Setting Boundaries

Purity of Body: Day 38 - Setting Boundaries

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8
God wants you to live a pure life.  Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity.  Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as it so common among those who know nothing of God.  Don't run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters.  Their concerns are God's concerns, and he will take care of them.  We've warned you about this before.  God hasn't invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful - as beautiful on the inside as the outside.  If you disregard this advice, you're not offending your neighbours; you're rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.

Read more...

Pure as Snow

Purity of Body: Day 37 - Pure as Snow

Isaiah 1:18
"Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord.  "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."

Read more...

Humble and Pure of Heart

Purity of Body: Day 36 - Humble and Pure of Heart

Matthew 5:8
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

Read more...

God of my words

Purity of Body: Day 35 - Pure Speech

Ephesians 5:4
Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, Christians have better uses for language than that.  Don't talk dirty or silly.  That kind of talk doesn't fit our style.  Thanksgiving is our dialect.

My words are something that I have had always had a problem with, I talk too much and more often than not I don't think before I speak and this is something that I really feel like God has been challenging me with recently.  Over the last couple of years, I would like to think that I have learnt the power of keep secrets I am entrusted with, and I would also like to think that more often than not I use my words to encourage and build others up.  But I know that there are often times when I say thinks I shouldn't, I seek information that I shouldn't and I choose words that I shouldn't.  Sometimes I ask myself if God was standing with me (which he is anyway, but if I could see it in the flesh) and the answer 9 times out of 10 is no.... So I guess I need to knuckle down and focus on using my tongue better rather than as a weapon of the devil, as harsh as that sounds. 

Read more...

Safe, Healthy & Empowered

Purity of Body: Day 34 - Safe, Healthy & Empowered

Titus 2:3-5
Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness.  By looking at them, the younger women will know how o love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives.  We don't want anyone looking down on God's Message because of their behaviour.

Read more...

You Are Loved

Purity of Body: Day 33 - You are Loved

Luke 15:20
When he was still a long way off, his father saw him.  His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.

Read more...

Looking for Love

Purity of Body: Day 32 - Looking For Love

Matthew 9:35-36
Jesus made a circuit of al the towns and villages.  He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives.  When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke.  So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd.

Read more...

Waiting for Self-discipline

Purity of body: Day 31 - Waiting for Sex

1 Corinthians 6:12-13
Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever i thought i could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims. You know the old saying, "first you eat to live, and then you live to eat"? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that's no excuse fir stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the master honours you with a body, honour him with your body!

So here is the thing... even though the point if this devotion was about waiting for sex, I think what I got out of it was something completely different... I am sure that I have read this verse before but I perhaps not this version (the message) or with my current eyes because I had never put eating the way I do and sex in the same indulgence category.

This past week I have been in Sweden at the World Youth Convention, Raised Up and a lot of the convention was focused on Holiness and what it means to live Holy.  I think one of the things that hit home heaps this week to me was the fact that part of holiness is self-discipline and self-control.  These are two things that I particularly struggle with, especially with my food and something, with my upcoming nuptials, amongst other things I would really like to get more of.  

I guess the good news is that in 2 Timothy is says "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline", so really this self-discipline that I am seeking is a promise of God's Holy Spirit, so I just have to claim it...

So here I am, God, asking that you would give me some self-discipline, help me to practice this and to honour you with it.

Read more...

Help us remember

Purity of Mind: Day 30 - Help us remember

Romans 3:24-25
God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous.  He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.  For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.  People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

Read more...

The Shadowlands

Purity of Mind: Day 29 - The Shadowlands

Titus 1:2
My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end.  This is the life God promised long ago - and he doesn't break promises!

Read more...

A Thankful Attitude

Purity of Mind: Day 28 - A Thankful Attitude

Psalm 138:1-3
Thank you! Everything in me says "Thank you!" Angels listen as I sing my thanks.  I kneel in worship facing your holy temple and say it again:  "Thank you!"  Thank you for your love, thank you for your faithfulness; most holy is your name, most holy is your Word.  the moment i called out, you stepped in; you made my life large with strength.

Read more...

Dreaming of Heaven

Purity of Mind: Day 27 - Dreaming of Heaven

1 Peter 1:3-5
Beacuse Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven and the future starts now!  God is keeping careful watch over us and the future.  The Day is coming when you'll have it all - life healed and whole.

Read more...

Daring to Dream

Purity of Mind: Day 26 - Daring to Dream

Ephesians 3:20
God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!  He does it not by pushing us around but by working with us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Read more...

Overcoming Loneliness

Purity of Mind: Day 25 - Overcoming Loneliness

1 Thessalonians 5:23024
May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together - spirit, soul, and body - and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ.  The One who called you in completely dependable.  If he said it, he'll do it!

Read more...

The Centre of His Will

Purity of Mind: Day 24 - The Centre of His Will

Jude 1:20-21
Carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the centre of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ.  This is the inending life, the real life!

Read more...

A New Attitude

Purity of Mind: Day 23 - A New Attitude

Ephesians 4:21-24
Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.  Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.  Put on your new nature, created to be like God - truely righteous and holy. 

Read more...

Do Your Possessions Posses You?

Purity of Mind: Day 22 - Do Your Possessions Posses You?

Matthew 6:31-33
Do 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 God and how he works.  Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.  Don't worry about missing out.  You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Read more...

Community

Purity of Mind: Day 21 - Communal Thinking

Acts 20:32
I'm turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends.

One thing I am really glad about is the fact that God made us to want to live in community.  I am a social kind of person, I don't really like being by myself for long periods of time, so moving up here, out of a fairly big family to just me has been really hard.  One thing I have been really grateful for is my new cell group up here and the Salvo's in Castlemaine too.  Without them, I think I would have struggled a lot more and perhaps even thrown in towel, but I think they fact that they have constantly welcomed me, supported me, loved me and shown an interest in me has made more difference than they will ever know.  

This week at my cell group, we looked at the forth week of a Salvation Army series called 'Salvo's out there' and the main theme was 'a fair go for all'.  I was really challenged about whether or not I do this, not just for the poor and needy but for everyone, every race, every gender, every age, every sexuality, every disease...do I give them all a fair go by showing them God's love?  By including them in my community and giving them respect and dignity...  Probably not always, but I guess its something that I am working on...something that I will probably never stop working on.  

God designed us to live in community, with him and with others.... all the time.

Read more...

Dad

Purity of Mind: Day 20 - Thinking Like a Child

Ephesians 5:1-2
Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behaviour from their parents.  Mostly what God does is love you.  Keep company with him and learn a life of love.  Observe how Christ loved us.  His love was not cautious but extravagant.  He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us.  Love like that. 

So since I have moved out of home and Dad has moved back from China we have been getting closer and closer, its actually been really nice.  I have always known that Dad loved me, and I never really doubted it, but I think that over the last little while I have seen his love more than normal.  I have been able to chat to him about whats happening in my life, what I want to do, who I want to do life with etc.  But I have also been able to seek his advice.  Most recently while I have been car shopping, Dad has shown his love by helping me research and investigate everything I needed to know to chose the right car and then how to work my money so that I can pay for it.  Its been super helpful, because if it were left up to me I think I would still be looking, not because of lack of trying, but just lack of knowledge on where to look and how to work it all out.  The thing is Dad has gone out of his way to help me out and its been really nice.  Our newishly found good verbal relationship has also allowed me to learn more about my Dad.  The thing is that the more I get to know of him, the more amazing I think he is.  I really loved my Dad before, but I am only just starting to understand what an amazing person he actually is.  

I think that this is whats its supposed to be like with God...he is my heavenly father, and I need to take the next step with my relationship with him too.  Go from this, taken for granted love, to one that reveals more and more each time we talk.  One that helps me to see what I am aspiring to.  One that actually sees me experience God the Dad like I am supposed to. 

Read more...

Cheating on God

Purity of Mind: Day 19 - A Different Way of Thinking

1 John 2:15-17
Do not love this world not the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.  For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything thing we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.  These are not from the Father, but are from this world.  And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave.  But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

Today's devo challenged me about what I want in life, I think it challenged me simply because lots of the things I want are super worldly, you know the regular things, a nice house, a good job and some nice stuff to go with it all, but this stuff and seeking after this stuff doesn't actually please God at all, in fact it turns him away.  Sure I can enjoy these things, i think, as long as my heart is after God's heart and not the satifaction that comes from having the nice stuff.  One verse that really stuck out for me was this: 

'You're cheating on God.  If all you want is your own was, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of god and his way.  And do you suppose God doesn't care? The proverb has it that 'he's a fiercely jealous lover.' And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you'll find.' James 4:4-6 (The Message)

I think I have spoken about this before, but I really need to start trusting God a bit more when he says he knows what's best for my life, rather than desperately trying to stay in control like I am, because I can't have it both ways.

Read more...