“the last thing many believers need today is to go to another bible study. they already know far more than they are putting into practice. what they need are serving experiences in which they can exercise their spiritual muscles” -Purpose Driven Life
Category: Jessica’s Bible Study Blog
Boy Meets Girl – Quotes & Notes
“But do you see who’s being forgotten in the equation of ‘two consenting adults’? The almighty Creator of their two bodies.”
“Learning to recognize true affection can be difficult, especially if you’ve learned to equate sex with love…Do you want to demonstrate your passion for them with more than words? Then guard against sin, fight lust, and refuse to arouse them sexually.” and that came to life as I read a story posed about temptation and the closing thought “Even though there was a part of her heart that wanted me to stay, she felt my love for her as I turned my back on temptation.” That, my friends, is love–to say to your fiance, I love you too much to let evil ruin our relationship by starting us down a road of temptation and unsatisfiable lust, and as much as I don’t want to do this, I know its what’s good for you, so I will anyway, even though part of me doesn’t want to.
“God not only wants to maximize a couple’s enjoyment of sex in marriage, He also wants them to learn to trust Him *together*. When a Christian man and woman systematically deny their own physical desires as an expression of mutual faith and submission to Jesus Christ, they are laying a solid spiritual foundation for their marriage. They’re learning to fight sin as a team. They’re learning to care for each other, pray for each other, and challenge each other.”
Lawlessness vs. Legalism. To be lawless is to throw away God’s commands and live for the self, do whatever you want with no concern for righteousness, no concern for others. Obviously, that’s bad. Legalism is said to be just as bad, following rules to the letter, rather than to the intent, placing the guidance not on God, but on human rule. Yet, at the same time, we can’t throw away “rules”–like them or not.
Rules are like the yellow line in the center of the road, the analogy was drawn. “We need the yellow lines on a road even though they can’t stop a car from swerving into the wrong lane and having a head-on collision.” a vague definition of righteousness quickly leads to compromise. “You don’t need [yellow lines painted in your relationship] when you’re feeling strong and spiritually sharp–you need them for the moments when your resistance is weak and your sense of conviction dull. In those moments of weakness you don’t want to start having to decide what you should and shouldn’t do. If you make your choices then, you’ll wind up in compromise.”
Specific guidelines for your physical relationship can never replace your humble reliance on the Holy Spirit–but they can reinforce your biblical convictions”
LUST IS NEVER SATISFIED. Don’t waste your time chasing it, it will only bring your destruction. profound to think how true it is that lust cannot be satisfied, it is only replaced for a craving for more or worse or additional.
Also, sometimes we forget we need to pray every time we feel tempted for God to ease our temptation and praise him for how wonderful it is that he could give us such strong feelings (desire?) so that when we ARE married it is absolutely a wonderful gift (what good of a gift would it be if it weren’t desirable??)…and ask for patience…
“Wisdom calls to you like someone shouting” -proverbs 8:1
Yesterday I had some profound realizations that were just shall we say, soooo cool! God’s given me the answers. He’s turned my “tears for the night” into “joy in the morning” (psalm 30:5), literally. Tuesday night I was in tears over my profound need for God, and got back out of bed to write some prayers in my journal.
Purpose driven life explains it well–“Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days–when your heart feels abandoned, when you’re out of options, when the pain is great–and you turn to God alone.” THAT is something I’ve been learning here–to turn to God alone, that he is the only thing that can satisfy and remove the hurt and pains. You don’t need somebody else, you need to learn how to turn to God. And when you do turn to God instead, the blessings are enormous.
Its better off this way
“All your relationships would go smoother if you would just pray more about them.” -Purpose Driven Life
Well, umm, duhhh, speak of the obvious…but umm, yeah, doesn’t mean I don’t need a reminder 🙂
“Many people experience deep hurt when they open themselves up emotionally and physically only to be abandoned by someone who proclaims he’s not ready for a ‘serious commitment'” –I kissed dating goodbye
as Jennifer Knapp puts it quite nicely “its better off this way” and I know it. Sometimes the biggest blessings are not getting what we want 😉
And….Inspiring bible quote of the day from today’s reading…
4 Sing praises to the Lord, you who belong to him; praise his holy name. 5 His anger lasts only a moment, but his kindness lasts for a lifetime. Crying may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
11 You [, Lord,] changed my sorrow into dancing. You took away my clothes of sadness, and clothed me in happiness. 12 I will sing to you and not be silent. Lord, my God, I will praise you forever.
–Psalm 30
Highlights From Zechariah
So I woke up with this sudden inclination that I should go read Zechariah..not to be confused with Zephaniah in any way…
” ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you’ ” 1:3
I’ve been having a kinda selfish week–where I consciously realize I could be more seeking after God’s own heart than I was. Priorities… When you’d just rather sit there obsessively working on hobbies rather than being useful to God… well, time for some prayer for a change of heart right?
” ‘Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,’ declares the Lord” 2:10
Praise God and his love. When I got home last night, that whole making pancakes for God story email Mandy had sent me earlier that day just echoed in my heart. “God, I love you so much” and ohh man, how much God loves me, even when I do make a mess of everything or… He’ll be there waiting for me to come back to him and rejoin in his love.
“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.” (8:8)
Ohh, just praise God. “so will I save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.” (8:13)
“I will strengthen…I will restore…because I have compassion…for I am the Lord their God….rejoice in the Lord” (10:6-7)
God’s promise to believers… “I will refine them like silver, and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘the Lord is our God.'” 13:9
Interesting Bible Verses of the Day
“What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit”
That was said by Paul to the people of Corinth (1 Cor. 4:21). I certainly hope as far is it goes between God and me that I’m going after the latter ;-). But how much in the world could be made better by love and a gentle spirit rather than force and anger? Just about everything.
Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets (Luke 5:5)
That’s the essence of faith, and they are great examples of the kind of faith we should place in Jesus Christ. Trust him, even when you don’t have reason to. And then, just as it does in the following paragraph, if you do, you may just find yourself rewarded with even more than you asked for. “When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break”. Just because you haven’t seen the results yet, doesn’t mean you should stop believing. Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.
“…crowds of people came to hear him and be healed of their sickness. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:15)
Okay, now that verse, that was just for me today. You NEED time to yourself [for prayers, journal writing] to stay strong and able to do your work–its being like Jesus, wow! And I’ve certainly never seen anything in there that gives any hint to say emulating Jesus would be a bad thing.
“When Jesus saw their faith he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven'” (Luke 5:20) All you need is a little faith…and perhaps persistent *encouragement* (which is different from harassment btw) from friends and family who want so badly for you to experience in your life the kind of joy and happiness and strength against their problems that they feel in their own.
“Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or to say ‘Get up and walk'” (Luke 5:23) Heh, so much easier to say do something than to forgive in any case even more general than just sins)
“Jesus answered to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” Luke 5:31-32–that’s just one of my general favorite verses. Not a call to perfection, but a call to healing. And why churches are not full of perfect people. They’re full of the “sick” who need the medicine of Jesus. But don’t we all need that medicine so badly–the cure for all our emotional crises…I just hope I’m willing to take the medicine so I don’t have to suffer unnecessary pain 🙂
More Memory Verses
James 1:12 – Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him
James 1:2-3 – Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”
Matthew 26:41 – “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
Ephesians 6:13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Ephesians 6:16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Sometimes Truth is Stranger than fiction…or at least more entertaining
From the San Diego Union Tribune:
Call it a case of a thief with very bad timing. Last Wednesday, officials at a Baptist Church in Clairemont discovered that a thief had stolen the choir’s electric piano and soundboard during the night. Without them, the choir couldn’t perform its Sunday Christmas music program. The theft was immediately reported to its insurance company, which authorized replacement of the items, worth about $5,000.
Shortly after music director Nathan Robinson arrived at the Guitar Center in Grossmont Center mall to buy new equipment, in walked a man in his 20s carrying the church’s Yamaha keyboard. Robinson recognized the fellow as someone who’d stopped by the church about three months earlier to inquire about its program.
“It was Twilight Zoney,” says Robinson. “A guy walked through the door holding our equipment.” As the fellow negotiated with a clerk to sell the keyboard, Robinson alerted the store’s management to the theft.
While awaiting police, an employee tested the keyboard and detained the seller. As soon as the La Mesa police arrived, the man bolted out of the store and blended into a sea of holiday shoppers – but he conveniently left behind his driver’s license and thumb print.
Was the church missing anything else, the Guitar Center manager asked Robinson. Yes, a soundboard. It was there in a corner where the fellow had left it while he returned to his car for the keyboard.
When the choir arrived for rehearsal that evening, the equipment was back in its place and ready for service. The thief, no doubt, was wishing he’d gone to a different music store.
—http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontr
Upgraded Proverbs (humor)
from today’s Off the Mark cartoon from my page a day calendar
-A watched progress bar never loads
(time remaining 2 1/2 hrs)
-A cell phone is worth a thousand words
(girl looking angrily at her date at a restaurant)
-Too many clicks spoil the plot
(couple on couch, guy channel surfing)
-Don’t count your files before you save
(guy wigging out cuz his work was lost)
Genesis Sermon
I was listening to one of Mike Macintosh’s old sermons and he took this long detour through talking about Joseph going to Egypt with his wife Sarai. It was interesting to listen to a “different perspective” than the one I got from hearing Miles sermon on it–it just had a different emphasis. Mike pointed out (which apparently this never hit me before) that when Abraham is saying his wife is all hot and the king’s going to want her, you’re talking about a 60 or 70 year old lady being called such an attractive babe that the king’s gonna want to meet her. Wow. Flattering yes, but something about putting it that way makes it almost seem like an unfounded fear of what might happen. The rest of it was interesting too, emphasizing the duties of a christian husband as a model of Christ, and how Abraham was just not living up to that and not encouraging his wife’s faith (eg. they’re both laughing at god’s promises) like his asking his wife to lie to protect his back rather than what he should have been doing, warning her and opening up some honest conversation and encouraging her to be strong against temptation such as the king or whoever else