Good morning friends! I hope you have had a great week of reading and studying. I know it seems like a lot of writing but I truly believe as we are writing this truth on paper, we are also writing it on our hearts for ever to remember. This has not been time wasted, but time spent with the Lover of our souls.

Today is my birthday and it is also the two month anniversary of my miscarriage. While my flesh wanted to stay in bed, pull the covers over my head and have a big fat pity party and cry why me and wallow in my misery; I let His light and truth shine on me. I got up to a very excited and loving nine year old boy whom I adore. He greeted me with lots of love and kisses. Then my biggest boy greeted me with a hug and a well wish! Then the girls came down and hugged and loved on me. I’ve gotten many texts and messages of love from my sweet husband and dear friends already! I truly am blessed in so many ways. So many heart treasures in this house. Yes, our baby is gone on to heaven and I miss the thought of bringing him/her home I know that the Lord is good. I know He is in control and knew best. Just as my Tiffany says, heaven is just that much sweeter.

I pray that each of you reading this is blessed this week by the peace and presence of the Lord. I pray that you would feel His love as you seek Him and get to know Him better.

Chapter four

• Before Christ we all were empty, seeking for something to fill us up. We wanted more, more, more. Thinking if we seek out and obtain the things of this world, we would be satisfied. That college degree, a “cool” job, the perfect boyfriend, which turns into a perfect husband. A new job with a fancy title and office. A beautiful new house.  Oh, a baby will fill this void I have growing inside me. Maybe it’s food or a certain drink you seek to “fill” your void. Maybe it is relationships or sex. Maybe it is drugs or alcohol. Shopping. More, I just need more and I will be satisfied. In our human thinking we think we can solve our heart issues with human things. The problem really can only be fixed and filled with Christ alone. v19

I’m going to take a slight break here and say that the above is how I lived most of my life. I didn’t grow up in a Christian home but did know there was a “god” and he was a higher power over us. It wasn’t until the winter of 2007 that I came to the end of me and submitted to the Lordship of Christ and asked Him to save me. I had tried so many things, so much had went wrong and I knew I needed something supernatural to help me. I had messed up over and over and felt like I had wasted enough of my life trying to do things my way.

I still do mess up and make mistakes but now I know who can and will help me. All I have to do is call on His name and confess my sin and my great need for Him. I do that on a regular basis. Daily in fact. The same goes for you sweet sister. Are you in need today? Are you carrying a burden that was never meant for you to carry? Are you struggling to get through the morning because of the lies the enemy is feeding you, trying to keep you down? Whatever it may be, Jesus is big enough! He understands! He loves you! He is calling your name now! Answer His call and ask for help now.

• Once we come to know Christ as Savior, we have to daily, constantly, put off our old self, to be made new in the attitudes of our minds, and to put on the new self. Created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. It is about becoming more and more like Him, and less and less like me. We have to minute by minute focus our minds, eyes, hearts on His will, His love, and his Word. v22-24
• We have to trust the Lord to mold us into a new self. Romans 12:1-2 says, ” Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
• When we are living this way, we are walking in a manner worthy of our calling. We have to break free from our old ways and slowly become a new person. That may mean that you start going to new places, or stop going to the places you use to frequent if it means it brings you closer to the Lord. It may mean that you start making new friends that help and encourage you in your walk with the Lord. Ask the Lord to reveal to you things that are not pleasing to Him so that you can change your walk of life.  It is a time of healing and a time of renewal! It is also a very difficult time of transition but it is so worth it, not only in this world but in the one to come.
• Once we have put off the old self and put on the new self, we must speak the truth, We must not allow our anger to make us sin. v 25-26
• Don’t let unwholesome, foul, abusive talk come out of your mouth, only what is good and helpful for encouraging to those who hear you. v29
• Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember we have been sealed with his mark that can never be removed. v30
• Daily we must rid ourselves of bitterness, rage, anger, slander and all types of evil behavior. By our faith in God alone, we can be kind and tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as Christ God forgave us. v31-32 We must walk in truth!

Chapter five

• Just as a child looks up to their Mama or Daddy and wants to be just like them, we too must look to our Heavenly Father and imitate Him. Conduct ourselves as his dearly loved children. Live a life of love, a life of sacrifice of love to God. v 1-2
• We are God’s holy people, so there must be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greediness in us. We have to do away with those sins. We must ever be thankful for all God has done for us! We must be obedient to his Word and his direction. v3-4
• Remember, we are now children of the Light, the one and only Jesus Christ, we must live and bear fruit. Full of goodness, righteousness, and truth. Seek out the Light and find out what pleases Him. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but expose them. v 8-11

What the Light shines on, is now visible.

Wake up, O sleeper,

rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you. v14

• Watch out, how you are living, not like the unwise but the wise- making the most of every opportunity during these evil days. v 13-16 Therefore, do not act foolishly, being partakes of the world, but understand the will of the Lord for your walk! Speak in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Make music in your heart to the Lord. These are the testimonies of your walk with Christ. v 17-19
• Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything through Jesus our Lord! Be submissive to one another out of fear/reverence for God. v 20-21

Up until this point Paul is speaking to us as individuals but in verse twenty-two he shifts and is now speaking to us as husband and wife or as households and speaks of how we are to walk in our households. Eugene Peterson I think says it best in The Message.

²¹ Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.

^22-24 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.

^25-28 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.

^29-33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.

 

Friends I know this was a long stretch of Scripture but I pray you are able to get through it and gain much knowledge of the Lord and how He wants us to live out this things called life. Life is tough and life is hard! Being a woman of faith makes it even harder because the enemy of our souls doesn’t want us living victoriously for Jesus! Seek Him and press on sweet one! If there is a something I can pray for you, please leave me a comment. Let’s storm the gates of heaven together!

 

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save