Scripture studying method - S.M.A.L.L.

Just came up with a new Scripture studying methods for those who want to be students of the Bible.

Big things have small beginnings.

Scripture.
Write down the Scripture God lays on your heart.


Meditate.
Spend a few minutes thinking about the Scripture. What sticks out to you from the passage? Does a certain word or phrase remind you of something? What is God saying?
  
Absorb.
Absorption is a fastest way to get healthy. Absorb Scripture. Memorize the verse. If you chose multiple verses, try to memorize the entire passage you selected or just one verse.

Live.
Think of practical ways you can apply the Scripture in your everyday life. This could be as simple as smiling at someone (kindness), or holding the door for someone (service). This could be anything; don't hold back! If God reveals something to you, embrace it!

Link. 
The last and most important part of Scripture studying is prayer. Linking to the Father, Son, and Spirit will do more to help you to complete the letters S, M, A, and L than anything else. Put God in remembrance of His promise. He will make your path straight.

Learning the Scriptures and applying them are not easy. Continuing to do it day after day is even harder. But the more you do it, the easier it is and the more fulfilling your life is. 

Good luck on diving into the Scriptures. My prayers are with you as you learn more about and explore the best relationship - the one that will never fail - you will ever experience. Get ready to meet or re-meet, and then embrace, the God of Heaven, the Comforter, and the Savior of the World.

To help you, my next post will be an example of Scripture studying using the S.M.A.L.L method.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

Gossip

My favorite topic, probably because girls are so bad about knowing what is gossip and what is not gossip.

I do believe that gossips stems from insecurity. After all, if you're saying something about someone's clothes or body, things that cannot be changed and reflect who a person is, then you have deep issues that you need to confront and work through.

So, let's look at gossip from the Bible's standpoint.

1.) Gossip can stem from a lack of self-confidence that other people pick up on. After picking up on the lack of self-confidence of someone, others then discuss it in circles. God, however, punishes people who do humiliate and pick on other people who are already down, if you examine the rest of Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36:3

English Standard Version -- "Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Precisely because they made you desolate and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people..." And so on.

MSG 1-7 -- "And now, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say, 'Mountains of Israel, listen to God's Message. God, the Master, says, Because the enemy crowed over you, "Good! Those old hills are now ours!" now here is a prophecy in the name of God, the Master: Because nations came at you from all sides, ripping and plundering, hauling pieces of you off every which way, and you've become the butt of cheap gossip and jokes, therefore, Mountains of Israel, listen to the Message of God, the Master. My Message to mountains and hills, to ditches and valleys, to the heaps of rubble and the emptied towns that are looted for plunder and turned into jokes by all the surrounding nations: Therefore, says God, the Master, now I'm speaking in a fiery rage against the rest of the nations, but especially against Edom, who in an orgy of violence and shameless insolence robbed me of my land, grabbed it for themselves. "Therefore prophesy over the land of Israel, preach to the mountains and hills, to every ditch and valley: 'The Message of God, the Master: Look! Listen! I'm angry—and I care. I'm speaking to you because you've been humiliated among the nations. Therefore I, God, the Master, am telling you that I've solemnly sworn that the nations around you are next. It's their turn to be humiliated."

Evil gossip. Here gossip gets an adjective - evil, as in, malicious, awful, horrible. Cheap is also used in some translations. So this is gossip at one of its worst points, where people are trying to humiliate someone else. As you can see, the object of the gossip then falls under God's protection.

2.) Gossip can stem just from evil hearts living in a fallen world. They are making it worse for others, but that is our world, sometimes.
Romans 1:29
English Standard Version -- "They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips..."
Romans 1:28-32
MSG: Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

3) Gossip can stem from lacking discipline, guidance and respect. A gossip may refuse to turn from their old way of life into the new way of life. Jealousy, quarreling, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder are all grouped together.

2 Corinthians 12:20
English Standard Version (ESV)
20For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

The Message (MSG)
12: 20-21 I do admit that I have fears that when I come you'll disappoint me and I'll disappoint you, and in frustration with each other everything will fall to pieces—quarrels, jealousy, flaring tempers, taking sides, angry words, vicious rumors, swelled heads, and general bedlam. I don't look forward to a second humiliation by God among you, compounded by hot tears over that crowd that keeps sinning over and over in the same old ways, who refuse to turn away from the pigsty of evil, sexual disorder, and indecency in which they wallow.

4) Gossip can stem from not having enough to do, and having a "we're just hanging out" mentality. It can stem from restlessness.

1 Timothy 5:13
English Standard Version (ESV)
13Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.

The Message (MSG)
5: 11-15 Don't put young widows on this list. No sooner will they get on than they'll want to get off, obsessed with wanting to get a husband rather than serving Christ in this way. By breaking their word, they're liable to go from bad to worse, frittering away their days on empty talk, gossip, and trivialities. No, I'd rather the young widows go ahead and get married in the first place, have children, manage their homes, and not give critics any foothold for finding fault. Some of them have already left and gone after Satan.

A clarification. Slander is malicious lies that people tell about others, with the intent of destroying another's reputation or life. Gossip may or may not be lies, but it is idle talk, may or may not be malicious, and is about people's personal lives. Some people don't realize that gossip most closely resembles "just talking about others," and mistake it for slander. Some gossip is stronger and comes extremely close to slander.

So we need to avoid it, watch what we say, and who we hang with. Sometimes we need to directly confront the person partcipating or pertuating gossip.

And remember.

If you wouldn't say it to the person you're talking about, don't say it to anyone else.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

"Porn Pastor" - Keep your eyes open and your legs closed

Here's a link to someone who addresses pornography in our society.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=197859&catid=3 - this is the media addressing it!

http://www.xxxchurch.com - this is his personal website that has helped over 1.5 million people.

So what are my own personal views on pornography?

Since I live by a biblical worldview, I follow the Bible, including issues of sex, sexuality, and porn. Jesus would rather us be cold and absolutely not believers or pure, fiery Chrisitians rather than lukewarm believers. So if we're going to please God and earn our reward, we have to be on fire, which includes being pure.

Being a techinical virgin doesn't count, although it is a good thing. But a technical virgin still has problems - how far is too far? It's too far. Get right with God - stay far on the other side. Use this question: would Jesus be all right with how my boyfriend and I are acting? If Jesus showed up, would he say well done good and faithful servant or would he say, get away from me, I never knew you. (Yes, the King actually says that. Look it up in the Bible: www.biblegateway.com - use servant as keyword. It's in Matthew.)

Let's hope the former.

That means fleeing sexual temptation. Fleeing implies that someone is chasing you...the devil or your flesh. The devil doesn't go after athiests or prostitutes. He checks on them, but he's already stolen, killed, and destroyed them. He goes after the Christians because he can and they are what he wants to steal, kill, and destroy, to hurt God.

As soon as you open your mouth to declare your beliefs in God, Satan's going to test whether or not it's true by tempting you. God lets him. Jesus longs to help you out of it.

While the Bible does not seem to say directly address masterubation, here are a few strengthening ones to help you overcome it. "Those with clean hands and a pure heart will ascend" and "If you cannot control yourself, then by all means get married."

Good old porn, which goes right along with masterubation. Porn is the gateway to deeper sexual issues and lifestyles. Once you are a master at porn, it will never stop. You will move on to fornication or adultry. Your sex life is over. Nothing will satisfy you. Don't open that door on purpose and when or if you do, slam it shut and FLEE.

Rest assured, Christ loves you eternally. He is always waiting for you. He lived, died, and rose again to bring you to heaven. Call on his name and He will come to save you. Believe in Him, Confess your sins, and admit you are a sinner and deserve hell.

Pray something like this:

Lord, forgive me for being a sinner and falling short of your glory. I believe in you with my entire heart. Jesus, please dwell in my heart and help me live a life pleasing to you. I confess my sins before you (list them off here) and ask for forgiveness and restoration and power from on high. I will live for your name and your glory and your power forever and ever. Thank you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Amen. I agree with you completely. Now you are saved and forgiven and God will help you.

One day I'm going to blog about what heaven REALLY is like. Tomorrow probably.


Lots of Love,

Rachel

Hurt Wrist

Man, my wrist hurts. All I did was go bowling. I must bruise my wrist every time I go bowling. And guess what? I like to bowl. It's wrapped up now. The pain is almost unbearable. And because I am predominantly righthanded with some lefthanded capabilities, it affects most of my activities. Sometimes I wonder if texting too much affects it and using the computer alot. I must admit I am addicted to the Internet. Without a job to occupy my time or school, what else should I do? Oh yeah. Read the Bible. Study the Bible. Pray to God. Help people. I do all that - and play the Internet a lot.

Lots of Love,

Rachel

James 1-5

Hi everyone.

I have been reading through the New Testament in a semester, sponsored by my pastor, Fred.

Today I was in James 1-5. That is the entire book of James. James is an interesting book to read. Because it is short and dynamic, it is usually a popular book to read because of that. My sister likes James. I remember how we read it aloud one night. It took us about three hours, including discussion. See? Find an easy copy and start in an easy book and reading the Bible is easy.

"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way" (James 1:2-4).

That is James' introducation. He does not mince his words. He tells the flat-out truth. To hell with lies and shame. By being tested and trialed, God shows us our true colors. We need to endure trials so that we can see our colors. If we try to escape, we become deficient in living a true, holy life. We also become blind and deceived to our true nature.

Trials create us. Perhaps we should embrace them, praying to God that at least our character comes out right.

Lots of Love,

Rachel