Today’s Life Journal Reading is from:

Colossians 1,2,3,4

Scripture

   
¹² Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; ¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. ¹⁴ But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. ¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. ¹⁷ And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:12-17, New King James Version)

Observation:

Our words, our actions, how we interact with each other as believers and how we interact with the world, defines us as people, as persons and as representatives of our Heavenly Father.

It’s a challenging walk and a reminder, particularly in the Christmas season, that when we speak to each other, be it on Twitter, Facebook, email or in person, we speak for Him, not for us, for Him.

Our words and our actions should reflect that and yes, it’s difficult, but it’s no excuse to work on this goal.

It’s also no excuse to expect from our Heavenly Father, mercy and love and understanding and forgiveness, but when we interact with each other, not show that same desire.

….And forgive us our trespasses,as we forgive those who trespass against us.

What does trespass even mean? Here is an interesting definition:

4.commit a sin; violate a law of God or a moral law
5. pass beyond (limits or boundaries)

This is such powerful words. This doesn’t justify sinning or that it’s okay to be ugly to one another, but that we are to love one another.

Application:

This is a reminder that in this holiday season, to remember, not just for the holidays, but for the every days, that we are not to excuse being ugly or sinning, and we are not to justify being ugly or sin ourselves, but we are to build each other up in our Christian growth and to show the same forgiveness, our Heavenly Father has shown us.

We are not perfect so we shouldn’t condemn others either if they don’t meet up to our expectations but look at how do we lift each other up and to work together in encouragment and forgivness and in the bonds of friendship and fellowship.

Prayer:

Father, Thank You for this beautiful gift of Grace and Salvation and I pray and hope we remember each day to “forgive each other ” as You forgive each of us and to work toward developing the life You have and desire for each of us.

I pray that we remember this not only on the holidays, but in everyday and look beyond what we see as You look beyond what we are and see what the possiblities are there.

Thank You Father, Thank You.

Amen

---

****Purpose of this post****

Gentle Readers, There are days that I will read a verse or passage and just feel pulled to share here, but there are days when I will read something and just feel, I need to spend the day, in personal contemplation of what is being convey and may just post via Twitter, what passages I have read that day and post nothing on here.

That is what bible reading is about; It’s not about having to write something down everyday; There maybe days when you are reading say, Numbers and it’s just lineages, but other days, you may find yourself dealing with a “powerhouse verse” of the moment and have to just go “WOW” and seek God in personal time and prayer to understand what He is sharing.

I will try to post daily, but particularly on weekends, if I’m sick or I’m just completely in awe of what I’m reading or maybe I am trying to understand what I am reading, I may not post here, I may just write in my Life Journal (hardcopy), because I will find myself having to seek His Word and/or the Commentary and just seek in prayer to understand what our Father in Heaven is seeking to reveal.

Either way.

Reading His Word, is about getting to know Him better and developing your Christian growth and maturity. Do what is right and good for you.

If you do use the Life Journal and participate in the daily readings, I would like to hear from you and your perspective on each day’s reading, when I do have a post up, or feel free to comment on a previous “Daily Bible Reading post” or send me a quick email.

Please feel free to join in the linky that I post below, so others too, who uses the Life Journal/or SOAP method to read the bible can participate.

Don’t feel obligate to have to blog about each passage to be read, but if anything, feel free to share those passages that have the most impact on you that day.

There maybe some days that you may read your daily reading and find nothing to jot down in your journal or on your blog and that’s okay, but there maybe other days, that you will find yourself inspire.

This is about you being encouraged to have a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, and spending each day with Him, You and Him.

It is my prayer and hope that this will be an encouragement to establish a personal daily reading as well.

To find out more about using the S.O.A.P. method, here’s a link to an ehow article and here’s the link to the Life Journal to find out more what it is, and how you can use it for your own daily bible readings. If you don’t want to order the journal or if it’s not available through your local church, another method is simply, buy a journal or notebook or even blog about your life journal readings.

Disclaimer: I am not personally affiliated with the church that the link goes to, but merely share it as a resource of what the Life Journal is, how to order it.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2009

If you enjoyed reading this post and would like to follow Sunflower Faith, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter or join my Facebook page.

Welcome back!