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Everyday Devotions by an Ordinary Christian
Monday 21 November 2011
Sunday 20 November 2011
Sidewalk Prophets - You Love Me Anyway
This song always touches my heart and it actually makes me think. "It's True." We were the cause for the death of Christ, but we would've suffered in His spot if he hadn't loved us so very much, enough to die for us. He may be a total stranger to us, but we aren't strangers to Him. Imagine dying for someone who doesn't even acknowledge you ever existed or dying for someone who despises you. That's true love.
You Love Me Anyway lyrics
The question was raised
As my conscience fell
A silly, little lie
It didn’t mean much
But it lingers still
In the corners of my mind
Still you call me to walk
On the edge of this world
To spread my dreams and fly
But the future’s so far
My heart is so frail
I think I’d rather stay inside
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
How You love me
It took more than my strength
To simply be still
To seek but never find
All the reasons we change
The reasons I doubt
And why do loved ones have to die?
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
I am the thorn in Your crown
But You love me anyway
I am the sweat from Your brow
But You love me anyway
I am the nail in Your wrist
But You love me anyway
I am Judas’ kiss
But You love me anyway
See now, I am the man who yelled out from the crowd
For Your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking
ground
Yes then, I turned away with a smile on my face
With this sin in my heart tried to bury Your grace
And then alone in the night, I still called out for You
So ashamed of my life, my life, my life
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes,You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
You love me, yes You love me
How You love me
How You love me
How You love me
You Love Me Anyway lyrics
The question was raised
As my conscience fell
A silly, little lie
It didn’t mean much
But it lingers still
In the corners of my mind
Still you call me to walk
On the edge of this world
To spread my dreams and fly
But the future’s so far
My heart is so frail
I think I’d rather stay inside
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
How You love me
It took more than my strength
To simply be still
To seek but never find
All the reasons we change
The reasons I doubt
And why do loved ones have to die?
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
I am the thorn in Your crown
But You love me anyway
I am the sweat from Your brow
But You love me anyway
I am the nail in Your wrist
But You love me anyway
I am Judas’ kiss
But You love me anyway
See now, I am the man who yelled out from the crowd
For Your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking
ground
Yes then, I turned away with a smile on my face
With this sin in my heart tried to bury Your grace
And then alone in the night, I still called out for You
So ashamed of my life, my life, my life
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes,You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
You love me, yes You love me
How You love me
How You love me
How You love me
Here's the song if you want to hear it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKMXF21ua9oWednesday 16 November 2011
An apology
This month has been pretty busy and I didn't have enough time to continue my challenge, I have been reading though but I couldn't post them on. I will continue later on, maybe the last week of November? Thank you though for reading my first couple posts of the challenge.
Sunday 13 November 2011
Day 2 of 50 days in the Old Testament
Day 2
Genesis 3:1-24
What I learned...
Genesis 3:5
(Serpent is speaking)
"God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree, you will learn about good and evil and you will be like God!"
When you read this verse out loud, it sounds pleasing and inviting. But the devil was tricking Eve by telling her that she would gain wisdom and be knowledgeable. Really, gaining the knowledge of good and EVIL was the key and starting point of sin and all the evil present in the world today. What you don't know, won't hurt, right? But in this case, Eve only thought about gaining knowledge and being like God. This was another trick, God knows what evil is, God knows evil, he didn't create evil though. When the serpent said, "You will be like God," he didn't mention that you will literally be like God, nor, that knowing evil, you will know evil like God does. Think about this, when we discover something or learn something new, even a swear word, it pops up often in our minds because we know what it is, we may not notice it, but we are thinking about it often. For example, if you didn't know any swear words (good for you by the way), you wouldn't use them or know what they are and what they mean when somebody mentions them. This is the same idea with Eve and evil, she did not know or understand evil before she ate of the fruit, but after gaining that understanding and knowledge, evil filled her heart and mind, therefore making it simple for her to sin. We are born with evil, we have evil in our hearts, we cannot get rid of the evil but we can limit it.
Genesis 3:6
...So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.
Now in this verse, it doesn't mention that Eve had to call out to Adam in order to offer the fruit to him, actually, it mentions that he was WITH HER during the temptation and deceiving, the disobeying. It did not say that Adam warned her, it did not say that he walked away from this situation because he knew it was a tempting and sinful situation. Instead, it said that Eve offered the fruit to Adam and he ATE IT. It did not say that he refused or tried to convince Eve not to eat of the fruit. Instead he took it and ate it. This verse shows us how we, as humans, can fall easily and loose sight of God.
Genesis 3:7
Then it was as if their eyes were opened. They realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made something to cover themselves.
When I was younger, before I understood this verse, I used to think, "ewwww!" whenever the naked part came up. This is what we think now days, it's disgusting to be naked, let's be realistic, if you see a person walking down your street totally naked, what would your first thoughts be? That this person is sick, insane, totally disgusting, inappropriate, right? Well that is because of sin, before sin, being naked was natural, it was like wearing clothes. But once Adam and Eve sinned and ate of the fruit from the tree, it said that they were embarrassed and felt like they needed to cover themselves up.
Genesis 3:14
The LORD God said to the snake,
"Because you did this,
a curse will be put on you. You will be cursed as no other animal, tame or wild, will ever be. You will crawl on your stomach, and you will eat dust all the days of your life."
I think that this verse is really cool because, what is known today as a "snake", slithers on its belly, on the ground. But here, it said that because it was cursed, it will crawl on its belly. This leaves us to our imagination, did it have legs? If so how many?
Genesis 3:16
Then God said to the woman,
"I will cause you to have much trouble when you are pregnant,
and when you give birth to children,
you will have great pain. You will greatly desire your husband, but he will rule over you."
Wow, imagine that! Giving birth without pain! That would be so amazing to have, but because of sin, and the fall of Eve, we have been cursed to have pain when delivering. It also mentions that the man is the head of the woman. He will rule over us. We ( to wives in particular, no not me, I'm not married yet, but when I am) need to respect our husbands.
Genesis 3:21
The LORD God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them.
I think this verse is actually pretty important, I hadn't actually noticed this until my brother pointed it out. This was the first death to ever occur in the Bible. Some people think that it was the sacrifice Abel offered, but actually it was the killing of the animal in order to get the skin and use it as clothes.
Saturday 12 November 2011
50 Days in the Old Testament
I'm starting a new challenge, I found it in the back of my Bible. I noticed that my knowledge of the Old Testament was little, I only knew a few details of the main events that occurred in the Old Testament.
In my Bible it gives me a few passages to read from each of the books in the Old Testament each day. I decided that I was going to share my notes from each day with you.
Day 1- Genesis 1:1 - 2:3
Notes:
Genesis 1:5
...Evening passed, and morning came. This was the first day.
In the Hebrew Bible, the word for day is Yom. This is also used in the Arabic Bible as well. The meaning Yom means 24 hours. Some people believe, in order to support evolution in a way that the word "day" that was used in Genesis 1 could've resembled millions of years. But in the Hebrew Bible it mentions Yom, 24 hours, Arabic Bible, Yom, 24 hours. So what do we think 24 hours means? It took exactly 6 days to create our world, all the universes, galaxies, and planets! God truly is Amazing.
Genesis 1:26 - 27
Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image and likeness.
In this verse, it shows that God isn't the only one present in this scene. It mentions Us, and OUR. Some believe that it refers to Jesus Christ, God the Son.
Genesis 1:29
God said, "Look, I have given you all the plants that have grain for seeds and all the trees whose fruits have seeds in them. They will be food for you."
When God first created Adam and Eve, he created them as vegetarians, but after the flood, God told Noah and his family that he has given them all the animals that walk on the earth, all the fish in the sea, all the birds in the sky as food and they will respect them.
Genesis 1:31
God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good.
When God finished creating the world, he said that it was VERY GOOD. Before when he was creating the sky and animals, etc. it was just good, it was not yet complete. Until he made humans, it was Very Good, it was complete.
Genesis 2:3
God blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day, because on that day, he rested from all the work he had done in creating the world.
We were the completion of his work. In only seven days, God created the beautiful world which contains many universes, galaxies, planets, and until now, since the fall of Adam, he's been preparing Heaven, beyond our imagination.
In my Bible it gives me a few passages to read from each of the books in the Old Testament each day. I decided that I was going to share my notes from each day with you.
Day 1- Genesis 1:1 - 2:3
Notes:
Genesis 1:5
...Evening passed, and morning came. This was the first day.
In the Hebrew Bible, the word for day is Yom. This is also used in the Arabic Bible as well. The meaning Yom means 24 hours. Some people believe, in order to support evolution in a way that the word "day" that was used in Genesis 1 could've resembled millions of years. But in the Hebrew Bible it mentions Yom, 24 hours, Arabic Bible, Yom, 24 hours. So what do we think 24 hours means? It took exactly 6 days to create our world, all the universes, galaxies, and planets! God truly is Amazing.
Genesis 1:26 - 27
Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image and likeness.
In this verse, it shows that God isn't the only one present in this scene. It mentions Us, and OUR. Some believe that it refers to Jesus Christ, God the Son.
Genesis 1:29
God said, "Look, I have given you all the plants that have grain for seeds and all the trees whose fruits have seeds in them. They will be food for you."
When God first created Adam and Eve, he created them as vegetarians, but after the flood, God told Noah and his family that he has given them all the animals that walk on the earth, all the fish in the sea, all the birds in the sky as food and they will respect them.
Genesis 1:31
God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good.
When God finished creating the world, he said that it was VERY GOOD. Before when he was creating the sky and animals, etc. it was just good, it was not yet complete. Until he made humans, it was Very Good, it was complete.
Genesis 2:3
God blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day, because on that day, he rested from all the work he had done in creating the world.
We were the completion of his work. In only seven days, God created the beautiful world which contains many universes, galaxies, planets, and until now, since the fall of Adam, he's been preparing Heaven, beyond our imagination.
Josh Wilson - I Refuse
I was just watching this music video. It touched my heart, I have been oblivious to many things and acted as if I hadn't noticed that that person had been hurting or that even my friends needed a hand sometimes, I would be too lazy to help and when my turn came, needing for help, I didn't take time and think that they were being kind and gracious to me.
http://youtu.be/6B1Lv8k5pEc
Sorry, this video doesn't work if you try and play it on my blog, you'd have to click on the link above to view it.
Sorry, this video doesn't work if you try and play it on my blog, you'd have to click on the link above to view it.
Sunday 6 November 2011
Loving others (Behind the Scenes)
I had just started my first year of high school a couple of months ago with excitement and anxiousness.
Not knowing what I was going to face, whether God was going to use me or use others to help me grow strong in character, what adventures he might bring upon me and what troubles and stresses I might go through. All these thoughts were running through my head as I took my first step into the building with my friends.
It looked normal, but what was behind the scenes at my high school? What were the students like?
High School is a major leap from Elementary school. More work, bigger facilities, more students, more studying, gym everyday (I'm not much of an athlete, I just like Thai kickboxing and Brazilian Jujitsu), more rotary, and harder teachers.
But what was so good about high school was that you can find more people who you enjoy to be around, whereas in elementary school, you were practically forced to be friends with the people in your grade since Kindergarten until grade 8 graduation. This was an advantage for me. I figured, the more people who would listen to me, the more I can share God's love, and in a Christian school! So they've already had some background knowledge from chapel.
I would like to share with you a heart changing experience that I've had in my first semester of high school.
My homeroom is science which I have with one of my close friends, I didn't really get to know much people then because we were just settling in and getting to know our teacher, but one person caught my eye right away, and I'm pretty sure he caught everyone's eyes too. You can't miss him. He was a boy about 6"5 and here I am 4"11 or maybe 5"0. About double my height. WOW. I know. All my life I've dreamed of being tall, but I never thought about being that tall. When you think about Goliath, he sounds pretty tall, but you don't actually see his height, you just get a written description. Now, I think that Goliath was massive because the boy is only 6"5 and Goliath was like 9 feet!
See, this boy, I got to know him as the days went by, he is actually the sweetest boy I have ever come across, but what I didn't know about him was all behind those eyes of his.
I was talking to him one day in one of the classes we had together and another girl as well and we were talking about our elementary school years, the girl was telling me about how she wasn't treated properly because she was born in U.S.A.! Isn't that crazy? People will try to find any reason to bring you down and to raise themselves up. The boy on the other hand wasn't treated well either because of how tall he was! That tore my heart away, all the stories I have heard, it was unbelievable! I started to pray for them, for them to find someone whom they can trust and someone who will treat them as a friend, a true friend. I also gave them my link to my blog.
Later I asked the boy if he looked at my blog, he told me that he didn't have time but he always had that piece of paper with him that had the link on it. That brightened up my spirit. It told me that I was doing the right thing.
That night I went on my blog and found that i had a new follower. I took a look at my comments and found one by a person named Tall but small. I laughed, surely this was the boy. I was so happy that he commented. I clicked on his name and on his profile it showed that he had a blog. I decide to read it and follow it because he didn't have anyone following it. What I read in the next 10 minutes broke my heart. It showed me what I was missing. People in the world look like they're having a great time and enjoying their lives, but once you look behind the scenes, its a whole other world that they're living in. But at the end of each post, he wrote about how he could always count on God to help him get through his pain and how He'll always be there for him. This showed me that I had really impacted someone. After he took a look at my blog it inspired him to make one of his own and I think that through this process he was strengthening his faith in God. Before it seemed as if he had given up on God but now he's a whole new person. I feel like God had used this boy in my life to show me that there are many others in the world who need this type of love and understanding, and a friend. He had also recently added a post called Friends, it was about me and it showed me how much I impacted his life and how much he impacted mine.
If you want to visit his blog, and know more about him, here's the link:
http://goodformegoodforu.blogspot.com/
Not knowing what I was going to face, whether God was going to use me or use others to help me grow strong in character, what adventures he might bring upon me and what troubles and stresses I might go through. All these thoughts were running through my head as I took my first step into the building with my friends.
It looked normal, but what was behind the scenes at my high school? What were the students like?
High School is a major leap from Elementary school. More work, bigger facilities, more students, more studying, gym everyday (I'm not much of an athlete, I just like Thai kickboxing and Brazilian Jujitsu), more rotary, and harder teachers.
But what was so good about high school was that you can find more people who you enjoy to be around, whereas in elementary school, you were practically forced to be friends with the people in your grade since Kindergarten until grade 8 graduation. This was an advantage for me. I figured, the more people who would listen to me, the more I can share God's love, and in a Christian school! So they've already had some background knowledge from chapel.
I would like to share with you a heart changing experience that I've had in my first semester of high school.
My homeroom is science which I have with one of my close friends, I didn't really get to know much people then because we were just settling in and getting to know our teacher, but one person caught my eye right away, and I'm pretty sure he caught everyone's eyes too. You can't miss him. He was a boy about 6"5 and here I am 4"11 or maybe 5"0. About double my height. WOW. I know. All my life I've dreamed of being tall, but I never thought about being that tall. When you think about Goliath, he sounds pretty tall, but you don't actually see his height, you just get a written description. Now, I think that Goliath was massive because the boy is only 6"5 and Goliath was like 9 feet!
See, this boy, I got to know him as the days went by, he is actually the sweetest boy I have ever come across, but what I didn't know about him was all behind those eyes of his.
I was talking to him one day in one of the classes we had together and another girl as well and we were talking about our elementary school years, the girl was telling me about how she wasn't treated properly because she was born in U.S.A.! Isn't that crazy? People will try to find any reason to bring you down and to raise themselves up. The boy on the other hand wasn't treated well either because of how tall he was! That tore my heart away, all the stories I have heard, it was unbelievable! I started to pray for them, for them to find someone whom they can trust and someone who will treat them as a friend, a true friend. I also gave them my link to my blog.
Later I asked the boy if he looked at my blog, he told me that he didn't have time but he always had that piece of paper with him that had the link on it. That brightened up my spirit. It told me that I was doing the right thing.
That night I went on my blog and found that i had a new follower. I took a look at my comments and found one by a person named Tall but small. I laughed, surely this was the boy. I was so happy that he commented. I clicked on his name and on his profile it showed that he had a blog. I decide to read it and follow it because he didn't have anyone following it. What I read in the next 10 minutes broke my heart. It showed me what I was missing. People in the world look like they're having a great time and enjoying their lives, but once you look behind the scenes, its a whole other world that they're living in. But at the end of each post, he wrote about how he could always count on God to help him get through his pain and how He'll always be there for him. This showed me that I had really impacted someone. After he took a look at my blog it inspired him to make one of his own and I think that through this process he was strengthening his faith in God. Before it seemed as if he had given up on God but now he's a whole new person. I feel like God had used this boy in my life to show me that there are many others in the world who need this type of love and understanding, and a friend. He had also recently added a post called Friends, it was about me and it showed me how much I impacted his life and how much he impacted mine.
If you want to visit his blog, and know more about him, here's the link:
http://goodformegoodforu.blogspot.com/
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