Peace Part 2

Last week I posted some scriptures about peace... So here is a little bit of my commentary on some of the verses I posted...

Psalms 37:11;37:   "A wonderful future awaits those who love peace."  I love peace! :)  I'm not quite sure why anyone would not love peace, but unfortunately there are people out there like that.

Proverbs 16:7:  We might have enemies, but if we continue to follow God and His Word, then we will be at peace with our enemies.  (Yes, even that supervisor at work that seems to hate you... You will be at peace with your enemies.)

Isaiah 9:6:  "Prince of Peace" This is another name for our wonderful Savior!  We should strive to be more like Him!

Isaiah 54:10:  When God promises something, it happens...

Isaiah 57:2; 21:  Which would you rather?  Resting in peace when you die, or never having peace alive or dead?

1 Corinthians 14:33:  God likes it when His church body is at peace with one another.  We should devour and resist strive as soon as it tries to take over...

Philippians 4:7:  Memorize this scripture.  It is a great one to quote if ever the devil is trying to instate fear.  God does what He says He will do, so you take this scripture and follow it!

Colossians 3:15:  We should be thankful that we are called to live at peace.  I sure wouldn't want to live at war all the time (or ever).  We have been instructed to live at peace with everyone, so what are you waiting for?

1 Thessalonians 5:23:  God is a God of peace!  The Prince of Peace!  I am so thankful that He is, for His desire for us is to be a peaceful world.  If we would all follow His plan, it would be a peaceful world!!

2 Timothy 2:22:  "Bad company corrupts good morals..."  We should associate with people who are peaceful and pursue righteous living.  We need to take away the relationships that we have that could hinder our relationship with God.

1 Peter 3:11:  "Work to maintain peace."  Nothing should stop us from being a peaceful people.  "Live in harmony with one another..." (Romans 12:16) What are you waiting for?

Extra verse for you before I go: Matthew 5:9, "God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God."  I want to be a peacemaker, for I want to be a child of God?  How about you?  What are you going to do to be a better peacemaker?

Blessings!

~ S*

Peace

"And the fruit of the spirit is... PEACE..." Galatians 5:22

This week I am going to list some scriptures about peace.  Study them.  What do you think they mean?  Next week I will put my little explanation/commentaries for some of the verses listed in today's post.  Let me know what God is teaching you, and what you would like to learn about!

Scriptures for this week:

Psalm 37:11; 37, "The lowly will possess the land and will live in peace and prosperity. Look at those who are honest and good, for a wonderful future awaits those who love peace." (NLT)

Proverbs 16:7, "When people's lives please the LORD, even their enemies are at peace with them." (NLT)

Isaiah 9:6, "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (NIV)

Isaiah 54:10, "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you." (NIV)

Isaiah 57:2; 21, "For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die. 'There is no peace for the wicked,' says my God."

1 Corinthians 14:33, "For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God's holy people."

Philippians 4:7, "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (NIV)

Colossians 3:15, "And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful." (NLT)

1 Thessalonians 5:23, "Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again." (NLT)

2 Timothy 2:22, "Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts." (NLT)

1 Peter 3:11, "Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it." (NLT)

Extra Scriptures to look up!

Numbers 6:26

1 Chronicles 22:9

Psalms 29:11: 34:14

Proverbs 12:20; 14:30; 17:1

Isaiah 14:7; 32:17; 53:5

Ezekiel 37:26

Micah 5:5

Mark 9:50

Luke 1:79

John 16:33

Romans 2:10

1 Corinthians 7:15

Colossians 1:20

1 Thessalonians 5:13

2 Thessalonians 3:16

Hebrews 12:14

Blessings!

~ S*

Joy

"But the fruit of the Spirit is... JOY..."  Galatians 5:22

Life is much more enjoyable when you are living a life full of joy!  It is harder for the devil to dampen your spirits or discourage you when you are filled with the joy of the Lord.  After all, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:10b)

Scriptures for this week:

Luke 1:14, "He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth," 

This scripture is speaking of John the Baptist.  He was not only a great joy to his father, Zachariah, but he was a great joy to many people and was blessed in being the "Elijah" who prepared the way for Jesus!

Luke 2:10-11, "But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." (NIV)

This is speaking of Jesus's birth!  Some of the most joyous news one could hear is the new found knowledge of his Savior being born!!

John 15:11, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." (NIV)

Remember last week's fruit, love?  The passage above is saying your joy will be made full if you love others! (read the entire passage: verses 9-17)

Psalm 33:1, "Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him." (NIV)

Pleasing the Lord should be one of our main priorities...  Don't you think?  So I'm going to sing joyfully to Him!

Psalm 35:9, "And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation." (KJV)

What Jesus did when dieing on the cross for our sins and rising again is the thing we should be the most excited and joyful about!  Nothing can top what Jesus did for us.  Nothing...

Isaiah 61:10, "I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels." (NLT)

Yeah... That would definitely be a reason to be JOYFUL!!!

Extra Scriptures:

Psalm 95:1

Psalm 98:4

Psalm 100:1

Isaiah 41:15-16

Isaiah 58:13-14

Joel 2:23

Let's try to live our lives full of the joy of the Lord.  I want to take joy and pleasure in being a follower of Jesus.  Even if I'm not always in the most joyous situation, I want to be glad in my relationship with my Savior!  What things can you do to change your down or depressed attitude into a joyful one?  How many times have you let the guy who cut you off on the freeway or the slow old lady in front of you steal your joy?  We need to make an attitude change.  This can/will totally effect our joy.  If we choose to be happy and rejoice no matter what, then God is going to reward us for that effort.  Not only will we be a better witness for His Kingdom, but it will make our lives better as well.  When we choose to have a good attitude, we will end up having a better attitude all day long because of our choice!  Choose to have a good attitude and be joyful.  Rejoice in what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has done for us!  He is an Awesome God who loves us and takes pleasure in us when we rejoice in Him!

Blessings!

~ S*

Love

"But the fruit of the Spirit is... love..." Galatians 5:22

Scriptures for this week:

1 Corinthians 13 (Also known as the "Love" Chapter), "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (NIV)

Mark 12:28-31(also in Matthew 22:34-38), "One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, 'Of all the commandments, which is the most important?'

29'The most important one,' answered Jesus, 'is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.'”

Romans 13:8-10, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (NIV)

James 2:8, "Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (NLT)

More "Love" Scriptures to check out:

1 John 4:7-21

Luke 6:27-36

Hosea 3

1 Peter 1:22-23

John 15:9-17 (John 13:34-35)

Love is pretty self explanatory...  The greatest commandment is to LOVE!!  So what are you waiting for!?!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! :)

Blessings,

~ S*

Fruit of the Spirit

Over the next few weeks I am planning on studying each fruit of the Spirit individually, but today let's talk about all of them!

Galatians 2:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." (NIV)

The New Living Translation says this, "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!" (Galatians 5:22-23)

Whenever I think of the fruit of the Spirit I think of a song that I learned when I was little:
"The fruit of the Spirit is not a banana, the fruit of the Spirit is not a banana. So if you want to be a banana, you can't be a fruit of the Spirit, 'cause that's not what it's all about. The fruit of the spirit is: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self control..."
As the song went you replaced "banana" with a different fruit each time you ran through the song.

Did you learn the fruit of the Spirit in a song when you were little? Seems so simple right? But it isn't always that simple to practice the fruit of the Spirit in our every days lives. How can we apply them? Which fruit is easiest for you to practice? Which is the toughest? In the upcoming weeks, I will give scriptures pertaining to each of these. Which would you like me to talk about first? Let me know; I look forward to hearing from you!

Blessings!
~ S*
If you would like to see a similar version of the kid song check it out Here!

Promises Promises...

How do you feel about making promises? Do you make them all the time? Do you never make a promise? Do you "swear to God _______"? How many times do we loosely throw the word promise, or swear around? Have you ever broken a promise? How did that make you feel? How did it effect others?

Scriptures for this week:

Matthew 5:33-37, '“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ 34But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.'" (NIV)

Pretty simple... Don't make promises... You stay out of trouble that way...

James 5:12, "But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned." (NLT)

"Say a simple YES or NO." Simple!

Proverbs 20:25, "Don't trap yourself by making a rash promise to God and only later counting the cost." (NLT)

Things that you make a promise to God about are even more serious. You don't want to break a promise you make to Him.

Proverbs 6:1-5, "My child, if you have put up security for a friend’s debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger—2if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said—3follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased. 4Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do. 5Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net." (NLT)

Making promises that you can't keep may lead to you being in a sticky situation. Check your words/promises before you make them. (James 1:19)

I was always raised in the yes be yes, and no be no kind of lifestyle. I don't make promises. My dad always said, "don't make a promise you can't keep." You don't have to worry about keeping a promise if you haven't promised anything... Think of it as wedding vows... I'm not going to pledge my life and love to a man in a frivolous way. I'm going to mean it! I want my wedding vows to mean something when I get to that day, so I'm not going to make my word something I might say but not do... "Let your yes be yes and your no be no..."

Looking forward to your thoughts!!

Blessings!
~ S*
girlbiblestudy@hotmail.com
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Laziness...

Do you enjoy being lazy? What is your definition of lazy? Is it wrong to be lazy? Do you know anyone who is lazy? What is your work ethic like? Do you do the best you can in your job, or do you do just enough to get by? Do you put forth your full effort when doing a task, or do you go after it halfheartedly?

Definition of Lazy: *

1. Resistant to work or exertion; disposed to idleness.

2. Slow-moving; sluggish: a lazy river.

3. Conducive to idleness or indolence: a lazy summer day.

The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about the lazy man (sluggard), so I will list a few of the verses from Proverbs, but not all of them. (I will put some extra references at the end of the post.) I also chose the New Living Translation for most of the text this week (I love how straight forward it is), so I encourage you to look the verses up in your favorite translation!

Scriptures for this week:

Proverbs 10:4, "Lazy people are soon poor; hard workers get rich." (NLT)
Proverbs 13:4, "Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper." (NLT)

You can't make money being lazy. (or at least you shouldn't be able to...)

Proverbs 10:26, "Lazy people irritate their employers, like vinegar to the teeth or smoke in the eyes." (NLT)

It is so annoying to me as a fellow employee to work really hard to accomplish something (like meet goals that are set for you), but others who don't meet the goals and don't even try to accomplish much at all get the same raise as I do. Or I don't get as good a raise because everyone else didn't meet the goals set for them. So I can only imagine how irritating it could be to watch someone you hired not try, or be lazy!

Proverbs 12:11, "A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies has no sense." (NLT)

If you don't work you don't eat!

Proverbs 18:9, "A lazy person is as bad as someone who destroys things." (NLT)

And you can destroy things by being lazy/neglecting them. Most things worth having in life take hard work to obtain or keep them.

Proverbs 26:15, "Lazy people take food in their hand but don't even lift it to their mouth." (NLT)

You know that toilet seat your mother or wife asked you to put down, or the make-up that is all over the bathroom sink that your husband has asked you to clean up... it only takes a couple seconds... What is stopping you?

Proverbs 24:30-34, "I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; 31thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. 32I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: 33A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—34and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. (NIV)

Is this what your room or house looks like? Is there an inch or two of dust on everything? Do you spend your days off just lying on the couch watching TV or playing video games??? Get up and do something productive!

Romans 12:11, "Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically." (NLT)

Do everything as unto the Lord. This should be how you look at your work whether for your boss, spouse, parents, whoever... We should have a servant's attitude. Jesus came to serve, not to be served. (John 13:12-14)

Colossians 3:17, "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." (NLT)

Someone asks, "How are you today?" You reply, "I'm Blessed how about yourself?" (I encourage you to make this your response for a week or two; you may be surprised at the reactions you get!)

Extra verses for this week's topic:
Proverbs 12:27
Proverbs 15:9
Proverbs 20:4
Proverbs 26:14
Proverbs 28:19
Ecclesiastes 10:18
Matthew 25:14-28 (parable of the Talents)
Hebrews 6:12

Blessings
~ S*
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*Definition taken from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lazy