Everyday Devotions by an Ordinary Christian

Everyday Devotions by an Ordinary Christian

Monday, 21 November 2011

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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


Here's the song if you want to hear it: 
                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKMXF21ua9o

Wednesday, 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


http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=garden+of+eden&hl=en&biw=1384&bih=865&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=BS05xxFoVAV4hM:&imgrefurl=https://englishi2009-2010.wikispaces.com/Onto%2Bthe%2BArk&docid=NOKEkwFHXYbtsM&imgurl=https://englishi2009-2010.wikispaces.com/file/view/garden-of-eden-image.jpg/142434287/garden-of-eden-image.jpg&w=468&h=320&ei=dmLATq31FoL20gHOprXDBA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=173&vpy=227&dur=1662&hovh=186&hovw=272&tx=109&ty=78&sig=109912479983118836646&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=178&start=0&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0

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.