Day 8- Lies

Hi Fellow Disciples,

Satan. hmm... what do you think? It's a scary prospect how real and how close he really is. And he is out to hurt us, to drag us down, to separate us from God.

This world is hard enough, but on top of it all we have someone who tempts us, accuses us, causes confusion in our lives and throws obstacles in our way. The precious seed that has been planted in our life, he wants destroyed...

"The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." -Matthew 13:22-23

Thankfully, we have someone on our side!

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 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 6:10-13

Therefore, fix your eyes on Jesus! And prepare yourself for battle against evil, and stand.

Question: how does one prepare for battle?

Nadine <><

Day 7- God's Word

Hi Fellow Disciples,

"For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sward, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything in uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." -Hebrews 4:12-13

For this day, I realized I don't spend nearly enough time in God's word... !

Funny, isn't it? How easy it is to say, 'Oh yes, the Bible is hugely important and reading it is great!' and quite another thing to take the time to actually read it... let alone memorize or spend time thinking about it.

Did you know when you hear something 10% of it stays with you? or when you read something 25% of it stays with you? or when you study something 50% of it stays with you? or when memorized 80% of something stays with you? but when you meditate on it 100% of it will stay with you? Interesting, yes? ;)

So allowing yourself to soak in God's word, spending time thinking about it and praying for God to open your mind that you may understand His word... will allow it to penetrate into your heart and change your life.

is that scary or what? change...

The question is, isn't this kind of change good?

Question: what does it mean to truly study and understand God's word?

Nadine <><

Day 5 & 6- Excuses and God's Work

hola...

hehehe... so obviously Day 5. Yes, I did make excuses as to why I couldn't write on this blog. But don't worry I will make the effort to catch you all up!

Day 5- Excuses, Excuses

This was an interesting day for me, you see I'm really good at making excuses. When I don't want to do something, I can convince myself out of it. And when I'm supposed to do something I can convince myself that I deserve a well earned break. Now so far I've been really good at waking up early in order to do Bible study taking the time to focus on what I'm doing and really dig into God's word. But I could feel sleepiness hovering right behind my eyes I knew it wouldn't be long before I would want to sleep in... I knew it wouldn't be long before my mom asked me to help with the babies earlier, forcing an even earlier wake-up time... I knew it was only a matter of time till I would start making excuses. That was when I opened the book and found my eyes meeting the word-- excuse! Imagine my surprise, who knew that David Nasser knew me?!?! But I read it, and realized that I make more excuses then I even thought I did. I make excuses about movies I go to see (well, everyone else saw it. It can't be THAT bad!); about how I spend my time (I get good grades, I can take a break right about now.); and about how I treat my spiritual life ( I'm better then those people, I don't need to spend too much time on this.) Then I knew, I wanted something above all of those excuses. I wanted to be a passionate person who didn't make excuses but instead put others above herself! After all when we are Christian, it's not about all the 'No's' we have to say it's about the one 'Yes!' we get to say! =D

The verse we focused on was Matthew 6:24 "Then a teacher of the law came to Him and said, 'Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.' Jesus replied, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay His head.' Another disciples said to Him, 'Lord, first let me go and bury my father.' But Jesus told him, 'Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.' Question of the day: How often do we make excuses for our own comfort or what we view as the right way to do things?

Day 6- God's Work

We focused on how rules have their place but they often cause us to become hard-hearted or judgmental. But if we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, our lives are changed and we become more like Christ. I really enjoyed the verses in this one, so let me give you several to ponder and marinate in...

-Galatians 5:19-23: The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-controlled. Against such things there is no law.

-Galatians: So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

-Psalm 116:1-2: I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy. Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.

- Romans 14:4-5,19: Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

-And the day's verse, Philippians 2:12-13: Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed- not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

So, open your heart and let God work in you! Imagine what you could do...

In Christ,

Nadine <><

Day 4~ Rewards

Hi :)

So today we talked about REWARDS... what is a reward? A reward is a fair return for either good or bad behavior. Fair return, meaning if you kill someone your reward should be death, if you share a cookie your reward should be a cookie! haha... Does God give us fair rewards? For me this is a difficult question to answer. If you are a Christian, you don't get a fair reward- you get a hugely generous reward! You receive

forgiveness and eternal life.

But for those who don't... you get a very fair reward... yikes! ;)

The verse we talked about today was: "Don't be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows in the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don't give up." ~Galatians 6:7-9. I really like this verse, it's encouraging! God won't miss any good we do, so we ca

n do good unnoticed. On the flip side, we can do evil unnoticed and God will still know. But! We must never give up. I like the visual of the reaping and sowing, it feels good to think we can sow and never see the product until it is time to reap.

So my brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not give up! Let us never back down. Instead may we all sow in the Spirit that one day our rewards will be good and hugely unfair... and 100 % more then we sowed. Take encouragement from that thought.

In Christ,

Nadine <><

"We will reap what we sow, more than we sow, and after we sow." -David Nasser

Day 2 & 3 (Hard words & Ruin!)

Hi

So day 2 was good as was day 3... except that I feel tired! Oh well... not much to do about that except maybe get to sleep :)

Day 2 we looked at hard words. And how Jesus calls us to a very hard teaching. This wasn't too hard for me to think about... it makes a lot of sense. To quote some famous person... being a Christian is one of the hardest easy things to do... or was it the other way around. Either way, it makes sense doesn't it? That we have simply to believe in Christ to be saved... but then our love for Jesus calls us to do extremely hard things. What do you think? BTW, the verse is "On hearing it, many of His disciples said, 'This is a hard teaching, who can accept it?' From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him." ~John 6:60,66

Day 3 we talked about how we have to be ruined. What?!?! ( you must be saying) let me explain. Today's verse is: "'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'" ~Isaiah 6:5

This is the prophet Isaiah (obviously!) talking about how he shouldn't see the Lord Almighty because of the evil in his heart coming out of his lips. We must see how truly sinful we are in order to see how truly HOLY God is!!!! How truly we need His love and forgiveness.

What do you think? Have you ever had a time in your life where you saw God's forgiveness so personally in your life?

Yours in Christ,

Nadine <><

Day 1 (Call to Die)

Today's verse: Matthew 16:24 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."


Day one. I can't tell you how excited I am! The devotion got me off to a great start this morning and I had a really nice day; filled with times where I thought and prayed and times where I wondered what on earth I've gotten myself into.


One thing I'm really questioning and if you have any ideas please share... why is it that we feed our selfish interests? You know, we go see that movie even though we know that it doesn't have any redeeming qualities (maybe we heard that it's funny...) and we don't protest that school book that has the dirty content and we listen to the music that has the language... sometimes we even seek the attention of people who aren't seeking God. huh... Why? I'm not saying that I don't do those things I'm just saying why would anyone. Why would we ever seek anything that wasn't pure and good and godly and whole and lovely and truly beautiful. What do you think? Any thoughts, I would love to talk to you about it!


Yours Forever In Christ,
Nadine <><


BTW ~ Check out this music video- think on it and listen to the words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkpaw9HQQg8

Fasting...

Hi!

So... i'm fasting! I am fasting facebook and starbucks! This is going to be hard. :) but i' m excited

I chose to do this because I'm a part of a Bible study that is doing the devotional

A CALL TO DIE

Impressive title, no? ;) Part of the commitment is to give up something for 40 days (of course since we are only doing 5 of the studies a week- it ends up being a fast for 8 weeks!) I thought carefully about what was hardest for me to live without... and before long came up with a tie. Facebook and Starbucks

Thus- the double fast! But it will be good.

Do you want to know something else? shh... i'm not sure how this part will work out. BUT I also am going to try to blog everyday, even if it's just a photo or just a small little thought I want to share this journey with whoever cares. So check back to hear how I'm doing!

Well, that's it for now. Good night my friends!

In Christ,

Nadine <><