in this teaching we have a relationship with Father and Son. All we have to do is read the Bible. Sometimes that seems overwhelming, that is why something like GROW or SOAP is so great. Just pick one verse, one tiny verse and read it, try to apply it to your life, and then pray. It doesn't have to be fancy just "God be here, show me You in this verse. Amen." If you pray and read the Word, God will respond!!




So, if you made it through this essay. I love you. If you read the highlights, we are BFFs. If I rambled (wandered? :) ) on too much, I am sorry. I write to figure things out myself; I can only hope I am coherent. 

A Bible Verse Wednesday Day GROW Edition

*UPDATED*

For the rest of August my Wednesday quotes will be the GROW verses. See THIS PAGE for the deets on the GROW linkup.

This week's verse is 2 John 1:9

I like doing this, it gets me starting to think about the verse for the week! 

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!

GROW Linkup!

Hello loveys!

GROW is a brand new linkup started by these lovely ladies:

Kelsey from Faith, Fun and the Fergusons
Faith from Artistic 31 Mama (soon to be Artistic Hands of Faith)
Melissa from Numbering Our Days
Vanessa from Hearts on Guard

GROW is an acronym designed to help us study scripture.

Check out my own pinnable graphic HERE.

Each Tuesday these lovely ladies will give us a verse. We then have a whole week to meditate on it before sharing our thoughts on it the next Tuesday. Here is an example post from Kelsey @ Faith, Fun and the Fergusons. This week's verse was 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness."

God's Word is alive, active, relevant to my life and the world. There are verses to lead me, verses to reveal my rebellion, verses to guide me back to the path, and verses to lead me into righteousness and holiness before God.

I need to take advantage of this free and loving gift, to wrap my arms about it and hold it so close it melds into my body, heart, soul. 

I am looking for guidance in my life. I am reading through Desperate by Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson. I'm struck with how I am the ''crazy, desperate'' mom model. I thought this was normal! And of course they are talking about mentorships and mom groups, but as I think about this verse, I see how the teaching I'm looking for can be found right in my Bible. Bibles are so accessible these days. I have about 80 in my house and then of course the one I use the most is the one on my phone :/

Then there is the part of me that sees what I read and feel overwhelming pressure to do it all. To live right, avoid sin, exude God's love and peace, raise Godly children. It's then I need the rebuking and correcting that God provides. I'm not meant to do it all or wait til I have it together. I need merely be still, accept Jesus, and let Him do the work for me. He already has.

I need to learn to slow my pace, work on one thing at a time, as it were, until its fully learned. Training is like teaching, but tempered by correction and the leading of God. To stop, slow down, and train myself in righteousness til patience, kindness, gentleness are first nature. Yet keeping in mind Who is really in charge and Who I surrender my obedience too. 

As Paul teaches Timothy, all Scripture is God-breathed. This means living and active and relevant. Each verse a treasure trove of God wisdom waiting to find a home in my heart. I pray I can keep the Word a priority and let it teach, rebuke, correct, and train me. 

What are your thoughts on 2 Timothy 3:16? Is Scripture real and relevant in your life??

And MAKE SURE TO LINK UP! It's open all week! :)

Graphic..Saturday??

Hello loveys,

I was out of town on Wednesday running around the fantastic city of Duluth with my fantastic family. I still wanted to share the graphic I made for this week. I used the verse for next week's GROW linkup. Check out this new linkup HERE at Hearts on Guard. This week's focus verse is 2 Timothy 3:16.

ENJOY!